At the front gate. #SwampLine9 #SovSummer #tarsands #pipelines #NoLine9 #IdleNoMore (at Enbridge Westover Station)
After 5 days of stopping work on Line 9 at Enbridge’s Westover pump station, the Swamp Line 9 camp has been served an injunction. In response to this legal maneuvre by Enbridge, protestors on the site have locked themselves to the gates of the pump station. Other protestors are rallying across the street, in front of Enbridge’s Westover Terminal, to continue demanding that tar sands oil not be shipped through our communities. They invite their allies and the public to join them there this morning in solidarity. Continue reading →
Clayton Thomas-Muller is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Based out of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Clayton is the co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands (ITS) Campaign of the Polaris Institute as well as a volunteer organizer with the Defenders of the Land-Idle No More national campaign known as Sovereignty Summer.
The Rise of the Native Rights-Based Strategic Framework
Years ago I was working for a well-known Indigenous environmental and economic justice organization known as the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). During my time with this organization I had the privilege of working with hundreds of Indigenous communities across the planet who had seen a sharp increase in the targeting of Native lands for mega-extractive and other toxic industries. The largest of these conflicts, of course, was the over-representation by big oil who work— often in cahoots with state, provincial First Nations, Tribal and federal governments both in the USA and Canada—to gain access to the valuable resources located in our territories. IEN hired me to work in a very abstract setting, under impossible conditions, with little or no resources to support Grassroots peoples fighting oil companies, who had become, in the era of free market economics, the most powerful and well-resourced entities of our time. My mission was to fight and protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from toxic contamination and corporate exploration, to support our Peoples to build sustainable local economies rooted in the sacred fire of our traditions. Continue reading →
Melina Laboucan-Massimo stands next to logs from clearcuts at a proposed tar sands site north of Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, Canada. Photo by Jiri Rezac.
There’s a remote part of northern Alberta where the Lubicon Cree have lived, it is said, since time immemorial. The Cree called the vast, pine-covered region niyanan askiy, “our land.” When white settlers first carved up this country, they made treaties with most of its original inhabitants—but for reasons unclear, the Lubicon Cree were left out. Two hundred years later, the Lubicon’s right to their traditional territory is still unrecognized. In the last four decades, industry has tapped the vast resource wealth that lies deep beneath the pines; today, 2,600 oil and gas wells stretch to the horizon. This is tar sands country. Continue reading →
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a public policy think tank based in Ottawa, released two reports Wednesday, both of which concluded that aboriginal groups in Canada have a tremendous amount of influence over the future direction of the country. One of the reports, written by Douglas Bland, concluded that the combination of poor social conditions in Canada’s aboriginal populations and the country’s incredibly weak industrial infrastructure point toward a successful “violent” uprising being “feasible” in the near future.
Bland concludes that attacks on Canada’s industrial infrastructure would have significant impact. The report states that Canada’s railways, electricity lines and transportation routes are poorly defended and vulnerable to sabotage, as is the country’s economy itself. John Ivison of theNational Postreports that “[i]n the event of an insurgency, the Canadian economy could be shut down in weeks. The 2012 CP Rail strike cost an estimated $540-million a week, as it hit industries including coal, grain, potash, nickel, lumber and autos. Some First Nations leaders like Terry Nelson in Manitoba have already concluded that a covert operation involving burning cars on every railway line would be impossible to stop.” This is compounded by the fact that Canada’s security forces are very limited and that the government has shown a reluctance to confront aboriginal protesters.
“No consent? No fracking pipelines, no climate crimes!”
American oil giant Chevron wants to build a destructive pipeline across unceded indigenous territory to carry fracked gas to the coast, and export climate change to the world. We say NO. We do not need fracked gas, we do not want another pipeline and we will not stand by as colonial governments and greedy corporations push us over the climate catastrophe cliff edge. Chevron is the new corporate face of the Pacific Trail Pipeline project, having recently become 50/50 partners with Apache to build a fracking gas pipeline across 500 kilometres of largely unceded land, from Summit Lake to LNG plants planned for Kitimat.
On March 30th we will greet them with resistance across BC and around the world. As politicians put economic growth and industry interests ahead of carbon common sense and indigenous rights, it is up to us take direct action to raise the cost of pushing ahead with the project, and raise the stakes in the PR battle.
We encourage autonomous creative direct action against Chevron and any others involved in the development and financing of Pacific Trail Pipeline. Occupy offices, drop banners, demonstrate in city centers, lock-down at the pumps, subvert the Chevron brand, hand out leaflets… the choice is yours! Everywhere they operate, Chevron exploits land and people for money, often through the use of force, and without taking responsibility for the consequences. Battles against environmental racism and illegal oil wars, movements for indigenous sovereignty and migrant justice – we amplify our resistance by uniting our struggles, so we are calling for solidarity actions and events against Chevron across Canada and around the world.
Genocidal warfare is still being waged against the traditional and full-blood Lakota people, and to end it, we need your attention and support right now!
STAND BEHIND THE LAKOTA GRANDMOTHERS!
The Lakota Solidarity Projectwith the Lakota Cante Tenza Okolakiciye (Strong Heart Warriors) are issuing an International Call To Action for both Native and non-native Warriors, Activists, Artists, Culture-Jammers, Organizers, Community Builders, Freedom Fighters, #Idle-No-More Supporters, Occupy Groups, Indignados, Organizations, Coalitions, Networks, Spiritual Communities, Elders and Youth to join us at this critical moment to help end the genocide of the traditional and grassroots Lakota Oyate (people) and support the renewal of traditional matriarchal – Grandmother led- leadership.
Right now, Lakota Grandmothers, Elders, Warriors, and Oyate who are the remaining traditional language speakers, culture holders, and freedom fighters, are being deliberately inflicted with conditions of life intended to bring about their destruction.
Coalition storms lobby of Westin Hotel where sacred Amazonian lands are being auctioned by Ecuadorian Government
Westin Hotel at the Galleria in Houston, TX, 2/4/2013– Tar Sands Blockaders joined indigenous leaders from the Achuar and Shuar tribes who inhabit the Amazonian rainforest of Ecuador along with their allies from Amazon Watchand representatives from Idle No More – Gulf Coast. United in solidarity against dangerous and exploitative resource extraction, the group stormed the lobby of the Westin Hotel in Houston where the Ecuadorian government was making arrangements to auction off land for oil exploration and industrial development without the consent of the tribes who live there. Continue reading →
The real story of Line 9 and the tar sands giga-project
By Dave Vasey, Sakura Saunders, Sonia Grant| January 23, 2013, Rabble.ca
Enbridge’s Line 9 reversal project has become a hot button issue in Ontario as Big Oil seeks to expand tar sands markets in the 401 corridor, the U.S. and potentially Europe. Line 9 runs from Sarnia, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec, passing within 50 km of an estimated 9.1 million people, including 18 First Nation communities, and directly through 99 towns and cities. In true Orwellian language, the reversal is being sold to the public as a jobs-creating, low impact, and ‘ethical’ project. It is none of these things. Early in the application process, Enbridge misled the public by promoting the Line 9 reversal as part of its $3.2 billion “Light Oil Market Access” initiative. Pressure by environmental groups clarified Enbridge’s intent to pump tar sands dilbit (diluted bitumen) through Line 9. The early mistrust established by Enbridge foreshadows the ethical doublespeak the public is expected to embrace with the Line 9 reversal. Indeed, the tar sands giga-project is one of the most violent projects on Earth and the extraction of dirty fuel represents at once a blatant case of environmental racism, climate chaos, and ecological catastrophe.
Thoughts on Idle No More and Critical Infrastructure
by Shiri Pasternak
Thousands of First Nations ‘Idle No More’ protesters demand meeting
News reports are ablaze with reports of looming Indigenous blockades and economic disruption. As the Idle No More movement explodes into a new territory of political action, it bears to amplify the incredible economic leverage of First Nations today, and how frightened the government and industry are of their capacity to wield it.
In recent years, Access to Information (ATI) records obtained by journalists reveal a massive state-wide surveillance and “hot spot monitoring” operation coordinated between the Department of Indian Affairs, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), local security forces, natural resource and transportation ministries, border agencies, and industry stakeholders. These efforts have been explicitly mobilized to protect “critical infrastructure” from Indigenous attack. Continue reading →
Thousands have attended round dances and rallies, like this one in Vancouver, B.C., in the month since Idle No More hit the political scene. (Photo by David P. Ball)
Idle No More grassroots founders and organizers from across Canada, in solidarity with common causes – a new initiative bringing together social justice, environmental, labour and other Activist Groups…
– UNITED we are planning IDLE NO MORE WORLD DAY OF ACTION on January 28th, 2013 #J28.
This day of action will peacefully protest attacks on Democracy, Indigenous Sovereignty, Human Rights and Environmental Protections when Canadian MPs return to the House of Commons on January 28th. As a grassroots movement, clearly no political organization speaks for Idle No More. This movement is of the people… For The People! #IDLENOMOREFTP
The Vision of IDLE NO MORE revolves around Indigenous Ways of Knowing rooted in Indigenous Sovereignty to protect water, air, land and all creation for future generations.
The Conservative government bills beginning with Bill C-45 threaten Treaties and this Indigenous Vision of Sovereignty.
The Goal of the movement is education and the revitalization of Indigenous peoples through Awareness and Empowerment. IDLE NO MORE has successfully encouraged knowledge sharing of Indigenous Sovereignty and Environmental Protections.
This message has been heard around the world and the world is watching how Canada responds to the message sent by many INM Supporters.
INM urges the government of Canada to repeal all legislation; which violates Treaties, Indigenous Sovereignty and subsequently Environmental Protections of land and water.
INM is grateful to many leaders who have supported this vision and the movement of the grassroots people.
“The Treaties are the last line of defense to protect water and lands from destruction,” stated Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs.
Please watch and share this video of the Idle No More action in Toronto, and organize events in solidarity with Idle No More within your local collectives:
EF! DAM
Ecodefense
