[Indigsol] JUNE 24, 11am @ Queen's Park: TELL THE WORLD THE TRUTH ABOUT CANADA'S RECORD ON INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

[Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity Movement -Ottawa]

TELL THE WORLD THE TRUTH ABOUT CANADA'S RECORD ON INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

JUNE 24

RALLY & MARCH
Meet @ 11AM QUEEN’S PARK

An Indigenous-led demonstration that will march for Indigenous rights
through the streets of Toronto, celebrating self-determination and
exposing  Canadian colonialism locally and across Turtle Island.


INDIGENOUS ASSEMBLY
4PM – 8PM
1266 Queen Street West (just off of noble)
@ G20 CONVERGENCE SPACE

An Indigenous-led assembly for front-line Indigenous people, communities,
and their allies to discuss the impacts of G8-G20 policies on sovereignty,
self-determination, and ecological justice.



IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE RALLY

What to bring:

- comfortable clothing and shoes
- a change of clothes
- a water bottle
- snacks
- just in case: scarves soaked in lemon juice (or white vinegar) to reduce
the effects of tear gas (store in plastic sandwich bag)



Legal information:

The MDC is organizing the Summit Legal Support Project to defend and
support the mobilization against the G20. For more information on the
issues, what's happening and how to get involved, check out the Toronto
Community Mobilization Network.

During the summit, the SLSP will have volunteer lawyers available to
provide legal advice and to assist with bail hearings for all arrested or
detained protesters. SLSP Legal Observers will be on the streets to gather
information and monitor police conduct.



Legal support numbers during the Summit (starting June 18th)
http://movementdefence.org/



ARREST LINE: 416-273-6761 (write this on your body!)
Family and friends info line: 416-273-6781
TTY: 416-531-0060



Call from Defenders of the Land for a day of action on Indigenous rights,
June 24, 2010

When the G8/G20 comes to Canada in June let's tell the world the real
story about Canada's record on Indigenous rights: a continued policy that
aims to terminate Indian Peoples by removing our land and resource base
and denying us the right to self-determination, under the power of the
Indian Act and the Department of Indian Affairs. Canada is the only
country still opposing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples; the other three countries opposed to it have changed their vote
or are reconsidering. Canada continues to criminalize Indigenous activists
who stand up for Aboriginal and treaty rights - even though these rights
have been affirmed by the Canadian constitution and the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Canada's policies of
dispossession and control continue to create extreme poverty and social
distress for Indigenous Nations across Canada. Finally, Canada and the
provinces have done nothing to investigate and stop the disappearance and
murder of hundreds of Aboriginal women across the country. That is the
record on Indigenous rights that lies behind the show of Aboriginal
culture that Canada put on at the Olympics, and it is time the whole world
came to know it.


We reject the G8 and G20 as decision-making bodies. They don't  operate on
behalf on Indigenous peoples and don’t recognize or respect Aboriginal and
treaty rights. The G8 and G20 are implicated in the ongoing colonization
and destruction of Indigenous Peoples and their lands. This ongoing
colonization in Canada and abroad is based on the racist doctrines of
Discovery and terra nullius.


Defenders of the Land, a network of Indigenous Nations in land struggle,
is calling for June 24, 2010, to be a cross-Canada day of non-violent
action focusing on Indigenous rights.


Defenders of the Land main action, organized with a coalition of other
groups in Toronto


This action will focus on the following demands:

1. Canada must adopt and fully implement the UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.

2. Jointly with Indigenous communities, Canada must change its
Comprehensive Land Claims policy to recognize and respect Aboriginal title
and Aboriginal and treaty rights; end the policy of extinguishment; and
repudiate the racist doctrines of Discovery and terra nullius.

3. Canada must stop criminalizing Indigenous Peoples for defending their
rights.

4. Canada and the provinces must take coordinated action to investigate
and end the ongoing murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women.

5. Canada must comply with our right to say no to all activities on
Indigenous territories that commodify the sacred: air, land, water,
animals, plant and genetic materials, and our traditional ecological
knowledge. Indigenous Peoples must be informed of such activities, and
their right to say 'no' respected, through a meaningful process according
with their customs and respecting Aboriginal and treaty rights and the
standards set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples.



Background


The world's eyes are on Canada this year. As the Winter Olympics took
place on Squamish, Musqueam, Lil'wat and Tsleil-Watouth territories,
Canada, British Columbia, and the Vancouver Olympic Committee poured
hundreds of millions of dollars into buying the cooperation of the
leadership of the four host nations. Governments and the Vancouver
Olympics put on a glitzy show exploiting Aboriginal culture and imagery to
put a good face on Canada's treatment of Indigenous Peoples.


But grassroots Indigenous activists and many more established
organizations, like the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, are not buying into the
hype. They are telling the world the real story about Canada's record on
Indigenous rights: a continued policy that aims to terminate Indian
Peoples by removing our land and resource base and denying us the right to
self-determination. Canada refuses to sign and implement the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and is the only country
explicitly opposed to the Declaration (Australia reversed its position,
and the U.S. and New Zealand are reconsidering). Canada continues to
criminalize Indigenous activists who stand up for Aboriginal and treaty
rights - even though these rights have been affirmed in the Canadian
constitution and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples. Canada's policies of dispossession and control
continue to create extreme poverty and social distress for Indigenous
Nations across Canada. Canada and the provinces have done nothing to
investigate and stop the disappearance and murder of hundreds of
Aboriginal women across the country. In the tar sands and in pipeline
projects across the country, Canada is promoting an industry that is
literally killing Indigenous people and destroying the planet. Canada
continues to accept the racist doctrines of discovery and terra nullius
first articulated by white colonists hundreds of years ago. That is the
record on Indigenous rights that lies behind the show that Canada is
putting on at the Olympics, and it is time the whole world came to know
it.


This June, Canada will play host to the G8 and G20 summits, which bring
together the world's largest economies and colonizers. The G8 summit will
take place in Huntsville, Ontario, in traditional Anishinaabe territory,
and in Toronto, on unceded traditional Mississauga territory. Social
movements and non-governmental organizations from around the world,
including representatives of Indigenous Peoples, will also gather to hold
a people's summit and engage in action to hold G8 and G20 governments
accountable.


This year, Canada has made climate change and poverty among women and
children the priorities of the summit. Yet the Harper government has only
worked to obstruct action on climate change; it has continued to develop
the tar sands, the world's single most destructive fossil fuels project;
and Canada has done nothing to address the poverty and racism underlying
the murder and disappearance of hundreds of Aboriginal women, or the
desperate poverty among Indigenous women and children caused by Canada's
theft of Indigenous economic resources.


July 11th of this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of
the Oka crisis. Since that time, there has been the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples, the murder of Dudley George and the Ipperwash inquiry,
numerous Supreme Court cases affirming Aboriginal and treaty rights, and
the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Despite all the
words, Canada's fundamental policies towards Indigenous Peoples still have
not changed.



Who are the G8/G20?


This June, leaders of the world’s biggest economies (and biggest
colonizers, and biggest polluters) will be coming to Canada for the G8 and
G20 meetings. The G8 meeting will be held June 25 in Huntsville, Ontario,
traditional Anishinaabe territory, while the G20 summit will be held June
26-27 in Toronto, on traditional unceded Mississauga territory.


The G8 brings together Canada, the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France,
Italy, Japan, and Germany. The G20 includes these countries, as well as
Brazil, India, Indonesia, Australia, China, Mexico, and South Africa,
among others. The G20 meetings also bring in the heads of the World Bank,
the International Monetary Fund, and finance ministers for the countries
named.


The governments of the G8/G20 have been responsible for the exploitation
and devastation of Indigenous Peoples the world over. These meetings are
meant to coordinate the continued economic, ecological and cultural
domination of poor, powerless and Indigenous communities.


Their focus is on protecting and preserving the power of the elites in
these countries, and preserving the economic and political order that has
been responsible for the destruction of countless Indigenous cultures and
persons. The meetings are closed to public participation, and they attempt
to make decisions on behalf of the world.


Two years ago, for the first time, an Indigenous summit was held around
the G8, in Hokkaido, Japan, traditional territory of the Ainu people. At
that meeting, Indigenous delegates from around the world acknowledged the
recently passed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, yet
stood up to call for Canada, the US, and Russia to respect Indigenous
Peoples and the Declaration. Subsequently, the United States has announced
it is reconsidering its opposition to the Declaration, leaving Canada the
only G20 country, and the only country in the world, explicitly opposed to
it (Russia abstained).


They also made demands around Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their lands,
climate change, energy projects, rights to food, corporate violations of
Indigenous sovereignty, protection of traditional knowledge and cultures,
women’s rights, and more. They also made a call for Indigenous leaders in
Canada to continue the tradition, and organize a summit at the 2010 G8
summit.


This year, a large number of social movements and advocacy organizations
are planning to converge on Toronto around the G8/G20 meetings. This may
be the biggest gathering of so-called world leaders in Canada to date, and
the world’s attention will be placed on Canada.


Indigenous Peoples have not been invited to the G8/G20 summit tables, but
we must make our own voices heard as a power the world cannot ignore.



SIGNED:


Algonquins of Barriere Lake
Ardoch Algonquin First Nation
Carrier Sekani Tribal Council
C’ilhts’ekyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation
Grassy Narrows Women's Drum
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug
Pimicikamak
Defenders of the Land organizing committee
Indigenous Environmental Network
Arthur Manuel (Secwepmec Nation)
Ben Powless (Six Nations)
Clayton Thomas Mueller (Pukatawagan)
Crystal Martin (Cree Nation)
gkisedtanamoogk (Mashpee Wampanoag, resident, Esgenoôpetitj Mi’kmaq by
customary marriage)
Jacqueline House (Six Nations)
Janice Billy (Secwepmec Nation)
June Quipp (Sto:lo Nation, Cheam)
Mike Mercredi (Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation)
Russell Diabo (Mohawk Nation)
Sherry Pictou (Bear River First Nation)
Terry Sappier (Tobique First Nation)



For more information on other actions and activities taking place during
the G8/G20, visit: http://g20.torontomobilize.org/



-- 
In Solidarity,
IPSMO
on unceded Algonquin Territory
--
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