[IPSMO] LIVE - Muskrat Falls panel: Indigenous Rights on the Line

[IPSMO]

Live now - starting at 7:15pm EST, and archived after at:
    
The Struggle At Muskrat Falls: Indigenous Rights on the Line
https://www.facebook.com/ipsmo/videos/1950328468317401/

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BACKGROUND LINKS - and press release for this event further below:

- Main website: http://makemuskratright.com/

- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/labradorlandprotectors

- Ontario-Muskrat solidarity Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Ontario-Muskrat-Solidarity-Coalition-1589034804475671/?hc_location=ufi

- Petition to suspend the Muskrat Falls dam construction:
https://www.change.org/p/a-call-to-suspend-the-dangerous-operations-at-muskrat-falls-labrador

- Info on North Spur: http://www.vision2041.com/north-spur.html

- Truth, Reconciliation, and Mercury Poisoning - by Matthew Behrens -
NOW Nov 22nd
https://nowtoronto.com/news/truth-reconciliation-muskrat-falls-dam-project/

CBC The Current feature on Muskrat Falls inquiry - Denise Cole
interviewed - Nov 21st
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-november-21-2017-1.4410676/muskrat-falls-inquiry-very-much-about-money-and-not-about-people-says-indigenous-group-advocate-1.4410679

  
 
---- PRESS RELEASE FOR OTTAWA EVENT THIS EVENING ----
 
>> On Thursday, November 23, 2017 12:31 PM, TASC <tasc at web.ca> wrote:
  
  
For Immediate Release

Labrador Land Protectors Speak in Ottawa Thursday, November 23, 7 pm,
PSAC Hall, 233 Gilmour Street
Event On Eve of Trudeau's Residential School Apology Focuses on Dangers
of Muskrat Falls Megaproject

OTTAWA – On the eve of Justin Trudeau's apology to Labrador residential
school survivors for a historic act of cultural genocide, those
concerned about the genocidal implications of the massive Muskrat Falls
megaproject will speak tonight at the PSAC Hall, 233 Gilmour Street, in
Ottawa. The federal government has $9.2 billion backstopping a project
that endangers Indigenous people and settlers alike with meythlmercury
poisoning while also posing the risk of catastrophic dam break due to
its construction on sandy quick clay, which moves when subjected to
pressure.

Among the speakers is Kelly Morrissey, a Nunatsiavummiuk Inuk woman
who’s especially worried about family members in Rigolet, a Labrador
community where methylmercury levels could skyrocket as high as 1500%
according to a 2016 Harvard University study. Also speaking is
Newfoundland-born Emily Philpott, currently researching the devastating
economic, social, and spiritual impacts on residents downstream of
Muskrat Falls, and Matthew Behrens, coordinator of the Ontario-Muskrat
Solidarity Coalition.

"We find a huge irony in Trudeau apologizing for one act of cultural
genocide while he supports a project which will finish off the genocidal
mandate of residential schools through the same kinds of poisoning that
have devastated the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario," says Behrens.

Speakers will be calling for a suspension of operations at Muskrat Falls
until Indigenous people have been fully consulted and that free, prior
and informed consent has been achieved as mandated by the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada says it
will respect. They also want a fully transparent review of all parts of
the project, from its false claims to being a green energy project to
the failure to respect science-based reporting that has called into
question the validity of the project.

The event comes as Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett
meets with Labrador Land Protectors tonight in Happy Valley Goose Bay, a
meeting that only came about because of an October 1 occupation of
Minister Bennett's Toronto office. Earlier this week, the provincial
government announed an inquiry into the Muskrat Falls dam project, which
has ballooned to over $12.7 billion in cost, more than double the
original estimate. Critics say the inquiry is a distraction and
meaningless as long as construction continues.

For further information, contact the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity
Coalition at 613-300-9536



-- 
Love and Solidarity,
IPSMO - Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement - Ottawa
On stolen Algonquin land
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