By Alex Balch

On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the reclamation of Kanonhstaton (“The Protected Place”) by members of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations, a stand-off occurred between roughly a dozen supporters of self-proclaimed “law and order activist” Gary McHale and a crowd of approximately 100 demonstrators. The larger group had assembled to block McHale from stepping onto the contested area - once envisioned as the future site of the 40 hectare Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) subdivision, but nowadays much more famous for its role as a frontline in the battle for Indigenous rights in Canada.

On December 13, 2010, over a hundred community members from Barriere Lake, along with supporters from Montreal and Toronto, drove through the snow to get to Parliament Hill to demand the government take back section 74 and restore their customary rights.

For more information:
http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org
http://www.ipsmo.org

Six women activists, shortly after staging a sit-in against cuts to aboriginal healing and then being arrested, charged and released, March 29. PHOTO: Greg Macdougall

by Greg Macdougall

Ottawa - On Monday March 29 - two days before the federal government's funding cuts to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) take effect - six women from Montreal staged a sit-in outside of Indian and Northern Affairs minister Chuck Strahl's office in Ottawa.

“By cutting the funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and having us arrested for protesting these cuts, Harper is denying effective services to thousands of residential school survivors,” said Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, a member of the Montreal-based grassroots group Missing Justice who was arrested in the protest.

They pledged to remain there until a decision was made to restore funding to the AHF, but police arrested and removed them within an hour, charging them with trespassing.

By Scott Neigh
Northern Ontario Correspondent

A new group based in Sudbury, Ont. is working to build national support for John Moore, an Ojibway man wrongfully convicted of second degree murder in 1978. Moore and the committee are currently asking groups and individuals from across Canada to sign on to a one-paragraph statement that outlines the injustice and asserts that "in recognition of the long history of indigenous people being targeted unfairly by the Canadian justice system, we, the individuals and groups listed below, call upon the Government of Canada to conduct a review of Moore's conviction."

Moore, a member of the Serpent River First Nation who grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. was accused of involvement in the murder of cab driver Donald Lanthier in August 1978. Moore said, "I unequivocally did not commit the crime."

By Jeff Shantz
State Repression Columnist

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games are scheduled to take place from February 12-17, in Vancouver-Whistler on land that was never given up by indigenous communities. For growing numbers of indigenous people, homeless and poor people, low-income tenants and sex workers the Olympic Games represent a continued history of colonization and “social cleansing” of poor communities.

Construction for the Olympics infrastructure is adding to extensive destruction of indigenous peoples’ traditional homelands and contributing to the displacement and criminalization of people living in poor urban neighbourhoods.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Anarchists call Police report comparing activism to hate crime "chilling"

May 24, 2009

HAMILTON- Local members of the provincial anarchist organization
Common Cause fear Hamilton police are seeking to criminalize local
organizers after a Hamilton police report identified the 2nd annual
Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair as a potential source of hate crime.

While presenting the Year-End Hate Crime report (available online)
to the Hamilton Police Board on May 19, acting sergeant Michael Goch
stated police would be “actively monitoring” the book fair scheduled to
take place on June 6.

Alex Diceanu, Ontario Treasurer of Common Cause responded, "As the
organizers of the annual book fair, and as local anarchists and
activists, Common Cause is deeply disturbed by these statements.

"This is a manipulation of hate crime laws to criminalize activism. At
this time of economic and environmental crisis, alongside increasing

For the second year in a row, Hamilton will be home to Ontario's only Anarchist Book Fair, happening June 6, from 10am to 4pm at Westdale Collegiate, 700 Main St. West . Over 300 people from all over southern Ontario took part in Hamilton's first anarchist book fair, held last June.

For those not familiar with anarchist book fairs you can expect a couple dozen or so publishers and book stores to be on hand offering literature in various forms (as well as the occasional t-shirt) at affordable prices. You can expect to find just about every social justice issue covered from the environment, to women's struggles to radical history and theory. Many local activist groups will also be on hand to share information about important struggles happening in our community and beyond.

By Petre Marin
November 29, 2008

A Kanienkeha (Mohawk) militant, intellectual and professor at the University of Victoria, Taiaiake Alfred was invited to McMaster University because he is widely acknowledged as among the most renowned scholars in indigenous studies on the continent. But Taiaiake is not a typical academic nor was he here to give an academic talk as he made clear right away. Speaking at Convocation Hall surrounded by portraits of bearded upper class white men, the wealthy elite of McMaster's past, Taiaiake, a former US marine had this to say: “In the marines we have a saying. 'The enemy is in front of us, behind us, on our left and on our right. We have the SOBs right where we want them.” The scene captured perfectly the situation of all rebels today: within and against the system that exploits and oppresses us.

Common Cause Hamilton's monthly anarchist discussion group continued this September 16 with a screening of Kevin Annett's documentary, "Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide." Connie, a member of Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD), one of the principal groups seeking justice for the victims of Canada's residential school system, introduced the film and also led the subsequent discussion. About a dozen people attented, several of whom took copies of the film to show it elsewhere.

The film itself is about Canada's residential school system. For over 100 years the Canadian government forced indigenous children to attend schools run by Canada's major churches. The schools were intended to strip indigenous children of their languages and cultures and turn them into Christian, white, workers. See "Residential School Apology: An Anarchist View" in Linchpin 5 for more info.

“Bob Lovelace and the KI Six were released from prison after serving three and two months respectively of six month sentences for contempt of court.”
— Judy Rebick, May 30, www.rabble.ca

“AbitibiBowater, the largest newsprint company in the world and the only one still logging on Grassy Narrows land, announced it would leave Grassy Narrows effective immediately. ... [T]he Grassy Narrows campaign ... included the longest-running blockade in North American history.”
— Jessica Bell, June 23, www.alternet.org

“On June 14 ... Canadian border control officers brutally attacked Katenies and Kahentinetha, two Mohawk grandmothers. Both are part of the MNN network and known for their outspoken criticism of U.S., Canadian and international power cartels.”