[van-announce] rally/endorse: in honour of the Gustafsen Lake Defenders

[noii-van at resist.ca]

PLEASE POST WIDELY*
>
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>ORPHEUM THEATHRE
>SAT MARCH 20 @ 6:54 PM
>(Smithe at Seymour)
>
>*** INFORMATIONAL PICKET ***
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>
>It is time for all those opposed to the Canadian colonial system to
>support, through tangible actions, those struggling for land, life,
>dignity and soverignty across these lands.
>
>The statement below will be presented on March 20 at a NDP fundraiser at a
>ticketed event in Vancouver. Several Gustafsen Lake defenders will be
>converging in Vancouver on that night to speak about the injustices at
>Gustafsen Lake.
>
>
>WE ARE ALSO URGENTLY SEEKING HUNDREDS OF ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE DEMAND BELOW.
>please email your endorsement to noii-van at resist.ca BY Thursday March 18
>
>
>IN HONOUR OF THE GUSTAFSEN LAKE DEFENDERS !!!
>IN SUPPORT OF INDIGENOUS SOVERIGNTY! !!
>
>We are gathered here today to remind everyone about the role of the NDP
>government in the largest paramilitary operation in Canada. The NDP
>launched a full assault on indigenous defenders asserting their inherent
>and legal rights to self-determination on unceded territories of BC.
>
>In honour of the Gustafsen Lake Defenders, in memory of Dudley George and
>the millions who were and continue to be victims of the colonial regime,
>we aim to expose the hypocrisy of "progressive" politicians.
>
>"I am unable to support the call for a public inquiry... my New Democratic
>colleagues and I will continue to support the treaty negotiation process
>in BC, including the recently concluded Nisga'a treaty. This process,
>while often painstakingly slow and difficult, is certainly preferable to
>taking up guns and violence, as occurred in the summer of 1995," said
>Svend Robinson.
>
>"And We do further strictly enjoin and require all Persons whatever who
>have either wilfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any Lands
>within the Countries above described, or upon any other Lands which, not
>having been ceded to or purchased by Us, are still reserved to the said
>Indians as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such
>Settlements." -Royal Proclamation Act, 1763.
>
>"Kill this Clark, smear the prick and everyone with him." -Dennis Ryan,
>RCMP Gustafsen Lake Crisis Management Team, Sept. 1995. Disclosed during
>the Gustafsen trial.
>
>
>BACKGROUND
>
>In 1995, after a long history of peaceful attempts to have Shuswap
>sovereignty respected, indigenous people from the Shuswap and other
>nations and a few non-indigenous supporters took a stand on sacred
>Sundance lands at Ts'Peten, aka Gustafsen Lake. People came to the
>Sundance grounds after a call for help went out, in response to threats
>made by a local rancher; one ranch hand  pulled out a bullwhip and said:
>'This is a good day to string up some red niggers.' " (Defenders' press
>release, June 19/95) Shortly afterwards the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
>(RCMP) surrounded the Ts'Peten Defenders and held the people there under
>siege. On June 19,  Counsel Dr. Bruce Clark confirmed that "as a matter of
>strict law, you are acting within your existing legal rights by resisting
>the invasion." Over the next month police, politicians, and media
>escalated the situation to make the siege the most expensive domestic
>military operation in Canada's history. Miraculously, there was only one
>casualty -- a dog deliberately killed by a police sniper firing at two
>unarmed people and the animal as they fled from police gunfire and
>armoured personnel carriers.
>
>The state actions there constituted the largest paramilitary operation in
>Canadian history and included armoured personnel carriers, .50 calibre
>machine guns, land mines, and massive human rights violations directed
>against a small number of Shuswap traditionalists who cited constitutional
>and international law protections for their resistance to the attempted
>invasion. The federal and provincial governments both rejected any
>involvement by an impartial, independent, international adjudication
>process to settle the conflict at Gustafsen Lake. They even rejected the
>presence of neutral peacekeepers. Ujjal Dosanjh responded to the
>possibility of outside observers with the infamous declaration: "There
>shall be no alien intervention into the affairs of this state." Dosanjh,
>like all other politicians, knows that in an independent court, the legal
>arguments of the Indians could not be suppressed.
>
>The people inside the encampment were forced to endure the longest
>criminal trial in Canadian history. After over a year of astonishing
>testimony by police (including open admissions of a "smear and
>disinformation campaign" against the Ts'Peten Defenders and lawyer Bruce
>Clark), thirteen of the Defenders received jail sentences. Three of the
>Defenders appealed the verdicts on the grounds that the land where the
>siege took place is native land, and therefore the settler (non-native)
>courts have no jurisdiction.  During the Gustafsen Lake trial William
>Ignace, known better by his Shuswap name, Wolverine, cited the Indian
>Provision of the Royal Proclamation Act of 1763, which clearly states that
>until an Indian territory has been purchased by the Crown, non-Indians
>cannot legally occupy land, never mind subject Indians to the jurisdiction
>of the Crown. The BC Court of Appeal maintained: "The Royal Proclamation
>has never applied to this Province, the appellants cannot rely upon the
>Royal Proclamation as support for their position." Ironically, on November
>11, 1998, the Vancouver Sun reported that Prime Minister Chretien, after
>promising to quickly implement the Nisga'a Final Agreement, said: "Nisga’a
>is an important thing.... I believe in it personally and it is an
>obligation of the government and it is a constitutional obligation of the
>Royal Proclamation that the King of England gave us in 1763."
>
>
>Several important facts were revealed during the Gustafsen Lake trials.
>Only some are outlined below.
>
>* A letter from Bruce Clark to his clients inside the Gustafsen Lake
>encampment was blocked by RCMP, Staff Sgt. Montague stated that "police
>cut the phone line to the camp 'so that they can't be further influenced
>by their lawyer, Bruce Clark, which is a problem.'" (Vancouver Sun, Aug.
>30, 1995).
>
>* According to RCMP, people inside the camp shot into the air, allegedly at
>a helicopter. Later RCMP disclosures reveal that one of the people in the
>helicopter heard no shots and saw no evidence of gunshots.
>
>* RCMP surveillance footage, taken from six to eight thousand feet in the
>air by Wescam, reveals the camp truck blown-up by a powerful landmine,
>then two apparently UNARMED people running from the truck which was
>moments later struck violently by an APC. The camp dog, seen running away
>from the truck is shot and killed by RCMP fire. Cst. S.H. Arthur testified
>that he saw the two occupants running from the truck and that neither were
>carrying weapons. He also testified that he fired upon the unarmed
>occupants of the truck as they were leaving the lake with their hands in
>the air, within what was supposed to be the guaranteed safe zone.
>
>* On September 6,  Ontario Provincial Police attempted to remove native
>occupiers of traditional lands at Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario. When
>efforts to remove the occupiers were unsuccessful, police responded by
>sending in police in riot gear, who stormed the gate. Two men were hit.
>Dudley George died.
>
>* Chief Superintendent Johnston makes a note during a phone conversation
>with Superintendent Len Olfert that "There are 6 hardliners in the camp
>WHO WILL REQUIRE KILLING." (Source: Crown disclosures)
>
>
>Since the end of the standoff, Defenders have called for an inquiry into
>the military siege. National and international support for an independent
>public inquiry into all aspects of the Gustafsen Lake standoff and
>Ipperwash continues to grow: Alexa McDonough, National Campus/Community
>Radio Association, Teaching Support Staff Union of Simon Fraser
>University, the UVic Graduate Students' Society, Victoria's CUPE Local 50,
>Defensoria Maya (Guatemala); Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with Native
>Peoples; The Green Group of the European Parliament; The Black Community
>Collective; The Afrikan Frontline Network; North West Leonard Peltier
>Support Network; Aboriginal Rights Coalition; Council of Canadians;
>Building Bridges to Chiapas; The National Green Party of Canada; Ramsey
>Clark, Former US Attorney General and Council to Leonard Peltier; and many
>other groups and individuals, including a resolution by the Assembly of
>First Nations.
>
>WE REITERATE THE CALL FOR A PUBLIC INQUIRY. THE INJUSTICES AT GUSTAFSEN
>LAKE WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN AS STRUGGLES FOR INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY
>CONTINUE AND PEOPLE FIGHT FOR THEIR RIGHTS AND DIGNITY
>
>The undersigned,
>Native Youth Movement-Secwepemc Chapter, Native Solidarity Network
>Vancouver, No One is Illegal-Vancouver,
>
>
>
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