Post by Good Mind Seeds on Jan 1, 2013 14:47:46 GMT -5
How the Idle No More movement started and where it might go from here
www.whitewolfpack.com/2012/12/how-idle-no-more-movement-started-and.html
What exactly is Idle No More?
Conceived in November by four Saskatchewan women frustrated with the Tories’ latest omnibus budget bill, Idle No More is a First Nations protest movement looking to obtain renewed government guarantees for treaty agreements and halt what organizers see as a legislative erosion of First Nations rights. The movement’s most visible spokeswoman is Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation, the Northern Ontario reserve struck by an emergency housing crisis last year. Since Dec. 11, Ms. Spence has been on a hunger strike while camped on an Ottawa River island only a few hundred metres from Parliament Hill, vowing not to eat until she has secured a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Since early December, protests spurred by Idle No More have included a 1,000-person demonstration on Parliament Hill last week, a blockade of a CN rail spur near Sarnia that continued for a sixth day on Wednesday and a variety of brief demonstrations and blockades across Canada and parts of the United States.
Although Idle No More trended on social media over the holidays, has there been much non-virtual movement of late?
Protests largely quieted down over Christmas, although on Boxing Day scattered demonstrations were seen at malls in the Prairie provinces, Sarnia remains blockaded and Theresa Spence still has not eaten. On Wednesday, Ms. Spence received endorsements from the two frontrunners in the Liberal leadership race, Marc Garneau and Justin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau met with Ms. Spence in her Victoria Island teepee, while Mr. Garneau released a letter calling for Mr. Harper to build “renewed understanding” with Canada’s First Nations.
The crux of the protest is ensuring that treaty rights are respected. Are treaty rights being disrespected?
Ontario, the three Prairie Provinces as well as large parts of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories all sit on land that First Nations people signed over to Canada in exchange for a package of government guarantees. Treaty 9, the 1905/1906 treaty signed the people of Attawapiskat, for instance, guarantees that, in perpetuity, First Nations would receive “benefits that served to balance anything that they were giving.” The treaty also guaranteed total Aboriginal control over reserve lands. Idle No More organizers point to the disastrous state of Aboriginal health and living conditions on First Nations reserves and allege that these treaty rights are not being properly honoured — and that current attempts to amend the Indian Act will only erode existing Aboriginal rights. “Canada has not committed itself to addressing the colonial relationship it still has with indigenous peoples,” wrote Metis blogger Chelsea Vowel earlier this month. “I think it’s fair to say that most Canadians believe that kind of relationship no longer exists. We are trying to tell you that you are wrong.”
How wide is support for the protests among Canada’s First Nations? Not all First Nations protests are created equal. In the past, several high-profile demonstrations such as the 2007 blockade of Ontario’s Highway 401 or Aboriginal protests surrounding the 2010 Vancouver Olympics were conducted by fringe groups with little or no official ties to the groups they claimed to represent. Idle No More’s protests, on the other hand, have received the official backing of First Nations groups and leaders across Canada, including Assembly of First Nations grand chief Shawn Atleo, who has often been noted for advocating close co-operation between Aboriginals and the Tory government.
www.whitewolfpack.com/2012/12/how-idle-no-more-movement-started-and.html
What exactly is Idle No More?
Conceived in November by four Saskatchewan women frustrated with the Tories’ latest omnibus budget bill, Idle No More is a First Nations protest movement looking to obtain renewed government guarantees for treaty agreements and halt what organizers see as a legislative erosion of First Nations rights. The movement’s most visible spokeswoman is Theresa Spence, chief of the Attawapiskat First Nation, the Northern Ontario reserve struck by an emergency housing crisis last year. Since Dec. 11, Ms. Spence has been on a hunger strike while camped on an Ottawa River island only a few hundred metres from Parliament Hill, vowing not to eat until she has secured a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Since early December, protests spurred by Idle No More have included a 1,000-person demonstration on Parliament Hill last week, a blockade of a CN rail spur near Sarnia that continued for a sixth day on Wednesday and a variety of brief demonstrations and blockades across Canada and parts of the United States.
Although Idle No More trended on social media over the holidays, has there been much non-virtual movement of late?
Protests largely quieted down over Christmas, although on Boxing Day scattered demonstrations were seen at malls in the Prairie provinces, Sarnia remains blockaded and Theresa Spence still has not eaten. On Wednesday, Ms. Spence received endorsements from the two frontrunners in the Liberal leadership race, Marc Garneau and Justin Trudeau. Mr. Trudeau met with Ms. Spence in her Victoria Island teepee, while Mr. Garneau released a letter calling for Mr. Harper to build “renewed understanding” with Canada’s First Nations.
The crux of the protest is ensuring that treaty rights are respected. Are treaty rights being disrespected?
Ontario, the three Prairie Provinces as well as large parts of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories all sit on land that First Nations people signed over to Canada in exchange for a package of government guarantees. Treaty 9, the 1905/1906 treaty signed the people of Attawapiskat, for instance, guarantees that, in perpetuity, First Nations would receive “benefits that served to balance anything that they were giving.” The treaty also guaranteed total Aboriginal control over reserve lands. Idle No More organizers point to the disastrous state of Aboriginal health and living conditions on First Nations reserves and allege that these treaty rights are not being properly honoured — and that current attempts to amend the Indian Act will only erode existing Aboriginal rights. “Canada has not committed itself to addressing the colonial relationship it still has with indigenous peoples,” wrote Metis blogger Chelsea Vowel earlier this month. “I think it’s fair to say that most Canadians believe that kind of relationship no longer exists. We are trying to tell you that you are wrong.”
How wide is support for the protests among Canada’s First Nations? Not all First Nations protests are created equal. In the past, several high-profile demonstrations such as the 2007 blockade of Ontario’s Highway 401 or Aboriginal protests surrounding the 2010 Vancouver Olympics were conducted by fringe groups with little or no official ties to the groups they claimed to represent. Idle No More’s protests, on the other hand, have received the official backing of First Nations groups and leaders across Canada, including Assembly of First Nations grand chief Shawn Atleo, who has often been noted for advocating close co-operation between Aboriginals and the Tory government.
