[Indigsol] Upcoming events: Mon and Tues

[ipsmo at riseup.net]

Two upcoming events this week:

* Monday - Tell the Arctic Summit to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground!

* Tuesday - Villagers from Ecuador Speak Out Against Canada's Copper Mesa
In Defence of their Community & for Justice


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MONDAY MARCH 29
Tell the Arctic Summit to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground!


Please pass along this invitation, and do RSVP with Andrea Harden to
confirm your presence/car-pooling!
613-218-5800; aharden at canadians.org


*Who:* The Indigenous Environmental Network, the Council of Canadians,
Greenpeace and you!

*When:* We will meet at 9:45 sharp!

*Where:*

 - We will meet in the Jack Purcell Community Centre parking lot (at Elgin
/ Waverly), 320 Jack Purcell Lane Ottawa, Ontario, K2P 2J5. Here is a
google map link: http://maps.google.com/

 - We will drive to Chelsea, Quebec (approx. 20 minutes) gather close to
the exit from Meech Lake Rd that leads to the Summit location. Here is a
google satellite view of the location
http://bit.ly/bwdANg<http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=meech+lake+QC&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=43.35432,135.263672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Meech+Lake&ll=45.526652,-75.86154&spn=0.00572,0.016512&t=h&z=17>

*What: *

 - We will set ourselves up in a parking lot near the road that leads to
the Arctic Summit location with some excellent banners we have made for
the event (key messages include: leave it in the ground, Arctic not for
sale and Arctic future: Not behind closed doors). Media will be heading
to the Summit for a photo opportunity for 11:30.  We will have
spokespeople from the Council of Canadians, IEN and Greenpeace available
for comment.

 - This action is targeted at gaining some media attention to the issues
we feel should be dominating the discussions amongst Foreign Ministers as
well as states and organizations left out of the summit.

 - The IEN and Council of Canadians alongside the Alaska-based Redoil
Network issued an open letter to the 5 Foreign Ministers present at the
Summit on Friday March 26 calling for a moratorium on all new exploration
for fossil fuel resources in the Arctic region, we plan to deliver copies
of this letter.

 - Greenpeace has also sent a letter to the Foreign Ministers, calling for
a moratorium on industrial activities in the Actic Ocean and for future
meetings to be held under the auspices of inclusive, global and
transparent bodies rather than behind closed doors.

 - We will communicate and negotiate with any security present related to
the Summit, challenging police restrictions is not an objective of this
action.


*Why:*

 - On March 29th in Chelsea Quebec, Canada is hosting a meeting for
Foreign Ministers of five Arctic Ocean coastal states, Canada, Denmark,
Norway, Russia and the United States.  The meeting will discuss
“responsible development” in the Arctic – a hot topic since the release
of a US Geological Survey Assessment (July 2008) that identified
significant reserves of oil and gas in the region.  The discovery of 90
billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas has
spurred a flurry of posturing over who controls Arctic land and waters
and big oil companies including Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron  are
lining up for business. In an irony to end all ironies, melting ice
caused by climate change is an important factor in why the Arctic is
being increasingly seen as the final frontier for oil development.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~



TUESDAY MARCH 30
Villagers from Ecuador Speak Out Against Canada's Copper Mesa In Defence
of their Community & for Justice


Where: JK Wylie Boardroom, PSAC Building, 233 Gilmour St., Ottawa,
Algonquin Territory
When: Tuesday March 30, 2010 @ 7pm


Please forward widely!


On Tuesday March 30, hear first hand testimonials from villagers from
north-western Ecuador, Marcia Ramírez, Polivio Pérez, and Isreal Pérez,
and Carlos Zorrilla, Executive Director of

Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (Ecological Defence and
Conservation of the Intag). Together, they are suing the Canadian mining
company Copper Mesa, the company's Canadian directors, and the Toronto
Stock Exchange, for damages they have suffered as a result of the
company's efforts to violently wrest control of the minerals beneath the
ground of their local community.


Background Information can be found on the following websites:
http://ramirezversuscoppermesa.com/lawsuit.html
http://www.decoin.org/


Event supporters include: MiningWatch Canada, PSAC/AFPC Social Justice
Fund, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Peoples' Solidarity
Movement-Ottawa, Territorio Libre, OPIRG-GRIPO, & Ontario Committee for
Human Rights in the Philippines.

For more information, please contact:
Jamie Kneen, Communications & Outreach Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
Office: (613) 569-3439 - Cell: (613) 761-2273
E-mail: jamie at miningwatch.ca  - Website: http://www.miningwatch.ca


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