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Send Clyde McNichol to England

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Help Clyde McNichol get to England to seek protection of his ancestral land in Benny Forest!


Save the Environment! Protect endangered species! Stop clear cutting 300 year old trees! Ask THE CROWN to be a responsible EXECUTOR and the PMO to be a responsible TRUSTEE of the treaties that were made with Native peoples!


Frustrated by the lack of official support for saving the forest land of his ancestors near Sudbury, Ontario over the past two years, Clyde McNichol now wishes to be heard in England. 


The Benny Forest is situated about an hour's drive north of Sudbury Ontario. It has endangered species, old growth areas with trees over 300 years old, archeological interest, and historical and current use by the Anishinaabe people.  

Clyde wants to deliver the following letter to the Queen along with a proposal to the Commonwealth Canopy program and a land claim document. He had hoped the land claim he recently delivered to the Trustee would get at least a temporary halt to the cutting operations, but this has not yet happened!  His land claim and proposal  can be found on his cultural camp website at http://www.campeaglenest.com/benny-forest/  His letter is below:

Your Majesty:

We honour you as the longest reigning monarch and seek your support and compassion now in our time of need.  Three-hundred-year-old trees in our home are being cut down as we speak.  This is forest land my family has occupied since long before your people arrived on our shores, land that was acknowledged by your nation as ours in 1763 and most recently in a treaty dated Sept. 9, 1850 and signed by Crown official William Robinson and others. We continue to honour our agreement in 1764 to live side by side with your nation like brothers as we demonstrated in the wars 1812, 1914, 1940 and other times. We are humbly asking now in friendship to uphold the agreement made between your grandparents and our people.   Logging companies are clear cutting the land.  Please help us protect this forest. It has endangered species, old growth, archeological interest, and is in use currently for Anishinaabe ceremony, summer camps and cultural teachings for our children  through my non-profit organization, Camp Eagle Nest. Bears are appearing in local towns because they have lost their habitat. Wild animals come up close to us sick and hungry as we travel the land.   This land is where my family have fished, hunted and trapped for generations, land they knew was theirs, confirmed as theirs by Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Canadian authorities including World War II officials who promised my father land for his family for his contribution towards winning that war (Simon McNichol, Canadian War Veteran, fought in WWII from 1940 to 1945), but these promises were never properly penned by THE TRUSTEE for presentation to THE EXECUTOR and now the land, our home is being desecrated yet again. We feel we must deliver this letter in person because of the urgency of the situation. If you can recommend where to deliver the letter or suggest a time and place to meet, we would be deeply grateful.

Sincerely,

Clyde McNichol, Sturgeon Clan of the Anishinabek people, Tel: [phone redacted].

Fundraiser Goal of $6400 CAD covers airfare, food and lodging for Clyde and one of his supporters for a week in London, England.

No donation is too small.


Standing up to protect the land in the Spring of 2015.

Still standing up in the winter of 2016.

Highway cleanup fundraiser for Camp Eagle Nest in Benny Forest, 2014.


Protesting hauling of wood from Anishinaabe land without permission of the original people who still call the area home, September 14, 2016.

Protesting a new logging road on New Year's Day, 2017

Clyde's companion, Barbara McNichol speaking to an Environmental Assessment Review panel in Sudbury, November 2016.

Clyde delivering a land claim document to the Ministry of Indigenous and Northern Affairs on Jan. 17, 2017

Clyde's father, Simon McNichol, had his trapping ground and home in Benny Forest after he returned from service in WWII with the Canadian Army.

Clyde McNichol, Elders Art Petahtegoose and Kim McDougall, with some Camp Eagle Nest campers and camp pet in Benny Forest, July, 2016

Elder Art Petahtegoose teaching Anishinaabe forest lore to youth at Camp Eagle Nest, July, 2015

Eagle found at Mud Lake area, Benny Forest

Lady slippers are an example of plant species on forest floor that do not survive clear-cutting.

Sweat ceremony in Benny Forest along Bannerman Creek, September 2016.

Thunderbird woman "no cutting" signs placed on trees during Autumn hike, 2016.

Round Dance rally demonstrating new logging road, November, 2016.

Support from Council of Canadians and others, February, 2016.


Medicine man, the late Tom Isaac, identifies a wealth of traditional medicines in the Benny Forest, April, 2015

Clyde speaks about the graves of his ancestors across this land.

For more information and updates, check out our Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Save-the-Benny-Forest-388489664672582/







 
 

Organiser

Pat Guillet
Organiser
Cartier, ON

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