Burleigh Falls

Burleigh Falls is both a geological feature and a small community in Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada. The falls form the boundary between the municipality of North Kawartha to the north and the municipality of Selwyn to the south.

The falls (more accurately described as a chute or cascade,^[1] since the drop in water level is more horizontal than vertical) are created by a narrowing in the flow of water between Lovesick Lake and Lower Buckhorn Lake on the west and Stoney Lake to the east.^[2] At one time the landform was known as the "Burleigh chute".^[3]

Around 1910-1926, five Indigenous Mississaugas families who had been evicted from their home reserves under Canada's notorious "enfranchisement" policy settled on Island 31 at Burleigh Falls. Jack Jacobs was the first to build his home and settle permanently on Island 31, where his leadership had inspired other families from the home reserve to follow. In 1912, Jack Jacobs was evicted from his home by the government of Canada to make room for the construction of the dam and Lock 28 of the Trent-Severn Waterway. They settled on the shores of Lovesick Lake and their community became known as the "Burleigh Falls Indians". Today the community is known as Kawartha Nishnawbe and numbers approximately 1,200 members. In 2002 the Ontario Court of Justice ruled that the people of Kawartha Nishnawbe are a distinct Mississauga First Nation community, based at Burleigh Falls, and that they hold constitutionally protected Treaty rights.^{[citation needed]} Inexplicably, the government of Canada still refuses to recognize Kawartha Nishnawbe as an Indigenous community and refuses to provide any services to the community or to engage in consultations with them when approving projects which threaten their Treaty rights, as required by Canadian law. Despite the 2002 decision recognizing their Treaty rights, the Government of Canada today refuses to even acknowledge that the people of Kawartha Nishnawbe hold Treaty rights.^{[citation needed]}