🚨 TORONTO INDIGENOUS CULTURAL SPACE — OUR RIGHTS ARE NOT UP FOR NEGOTIATION. 🚨 Despite our community explicitly asking the City of Toronto not to proceed without first addressing our concerns, City officials still showed up at our Indigenous cultural space today. We made our position clear in writing. We requested clarification about their authority, raised concerns about our inherent Indigenous rights and constitutionally protected rights under Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, and asked that the proposed inspection be postponed until these matters were addressed. Yet they came anyway. Twelve minutes. That's how long they lasted before they were removed from our space. 🔥 This is about more than a tree. This is about our culture, our traditions, our people, and our inherent rights. The tree at the centre of this situation is being traditionally carved by a residential school survivor and two youth impacted by the child welfare system. This carving carries deep cultural and intergenerational significance. It represents the strength, resilience, and continued survival of Indigenous peoples despite generations of colonial policies designed to separate us from our cultures, our families, and our lands. This is not simply a tree inspection or an administrative matter. It concerns a living cultural space where Indigenous traditions are practised, knowledge is passed down, and healing takes place. The work being done here connects generations and helps reclaim what colonial systems have tried to take away. Our Sacred Fire is not just a location on a city map. It represents our spiritual responsibilities, our culture, our community, and our relationship with the land. We will not accept a system that uses the language of safety as a justification for disregarding Indigenous voices and overriding our clearly stated objections. We are not opposed to the responsible care of the land. We are opposed to being ignored, intimidated, and treated as though our concerns, cultural responsibilities, and rights do not matter. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms existing Aboriginal and treaty rights. Those protections deserve serious consideration, not empty words or administrative decisions made without meaningful engagement. Let this be clear: we will continue to document, challenge, and hold accountable any actions that we believe infringe upon our rights. We will not be intimidated into silence. We will not abandon our Sacred Fire. We will not allow the cultural work of a Residential School Survivor and two youth impacted by the Child Welfare System to be treated as though it has no meaning or significance. Our ancestors survived attempts to erase our cultures. We are still here. We are still standing. We are passing our knowledge to the next generations, reclaiming our traditions, and continuing to stand for our people, our land, and our inherent rights. OUR CULTURE IS NOT A CITY PROJECT. OUR TRADITIONS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO COLONIAL CONVENIENCE. OUR RIGHTS ARE NOT UP FOR NEGOTIATION. 🔥✊🏽 ALL OUR RELATIONS. #anishnaabe #Section35 #IndigenousRights #fyp #nativetiktok - @morningstarmishib