Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Dec. 10.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
On the wall of Sol Mamakwa’s office at the Ontario legislature hangs a picture painted by his late wife, Pearl.
It depicts a brown hand coming down from the sky, lightly touching one of five green and orange tents that sit on top of a hill with a small round window inside.
He doesn’t know exactly what it means. He’ll never know.
“I think it’s her hand down. Whether it’s the creator or her,” said Mr. Mamakwa, standing beside a table where he performs his smudging ritual, which he likens to a prayer.
“This is probably me, my kids. My poor kids,” he said, gesturing to the five tents. “One day she handed me that. I already had it here when she passed away.”
Mr. Mamakwa, a New Democrat who has represented the northern Ontario riding of Kiiwetinoong since 2018, has spent months trying to reckon with the grief of abruptly losing his wife in June.
Mr. Mamakwa shows a painting hanging in his office, painted by his late wife Pearl.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
The only MPP who hails from a First Nation, he took a step a back from his public presence as one of the Ford government’s fiercest critics on Indigenous rights. He returned to the legislature only two days a week this fall.
And at 54, he’s had to learn how to live a life alone, after spending four decades with the same person. He met Pearl when he was 15. She was 14. They had four children together, seven grandchildren.
He’s experienced loss before. But not like this.
“I lost my dad, yeah. I lost my brother, yeah. But this one’s the toughest of all,” he said.
Pearl’s death came suddenly. She was experiencing pain in her lower back, and visited the emergency room twice in the span of two days. On the second visit, after some blood work, it was discovered she had an infection. She was admitted to overflow bed No. 8 at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre. Her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died that same day − June 21. Mr. Mamakwa said a coroner determined that she had a heart condition, as well as fluid in her lungs and severe dehydration.
Mr. Mamakwa shows a photo hanging in his office of the day he was first sworn in as an MPP.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Pearl was a private person. Proud of her ancestry. In a photo hanging by the door to Mr. Mamakwa’s office, she stands behind her husband, alongside one of their daughters and a grandson, as he is sworn into the legislature for the first time.
“It was kind of surreal,” Mr. Mamakwa said of that moment in 2018. “It was so unbelievable. Because, like, I’m not supposed to win.”
She supported his entry into politics, and took on the heavy lifting of raising their children. “I would never be here without her,” he said.
Growing up in Bearskin Lake First Nation and Muskrat Dam First Nation, she cared about the language, about identity. The two met in Grade 11 at high school in Sioux Lookout, after Mr. Mamakwa had spent two years at Stirland Lake Indian Residential School. There, he was forbidden from speaking his Oji-Cree language. He recalls others were punished by being beaten with a strap.
They married young, had children. They were different, but it worked. “She didn’t smoke. She didn’t drink. I smoke. I drink,” Mr. Mamakwa said.
“We always talked that I would be the first to go.”
Mr. Mamakwa, at 54, has had to learn how to live life alone after spending four decades with the same person.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Mamakwa is speaking out about Pearl’s death, he says, as a form of healing, and as a message to others that “it’s okay not to be okay.”
In early December, he rose in the legislature to speak about his wife publicly for the first time.
“It doesn’t matter which party you belong to, where you are from or the colour of your skin. We are all people, all the same. No one escapes life’s tragedies,” he said in the chamber.
After her death, he heard from numerous colleagues, many of them from across the aisle. He received texts from federal Liberal ministers and from Progressive Conservatives, including Energy and Mines Minister Stephen Lecce, who said Mr. Mamakwa showed him “amazing compassion” when he lost his mother to cancer in 2019.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew called. So did Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“He talked about how, you know, as MPPs, we are families. We are a family. I know we may be a messed up family,” Mr. Mamakwa, with a laugh, said Mr. Ford told him.
Mr. Mamakwa pauses by the painting hanging in his office.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
When Pearl died, the legislature had just wrapped up a raucous session. The government passed Bill 5, which includes sweeping powers to speed up the construction of new mines and other development, including in the Ring of Fire region in northern Ontario.
Mr. Mamakwa and some First Nations leaders have been outspoken in their criticism of the new law.
“We’re fighting for rights, whether it’s inherent rights, treaty rights, land rights, and then the proper consultation that’s not happening,” he said.
“Without the land, it’s almost like, who are we?”
First Nations, environmental groups denounce passing of Bill 5 in Ontario
Mr. Mamakwa has been unafraid to challenge the Premier, including in June, days before Pearl died. He called Mr. Ford racist after the Premier said First Nations cannot keep coming “hat in hand” to the government. Mr. Ford apologized but Mr. Mamakwa said he was later bombarded with hateful messages, including a vulgar voicemail telling him to leave Canada. He seriously considered hiring private security.
With the legislature now on an extended break until March, Mr. Mamakwa plans to return to Queen’s Park full-time this year.
He’s trying not to dwell on what ifs or regrets. He feels there is a greater purpose to his life − even if he doesn’t know it yet.
“I don’t know what the creator’s plan for me is. I don’t know what the ancestors’ plan for me is. I don’t know what the people’s plan for me is, but I will trust them. Whatever happened to Pearl, I will trust that,” he said.
“I’m here for a reason, no matter how hard it is.”
Pearl Mamakwa.Willow Fiddler