Should vehicles be allowed on Ipperwash Beach? Indigenous group and property owners square off – CBC
Aug 30, 2024
Long-held conflict centres on issues of ownership, access along stretch of Lake Huron shoreline in Ontario
To be at the water’s edge and gaze along the length of West Ipperwash beach in southwestern Ontario is to put yourself inside a postcard.
Waves break over long stretches of white sand and vistas of deep blue water stretch uninterrupted to the horizon. On sweltering days when the temperature tips toward 30 C, there’s a constant and refreshing breeze.
“Ipperwash Beach is a beautiful thing,” said Jason Henry, a community member and former chief of the Chippewas of Kettle & Stony Point First Nation. “The sand, the lake, the water is so beautiful. That’s why people have been coming here and coming back for years. It’s paradise.”
But last weekend, there was trouble — again — at this idyllic beach between Sarnia and Grand Bend that’s on traditional Indigenous land and adjacent to the First Nation.
