[IPSM] July 1: The Real National Day of Action & Resistance

[nora butler burke]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[noborder-org] July 1: The Real National Day of Action & 
Resistance
Date: 	Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:13:40 -0700 (PDT)



The Real National Day of Action & Resistance
ANTI-CANADA DAY
July 1st 2007!

While the collaborator chiefs of the Assembly of First Nations plan to
march, acquire corporate donations and access government funds on June
29th (http://www.afn.ca/nda/wcid.htm), other groups are calling on
Indigenous people and their allies to take grassroots ACTION on Canada day
- the day that symbolizes epic state atrocities and oppression against
Indigenous people, including: genocide, land theft and
occupation, brutality, violence and abuse, and mass child apprehension and
deaths.

•	Today, Canada continues its program of assault on Indigenous people. The
state imprisonment and death of Elder and Warrior Harriet Nahanee is one
of many examples of the state's vile mistreatment of Indigenous people, in
particular those who expose and dissent Canada's illegal theft and
occupation of Indigenous lands. Harriet was a 72-year old Pacheedaht
grandmother, married into the Skwxwu7mesh Nation, who was arrested and
imprisoned for protecting the Eagle Ridge Bluff site that is slated to be
destroyed in the expansion of the Sea-to-Sky Highway for the 2010
Olympics. Despite her frail health, Harriet was sentenced to fourteen days
at the Surrey Pretrial center; a men's prison and notorious hell hole.
While in jail, where she was inflicted with
abuse, and not given proper medical care in a cell with tens of other
inmates subject to racist treatment, Harriet Nahanee contracted
pneumonia. After one week of release from custody, she was
hospitalized and passed away within a week. Harriet represents
hundreds of other Indigenous people who are criminalized and abused by the
Canadian state when they choose to stand up against and not
assimilate into Canadian capitalist society.

•	Harriet was well known for her use of the Royal Proclamation to
explain how unceded Indigenous lands are illegally occupied and
governed by the Canadian government. The Canadian and provincial
governments continue to attempt to extinguish Aboriginal title and rights
(through litigation and the BC treaty process), dispossess
Indigenous people from their lands, and destroy traditional
territories through mega-development projects.

•	There are over 500 murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Canada, yet
Canada does not acknowledge this as a 'Justice file,' or as the
responsibility of the justice system. Instead, the unjust deaths are
treated as 'cultural,' and put under a 'Canadian Heritage file.' Where do
the AFN collaborator chiefs stand on this issue? Where were they at the
Pickton trial? Why do they not mention Aboriginal women on their Day of
Action?

•	Today, there has been more Indigenous children in foster and state
(MCFD) care today then there ever was in residential school (tens of
thousands of Indigenous people who were forced in residential school are
now filing legal cases against the church and state of Canada). This
should be alarming as the number of Indigenous people in abusive and
assimilating residential schools (which instituted cultural
genocide and slave labor) was immense. Children continue to die and be
sexually and physically abused in MCFD care today, as well as
suffering further isolation from their cultural roots.

•	Everyday in Canada, hundreds of incidents of police brutality
against Indigenous people, namely youth, take place. Police and RCMP in
Prince George and other areas have sexually assaulted Indigenous girls,
police and RCMP have run Indigenous youth over with their cars in northern
communities and other areas, and police and RCMP have
murdered many Indigenous people all over Canada (starlight tours,
deaths in custody, shooting to death, tazering to death, beating to death,
etc.).

•	Canada remains one of the only countries that does NOT have an
independent body to investigate police and RCMP brutality, murders and
hate crimes. Instead they investigate themselves, and as a result many
police and RCMP literally get away with murder. When Pivot Legal
Society announced the completion of its report, including affidavits
documenting police brutality and violence, the police chief (Jamie Graham)
just simply "retired."

•	Vancouver BC's hosting of the 2010 Olympics has already aggravated
Canada's abject poverty and homelessness that Indigenous people are
overrepresented with. The estimated number of homeless persons in
Canada ranges from 100,000 to 250,000, 25-30% which are Indigenous people.
Due to skyrocketing housing prices and a lack of affordable housing and
social housing (more focus is made on accommodating hungry visitors
(tourists)), the number of homeless people will surely rise during the
lead up to the 2010 games.

Canada's Dirty History is Repeating Itself...
REFUSE TO ACCEPT YOUR OPPRESSION!

ANTI-CANADA DAY
JULY 1st, 2007

THE REAL NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION & RESISTANCE

Refuse to Accept:

*The unjust state death of Elder and Warrior Harriet Nahanee
*Over 500 murdered and missing Indigenous women
*Theft and occupation of Indigenous lands
*Child apprehension of Indigenous children
*Police, state and military violence and brutality
*Abject poverty with thousands Homeless
*Criminalization of dissent

Meet at Grandview Park (at Commercial Drive) at 1pm, March to follow For
more information contact: anti.canada.day at gmail.com


Take Action in your own communities!
Let the AFN collaborator chiefs know they don't represent you!
Let Canada know you reject their program of assault!
Native People rise up and take back the land!