Monthly Archives: March 2010
Six women sit in at Indian Affairs Minister’s Office: Pledge to Stay Until Conservatives Restore Funding to Aboriginal Healing Foundation
This report was written by Members of Missing Justice and appeared on the The Media Co-Op, a project of The Dominion News Cooperative.
Six women sit in at Indian Affairs Minister’s office: pledge to stay until Conservatives restore funding to Aboriginal Healing Foundation
OTTAWA – Today at noon six women began a peaceful sit-in in the Minister of Indian Affairs’ Chuck Strahl’s Ottawa office in the Confederation Building to protest the Conservatives’ cuts to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) and to demand restoration of the funding. Supporters are holding a rally outside. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a non-profit, Aboriginal-managed agency which supports community-based healing efforts addressing the intergenerational legacy of abuses from the residential school system.
“It’s been less than two years since Prime Minister Harper’s apology to survivors of the residential schools, yet the Conservative government is ready to shut down programs specifically aimed at helping the healing the Prime Minister spoke about,” says Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, a member of Missing Justice, a Montreal-based grassroots organization.
The Conservative budget did not renew funding to the 134 AHF-supported healing projects across the country, forcing many organizations to shut down as of March 31, 2010, when the cuts take effect.
“Strahl says the government will support residential school survivors in other ways, but these cuts will jeopardize many vital programs and interrupt all the progress being made towards health and well-being,” says Nakuset, the Executive Director of the Native Women’s Shelter in Montreal, which will lose a third of its funding and be forced to cut three employes, including a sexual assault counselor.
From Queen Charlotte to Haida Gwaii: The Ascent of the Haida and the Struggle with Canada
Martin Lukacs of The Dominion News Cooperative reviews Ian Gill’s book All that We Say is Ours: Guujaaw and the Reawakening of the Haida Nation.
MONTREAL—Metaphors greet you everywhere in Haida Gwaii. Visiting the storied archipelago cradled by northwest British Columbia last summer, I walked into the office housing the Haida’s renewable energy project—a bold plan to build Canada’s first offshore wind farm. The Haida aim to install more than a hundred 50-metre turbines on their coastline, in partnership with the province and a private energy company. At a price tag of $2 billion, of which the Haida would cover $240 million, it is projected to power 130,000 homes on Haida Gwaii and throughout BC. Despite criticism about the costs and the technological uncertainties of gigantic turbines, the Indigenous nation’s leadership has forged ahead confidently.
As I sat down to peruse some pamphlets, I was disturbed by a screeching noise. The secretary insisted it was construction outside. But as I looked around the office, I located its real source: a replica wind-turbine, barely a half-metre in height, was grinding and whining on its gears, struggling to achieve its purpose as window decoration.
Fanciful towers, a floundering toy—the irony of the episode was inescapable, and a poignant reminder of the tension between the Haida nation’s enormous ambitions and the mundane obstacles they must still overcome. The obstacles are those faced by Indigenous communities across this country: poverty and economic dependency, cultural and linguistic dislocation, low education rates and poor health—the constellation of problems spawned by decades of dispossession and debilitating government policies. The Haida, however, have refused to be hindered as they unwind the past and remake their future, a story well told in Ian Gill’s recently published All That We Say is Ours. Read the rest of this entry
Indigenous People Bar Proposed Pipeline from their Territories
This first appeared on Intercontinental Cry.
A coalition of Indigenous Nations have issued a declaration barring the proposed Enbridge Northern gateway pipeline from transporting crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands through their territories along Canada’s west Coast.
The coalition of nine First Nations say the project, regardless of any economic benefits it may hold, poses an imminent threat to the environment, as well as their territories, cultures and livelihoods.
The Enbridge pipeline–stretching 1,170 kilometres to a deepsea port in Kitimat, B.C–would be stapled to a number of indigenous territories and and cross more than 1,000 rivers and streams before reaching through the delicate ecosystems of the west coast, including the Great Bear Rainforest.
“We all believe the Enbridge Gateway pipeline project is a threat to the very existence of our culture and our way of life,” says Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations.
Speaking about the Great Bear Rainforest, he states, “An oil spill there would be devastating to the environment… It would literally wipe out all of our cultures. And we know it is not a question of if, but when there would be an oil spill.”
A backgrounder by the Coastal First Nations explains that Enbridge recorded 67 spills from its pipelines in 2006 and 65 spills in 2007. Indeed, oil spills are far more common than the public has been led to believe.
In addition to the pipeline, more than 150 supertankers–roughly one every two days–would traverse the coastal waters to pick up the crude oil and export it to various countries.
The Supertankers are being compared to the infamous Exxon Valdez Supertanker, which spilled 40 million litres of crude oil into Prince William Sound 21 years ago. Each of the BC supertankers would hold about 300 million litres. Read the rest of this entry
A Response to Gary McHale’s March 22nd Smears Against Tom Keefer
This appeared on Solidarity with Six Nations.
Editorial Note: Gary McHale recently released a post on his forum discussion board as part of a smear campaign against FNSWG member Tom Keefer. Keefer replied to McHale’s attacks on the forum, but McHale swiftly deleted the post and banned Keefer from his forum. Since McHale won’t allow free and open discussion of the issues on his site, we are posting Mr. Keefer’s since deleted response to McHale below.
http://www.marchforfreedom.com/smf/index.php?topic=587.0
From Tom Keefer: As Gary has launched into his usual smear-a-thon antics against anyone who opposes him, I’m posting the response I sent out a few hours after Gary sent out his message above. For the record:
“Dear Minister Bartolucci, Commissioner Fantino, and Inspector Periversoff,
It would appear that Gary McHale is up to his usual tricks of trying to smear anyone who he doesn’t agree with. And it appears that I’m next on the block so to speak. I have attached the full documents from which McHale has selectively quoted so that you can see the full context of my writings and be able to judge for yourself the accuracy of his claims. Despite his insinuations to the contrary, I have no “history of violence” and nor do I have a criminal record.
It is true that I am on the left wing of the political spectrum, but when our non-native group of about 60 activists came to the anti-racist rally in Caledonia on March 21st, we broke no laws and acted completely peacefully in a spirit of constructive debate and exchange. From my analysis of the situation, Mr. McHale’s issue appeared to be that his flock of supporters were engaging in discussion with the anti-racists from our group and that they were getting another take on the whole affair. This loss of control would appear to explain his increasingly hysterical denunciations of me. Read the rest of this entry
Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid
From The Media Co-Op, a project of The Dominion News Cooperative:
Yves Engler spoke in Vancouver about his new book “Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid” From yvesengler.com This book is the first critical primer about Canada’s ties to Israel. It is a devastating account of Canadian complicity in 20th and 21st century colonialism, dispossession and war crimes. The book documents the history of Canadian Christian Zionism, Lester Pearson?s important role in the United Nations negotiations to create a Jewish state on Palestinian land, the millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations used to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ties to Israel?s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations (Mossad).
I myself had the pleasure of seeing Engler speak about his new book and this topic on March 6th here in Kitchener-Waterloo as part of the week’s Israeli Apartheid Week events. This is a topic that is simply not discussed enough, even here in Canada, so spread this video around to as many people as you can, and pick up a copy of Engler’s book.
Anti-Racism Rally in Caledonia, Sunday March 28th
Dear friends,
Anti-native activist Gary McHale has recently had his bail conditions altered to allow him to enter Caledonia, where he has organized numerous protests directed against the Six Nations reclamation. Last week, on March 21 (the International Day for the Elimination of Racism) over 60 non-native anti-racist activists mobilized on short notice to show up un-announced to McHale’s most recent “anti-racist” protest aimed at denouncing the OPP for not having arrested enough Six Nations land defenders. After standing alongside the road with signs saying “Anti-Racism = Anti-Colonialism”, “McHale is not an Anti-Racist”, “Negotiations Yes, Injunctions No!” the anti-racist activists began their rally alongside the nearly 100 people that came out McHale’s anti-native “anti-racist” rally.
Anti-racist speakers drew out the connections between anti-racist struggles and anti-colonial movements over their sound system and mingled with local residents that were there for McHale’s rally. Visibly worried that the speeches of the anti-racists and the intermingling of the crowds might be loosening his ideological grip on his followers, McHale abruptly canceled his planned rally and rushed his supporters back in their cars before they could be “contaminated” by the speeches coming over the anti-racist sound system. For further details please see http://6nsolidarity.wordpress.com/
The attendance of large numbers of anti-racist activists standing in solidarity with Indigenous rights was successful in creating dialogue with Caledonia residents and in showing the mainstream media that McHale does not speak for all non-natives. McHale is now planning to organize another rally on March 28 in Caledonia at 2pm. We call on all anti-racist activists and supporters of indigenous struggles to come to Caledonia to join us in building an anti-racist dialogue to help resolve the issue of Six Nations land rights, to peacefully show with our presence that Gary McHale does not speak for all non-natives, and to underline the fact McHale’s political program and political activities are most certainly not “anti-racist”.
Please join us again this Sunday, April 28th, outside of the Caledonia Lions Hall at 100 Haddington St, Caledonia where we will begin our protest at 1pm sharp.
For more information about the CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group please check out http://3903fnswg.wordpress.com/ Read the rest of this entry
Kris Kristofferson – Johnny Lobo
This song is about the life of John Trudell, the former national Chairman of the American Indian Movement. In 1979 his mother-in-law, pregnant wife Tina Manning and three children were locked inside their house during an arson attack on it on the Duck Valley Reservation in northern Nevada on 12 February. The attack took place less than 12 hours after John had delivered a speech in front of FBI headquarters during which he burned a United States flag.
Protecting the Home of Treaty Education: First Nations University of Canada Live-In
Students, staff and faculty to occupy First Nations University of Canada starting March 23, 2010.
By Alley Katz. This story appeared on the The Media Co-Op, a project of The Dominion News Coorperative.
The Student’s Association of the First Nations University of Canada have announced that they are calling for a Live-In at the First Nations University of Canada campus. Students, staff and faculty at the Regina and the Prince Albert campuses will move in to the First Nations University of Canada (FNUIC) commencing the afternoon of March 23, 2010. The announcement was made during a rally held March 22, 2010 on the steps of the Saskatchewan Legislatative Building.
The Student Association and their supporters insist that the federal government restore the $7 million in annual funding that it contributes to the institution, and they are also calling for the provincial government to restore its $5 million in annual funding. Both levels of government have stated that FNUIC university funding, which runs out March 31 2010, will not be restored due to concerns with past governance and financial management of the university. Incredibly, while the Saskatchewan Minister for Education, Rob Norris, was attending a summit in Saskatoon on March 22 titled “Strengthening Capacity and Creating Opportunity: A Summit on the Future of Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education in Saskatchewan”; a discussion of FNUIC was absent from the summit’s agenda. Evidentially crown Ministers like Rob Norris and Chuck Strahl, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, are unable to connect the dots on this one.
The Speakers at the rally noted that the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has established a First Nations University of Canada’s Transitional Board of Governors that will work in partnership with the University of Regina (UofR) within a shared management model to address governance concerns. This step goes beyond any that have been called for in the numerous reviews that have been completed on the Governance structure of FNUIC. Further, speaker after speaker compared the relatively small amounts of money that is suspected of being mismanaged at FNUIC to the financial management of the current conservative governments of Saskatchewan and Canada which have both inherited budget surpluses when assuming power and have, in a short period of time, turned these into multi-billion dollar deficits. Read the rest of this entry
Aboriginal Elders Hold Pope Responsible for Residential School Abuse
By Hidden from History http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ Published at Censored News http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ Breaking News:
ROME ( Thursday, March 25, 2010) Aboriginal elders from Canada will offer prayers for their friends and relatives who died or were killed in Catholic Indian residential schools, at the institution in Rome responsible for their death. And they will name Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, as the one ultimately responsible.
Lillian Shirt of the Cree Nation and Charles Cook of the Anishinabe-Ojibway Nation will gather with Rev. Kevin Annett and other members of The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) and Italian supporters at a memorial service outside the Vatican in St. Peter’s Square on Easter morning, Sunday April 4 at 11 am.
Both of the native elders survived incarceration in Catholic Indian schools in Canada, and witnessed the deaths of other students.
“Like Jesus, thousands of innocent children were crucified by religious fanatics in the Christian residential schools. We will help to resurrect them this Easter by naming what killed them, and holding their murderers responsible” stated the FRD delegation today.
“Pope Benedict is personally responsible for aiding and abetting pedophile priests, so this is not a crime that he can sweep under the rug or blame on others” stated delegation member Rev. Kevin Annett.
“As we asked the Pope in an unanswered letter two years ago, we want to know where his church buried the children who died at their hands, and have their remains surrendered for a proper burial. The buck stops with Joseph Ratzinger.” Read the rest of this entry
Open Letter to Taseko Mines Limited: Destruction of Fish Lake in Tsilqot’in Territory by Arthur Topham
[Author’s Note: The following letter was sent to the Editor of the Quesnel Cariboo Observer by myself after reading the front page article in their March 18, 2010 edition headed: “Public support key to mine project’s success.” (See article below as well)
The story covered an “appeal” given to the Quesnel Chamber of Commerce by Taseko Mines Limited vice president Brian Battison concerning Taseko’s controversial “Prosperity” copper-gold mine slated for development in what is known as Tsilqot’in Traditional territory, aka the Chilcotin area of B.C. located south west of Williams Lake, B.C.
The one major monkey wrench which Taseko Mines attempts to downplay while waxing eloquent to Quesnel Chamber of Commerce members about money and jobs and progress is the blatant fact that in order to build their mine they would have to destroy a lake (Fish Lake, also known as Tetzan Biny in the native tongue), held sacred by the indigenous residents in an area of B.C. still as yet unceded to the federal or provincial governments in any title settlement.
The letter, to date, has not been published by the Observer and considering its length may not appear in full should it actually be published. As such I decided to make it an Open Letter to Taseko Mines Limited so that the general public would have online access to its contents.
Interested and concerned supporters of the Tsilqot’in people are asked to pass it along to their friends and associates.] Read the rest of this entry
First Nations Given Tainted Bison Meat
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation
Tel: (780) 697-3730
Toll-free: 1-888-420-7011
Fax: (780) 697-3500
FIRST NATIONS OFFERED TAINTED BISON MEAT WITH LEAD AT LEVELS ABOVE WHAT IS SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION
First Nations have been given and offered tainted bison meat from a nearby Industry developer. The communities of Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan were given and offered Free Bison Meat, only to have the bison meat recalled for lead levels above what is considered safe for human consumption. They claim that the poisonous meat came from one animal and The Fort McKay First Nation, Health Canada, Alberta Health and Alberta Agricultural are suggesting that the rest of the meat is safe. Yet as a precautionary measure, Dr. Brent Friesen, Medical Officer of Health, Alberta Health Services, Fort McMurray, and Dr. Simon Sihota, Regional Environmental Public Health Manager, Health Protection Directorate, First Nation and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada, Edmonton, advise that any ground meat from the Dec 2009 harvest should be collected and sent for analysis for lead content.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is now asking how this could happen. Why is our First Nation offered free bison meat that turns out to be unsafe for consumption? “Generating contaminated meat and offering it to the First Nations people is a cruel act of total disrespect to the dignity of the people of Fort Chipewyan” Chief Adam said. This contamination casts a dark cloud upon the claims that the oil sands companies are able to safely reclaim lands destroyed by oil sands mining. This contamination comes after the discovery of heightened rare cancer rates in a 2009 report released by the Alberta Cancer Board and a report released by Dr. Schindler2009 showing Athabasca River contamination is improperly measured. Read the rest of this entry
Redtop Road Blockade – Babine Lake, B.C.
Two-person logging road blockade in Wet’suwet’en territory near Smithers, BC. The last stand of intact forest of their traditional territory is in question, following 10 years of Indigenous opposition and government inaction. Featuring: Richard Sam Produced by: Amy Miller & Rémy Huberdeau
Bolivia: General Who Captured Che Guevara Questioned in Destablization Plot
From World War 4 Report.
The retired general who captured legendary guerilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara in 1967 was summoned March 19 by Bolivian authorities for questioning in an alleged plot against President Evo Morales. Ex-Gen.Gary Prado Salmón allegedly exchanged “ultrasecret” encrypted e-mail with Eduardo Rozsa Flores, a Bolivian-born Hungarian who was killed in an April 2009 raid by an elite police unit in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. Authorities maintain that Rozsa and two others killed in the raid—an Irishman and an ethnic Hungarian from Romania—were involved in a conspiracy to create a separatist right-wing militia in the eastern Santa Cruz region. Morales said after the raid that a plot to assassinate him had been foiled.
Prado denied any link to an anti-government conspiracy, and said he would refuse to travel from his home in Santa Cruz to La Paz for questioning. He told Fides Radio that his only contact with Rosza came when he asked Prado for an interview, saying he was a foreign journalist. “What ‘ultrasecret’ communication did I have with Rosza, other than that interview? None,” Prado said. “I did not have anything to do with that group.”
Also summoned was Prado’s son, Gary Prado Araúz, who is running for mayor of Santa Cruz. He said the allegations were worse than a “bad soap opera,” and pledged: “They will have to take me by force, because I won’t go willingly.” Santa Cruz rancher Svonko Matkovic Rivera was also detained for questioning in the case. Prosecutors say his “Z” ranch served as a staging ground for the conspiracy. Matkovic also denies any link to Rosza. (AP, Diariocrítica de Bolivia, March 19; El Dia, Santa Cruz, March 9)
On March 17, former Santa Cruz opposition leader Branko Marinkovic‘s longtime personal assistant Juan Judelka confirmed that Marinkovic was financing Rozsa’s “La Torre” group that is accused of masterminding the conspiracy. Judelka declared under oath before a prosecutor in La Paz that Marinkovic had on several occasions given him money in closed envelopes to deliver to Rozsa. Judelka said, “If I did not testify earlier it was because of pressure by Mr. Marinkovic’s lawyer.” He said that Rozsa went by the code-name “Germán.” The government accuses Santa Cruz opposition leaders of diverting some of the $40 million they collected to finance the regional autonomy campaign into hiring foreign mercenaries in the destabilizaiton effort. (Bolivia Weekly, March 18)
Two-Spirit People: Gender and Sexual Variability in Native North America
This paper was recently written by myself as part of one of my anthropological undergraduate courses on Culture and Sexuality. I had been intending to write an article on Two-Spirit people, both historically and currently, for about a month now, but I decided to hold off on it as I thought I would be better served in just putting all my effort into writing this paper, which I decided to later re-post here.
The paper is a basic overview of the history of Two-Spirit people. It examines the role of the cultural construction of gender, and how this process differed in traditional Native America from how it played out in Euro-American culture, as well as the history of contact between European civilization and the practice of Two-Spirit. It also covers the effects of colonization on Two-Spirit people and the traditional acceptance of them by Native cultures. In this way it looks at both the attempts to stamp out the practice by the colonial society, and the effects of cultural colonization on indigenous people, including the rise of homophobia in our societies. Finally, the paper looks at the rise of the contemporary Two-Spirit movement, which is an outgrowth of the Native gay, lesbian and bisexual community, and was later adopted by many Native trans people.
Because of the space constraints (I was only given a limit of 10 pages) this paper is only a very basic introduction to the topic, and it hardly touches at all on current debates in Native communities about the appropriateness of modern LGB Indians calling themselves Two-Spirit.
With all of that said, I hope this article helps contribute to educating our people about our traditions, and just what exactly we have lost, other than land, through the ongoing process of colonization. Read the rest of this entry
