Cambridge dismisses request to support putting ashes in Grand

City council won’t facilitate talks between Hindu, Indigenous groups

Cambridge council dismissed a request to set up a meeting for the local Hindu community to discuss the issue of scattering ashes into the Grand River with Indigenous communities.

Prakash Venkataraman has tried to obtain consent to scatter cremated human remains in the Grand River from various levels of government for nearly two years, and his efforts have led him nowhere.

“All levels of government claim it is not in their jurisdiction when it comes to Grand River,” Venkataraman told council during a meeting Tuesday night.

There is no law against scattering funeral ashes into the Grand River, but Venkataraman’s wish to obtain consent to legitimize the act of scattering ashes into the river has only created confusion because no one can grant this permission.

On Tuesday, Venkataraman said he understood the city could not heed his request. He instead asked for council’s support in setting up a formal meeting between the Hindu and Indigenous communities to discuss the issue of scattering ashes into the river, and to obtain consent. He also asked for council to support his ask if Indigenous communities had no objection.

“In my humble opinion … if it is not in your jurisdiction to say yes, it should not be in your jurisdiction to say no either,” he said.

Coun. Nicholas Ermeta put an amendment on the floor to ask city staff to reach out to Indigenous communities for a meeting about scattering ashes in the Grand River.

“I think it would be good to explore this further and it would be good to have some kind of a formal consultation with the reserve, the band council, the chief,” he said.

No other council member seconded his motion and it failed. Council instead voted to receive staff’s report on the issue.

The province allows the scattering of ashes on Crown land, and land covered with water, such as provincial parks and lakes as long as the land is unoccupied and there are no signs that prohibit scattering.

In many religions, such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism, the cremated remains of a loved one are scattered in bodies of water and the rite of passage involves a religious ceremony. Venkataraman said the local Hindu community has to travel far to scatter the cremated remains of a loved one, and they would like a local option for this rite of passage.

The city’s staff report said it reached out to a number of federal and provincial ministries, as well as the Grand River Conservation Authority. The report did not mention Six Nations of the Grand River or the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council, whose members paddled the Grand River last year to assess the river’s health.

“Almost all respondents referred to existing regulations which permits scattering of cremated human remains on land, in specific locations in water and does not include the Grand River. No option was presented that would provide an application to permit this activity to take place in the Grand River,” the report noted.

“I do have to say that this would be, having a local option, would mean a lot to a lot of my constituents,” Ermeta said of Venkataraman’s wish to have a local site to scatter ashes.

Mayor Kathryn McGarry said there are five provincial parks in the Greater Toronto Area that allow scattering cremated remains in bodies of water, and they are not far from Cambridge.

“Just noting some of the correspondence that we have that do not wish this, including the letter from the Mohawk Nation of Grand River Country,” McGarry said.

Staff noted in its report that a letter was received from the Office of Secretary General for the Mohawk Nation of Grand River Country last year, stating that they do not support the use of the Grand River to scatter cremated human remains.

In another letter to council, a Mohawk woman told council that the river is sacred to her community, and “that the scattering of ashes in the Grand River not be permitted without the free prior and informed consent of the Six Nations people.”

Mohawk nation is one of the six nations that are part of the Six Nations of the Grand River. The other nations are Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga and Tuscarora.

Venkataraman said Cambridge’s Hindu community will continue to advocate for a site along the Grand River where people can scatter the remains of their loved ones.