The Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) supports the Haudenosaunee right to hunt at Short Hills Provincial Park, organized by the Haudenosaunee Wildlife and Habitat Authority and authorized by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council. The hunts are protected under treaty rights dating back to the founding of European settlement in Niagara and must be respected by all.
We condemn the racist obstruction of treaty rights by those claiming to be protecting animal rights. These actions are in fact perpetuating violations of Indigenous treaty rights which amount to cultural genocide, and are a continuation of the genocidal policies of the Canadian government, as recognized even by the United Nations Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples. This is evident by the racist abuse and intimidation Indigenous hunters have been subjected to by those who have been barricading the hunt. We condemn the Ontario Provincial Police and Niagara Regional Police Service’s complicity with those obstructing the hunt, who must not be allowed to interfere in treaty obligations. We also call upon the Minister for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs to protect the exercise of treaty rights at Short Hills Provincial Park.
The Communist Party of Canada has long called for respect for nation-to-nation relationships between the Indigenous and settler nations and peoples of Canada which requires upholding existing treaty rights as well as negotiating a new constitutional framework under conditions of true Indigenous sovereignty. This is impossible under capitalism’s colonial concentration of wealth in private hands and requires socialism. Indigenous nations and peoples must not only be consulted on matters which effect them but must have the right to veto if there is to be true equality.
Provincial Committee, Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)
December 10, 2017
