Before I begin my remarks, I wish to acknowledge that we are gathered together on the land HaShem promised to Abraham – the homeland of the Indigenous Jewish people.

I give greetings to you on behalf of the Chief and Council of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of which I am a proud member. I hope that we will listen and learn from each other and move forward together in a good way.

 Thank you for this honour and opportunity to speak to the Democracy Forum, the University of Tel Aviv, and a very special thank you to my good friend and mentor the Honourable Irwin Cotler. As we say in my Anishinaabe/Ojibwe language – Chi Miigwetch or Big Thank You.

To begin with, I do not speak for all Indigenous peoples in Canada, although I speak for many including my own First Nation.

In Canada, there are around 660 recognized First Nations governments or bands domiciled on reserves, as these two terms are defined by the federal legislation called the Indian Act. This Act has governed and defined Indigenous First Nations peoples’ and their rights since 1876.

An Indian reserve is typically a very small remote piece of land set aside for First Nations. Legal title is vested in Canada and set apart for First Nations use and benefit. Only registered Indians may occupy reserve land. This land should no be confused with First Nations claims to ancestral lands under Constitutional rights to Aboriginal title.

The First Nations people in Canada comprise more than 50 Indigenous Nations (like Cree, Mohawk, Anishinaabe) with 50 Indigenous languages, and the most recent census recorded a little over 1 million First Nations people. We once spoke over 500 Indigenous languages and dialects and we occupied all of Canada from coast to coast to coast since time immemorial.

I am Anishinaabe – an Ojibwe word which means “original people” or “good people”. As I said I am a proud member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation who are the descendants of the “River Credit” Mississaugas, an Anishinaabe nation. We are split into six different First Nations or Bands. Our ancestors once occupied, controlled, and exercised stewardship over approximately 3.9 million acres of lands, waters, and resources in Southern Ontario, Canada.

I was born on the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, where I was mostly raised. I was born during the time that the Indian Agent was present with absolute authority on our reserve. The Indian Agent was a federal bureaucrat who controlled virtually all aspects of our lives – from cradle to grave.

In 1969 my grandfather and uncles became politically active in response to Canada’s then White Paper policy of assimilation of Indians and I joined them as a young man. It soon became clear to me that the issues facing my people would be resolved though the law before the courts and I decided to go to law school.

When I started law school in 1974 there were 4 Indigenous lawyers in all of Canada and none of them practiced in the area of Indigenous rights because there simply was no such thing. I attended Law School at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario which at the time, referred to itself as the “Harvard of the North”.

I graduated in 1977 and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1980.

Upon graduation I was hired by Osler Hoskins and Harcourt – a large law firm in Toronto – as an associate in its corporate commercial department. I think, at that time, the law firm found an Indigenous lawyer intriguing and novel. In the early 1980s I was a rare Indigenous lawyer with the many challenges that came with it. 

I am grateful to Oslers for the legal experience they gave me but one day as I looked over Lake Ontario to where my reserve was, I realized that Oslers and corporate law was not where I was meant to be. Indigenous law was in its embryonic stage and I wanted to have a voice in its development and its application to my people. After less than a year, Oslers and I parted in a good way and I began one of the first private law practices in Indigenous law.

In 1994 I was among three Indigenous people to sit as a judge on the federal trial courts throughout Canada. Then in 2004 I was appointed to sit as a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal. I was the first Indigenous person to sit on any appellate court in Canada’s history. Indeed, I am told I was the first Indigenous person to sit on an appellate court in all of the Commonwealth. And there I sat for over 14 years as a lonely first. The colleagues I most identified with, and who best understood that I came from a different place, were my Jewish colleagues.

The Honourable Irwin Cotler was the Canadian Minister of Justice who appointed me to the Ontario Court of Appeal and it was not lost on Minister Cotler that I was the first Indigenous person to be appointed to an appellate court in Canada.

It is the practice in Canada that when a person is appointed to an appellate court, they receive a personal phone call from the Minister of Justice. In that brief conversation I asked Minister Cotler “why me”? With little hesitation he answered, “who better to know what justice is than someone who has lived their entire life with injustice”!

These were words that I took with me into the courtroom and informed my decisions as a judge. To me it meant my “lived experience” that included periods of injustice. The Honourable Irwin Cotler is one of my heroes and I am privileged to call him a friend.

I retired from the court in 2018 and returned to the practice of law and advocated for First Nations and Indigenous people.

October 7th and its aftermath, caused me to reflect upon the deep spiritual connection and love I have for the traditional lands of my people and the cultural and traditional values we hold dear.

The sadistic and barbaric savagery Hamas perpetrated on Israelis on October 7th continues to fill me with horror and as time passed grief and sorrow joined my horror. Many of my Jewish friends have shared with me how they feel unsafe in Canada. I am angry and deeply saddened by the tsunami of jew hatred, the rampant antisemitism in Canada and the insecurity of my friends.

Since that day I think about my many Jewish friends and how they have supported me throughout my life’s endeavours. As both a judge of the trial division court and the Ontario Court of Appeal the wisdom of my Jewish colleagues helped guide my legal reasoning and decision making, just as my unique background, I believe and hope, influenced them. 

I have come to appreciate that the story of the Jewish people has many weaving similarities to Indigenous people in Canada. For those of us that have some understanding of the impacts of history and some intellectual and historical perspective, it is clearly evident that the Jews are the Indigenous People of Israel for thousands of years.

After October 7th I observed how in Canada, Anishinaabe culture and traditions were being appropriated by anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstrators to justify the unjustifiable. It caused me to reflect on the nature of the original Indigenous/Canadian relationship at the time of first contact with European settlers.

My Anishinaabe beliefs begin with this: The Creator placed the distinct races of humankind upon Mother Earth and gifted each with unique knowledge to be used for their benefit and the benefit of all humankind.

As Anishinaabe, I try to live in accordance with my traditional values and the Seven Sacred Teachings sometimes referred to as the Seven Grandfather Teachings. They are as follows: Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility and Truth

The Creator gifted these Seven Sacred Teachings to us all so that we may learn how to live and move forward together in a good way. 

As Anishinaabe we have a deep spiritual connection to the land; to our traditional lands. Mother Earth is our first mother. We are called upon to be stewards of our traditional and treaty lands and to take action in response to what is going on within them. We are taught to pay attention to our traditional territory for issues that do not align with our values. The Creator gave us a voice and a warrior spirit to use when it comes to abuse and atrocity.

I am paying attention and I do not like what I am hearing and seeing taking place on our traditional lands today. It is all too reminiscent of the hate that emanated out of the vile and tragic Indian Residential System of Schools operated by Canada and Christian churches that persisted for decades; well over a century.

Indigenous peoples welcomed the settlers to Turtle Island – North America. Our original relationship was based upon mutual respect, honour, equality, peaceful coexistence, and the sharing of the land; its resources and wisdom. We were allies!

Treaties of Peace and Friendship were entered into that codified these intentions. They stressed peaceful and equal coexistence and were grounded in the seven sacred teachings. These treaties date back to the mid-1400s and were documented by First Nations in what are called Wampum belts or the Covenant Chain.

Notwithstanding these international instruments – which we mutually lived in accordance with for more than four centuries – in the mid-1700s, rather than adhere to these treaties and promises, Britain unilaterally decided to govern the interior of North America by its own rules. In 1763, Chief Pontiac led a coordinated attack by Indigenous groups upon British forts in the Upper Great Lakes Region and unsettled the British attempts at British reign.

The message Chief Pontiac sent to the British was: “We want a partner not a ruler.” Chief Pontiac was not trying to run Europeans out of the region but to restore the terms of alliance and treaty and restore the original relationship.

Chief Pontiac’s military successes lead to the Royal Proclamation of 1763 issued by King George III and now a part of the Constitution of Canada. It was followed by the 1764 Treaty of Niagara. Through these Treaties the original relationship was reaffirmed. The Covenant Chain was said to have been “polished.” The Indigenous people and European settlers lived in accordance with this polished Covenant Chain for another century.

I wish to note that the 1764 Treaty of Niagara – together with the Royal Proclamation – constitute a peace treaty that was entered into between the British Crown and Indigenous nations. The Treaties established a framework for coexistence that recognized Indigenous sovereignty. The Treaty of Niagara is considered a foundational document for First Nations’ relationship with the British Crown and subsequently with Canada, though it is not earnestly recognized as such today by Canada. The treaty, nevertheless, is a notable example of the British Crown’s recognition of Indigenous sovereignty in the years preceding the American Revolution.

A recent court decision in the province of Quebec has provided us with legal recognition and a contemporary meaning to the “Covenant Chain”. The Quebec Superior Court held that this Covenant Chain is a treaty that includes the right to trade and to resolve issues with the Crown through discussion. The court found that this treaty is a diplomatic peace and friendship alliance with a conflict-resolution procedure protected by section 35 of Canada’s Constitution Act, 1982.

And finally, the court found that the parties – Indigenous people and Canada – must meet their obligations under the Covenant Chain through meaningful discussion. This decision will now work its way up to our Supreme Court because nothing comes easy for us.

Returning then to the evolution of the Indigenous/Canadian relationship. Tragically, in the early to mid-1800s, Canada – now the successor to Britain – felt secure enough in its numeric superiority to Indigenous people to ignore the treaties and alliances with them and abandon completely the original relationship. Canada assumed the responsibilities of governing itself pursuant to the British North America Act (BNA Act) – now the Constitution Act.

The BNA Act was the law passed by the British Parliament in 1867 that created the Dominion of Canada. Under this Act the Parliament of Canada was provided with exclusive legislative authority over “Indians, and lands reserved for the Indians” – Section 91(24). This means the federal government has the exclusive power to create laws regarding First Nations people, their lands, and related matters – as proclaimed by our judiciary. Racism against Indigenous people is now entrenched in the Canadian constitution.

This brought about the Indian Act which has governed First Nations people’s lives from cradle to grave – and still does to this day, even with many amendments. The Indian Act has historically shaped federal policies and legislation concerning Indigenous peoples, and its interpretation has been subject to ongoing debate and legal challenges.

Canada could have chosen to interpret and apply section 91(24) of the BNA in a manner that honoured the Treaties of Peace and Friendship and benefited Indigenous people but instead it interpreted and applied it in a way that marginalized, disenfranchised and enfeebled Indigenous people and made them “wards of the Crown”.

Section 91(24) of the BNA and the Indian Act marked the beginning of the end of Indigenous autonomy and the destruction of the original relationship. The fight to have Canada restore and return to the original relationship continues to this day.

For example, “Indian Status” refers to a specific legal identity of an Indigenous First Nations person in Canada. With the creation of the Indian Act, Canada developed criteria for who would be legally considered an Indian, which again continues. Indeed, the apartheid laws introduced by South African governments were influenced by and borrowed from laws introduced in Canada. Colonization, the reserve system, the Indian Act, the pass system and the introduction of Indian agents — all were put in place by Canada. Some suggest Canada’s policies for dealing with First Nation people were adopted by Nazi Germany.

Canada had developed policies and laws that disenfranchised, oppressed, and marginalized Indigenous peoples as exemplified by the Indian Residential School System which I will talk about later. In addition, there is the common law adoption of the racist and fictional Doctrine of Discovery that permitted – among other things – the unlawful acquisition of all Indigenous land. Through all of this, Indigenous peoples were made “wards of the state”. We were no longer the trusted allies. Rather, we now faced assimilation and cultural genocide.

It is important to understand thatthe Doctrine of Discovery was originally laid out in a series of papal “bulls” – or Catholic decrees or aspirations, not laws. The first papal bull was issued in 1452. These papal bulls purported to give permission to European princes/colonial powers, such as Spain and Portugal, to seize lands and subjugate people in the “New World,” as long as people on the lands were not Christians.

In March 2023 the Vatican repudiated those decrees, saying the “Doctrine of Discovery” that was used to justify “snuffing out” Indigenous people’s culture and livelihoods is not part of the Catholic faith.

But indeed, it was until 2023, and while the Supreme Court of Canada has not explicitly “repudiated” this Doctrine, it continues to be a subject of legal and moral debate in Canada, particularly in cases involving Indigenous land rights. It is important to note that Canadian courts used to refer to and rely upon the Doctrine of Discovery. Canadian courts have moved way from that but now are referring to it as the “assertion of Crown Sovereignty” – whatever that may mean.  

We, the Indigenous people of Canada, continue to live with its dire consequences each day because the Doctrine of Discovery has successfully done its damage – it purportedly legitimized the taking of all our land and it is incorporated into Canada’s jurisprudence.

Before continuing I will briefly discuss Indian Residential Schools. For a period of more than 150 years – beginning in 1831 and continuing until 1997 – First Nations children were taken from their families and communities to attend residential schools, which were often located far from their homes. More than 150,000 children attended Indian Residential Schools. Many never returned.

The first church-run Indian Residential School was opened, as I said, in 1831. By the 1880s, the federal government had adopted an official policy of funding residential schools across Canada. The explicit intent was to separate these children from their families and cultures – to “kill the Indian in the child”. In 1920, the Indian Act made attendance at Indian Residential Schools compulsory for status Indigenous children between the ages of 7 and 15. It was a crime for Indigenous parents to keep their children home or hide them from authorities seeking their apprehension and placement in those schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (the “TRC”) – in its final report to Canada released in December 2015 – concluded that residential schools were “a systematic, government sponsored attempt to destroy Indigenous cultures and languages and to assimilate them so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples.” The TRC characterized this intent as “cultural genocide.”

The schools were often underfunded and overcrowded. The quality of education was substandard. Children were harshly punished for speaking their own languages. Staff were never held accountable for how they treated our children.

We know that thousands of students suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse at residential schools. All suffered from loneliness and a longing to be home with their families. The schools severely harmed the children, their families, and their communities. Children were deprived of healthy examples of love and respect. The distinct cultures, traditions, languages, and knowledge systems of First Nations peoples were eroded by this forced assimilation. The damages inflicted by Residential Schools – as you can imagine –continue to this day.

In 1910, Canada’s Deputy Superintendent General, Department of Indian Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott, responding to the appalling high death rate of children in Indian Residential Schools, unequivocally stated, “this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards the final solution of our Indian problem.”[1] As many will no doubt recall, the Nazis aggressively deployed the term “final solution” in connection with Jews all over Europe.

The phrase – final solution – that Canada used in the 1910s in connection with Indian Residential Schools; that the Nazis used during WWII; and was used in the South African apartheid regime since the mid-1940s – has been cleverly adapted and utilized once again.

Any Indigenous person and non-Indigenous Canadian aware of our shared history should shudder to hear it chanted on our streets and in our communities. As Anishinaabe, the term, in all of its iterations, is offensive, hateful and racist. It takes us back to a dark chapter in our shared history marked by the death of more than 6,000 Indigenous children and the multi-generational psychological harm to more than 150,000 Indigenous people. It sadly brings to mind the tragic loss of 6 million Jews across Europe during, and in the period leading up to, the Holocaust.

Anyone with knowledge of the history of Israel and the Jewish people should be horrified to hear it chanted in Canada and elsewhere in the world. 

The calls for the death of Jewish people are unequivocally anathema to the Seven Sacred Teachings. Exclusion, bigotry, harassment, antisemitism, lawlessness, and hate are being permitted on and throughout our traditional and Treaty Lands. All of which is completely contrary to The Seven Sacred Teachings.

As Anishinaabe, I am deeply troubled by the expressions of hatred against Jews and Zionists, and the willful, disappointing and overt ignorance, fueled by misinformation coming from educational institutions and broader society – Ignorance about the current reconciliation efforts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Ignorance about our shared history and the promise and intentions of our first and existing treaties and our original relationship.

And how quickly the sadistic savagery of Hamas’ invasion of Israel and its promises to repeat October 7th again and again and again are so casually forgotten. A character flaw for many that we First Nations people experience far too often.

Erroneous false narratives are coming out of universities about current reconciliation efforts led by Indigenous peoples to justify divisive hateful conduct that overwhelmingly targets and isolates Jewish and Zionist Canadians.

Some have suggested correlations between Hamas and Israel in the Middle East and the reconciliation work led by First Nations here in Canada. I hear the words “colonizer”, “settler” and “decolonize” to justify terror, violence, kidnapping, rape, targeted civilian massacres. These words are used to assert revolutionary violence “by any means necessary” and that “all forms of resistance” are justified.

I unequivocally reject these assertions and any allyship with those who hold such views. Those values are abhorrent to the Sacred Teachings and expressly contrary to the original founding of Canada. It is important to recognize that Canada is an admitted settler colonial nation.

Anti-Israel pro-Palestinian supporters are in violation of the Treaties with Indigenous peoples and Canada as a party, and The Seven Sacred Teachings. Allegedly they seek to resolve a crisis in the Middle East by means that are completely at odds with Indigenous peoples, the Treaties, our Sacred Teachings, and our relationship with Canada.

Equally dreadful are the measures that target Jewish and Zionist Canadians – people who are welcome on our Treaty Lands and are deserving of the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all Canadians.

Our Land, the Treaties, our values, and our hospitality are being abused and pirated by treaty scofflaws. Leaders of universities, government, and law enforcement – all of which are Treaty Partners – are knowingly allowing it to happen.

As an Anishinaabe Zionist I am being made to feel unwelcome on my Treaty Lands by anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian treaty violators who self-describe as part of the current colonial settler regime that marginalizes and oppresses Indigenous peoples – me. They should examine the illogic of their own activities on my ancestral and Treaty Lands.

On November 7, 2024 my spouse, Janice, and I were privileged to be a part of the Spirit of Hope Gala hosted by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal – a powerful gathering of diverse communities brought together by their shared humanity and opposition to Jew hatred. We left the event infused with hope and inspired by fellow Canadians.

And then came Amsterdam. Man’s inhumanity to man – on full display. Amsterdam revealed the falsity of assertions that “Intifada revolution” are benign or peaceful calls for change. Hamas publicly committed to repeat October 7th over and over and over again. In Amsterdam this hateful promise was kept. And the terrorist promise is played out on our streets and in our communities in Canada. Following Amsterdam Hamas delivered on its promise in Montreal, Quebec.

Assertions of allyship with Anishinaabe and Indigenous People were revealed as lies by the September 18th hijacking of the Toronto District School Board “Grassy Narrows” First Nation field trip by anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

The purpose of this field trip was to educate students (grade 3 to 12) about the suffering of “Grassy Narrows” members from decades of mercury pollution in their water system. This long-standing tragic piece of Indigenous suffering was treated as irrelevant and used to advance someone else’s dogma – anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian false narratives about Israel and Jewish Canadians. This was to me, malevolent beyond words.

For several hours Canadian children were removed from the care of their parents and used once again, to promote demagoguery – to advance the ideology of the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian demonstrators. And to use youthful students; our children is unforgiveable. The first time we saw the ideologically driven abuse of children was when Indigenous children were used as a tool to destroy the culture, the way of life, and the very existence of Indigenous people.

Remember how our children were stolen from us and placed in Indian Residential Schools – to “kill the Indian in the child.” In those institutions – in addition to what I spoke of earlier – our children were the subjects of medical experimentation, starvation, forced marriage, forced labour, forced sterilization. Our children not only lost their families, their hair but their names – some which were replaced by numbers tattooed on their skin. Many of our children died and were tossed into unmarked graves. Our people are still searching for the bodies of our stolen children so that they may be buried with honour in accordance with our spiritual beliefs. In other words – to bring them home.

My Jewish friends and their allies are advocating that those charged with the public safety enforce existing laws to respond to the tsunami of antisemitism. They are diligently developing lawfare strategies but unfortunately, they are unaware, in my view, of the opportunity to advance novel legal arguments based on the Covenant Chain that I discussed earlier. The Covenant Chain is supported by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP.) The Supreme Court of Canada has held UNDRIP to be part of Canadian domestic law.

As often as antisemitism is explained I still find it difficult to understand. However, I acknowledge its vile existence.

The Islamist strategists correctly believed that their ideologically driven false narratives appropriating Indigenous social justice language would resonate and gain traction with the academically ignorant and the academically sinister in Canada – after all Canada is a self-admitted colonial settler state.

The Islamist extremists are weaponizing Indigenous culture, our shared history and the reconciliation efforts lead by Indigenous people in Canada against Jewish Canadians, Zionists, their allies and Israel.

The Islamist extremists call upon Indigenous values and culture… so we, their opponents, should look to the law – the law as represented by the Covenant Chain and the Treaties that are grounded in Canada’s Constitution to combat their hateful false ideology.

I repeat the Treaties of Peace and Friendship are binding on all people in Canada. We are all treaty partners. They bind the antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian individuals who hijack Indigenous tradition and Indigenous led reconciliation efforts to advance their false narratives and ideology of hate.

I believe consideration should be given to the development of lawfare strategies utilizing the Treaties; the Covenant Chain and enforcing them against these treaty scofflaws.

I repeat, these Treaties predate Canada and they continue to have legal force and effect today. They bind Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. It would be incorrect, in my view, to suggest that only an Indigenous person has standing to assert them. During these consequential times bold creativity is called for. These would be novel legal arguments but… Fight falsehood with truth… Fight fire with fire.

My Jewish sisters and brothers – you are not alone. I stand with you in solidarity and with immense pride. Hope and trust are very much alive as we journey together on a path of allyship and friendship. You, just as we, have been at these crossroads before and survived, vibrant and steadfast. I have no doubt you will do so again.

Miigwetch. Shalom. Am Yisrael Chai.

The Honourable Harry S. LaForme OC, IPC

Tel Aviv Israel – May 19, 2025

[1] Dept of Indian Affairs Supt D.C. Scott to B.C. Indian Agent-Gen. Maj D. McKay, DIA Archives, RG 1-Series 12 April 1910