[Org4j-announce] Trudeau's Labrador apology & the Muskrat Falls dam genocide

Sat Nov 25 05:42:31 PST 2017

*Trudeau's Labrador residential schools apology and the Muskrat Falls hydro
dam*

*Online version of this
article:http://www.mediacoop.ca/video/placeholder-until-nov-24-late-morning/36638
<http://www.mediacoop.ca/video/placeholder-until-nov-24-late-morning/36638> *

========== please forward and share ===========

On the eve of Justin Trudeau travelling to Happy Valley Goose Bay, Labrador
to present his government's apology to the residential school survivors of
Labrador and Newfoundland, a public event in Ottawa addressed the current
genocidal actions of the federal and provincial governments in their role
with the Muskrat Falls hydro dam mega-project there.

*Transcript of the short-version video of highlights from Kelly Morrissey
speaking in Ottawa:*

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfYWgpNJ44A
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfYWgpNJ44A> *

"And it is the eve of Justin Trudeau going to my hometown to apologize to
residential school survivors, and there are members of my family who have
gone to residential school; the first person who comes to my mind is my
grandmother. It's very difficult - and you'll have to forgive my emotional
response, or not, because I'm not sorry for it - as this is somthing that's
impacted multiple generations of my family. I'm a Nunatsiavummiuk Inuk
woman from Labrador, I was born and raised for the most part in Happy
Valley Goose Bay and my family line comes from Rigolet."

"The real issue at hand here is that the government, at multiple levels, is
responsible for funding a project that is poisoning Indigenous people in
Canada's north, as well as settlers that live there."

"Justin Trudeau, in referencing Muskrat Falls directly, has said he wants
his relationship with Indigenous people to be based on science. Well, we
have the best scientists in the world [ie at Harvard] on the case, and
you're still not buying it. The only thing you're buying is an additional
loan guarantee - you're giving that to the government of Newfoundland and
Labrador in order to continue this project that is creating cultural
genocide on my people as well as others, in other groups."

"Take a moment to imagine if this was impacting you, if you had to question
what you are going to eat, if you couldn't do the things that your mothers
and your grandparents and your fathers and your aunts and uncles always
did, those thing that define you."

While the residential schools of the Canadian government fit with part 'E'
of the definition of what constitutes genocide, as per the United Nations'
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide -
"Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group" - the
current Muskrat Falls hydro dam developmenet project can be seen to fit
under part 'C' of the definition of genocide: "Deliberately inflicting on
the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part."

*Genocide Convention http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
<http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html> *

This can be understood further from the extended-version video of the
highlights of Kerry Morrissey's talk, and even further through the full
panel discussion that also included Newfoundland-born Emily Philpot, a
researcher at the University of Toronto, and Matthew Behrens, a long-time
social justice activist who is one of the lead non-Labradorian organizers
working in solidarity with the land defenders in Labrador (there had also
been a similar panel discussion the night before in Perth Ontario, that
also featured Mireille Lapointe, former co-chief of the Ardoch Algonquin
First Nation who helped fight uranium mining a decade ago in their
territory of Eastern Ontario.)

*Extended version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDuYsxAanc
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDuYsxAanc> Full video November 23
https://www.facebook.com/ipsmo/videos/1950328468317401/
<https://www.facebook.com/ipsmo/videos/1950328468317401/> Full video
November 22
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.behrens.100/videos/10155628129895973/
<https://www.facebook.com/matthew.behrens.100/videos/10155628129895973/> *

The same evening (November 23) as the panel discussion in Ottawa, there was
a sharing circle happening in Happy Valley Goose Bay that according to the
Labrador Land Protectors "brought grassroots together (indigenous and
settlers) in such a meaningful way with the federal government to speak out
about injustices happening on their lands, to their waters, and having such
an negative impact on their culture, lives, and next generations. This
traditional sharing circle models peacefulness, truth, and respect in a
powerful way. We are teaching decolonization to the Canadian government who
are enabling destruction in our territory." The full statement and video
from that event can be found on their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/labradorlandprotectors/videos/520018258360491/

----
IMPORTANT WEBSITES and RECENT MEDIA:

Make Muskrat Right website
http://makemuskratright.com/

Labrador Land Protectors facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/labradorlandprotectors

Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Ontario-Muskrat-Solidarity-Coalition-1589034804475671

Petition: A call to to suspend the dangerous actions at Muskrat Falls,
Labrador
https://www.change.org/p/a-call-to-suspend-the-dangerous-operations-at-muskrat-falls-labrador

Information on North Spur, possibility of breach and sudden flooding
http://www.vision2041.com/north-spur.html

Sorry Means You Don't Do It Again
November 23, Homes Not Bombs
http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.ca/2017/11/sorry-means-you-dont-do-it-again.html

Truth, Reconciliation, and Mercury Poisoning
November 22, NOW
https://nowtoronto.com/news/truth-reconciliation-muskrat-falls-dam-project/

Muskrat Falls inquiry 'very much about money' and 'not about people,' says
Indigenous group advocate
November 21, CBC The Current
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-november-21-2017-1.4410676/muskrat-falls-inquiry-very-much-about-money-and-not-about-people-says-indigenous-group-advocate-1.4410679

Growing cross-country solidarity with Muskrat Falls land protectors in
Labrador
November 7th, Talking Radical Radio
http://talkingradical.ca/2017/11/07/trr-ontario_muskrat_solidarity

---- PRESS RELEASE from the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition ----

*Labrador Land Protectors Speak in Ottawa Thursday, November 23, 7 pm, PSAC
Hall, 233 Gilmour Street*

Event On Eve of Trudeau's Residential School Apology Focuses on Dangers of
Muskrat Falls Megaproject

OTTAWA – On the eve of Justin Trudeau's apology to Labrador residential
school survivors for a historic act of cultural genocide, those concerned
about the genocidal implications of the massive Muskrat Falls megaproject
will speak tonight at the PSAC Hall, 233 Gilmour Street, in Ottawa. The
federal government has $9.2 billion backstopping a project that endangers
Indigenous people and settlers alike with meythlmercury poisoning while
also posing the risk of catastrophic dam break due to its construction on
sandy quick clay, which moves when subjected to pressure.

Among the speakers is Kelly Morrissey, a Nunatsiavummiuk Inuk woman who’s
especially worried about family members in Rigolet, a Labrador community
where methylmercury levels could skyrocket as high as 1500% according to a
2016 Harvard University study. Also speaking is Newfoundland-born Emily
Philpott, currently researching the devastating economic, social, and
spiritual impacts on residents downstream of Muskrat Falls, and Matthew
Behrens, coordinator of the Ontario-Muskrat Solidarity Coalition.

"We find a huge irony in Trudeau apologizing for one act of cultural
genocide while he supports a project which will finish off the genocidal
mandate of residential schools through the same kinds of poisoning that
have devastated the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario," says Behrens.

Speakers will be calling for a suspension of operations at Muskrat Falls
until Indigenous people have been fully consulted and that free, prior and
informed consent has been achieved as mandated by the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Canada says it will
respect. They also want a fully transparent review of all parts of the
project, from its false claims to being a green energy project to the
failure to respect science-based reporting that has called into question
the validity of the project.

The event comes as Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett
meets with Labrador Land Protectors tonight in Happy Valley Goose Bay, a
meeting that only came about because of an October 1 occupation of Minister
Bennett's Toronto office. Earlier this week, the provincial government
announed an inquiry into the Muskrat Falls dam project, which has ballooned
to over $12.7 billion in cost, more than double the original estimate.
Critics say the inquiry is a distraction and meaningless as long as
construction continues.

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