Overview

• Marten Falls First Nation filed a statement of claim on August 7 seeking interim and permanent injunctions to block Ontario and federal funding or participation in Ring of Fire mining development.
• The lawsuit highlights 1930s-1950s hydroelectric and river diversion projects that the community says destroyed fish populations and ancestral canoe routes.
• Marten Falls warns that Ontario’s Bill 5 and federal Bill C-5 grant cabinet powers to fast-track resource projects by bypassing environmental assessments and treaty obligations.
• The First Nation previously collaborated on environmental assessments for roads connecting its community to the provincial highway system and the Ring of Fire but now asserts meaningful consultation under Treaty No. 9 has been lacking.
• The case now awaits judicial consideration as courts decide whether to pause government involvement in mining infrastructure and test the balance between Indigenous consent and resource development.