[IPSM] Robideau Confronted in Vancouver

Sun Apr 1 14:02:49 PDT 2007

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Robideau Confronted in Vancouver
From:    "lyn highway"

* forward far and wide *

Report from: Friday March 30, 2007

Throughout this past week, Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice
front group ‘Indigenous Rights Action Project’ has been hosting a speaking
tour by Robert Robideau. Robideau is the current head of the Leonard
Peltier Defense Committee. He is also one of the two others arrested on
the same charges as Peltier, but were tried by a different judge and were
acquitted.

Robideau has been at the forefront of the US government’s pursuit of John
Graham for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash. Graham has been living
under house arrest in Vancouver since Dec. of 2003. He is appealing
the Canadian court’s order to extradite him to South Dakota to face trial.
One man, Arlo Looking Cloud has already been convicted and sentenced to
life in prison in an extremely faulty trial.

On Friday March 30, Robideau spoke at a meeting at UBC. A
small group (native and non-native) arrived to confront Robideau.

One Ojibwe woman walked up to where Robideau was sitting at the front of
the room and spat at his feet and called him a traitor and a rat.
She said to Robideau; “You are a collaborator with the US and Canadian
governments, you are a traitor to the indigenous resistance movement. You
are working with the FBI and their COINTELPRO operation to undermine
native
resistance. You bring shame to the history of AIM, which people currently
engaged in resistance rely on for inspiration. You are spreading
divisiveness, suspicion and demoralization.”

The woman read out a letter Leonard Peltier submitted to support John
Graham’s defense against extradition to the US. One woman in the audience
stood up and stated that she had received a letter from Peltier more
recently than the statement saying, “Don’t let what happen to me happen to
John Graham.”

Robideau approached the group, shoved one of them and was shoved back.

A man stood up and identified himself as Rex Weyler, author of the book
‘Blood of the Land.’ He confronted Robideau about his position
toward Graham and Robideau stated, “John Graham killed Anna-Mae Aquash”

Weyler pressed Robideau for evidence, and even though Robideau repeated
that he did have evidence, he refused to say what it was.

Aaron Mercredi of IRAP, called security to have the four people removed,
including a 10 year old girl. Security arrived, and with the support
of IRAP called in the RCMP.

Four RCMP pigs stood guard around Robideau. Mercredi scrambled to prevent
Robideau from further assaulting members of the audience in front of the
police.

The group told security and the pigs that they were leaving, and began to
exit the building. One woman who was holding the child’s hand was grappled
by police and thrown up against a wall and handcuffed. The police cuffed
another man and the 3rd woman and child managed to leave. Police
restrained the other two, preventing them from leaving the building
–threatening them with imprisonment and also threatened the woman with
tazers. After the pig’s ‘investigation’ the two were released without
charges. The woman’s hand was left bloody and swollen from the pig’s
deliberate grating of the handcuffs.

The obvious irony of this situation is that Leonard Peltier was arrested
31 years ago by the RCMP and based on fabricated evidence presented by the
FBI extradited him to the US, were he remains imprisoned to this day.The
RCMP is a violent and deadly force the colonial state uses to control and
repress indigenous resistance to colonization and genocide.

This group 'Fire This Time' did not hesistate to use the very same state
apparatus that oppresses indigenous peoples and destroys our lives. They
used the RCMP to defend themselves and others from simply hearing the
truth, or being confronted by thier own lies and treachery.

The very next day, along with Kelly White, Fire This Time used the
Aboriginal Policing Liason, a member of the VPD to bar and lock out 2
native women from the Friendship Centre while Robideau spoke inside. The
reason given was what had occured yesterday at UBC, even though one of the
women was not at the UBC event and arrived at the Friendship Centre
seperately.

"When I arrived at the Friendship Centre, I walked into the Simon Baker
Room and was immediately blocked by a large male member of Fire This Time
who attempted to initimidate me and physically prevent me from entering
the room. Kelly White then came up and pushed me out of the room with her
gut. I called her a rat right to her face. She tried to interrogate me on
my identity, but i told her i wasn't going to talk to a known police
informant -who had turned John Graham into the police. An unknown man, a
friend of White's then grabbed my wirst and tried to push me backwards.

They tried to get me to say that they might let me in the room if i
promised to respect the event, i said all i was going to do was hand out
pamphlets, but i was under no circumstances going to respect Robert
Robideau, who is a traitor to the indigenous resistance movement and
actively collaborating with the FBI to destroy John Graham and his family.

I also informed them that yesterday, i had left the meeting and was on my
way out of the building when the police detained and assaulted me in front
of my daughter. I said, 'I'm not the cause of this probelm, i am bringing
this problem out in the open to be dealt with.' I'm not going to sit back
and silently let a collaborator and a traitor speak unchallenged at a
public meeting while John Graham is confined under his thrid year of house
arrest.

I also said that yesterday, Robideau openly and directly accused John
Graham of murdering Anna-Mae Aquash, and that was abhorant behaviour
that should not go unchallenged. Members of Fire This Time then called
security.

There was a seperate event in the Gym, with the Aboriginal Policing
Liason, who interfered in the Robideau event and became a self appointed
bouncer, counselling the building manager on barring us from the building
and locking the doors. When i and my daughter were allowed by the building
manager to use the bathroom, a second VPD pig followed us to the bathroom
and waited outside the door for us. I told him he must be some kind of
pervert to follow a woman and her child to the bathroom."- Lyn Highway.

Fire This Time were quite happy to have the assistance of the VPD and
fully supportive of his interference in this native buisness at the Native
Friendship Centre. When confronted with barring natives from the
Friendship Centre later that evening, Ali, the leader of Fire This Time
said that being native doesn't matter, that this is an 'internationalist
struggle.'

Also, members of Fire This Time were shoving and pushing a 6months
pregnant woman when she attemted to interview Robideau on video in front
of the building.Other natives were also imtimidated from entering the
building by the locked doors and presence of the police.

Even though we made no attempts to re-enter the building, the VPD pig and
Shannon Boondock of Fire This Time continued to lock and unlock the doors
every time someone left and tried to direct people out the side doors to
prevent us from distribruting our information.

The following is a letter that was forwarded to me. I think this letter
demonstrates their manipulatative ways. And i think its fitting that a
group like Fire This Time, who have done nothing but perpetuate conflict
and division everywhere they go hook up with someone like Robert Robideau.
And what's with this insidious way of insinuating i'm an agent of the
state, as they  deliberately imply? Give me break, Robideau is the one who
is spearheading a campaign against another AIM member, and collaborating
with the US and Canadian colonialist governments, court systems, and
police agencies --in a campaign that was started by and perpetuated  by
the FBI and its COINTELPRO operation!

Lyn Highway April 1 2007

-------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 21:21:23 -0800

In Defense of Leonard Peltier!

This last February marked 31 years since Leonard
Peltier was apprehended in BC and extradited to the US
to face trial for the deaths of two FBI agents who had
engaged Leonard, along with other men and women of the
American Indian Movement, in a shoot-out on the
Jumping Bull compound of the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota. It has been 31 years that
Leonard has been unjustly incarcerated in the US
prison system.

31 years later and his case still provides inspiration
to all people who struggle against oppression and he
continues to commit himself to the struggle of
oppressed people, even behind prison bars.

This past week, there has been much work done in
Canada to support Leonard’s freedom. In Vancouver and
Victoria, already over 250 people have come out to
support the three speaking events and one fundraiser
so far. From Capilano College, to UVIC, to the
University of British Columbia and the Grandview
Legion, an incredible amount of interest was shown by
people and a desire to do anything that would help
free Leonard from the prison life that was imposed on
him. We would like to extend our thanks to members of
the Squamish, Tsartlip and Musqueam Nations who showed
their support for Leonard and hosted these events to
work towards his freedom.

However, this re-ignited campaign to free Leonard has
hit a minor obstacle in the Vancouver area that needs
to be addressed if we are going to continue to do the
important work of freeing our brother and warrior.
Yesterday, the speaking event at UBC was disrupted by
a small group of people who claimed to support Leonard
Peltier and who support John Graham. Acting like agent
provocateurs, they stormed in to the room after the
traditional Musqueam welcoming and began yelling
condemnations of the event and at the main speaker,
Bob Robideau. Bob had been invited up to Vancouver for
his long-standing role in the Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee, and for his direct connection with the case
as a co-defendant of Leonard’s in the shootout started
by two FBI agents in 1975. After the program of the
forum had been disrupted, Rex Weyler, who authored a
book “Blood of the Land” and presented himself as a
friend of John Graham, joined in the destructive
behaviour led by Lynn Highway and Mike Seale in order
to disrupt the event. Because of these actions, the
program of the forum was halted as the audience waited
for the intruders to finish making their statements.
After this group was gone, Rex remained in the room
and continued to disrupt the event.

Something that the people who took part in these
actions today need to realize is that the case of
Leonard Peltier and John Graham are separate and they
can’t try and hijack an action that is supporting
Leonard in order to get publicity for their own
campaign. Their actions today were directed against
Leonard Peltier, who still lingers in a US prison cell
after 31 years.

Whoever these people are, and whatever their agenda
is, they are ultimately only helping the colonial
governments of the US and Canada, their agents and
institutions, who are guilty for hundreds of years of
genocide against Native people. We can’t forget the
lessons from the 1970s and the tactics that the US
government used to try and destroy AIM; the COINTELPRO
tactics of disrupting legitimate events, and creating
slander campaigns against honest activists with the
intention of ruining their work and creating divisions
within the movement. What happened today is not in the
interest of our community and this CÖINTELPRÖ-style
attack is designed to destroy the spirit of resistance
that embodies warriors like Leonard Peltier. It is in
the interest of the state.

Many old supporters who have come from Leonard’s
original Defense committee in Canada have rejoined the
efforts, along with a younger generation, who are
excited to take on the work of freeing the man who is
a face to our struggle. We are joining the fighters in
the US and all over the world who are re-committing
themselves to the freedom of Leonard Peltier.

His freedom is our freedom,

Bob Robideau, co-director Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee
Aaron Mercredi, Indigenous Rights and Action Project

March 31st, 2007

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