[IPSM] [Fwd: Call to Block Railway Lines Across Canada]

[nora butler burke]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[colours] Call to Block Railway Lines Across Canada
Date: 	Mon, 2 Apr 2007 21:20:21 -0700 (PDT)



A Call to Block Railway Lines Across Canada    Grand Chief Chris Henderson
     Southern Chiefs Organization
     225-530 Century Street
     Winnipeg, MB
     R3H 0Y4

     March 31st 2007

     Dear Grand Chief

     Re: Emergency Treaty 1-11 Gathering, April 10th

 As Chairman I thank you for attending the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council
Chiefs meeting yesterday. DOTC will convene an emergency Treaty 1-11
gathering in Winnipeg on April 10th 2007. We thank SCO for agreeing to
help coordinate that meeting.

 The National Day of Protest set for June 29th 2007 was passed by
resolution of the Chiefs at the December 2006 Assembly of First Nations
Ottawa summit. AFN represents over 600 First Nations in Canada. The
response from the Conservative government of Canada to this planned
national day of protest is to threaten the First Nations.
    Our national Assembly of First Nations and our provincial
organization, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and regional political
organizations are funded by the government and vulnerable to cuts. The
reality however is that the federal and provincial governments receive
far more benefits, literally hundreds and hundreds of billions of
dollars from the resource sales from the traditional territories of
Treaties 1-11. Immigrant Canadians get hundreds of billions of dollars
each year from the sale of resources taken from our lands.
    At this gathering, we as First Nations will respond to the Federal
Government threats. We ask that each Treaty First Nation bring its
written list of grievances and treaty violations to put into a
document to be presented to Canada. We will invite the Canadian
National and Canadian Pacific Railway companies to listen to the
Treaty First Nations. We will present the railway companies with those
treaty violations. The railway companies have already each written to
the Conservative government asking for Canada to resolve the issues
with First Nations so that business is not interrupted by protest. The
reason we would present these lists of treaty violations to the
railway companies is to legally warn them that their right to benefit
and use of our traditional treaty territory is in jeopardy.
    Canadian National Railway tried to get injunctive relief from the
courts last year and testified that they stand to lose at least 27
million dollars a day in revenue from a 24 hour railway blockade. That
estimate from CN is only for a Manitoba blockade and is only the
losses to CN, it does not include the losses to CP or the companies
that both rail companies transport goods and services for.
    A national day of protest that includes shutting down railway lines
across Canada even for one day is an economic disaster of huge
consequences for all Canadians. Last year although we did not do the
one-day railway blockade as planned, the courts did however refuse to
grant CN the injunctive relief it was seeking. Minister of Indian
Affairs Jim Prentice asked for more time, we gave him that time.
    If the Treaty terms and conditions have not been fulfilled, we as
Treaty First Nations are the only indigenous people capable legally to
deny the right of immigrants to our lands, the right to use and
benefit from our treaty traditional territory. That obligation, the
lawful obligation (as recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada) for
the treaties rests entirely with the Crown as represented by the
federal government of Canada. In my response letter to CN's letter to
Prentice which I attach for you, I stated to CN.
    While I thank you for your letter, I of course don't agree with CN's
position that they are "an innocent third party" because we see
clearly the billions and billions of dollars of resource wealth that
CN transports every year from lands that the indigenous people have
never relinquished or only gave conditional access to.
    In order to legally block railway lines, Treaty First Nations must
first declare the Treaties to be in jeopardy as a direct result of the
failure of the Crown in fulfilling the lawful obligations that the
immigrant government has to the treaty terms and conditions. We must
have those written violations from each Treaty 1-11 First Nations in a
document on April 10th 2007.
    My personal goal is to have the Treaty 1-11 First Nations jointly
demand that CN and CP voluntarily cease operations for 24 hours on
June 29 or face the threat of month long roving blockades across our
treaty territories.

 Canadian Industry, such as CN, CP, Enbridge and most of the oil companies
have all sent letters or voiced concerns to the federal government of
Canada to take seriously the legal responsibility to sit down with the
First Nations and resolve these matters. So far, all the Conservatives
have done is threaten the First Nations.

 On April 10th, I will bring to the attention of the Treaty 1-11 First
Nations other options including some very serious legal help from south
of the border. We all know that the courts in Canada, including the
Supreme Court of Canada have clearly decided in numerous cases the
explicit responsibility, the duty of the Crown to negotiate, to consult
and come to agreement with the indigenous people on developments within
the traditional territories of the original owners of the land. The
effect of development within the Tar Sands, the environmental devastation
is cause for indigenous people to sue the Crown for those losses. This
legal action can occur not only in Canada but the indigenous people can
follow the sales of their property into the states.

     Oil companies and lumber companies operating in Canada need to take
serious attention to this.

 Please send this letter to the technical working group of Treaty 1-11 at
the scheduled meeting in Saskatoon next week. The techs must prepare the
documents needed for each Treaty First Nation that attends the emergency
summit on April 10th.

 I attach for you, the letter I sent to CN. I will draft a Roseau River's
list of treaty violations. This will be Roseau River's version, it will
only be a draft, one that other First Nations may use or disregard when
they make their own list of treaty violations.

 It is sad, that the new government of Canada has set a course for
confrontation with the indigenous people. I had hoped that the Minister
of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice had heard the frustration we voiced at the
July 4th 2006 meeting in Calgary.

     The Globe and Mail just reported that

 Radical natives are included on the same list as the Tamil Tigers and
Hezbollah in a new counterinsurgency manual being prepared for the
Canadian army.

     The manual is in the final stages of preparation, but The Globe and
Mail has obtained an early version of the document.
 The draft outlines tactics, including ambush, deception and killing,
which the military could use both at home and abroad against military
opponents.
 If Americans don't take this situation seriously, they face heavy losses
in Canada. American companies, especially those who are financed in
publicly traded stocks from the stock market will be hit very hard even
greater than what happened in Mexico in 1994. We need to ensure that the
treaty First Nations realize that the April 10th meeting is an emergency
meeting, one we must be prepared for.

     Mii-gwetch!

     Sincerely

     Chief Terrance Nelson
     Chairman for DOTC Council of Chiefs