By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Thunder Bay Source THUNDER BAY — Ontario’s Indigenous affairs minister was condescending and racist in the way he handled questions from the province’s only First Nations MPP last week, according to Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. The grand chief is “very right” in that assessment, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa said Wednesday in an interview with Newswatch. Mamakwa, a Kingfisher Lake First Nation member, said Greg Rickford’s response to questions in a budget estimates meeting at Queen’s Park was “really patronizing, very demeaning.” Rickford’s answers had a “colonial” tone and were “also undermining my political authority as a First Nations MPP speaking on treaty rights,” Mamakwa said. “It can be interpreted by many, especially the First Nations community, as reflecting a systemic…
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