By Krishna E. Bera, Lori Waller, and Greg Macdougall

In Feb. 2010, the Mitchikanibikok Inik – or Algonquins of Barriere Lake (ABL), a small First Nation community located 130km north of Maniwaki, Quebec, presented arguments in the Supreme Court of Canada defending their latest leadership selection.

A few weeks later, the court decided the selection was not held according to ABL's customary governance code. The judge misinterpreted the customary governance code with inconsistent logic in his arguments, which might play a role in paving the way for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to impose section 74 of the Indian Act. This would abolish the customary method the ABL use to select their leaders.

This follows a notice Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl sent to the ABL in October that he would not recognize their legitimate leadership. Instead, he said he will impose elections on the community in April 2010.

By Sue Goldstein,
6 July 2009, Toronto
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

This year’s Pride march was marked by intense pressure from pro-Zionist forces to keep Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) from participating.

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.

Andrew Loucks
LINCHPIN

If you are a political junkie of some sort, you will likely be fascinated by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang’s multi-faceted answer to the question of how the Canadian government came to help invade and occupy Afghanistan. The role of Ballistic Missile Defense and the Iraq war; the transitions from the Chretien to the Martin and Harper governments; the bravado, patriotism and military marketing skill of Canadian Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier; the imbalance between civilian departments and the military; and the ever-present consideration of remaining favoured members of the US imperial sphere are all factors impressively explained and documented in The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar (Toronto: Penguin Group, 2007).

Andrew Loucks
LINCHPIN

The Israeli government strangles and plans an attack on Gaza for months, times its provocation for the biggest of US election days, then launches an audaciously brutal bombardment upon a people trapped in the most densely populated land in the world. It bombs infrastructure, schools, mosques, homes and aid depots, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, clean water, adequate food and access to medical care.

It calls its own cease fire on its own terms, content with battering a defenceless people until they submit, cognizant of the need to stop just before Obama’s inauguration. There is outrage all over the world, but in Canada the mainstream media largely laps up and regurgitates the propaganda of the powerful, and the federal government applauds enthusiastically.

On about 48 hours notice, at least 120 rallied and marched in opposition to the siege and bombardment of Gaza in Hamilton today, letting fellow citizens hear their outrage through chants, leaflets and local media outlets. “Defend Gaza,” an ad-hoc committee formed to organize against the Gaza siege, called the event. Other organizers in Hamilton arranged for buses to take people to Toronto's rally.

As the Israeli military begins a ground invasion, it was reported from the bull horn at the demonstration that local activists have recently lost family members in Gaza to Israeli military bombs. Right now, to stand with those calling for an end to this imperialist brutality is the least we can do. In the future, if strategies like divestment from Israel, diplomatic pressure and disentanglement from US empire are to be seriously implemented, we have our own work to do here at home to achieve a political system capable of taking these actions.

Hundreds of dead and thousands of injured, sacrificed on the altar of Zionist expansionism and fundamentalism. In Canada , the foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon, talks about only Israel's “right to defend itself” and “First and foremost, those rocket attacks [against Israel] must stop.” reversing the true situation with an operation that would make the most cynical illusionist feel proud by making the aggressor, the State of Israel, appear to be the victim.

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.