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First Nations

Gustafsen Lake Standoff: Protesters Renew Calls For An Inquiry

By Daybreak Kamloops for CBC News - Several First Nations protesters involved in the 1995 Gustafsen Lake standoff are calling for a national inquiry into the level of force used by the RCMP during the 31-day confrontation. Protest leader William Jones Ignace, known as Wolverine, and the Ts'Peten Defence Committee submitted a letter on Jan. 4 to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, calling for an inquiry.

Hydro Site Not Done Deal; Ottawa Reviews First Nations Issues

By Mark Hume for The Globe and Mail - With work already under way on the banks where the dam is to be built, it might seem as if Site C is a done deal. Premier Christy Clark certainly hopes so. She views the start of the $9-billion project as one of her two greatest accomplishments (the other being an agreement in principle with Petronas for proposed development of an $11-billion LNG plant). But despite all the activity by contractors building access roads and clearing land for work camps, tunnels and dam foundations, BC Hydro’s Site C project could yet be brought to a halt.

Project Highlights Missing & Murdered Aboriginal Women

By Lucia Edwardson in Metro News - In 2014 there were an estimated 225 missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada, according the RCMP statistics. Jamie Black, an aboriginal artist from Winnipeg, wanted to showcase the issue in an artistic way, so five years ago she created the REDress project. Each dress is “symbolic of the violence faced by indigenous women but is also a symbol of the power of a community coming together to fight this violence,” said Black. Linda Nothing, who is helping to organize the Calgary chapter of the project that will be held Oct. 4 across the country, said they will be accepting red dress donations to create their installment, but are also asking Calgarians to show support on their own. “We encourage people to hang up a red dress outside their home, business or office, to wear a red dress on that day and also to study what is happening, why is that happening,” she said.

First Nations Teen Files Complaint Against Police After Street Check

By Jody Porter in CBC News - A teenager from Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario has filed a formal complaint against Thunder Bay police after she says she was subject to a street check that left her frightened and under threat. Cheyanne Moonias, 18, is living in Thunder Bay, Ont. to attend school at the Matawa Learning Centre. Her complaint to Ontario's civilian police oversight body, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, said that she was walking back to school after lunch on Sept. 10 around 1.p.m. when she was approached by two male officers asking for her identification. "I responded back, saying 'no, you don't have the right to ask me for i.d.'", Moonias said. "'The police officer responded back 'we could do what we want, we are the law.'" Moonias said the officers then asked if they could search her for drugs or weapons.

First Nations Women Shut Down Tar Sands Pipeline Hearing

By Sarah Lazare in Common Dreams - Chanting "No tar sands on stolen native lands," First Nations women disrupted and shut down a Montreal public hearing on the controversialEnergy East pipeline on Wednesday night, the latest in a resistance campaign against the massive project proposed by the Alberta-based TransCanada Corporation. "What we want TransCanada to understand is that no means no. This is Kanien’ke, this is Mohawk Land, and we are tired of occupation, we are tired of environmental disaster," declared Amanda Lickers, who hails from the Seneca-Haudenosaunee community, at Wednesday's hearing. "This is our land and we are going to protect it." Four Indigenous women took the stage and hoisted a banner reading, "No consent, no pipelines" as dozens of protesters cheered them on. The action successfully shut down the hearing, and while police were called, no arrests were made.

First Nations interrupt Energy East Pipeline Consultation

By Christopher Curtis in Montreal Gazette - Police were called to a downtown Montreal office building Wednesday after indigenous protesters shut down a public consultation over the Energy East pipeline. Amanda Lickers says she was accompanied by about 25 people when she entered the meeting and interrupted proceedings. “We told them that a pipeline will not pass through unceded (Mohawk) territory,” said Lickers, whose family is from Six Nations of the Grand River, in Ontario. “This project is in violation of our Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) principals and it violates a law that predates the colonial occupation of Canada.” Though there are First Nations who support the $12 billion, 4,600 kilometre pipeline, a grassroots, indigenous resistance movement is gaining momentum across Canada.

First Nations Protest Pollution In Ontario’s Chemical Valley

By Fram Dinshaw in Earth First Journal - Hundreds of climate activists marched in a ‘Toxic Tour’ through a bleak industrial landscape on the edge of Ontario that is a frontline in Canada’s climate wars. They were gathered to support the tiny Aamjiwnaang First Nation, whose traditional territory lies near an area known as “Chemical Valley” — a 15 square-mile area in Sarnia, where over 40 per cent of Canada’s chemical industry is based. Nearly 60 oil refineries and factories are crammed into an industrial strip overlooking the St. Clair River. Storage tanks and oil terminals just a stone’s throw from Aamjiwnaang lands, and the skyline dominated by familiar company logos: Enbridge, TransAlta, Cabot, Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil, among others.

Solidarity Action Held In Support Of Unist’ot’en Camp

By Staff for the Last Real Indians - On July 28th, several dozen Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists took to the streets of Seattle to hold a solidarity action in support of the Unist’ot’en Camp in B.C. Canada. Currently, eleven companies have proposed to build oil and gas pipelines through Unist’ot’en territory from the Tar Sands in Alberta. Additionally, Pacific Northern Gas (Chevron is the majority owner) has proposed to build the Pacific Trails Pipelines which would carry fracked natural gas from the Horn River Basin through Unist’ot’en territory. Activists briefly occupied the Canadian consulate in downtown Seattle and then marched, occupied and picketed Fidality Investments, a major investor in Chevron. Demonstrators were removed from Fidality’s offices by Seattle police, but continued to demonstrate blockading the entrance to Fidaility.

Northern Gateway Opposition Building Steam

By Kil Tlaats 'Gaa Peter Lantin and Caitlyn Vernon in Edmonton Journal - On the campaign trail leading up to the May 5 Alberta election, Rachel Notley acknowledged loud and clear that there is a solid wall of opposition facing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project in B.C. The new premier’s statements and the speed that Tim Hortons recently dropped its Enbridge ads in face of thousands of angry Canadians illustrates the reality that one year after the federal government approved the project, the opposition is not only strong and committed, but also growing. Rather than succeeding in clearing the way for Enbridge, the federal government sparked a chain of events that make it very unlikely the project will ever be built.

Research: How A Movement Mobilized Masses

By First Nations Drum - In 2012, the Idle No More movement (“the movement” or INM) sparked hundreds of teach-ins, rallies, and protests across Canada. What initially began as a grassroots response to impending parliamentary bills that would erode Indigenous sovereignty and environmental protections quickly became one of the largest Indigenous mass movements in Canadian history. “Though it was born largely out of protest against measures in the Conservative government’s fall 2012 omnibus budget implementation of Bill C-45, the movement was more about culture than achieving any short-term political agenda,” said Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair and Professor, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS). “Its legacy is a new confidence among aboriginal Canadians.”

Open Letter In Support Of First Nation’s Challenge To Embridge

By Various in Rabble - We stand in solidarity with Chippewas of the Thames First Nation in their legal challenge against Enbridge's Line 9 pipeline project. Last April, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation (COTTFN) filed with the Federal Court of Appeal to challenge the National Energy Board (NEB) approval of Line 9, saying that the federal Crown provided no consultation with COTTFN on the project, as is their right. Line 9 crosses through Chippewas of the Thames' traditional and treaty territory, including the Thames River which provides a source of drinking water to the First Nation. Line 9 crosses every major tributary that flows into Lake Ontario. A spill from Line 9 could threaten the drinking water of over 10 million people and devastate rivers with bitumen that cannot be cleaned up.

Mobilization To Support First Nations Battle Against Enbridge Pipeline

By Lauren McCauley in Common Dreams - In what has been described as an unprecedented grassroots mobilization, activists, environmental groups, and others concerned about the future of the Pacific coast this week are rallying to support a First Nations court battle to block the construction of the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline. "First Nations are poised to stop this in its tracks," said Caitlyn Vernon, campaigns director for Sierra Club British Columbia, in a statement Tuesday. The campaign Pull Together was launched to "show these nations are not standing alone" as they confront the infinite resources of the fossil fuel industry. The week of fundraising events, dubbed the Week to End Enbridge, is being held June 13-21 to mark one year since the Canadian government approved the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline. Not coincidentally, the weeklong events conclude on June 21, National Aboriginal Day in Canada.

Ottawa Children Honour Residential School Survivors With Art

By Waubgeshig Rice in CBC News - Students at an Ottawa public school have unveiled four large murals to honour residential school survivors and the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The four murals, called Mamawi:Together, adorn an outside wall at the entrance of Pleasant Park Public School in Ottawa's south end. Each represents a season, according to teachings from Algonquin elder Albert Dumont. "These students are now elementary students and they're going to go on to high school and university and colleges, but they're never going to forget this experience," says Dumont. "And their views and how they see First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples from now on is forever changed because of the experience they've had here with this art project."

Lubicon Lake Nation Wins Early Victory In Anti-Fracking Case

By Alberta Native News - On June 5, 2015, the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta released Justice Simpson’s decision rejecting in part the Application to Strike brought by the defendant, oil giant PennWest Petroleum Ltd.(NYSE: PWE, TSE:PWT), who is being sued by the Lubicon Lake Nation, as represented by Chief Bernard Ominayak and the Lubicon Council in Ominayak v Penn West Petroleum Ltd. In March 2015, the parties had appeared before Justice Simpson in Peace River, AB, where PennWest argued that the entire action should be struck because it amounted to an abuse of process, pleading that the action was duplicative of a proceeding brought against Alberta and Canada and that the action constituted a collateral attack on the oil company’s authorizations.

Indigenous Name Change Considered For Fort George Park

By Charelle Evelyn in Prince George Citizen - Fort George Park may get a new moniker if city council backs a recommendation to rename it in honour of the local First Nation. Coun. Murry Krause has suggested changing the name to Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park as a step towards acknowledging "historic wrongs that have profoundly impacted generations of the Lheidli T'enneh people." Before it was a city space, Fort George Park was part of a Lheidli T'enneh village that was destroyed in 1913. A cemetery is all that remains of the settlement that was burned down to forcibly remove people from their homes. In a report to council, Krause - who chairs the Union of B.C. Municipalities' First Nations relations committee - said the city's centennial celebrations provide a strong opportunity for Prince George to "strengthen its relationship with the Lheidli T'enneh through meaningful acts of reconciliation."
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