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Trudeau Refuses to Stop Land Fraud: Press Release of the Mohawks of Kanehsatake
Canadian PoliticsEarlier this summer, Sean Carleton sat down with Ellen Gabriel to talk about the recent developments Kanehsatà:ke. As of 29 August, Trudeau is refusing to meet with the Mohawks and declare a temporary moratorium on development so that a peaceful resolution to ongoing tensions can be negotiated. This is unacceptable. CD stands with the Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke and proudly publishes their most recent press release.
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Canada Must Stop Land Fraud: Press Release of the Mohawks of Kanesatake
Canadian PoliticsOn 21 August 2019, Ellen Gabriel and other Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke held a press conference in the Pines, the site of the so-called “Oka Crisis” that took place in the summer of 1990, to address the ongoing land fraud in their homelands. They are giving Justin Trudeau and the Government of Canada 10 days to intervene in the 300-year long land dispute and to stop all illegal development in Kanehsatà:ke.
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‘This is Our Land’: An Interview with Ellen Gabriel about Ongoing Land Fraud at Kanesatake
Indigenous PoliticsFor the Kanien’kéha:ka (Mohawk) of Kanehsatà:ke, the return of stolen land – fraudulently sold first by a religious order and then by the municipality of Oka, Quebec and the Government of Canada – has been at the heart of their demands for 300 years. Mohawk resistance to the ongoing theft of Kanien’kéha:ka homelands is well-known. Most notably, in the summer of 1990, during the so-called “Oka Crisis,” Mohawks defended a forested area known as the Pines from development.
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The colonization of reconciliation
Canadian PoliticsCanada must finally legally recognize Indigenous Peoples as fully sovereign and self-governing peoples. Mohawk lawyer Stephen John Ford has persuasively argued that with recognition of sovereignty “comes the necessary redistribution of wealth which will remove the yoke of dependence and control exerted over First Nations by the federal government. Indigenous sovereignty will also provide First Nation jurisdictional control over their territories to protect the lands and waters.
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RCMP invasion of Wet’suwet’en Nation territory breaches Canada’s ‘rule of law’
Canadian PoliticsIn this case, the laws of Canada were neither equally enforced, nor compliant with international human rights standards. Canada is not a country that follows the rule of law. Canada makes and breaks laws to suit its own economic and political interests, which run counter to those of Indigenous peoples. It is time to be honest about it, and call out Canada as an outlaw, and take action to support the Wet’suwet’en Nation, who have occupied their lands since time immemorial.
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Colonization, resistance and popular culture
CultureIt is perhaps naïve to assume that Premier Horgan or Prime Minister Trudeau are simply misunderstanding the history of Indigenous people. It is more realistic to frame our political leaders as willfully ignorant. But, that does not mean that we have to be. Simply watching a film … or reading a comic will not bring about reconciliation on its own. However, it is a much needed start.
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Injustice at Unist’ot’en
Indigenous Politics“Our best hope for justice and sustainability in Canada lies with communities like the Wet’suwet’en nation, who take their relationship and responsibilities to their lands and waters so seriously that they will risk all they have to defend it. Our hope also lies with the many Canadians respecting and actively supporting the rights of these Indigenous communities to take care of their territories.”
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Outside Jasper National Park, a coal mine threatens an Indigenous community’s water supply
EnvironmentTeck Resources Ltd., a B.C.-based mining corporation, plans to expand its Cheviot Mine over the Cardinal Divide — a wide alpine ridge separating two major watersheds — to Redcap Mountain, just east of Jasper National Park, Alta. Expanding across this divide extends the risks of selenium and nitrate contamination to the headwaters of the Cardinal River.
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Pacification by pipeline
Canadian PoliticsThe framing of TMX as vital to the national interest, and further cloaked with a national security rationale, could make infringement all the more compelling. At the same time, it provides the justification, within Canada’s legal framework, to take measures to prevent opponents from disrupting Canada’s imagined energy future by defining them as threats to (future) national security.
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Appropriated identities and the new wave of dispossession
Canadian PoliticsThis new wave of dispossession is something completely different. French settlers and indeed other non-Indigenous peoples will quickly be able to= undermine our Indigenous efforts to reassert our identities and rights if we allow reconciliation to become the shield under which white supremacists hide. We must confront this threat head-on despite the inevitable claims of “lateral violence,” “colonial mentality” or “unsafe space” every time someone questions the appropriated identities of these groups.
