‘It’s divide and conquer’: First Nations chiefs vow resistance as Doug Ford signs agreement to unlock Ring of Fire
Even Canadians who don’t usually care about baseball tuned in to watch the Toronto Blue Jays reach the World Series this year. And while the team fell short, the massive national audience provided a convenient stage for the Ontario government to air its Ring of Fire ads, turning a moment of national pride into an opportunity to push an agenda lobbied for by private interests.
For centuries, lands that had been protected for thousands of years prior were stolen away by Europeans and their descendants who, to this day, continue to eye the water, minerals and forests.
Doug Ford and the mining giants pushing to develop the Ring of Fire pose the latest threat to First Nations communities that know all too well what happens when their lands are disfigured by industrial-scale extraction.
The reality of what this could look like for First Nations and the environment hangs at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Anishinaabe artist Travis Shilling’s 2019 painting The Owl is a haunting portrait of First Nations resilience in a world reshaped by resource extraction.
At the Art Gallery of Ontario, Anishinaabe artist Travis Shilling’s 2019 series ‘Tyrannosaurus Clan’ captures the quiet resilience of First Nations peoples whose lands, waters and stories have long been reshaped by the machinery of extraction.
(Travis Shilling, courtesy Ingram Gallery 2020/100/Art Gallery of Ontario)
Six years later, its message feels even more compelling, as governments double down on projects driven by the seduction of profits and economic gain from lands that rightfully belong to Indigenous communities.
It’s a pattern of exploitation that critics warn will continue to jeopardize future generations.
“For Ontarians being bombarded with these [Ring of Fire] ads, they should ask: Why is the government promoting a plan for economic growth that they don’t yet have the legal standing to pursue?” Liberal MPP for Don Valley East Adil Shamji wrote in a social media post.
(Top: YouTube/Government of Ontario, X)
It’s a story all too familiar to Neskantaga First Nation, where councillor Coleen Moonias says families live in “third world conditions,” clinging to their land, culture, and traditions as the last sources of refuge, even as governments take them away bit by bit in the name of economic prosperity.
“We do not really like living like this. Our connection to the land and our culture and our traditions, our way of life, we've been raised and used to this way of living…around the trees, around the water, around the fish,” Moonias told The Pointer.
“We do prosper in that way, gathering and harvesting in our lands and waters.”
When Bill 5, the Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, was introduced in April, Indigenous leaders, legal experts, and environmental advocates warned that it could weaken protections for endangered species, bypass Indigenous rights and consultation processes, and give excessive power to the government.
Their concerns are now taking shape on the pottery wheel that is controlled and shaped by policymakers.
On October 29, Premier Ford alongside Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic development, and Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse, announced a Community Partnership Agreement aimed at accelerating road construction in the ecologically sensitive, mineral-rich Ring of Fire.
Premier Doug Ford (right) Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous affairs and First Nations economic development (left), and Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse, sign the Community Partnership Agreement.
(Government of Ontario)
The Indigenous Communities Consultation Feedback report on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (ERO) posting highlights communities had called for transparency through a public registry of proposed and designated projects, an appeal process, stronger support for Indigenous business participation, and restrictions on zone designations in areas of environmental or cultural significance or under active land claims, requests that went largely unheeded.
Ontario reaffirmed its “commitment to meeting the Duty to Consult,” but offered no concrete mechanism to uphold Indigenous rights or consultation requirements as part of the draft regulations, and said it is “considering other mechanisms” to make information public, that potential appeals “would be considered” later, and that existing programs already support Indigenous businesses.
Though the draft ‘special economic zones” regulations includes some vague mentions of Indigenous engagement plans, it leaves the decision to the minister’s opinion.
(Government of Ontario)
Both Ottawa and Queen’s Park have branded the region as central to their Critical Minerals Strategy. The Ford government aims to create a “made-in-Ontario” supply chain for electric vehicles.
The deal, Ford said, would “unlock economic development”, bring “opportunities” to northern communities, and add $22 billion to Canada's economy and create 70,000 new jobs.
The government has committed up to $39.5 million toward community infrastructure and planning for the Webequie Supply Road, an all-season road that would connect Webequie to the proposed Northern Road Link.
The announcement comes after the Progressive Conservative government signed a Shared Prosperity Agreement with Aroland First Nation on January 28 to build roads along the entire route to the Ring of Fire.
“It's an opportunity for us and we’d like to make that opportunity flourish into something that will be recognized in our community. And we look forward to better relationship, an ongoing relationship, and also, to be honest and trustful, and also to have a good moving forward relationship as we move forward,” Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse said during the press conference on October 29.
(Premier of Ontario/YouTube)
With Webequie First Nation expected to submit its final environmental assessment by January 2026, Ford called on prime minister Mark Carney to streamline the approval process and insisted on a “one project, one review, one decision” approach.
Ford told Chief Wabasse that the children and grandchildren in his community “are going to grow up differently than what they did. They're going to have opportunities available to them that they didn't have.”
“We look forward to working together and moving on with what we have, and making sure that our communities will prosper in the near future,” Chief Wabasse said during the press conference.
Ford had his own spin: “We're changing lives up there and creating more opportunities for jobs and community centers and hockey arenas and access to medical and food and equipment that can go up through. I like calling it the road of prosperity too, because that's what it brings to the communities.”
Moonias chuckled at the words and said, “I do not agree with anything that man says as a political person.”
The proposed Webequie Supply Road segment of the Ring of Fire access network will cut through a number of bodies of water, requiring an estimated six bridges and 25 culverts. The broader road network, composed of three connected projects, will cross major rivers, including the Attawapiskat River and the Albany River, both crucial to the local ecosystem and First Nations communities.
(Government of Ontario)
“It’s divide and conquer. Just as we’re building unity against (the) Ford government, they’re attacking that,” Chief Gary Quisess told The Pointer.
“The close to $40 million that they’re putting in, it’s not much…the land which we’re protecting, that’s priceless.”
The Ring of Fire sits atop one of the planet’s most valuable natural climate assets, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a vast expanse of peatlands that stores an estimated 30 to 35 billion tonnes of carbon and home to over 50 species at risk.
Within the proposed development zone alone, scientists estimate between 1.6 and 2 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent greenhouse gases lie locked beneath the surface.
Disturbing this landscape, one of the world’s largest carbon sinks, could release massive emissions and undermine not only Canada’s but also global climate goals.
Yet the provincial government continues to champion extraction projects there, an assault, many Indigenous leaders say, on something the planet was naturally gifted to protect itself.
The contradiction deepens when set against the federal government’s latest climate spending: on October 30, at the energy and environment ministers’ G7 meeting in Toronto, energy and natural resources minister Tim Hodgson announced $3.4 million in funding for four emerging carbon dioxide removal startups including CarbonRun, pHathom, Skyrenu, and NULIFE Greentech.
“Congratulations to NorthX, Arca and Microsoft for their innovation and leadership in Carbon Dioxide Removal. These are our success stories: public and private dollars together building a cleaner, stronger future,” Canada’s energy and natural resources minister Tim Hodgson said.
Hodgson also announced over $11 million for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects in Newfoundland and Quebec to trap and mineralize carbon dioxide.
Environmental and science experts have long cautioned that such technologies remain unproven at scale, a costly distraction from protecting natural carbon sinks like the Lowlands that already do the job for free.
A recent report by Indigenous Climate Action (ICA), Land Back is Climate Policy, rejects Canada’s reliance on “false solutions” like carbon capture and resource expansion, calling instead for a return of land, decentralization of power, and policy grounded in Indigenous laws and relationships with the land and water.
On May 12, environmental groups and Indigenous leaders, council members and youth gathered at Queen’s Park calling on the provincial government to stop Bill 5.
(Environmental Defence/X)
To protect that resource, just an hour before Ford’s announcement, Neskantaga First Nation had formally filed a request with the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) to designate the Eagle’s Nest mine, a multibillion-dollar nickel and copper project proposed by Wyloo Metals, for a federal impact assessment.
“Before IAAC can begin reviewing a request to designate a project, it must determine if the information provided is sufficient to begin the designation process,” the IAAC said in a statement shared with The Pointer.
The agency says if the submission is deemed complete, it will proceed with an analysis of the proposed project and the accompanying request.
Bill C-69, dubbed the Impact Assessment Act, which Ford has described as “red tape” and “duplicative”, was designed to ensure that projects with significant environmental or cultural consequences like the Ring of Fire roads and mines undergo meaningful federal oversight.
For First Nations, this oversight is one of the few mechanisms that guarantees free, prior, and informed consent under Treaty 9, the Canadian Constitution, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
“Doug Ford’s government has been missing in action while our people face a six-month health crisis with no nursing station and unsafe drinking water,” Quisess said.
“Now he wants to dismantle the only federal process that gives us a voice in what happens to our lands. That’s not leadership — it’s colonialism in 2025.”
In a statement shared with The Pointer, the community argues that the mine could irreversibly harm the Attawapiskat River system, which sustains their way of life and is at the “heart” of their culture and “territory”.
Neighbouring nations share similar concerns.
Chief Bruce Achneepineskum of Marten Falls First Nation said much of the proposed Webequie Supply Road (WSR) cuts through the Muketei River–Esker area in the Marten Falls territory and warned that Ontario has failed to secure their consent.
For Neskantaga First Nation, the challenges are tougher with families living through the longest boil-water advisory in Canadian history.
The community’s only health centre, the Rachael Bessie Sakanee Memorial Health Centre, was closed in April this year due to flooding and strong fuel odours detected in the building, which was constructed in 1994.
Chief Quisess said with the ongoing states of emergency around a drug epidemic and suicide epidemic and the community having no high school facilities, it is “surprising” that the province expects them to come to the table to discuss resource extraction.
“Our reality is not recognized,” she said, noting the community feels neglected by both the provincial and federal governments.
“Don't you think if we were valued…if we were important, these things would not be issues? These are basic human rights.”
Both Neskantaga and Marten Falls First Nations chiefs say they are ready to fight to save their lands.
“We are ready to fight if needed…I refuse to believe that fast-tracking for economic development was easy but fast-tracking for First Nations progress was not,” Quisses said.
Achneepineskum said any “incursions” onto Indigenous lands will be met with “resistance and stoppages” in the absence of “meaningful dialogue and agreements.”
He vowed in social media posts to confront decades of government abuse.
“Ontario cannot go onto our lands and take our resources again without our consent! That would be history repeating itself! We will fight it!.”
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