[IPSM] Support Six Nations: call for letters, write today!
nora butler burke
nora-b at riseup.net
Mon Sep 18 07:25:38 PDT 2006
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From: Zainab [mailto:amadahy at rogers.com
<http://us.f546.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=amadahy@rogers.com&YY=32804&order=down&sort=date&pos=0>]
Sent: September 18, 2006 7:58 AM
Subject: FW: Support Six Nations: Call for Letters: Write Today!
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SUPPORT SIX NATIONS: CALL FOR LETTERS
WRITE TO FEDERAL AND PROVINCIAL NEGOTIATORS/LEADERS TODAY!
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Please read a recent update from the Reclamation Site, Six Nations.
Scroll down to find out how to support this urgent request for letters.
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1. RECENT UPDATE FROM HAZEL HILL
Kanonhstaton, September 7th, 2006
Good Morning from Grand River.
The sun has just peaked over the tree line and the world is looking
beautiful and serene. Inside my house everyone is busy getting ready
for school and work. Bus schedules are getting used to and the need of
school fee's for art, drama, science, music etc. is being discussed
while lunches are being prepared. That little glance outside is a
gentle reminder, and helps bring about the balance inside of me, for the
sometime chaos we feel in life. But that is the type of chaos we would
never do without. The simplist things in life that might at times feel
like chaos, but they are exactly what and who makes this life
worthwhile. Our children, and the time that we get to spend with
them. The time that while we may think we're teaching them all the
valuable lessons in life, they are in fact teaching us. As I watch
them go off to school and think about the sacrifices even they are
making for the future of our people, I am filled with pride but also
sorrow. How much of 'our'
time has been taken away for meetings and interviews and time spent on
site. In the end when we talk about it, we can all agree that we would
have it no other way.
Yes, school is back in and all of the concerns about the school nearest
the reclamation site have been voiced, from parents who feel threatened
by our presence, to others who claim the terrorism and violence has put
the fear of life into their children. But when the school bell rings,
and the silence echoes through the site and school yard, i have to
wonder what exactly is there to fear. I was always told the only thing
to fear, is fear itself..........and of course the boogey man. I never
once thought that I was going to be the boogey man! The fact of the
matter is, the boogey man is being created in the minds of a few who, like
when we were children, let their imaginations get the better of them,
start telling their friends the made up stories in their head, they in
turn tell their friends, who tell their friends, and so on until pretty
soon the story is has now become quite a tale and is presented as
factual and posted on their blog site. What makes it worse, is people
also report to newspapers as if it were facts and rather than check it
out or try to verify it, the papers run it! We had our side table
talks interrupted on Tuesday because the minister was scrummed' with
gossip about the school yard fence that was being built having been
halted because the workers were threatened by the people on the site.
But action on the site spoke a different story. The workers were busy
cementing in the posts, police were on hand watching the work progress,
and our security went over to verify that none of the workers had been
bothered and to make sure everything was ok. The newspaper who printed
the story about work being stopped obviously didn't go and gather the
facts, they printed what was going to sell their papers. And that has
been what we've been dealing with since the reclamation began. No
matter how we try to get the truth from our perspective out there, we
are overwhelmed with gossip, rumours and fairy tales about how the poor
people of Caledonia have had enough of the noise, lights and visibility
of those 'terrorists' or 'occupiers' at the site.
Gossip and rumours.
These are the things that hamper our daily lives. But it is also what
has plagued the actual Truth about the reclamation from being printed,
and unfortunately, it is also what that the three panel of judges will
be looking at when it is determined whether or not the appeal should be
granted. And that my friends, is exactly what is being counted on. If
the judges squash the appeal because of whats being printed, then the
negotiation process has in effect been stopped, and it is only a matter
of time before the opp or whatever armed force is ordered to remove us
from our land.
I want to take a minute to share a bit of what hasn't been printed and
what is really going on. Last Thursday, Ministers Ramsay and Prentice
released a joint letter, through the media, to Chief Alan MacNaughton
and our Confederacy Council demanding that the atv's stop, the noise
stop, the fireworks stop and the lights stop at the site. It was a
political tactic to gain votes, but it was also a tactic to give the
impression to the rest of the world watching that this is actually what
is happening on the site, continuously! First of all, the men and
women's council at Kanonhstaton have already reduced patrols, have been
respectful of neighbours, have pretty much respected and addressed
every concern that is brought to our attention by the OPP or the
provincial and federal reps at the negotiating table and we do so
immediately. We have counselled over many issues, and have even had to
ask some of our own people who have violated that peace to remove
themselves from the site. We are doing our best to conduct ourselves
in accordance of the Kaienerekowah.
But what happens when our concerns are put to the other side. Who
brings those people to task? Since the release of the ministers letter
which in effect threatens the peaceful negotiation process on Thursday,
we have been on a continual yellow alert. Friday night we received a
telephone call from the OPP advising us that two busloads of
non-supporters were headed our way from Hamilton. Caledonia residents
were shooting off fireworks randomly, and people began gathering at the
Canadian Tire plaza and Tim Hortons again. Saturday night it was
pretty much the same with a report of 40 or more carloads of people
threatening similar action. An Onkwehonweh couple who stopped in at
Tim Hortons for an evening cup of tea which they were trying to enjoy
in their vehicle, had a woman with a video camera in their face
presumably to get 'evidence' that they were somehow threatening their
lives by being there, and another Onkwehonweh woman who was trying to
enjoy a meal in Ancaster overheard a conversation of another non-native
party who mentioned 'give me 15 good men and there won't be an Indian
problem and I have my alibi because my wife will verify that I was home
all evening'.
Around the same time, the Globe and Mail runs a story in which
Caledonia resident Steven Tong was quoted as saying that he has his gun
out with the safety off, ready to use it on the protestors at the
site. Meantime, Mayor Trainer is on national televsion stating that
two women from Haldimand Township come into her office making a similar
statement about the use of weapons if the government isn't going to
remove the people from the site, they will. Exactly who is threatening
the safety of the people not only on the site, but also the children
that they claim to be protecting and the people in their neighbourhood.
And again, who is taking these people to task for their threats. The
threat of violence is real, but it is not coming from the people on the
site. The ministers who jointly made the demands of our confederacy
council had better take a look in their own backyard and get that
message out to their own people including MP's such as Toby Barrett who
I understand was right amongst the people who were gathering on the
week-end to take matters into their own hands.
Which brings me to a request from Kanonhstaton. We're asking all of
you who are supporting the PEACEful negotiation process, to bombard all
of your MP's offices, the Ministers' offices, the Prime Minsters
office, the lead negotiators Jane Stewart and Barbara McDougal, and any
and all government offices including the Governor General and the
Queen, with letters demanding that these threats of violence by
Caledonia citizens and their supporters be addressed, and that Canada
uphold their responsibilities to the Treaties that have been handed
them through the Crown. The reclamation of our land and all of the
fraudulent land transfers and sales of Onkwehonweh land will only be
addressed if the people of Canada and all of our world wide support
demand that Canada take responsibility for its' actions.
We didn't create the situation, we are only trying to rectify it, for
our children and future generations. We have taken action and have
re-claimed land that is rightfully ours. We are there in Peace, and
have been since February 28th. Now that the Crown has finally
recognized and agreed that the land at Kanonhstaton is in fact on the
table and needs to be addressed, they also need to hear from their
constituents that so too is the honour of the Crown. Will Canada allow
the hatred and violent displays of racism of its citizens to continue
and possibly create another Ipperwash, or will it use the lessons of
the past to ensure that the violence stops and admit to their citizens
that it is through their own actions and abuse of assumed power that we
are in this situation today.
In Peace, Love and Light,
Hazel
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2. LETTERS NEEDED! PLEASE WRITE TODAY!
Scroll down for the sample letter.
To voice your concerns send an email, phone or fax:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Email: pm at pm.gc.ca
<http://us.f546.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=pm@pm.gc.ca&YY=84276&order=down&sort=date&pos=0>
Jim Prentice, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and
Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians
Parliament Hill:
House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-4275
Fax: (613) 947-9475
Email: Prentice.J at parl.gc.ca
<http://us.f546.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Prentice.J@parl.gc.ca&YY=84276&order=down&sort=date&pos=0>
Barbara McDougall, Federal Negotiator
Former Cabinet Minister
c/o Stephen Harper
Jane Stewart
Provincial Negotiator, Province of Ontario
Former Brantford MP and former Federal Indian Affairs Minister c/o
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building, Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1A1
Phone Number: (416) 325-1941
Fax Number: (416) 325-3745
Email: Dalton.McGuinty at premier.gov.on.ca
<http://us.f546.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca&YY=84276&order=down&sort=date&pos=0>
Find and contact your own MP:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?Language=E&source=sm
SAMPLE LETTER
To: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Jim Prentice, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and
Federal Interlocutor for Metis and Non-Status Indians
I am writing to urge you to address the threats of violence being posed
by Caledonia citizens and their supporters against the peaceful land
reclamation taken by the people of Six Nations. In addition, I am
writing to demand that the Canadian government uphold its
responsibilities and return full title of Kanonhstaton (the Douglas
Creek Estates) to the people of Six Nations.
It is more than time that land claims put forward by First Nations
communities be addressed. In order to resolve the outstanding land
claims concerning the Onkwehonweh land (Haldimand Tract), full
negotiations with the Six Nations people, on a nation to nation basis,
must proceed immediately.
Hazel Hill, spokesperson for Six Nations, has stated: "We didn't create
the situation, we are only trying to rectify it, for our
children and future generations. We have taken action and have
re-claimed land that is rightfully ours. We are there in Peace, and
have been since February 28th... Will Canada allow the hatred and
violent displays of racisim of its citizens to continue and possibly
create another Ipperwash, or will it use the lessons of the past to
ensure that the violence stops and admit to their citizens that it is
through their own actions and abuse of assumed power that we are in this
situation today."
I strongly urge you to heed these words and take action to ensure a just
resolution to this issue in a swift and fair manner.
Sincerely,
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