Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.
- Henry David Thoreau
How will Pope Francis be remembered by Indigenous people in Canada? | Power &litics
Six Nations Doesn’t Need Sympathy. It Needs a Water Revolution.
Follow-up to “Water Is Life. So Why Are 70% of Canada’s Largest First Nation Still Without It?”
Let’s skip the hollow apologies. Here’s how we fix this.
No more “reconciliation round-tables.” No more press conferences full of staged land acknowledgments and zero commitments.
Six Nations of the Grand River doesn’t need another promise.
It needs clean, accessible water—yesterday.
Here’s a bold, unfiltered road-map to actually fix this crisis—no bureaucracy, no colonial B.S. Just solutions.
π§ 1. Immediate Federal Emergency Infrastructure Intervention
Solution: Trigger an emergency infrastructure clause—like what we’d use for a flood or wildfire—to bypass the deadlocked funding pipelines and deploy federal emergency funds to Six Nations for full water distribution build-out within 12 months.
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Funded via existing $8B allocated in 2021 for long-term water issues.
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If Ottawa can pay $55M for a single F-35 fighter jet, it can pay for pipes.
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Appoint a non-political Indigenous-led task force to administer all funds—not Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), which has failed for decades.
Controversial? Yes.
Necessary? Even more so.
πΈ 2. Compulsory Compensation with No Arbitrary Thresholds
Solution: Scrap the absurd “one-year advisory” eligibility requirement and offer retroactive compensation for any First Nation dealing with unsafe water, regardless of whether they meet colonial definitions.
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Use Six Nations' lawsuit as the precedent.
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Create a community impact index: includes trucked water reliance, bacterial contamination data, infrastructure gaps.
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$25M is nothing compared to the generational trauma, illness, and economic exploitation that’s occurred.
Let’s be blunt: Ottawa’s metrics are designed to exclude. This solution flips that.
⚙️ 3. Force Industry to Pay for the Mess They Helped Create
Solution: Introduce a “Clean Water Royalty”—a 3-5% tax on natural resource extraction within 100 km of any First Nation without universal water access.
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Ontario alone made over $1.1B in mining royalties in 2023.
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This isn’t charity—it’s justice. Water is diverted, poisoned, and monetized for corporate gain.
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First Nations communities near resource operations (including Six Nations) get nothing but environmental degradation.
Use these royalties to fund water infrastructure, maintenance, and training.
π 4. Ban Private Water Delivery Services as Primary Water Sources
Solution: Outlaw reliance on for-profit cistern trucking services for primary household water supply on reserves.
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Turn these systems into public, Indigenous-owned co-ops, regulated with real oversight.
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Profiteering from the denial of basic rights is morally bankrupt.
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$250 a month for water is not “service delivery”—it’s extortion.
We don’t let private trucks deliver water to downtown Toronto. Why is it acceptable in Six Nations?
π¬ 5. Create a National Indigenous Water Authority (NIWA)
Solution: Establish an independent, Indigenous-run water agency with federal authority and budget oversight.
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Modeled after New Zealand’s MΔori-led health authority.
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Responsible for planning, infrastructure, quality assurance, emergency response, and training.
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Not a committee. Not a think tank. A governing body with teeth.
Water is sacred. It must be managed by those who understand that.
π 6. Enshrine the Right to Water in Canadian Law—NOW
Solution: Pass a binding Clean Water for Indigenous Peoples Act, modeled on the 2023 bill that Trudeau’s government let die. This time, no delay. No excuse.
Key provisions:
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Water access as a constitutional right for all Indigenous Peoples.
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Enforceable legal standards for quality and access.
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Automatic court injunctions if access is blocked or substandard.
We recognize education, health, and mobility as basic rights. Water is more fundamental than all of them.
π€ 7. Make Residential School Denialism a Hate Crime—Link it to Water Justice
Solution: Support MP Leah Gazan’s bill and make denial of genocidal policies, like residential schools, a criminal offense.
Why? Because denialism fuels public apathy.
If Canadians understood that water injustice is a continuation of the same genocidal logic, there’d be outrage.
Criminalizing denialism connects historical erasure to modern-day neglect.
So, Who’s Got the Guts to Do This?
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Liberals? Carney says he believes in reconciliation. Prove it.
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Conservatives? Poilievre wants freedom? Start with freeing Indigenous people from a colonial water regime.
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NDP? Singh, Gazan, and others are leading the way. But where’s the national spotlight?
This is a test. Not just for parties, but for Canada itself.
π₯ Final Word: You Don’t Get to Call It a Democracy If You Deny People Water
This isn’t about being woke. It’s about being human.
The truth is this: Canada has spent decades underfunding First Nations while making billions off their lands, their rivers, and their resources.
What’s happening at Six Nations is not a mystery. It’s the design.
But it doesn’t have to stay that way.
The solutions are here. The money is here. The leadership is here.
What’s missing?
Political courage.
Moral clarity.
And a nation willing to see Indigenous people as equals, not projects.
Sincerely,
Adaptation-Guide
ADAPT OR DIE!
LESS IS MORE!
WE ARE READY! ARE YOU?
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