[Indigsol] Fwd: Barriere Lake Update

[kim mackrael]

 Hi IPSMO,

As promised at the last meeting, here is an update on the Barriere Lake
situation and the IPSMO Barriere Lake working group.

The best place to find a comprehensive background on the community's
struggles and work is here: http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/ This
website is maintained by the Montreal solidarity group. Check it out!
Especially the resources section, which has video, articles, and a lot of
older background documents.

--------------

In (very) brief summary:

The Algonquin reserve of Barriere Lake is located three hours north of
Ottawa. Although their traditional territory extends over 17,000 square
kilometers, the 450 people of Barriere Lake are now relegated to a 59 acre
reserve in the middle of Quebec's La Verendrye Wildlife Reserve. The
Barriere Lake reserve was established in 1961 without any consultation with
the customary chief and council.

Today, the Algonquins' traditional territory generates annual revenues
exceeding $100 million dollars from the numerous hydroelectric dams,
logging, and tourism. The Algonquins of Barriere Lake do not receive any of
these revenues.The diesel generator that powers the community is at
capacity, so any additional housing would not have electricity. The Quebec
government has been sitting on recommendations to extend the reservation's
boundaries for over two years. Unemployment rates sit at over 80 per cent.

In 1991, after years of protests and road blockades, the Algonquins of
Barriere Lake compelled the governments of Quebec and Canada to negotiate a
landmark agreement for the co-management of resources and revenue sharing.
The resulting Trilateral Agreement was hailed as a landmark sustainable
development plan by the United Nations. Only months before the planned
implementation of the agreement in 2001, Indian Affairs pulled out, leaving
the community to pay for remaining research on traditional land use. In
March 2008, Indian Affairs overthrew the community's acting chief and
recognized a minority faction as the new leadership

IPSMO has been working with the community of Barriere Lake since the summer
of 2008. We support the community's list of
demands<http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/03/mission.html>,
which include the restoration of the Trilateral Agreement and government
observation of a new leadership selection process and respect for the
outcome.
-----------------

The community held two road blockades of highway 117 this fall. Click here
to watch a video on the first blockade, held in October :
http://blip.tv/file/1391794 A video of the second blockade, held in
November, is here: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=pyGBFMwjhXM

There were a number of targeted arrests at the last blockade, including that
of Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway. He has been in jail for the past 45 days.
He was in court this morning and we are still awaiting word on whether or
not he has been released.

-------------------

Barriere Lake has a volunteer-run school which receives no external funding.
It was set up to address concerns about teachers in the government-run
school punishing students who spoke Algonquin in class. IPSMO and Ottawa
supporters have done some work around getting fuel and other school supplies
up to the community.  Read more about the school and the latest delivery of
supplies here: http://ipsmo.wordpress.com/

The most recent list of needs (school supplies) is attached and here is a
list that includes food supplies:

Potatoes, White Flour, Rice, Oatmeal, Baking Powder, Lard, Cooking Oil, Dry
Cereals, Margarine, Crackers, Macaroni, Spaghetti, Tomato Sauce, Tomato
Paste, Canned Tomatoes, White Peas, White Beans, White/Brown Sugar, Salt,
Pepper, Soup Base, Mustard, Ketchup, Coffee, Tea Bags, Canned Milk 2%,
Canned Goods, Powdered Juice, Bread, Cookies/Snacks, Coffee Whitener.

Contact Louisa Worrell love_lulu88 at hotmail.com for more info on this or to
arrange drop offs.

---------------------

Organizing Lists: This email (barrierelakesolidarityottawa at gmail.com) is
open for anyone to access and is FULL of resources and organizing
conversations that are going on between IPSMO, Barriere Lake Solidarity
Ottawa and Toronto, and the community. If you'd like access, send your phone
number to this barrierelakesolidarityottawa at gmail.com or to
kimmackrael at gmail.com and i'll call you to give you the password (just don't
want to send it via email) Or just ask me in person.

---------------------

Upcoming plans:

There are conversations now to hold a follow up rally to the one last put on
a few weeks ago (
http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2009/01/native-rights-under-lock-key.html)
and it would be great to start discussing and planning. There are also
potential plans to facilitate a Barriere Lake speaking tour in the
Gatineau/Ottawa area. The idea for that would be to invite community members
to give informational sessions to Ottawa and Gatineau activisits, union
members and other organizations that may want to learn more and offer
support.  This proposal for the info session came from Michel Thusky
following the Forum Social Outaouais. PSAC is interested in organizing this,
which is great!  They've offered to hold an initial planning meeting next
Thursday (I think the proposed time was 3:30pm)

I propose that we have a meeting before Thursday to get ourselves organized
:) Therefore...

---------------------

Next Meeting:

We need to have a meeting! If you're interested in being a part of this
working group, learning more about Barriere Lake, or just taking on a few
little tasks to help out, please click on this link
http://www.doodle.com/3qmh9b2kgnrsvuwh and indicate which times you are
available. We'll start the meeting off with an informal discussion/knowledge
sharing about the issues, so don't be shy to come out if this is new to you.


Also, if you'd like to be involved in some way but can't come out to any of
the times I suggested, send barrierelakesolidarity at gmail.com an email with
any ideas you'd like brought forward, or just to say you want to be kept up
to speed.

----------------------

Peace and solidarity,

Kim
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