[mobglob-discuss] Fwd: [yorkfs] **6:30 PM FRI. DEMO IN SUPPORT OF SIX NATIONS (T.O.)**

[Graeme Bacque]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[yorkfs] **6:30 PM FRI. DEMO IN SUPPORT OF SIX NATIONS (T.O.)**
Date: 	Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:29:30 -0700
From: 	dfm at riseup.net
Reply-To: 	yorkfs at yahoogroups.ca
To: 	dfm at riseup.net



*Please forward widely.*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


****************************************************
RALLY AGAINST COLONIALISM AND
IN SUPPORT OF THE SIX NATIONS BLOCKADE:
Minister of Indian Affairs Jim Prentice speaking in Toronto!
****************************************************
This Friday, April 28
6:30pm at U of T, King's College Circle
(in the field north of College St., west of University Ave.)
****************************************************

For almost 60 days now, the community of the Six Nations Haudensaunee 
Confederacy has held a blockade to defend land that is rightfully theirs 
from further encroachment by real estate developers and the Canadian 
government. Last Thursday, OPP forces mounted a pre-dawn raid to assault 
those taking this stand, deploying cops with guns drawn to pepper spray, 
beat and arrest community members. The government had hoped to remove 
resistance to the development of Six Nations land by real estate 
developer Henco Industries Ltd. The Six Nations community mobilized in 
response and drove the OPP out. The community's determination to assert 
its national sovereignty and legitimate treaty rights, like the blockade 
itself, has only strengthened since.

Audaciously, less than a week after this unprovoked attack, the Harper 
government's Minister of Indian Affairs is speaking in Toronto on the 
topic of "Native Self-Government." No First Nations leader has 
authorized Minister Jim Prentice to speak on this topic, and it is an 
issue that he clearly does not understand in even the most basic terms. 
In fact, since Ontario's McGuinty government has actively distanced 
itself from these OPP actions, the possibility that federal hands were 
in on this operation is a very real one. Meanwhile, the threat of 
possible RCMP or military intervention continues to hang over the Six 
Nations community. The government of Minister Prentice and Prime 
Minister Harper still refuses to uphold its treaty obligations and 
respect the legitimate leadership of First Nations people. Until they 
do, there is nothing Jim Prentice can say that is worth listening to.

It is imperative that this government understand that people will not 
tolerate further attacks on the sovereignty of the Six Nations 
Haudensaunee Confederacy or other First Nations communities. Come out 
this Friday to join in sending this message, and talk to friends and 
allies to ensure that we do so in the maximum numbers possible. 
Solidarity actions and demonstrations have already been organized in 
Tyendinaga, Kahnawake, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and elsewhere. But 
the Canadian government remains two-faced, and especially given the 
underlying racism of last Monday's demonstration in Caledonia, it is 
extremely crucial that solidarity activities spread.

For more information, call 416-997-1562 or email:
amadahy at rogers.com / ocap at tao.ca

For quality, up to date information regarding the Six Nations struggle, see:
http://sisis.nativeweb.org/actionalert/index.html


(If you get the chance, also weigh in on the online poll at 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 


*BACKGROUND*

On March 3rd, 2006, members of the Rotinoshon’non:we <“Iroquois”) people 
set up camp on the Haldimand Tract, located at the entrance to Douglas 
Creek Estates, a 71-lot subdivision under construction by Henco 
Industries Ltd. on Six Nations territory.

This land has at no point been surrendered to Canada, and was formally 
recognized by the Crown as Six Nations territory as part of the 1784 
Haldimand Deed. The Plank Road Tract was subsequently registered as a 
land claim with the federal government in 1987. The Six Nations, in 
their submissions to Ottawa, stated that the reserve was never properly 
compensated for land sold to non-natives and land that was taken to 
build the Hamilton to Port Dover Plank Road. The Six Nations reserve now 
covers less than 5 per cent of the original tract of six miles each side 
of the Grand River from the mouth to the source. Meanwhile, the province 
of Ontario passed legislation allowing this tract of land to be 
developed as part of a scheme to draw 4 million settlers into the Golden 
Horseshoe area.

Henco Industries successfully obtained a court injunction last month to 
have members of Six Nations who are camped out on the territory forcibly 
removed by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). A revised injunction 
issued by an Ontario Supreme Court Judge on March 28th states that those 
who refuse to vacate the property are guilty of criminal and civil 
contempt, and will be fingerprinted and photographed as part of a 
probation order. In delivering his judgment, Provincial Court Judge 
David Marshall said this to the Clan Mothers: “What’s the matter with 
you people? Why don’t you forget all about the past and listen to me?” 
On the evacuation deadline date issued by Justice Marshall, there were 
roughly 300-500 people lined up at the road in support of the Six 
Nations. The Clan Mothers held an action that had 50 women blocking the 
construction crews from building.

In the face of mounting police presence at Six Nations – including two 
dozen marked and unmarked police vehicles parked outside a nearby 
elementary school currently being used as a command post, a number of 
police cruisers scattered throughout the neighbouring town of Caledonia, 
and scores of undercover officers around the periphery of the Six 
Nations reserve – and a mobilization of the state reminiscent of the 
lead-up to the murder of Dudley George by the OPP at Ipperwash in 1995, 
the Clan Mothers and Six Nations community have requested solidarity in 
their struggle to affirm their inherent right to self-determination and 
sovereignty on the land. "Canada must stop using guns to resolve its 
legal disputes with the indigenous people," states Jacqueline House.

The clan mothers have mostly recently issued the following statement:

/The Women, being Title Holders to all lands of Turtle Island, assert 
our constitutional jurisdiction over the Haldimand Tract. We have never 
and cannot ever give up our land or our sovereignty./

/1. The Six Nations are distinct original nations. We are to be dealt 
with on a nation-to-nation basis by the Crown and all other nations./

/2. The Crown must respect our original relationship as set out in the 
Two Row Wampum, our jurisdiction as provided in our constitution, the 
Kaiannereh’ko:wa, and as respected by Sections 109 and 132 of the BNA 
Act, 1867 and according to international covenants that Canada has signed./

/3. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis, as was the 
custom before Canada separated from the British Empire. Respect for the 
independent international status of the Six Nations by Canada was 
established before Canada achieved recognition as a state or gained the 
ability to sign treaties on its own. The independent international
identity of the Six Nations identity has never been legally extinguished./

/4. The band councils were established with procedures that violated 
international law. They continue to function as colonizing institutions. 
We have never consented to their establishment nor their representing us./

/5. Canada and all its politicians, bureaucrats, agents, assignees and 
appointees should cease and desist immediately their attempt to 
criminalize and apprehend our people for defending what is rightfully 
ours, the land to which we hold title. Any further action by Canada, 
Ontario and their agents shall be viewed as being a direct violation of
the Two Row Wampum, the constitutional accord between the Ratino’shon:ni 
and Canada and international law./

/6. The claims of Canada and the province of Ontario to have a right to 
legislate for the Rotino’shon:ni Six Nations and to grant private title 
to our land has no foundation in law.
/


For more background, see "Six Nations does not stand alone" (article)- 
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=10152


 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/yorkfs/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    yorkfs-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.ca

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://ca.yahoo.com/docs/info/tos.html
 






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/mobglob-discuss/attachments/20060426/56a76a1f/attachment.html>