Resolution No. 2017-09-13
Electoral Riding Changes -Respect for the Mushkegowuk People
WHEREAS, the Province of Ontario appears to intend to make significant changes to the provincial electoral ridings in the region of we the Omushkego; and
WHEREAS, the proposed changes involve the creation of a new riding in the James and Hudson Bay region which includes the lands and communities of the Mushkegowuk People; and
WHEREAS, the new proposed riding, to be called Mushkegowuk, misses the opportunity to create a riding that would give the Omushkego an electoral population base for real participation in the Ontario Legislature, and thus misses an opportunity to move towards reconciliation, and fails to recognize the self-government that the Mushkegowuk People have exercised from time immemorial, and which was recognized in the oral promises of Treaty 9; and
WHEREAS, the proposed riding actually reduces the percentage representation of the Omushkego (in our homeland) as compared to the existing (inadequate riding), and
therefore is a step backward rather than forward; and
WHEREAS, the Omushkego appreciate their past elected representation in the Ontario Legislature, but changes to enhance Omushkego representation are appropriate and necessary;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this 2017 Annual Assembly of the Chiefs and Delegates of the Mushkegowuk People urges that the presently proposed new Mushkegowuk electoral riding not proceed, and that before any electoral riding changes are made, real consultations take place in Mushkegowuk Territory, and that a riding be considered and implemented which respects the Omushkego in our ancestral homelands, and ensures the likelihood of real Omushkego representation in the Ontario Legislature in the future.
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