Emily Whetung-MacInnes

Emily grew up in Curve Lake First Nation and left long enough to pursue higher education at Trent University and Osgoode Hall Law School. She married a Mohawk from Wahta and convinced him to build a life on the Chemong side of Curve Lake. She practiced Real Estate Law in Peterborough for a decade while she started to work on the next generation of Whetungs, raising two lovely little boys.

Elected as Chief of Curve Lake in 2019, Emily is passionate about the rights of First Nations people, ensuring her community has every opportunity to thrive and protecting the environment for all future generations, protection of Treaty Rights, finding ways to ensure economic advancements occur in sustainable manners, and building healthy relationships between First Nations and Canadians.

Having picked up on 40 years of advocating for access to clean drinking water for Curve Lake, Emily was one of the representative plaintiffs who settled a national class action with the Government of Canada, providing for 8 billion dollars to end long term water advisories on First Nations across Canada before 2030.

Emily has recently started an independent consulting firm to continue to build relationships between First Nations and project proponents. She continues to sit at the Anishinabek Nation Leadership Council, serves as the vice-chair to the Indigenous Advisory Council for Small Modular (Nuclear) Reactor Action Plan, is a member of the SMR Review Board with OPG, and is providing Senior Advisory services to the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries. She continues to use her expertise and knowledge to ensure that the voices of Indigenous people are heard and respected.