e-1153 (Commercial development of land)

Petition to the House of Commons in Parliament assembled

• The Chaudière Falls were recorded in Champlain's journals as a place of ceremony for the Anishnabeg (Algonquins) in 1610. Champlain described in detail a sacred tobacco ceremony held at the Falls by the Algonquin, a ceremony which had been held by them for hundreds of years prior to his observation;
• The Anishnabeg viewed the surrounding area as an appropriate place of burial for the dead owing to the sacredness of the land and water. Algonquin Elder William Commanda continually identified the Falls as Sacred and was  informed by oral history in creating his vision for the Falls and the Islands close by;
• Aerial photographs reveal the shape of the sacred pipe in the cauldron of the Falls, known as Asticou the great kettle and the stream of water flowing from the cauldron.This place has been considered sacred for thousands of years by the Algonquins, yet the settlers have desecrated it in less than two hundred years as their understanding of indigenous culture and reverence of place is foreign to their consciousness, unfortunately a consciousness of colonialism; and
• The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples declares that indigenous people have a right to protect their sacred places. This must be done for the Sacred Falls and the Islands.