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Mi’kmaw Chiefs send stinging rebuke to N.S. Premier Tim Houston
The Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs have sent a stinging rebuke to Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston over recent legislation that would remove the longstanding bans on fracking and uranium mining and exploration in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded land of the Mi’kmaq.
The chiefs say it is “unacceptable that this government is fast-tracking the extraction of natural resources that will permanently devalue and damage our unceded lands and adversely impact the exercise of our section 35 rights.”
The strongly worded reprimand came in a two-page letter dated March 4, 2025, signed by the three co-leads on environment, energy, and mining for the Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn (KMK): Chief Carol Potter, Chief Cory Julian, and Chief Tamara Young. KMK works on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs on the best ways to implement Aboriginal and treaty rights.
The letter is addressed to Houston, with copies to Minister of L’nu Affairs Leah Martin and Minister of Natural Resources Tory Rushton. It refers to omnibus Bill 6, An Act Respecting Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources, which Houston’s Progressive Conservative government tabled on Feb. 18, 2025. |Read more|
N.S. Premier Tim Houston tries to defend his lack of consultation with Mi’kmaw Chiefs
On Wednesday this week, about 600 Nova Scotians rallied in front of the legislature in Halifax to decry Premier Tim Houston’s recent assault on Nova Scotia’s democracy, and on his scapegoating of citizens concerned about democracy, environmental health and the climate crisis, whom he disparagingly and repeatedly referred to as “special interests.”
As Suzanne Rent reported for the Halifax Examiner on Wednesday, one of the speakers at the rally was Mi’kmaw activist Cheryl Maloney, who held up a framed copy of a treaty with the Mi’kmaq dated November 1752, and declared:
This treaty belongs to us, every one of you. Nova Scotia, you have treaty rights. You are our partners with one of the most powerful nations on earth, the Mi’kmaq people … The citizens of Mi’kma’ki are what’s going to beat [U.S. President Donald] Trump, [Tim] Houston, and the [Elon] Musks of the world.
Lack of consultation with the Mi’kmaq
Opposition leader Claudia Chender also addressed the crowd, before heading inside the House of Assembly, where she wasted no time in challenging the premier. |Read more|