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Rice Lake in southeastern Ontario was once a boggy marsh rich in wild rice harvested by Indigenous peoples, but it is now at the centre of a controversial initiative to grant it "legal personhood."

Spearheaded by Alderville First Nation Chief Taynar Simpson, the effort would grant the lake rights akin to a human entity, complete with guardians to "speak" on its behalf and the ability to sue — or be sued.

Proponents of the initiative frame it as essential stewardship, citing pollution, overfishing, and invasive species degrading the waterway. Chief Simpson admitted that the initiative would be “expensive” and was recently in Belém, Brazil, as an official Canadian delegate at the United Nations’ hypocritical climate conference to promote the resolution.

Notably, a benefit concert held in the neighbouring town of Port Hope (despite having no jurisdiction over Rice Lake) raised more than $20,000 to support what Simpson himself acknowledged would be an “expensive” process.

Expensive for whom, exactly, and who ultimately profits?

Questions about that persist, with transparency and potential self-interest at play. As fate would have it, Simpson is not only chief at a band office, but also the founder and president of Wampum Records, Canada's leading Indigenous consulting firm specializing in policy research, government contracts, and Indigenous relations.

The firm just so happens to be perfectly positioned for advisory roles in governance, enforcement, and compliance under this new framework, potentially standing to benefit from lucrative opportunities the initiative would create.

When pressed on these points, from taxpayer funding for Simpson’s UN jaunt, ‘guardian council’ selection, enforcement mechanisms apart from ones that already exist, impacts on local property owners, businesses, and recreational users, and any involvement of his consultancy firm, Simpson offered no direct answers. Instead, he labelled inquiries "misinformation" and racist tropes, offering deflection instead of substance.

Meanwhile, Rice Lake itself was fundamentally reshaped by human intervention nearly two centuries ago, with the construction of the Hastings Dam as part of the Trent–Severn Waterway around 1838.

The result was a rise in water levels of nearly two metres, flooding wild rice beds and transforming the lake from a shallow marsh into a deeper, recreation-focused hub for boating and fishing.

Existing environmental laws, regulations, and treaty rights already provide protections for the lake and surrounding area, which raises doubts about whether ‘personhood’ adds meaningful safeguards or merely another layer of bureaucratic theatre.

The initiative was ultimately inspired by Quebec's Magpie River, which was granted personhood in 2021 to block hydroelectric development. It would mark a potential second of its kind in Canada, though there is no imminent threat of development at this location – hinting at the real beneficiary not being the lake, but rather the consultant capitalizing on an expensive and unnecessary process.

Locals deserve clarity: Is this genuine environmental protection, or a pathway to profit with little accountability?