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Veterans Today » Law, Criminality, and Assaults on Indigenous Peoples

This is the introduction to a much longer article. Please click the link below to read the full article on Veterans Today.

Some of the things discussed here are shocking, disturbing and triggering. So **Trigger Warning** do not click through if you are having traumatic reactions (ptsd etc) especially due to sexual violence, or the generational effects of genocide.

Unfortunately, it seems to only serve the perpetrators to not expose and discuss these horrors.
Blessings,
ohnwentsya

From South Africa to Gaza to British Columbia and Alberta:

Crime Wave Directed at the Elimination of Indigenous people

Many aspects of the world we are inheriting from our ancestors and are passing along to posterity go back to the trajectory of colonial history initiated in 1492 with Christopher Columbus’s initial trans-Atlantic voyage. The seizure by European powers of imperial control in the Americas initiated a process that continues to divide humanity. On one side of the divide are those on the delivering end of a colonizing process that never really ended. On the imploding side of colonization’s expansionary frontier are the Indigenous peoples. They are on the receiving end of an ongoing saga of dispossession, disempowerment and marginalization.

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Proof of the continuing nature of this oppressive process is all too evident in the statistics of suicide, domestic violence, incarceration, unemployment, poverty, addictions and the like. These stats continue to demonstrate, unfortunately, that Canada is not a country of decency and equity where human rights are respected and protected from wholesale violation. Those referred to in Canada’s highest constitutional law as the “Aboriginal peoples of Canada,” as “Indians, Inuit and Metis,” are overwhelmingly overrepresented on the negative side of virtually every major index of morbidity, illness, and socioeconomic status.

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada are suffering because of a centuries-old crime wave directed in their direction. Often these crimes are sanctioned or actually committed by governments andScreen Shot 2014-08-30 at 4.53.17 PMpolice forces in Canada, in its ten provinces and in its three federal territories. The predatoryincursionscurrently suffered by the First Nations are epitomized by the 1,500 or so missing, murdered and traded Aboriginal women and girls that Canada’s racist criminal justice system cannot account for.

There is a growing swell of political pressure developing in Canada calling for a federal investigation into the phenomenon of missing, murdered and traded Aboriginal women and girls. This groundswell now extends even to many of Canada’s provincial premiers. Those who introduced the call for an investigation are closely connected to Idle No More, a very important movement whose most erudite activists have been doggedly exposing the links connecting the repression of Indigenous peoples in Canada and Palestine/Israel. This comparison is epitomized by the anti-Aboriginal policies of Stephen Harper, Canada’s neocon Prime Minister who has outdone even US politicians in displaying utter subservience to the anti-Palestinian dictates of Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likudnik obsessions.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/08/30/law-criminality-and-assaults-on-indigenous-peoples/

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/08/30/law-criminality-and-assaults-on-indigenous-peoples/


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Idle No More: Shawn Atleo announces return to helm of Assembly of First Nations, as Chief Theresa Spence agrees to end fast | Canada | News | National Post

Michel Comte / AFP / Getty Images Michel Comte / AFP / Getty Images A young girl and an elder gather on Victoria island for a march on Canada’s parliament in support of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s strike on January 11, 2013.

Shawn Atleo will return to the helm of the Assembly of First Nations just as Chief Theresa Spence is slated to end her fast on Thursday morning, signalling the next phase in a First Nations push to engage with the federal government on treaty implementation.

National Chief Atleo, who has been on doctor-ordered medical leave since Jan. 14, will resume his full duties following a ceremony at a special assembly of British Columbia chiefs in Vancouver at 9:15 a.m. local time Thursday morning.

According to a statement released by the AFN, which has been dogged by infighting and a battle of wills over how to deal with the Harper government, Mr. Atleo will address the assembly and emphasize the way forward and the need to maintain momentum now to achieve real progress and transformative change for First Nations citizens.

With the intensifying demand and opportunity to achieve justice, fairness and political, social and economic development for First Nations, National Chief Atleo will provide an update and set out expectations for next steps, the statement says.

Mr. Atleo will be joined by the assemblys B.C. regional chief and the man he appointed to carry out his duties in his stead, regional chief Roger Augustine, who represents New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. All three chiefs will address leaders gathered at a two-day assembly at a Vancouver recreation centre, which kicks off Thursday.

About an hour before Mr. Atleo officially resumes his duties, at 11 a.m. local time in Ottawa, Ms. Spence and Manitoba edler Raymond Robinson who have held off on solid foods since mid-December in a failed bid to secure a meeting with the Prime Minister, the Governor-General and First Nations leaders will speak publicly about breaking their fast.

Negotiations to end the fast which began more than 40 days ago when she left her northern Ontario community to set up camp on Victoria Island had already ramped up earlier this week, but the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network reported that Ms. Spence faced pressure from within her own council.

They are coming in tonight, a source close to Ms. Spence told APTN. Then it will end.

A statement released by Ms. Spences camp on Wednesday evening confirmed the Attawapiskat chief would end her high-profile liquid-diet protest now that opposition leaders and First Nations supporters have endorsed a Declaration of Commitment.

The 13-point declaration, which among other things promises to maintain pressure on the Harper government to launch a thorough review of its two omnibus budget bills, was endorsed by the AFN executive, the Native Womens Association of Canada, the NDP national caucus and the Liberal Party, the statement said.

Manitoba chiefs gathered in Winnipeg for a two-day assembly also threw their formal support behind the declaration, calling Ms. Spence a brave warrior and commending her for bringing global awareness of the issues impacting Indigenous people across the country.

The statement released jointly by three Manitoba chiefs organizations, with the support of visiting chiefs from Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan struck a stern tone, saying the sovereign Nation-Crown Relationship is severely impaired by the Government of Canada.

Mr. Atleo also expressed his appreciation for Ms. Spences protest.

Our shared goal is simple and clear: to guarantee that our children can achieve the brighter future that they deserve, he said in an AFN statement. This is what every Chief across this country, every member of the Assembly of First Nations, will continue to fight to achieve.

National Post, with a file from The Canadian Press

(This story is a repost from the link below-http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/01/23/theresa-spence-agrees-to-end-44-day-hunger-protest-as-atleo-returns-to-afn-leadership/)


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Native Rights Emergency in Canada RIGHT NOW- Bill C-428 (Please Share widely!)

I just received the text below in an email from my friend Harrison Friesen, who is a Native activist in Canada. I am going to do some research on C-428 and post articles as soon as I can. WordPress seems to hate my computer as it refuses to load 90% of the time so it may take me a bit to get things posted. Please feel free to share this, I think we are going to need some help and solidarity from people all over, both in Canada and other countries.
It appears to me that the cabal in their cornered rat phase are simply stepping up and making more obvious and severe all the horrid things they already do-so doing their utmost to disenfranchise and harm Native peoples is no surprise. It can’t be allowed to go forward tho-so please do whatever you can by sharing info, emailing leaders, protesting, praying etc and I will post more info as soon as I am able.

“The Harper Govt’s attempt to extinguish first nations rights is part of a plan not only to take away what our people have today but also what belongs to our children in the future.. If this bill C-428 passes the XL pipeline and the Enbridge pipeline will go through without hesitation and so will Bill C 45.
They will destroy the lands and poison the waters that belong to our children and our grandchildren..Under Bill C-428 without our treaties we can no longer fight as a first nation. We will become municipalities and will no longer have our reserves.. Those reserves that are not ready for self governence today will be most effected.. The people in those communites will suffer as their own people will have no choice but to head to urban cities to surive. Therefore breaking the circle that keeps us alive..

The threat is so serious that own Chiefs yesterday tried to storm the Parliament building in Ottawa… In the past I have stood amongst warriors and I have participated in blockades, occupations, stand offs and many protests across this country.. I have seen the fucking fear in their eyes first hand and I have seen them retreat right in front of me.. They are not invincible..
Today we must fight and make stand like no other in our history.. I myself am not afraid to be imprisoned or to give my life to defend our nations, mother earth or the future of my children and grandchildren.. We are about to be wiped out!! And in the words of sitting bull, if we are going to die, we are going defending our rights. What happened in Oka in 1990 will be nothing compared to what is about to take place. Creator protect us all.” Harrison Friesen December 5, 2012


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No Logging! No Mercury! Mark The 10 Year Anniversary of the Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek Blockade!

*Please Forward Widely*
No Logging! No Mercury! Mark The 10 Year Anniversary of the Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek Blockade!

On December 2, 2002, two young Anishnaabwekwe from Grassy Narrows Asubpeeschoseewagong went out to the woods in the snow to start what is now one of the longest running indigenous blockades in the recent memory of Turtle Island. Please join us to mark a decade of struggle and achievement, and remember the work still to be done.

10 Years of the Grassy Narrows Blockade: A Sacred Fire at Queen’s Park
Sunday, December 2nd, 2pm-6pm
Queen’s Park Front Lawn
Sacred Fire, Snacks Served, Children’s Games, and Community Gathering

The community continues to maintain a moratorium on clearcutting in their traditional territories. For many years now, despite the ongoing threat of logging, grandmothers, mothers, trappers and youth have held off some of the world’s largest paper corporations. The community has also taken the Ontario government to task for inaction on the ongoing effects of mercury poisoning on their families and ecosystems.

Many of you, your families, your organizations, your communities, have supported their efforts in the last decade. The Sacred Fire at Queen’s Park Lawn on December 2nd, 2012, is a great way to show your ongoing support and to mark an important anniversary in the fight to protect Indigenous rights and the water, air, land, and creatures that we all depend on.

Email us at earthjusticeaction@gmail.com with any questions, see our Facebook Event at https://www.facebook.com/events/421077091292974/ and visit Freegrassy.org for more info and updates.