Shé:kon sewakwé:kon!

I am Grand Chief Cody Diabo with the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake. The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake thanks the committee for the invitation to make submissions regarding Bill C-61, the first nations clean water act. We thank you for this opportunity, since the consultation process—like so many consultations, stating it frankly—are quite abysmal.

The MCK stands with indigenous peoples across the land who struggle for clean water. However, we oppose Bill C-61, which reproduces Canada's flawed positions on the inherent governance rights of indigenous peoples and limits Kahnawake's right to govern waters in our own backyard. The Kanienkehaka of Kahnawake have been self-governing since time immemorial. We exercise our inherent right to self-government in accordance with Haudenosaunee law, not with any delegated authority.

The watersheds of the St. Lawrence Valley have always sustained our community and our people. We fish, hunt and trap, harvest food and medicines, camp, canoe and raise our families on these waters. We have a deep connection to them. They are an integral part of our culture and our society.

It is the Kanienkehaka of Kahnawake, and no one else, who protect the waters that sustain us and who decide how our water treatment services will be managed.

Our main objection to Bill C-61 is that it pretends to affirm our inherent right of self-government in relation to water while attempting to subordinate our laws to federal legislation. The primary mechanism for this is clause 8 of the bill, which is offensive for two reasons.

First, clause 8 reinforces Canada's paternalistic posture by subjugating indigenous jurisdiction to a generic suite of federal laws. This is unacceptable. Indigenous jurisdictions are not based on or constrained by Canadian law. It cannot be artificially limited to areas of jurisdiction that are considered integral to distinct indigenous cultures. The MCK did flag this in the very limited consultation that took place before the bill was tabled—like so much other legislation that is out there that we provide comment to.

Second, to add insult to injury, when we saw the next draft of the bill—the one that's before you—the MCK was outraged to see that additional laws had been added to clause 8 without any consultation whatsoever. The Canada Marine Act and the Canadian Navigable Waters Act have huge implications for governance of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which runs directly through our territory.

Including these laws in clause 8 seems to single out Kahnawake and attempts to severely limit our ability to govern our own waters. It is wildly contradictory with Bill C-61's stated purpose to recognize that protecting the waters we drink requires recognizing our rights to protect those waters ourselves.

The MCK has actively called out the exclusion of Kahnawake from any participation in the governance and stewardship of the St. Lawrence River and the Seaway. In the context of Parliament's consideration of Bill C-33, we ask you to amend the Canada Marine Act to include the recognition and protection of our rights—on your end, that is. The MCK has also repeatedly requested changes to Seaway governance to honour our right to participate in governance of these crucial waters that are firmly within our territory. Our concerns have been met with total silence, as I pointed out, like so many others have.

True reconciliation requires Canada to stop trying to govern over us and over all aspects of our territory. The sooner Canada realizes that it does not have jurisdiction over first nations peoples, the sooner we can have true reconciliation.

While the MCK fully supports ensuring all indigenous people have access to clean water, we oppose the inclusion of Seaway-specific legislation in Bill C-61 and strongly caution Canada against a piecemeal approach to extracting itself from what is rightfully our jurisdiction.