Gaming bill to be revived
Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) grand chief Cody Diabo said he’s feeling hopeful since the squashing of a proposed gaming law after the proroguing of Parliament, calling it a “blessing in disguise.”
All bills that had yet to reach royal assent were terminated following Parliament’s proroguing in early January, which came following Justin Trudeau’s announcement he’d be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
“Our support for the bill was contingent on the wording that we had suggested,” Diabo said of the now former Bill S-268.
“I’m looking on the bright side of things,” he said. “Now a bill can be submitted that includes everything that we and other First Nations had hoped for, so that it doesn’t miss the mark, like previous bills have.”
For well over a year the council table has been in discussions with the senator that sponsored it in the hope of altering the bill in favour of Kahnawake’s online gaming industry.
Alberta senator Scott Tannas tabled it back in 2023 with the intention of strengthening First Nations’ right to establish, conduct, and manage their own gaming businesses, such as casinos.
The MCK initially opposed the bill, given its wording didn’t carve out protections for First Nations involved in the online gaming industry, one the band council has long relied on to generate revenue for the community. That changed however after Tannas agreed to support some of the amendments they’d asked for.
The senator shared he intends to reintroduce the bill once the Parliament session resumes. He’s also still on board with seeing the bill amended.
“We had a language that said that the sovereign right for this would be taken up by communities that wanted to take it up as it related to gaming on reserve,” Tannas said. “The amendment that was proposed is ‘in and from’ reserve lands, which then picks up obviously on internet gaming - as long as the computer servers are based on sovereign Indigenous land.”
Those amendments will either feature in a reworded bill at its reintroduction or be entered once the bill goes through the committee, the senator said.
“We’ll wait for a day or two after the new Parliament starts to see what the will of others are,” Tannas said, adding he hopes to see the bill fast tracked, so it doesn’t have to go through two readings again.
“Whether we do it right off the bat, or whether we do it in the committee stage, we would incorporate those amendments, because they were quite valuable.”
Diabo got the chance to meet with the senator again this past February while at a gaming summit held in Tsuut’ina territory, just west of Calgary. It was there that Tannas assured him of his intention to reintroduce the bill once the Parliament session resumes, he said.
Paul Rice, the Council chief with the lead on gaming, said that summit also helped solidify Kahnawake’s connections with other First Nations involved in the gaming industry.
Many in attendance, including Tsuutʼina Nation and Whitecap Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, have since signed on to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) launched by the MCK in support of an amended version of the bill.
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“We’ve built up support and gotten numerous different nations to get on board for the MOU, so that particular summit was very successful,” Rice said.
That document with their collective demands is expected to be delivered to the Senate once Parliament is back in session.
The proroguing of Parliament will last until March 24. An election is expected to be announced soon now that Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, has stepped in as leader of the Liberal Party.
