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Unravelling the secrets of the National Inquiry
Canadian PoliticsThe inquiry’s secretive process has resulted in a loss in faith by many would-be participants. Several commentators have said that being trauma-informed should not be an excuse for not getting started. Some family members feel that all this secrecy is re-traumatizing them. Even the former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Murray Sinclair, told the Inquiry to just start already.
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Evidence of good faith lacking in Trudeau’s Indigenous agenda
Canadian PoliticsWe gave Trudeau’s government more than a year to put some good faith on the table. Instead, we see a lot of talk but very little substantive action on the matters that matter most to us. If our right to free, informed and prior consent before development on our lands is not respected, that is the equivalent of breaching our Aboriginal, treaty and title rights. How does that make him any different from Harper?
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Our Land: 150 Years of Colonialism
CultureThe collaborative project will be an ongoing poster series that aims to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. We hope to encourage people to critically examine history in ways that can fuel our radical imaginations and support struggles for radical change in 2017 and beyond. Join us as we use activist art to remember, resist, and redraw our world with an eye to changing it for the better.
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Palestine and the Dakota Access Pipeline: Time to globalize BDS
Indigenous PoliticsAs Canadian Dimension readers know, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign is a Palestinian movement of resistance to Israeli settler-colonialist expansion and corporate complicity with it — a successful strategy learned from the struggle against the South African Apartheid regime whose aims it echoes.
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Trudeau’s promises unravel in legal battle over Indigenous rights
Canadian PoliticsJustin Trudeau’s Liberal Party campaigned on the promise of a “renewed, nation-to-nation relationship” between the government and Indigenous communities. Trudeau promised the Assembly of First Nations that he would govern “not only in accordance with constitutional obligations, but also with those enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
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Standing Rock Stakes Claim for Sovereignty
EnvironmentMainstream media would have most of us believe that the current struggle at Standing Rock, North Dakota is all about clean water – that its only focus is stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) from running through Indigenous reservation land. And, yes, it is about these things. But while such a narrative may create “hot headlines,” it fails to capture the full truth and essence of what‘s really going on there.
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Decolonizing Cottage Country: Anishinaabe Art Intervenes in Canada’s Wild Rice War
Canadian PoliticsIt is a heavy responsibility that must be more equally shouldered by Canadians and Quebecers. Labour and activist groups from coast to coast should rally to support Indigenous land defenders. Because we share the Earth, we must also share in the struggles to defend it against the depredations of colonialism and capitalism.
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Indigenous nations lead opposition to pipeline development
Indigenous PoliticsWe stands in solidarity with Indigenous peoples opposing Energy East and fighting for environmental justice. From the fight against fracking waged by the Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick to the struggles of activists in Honduras, Indigenous peoples are championing the defence of their land and the protection of the entire planet from environmental destruction.
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Standing Up At Standing Rock
EnvironmentSome 1,000 Native American activists from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and across the country faced off against police and security forces protecting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline project. Dozens of people have been arrested and assaulted by police while attempting to stop the project, and many more continue to risk arrest to protest the pipeline.
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How do we heal trauma suffered by Native communities?
Indigenous PoliticsEconomic and social conditions that engender despair must be addressed, with the utmost urgency. If we could spend more than $15-billion on our self-declared mission to help the people of Afghanistan, surely we can find the resources in our rich land to help redeem people whom our history continues to victimize.
