[IPSM] TORONTO: Action Alert: Days of Action in Support of Six Nations

[stef at tao.ca]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 10, 2006
Toronto

ACTION IN SUPPORT OF SIX NATIONS

Tuesday April 11, 2006
4:30pm
Revenue Canada Building,
1 Front Street West (At Yonge St.),
Toronto

We, the Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, strongly object to
recent and proposed government, court and police actions regarding the
sovereign territory of Six Nations of the Grand River.

These actions include:

•The selling and leasing of lands that were never surrendered to private
developers.
•The impending enforcement of an injunction barring Six Nations people
from camping on their own territory in order to clear it for private
developers.
•Applying Canadian tax law on the sovereign territories of other nations.
•Refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of traditional community leadership
and entering into legal agreements exclusively with band councillors and
chiefs funded by Ottawa and controlled by federal legislation.
•Employing bureaucratic and unjust practices concerning the processing of
land claims.
•Refusal of the federal government to negotiate on a nation to nation
basis, thus permitting the assumption of jurisdiction by the province of
Ontario to evict Six Nations people from their land.

We oppose any police action on First Nations territories.  We furthermore
call on the federal government to live up to its treaty obligations and
negotiate with legitimate community leadership from these territories on a
nation-to-nation basis in order to peacefully and respectfully resolve all
disputes.

For more information:  www.urgentcalltoaction.com

Jacqueline House at 905-765-9316 Jacqueline_house at hotmail.com

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DAYS OF ACTION IN SUPPORT OF HAUDENOSAUNEE / SIX NATIONS
**** TUESDAY APRIL 11 - WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2006 ****
NORTH BATTLEFORD, MONTREAL, SASKATOON, TORONTO, VANCOUVER, VICTORIA

==> NORTH BATTLEFORD:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, contact c.choices at sasktel.net

==> MONTREAL:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12 AT 2:30 PM
Rally and Info Picket @ the Revenue Canada Building
305 Rene Levesques West, corner Rue De Bleury, Metro Place des Arts For
Information: Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement at ipsm at resist.ca

==> SAKSATOON:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, contact pgarden at resist.ca

==> TORONTO:
TUESDAY APRIL 11 AT 4:30 PM
Revenue Canada Building, 1 Front Street West (At Yonge). Organized by
Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, Coalition Against Revenue
Canada Aggression, Arab Students Collective - U of T, No One is Illegal,
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. For Information: amadahy at rogers.com.

==> VANCOUVER:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12 AT 2:30 PM
Gather at Victory Square (corner of Cambie and Hastings)
Speakers, performers, drummers
. Food will be served.
Organized by International Indigenous Youth Conference Secretariat,
Redwire Native Youth Media, No One is Illegal-Vancouver

==> VICTORIA:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2006 AT 4:00 PM
Canada Revenue Agency, 1415 Vancouver Street (Vancouver & Johnson)
Co-sponsored by the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Working Group and No-One
is Illegal-Victoria. Contact ipswg at riseup.net or 721-8629.

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Under the direction of the Clan Mothers at the Six Nations Territory, a
series of actions are being organized in solidarity with the Six Nations
and in support of their demands for an immediate cessation of all
construction by Henco Industries on Six Nations territory and for
resolution to the current standoff to be conducted on a nation-to-nation
basis. Jamie Jamieson from the Six Nations community states “ I hope for a
resolution. It would involve having the whole issue of title and
jurisdiction resolved, and it would mean for the federal government to
take accountability and responsibility for their actions in regard to this
land."

The racist colonial legacy of Canada continues to devastate the lands and
lives of indigenous peoples and standing in support of the Six Nations
community is a tangible way to stop the settler government’s interventions
in the continued illegal expropriation and exploitation of indigenous
lands and territories.

To increase the pressure on April 12, the Six Nations Clan mothers are
also requesting that people contact Michaelle Jean and Michael Bryant to
express support for their demands and to call for a resolution to the
standoff through political means, rather than policing.

* Michaelle Jean, Governor General:
Phone: (613) 993-8200, Toll Free: 1-800-465-6890, Fax: (613) 998-1664,
Email: info at gg.ca

* Michael Bryant, Ontario Attorney General
Phone: (416) 326-2220 or (416) 326-2210, Toll Free: 1-800-518-7901 Fax:
(416) 326-4007, Email:
www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/comments.asp


BACKGROUND

On March 3rd, 2006, members of the Rotinoshon’non:we (“Iroquois”) people
set up camp on the Haldimand Tract, located at the entrance to Douglas
Creek Estates, a 71-lot subdivision under construction by Henco Industries
Ltd. on Six Nations territory.

This land has at no point been surrendered to Canada, and was formally
recognized by the Crown as Six Nations territory as part of the 1784
Haldimand Deed. The Plank Road Tract was subsequently registered as a land
claim with the federal government in 1987. The Six Nations, in their
submissions to Ottawa, stated that the reserve was never properly
compensated for land sold to non-natives and land that was taken to build
the Hamilton to Port Dover Plank Road. The Six Nations reserve now covers
less than 5 per cent of the original tract of six miles each side of the
Grand River from the mouth to the source. Meanwhile, the province of
Ontario passed legislation allowing this tract of land to be developed as
part of a scheme to draw 4 million settlers into the Golden Horseshoe
area.

Henco Industries successfully obtained a court injunction last month to
have members of Six Nations who are camped out on the territory forcibly
removed by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). A revised injunction
issued by an Ontario Supreme Court Judge on March 28th states that those
who refuse to vacate the property are guilty of criminal and civil
contempt, and will be fingerprinted and photographed as part of a
probation order. In delivering his judgment, Provincial Court Judge David
Marshall said this to the Clan Mothers: “What’s the matter with you
people? Why don’t you forget all about the past and listen to me?” On the
evacuation deadline date issued by Justice Marshall, there were roughly
300-500 people lined up at the road in support of the Six Nations. The
Clan Mothers held an action that had 50 women blocking the construction
crews from building.

In the face of mounting police presence at Six Nations – including two
dozen marked and unmarked police vehicles parked outside a nearby
elementary school currently being used as a command post, a number of
police cruisers scattered throughout the neighbouring town of Caledonia,
and scores of undercover officers around the periphery of the Six Nations
reserve – and a mobilization of the state reminiscent of the lead-up to
the murder of Dudley George by the OPP at Ipperwash in 1995, the Clan
Mothers and Six Nations community have requested solidarity in their
struggle to affirm their inherent right to self-determination and
sovereignty on the land. "Canada must stop using guns to resolve its legal
disputes with the indigenous people," states Jacqueline House.

The clan mothers have mostly recently issued the following statement:

The Women, being Title Holders to all lands of Turtle Island, assert our
constitutional jurisdiction over the Haldimand Tract.  We have never and
cannot ever give up our land or our sovereignty.

1. The Six Nations are distinct original nations.  We are to be dealt with
on a nation-to-nation basis by the Crown and all other nations.

2. The Crown must respect our original relationship as set out in the Two
Row Wampum, our jurisdiction as provided in our constitution, the
Kaiannereh’ko:wa, and as respected by Sections 109 and  132 of the BNA
Act, 1867 and according to international covenants that  Canada has
signed.

3. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis, as was the custom
before Canada separated from the British Empire. Respect for the
independent international status of the Six Nations by Canada was
established before Canada achieved recognition as a state or gained the
ability to sign treaties on its own.  The independent international
identity of the Six Nations identity has never been legally extinguished.

4. The band councils were established with procedures that violated
international law.  They continue to function as colonizing institutions.
We have never consented to their establishment nor their representing us.

5. Canada and all its politicians, bureaucrats, agents, assignees and
appointees should cease and desist immediately their attempt to
criminalize and apprehend our people for defending what is rightfully
ours, the land to which we hold title.  Any further action by Canada,
Ontario and their agents shall be viewed as being a direct violation of
the Two Row Wampum, the constitutional accord between the Ratino’shon:ni
and Canada and international law.

6. The claims of Canada and the province of Ontario to have a right to
legislate for the Rotino’shon:ni Six Nations and to grant private title to
our land has no foundation in law.