Doug Ford is leading the country’s premiers in a potentially tense meeting with several prominent First Nation groups as a push to streamline approvals in the face of tariffs from the United States creates ruptures in the relationship.

Monday’s meeting will include Canada’s premiers and leaders from the Assembly of First Nations, the Métis National Council and the Native Women’s Association of Canada, among other Indigenous groups, for a closed-door discussion.

Ahead of the talks, Victoria Pruden, president of the Métis National Council, said the country must balance “the needs for economic participation that benefits Métis and their citizens and making sure those benefits don’t come at the expense of duty to consult, consultation, respect for Indigenous rights holders in general.”

The event, held on the edges of the Council of the Federation in Huntsville, Ont., comes at a time when tensions between First Nations leaders and the Crown are high.

Last week, a coalition of nine Ontario First Nations lodged a fast-track legal action against the Ford and Carney governments over Bill 5 and Bill C-5, two recent pieces of legislation that give the provincial and federal governments unprecedented power.

Bill 5 is the Ontario version, and Bill C-5 is federal. Both laws include elements that allow cabinet ministers to designate areas or projects as so important that they can bypass environmental and labour laws, regulations and other approvals.

The legal action asks a court to throw out the entirety of Ontario’s Bill 5 and strike out major sections of the federal law. It also threatens injunctions against any projects or areas where the government announces that laws can be bypassed.

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Asked about the action on Monday, barely an hour before he was due to sit down with First Nations leaders, Ford suggested the lawsuit had been filed by a minority.

“I understand that’s nine out of what, across the country, 400 or so?” he said, speaking to reporters outside Deerhurst Resort beside Huntsville.

“We’re going to work with them. We want everyone to have an opportunity, I want everyone to prosper, and when they’re sitting there, and they’re living on diesel and they don’t have electricity … they don’t have clean water, these are the things we’re going to focus on. We’re going to support them.”

One of the nine chiefs who brought the legal action last week previously said he thought Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t understand the complexities of their concerns.

“I would say they’re less informed,” Alderville First Nation Chief Taynar Simpson said last Thursday. “I would say they need to do some homework on these issues. They need to go back to the history books, they need to listen to elders, they need to listen to First Nations.”

Ford and one of his cabinet ministers have both been forced to apologize to First Nations leaders in recent weeks.

The first time came after Ford made comments about First Nations “coming cap in hand,” for which he apologized. Then, his environment minister had to issue an apology after he asked the federal government to stand down clean drinking water legislation.

Ford repeated his offer to work with First Nations on Monday, promising prosperity through partnership.

“The door is open for them, they’re welcome to walk through that door and partner with the entire country, partner with Ontario to make their lives more prosperous than they’ve ever seen before,” he said. “That’s going to be their choice. I welcome them to make sure they take advantage of the $3 billion.”

As part of the 2025 budget, the Ford government announced $3.1 billion in loans, grants and scholarships to “support Indigenous participation, partnership and ownership in Ontario’s critical mineral supply chain.”

On Monday, Ford added: “I take care of them, and I want to make sure they prosper.”

The meeting between the First Nations leaders and premiers began around 12:30 p.m. and is expected to run for roughly three hours.

— with a file from The Canadian Press

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An Indigenous organization is threatening to stop all construction at a Toronto job site after discovering that ancestral remains stored in a dump truck for over a year are now missing.

The Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), representing the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, said it’s threatening to halt construction activities on Withrow Avenue after feeling like its pleas to find the remains were ignored.

The HDI claims the City of Toronto and its consultants withheld access to the remains and denied repeated requests for involvement.

The remains were excavated from a site located in what is acknowledged as historic Haudenosaunee territory.

“We’ve been denied basic information, denied consultation and denied respect,” said Aaron Detlor, legal counsel for HDI. “Now we have been told, in writing, that those remains are actually sitting in a dump truck. This is beyond negligent.”

Archaeological Services Inc. (ASI), the consultant hired by the city, has confirmed that the human remains were placed in a dump truck and removed from the site, though they have not disclosed where the remains were taken.

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The Withrow Avenue site sits on top of an ancient Indigenous village and is designated a burial site investigation zone, according to the release.

A city plaque across the street even marks the area’s significance. HDI says it never consented to the excavation or handling of the remains, which it says violates both Canadian and international law.

Other archaeological firms reportedly declined to work on the site due to ethical concerns. HDI alleges ASI proceeded without the required free, prior and informed consent from the Haudenosaunee.

The group is calling for the immediate return of the remains and an end to all archaeological activity on the site until its jurisdiction is fully recognized. It says it’s prepared to take direct action if the city does not comply.

“The remains of Haudenosaunee ancestors must not be treated like trash,” the statement read. “They must be returned to the Earth with ceremony and dignity, not treated like garbage.”

The city said it plans on holding a news conference on the issue.

The remains were first uncovered in January 2024 during routine utility work. Since then, the site has been fenced off under 24-7 security, with the city spending nearly $200,000 to monitor it. Yet, no formal excavation or repatriation process has begun.

Tanya Hill-Montour, the archaeology supervisor for Six Nations of the Grand River, has previously criticized the city’s lack of urgency and transparency.

Hill-Montour said if the remains were of a European settler, she felt there would be more urgency to see a resolution to the matter by now.

City officials have cited weather delays and ongoing negotiations with First Nations as reasons for the slow progress. However, HDI maintains that Indigenous communities with rightful jurisdiction were excluded from decision-making.

The conflict also highlights growing concern over Ontario’s Bill 5, which gives provincial ministers the power to override heritage and environmental protections, raising fears that more Indigenous burial sites could be compromised.

For now, HDI says it will act independently to investigate and protect its ancestors unless the city reverses course.

“Due to the appalling disregard shown by the City of Toronto, we must proceed with our own investigation,” the HDI said.

— with files from Matthew Bingley

&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Swim star Penny Oleksiak of Toronto has been notified of an apparent anti-doping rule violation by the International Testing Agency.

According to the ITA, Oleksiak committed three whereabouts failures within a 12-month period between October 2024 and June 2025.

She has been made aware of the case and has accepted a voluntary provisional suspension pending the resolution of the matter.

She has the right to provide her explanations for each of the three whereabouts failures.

Given that the case is underway, there will be no further comments from the ITA, World Aquatics or Oleksiak during the ongoing proceedings.

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That implies that the third missed test came after Oleksiak qualified for the Canadian team at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, Oleksiak announced two weeks ago that she was withdrawing from the World Championship team and accepting a voluntary provisional suspension. Any eventual sanction would be reduced by the amount of time she was suspended under the voluntary provisional suspension.

In the post, Oleksiak asserted “I am and always have been a clean athlete” and that the case “does not involve any banned substance; it’s about whether I updated my information correctly.”

Swimming Canada echoed the sentiment and said “We support her decision and believe she is a clean athlete who made an administrative mistake.”

A Whereabouts Case is an Anti-Doping rule violation that can affect athlete eligibility even if they have never taken a banned substance. The World Anti-Doping Code defines a Whereabouts failure as any combination of three missed tests or filing failures in a 12-month period.

Athletes who are members of the “Registered Testing Pool” which is the highest tier of athlete testing, are required to report an accurate and up-to-date filing of their whereabouts at all times. This is so they can be drug tested at any time and any place with no advance notice.

According to World Aquatics, if an athlete in the testing pool submits “late, inaccurate or incomplete whereabouts that lead to (them) being unavailable for testing, (they) may receive a Filing Failure.”

&copy 2025 The Canadian Press