Rights of Indigenous Peoples http://issues.takingitglobal.org/indigenous?ec=191,197327 An estimated 300 million indigenous people are living throughout the world including the Maori people of New Zealand, the Maya of Mexico and Central America, the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic, and descendants of the Incas and Aymaras in South America. Indigenous or aboriginal peoples were living on their lands before colonizers and settlers from other cultural groups arrived. Due to colonialism, unfair government policies, corporate interests (in land and natural resources), and cultural imperialism, indigenous peoples have been forced to adapt to the dominant culture’s way of life. Surviving the loss of land, resources, livelihoods and culture, many Indigenous peoples struggle today to access their human rights to food, health, housing, and cultural expression. Indigenous peoples experience institutional violence, poverty, disease, and marginalization. Indigenous women must also contend with increased incidences of personal violence in their community and in the dominant society, while Indigenous youth face many challenges such as the cycle of poverty and unemployment, the allure of drugs, alcohol and gangs, and the balance of traditional and urban cultures. Before contact with Europeans, indigenous peoples had unique ways of organizing their societies and relating to the environment. Assimilation or integration into the dominant society has not worked for most aboriginal peoples, and treaties/agreements were interpreted differently by government and aboriginals which remain a cause of conflict. Self-determination and self-governance are key issues for indigenous peoples’ human rights. Self-government means aboriginal people regaining control and management over their own land and resources, education, health, employment and justice systems. Although there has been more international awareness of Indigenous issues in recent years, for example the UN International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (1995-2004), more change in government policy is needed to enforce recognition of Indigenous rights.

National Aboriginal Women's Summit 2008 Update August 1: Liberals say Ottawa must address violence against women after aboriginal summit YELLOWKNIFE — The federal government needs to do more to address the root causes of violence against aboriginal women, says the Indian Affairs critic for the federal Liberals."Aboriginal women experience higher rates of violence. If that burden is going to be lifted, the socioeconomic conditions and prosperity gap between aboriginals and non-aboriginals will have to be addressed," said Anita Neville in a release.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn-YLYh0b4p_iZ-h6Gj4Onib3sYw Update: July 29 http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=df1f2d11-1e5e-434d-8612-20ad62e514d5 Organizers of aboriginal women's summit want to test sincerity of federal apology

July 27, 2008

Lisa Arrowsmith, THE CANADIAN PRESS The Canadian Press, 2008

EDMONTON - Now that the federal government has apologized for the havoc the residential school system wrought in the lives of generations of aboriginal people, the head of a national women's group says she's aiming to test whether that apology was at all sincere.

Beverley Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, will co-host the second annual National Aboriginal Women's Summit, a three-day meeting which begins Tuesday in Yellowknife.

Floyd Roland, the premier of the Northwest Territories, is also co-hosting the event.

About 150 delegates will hash out an action plan to implement more than 140 recommendations on a wide range of issues - such as poverty, violence and justice - that came out of last year's inaugural meeting in Cornerbrook, N.L.

There's been a lot of talk about making the lives of aboriginal people better, said Jacobs, but now it's time to see if Prime Minister Stephen Harper really means that.

"I don't want to hear about another missing woman, I don't want to hear about another murdered woman. I don't want to hear about a woman who doesn't have a home to live in.

"That's the change I want to see," said Jacobs, a Mohawk citizen of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in southern Ontario. more ...

http://www.thespec.com/article/410036

And see...

http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/2008/07/four-rcmp-sexually-assault-aboriginal.html

And ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking In 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) estimated that 600-800 persons are trafficked into Canada annually and that additional 1,500-2,200 persons are trafficked through Canada into the United States.^[29] In Canada, foreign trafficking for prostitution is estimated to be worth $400 million annually.^{[30] And ... http://www.cwhn.ca/resources/sex_trade/}

Child and Youth Trafficking and Prostitution in Canada

World trafficking in women and children for use in the sex trade is a multi-billion dollar market -- and it is on the rise. The United Nations estimates that 4 million people are trafficked throughout the world each year under threat of violence, due to poverty, or through deception.

A report by the Solicitor General of Canada (October 1997) concludes that migrant trafficking accounts for 8-16,000 illegal immigrants in Canada every year, many of them female youths and children who are forced to work in Canada's booming sex trade industry. The same report estimates that those profiting from the illegal trafficking of children and women in Canada earn as much as $400 million annually.

Authorities have infiltrated trafficking rings that have imported children and youths from every continent in the world to work as sex slaves in Canada. Every major urban centre in Canada has records of children and youths working as prostitutes, as escorts, in strip clubs and in pornography. Thousands of children are believed to be currently engaged in the commercial sex industry nationally.

Steps for Action*

As a result of the World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Children, held in Yokohama, Japan (December 2001), Save the Children Canada, along with other children and women's organizations, urge the following measures to be adopted by Canada's national and provincial governments:

• address the market for sex with children and youths by focusing on the predators;
• decriminalize all children engaged in the commercial sex trade;
• address the needs of exploited children by providing health and counseling services to child and youth sex workers;
• allow meaningful participation of youths in the development and implementation of solutions;
• include prostitution-related activities in the legal definition of child abuse; and,
• address the root causes of exploitation, namely poverty.

*Based on documents produced by Save the Children Canada and Global March Against Child Labour.

For more information on child and youth trafficking and prostitution, please visit the following links:

• Trafficking in Children
• Sexually Exploited Youth

Duty to Consult: Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, Brantford, Ardoch Algonquins, New Brunswick

We/Canada brags about its bargain basement selloff of resources - Best in return on investment to the shareholder - but all Canadian land 'assets' are overvalued, because they are not acknowledged to be encumbered by Indigenous Peoples' rights and titles. We haven't paid our debts and obligations to Indigenous Peoples for the right to share the land we call Canada, our right to be here. That's why our governments are selling off resources so cheap and so fast these days: Trying to outrun justice. Because soon they will be stopped enough times by direct or court action that they will be forced to implement Constitutional law through legislation:

Recent case law from the Supreme Court of Canada (Haida and Taku) has confirmed that the Crown has a duty to consult, and if necessary, accommodate Aboriginal interests when it has knowledge, real or constructive, of the potential existence of an Aboriginal right or title and contemplates conduct that might adversely affect it.

A say in development and a share in revenues on traditional Indigenous land. And then the price of doing business in Canada goes up.

EXAMPLE: Union of BC Chiefs

Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs say Province wilfully mislead or withheld information about BCRail

Re: Proposed merger of BC Rail with CN Rail

http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post.html

“Within the rail industry, CN has moved from worst to first. We're now the best railroad in North America. Best in service. Best in operating efficiency. Best in safety. Best in return on investment to the shareholder.” (E. Hunter Harrison, President and CEO) There has been no consultation with Indigenous Peoples. Instead, the province has acted in bad faith by keeping the details of this Agreement secret from Indigenous Peoples. ... The constitutional rights of Indigenous Peoples must be addressed. In the absence of evidence of consultation this transaction cannot be approved. There has been no consultation; Instead, the province of B.C. willfully mislead and lied to Indigenous Peoples about this transaction. The Competition Bureau must be mindful of existing constitutional rights and consider the privatization deal from the perspective of the impact that it will have on Aboriginal Title and Rights. Absent proof of government’s fulfillment of its legal obligations to Indigenous Peoples, this merger (transfer) cannot be approved. ... Failure to act in a timely and fair manner to resolve matters satisfactory to Indigenous Nations may attract less patient responses than protracted litigation, including direct action. ... Yours truly, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs Chief Stewart Phillip President

EXAMPLE: Brantford

Brant Liberal MP Lloyd St. Amand should be taking his anger over development protests in Brantford to his provincial Liberal cousins at Queen's Park. While our federal government takes responsibility for helping settle land claims, the province is clearly responsible for both policing and development issues, which includes the issue of licensing permits. That is why Ontario is at the negotiation table, because the province knows they have an integral responsibility in helping settle these long-standing development issues between Six Nations and neighbouring municipalities. In just 2 1 /2 years, our Conservative government has tabled two significant offers to Six Nations leadership, who are currently reviewing our $26 million offer to settle the Welland Canal portion of their claim. Our federal negotiators have been working extremely hard to settle this claim and have attended more than 100 meetings. We remain committed to resolving these issues in a manner that is not only fair for Six Nations members but is also fair for the non- Aboriginal community as well. Chuck Strahl Minister of Indian Affairs Ottawa Show respect to Six Nations I agree with Tuesday's editorial, "Not a step forward," that "respect is a two-way street. But you proceed to say that it's only Six Nations who are being disrespectful. You suggest that we should sit back and allow development to proceed while things progress in the courts and at the interminable negotiating table. The assumption underlying your editorial is, of course, that any native claims to the properties in question were rightfully extinguished years ago and that the properties in question are rightfully deeded to you and yours. If you assumed that the natives might be right, that they have a legitimate claim to the lands, that the Haldimand Deed is the last clear title to the lands in question, then natives have every right to stop all development within their territory to allow you an opportunity to demonstrate your claims to the land -- claims which cannot be substantiated, as there has not been a legitimate surrender by the Six Nations. Your deeds and titles were issued under false pretenses. And therefore you should be required to demonstrate a legitimate claim. All development should stop immediately until your claims have been settled and Six Nations approves of the individual development projects. If you were as respectful as you suggest, perhaps you might consult with us and negotiate in good faith. Or insist that your representatives do so. Marilyn Maracle Ohsweken

EXAMPLE: Ardoch Algonquins

Reid has argued that the Government of Ontario had a duty to consult the Ardoch Algonquins before accepting the Frontenac Ventures mining claims under the Ontario Mining Act because the land in question is part of a land claim.

Later Justice MacPherson asked the question, “What then are the unique systemic or background factors that played a part in bringing the AAFN and two of its leaders before the courts to be sentenced for contempt? The first background factor is that there is an existing land claim negotiation between the Algonquin Nation and Ontario.”

“ What Frontenac Ventures wants to do on Crown land - staking and exploration - is legal under the Mining Act. However, the appellants' response, although in contempt of two court orders, is grounded, at a minimum, in a respectable interpretation of s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 and several recent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.”

___

Thus, the sentences of the lower court were overturned. The implication of this for Indigenous rights throughout Ontario, like Six Nations, is that 'contempt' of injunctions imposed by the low courts will not stand up through the scrutiny of the high courts, because the actions of Indigenous Peoples in reclaiming their land or in claiming Aboriginal rights on the land, are grounded in the Constitution and those rights must be respected. In the case of the developments in Brantford, Minister Chuck Strahl has finally stepped up and pointed the finger in the correct direction: the province is clearly responsible for ... development issues, which includes the issue of licensing permits. Ontario is responsible for consulting with Six Nations

Recent case law from the Supreme Court of Canada (Haida and Taku) has confirmed that the Crown has a duty to consult, and if necessary, accommodate Aboriginal interests when it has knowledge, real or constructive, of the potential existence of an Aboriginal right or title and contemplates conduct that might adversely affect it.

"Conduct" like ... issuing development permits for land in Brantford where Six Nations clearly hold Aboriginal rights. The Haldimand Proclamation is deemed valid, and thus any land in the Haldimand Tract is subject to the Crown's "Duty to Consult".

Ontario is responsible. And British Columbia is responsible. And New Brunswick is responsible. http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/2008/07/rights-of-indigenous-peoples-crowns.html All of the provinces are responsible for their "conduct that might adversely affect" Aboriginal rights and titles.

A Vision for Today, from Yesterday:

A poor man named Gerrard Winstanley wrote the following

words in

April, 1649 as he and a handful of other poor folks called

the Diggers tried to restore a

small part of England

to the common treasury with their own hands. Their struggle

to create a

spiritual communal society under the noses of the landlords

and their

Cromwellian army met with the same result that happens

whenever faith stands

unarmed before men with guns.

But Winstanley and the Diggers live on, and his few

words not only capture the essence of my life’s calling,

but remind me how the Thing we are fighting has rampaged

and done its genocide on our people on both sides of the

Atlantic.

I hope this reminder will unite us all more with a vision

of a world made equal, and one - and thereby stir us into

action - and check out the great Billy Bragg song based on

their tale! (below):

In the

beginning of time the great creator Reason made the Earth

to be a common

treasury, and not one word was spoken that one branch of

mankind should rule

over another; and the reason is this, that every single

man, male and female,

is a perfect creature of himself, and thus none is subject

to another …

Yet

selfish imagination did alienate man against himself, and

did set up one man to

teach and rule over another, and expel his fellow from his

natural right to the

whole earth and its fruits. And hereupon the earth was

hedged into enclosures

by the false rulers, who stole the earth for themselves and

made their fellows their

slaves and servants.

And that earth that is within creation, made a common

storehouse for all, is now bought and sold, and kept in the

hands of a few, and

thereby the great creator is dishonored, as if he were a

respecter of persons,

delighting in the comfortable livelihood of some, and

rejoicing in the

miserable poverty of others. For in the beginning it was

not so …

But when

the earth becomes a common treasury again, as it must,

owned by none and shared

by all, then this enmity of all against all shall cease,

and none shall war

against another or seek to dominate others, nor desire more

of the earth than

another.

St. George's Hill, Surrey, England, April 10, 1649

Billy Bragg singing "The Diggers":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2ldle1kAk&feature=related

Lyrics:

In 1649

To St George's Hill

A ragged band they called the Diggers

Came to show the people' s will

They defied the landlords

They defied the laws

They were the dispossessed

Reclaiming what was theirs.

We come in peace, they said

To dig and sow

We come to work the land in common

And to make the waste land grow

This earth divided

We will make whole

So it can be

A common treasury for all.

The sin of property

We do disdain

No one has any right to buy and sell

The earth for private gain

By theft and murder

They took the land

Now everywhere the walls

Rise up at their command.

They make the laws

To chain us well

The clergy dazzle us with heaven

Or they damn us into hell

We will not worship

The God they serve

The God of greed who feeds the rich

While poor men starve.

We work, we eat together

We need no swords

We will not bow to masters

Or pay rent to the lords

We are free men

Though we are poor

You Diggers all stand up for glory

Stand up now.

From the men of property

The orders came

They sent the hired men and troopers

To wipe out the Diggers' claim

Tear down their cottages

Destroy their corn

They were dispersed -

But still the vision lingers on.

You poor take courage

You rich take care

The earth was made a common treasury

For everyone to share

All things in common

All people one

We come in peace

The order came to cut them down.

RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: CROWN'S DUTY TO CONSULT AND TO ACCOMMODATE "EXISTING ABORIGINAL AND TREATY RIGHTS" [T]he Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Crown has a legal duty to consult, and where appropriate to accommodate, when the Crown has real or constructive knowledge of the potential existence of Aboriginal rights or title, and the Crown contemplates conduct that might adversely affect those rights ― whether those rights have been established (proven in court or agreed to in treaties) or whether there is the potential for rights to exist New Brunswick http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/342446

The First Peoples of New Brunswick are being conspicuously ignored, and their rights flagrantly violated and infringed as result of this new-drive to modernize and expand. Government "correspondence" now substitutes for "consultation"; industry pays "lip service" to aboriginal concerns and hopes to be left alone by First Nations in exchange for a donation to a sporting event or a modest scholarship allocation. ... Indian land title to New Brunswick remains unextinguished. ... we are reaching a point of no return in terms our exclusion from consultation with the province's self-sufficiency agenda.

First Nations are about to walk away from industries who do not take us seriously. We may have to revisit them in other forums in other ways. Currently New Brunswick has no consultation policy with First Nations sufficient to discharge its lawful obligations to discuss and, if required, accommodate, our concerns. Nor are there meaningful talks under way to fashion such a policy.

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION FOR CANADA? So, like ... are we Canadians "Moving out of denial" yet ... eh?

Indigenous Peoples and all Canadians must walk the paths of truth to reconciliation together, exposing to ourselves and to the world the hidden history of Canada that is created to separate us. ... granny ...

Starting with quotes from ... http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/30/Stolo/

Moving out of denial... Do (Canadians) feel the need for reconciliation in their guts?

(... YET?)

"Before reconciliation can occur," she says, "people have to know who we are and they have to understand what happened here." Canada passed the anti-potlatch law and the drumming, singing and winter dances that had ordered (Indigenous) cultural and spiritual life became illegal. The first person in Canada to go to jail under the new law was a man from Chilliwack and fear spread throughout the valley. Until the 1960s, those who continued to practice their traditions did so in the utmost secrecy. "The idea was to colonize," Gwen Point says. "We weren't supposed to survive.

So ... all across the land ... all across our Canada ... Indigenous people were afraid of us, frightened of us for damned good reason, because if they were caught in ANY traditional spiritual ceremony, ANY traditional governance meeting, or ANY gathering deemed for ANY reason to be in ANY way 'suspicious', they were thrown in jail or worse, all over Canada, right up until the 1960's. 1960's man! Naahhh ... My dad was alive then ... It was all 'peace and love' in the 60's, dude. You musta meant the 1860's, man. Nope ... 'Potlatch' was against the law in Canada from early in the 1900's right up until the 1960's. The ... 1960's. You sure? Mhm. In Canada!? Mhm. They weren't supposed to survive, man? The Indians? Whadya mean they weren't supposed to survive, man, Indians are cool! Well, whadya think the Prime Minister was apologizing for?

Wary of a cultural understanding that sees reconciliation in terms of contrition and forgiveness, Sutherland prefers to use a broader definition that views reconciliation as a process by which systems of domination are transformed into relations of mutuality. She explains that reconciliation must come from political leaders and from ordinary people. Even those who have suffered or benefited little from the past absorb the beliefs and attitudes that underpin conflict, so while systemic restructuring is essential, the hearts and minds of the people must change too.

Or in other words ... Apologizing and immediately asking for and expecting to quickly get forgiveness and then bing-bam-boom it's all over? Un-unh. That isn't what's in the cookie crumbs for Canada. Un-unh. We have a process to go through. We all have to learn the truth, and we have to reconcile that with our current rose-coloured vision of ourselves ... as Canadians ... and of Canada. We have to restructure our whole vision and reality of Canada.

"This history is so recent -- it happened yesterday. And it's so embarrassing." "How do we, as non-Aboriginal people, support others in moving out of denial about what happened here?" To sit through the film festival was to feel the need for reconciliation in your guts. And it wasn't comfortable.

Not comfortable perhaps - human progress seldom is - but it is absolutely necessary IF: ... IF we Canadians aspire to someday truly be what we already claim we are - a decent country full of decent human beings. ... IF we Canadians truly believe in human rights, we must respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples to live free of oppression by Canada: We have to stop our governments from taking what doesn't belong to us ... Indigenous land and resources. ...IF we Canadians truly respect the laws of the land ... our land ... we must respect the legal rights of Indigenous Peoples, whom we live among, to retain their historical land and cultural and human rights. "ButButButBut ... ! We are all EQUAL as Canadians. Why should they be treated differently?" Canada exists ... and we live here as Canadians ... by agreement ... by treaty ... peace treaties with the Indigenous Nations who hold the 'original titles' to the land ... this land that we call Canada. And some of Canada's big media spin on "equality" is about denigrating the rights of Indigenous Peoples:

International Assimilation And Genocide

The "One America" campaign, hatched during the US's Clinton administration, is very similar to other assimilationist movements worldwide, such as Australia's infamous "One Nation" Party (-ed- and Canada's 'multiculturalism'). Note the similarity of discourse revealed in the titles of these movements. This kind of "we are one" propaganda is very sneaky, as it hides genocidal aspirations behind protestations of love and brotherhood.

http://aboriginalrights.suite101.com/article.cfm/aboriginal_holocaust

The government, media, business/commerce/industry/banker powerbroker folks in Canada like to pretend that Indigenous Peoples somehow 'lost' their land rights somewhere, but they didn't. "We are all equal" is just a way of setting Canadians against Indigenous Peoples who are promoted and perceived as having different/more rights. They have their own rights, it is true, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, rights that evolved to try to stop the worldwide genocides against Indigenous Peoples, in the all-consuming greed for resources. We never conquered, for example, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) in Canada. Never had any reason to. They were always our allies and we depended on them - especially the Mohawks - to defend our borders. If it wasn't for them, Ontario would be in the US, and possibly the rest of Canada too. And the Haudenosaunee sure as hell never surrendered any of their rights to Canada. Sovereignty cannot be taken away from any Nation, even in defeat. It can only be surrendered by them alone. No Indigenous Nations were ever conquered in Canada, and Indigenous Nations of Kanata never surrendered, not to Britain, not to France and not to Canada ... never. They didn't have to. We didn't fight against them and they were never defeated. They were always our friends. So ... we have no claim to their land on the basis that they 'surrendered' it in defeat. But then it was us ... it was Canada ... that finally brought Indigenous Nations to their knees in the 20th century, by passing the law of compulsory attendance at the 'Indian' Residential Schools. You could call it kidnapping, torturing and brainwashing all of their children, generation after generation for over a hundred years, leaving their villages empty of joy, empty of life, and filled with despair, for six generations of families. Why?

As a province, B.C. doesn't actually own the land and resources. That's what the courts say. That's what the constitution says.

And it is true throughout Canada, and it is causing some consternation across the land, it's true. Hmm ... maybe the powers that be should have thought of that possibility way back when, and lived by our agreements or negotiated new ones. Right now in Canada, most Indigenous communities have the law on their side to blockade traditional land and prevent any development or use by Canada/Canadians/corporations. Hmm ... maybe the powers that be in Canada should get down to business and negotiate in good faith, for a change, for our continuing existence here. Maybe they should have done that a long long time ago! For some unknown reasons (um ... genocide maybe?), traditional Indigenous Peoples never chose to be 'Canadians'. We forced ourselves upon them by violating our solemn promises, our legal treaties with them, by taking away their land, their children, their communities, their cultures and their spiritual lives. We are the "takers" whose standard of living rests entirely in profits on natural resources from Indigenous lands, for which they receive nothing. We are the latecomers, the intruders, many of us arriving (then and now) after being driven out of our own ancestral lands, by the same forces that organized the genocide of Indigenous Peoples here in Canada. We are the tools of the genocide agents, the 'hungry hoards' who descended on their land. They are the "caretakers" of the land we call Canada. Indigenous Peoples welcomed us and our technologies, and made peace treaties to allow us to live on their land in mutual respect for each other, and for the land itself. And we repaid their generosity, and betrayed their trust, with GENOCIDE. To this day, business, government, media, church, corporations and Canadians collude to rid Canada of its Indigenous Peoples and (especially) to rid us of their annoyingly legal rights to the land ... still. But first ... traders gave infected blankets to every Indigenous community they came in contact with. It is estimated that well over 80% of Indigenous People died in this first genocidal onslaught.

"The first disruption of our people," says Bob Campbell, "came from disease. The early smallpox epidemics may have been accidental, but then Hudson Bay traders brought diseased blankets and our people died from typhoid and tuberculosis. Pure and simple, it was genocide. The trading companies paid a bounty for indigenous people's scalps and genitals." http://thetyee.ca/News/2008/06/30/BackFromExtinction/

Note: In some communities the Indigenous oral history records that wagonloads or boatloads of blankets were also delivered by soldiers or missionaries, all across Canada. None of this was 'an accident'. Neither were the horrors of Canada's 'Indian' residential schools. Our government forced Indigenous children into 'mind control' schools run by 'Christians', where, frankly, the children either submitted or died (early 1800's to late 1900's). All were traumatized, most were abused and some were forced into becoming abusers ('the enforcers') to save themselves from the worst punishments. Some of the 'enforcer' families are still powerful in some of Canada's 'Indian' Band Councils today. They were all just children, abused by adults for the benefit of the greed for their land. Many victims of the residential schools continue to live half-lives of pain and punishment in Canada's city streets and alleys and on 'reserves' to this day. Those with families pass the pain on and intergenerational trauma is rampant in their communities today. Ya, but this was all a long long time ago! What does it matter now? Well, your perspective of a "long long time" depends on your age. The report below is from 2003, from a man younger than me:

Another warrior, Charlie, 48, has a soft and slow voice that can be difficult to follow, but his stories are worth the effort. He was put in residential school at the age of seven and escaped several times, each time getting sent to a school further from home. Four years and six escapes later, he was in a school near Sault Ste-Marie, where the nuns beat him unconscious with hockey sticks. He still has the scars. "I knew that if I stayed, they'd kill me, so I escaped again. I made it to Winnipeg [1,450 kilometres away] on foot through the bush, living off the land, fooling the police dogs in the woods. They didn't catch me that time until I was 21," he says. The other men his age have similar residential school stories. Nothing can happen to them in jail or in a gunfight that's worse than what already has.

http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2003/032703/news3.html

If Charlie had gone back to his home in Grassy, he would have been captured by the RCMP, who enforced attendance at the schools, and taken back to the residential school. When he escaped, a child of 11 outwitting police and their search dogs in the bush, he travelled hundreds of miles, to the city streets (of Winnipeg), as so many victims of the residential schools did. For 10 years, he evaded the police on the streets, until 1976. At some point Charlie finally made his way back home to Grassy Narrows, a community devastated by the schools, and by industrial contamination and clearcutting of their traditional fishing-hunting-gathering lands. Grassy Narrows is reviving its spirit after a century of onslaught, by taking back their land from the corporations. However, other residential school victims are there on the city streets still, permanently wounded. Have you seen them? In 1962, when Charlie was taken from his family in northern Ontario, I was 11 years old and skipping to public school in small-town central Ontario, likely worried only whether someone would beat me at high-jump. In 1966, when Charlie was being beaten nearly to death with hockey sticks by Catholic nuns in northern Ontario, I was 15, bopping to the Beatles, and sassily telling my minister I just didn't connect with his male "God". (He told me 'Satan' would fill the void in my heart, and I checked my temptation to laugh aloud at this archaic idea, and never went to church much at all after that. Hell, it WAS the 1960's, man!) Nobody ever beat me with hockey sticks and forced me to fend for myself on the streets at 11 years of age, without ever telling my Mom what happened to me. Nobody would dare. Nobody could get away with doing that to any kid in Canada in the 1960's ... could they? Yes, apparently somebody could ... somebody did ... the government and the churches that ran the schools could do just about anything they wanted to the children, whose parents were forced to sign them over into the 'care/guardianship' of the church or school principal. The parents were never even informed if their child died or disappeared. To this day, no one knows who all the children are who are buried in the unmarked graves at former residential schools. As a result of pressure from Kevin Annett and survivors and supporters, the TRC now includes a Task Force 'looking into the deaths of children in the residential schools', headed by John Milloy. At last report, Milloy has not been allocated any budget, other than perhaps his own fees, for manning the telephone and speaking slick and soothing words. (ie, Another pretense ... another coverup ... another person/agency/government department complicit in genocide in Canada.) WHY did we allow this to happen in Canada, in our lifetime, to Charlie and to countless other Indigenous children, many of whom did not escape, but died there? Why?

"There is a need to raise the Indian to the level of the whiteman, and to take the land out of Indian hands."

Egerton Ryerson, 1847, on why the government was considering establishing compulsory government-run residential schools to deprogram Indigenous children from their traditional ways.

Now ... which one do you think was more important to the economy of the emerging country of Canada? "raise the 'Indian'" ... or "take the land"? Which one of these two purposes was the REAL reason for the residential schools? (Pretty obvious, isn't it?) The last government run 'Indian Residential School in Canada closed in 1996. In 2000 Canada finally passed a watered down domestic law against genocide. However, when Indigenous people tried to use the new law, their case was thrown out of court because ... 'Canada didn't have a law against genocide at the time the offenses occurred.' Deja vu ... And oddly enough, an Indigenous person recently (2008) laid charges against a perpetrator of abuse in a residential school, and his case was thrown out of court because ... "That's a matter for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Canada's five year, $60m hidetheTRUTH and pretendRECONCILIATION COMMISSION, then, appears to me to be a continuation of the campaign by the churches, corporations and the Government of Canada (OH! and did I forget to mention the collusion of the Canadian courts and the RCMP?) to keep Canada's hidden history hidden. Canada's 'good little 'Indians' (enforcers) will step up and tell their stories (again), get patted on the head, and bing-bam-boom and-Bob's-your-uncle, and rise my child for you are all healed!! Except, of course, for the thousands of children who died, and thousands more who 'disappeared', whose families were never told of their fate. Except for the ones who are still the walking wounded and the ones they are wounding now. What good will it do for them to tell their story to a tape recorder (but no names please! No names of perpetrators are even allowed! No no no!) to be filed in some musty archives, hunh? This is not justice, not even truth, and it is certainly no 'reconciliation' for them. Again WHY? whywhywhy all these terrible, terrible things ... Because Canada is still lying, and still trying to gain 'title' to Indigenous land, unimpeded (read unblockaded) free access to the wealth of resources, without sharing ANYTHING with the Indigenous title holders. No method was too cruel, and no child was too innocent. Canada did not wage war in the 'normal' open manner, but instead Canada waged a heinous, illegal 'war' against defenseless children. Canada took the lives and broke the spirits of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children for over a hundred years, right up until the 21st century. And then the lawsuits began. Do you really think the corporate powers-that-be in Canada designed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission out of the 'goodness of their own hearts'? Do you really think they would have changed their tune that fast? Not likely, and the fact is, the powers that be in Canada have not changed at all. The T&R Commission is just another crime of genocide, in this case "complicity in genocide" ... a cover-up. (See UN Convention on Genocide.) Because of its ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples, of which the residential schools were but a part, Canada was forced by the courts to submit to the Truth and Reconciliation process under the supervision of the UN International Centre for Transitional Justice.

Half of the children died in the residential schools. Half of the children died in the residential schools. Half of the children died in the residential schools! Shh! This is not spoken of in Canada! It is part of our 'hidden' history! Hidden from Canadians ... still! Shh! The children are buried in unmarked graves all across Canada! The children are buried in unmarked graves all across Canada. The children are buried in unmarked graves all across Canada! Shh! Shh! Shh!!

Globe and Mail 2007: Natives died in droves while Ottawa ignored warnings.

http://tinyurl.com/66kpjm CBC: Stolen Children, Hidden Graves

http://www.cbc.ca/video/popup.html?http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/news/features/hunt-1st-graveyard080609.wmv Hidden from History: Locations of mass graves revealed http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/Apr102008LocationofMassGravesRevealed/tabid/71/Default.aspx

Canada outlawed and punished Indigenous cultural, spiritual and governance traditions and their land rights. (See historical evolution of the 'Indian' Act.) Canada paid doctors to sterilize their leaders so they could not reproduce, could not pass the culture on. Many thousands of Indigenous children and adults were sterilized. Some of them died in the process. (See Unrepentant: Canada's Genocide at google videos.) When Indigenous people wanted to educate themselves in our institutions, gain a profession, or even just have a beer at the Legion with their army buddies, Canada demanded that they first renounce all of their Indigenous rights, including even the right to live in their own community. Few were willing to do that. Throughout Canada's history, and still, we violate treaty promises for education, health care and community support, providing only less-than-minimal support that affords them only "conditions of life that lead to their destruction as peoples". (See UN Convention on Genocide)

"It was basically saying we're a tax burden, that everything First Nations get is a handout and all we do is take, we don't pay taxes, all those old arguments. Well, our national chief had done some work and concluded that First Nations governments receive approximately half the funding that other local governments get."

Note: This means half of the government-supplied funds. Canadian municipalities, in addition to what they are given, tax their people to raise a similar amount. Indigenous communities, today, are run on only one-quarter of the funds that our communities use. To this day, when Indigenous Peoples protest the violations of their land rights and human rights, the Government of Canada threatens or cuts their community funding, people are brutally attacked out of sight (and without report) of media and Canadians, and leaders are thrown in jail on very questionable charges that 'don't stick', until after the 'crisis' passes and people are again intimidated into silence. For the most recent examples of Canada's aggressive oppression of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, see Google news: Jim Prentice/Harper's threat of "audit" prior to the first Aboriginal Day of Action, 2007; Six Nations/OPP April 20, 2006 and September, 2007; Shawn Brant, Tyendinaga 2006-2008; KI & Ardoch Algonquin 2007-08 To this day, the Canadian 'Indian' Act defines Indigenous people as something less than Canadians, something less than adult human beings, in fact, little more than 'wards of the state' with 'human rights' that can be, and are manipulated at will, to serve Canada's corporate culture of greed. Their continuing legal status as sovereign Indigenous Peoples is denied, suppressed, hidden from Canadians by our governments. To this day, Canada's economy is entirely dependent on resource wealth taken from Indigenous lands with no share of revenues to them.

"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong look like right." Black Hawk, Sauk

But Canada cannot fool the rest of the world as easily as we Canadians allow our governments to fool us. The UN is onto us. http://www.ictj.org/en/where/overview/ An example of Canada's 'respect' for the rights of Indigenous Peoples: Driven out at gunpoint by the RCMP in 1924, in 1959 the traditional Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy (Iroquois) people took back control of their historic Council House from Canada's imposed 'Band Council'. Our schoolchildren are taught:

March 1959 : The government sends the RCMP to evict traditional Iroquois chiefs and clan mothers from their meeting place on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. Many people are hurt in this attempt to force the people from their traditional ways. http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ks/4020_e.html

(But in 2006, they did it again, with tasers, batons, fists, feet and elbows and five cops to every Six Nations person, whether Elder, man, woman, or youth.) The following year, in 1960, Canada 'enfranchised' Indigenous people - simply declared them all to be "Canadian" (sort of ... within the limitations of the 'Indian' Act which declared them 'wards under trusteeship of the Crown).

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POOF! You're a Canadian now! ... well ... sort of ... only when we want you to be ... and ... whether you want to be or not. ... and btw ... we've got your land now too! hehehe Canada to Indigenous Peoples, 1960

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This was just another of Canada's ways of trying to get rid of the inherent Aboriginal rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. However, no 'People' can legally be taken over by another jurisdiction, not even by 'wonderful' Canada. No jurisdiction can legally impose its citizenship on others, not even us. This is precisely the distinction between most Canadians and the Indigenous Peoples of Canada. Whether our families came here in the 1500's, 1600's, 17, 18, or 19oo's or since 2000, we came here by choice, to be Canadians. Indigenous Peoples were here on their own land in the 1500's, minding their own business (and quite well, indeed), and we 'befriended' them, and then we deviously, brutally and illegally forced them to submit to Canada's jurisdiction over them and over their land. Canada continues to this day to try to assimilate and destroy Indigenous Peoples, because of their land rights. It is no big secret that Stephen Harper (the friggin guru of assimilationist policy in Canada, though no more than, say, Paul Martin), probably damn near choked on the words of truth, reconciliation and apology that were written for him and that he was forced to try to say ... sincerely. However, it is also no big secret that the Prime Minister was forced to make a public apology by the publicly and privately and strongly expressed opinions of Canadians, so perhaps there is some hope for us. Where to now? ... Truth and reconciliation how?

"I know it's been said a lot, but we need to educate the public. Unfortunately the loudest and most controversial people who speak about these initiatives are often the redneck component of our society, and the people who are probably in support of reconciliation stay quiet -- they don't want to run into their redneck neighbor and have to battle it out." http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/03/30/Stolo/

I know exactly what this person is referring to, and the 'rednecks' are not all uneducated 'louts' either. Many are leaders in communities, commerce, industries, governments and media, and they tend to silence those around them, their employees for example. Such people, who are ignorant, or 'in denial' or are intentionally lying about the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (like Prime Minister Stephen Harper and most of his Caucus-of-De-Nile), must be overcome by the efforts of the silent majority of Canadians. We can no longer sit by and be bullied into silence. It happens all the time ... in bars, family gatherings, educational settings, discussion boards, workplaces, or even just on the street or in someone's backyard ... Some idiot (my term) in the middle of some discussion, throws in a reference to " 'Indians' who suck up our tax money and give nothing back", or some equally disgusting version of same. TRY THIS when faced with someone who denigrates Indigenous Peoples. Look them straight in the eye and say firmly:

"Where on earth did you ever hear that, and please don't ever repeat it! That kind of talk is just ignorance and racism and there is no place in Canada for that. If someone ever needs a reminder of what Indigenous Peoples 'contribute' to Canada, tell them to just look down, because we are all standing on it."

Turn away from them immediately, change the subject, refuse to speak with them further and do not be drawn into discussion about it. Leave if you have to if they continue to speak that way, a statement in itself. (Some may even apologize.) Even in a business setting, perhaps delivered more mildly and humourously than in a full blown bar or online 'discussion', this approach can still work. It only takes one person per group to speak out ... one time. Word gets around, and taking a stand will encourage more of the 'silent majority' to speak up too. (Of course, you could just whip your half-full can of beer against the wall right beside their fucking ear, like I have. That works too as an appropriate parting statement in some circumstances - i.e., It's his wall, you don't want him anyway, and you do without that half a can of beer, and you can get yourself out of there quickly. ;) ... but I digress ...) The main thing is to publicly identify the behaviour as unacceptable and refuse to listen: Refuse to be drawn into argument, and refuse to be present while such offensive and 'unCanadian' behaviour continues.

With thanks to Mr. Harper's speech writers for "There is no place in Canada for those things." because I believe most Canadians really mean that, and the rest have to learn.

Truth and reconciliation will be whatever Canadians make it. There is no reconciliation without the truth ... the WHOLE truth. An apology means nothing without the truth.

Please join me in making our government tell us the WHOLE truth ... about the children who suffered and died ... so we can continue to benefit from the profits from their land. Please join me in making our federal government legislate A say in development and a share in revenues for Indigenous communities, in return for Canadian uses of their traditional lands. Our treaties with them say so. The Supreme Court of Canada - the law - says so. But all three levels of government in Canada ignore the Supreme Court!

Provinces and municipalities, in particular, continue to approve development, mining, logging or other uses of Indigenous lands, with no say, no share of revenues to Indigenous Peoples. This is why we have protests and blockades: Indigenous Peoples only want what even Canadian law now says they are entitled to. Indigenous Peoples protest and blockade their land from our invasive industries ... because it is theirs to protect. In their own laws, they are the protectors of the land. It is theirs to protect, to preserve, to honour the seven generations of ancestors who preserved it for them, and to look after it for the seven generations to come.

Indigenous Peoples say: "The land doesn't belong to us. We belong to the land. The earth is our Mother. We take care of the land for the seven generations to come, so Mother Earth will sustain them too."

Canadians really have an awful lot to learn from Indigenous Peoples, just as soon as we can raise our heads from our shame. Because we are destroying the land, just like we destroyed their children.

SUPPORT: A say in development and a share in revenues. Send email to: grannysaga@gmail.com

When all the trees are gone and all the animals too and the water is spoiled, only then will the white man realize that you cannot eat money.