Assembly of First Nations leaders accuse Liberals of playing politics with drinking water bill

assemblage of number one Nations (AFN) leaders on tues accused the union soldier regime of playing political games with their right to safe drinking water to shield Canada from legal liability, as chiefs gathered in Ottawa for the assembly's annual summer meeting.

The organization is slated to debate dozens of resolutions this week on issues like fast-tracking major projects, proposed legislation and a first ministers' meeting this fall. But water — protecting it, governing it, legislating it — is proving to be a recurring concern.

"For many across our communities, access to clean water continues to be a tremendous struggle," AFN Newfoundland Regional Chief Brendan Mitchell told hundreds of people gathered at the Rogers Convention Centre.

"We're actually getting ready to go to war for water on behalf of our communities."

The "war" referenced is metaphorical: a political battle over the Carney government's weakening of proposed drinking water legislation and its simultaneous efforts to streamline major project development.

Chief Greg Sarazin's community is just 120 kilometres west of downtown Ottawa, yet he said the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan struggled for nearly 40 years to get a drinking water system in place.

Sarazin had just finished welcoming people to Algonquin territory for the AFN's first water walk, where more than 100 people gathered for a ceremony outside the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

Crossing a bridge across the Ottawa River in the hot morning sun and arriving at the convention centre, the ceremonial walk was calm and thoughtful, a moment to give thanks, but the political undertones were obvious.

"We're going to have to push back really hard. Be ready," AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told the walkers before they set out.

With Parliament Hill looming above her, she accused federal lawmakers of playing politics with First Nations' rights by failing to pass long-awaited proposed drinking water legislation, Bill C-61, before Justin Trudeau resigned as prime minister last year.

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"The NDP were no help. The Liberals were no help. The Conservatives were no help. The Bloc Québécois were no help," Woodhouse Nepinak said.

"Nobody was helping us and they all blamed each other."

Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals tabled a new water bill, C-37, this spring but in the process weakened certain sections and removed explicit recognition of First Nations' human right to safe drinking water.

That prompted criticism and pushback, as lawyers observed the language allows Canada to continue to fight First Nations in court, and sets the stage for a draft AFN resolution scheduled for debate this week.

Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige, representing 39 communities in Ontario, emphasized those concerns on Tuesday afternoon during a panel with lawmakers.

Debassige accused the Liberals of deliberately tabling the new bill after a December 2025 court decision that confirmed Canada's legal duties to ensure First Nations have potable water so they could revise the bill to support Canada's case on appeal.

"It is clear that the wording was changed to support Canada's argument, and we were the victims of a political game of wait and see," she said, adding later, "We can see through this veil of deceit and manipulation of language."

Liberal MP Ginette Lavack, who was on the panel, didn't answer directly when reporters asked afterward why the Carney government decided to rewrite the bill rather than just re-table it.

"Bill C-37 continues to recognize inherent rights of First Nations people to clean drinking water, and this proposed legislation as it stands really puts First Nations at the centre," said Lavack.

Discussion about the new water bill is expected to dovetail this week with debate about the Carney government and provincial governments' efforts to expedite big resource development projects, pipelines in particular. 

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Woodhouse Nepinak told a news conference Monday afternoon the federal government's suite of proposed reforms aimed at getting projects built "will fundamentally alter the way Canada protects or does not protect our planet."

"These proposals raise significant concerns regarding Canada's commitment to upholding its constitutional, statutory and international obligations to First Nations."

Trudeau once said there was no relationship more important to him, and to Canada, than the relationship with Indigenous peoples. Whether that statement remains true under Carney is something the chiefs continue to grapple with. 

Suggesting provinces don't truly own the land where development would happen, AFN's Saskatchewan Regional Chief Bobby Cameron invited foreign leaders to reach out to First Nations.

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"To the folks and the leaders from India and China, come and meet our First Nation leaders," he told reporters.

"Come and invest in our First Nation communities. Come, and understand and learn what it's like to be a First Nation person in this country."

The annual general assembly also typically gives grassroots advocates and activists a chance to be heard.

After the water walk on Monday, Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail, an elder from Attawapiskat in northern Ontario, was cooling off inside the Rogers Centre, and summed up her concerns.

"The way they're doing things is not good enough," Wabano-Iahtail said. 

"Instead of progress in terms of truth and reconciliation, it's going backwards … and I'm really concerned about what the government under Mark Carney is doing."

The assembly is scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

Reporter

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