New name, new website

IPSMO (Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa) has renewed and relaunched itself as Indigenous Solidarity Ottawa (ISO).

To go with our new name, we have a shiny new website: indigenoussolidarityottawa.wordpress.com.

We have elected to keep this website up (ipsmo.wordpress.com). It contains some resources that are still valuable, if a bit dated, but we will no longer be maintaining it or checking comments, etc.

So again, please visit our new website, our Facebook page, sign-up for our e-newsletter, or drop as a line at indigsol[a]riseup.net to see the latest news, be in touch, and check out what we’re up to these days.

Thanks to everyone who has supported and been a part of IPSMO over the years – too many to ever name or even count. We’re excited for this new chapter and hope you are too.

 

 

April 27 Event – We Believe Survivors of Canadian Mining

We Believe Survivors of Canadian Mining

 ~An evening to explore the intersections of extractive industries and violence against women~

Join IPSMO, OPIRG Ottawa, and ProtestBarrick as we take an international, national, and very personal look at violence against women, as we find solidarity in the similarity of these struggles.

April 27, 2017, 6-8:30pm

University of Ottawa Desmarais Building DMS 1110

Full details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1650805138560226/

SPEAKERS:

• Two survivors of human rights abuses related to mining from Papua New Guinea
• Catherine Coumans (MiningWatch Canada)
• Jocelyn Wabano Iahtail (Attawapiskat First Nation)

After years of denying cases of sexual assault, Canadian mining company Barrick Gold compensated 119 women and girls who were victims of sexual violence by mine security in Papua New Guinea to the tune of ~$10,000 each for these abuses, but had them sign an agreement that they could never sue the company. Eleven of the women refused this remedy package and threatened to sue the company, resulting in a higher out of court settlement. Since that time, the 119 women who originally accepted the money from Barrick have organized into women’s groups and started to demand more dignified treatment from the company. Many others have never received any compensation at all, as allegations of sexual violence continue.

Closer to home, the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women has gained national and international attention due to the efforts of native women’s organizing and documentation efforts. These grassroots efforts have challenged official reports about the numbers of women who have disappeared, and created support and community for families and survivors of gendered violence.

From gaslighting tactics, to the cultural and legal barriers that prevent women from sharing their stories, we will look at the systemic forces that work to silence victims of abuse. We will also hear from courageous women who have self-organized with other survivors to tell their stories and demand accountability.

People’s Climate March, April 27

Join a massive wave of action for justice, jobs, and the climate

 Saturday, April 29 at 12:30 PM – 3:00 PM

From the Facebook event page:

***We would like to acknowledge and honour that all of the work we do is currently being done on unceded Algonquin Territory that was never given up and never surrendered***
—
Speaker’s List:
Eyah Mazzapaha
Davis Whittington-Heeney
…More to come…
—
March Route: Marching north on Eligin Street, onto Rideau, turn onto Sussex Drive marching north
Starting point: Human Rights Monument
Ending point: US Embassy
—
We invite you to join the Peoples Climate Movement on Saturday, April 29th; as we march to:
– Advance solutions to the climate crisis rooted in racial, social and economic justice, and committed to protecting front-line communities and workers.
– Protect our right to clean air, water, land, healthy communities and a world at peace.
– Immediately stop attacks on immigrants, communities of color, indigenous and tribal people and lands and workers.
– Ensure public funds and investments create good paying jobs that provide a family-sustaining wage and benefits and preserve workers’ rights, including the right to unionize.
– Fund investments in our communities, people and environment to transition to a new clean and renewable energy economy that works for all, not an economy that feeds the machinery of war.
– Protect our basic rights to a free press, protest and free speech.

For more information on People’s Climate Marches, visit peoplesclimate.org.

Open Letter to TD Bank

Divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline and Trans Mountain Pipeline Now!

Dear TD Bank Financial Group:

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a massive fracked-oil pipeline spear-headed by Energy Transfer Partners.[1] The Toronto Dominion Bank is a major investor in DAPL ($365 million), and its biggest Canadian supporter.[2] DAPL is opposed by the Meskwaki Nation in Iowa[3] and the Sioux Nation in North Dakota[4] because it threatens their ancestral lands and waters, including sacred sites and burial grounds.[5]^,[6]

As you are aware, Energy Transfer Partners has ignored this opposition, failing to consult with the Sioux and Meskwaki,[7] as is required under federal[8] and international law.[9] The project is in violation of treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate, which recognize the sovereignty of the Sioux Nation.[10] By running under the Missouri River, DAPL also threatens the freshwater supply of millions of people.[11] The decision to reroute the pipeline closer to the Standing Rock reservation has been described as environmental racism by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, among others.[12]

Peaceful protests organized by the Standing Rock Sioux have been met with human rights abuses by police and private security forces. Peaceful protesters have been attacked with mace, rubber bullets, long-range acoustic devices, tear gas, attack dogs, bean bag guns, flash bang grenades, and direct physical violence. At times this had happened during prayers and ceremonies; elders and piper carriers have been assaulted and arrested, and their sacred items stolen. The ACLU has correctly characterized this as a form of religious oppression. It also reports that interrogations have denied water protectors the right to counsel or free association. [13] For details and documentation of these incidents, please see the attached report prepared by the Red Owl Legal Collective for Norway’s DNB Bank.[14]

Financing this project, then, contradicts TD’s public commitment to “protect and promote human rights throughout our operations.”[15] It represents a failure to act “with due diligence to prevent, mitigate and manage adverse human rights impacts” [16] as TD has committed to do by signing the Equator Principles for project investment.[17]

Similarly, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project would triple the pipeline’s capacity for transporting oil from the Alberta tarsands to the BC Coast.[18] TD is helping Kinder Morgan find funding for this $6.8 billion expansion project.[19] This project is opposed by the Tsleil-Waututh, Suquamish, Kwantlen, and Coldwater First Nations.[20] They have not been meaningfully consulted, only offered a chance to rubberstamp and give suggestions for ‘improvement’ to the project.[21] The pipeline will see diluted bitumen pass through environmentally-sensitive areas like the Strait of Juan de Fuca,[22] threatening endangered species like killer whales.[23]

Both of these pipelines will worsen climate change – the single greatest contemporary threat to human civilization and life on this planet. They will lock us into a dirty and unproductive carbon economy. Across the continent, over 122 Indigenous nations have signed a treaty agreement opposing oilsands expansion on their territory, offering to work instead to build a sustainable economy.[24] This means that investing in oil and pipelines is as bad for business as it is for the environment. Divesting is the financially and ethically responsible thing to do. Doing this would mean TD would actually be, in the words of your own Corporate Responsibility policy, “an environmental leader… embedding an environmental perspective in our business strategy.”[25]

TD trumpets its commitment to the principle of “Free, Prior and Informed consent (FPIC)… [as] enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.”[26] This commitment to FPIC is laughable given the opposition of the Meskwaki Nation, Cheyenne River Sioux, and Standing Rock Sioux to DAPL; as well as the Tsleil-Waututh, Suquamish, Kwantlen, and Coldwater First Nations to Trans Mountain; to say nothing of the 122 Indigenous Nations across the continent that have “joined together under the present treaty to officially prohibit and to agree to collectively to challenge and resist the use of our respective territories and coasts in connection with the expansion of the production of the Alberta Tar Sands, including for the transport of such expanded production, whether by pipeline, rail or tanker.”[27] Over-riding the clear wishes of these First Nations puts the lie to your claim that “We want Aboriginal people, businesses and communities to view us an authentic partner who supports their goals and cares about their success.”[28]

We are a group of individuals concerned by TD’s support for these projects, especially in light of clear Indigenous opposition. We call upon you to withdraw your investments and support from DAPL and Kinder Morgan. On 8 April 2017, nearly one hundred of us gathered outside your branch on Elgin Street in Ottawa, to raise awareness about this call.[29] Our protest was peaceful and powerful, foregrounding the voices of indigenous elders, youth, and activists.[30] We engaged with passing pedestrians and TD customers, many of whom were intrigued to hear about TD’s shameful involvement with DAPL and Kinder Morgan. Some joined our action and many more thanked us for this information.

We want to be clear: if you do not divest from DAPL and Kinder Morgan, we plan on continuing to protest, oppose, and shame your company, encouraging customers and share-holders to divest themselves of your business. We are part of a broader movement that will only grow from today’s protest. We support Indigenous self-determination and the honouring of treaties, and hope you will decide to do the same.

Sincerely,
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa, and Allies
indigsol@riseup.net

Download a Word document file or PDF of this letter.
Send an individualized version of this letter to TD yourself.

Endnotes

[1] “Energy Transfer (ETP) Reveals Bakken Pipeline Open Season.” Zacks Equity Research, 18 Aug 2016.
www.zacks.com/stock/news/228509/energy-transfer-etp-reveals-bakken-pipeline-open-season

[2]  “Who’s Banking on the Dakota Access Pipeline?” Food & Water Watch, 6 Sept 2016.
www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/who’s-banking-dakota-access-pipeline

[3] “Meskwaki tribe opposes Bakken oil pipeline through Iowa.” USA Today, 16 March 2015.
ww.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/03/16/meskwaki-tribe-opposes-bakken-pipeline/24834269/

[4] “Standing Rock Sioux Tribe vs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.” 27 July 2016. earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/3154%201%20Complaint.pdf

[5] “Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Files 1^st Legal Challenge Over Dakota Access Pipeline Easement” by Morgan Winsor and James Hill. ABC News, 9 Feb 2017.
abcnews.go.com/US/cheyenne-river-sioux-tribe-files-1st-legal-challenge/story?id=45373370

[6] “Call to Action of Indigenous Peoples” by Dave Archambault. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. 15 Aug 2016.
drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=http://standingrock.org/data/upfiles/media/2121_001.pdf&key=856bb34d6fa64f9cb99f3975386b1c13

[7] “Statement from the Chair of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues” United Nations. 31 Aug 2016.
www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/news/2016/08/statement-on-protests/

[8] “The Federal Indian Consultation Right” by Gabriel S. Galanda. American Bar Association.
apps.americanbar.org/buslaw/committees/CL121000pub/newsletter/201101/galanda.pdf

[9] “United Nations Declaration on the Rights on Indigenous Peoples (Article 32).” UN, 13 Sept 2007. www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

[10] “Standing Rock Sioux Takes Pipeline Fight to UN Human Rights Council in Geneva” by Daniel A. Medina. NBC News, 20 Sept 2016. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/standing-rock-sioux-takes-pipeline-fight-un-human-rights-council-n651381

[11] “A #NoDAPL Map” by Carl Sack. Huffington Post, 2 Nov 2016.
www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-nodapl-map_us_581a0623e4b014443087af35

[12] “Why a Previously Proposed Route for the Dakota Access Pipeline Was Rejected” by Catherine Thorbecke. ABC News, 25 Jan 2016.
abcnews.go.com/US/previously-proposed-route-dakota-access-pipeline-rejected/story?id=43274356

[13] “The Surveillance State Descends on the Dakota Access Pipeline Spirit Camp.” ACLU, 10 October 2016. www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/surveillance-state-descends-dakota-access-pipeline-spirit-camp

[14] This report is also available at:
martinezlaw.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20161108-DNB-Bank-Divestment-Letter-ROLC.pdf

[15] “Corporate Responsibility – Human Rights.” TD Bank Group.
www.td.com/corporate-responsibility/report-centre/gri/human-rights.jsp

[16] “Equator Principles III (p. 20)” June 2013.
www.equator-principles.com/resources/equator_principles_III.pdf

[17] “Responsible Financing and Lending.” TD Bank Financial Group.
www.td.com/corporate-responsibility/crr-2009/environment/responsible-financing/index.jsp

[18] “Expansion Project.” Trans Mountain.  www.transmountain.com/expansion-project

[19] “Kinder Morgan starts talks with investors,” by John Tilak and David French. Reuters, 17 Feb 2017.
www.reuters.com/article/us-kinder-morgan-de-canada-financing-exc-idUSKBN15W20W

[20] “Yes could still be no as Kinder Morgan awaits Trudeau’s nod,” by Gordon Hoekstra. Vancouver Sun, 25 Nov 2016.
vancouversun.com/business/local-business/yes-could-still-be-no-as-kinder-morgan-awaits-trudeaus-nod-on-its-multi-billion-dollar-pipeline-expansion

[21] “B.C. First Nation launches legal challenge over Kinder Morgan pipeline,” by James Keller. CTV News, 2 May 2014.
www.ctvnews.ca/canada/b-c-first-nation-launches-legal-challenge-over-kinder-morgan-pipeline-1.1804190#ixzz350kqw2ja

[22] “Kinder Morgan proposes extending tug escorts through Juan de Fuca Strait for oil tankers.” Victoria Times Colinist, 2 June 2016. vancouversun.com/business/energy/kinder-morgan-proposes-extending-tug-escorts-through-juan-de-fuca-strait-for-oil-tankers

[23] Previously cited (fn 20) – “Yes could still be no,” by Hoekstra. vancouversun.com/business/local-business/yes-could-still-be-no-as-kinder-morgan-awaits-trudeaus-nod-on-its-multi-billion-dollar-pipeline-expansion

[24] “Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion Responds to NEB Decision to Restart Energy East Review.” Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, 27 Jan 2017.
ubcic.bc.ca/treatyalliance_neb_012717

[25] “Corporate Responsibility – Environment.” TD Bank.
http://www.td.com/corporate-responsibility/environment/index.jsp

[26] “TD and Indigenous Communities in Canada (p. 21).” https://www.td.com/document/PDF/corporateresponsibility/td_cr_aboriginal_report_en.pdf

[27] “Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion.”
www.treatyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TreatyandAdditionalInformation-20161216-OL.pdf

[28] “TD and Indigenous Communities in Canada (p. 9).” TD Bank. https://www.td.com/document/PDF/corporateresponsibility/td_cr_aboriginal_report_en.pdf

 [29] The event page can be found here:
www.facebook.com/events/1347262565324721

[30] “In pictures: Ottawa residents urge TD Bank to cut ties with Kinder Morgan pipeline,” by Alex Tétreault. National Observer, 9 April 2017.
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/04/09/news/pictures-ottawa-residents-urge-td-bank-cut-ties-kinder-morgan-pipeline

Send a message to TD Bank

Divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline and Trans Mountain Pipeline Now!

Here is a one-page letter TD customers can use to demand TD Bank divest from DAPL and Kinder Morgan. Scroll down for a letter anyone (including non-customers) can send. Check out an expanded version of the letter with thorough footnotes and links here.

Customer Letter

Download this letter as a document file you can modify yourself.
Bring the letter into your branch, or mail it to the address and e-mail accounts listed below.

Bob Dorrance, CEO TD Securities
Bharat Masran, CEO TD Bank Group
Brian M. Levitt, Chairman of the Board, TD Bank Group
Kerry Peacock, Executive Vice President & Indigenous Peoples Committee Chair
P.O. Box 1, TD Bank Tower
66 Wellington Street W
Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1A2
customer.care@td.com; tdir@td.com (TD Investor Relations)

Dear Bob Dorrance, Bharat Masran, Brian M. Levitt, and Kerry Peacock:

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a massive fracked-oil pipeline spear-headed by Energy Transfer Partners. It is opposed by the Meskwaki in Iowa and the Sioux in North Dakota because it threatens their ancestral lands and waters, including sacred sites and burial grounds.

Nevertheless, Energy Transfer Partners has ignored this opposition, failing to consult with the Sioux and Meskwaki, as is required under federal and international law. The project is in violation of treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate, which recognize the sovereignty of the Sioux nation. Peaceful protests organized by the Standing Rock Sioux have been met with human rights abuses by police and private security forces – abuses reminiscent of brutal Civil Rights-era repression. Not only that, by running under the Missouri River, DAPL threatens the freshwater supply of over eight million people.

Similarly, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project would triple the pipeline’s capacity for transporting oil from the Alberta tarsands to the BC Coast. It is opposed by the Tsleil-Waututh, Suquamish, Kwantlen, and Coldwater First Nations. They have not been meaningfully consulted, only offered a chance to rubberstamp and give suggestions for ‘improvement’ to the project. The pipeline will see diluted bitumen pass through environmentally-sensitive areas like the Strait of Juan de Fuca, threatening endangered species like killer whales.

The TD Bank Group is a major investor in DAPL – $360 million, all told– and the biggest Canadian supporter of the project. It is helping Kinder Morgan find funding for its $6.8 billion expansion project.

Both of these pipelines will worsen climate change – the greatest current threat to human civilization and life on this planet. They will lock us in a dirty and unproductive carbon economy. Across the continent, over 122 Indigenous nations have signed a treaty agreement opposing oilsands expansion on their territory, offering to work instead to build a sustainable economy. This means that investing in oil and pipelines as as bad for business as it is for the environment. Divesting is the financially and ethically responsible thing to do. Doing this would mean TD would actually be, in the words of your own Corporate Responsibility policy, “an environmental leader,” committed to “protect and promote human rights throughout our operations” and to the principle of “Free, Prior and Informed consent… [as] enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.”

As a client of your bank, I demand you divest from DAPL and abandon your support for Kinder Morgan. If you do not withdraw your investments from these projects, I will withdraw all my money from my accounts and funds with TD. I plan on encouraging friends and family to do the same.

I support Indigenous self-determination and the honouring of treaties, and hope you will do the same.

Sincerely,
____________________________________________
Date: ______________________

---

Individual Letter

This version is for anyone concerned by TD’s investments in DAPL and the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Download the letter as a Word document file you can modify yourself.
Bring the letter into the nearest TD branch, or mail it to the address and e-mail accounts listed below.

Bob Dorrance, CEO TD Securities
Bharat Masran, CEO TD Bank Group
Brian M. Levitt, Chairman of the Board, TD Bank Group
Kerry Peacock, Executive Vice President & Indigenous Peoples Committee Chair
P.O. Box 1, TD Bank Tower
66 Wellington Street W
Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1A2
customer.care@td.com; tdir@td.com (TD Investor Relations)

Dear Bob Dorrance, Bharat Masran, Brian M. Levitt, and Kerry Peacock:

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a massive fracked-oil pipeline spear-headed by Energy Transfer Partners. It is opposed by the Meskwaki in Iowa and the Sioux in North Dakota because it threatens their ancestral lands and waters, including sacred sites and burial grounds.

Nevertheless, Energy Transfer Partners has ignored this opposition, failing to consult with the Sioux and Meskwaki, as is required under federal and international law. The project is in violation of treaties ratified by the U.S. Senate, which recognize the sovereignty of the Sioux nation. Peaceful protests organized by the Standing Rock Sioux have been met with human rights abuses by police and private security forces – abuses reminiscent of brutal Civil Rights-era repression. Not only that, by running under the Missouri River, DAPL threatens the freshwater supply of over eight million people.

Similarly, Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project would triple the pipeline’s capacity for transporting oil from the Alberta tarsands to the BC Coast. It is opposed by the Tsleil-Waututh, Suquamish, Kwantlen, and Coldwater First Nations. They have not been meaningfully consulted, only offered a chance to rubberstamp and give suggestions for ‘improvement’ to the project. The pipeline will see diluted bitumen pass through environmentally-sensitive areas like the Strait of Juan de Fuca, threatening endangered species like killer whales.

The TD Bank Group is a major investor in DAPL – $360 million, all told– and the biggest Canadian supporter of the project. It is helping Kinder Morgan find funding for its $6.8 billion expansion project.

Both of these pipelines will worsen climate change – the single greatest contemporary threat to human civilization and life on this planet. They will lock us in a dirty and unproductive carbon economy. Across the continent, over 122 Indigenous nations have signed a treaty agreement opposing oilsands expansion on their territory, offering to work instead to build a sustainable economy. This means that investing in oil and pipelines as as bad for business as it is for the environment. Divesting is the financially and ethically responsible thing to do. Doing this would mean TD would actually be, in the words of your own Corporate Responsibility policy, “an environmental leader,” committed to “protect and promote human rights throughout our operations” and to the principle of “Free, Prior and Informed consent… [as] enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.”

As a concerned individual, I demand you divest from DAPL and abandon your support for Kinder Morgan. I will support the divestment movement in my community and workplace, and encourage friends and family to stop patronizing your bank and financial services.

I support Indigenous self-determination and the honouring of treaties, and hope you will do the same.

Sincerely,

____________________________________________

Date: ______________________

le 3 janvier 2017 – Solidarité à Val d’Or avec les femmes authochtones

(ENGLISH FOLLOWS) En réponse aux poursuites de 2,3 millions entamées par 41 policiers de Val d’Or contre ICI Radio-Canada pour avoir couvert les accusations des femmes autochtones de 37 cas d’agressions sexuelles, une démonstration aura lieu à la station de police de Val d’Or le 3 janvier 2017. Cette démonstration servira aussi de réponse à la récente marche en support aux dit policiers, impliquant quelques citoyens de Val d’Or.

QUOI : Blancs (et autres) en solidarité avec les femmes autochtones
QUAND : Mardi 3 janvier 2017, 11h30am-1h00pm
OU : Val d’Or –1151 rue d’Escale (en dehors de la station de police)
POURQUOI : Démontrer notre support envers les autochtones qui ont dénoncées les injustices

• Des lettres de support envoyées par différentes personnes ou organisations à travers du Canada seron lues sur place.
• La démonstration demande spécifiquement aux blancs de démontrer leur support avec les femmes autochtones.
• Le thème de démonstration assertera que :
  o Nous croyons les femmes autochtones et dénonçons la culture du viol qui laisse la vaste majorité des agressions sexuelles jamais dénoncées et/ou impunies.
  o Que la violence policière contre les personnes autochtones, peu importe la forme qu’elle prend, est une manifestation contemporaine de la suprématie blanche et du colonialisme d’occupation dans le présent.
  o Qu’il y a des alliés non-autochtones qui suivent et dénoncent ces injustices partout au Canada

CONTACT: Trycia Bazinet tryciabazinet@gmail.com

Facebook for live video and more information: @IPSMO (Indigenous People’s Solidarity Movement Ottawa
Page de l’évènement : https://www.facebook.com/events/1689759581338008/

—

January 3, 2017 – Solidarity in Val d’Or with Indigenous Women

In response to the lawsuit launched by 41 police officers against the news outlet (ICI Radio-Canada) that aired the testimonies of Indigenous women denouncing sexual assault (37 cases recorded), a demonstration will take place at the Val d’Or police station on January 3rd 2017. This demonstration is also a response to the citizen’s march in support of police officers, which recently took place in Val d’Or.

WHAT: Non-native Solidarity rally for Indigenous women attacked by police in Val d’Or
WHEN: Tuesday January 3rd (2017) 11:30am – 1:00pm
WHERE: Val d’Or – 1151 rue d’Escale (outside the police station)
WHO: Non-native (especially whites) in support of those confronting and exposing mistreatment by police
WHY: To show support for those risking their own safety to stand up for justice

• Letters of support, sent by various individuals and organizations, will be read on spot.
• Main messages of the rally:
  o We believe Indigenous women and denounced rape culture, which results in the the vast majority of sexual assaults of ever being denounced and/or punished.
  o That police violence against Indigenous peoples, in whichever forms it takes, is a contemporary manifestation of white supremacy and ongoing colonialism of occupation.
  o There are allies all accross Canada following this case and denouncing the injustices

CONTACT : Rally coordinator Trycia Bazinet tryciabazinet@gmail.com

Facebook for live video and more information: @IPSMO (Indigenous People’s Solidarity Movement Ottawa)
Facebook event page : https://www.facebook.com/events/1689759581338008/

Indigenous Land Defence – Wednesday December 7th – livestream

Special event Wednesday 7pm at Bronson Centre in Ottawa and livestream online – an evening to celebrate and support Indigenous land defence – and serving as a fundraiser for the Algonquins of Barriere Lake land defenders camp, established this fall to protect their territory from mining.

**** LIVESTREAM ****

** Indigenous Land Defence : An evening of speakers and multimedia **

Wednesday December 7th – 7:00pm
– at Bronson Centre (Mac Hall), 211 Bronson Ave, Ottawa

Featuring…

• Standing Rock #NoDAPL
• Chaudière Falls sacred site
• Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion
• Algonquins of Barriere Lake – No Mining! Land Defenders Camp

This event will be raising funds for the Algonquins of Barriere Lake land defence efforts – all levels of donations are welcome.

Childcare is planned to be available on site.
Event contact: org4justice@gmail.com
Background info: www.BarriereLakeSolidarity.org
Dec 7 event post: https://ipsmo.wordpress.com
Livestream info (embed or link) will be at the two above websites before Wednesday 7pm.

**** Support Barriere Lake via paypal even if you don’t attend in person ****
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JU3W8CQVB5Y2A

**** Please help spread the word: ****
– On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/224609801312254
– Also, print posters https://t.co/3qxCO1MFx8
… and quarter-page flyers https://t.co/9rokj1NFbX
– Copy and paste the text of this post for use elsewhere (emails, FB, …)
– Or just use the link of this post to share, send out over email, …

Miigwetch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ottawa Fundraising Dinner, Tues Nov 8- Algonquins of Barriere Lake Land Defenders

No Mining In Our Territory – Ottawa Fundraising Dinner
Algonquins of Barriere Lake Land Defenders Camp

Please join us this Tuesday to gather together for a dinner and opportunity to hear from Barriere Lake community members about their new efforts to prevent mining in their territory, and how you can support these efforts.

In late October, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake set up a camp to defend their territory from new threats of the various companies that have mining claims there. The Quebec government has recently begun unilaterally lifting multi-year moratoriums on mining in the area, despite this being against the Trilateral and Bilateral Agreements of the 1990s.
More info: http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org/
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/blog/Blogentry/mining-without-consent-of-the-algonquins-of-b/blog/57914/

Tuesday, November 8th 2016
5pm – 7pm  (come as you can, even if not right at 5pm)
at St. John’s Church, 154 Somerset St W. (corner of Elgin)
– Basement hall: entrance off of Somerset, wheelchair accessible entrance ramp off of Elgin.

• Link to Facebook event page (please invite people!)

Due to too short notice, we have not arranged ASL sign language interpretation. Please contact us with any other questions about accessibility or otherwise: indigsol@riseup.net

Planned food includes wild game and/or fish from ABL territory, with vegetarian chili, quinoa, and salad generously provided by the Table Restaurant.

All levels of donations accepted – to go to maintaining the camp and for gas for travel monitoring the various areas of the territory where drilling/mining companies may start work. By cash or cheque. Donations are also accepted via paypal.

This event has been very quickly organized so we need your help to please get the word out and encourage your fam/friends/comrades/networks to show up. The land defenders camp has just been started within the last two weeks, and this fundraising dinner is timed to coincide with the “Joining Our Fires: Women for the Protection of Lands and Waters” rally happening directly afterwards at 7pm, at the Human Rights Monument (Elgin at Lisgar: 3 blocks from our venue).

IPSMO – new Basis of Unity

The IPSMO organizing committee has been busy updating our basis of unity, to better reflect our current organization.

We have adopted the following basis of unity, to be reviewed in the next 3 months. At this time, we are actively looking for feedback from our communities. [To share your feedback or to organize with us, contact: indigsol [at] riseup.net]

IPSMO Basis of Unity

Who we are:

IPSMO is an Ottawa-based, grassroots collective that supports Indigenous struggles for justice and decolonization.

We acknowledge that Ottawa, and the entire Kitchissippi (Ottawa River) watershed, is Algonquin territory. We are committed to helping decolonize this territory, and to supporting national and transnational indigenous struggles.

Our collective is for anyone who wants to be in solidarity with Indigenous people, but we want to be clear that most of us are settlers.  Our group strives to listen to and take direction from Indigenous voices. Learning from indigenous knowledge and indigenous knowledge holders is crucial to decolonizing ourselves, and to challenging the colonial ideas and practices that dominate Canadian society and undermine indigeneity.

What we want:

We affirm the sacredness of Mother Earth, the interdependence of all beings, and the right to live as part of healthy ecosytems.

We are dedicated to creating a decolonized world and understand all struggles for justice as interconnected.  We strive to build loving, respectful and accountable relationships and dialogues between all people and communities who are working for social, economic, and land justice.

We support the principles outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and its full implementation on Turtle Island. We believe in the principle of free, prior and informed consent, and oppose unilateral settler, state and corporate interventions in the lives of Indigenous peoples, including in the lives of those involved in sex work.

What we believe:

We believe that Canadian society owes its prosperity to colonization.  We understand colonization as a system that is founded on land theft, ecological destruction, racism, apartheid and genocide. We understand colonialism as an ongoing process that continues to benefit settler society; justice demands decolonization. When fully realized, decolonization would liberate the land, its people, and its settlers. We hold to a vision of Turtle Island (North America) where First Nations and settlers share the land in a just and peaceful relationship, and where indigenous sovereignty is fully recognized, including First Nations’ right to political, economic, and territorial self-determination.

We believe that decolonization requires questioning and changing the state, citizenship, capitalism, gender and sexual roles, the nuclear family, and the exploitation of the natural world.  We work in solidarity with indigenous movements to further this broad understanding of decolonization.

What we do:

We provide support to actions and campaigns for Indigenous sovereignty, defence of the land, cultural revitalization, ending violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirits, and the honouring of treaties and agreements.

Our group supports and uses a diversity of tactics ranging from popular education, to fundraising, to direct action as a means of nurturing decolonization.

Barriere Lake Algonquins protest Health Canada

Health Canada Red Tape Puts Community Members’ Health at Risk

For immediate release
http://www.barrierelakesolidarity.org/2016/01/health-canada-red-tape-puts-community.html

(Ottawa/January 14, 2016) Representatives from the Algonquins of Barriere Lake are in Ottawa today, protesting bureaucratic and obstructionist practices of Health Canada. Recent changes to the administration of medical transportation services in the community are leading to delays, loss of access to transportation and gross inefficiencies in the use of funds. The community is angered and frustrated that the Ministry’s red tape is putting some of their most vulnerable community members at risk and are demanding they be given back the authority to manage their own transportation budget.

Time and Location of Rally:
12 PM, January 14, 2016
70 Columbine Drive, Ottawa ON

As part of the health services provided to this and other Indigenous communities across Canada, Health Canada pays for transportation to medical appointments outside of the community, which is 3 hours north of Ottawa and which is serviced with a basic health clinic staffed by Health Canada nurses. Until recently, the travel expenses were efficiently managed by community-level health centre staff using drivers contracted from the community.

Starting in the New Year, Health Canada is requiring pre-authorizations by federal bureaucrats for transportation to medical appointments, and is withholding payments to the contractual drivers. These unilateral changes are creating unnecessary delays, leading to people missing appointments, and putting their health at risk. In one case a newborn requiring urgent attention in Maniwaki, QC was delayed departure from the community by over 4 hours while waiting for approval for the trip. Fortunately the baby was fine on this instance, but the waits, delays and missed appointments are creating a tremendous amount of stress for the community.

Casey Ratt, Chief of the Alognquins of Barriere Lake, insists that the community can manage the medical transportation funds. “We can handle this issue locally, do it more efficiently, be more responsive and have it cost a lot less than the current mess created by Health Canada” stated Chief Ratt.

Health Canada’s approval requirements include 48 hours’ notice, and disclosure of personal medical information, information that the community’s nursing staff do not want to provide, fearing a breach of their obligations to protect privacy.

“This issue has led to a real loss of trust between us and Health Canada” said Chief Ratt “We have heard some encouraging words from Prime Minister Trudeau these last few months, and appreciate his statement that for his government there is no relationship more important than the one with Indigenous peoples. Well it’s time for the Prime Minister and Ministers Philpott and Bennet to live up to these commitments”

Time and Location of Rally:
12 PM, January 14, 2016
70 Columbine Drive, Ottawa ON