Roads blocked, school, store shut as standoff over accountability escalates at Annapolis Valley First Nation

CAMBRIDGE, N.S. — Shanika MacEachern and other Annapolis Valley First Nation band members are frustrated.

MacEachern said she took her housing concerns to the band office on Jan. 16 after her requests for meetings went nowhere. Following a few hours of waiting, she agreed to leave after being assured she would have a meeting with the band council. After a week passed, she took her fight public.

She organized a peaceful protest beginning Jan. 23 that included limiting traffic into the community and has returned to the site every day since.

“I live in a very tiny home with two kids and a partner,” MacEachern said. “It has mould in it, it has a hole in the floor; it’s extremely small.”

She’s been pushing for months for the band to remedy the situation but to no avail, she said, noting she’s not alone.

Critics have said Canada’s on-reserve housing program has been underfunded for years. The 2022 federal budget provided $2.4 billion over five years for on-reserve housing in addition to the almost $150 million provided annually to First Nations to support a range of housing needs.

MacEachern shakes her head to try to explain the local situation, noting there are band members waiting for housing in the community.

“None of it makes sense,” she said. “We have five empty homes – some of them have been empty for four years.”

And the issue isn’t only housing, as MacEachern said people also have concerns with education, health and other items.

“People are just tired,” MacEachern said.

“There’s so many people that need their voices heard and want to be heard and they just can’t get anywhere.”

She said others in the community are fearful of speaking up as they worry the council will take away their jobs.

Band

The band’s registered population as of December was 322. MacEachern said many live off reserve and may not know some of the issues going on in Cambridge, Kings County. She said that might be one of the reasons why both councillors, Natasya Kennedy and Murray Copage Sr., and Chief Gerald B. Toney were re-elected for another two-year term in December. A third councillor, Monique Holland, was elected this year as the band’s population had surpassed 300.

Toney has been chief since 2015 and had served six years as a councillor. Before his political career, he was a self-employed contractor who built houses in his community.

Calls and emails to Toney and the councillors requesting an interview this week have gone unanswered.

The chief’s brother, Roger Toney, said he can’t get a resolution to his housing issue either.

“We’re having a lot of issues with our leadership,” he said. “They don’t want to hear anything we have to say, won’t answer calls, won’t answer messages.”

Roger Toney said he had a ruptured waterline at his home that he brought to the band’s attention once it was noticed. He said it’s still leaking and he has mould in his home too.

“They won’t even answer me. It’s all swept under the mat and their day goes on and we keep breathing in mould.”

Roger’s and Gerald’s dad died three years ago and his home remains vacant. Roger said they had talked about him moving into the homestead but that hasn’t happened.

Appeal

Roger Toney and MacEachern said appeals have been filed with Indigenous Services Canada regarding the election. They want another election to be held.

MacEachern, who ran in the last election but didn’t win a council seat, said the protest wasn’t sour grapes over the election results but rather wanting to see council members do their jobs and get things done. She said a couple of councillors will speak to them, but they need the other council members to make decisions.

MacEachern said she doesn’t want her kids to be fighting these same battles when they grow up.

“They still have a job to do,” she said, of the council members. “I am still here standing up for my people whether I’m an elected leader or not.”

Protest

Fed up with the inactivity regarding her request for a meeting, MacEachern and others began protesting on Jan. 23. They erected a roadblock at Ratchford Road and Goo Ow Lane.

“We haven’t stopped anybody … essential to being here from coming here,” she said.

MacEachern said it would continue until they meet with the chief. The number of people at the site has fluctuated but MacEachern estimated there were as many as 35 people there on Day 1.

She said housing is an issue the band leadership has to address.

“The chief needs to talk to his people,” MacEachern said.

“Right now, I think people just want to feel like they’re being heard and seen. And they want the chief to talk to them and come down and start making resolutions and dealing with it.”

In response to the protest, Roger Toney said the chief closed the school, market and gas bar until at least Monday.

“They shut everything down up here,” he said, noting it won’t deter them. “We’ll sit down here all winter if that’s what it takes to make things right within our community.”

MacEachern said the No. 1 thing that needs to change is simple.

“There has to be communication and our leaders have to be advocating for our people and supporting our people,” she said. “It should be about empowering the people of their community, not tearing them down.”