Ohsweken, ON – In the interest of being transparent the Six Nations Elected Council would like to address the upcoming Alcohol Referendum scheduled for January 17th, 2015.
A key priority for the current Six Nations Elected Council is to engage community members in open discussions and allow all of our citizens to voice their opinions and concerns on issues. At this point in time there are no Six Nations regulations that would either prohibit or permit the manufacture or consumption of alcohol. Six Nations members currently utilize and operate under the provincial alcohol laws for their fundraising events on Six Nations. Therefore, in November 2014 the Six Nations Elected Council decided to hold a referendum on alcohol to determine if the community wants to implement our own Six Nations Alcohol Regulations.
The purpose of having the upcoming Alcohol Referendum is to allow the community to decide whether or not Six Nations should develop an Alcohol Regulation or continue to operate under the provincial alcohol laws. The referendum will also allow community members to decide whether they would like a regulation that either restricts or allows certain activities related to Alcohol. This decision will be made by the community.
New information was recently discovered by the current Six Nations Elected Council regarding a motion that was passed twenty six years ago, on May 3, 1988. The motion states:
Moved by Lewis Staats and seconded by Kenneth Hill, that this Council acknowledges the petition put forth on May 3, 1988, by the people of the Community, that liquor not be sold on the Six Nations of the Grand River Indian Reserve and that the Six Nations Council concur with the wishes of the Community that the question of the sale of liquor not be put forth again.
Despite this resolution being passed in 1988, there have been subsequent requests from community members and motions that contradict this resolution. Therefore, “The 56th Six Nations Elected Council has decided to continue with the Alcohol Referendum in order to allow the community a chance to provide direction on the alcohol issue,” said Chief Ava Hill. “The Alcohol Referendum scheduled for January 17th will take place as scheduled so that all community members may have an equal chance to decide Six Nations’ future.”