[opirgyork] Your Solidarity Needed for Idle No More

[OPIRG York]

*What is Idle No More? *

Idle No More calls on all people to join in a revolution which honors and
fulfills Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water.
Colonization continues through attacks to Indigenous rights and damage to
the land and water. We must repair these violations, live the spirit and
intent of the treaty relationship, work towards justice in action, and
protect Mother Earth.
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*Read more here: *
*idlenomore.ca* <http://idlenomore.ca>
*Media co-op Idle No More Page*<http://www.mediacoop.ca/index.php?q=idlenomore>
*Idle No More - Facebook* <http://www.facebook.com/IdleNoMoreCommunity>
*Idle No More Facebook - Toronto*<http://www.facebook.com/idlenomoretoronto>
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*Rail Blockade needs your help!*
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**OPIRG York stands with the c*itizens of the Aamjiwnaang, who are
blockading a CN rail line through their territory, as part of the Idle No
More indigenous protest movement.** **Please donate funds and mail cheques
to Ron Plain, ** **256 Essex street** Sarnia, Ontario, Canada N7T 4S2** **

Below are two messages from Ron Plain of Aamjiwnaang First Nation on the
blockade**. Also below, please read Naomi Klein’s excellent article,“*As
Chief Spence starves, Canadians awaken from idleness and remember their
roots”. *
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**The Aamjiwnaang IDLE NO MORE Rail Blockade needs your help!*
*by Ron Plain*
For several years I have been speaking to groups of like minded people
throughout North America. Once finished, many people ask "How Can I Help?"
Well I now have an answer to that question.

Aamjiwnaang is in the 5th day of its blockade of a rail line that runs
through the community into Chemical Valley [Sarnia]. This very important
line does not service agri nor the general public but exclusively Chemical
Valley. A visiting Member of Parliment, Frank Valeriote (Liberal Guelph),
stated that these trains wouldn’t be allowed through any other community
for the toxins they carry through Aamjiwnaang.

Our demands are simple but lengthening as this drags on. We want a meeting
to HAVE happened between the Crime Minister and Chief Theresa Spence. We
want action from that meeting, not promises, then lies once the blockade
comes down.

I have been asked about donations from afar. Yes the Youth have decided to
accept donations, email me at Ronplain at mail.com for account numbers. We
need warm clothing and such for the volunteers. We need wifi access at the
blockade to stream 24/7 so you can communicate with the volunteers. We need
a means to cook and reheat food, (Winter provides the fridge). We need
people, so please drop by and say hello. Finally we need to have people
tell the truth about IDLE NO MORE!
Thank You.
Ron Plain

*Aamjiwnaang citizens state their demands
Calling all allies!!*
*Support the Aamjiwnaang #IdleNoMore Blockade!*

Following a community meeting this morning, and a meeting with the Mayor of
Sarnia, Chief of Police and CN Rail representative, citizens of Aamjiwnaang
have determined to maintain the blockade until community demands are met.
Aamjiwnaang citizens are calling on all allies to come support the
blockade. Bring WARM clothes and good intentions. Accepting food, wood and
warm clothes donations.

*Aamjiwnaang Citizens agreed to the following demands*
1. Letters of support from the Mayor of Sarnia, CN Rail, MP Pat Davidson,
and industry telling Harper to meet with Chief Spence.
2. We will consider leaving when this meeting has taken place.
3. That Harper respect and consult on a nation-to-nation basis.

More details:
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/hwdvideoshare/?task=viewvideo&video_id=75285
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*As Chief Spence starves, Canadians awaken from idleness and remember their
roots**.

*By Naomi Klein
*Source: The First
Pespective<http://www.firstperspective.ca/news/2730-as-chief-spence-starves-canadians-awaken-from-idleness-and-remember-their-roots>
*
I woke up just past midnight with a bolt. My six-month-old son was crying.
He has a cold – the second of his short life–and his blocked nose frightens
him. I was about to get up when he started snoring again. I, on the other
hand, was wide awake.

A single thought entered my head: Chief Theresa Spence is hungry. Actually
it wasn’t a thought. It was a feeling. The feeling of hunger. Lying in my
dark room, I pictured the chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation lying on a
pile of blankets in her teepee across from Parliament Hill, entering day 14
of her hunger strike.

I had of course been following Chief Spence’s protest and her demand to
meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the plight of her people
and his demolition of treaty rights through omnibus legislation. I had
worried about her. Supported her. Helped circulate the petitions. But now,
before the distancing filters of light and reason had a chance to
intervene, I felt her. The determination behind her hunger. The radicality
of choosing this time of year, a time of so much stuffing – mouths, birds,
stockings – to say: I am hungry. My people are hungry. So many people are
hungry and homeless. Your new laws will only lead to more of this misery.
Can we talk about it like human beings?

Lying there, I imagined another resolve too – Prime Minister Harper’s.
Telling himself: I will not meet with her. I will not cave in to her. I
will not be forced to do anything.

Mr. Harper may relent, scared of the political fallout from letting this
great leader die. I dearly hope he does. I want Chief Spence to eat. But I
won’t soon forget this clash between these two very different kinds of
resolve, one so sealed off, closed in; the other cracked wide open, a
conduit for the pain of the world.

But Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also
speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is
over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people,
places and principles that we love.

This message is a potent gift. So is the Idle No More movement – its name
at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle
self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more.

The greatest blessing of all, however, is indigenous sovereignty itself. It
is the huge stretches of this country that have never been ceded by war or
treaty. It is the treaties signed and still recognized by our courts. If
Canadians have a chance of stopping Mr. Harper’s planet-trashing plans, it
will be because these legally binding rights – backed up by mass movements,
court challenges, and direct action will stand in his way. All Canadians
should offer our deepest thanks that our indigenous brothers and sisters
have protected their land rights for all these generations, refusing to
turn them into one-off payments, no matter how badly they were needed.
These are the rights Mr. Harper is trying to extinguish now.

During this season of light and magic, something truly magical is
spreading. There are round dances by the dollar stores. There are drums
drowning out muzak in shopping malls. There are eagle feathers upstaging
the fake Santas. The people whose land our founders stole and whose culture
they tried to stamp out are rising up, hungry for justice. Canada’s roots
are showing. And these roots will make us all stand stronger.
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