• @healthetank@lemmy.ca
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    116 months ago

    Oh man this guy seems unhinged. I found a few other articles over the years in the peterborough examiner that talk about him, never in a great light.

    Sad that he seems so far gone - self-declaring himself chief of his own nation and becoming banned from the local municipalities council chambers and other properties

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    46 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Alongside banners commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and the victims of Canada’s residential school system, Confederate flags flap gently in the wind.

    In email correspondence between the two seen by the Guardian, Denby – a businessman and former mayoral candidate in the region – told Simpson he was in possession of “records” dating back to 1780 that proved “our Ancestors” were on this land for over 30,000 years.

    The group’s apparent readiness to make questionable claims in a bid for territory – in this case, the entirety of Kawartha Lakes – alarmed Simpson and the chiefs of six other nations that are signatories to the 1923 Williams Treaties.

    “They seem to believe that if they can finagle a little land claim, if they can call themselves a First Nation, they’ll get to create their own little fiefdom with their own laws,” said Veldon Coburn, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies.

    During the “Freedom Convoy” occupation of Ottawa two years ago, truckers pinned “Every Child Matters” flags to their vehicles – a phrase associated with victims of the Indigenous residential schools – and protesters held pipe ceremonies and lit a sacred fire – against the wishes of the Algonquin Nation.

    Chief Simpson, whose community has spent recent years trying to buy up as much of the surrounding land as it can in order to restore it ecologically and rebuild territory lost to Canada, sees strong parallels between with fight with Denby and the legacy of the colonial project.


    The original article contains 1,637 words, the summary contains 255 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • @grte@lemmy.ca
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      96 months ago

      Alongside banners commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous women and the victims of Canada’s residential school system, Confederate flags flap gently in the wind.

      Wow, I hate everything about that.

      With a little research these culture vultures could have used an actual local “rebel” flag, this one:

      Picture of the Metis Flag

      Red River Resistance

      But of course they appropriate a white supremacist flag from American history.

  • MapleEngineer
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    26 months ago

    Remember the United People of Canada who tried to buy the church in Ottawa them stiffed the seller and refused to leave?

    They’re back!