[IPSM] [Fwd: [Indigenousyouth] Subject: DC call out]

[Macdonald Stainsby]

June 22, 2006

My Friends, Allies and Supporters,

I am writing you to ask for support on a very important issue that will
affect us all. As you may or may not know, I am the co-founder and current
director of the Arctic Indigenous Alliance. For the past few years a group
of us have been trying to organize and gather voices for opposition to the
proposed Mackenzie Gas Pipeline in the Canadian Western Arctic.

To give some brief history on the issue, this proposed development will
spread across 2200 miles of pristine arctic land untouched yet in North
America, to deliver 37 trillion cubic feet within 2 natural gas pipelines to
fuel the Athabasca Tar Sands Oil Development in Northern Alberta. For most
people, there is no knowledge out there that the tar sands development is
and will be the dirtiest and most destructive oil development known and it
will contribute devastatingly to more global climate change and impact the
face of the Arctic. Also the reason for all this is that Canada needs to
maintain its duties under the North American Free Trade Agreement for being
the #1 importer of Oil and Gas to the US, and not everyone knows that it's
not the Middle East that supplies the USA but Canada.

In the next few weeks there will be a sponsored event at the Smithsonian
Folk Life Festival will be held on the Mall in Washington, DC. One of the
main exhibits will highlight the "productiveness" of the oil and gas
industry in Alberta. They will be showcasing how the Tar Sands will be a
good thing for the economy, for the international relation between the
United States and Canada, and of course to benefit more to the oil
corporations. This exhibit will be a sponsored event by governments and big
oil groups, and will take place between the dates of June 30th to July 11th,
2006. You can be assured they will NOT mention the Environmental impact and
human impact this will entail to the arctic and importantly, to the world.
At the same time, leadership bodies within the Canadian governments and
pro-developers will be lobbying congress for support and will be conducting
sponsored events at the Canadian Embassy. We are in a position where we can
make a strong stand and raise the issue of climate change to the next level.
By looking at dates and availabilities of some key action members, the dates
that we are looking at for demonstrations will be July 5-7th.

Now, there has been a call out by several organizations willing to
counteract this by going to DC to protest and build a stronger message about
this devastating action. Our organization has recently been given support by
Oil Change International, Rainforest Action Network, and The Ruckus Society
to send in an action team to work in DC and I am definitely going to
represent our organization and prepare for our actions. There will be others
from Alberta and the Arctic that will be going down to participate at a
later date.

I am asking you to please, please support us by either participating with us
or sending this message out to folks who can join us. I realize that this is
very last minute but we are in need of strong allies willing to join us in
our stand. We are working in collaboration with the Natural Resources
Defense Council to organize things on the ground and many, many groups are
coming out to support. Please get in touch with me if you are interested in
helping in any way that is possible. If you are in the bay area, there will
be some folks volunteering to make banners within the next few days to send
out to DC for us. Let me know if you are interested.

Mussi Cho/Haih K'eh- Thank You

Elaine Alexie
Founder and Director
Arctic Indigenous Alliance
510.495.7064






Angela Sterritt
   Gitxsan Nation/Irish
   “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from 
mediocre minds” -Einstein


  		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
  Next-gen email? Have it all with the  all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope
    --Bertholt Brecht.