Identifying himself as the Chief of the Pontiac Anishinaabek Fort de Coulonge Kichesipirini, Fleury said that he had two demands for the local administration: the removal of the name Pontiac from the MRC, and . . .

the acknowledgment that the territory sits on unceded lands. He also made unspecific claims about the MRC destroying certain Native camps.

“We’re saying, hey take it off of there, Pontiac is for the First Nations to use, not for the government to use,” he said. That’s the long and the short of it. We know it’s unceded land … stop saying it’s state land.”

He said that he sent a letter to the MRC back in July, and also invited them to several ceremonies in Chapeau, but was ignored, which prompted his demonstration and a follow up letter, demanding the previously mentioned changes be made within nine days.

Fleury has run as a Green Party candidate in numerous federal and provincial elections, and was joined at the protest by the provincial party’s leader Alex Tyrell.

Speaking in a media scrum after the MRC council meeting that evening, Warden Jane Toller responded to the protest. She said that she’d inquired about specifics on any claims of camps being destroyed.

“We’re here to serve everybody and we especially work very closely with all people and I didn’t ask Mr. Fleury who he represents, but we always take any kind of letter like this seriously,” she said. “I did tell him I had received a letter previously, he had been asking … demanding money to build, kind of a Native centre. I did offer to meet with him in my office today, but he didn’t have time.”

“In terms of demanding that the name be changed, that’s not in our jurisdiction. I understand that there is a sensitivity to the fact that Pontiac himself was not Algonquin, but it’s a name we’ve all grown to love,” she continued. “There is no plan to change the name. I don’t think it’s something that will happen without a great deal of discussion and input.”

She added that she would be speaking with the Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec and Labrador, to inquire about Fleury’s standing and the authority with which he was making his claims.

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