Indigenous demonstrators arrested on Parliament Hill

The activists say they intend to get closer to the heart of the weekend festivities

OTTAWA— Indigenous activists who set up a teepee on the edge of Parliament Hill after a late-night confrontation with police have no plans to leave and say they actually want to get closer to the heart of the weekend’s Canada Day festivities.

Members of the Bawating Water Protectors, who came to the capital from Sault Ste. Marie on Wednesday, told the Star that the goal of the “reoccupation” is to highlight how Canada’s 150th anniversary is a painful reminder of residential schools, the appropriation of land and decades of government-sponsored assimilation of Indigenous peoples.

The large, white teepee currently stands just outside East Block on Parliament Hill, where a massive stage with video screens and booming speakers has been set up for the government’s “Canada 150” celebration.

The group — which points out that Parliament itself is built on land that the Algonquin Anishinabe First Nation says is unceded — plans to perform ceremonies in the teepee all weekend, when 500,000 revelers are expected in downtown Ottawa.

“We’re inviting these people to this ceremony, because our purpose is to educate (about) our side of what Canada Day means, that it’s hurting us,” said Candace Day Neveau, one of the members of the Bawating Water Protectors that set up the teepee.

“We’re framing this in a way where we can invite settlers to really think about that and what it is they’re celebrating, the cultural genocide that our people have been through,” she said.

“Celebrating150 like this and Canada Day is absolutely ignorant, especially after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission all came out.”

Pierre-Olivier Herbert, a spokesperson for Canadian heritage minister Mélanie Joly, said in an emailed statement Thursday that the government recognizes that not all Canadians are celebrating the 150th milestone. He said the Liberal government is committed to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

“We will continue to listen, learn more about one another, and work to understand each other — because at its core — that is what reconciliation is all about,” he said.

Early Thursday morning, the group arrived carrying poles for the teepee, said Gibway Naataazhing, a member of the group from Thessalon First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie.

He said several RCMP officers stopped them and said they were trespassing. Naataazhing said that he told police “we have the right to use these objects for our ceremonies on ceremonial land.” After a short standoff, he said one officer “put his arm around my neck” and he was handcuffed. Videos circulating Thursday showed RCMP officers dragging someone away as people chanted “Shame!” and “Let our people go!”

Naataazhing and eight others were detained in a tent on the Hill grounds for about an hour, he said. No one was charged, but Naatazhing showed the Star the notice he was given by police that bars him from Parliament Hill for six months.

The RCMP did not respond to requests for comment from the Star on Thursday.