Running for Regional Chief was ‘an experience’ for Turtle
GRASSY NARROWS – The new Ontario Regional Chief isn’t from the Northwest.
“This has been an experience, and I will cherish this experience for a long time,” Grassy Narrows Chief Rudy Turtle told fellow chiefs Wednesday after he was the first candidate eliminated.
Turtle had the support of 10 chiefs, the least of any candidate in the first round.
“I didn’t have the time to campaign, really, because I put my duties as chief (of Grassy Narrows) first,” he said afterwards in an interview from Ohsweken in southern Ontario, where the 2024 assembly of the Chiefs of Ontario is being held this week.
“But an elder from Grassy encouraged me to run to bring attention to our issues, and I agreed.”
Turtle, one of several chiefs contending for the job, said last month that he wanted to see the Chiefs of Ontario organization “lead the way with strong political advocacy.”
Incumbent Regional Chief Glen Hare wasn’t doing a good enough job in advocacy, he said.
In the end, Abram Benedict of Akwesasne was chosen as the new regional chief.
Turtle said he hopes for change in the provincial chiefs organization, particularly regarding his Anishinaabe community’s environmental issues.
One of those issues is mercury poisoning. Emissions from a paper mill upstream in Dryden in the 1960s and ’70s polluted the Wabigoon-English river system with tonnes of mercury, some of which got into fish that were then consumed by Grassy Narrows residents.
More than 50 years later, the community is still suffering health impacts and mercury lingers in the water.
Grassy Narrows, with support from its Land Defence Alliance partners, is suing the governments of Ontario and Canada over alleged failure to protect its treaty rights.
As well, Grassy Narrows opposes a proposed underground nuclear waste repository which might be built upstream from the reserve.
“I’m hoping that (Chiefs of Ontario) could start helping us more,” he told Newswatch.
“We’ve been pretty much on our own in our fight, except for the support from the Land Defence Alliance.”
He added that the Land Defence Alliance could soon grow from its present six First Nations in the North, as a few First Nations recently expressed interest in joining.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler welcomed Benedict’s election in a news release.
“Abram’s experience leading negotiations at the provincial and federal level will be essential to advancing the interest of First Nations across Ontario,” Fiddler said in the release.
Sol Mamakwa, MPP for the northern riding of Kiiwetinoong, said he noticed all the candidates spoke of unity and collaboration.
“Today we saw the nations come together at this election” Mamakwa said.
Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source
