When Taynar Simpson became Chief of the Alderville First Nations in 2023, preserving and protecting the increasingly vulnerable Rice Lake was a top priority. And through discussions with other local leaders, he found his solution: granting the lake legal personhood status.
Rice Lake, located south of Peterborough, Ont., is a fairly shallow lake that has served as a sustaining life force for the Mississauga Anishinabeg peoples for more than 10,000 years, offering fish, waterfowl, and of course, rice.
“Black rice was our primary staple and could carry us through the year, because it has a shelf life of several years,” says Simpson. “Rice Lake was always the sustainable food source for us.”
But over the last 100 years, the lake has fallen prey to pollution, overfishing, and invasive species that have damaged its lifegiving ecosystems. “Everything seems to be out of whack,” says Simpson. “So I was looking for something to help.”
Enter legal personhood status. Though it may seem peculiar, granting the lake the legal distinction typically reserved for humans will make it easier for the Alderville First Nations to pursue wrongdoings committed against the lake under Canada’s legal systems. If successful, Rice Lake will be the second natural body in Canada to gain legal personhood status; Quebec’s Magpie River was recognized in 2021.
For Simpson, it’s a way to afford the lake extra protections in the face of inadequate existing regulations. “Those laws already on the books—conservation laws—weren’t being enforced, and the lake is slowly going into a state of decline,” he says. “I thought this could be a way to bring more teeth into preserving and protecting the lake.”
So far, Simpson and his council have passed a resolution recognizing the personhood of Rice Lake, and they are in the process of establishing a Guardians Council, which would monitor and speak on behalf of the lake. This includes representatives from “any group who has a stake in Rice Lake,” says Simpson: municipalities, townships, counties, conservation authorities, homeowners’ and cottagers’ associations, fishermen, and those who harvest off the lake in any way. The last step is to have Rice Lake’s personhood officially recognized in the municipal, federal, and provincial legislative frameworks.
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To help raise the necessary legal funds to achieve this, the Alderville First Nations held a successful fundraiser in Port Hope this September. By the end of the day, they had collected $20,000, and Metis singer and actor Tom Jackson matched the donations up to $5,000.
A portion of those funds were then used to support travel costs for Simpson to appear at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil this November, where he presented the Rice Lake initiative, alongside several other environmental projects the Alderville First Nations are working on.
On the legal side, Simpson says things are moving faster than expected. The Guardians Council will likely be established in 2026, and he estimates it will take two years to enshrine Rice Lake’s legal personhood at higher levels of government. But from an ecological standpoint, Simpson says it will take generations before the lake is restored to its former glory.
“It’s taken 100 years to bring the lake into a state of decline, and it could take that long to bring it back to where it used to be,” he says. “But it won’t be too long before cottagers start seeing positive benefits on the lake, such as more fish and cleaner water.”
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