First Nations erect traditional teaching lodge near New Brunswick legislature to protest shale gas
Anti-fracking demonstrators erect traditional longhouse near legislature
Anti-fracking protesters erect traditional longhouse 
A traditional native longhouse built near the New Brunswick legislature is grabbing the attention of politicians.
October 28, 2013
A native longhouse built near the New Brunswick legislature is grabbing the attention of politicians, but city councillors in Fredericton have yet to say how the traditional native shelter may impact their own bylaws.
The longhouse - a traditional native shelter where decisions are made - was built on the weekend by anti-fracking demonstrators, who plan to keep the shelter there indefinitely.
"It is true democracy. It is the people's house and the voice of the people is heard here," says Alma Brooks of St. Mary's First Nation.
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A traditional native longhouse has been erected near the New Brunswick legislature ahead of the fall sitting and there are plans to keep the shelter there indefinitely.
Demonstrators marched to the longhouse on the weekend and a stream of people entered the shelter while a traditional sacred flame burned inside.
"If they want to come in and talk and listen and just find out what our culture is all about, they're more than welcome," says Harry Laporte, Grand Chief of the Maliseet Grand Council.
The protesters also plan to erect teepees at the site, with each structure representing a different First Nation community.
"By November 5, all the teepees will hopefully be erected and we'll have our grand council meeting here that day," says Ron Tremblay of the Tobique First Nation.
Protesters say New Brunswick Premier David Alward has been sent invited to visit the longhouse, but he was not at his office when St. Mary's First Nation Chief Candice Paul stopped by on Monday.
She says she left behind a letter signed by seven Maliseet leaders.
"To request a moratorium on the exploration or development of shale gas in the province of New Brunswick," says Paul.
Alward was unable to drop by the longhouse on Monday, but officials from the Fredericton Fire Department paid the shelter a visit, leaving behind a fire extinguisher and safety evacuation signs.
The City of Fredericton has not commented on whether city bylaws regarding structures built on public land will affect the longhouse.
Mayor Brad Woodside is not commenting on the matter at this time but Chief Paul says she called the mayor last week.
"I know there may have been worries about a tent city but our organizers, our Grand Chief Harry Laporte, publicly stated in the very beginning that people are not allowed to ten there," she says.
She says there will be somebody at the longhouse at all times to supervise the sacred fire burning inside.
"Once it's lit, until it's put out, it has to be named," says Paul.
Canvas will be placed over the shelter by the end of the week, to make it look more traditional and to give it more durability.
The fall sitting of the New Brunswick legislature begins Nov. 5 but organizers say they plan to keep the longhouse standing indefinitely.
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Maliseet anti-shale gas letter delivered to premier's office
Crowd continues to grow at longhouse erected across from provincial legislature in Fredericton
Posted: Oct 28, 2013
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A traditional longhouse was erected by Maliseet First Nations across from the provincial legislature. (CBC)
A letter signed by several First Nation leaders, calling for a moratorium on shale gas exploration and development in New Brunswick, has been delivered to the premier's office.
Meanwhile, members of the Maliseet First Nation continued to gather Monday at a traditional longhouse set up one block away from the premier's office over the weekend.
Others are being urged to bring tepees to set up there as well, in hopes the site will be crowded by Nov. 5, when the legislature's fall session is scheduled to begin, said Ron Tremblay, of Wolastoq Grand Council.
Tremblay wants more than a temporary moratorium to allow for more research. He wants the shale gas industry stopped before it's started.
"Gone. Period. Forever," he said.
Maliseet grand chief Harry LaPorte invites Premier David Alward to meet with First Nations leaders. (CBC)
But the gathering at the legislature will not be like the anti-shale gas demonstration in Kent County that turned violent earlier this month, stressed Tremblay.
"Oh much, much different," he said. "Our total focus is on peace and friendship and unity and solidarity. We are not protesters, we are not warriors. We're protectors. That our main message going out to all people."
Protesters clashed with RCMP near Rexton on Oct. 17 after officers moved in to enforce a court injunction obtained by SWN Resources Canada against a blockade. Five RCMP vehicles were burned and 40 people were arrested.
On Sunday, members of the Maliseet First Nation carried a sacred fire across the St. John River for a ceremony at the longhouse, where six elected Maliseet chiefs and the traditional chief of the St. John River Valley signed an agreement, stating all are unified in their opposition to shale gas development.
Premier David Alward was in Ottawa on Monday, St. Mary's First Nation Chief Candice Paul hand delivered the letter to one of his staff members.
Paul contends there needs to be an independent review of the contentious issue.
"It would involve qualified people that we would pick ... and with the proper credentials," she said.
Bronson Acquin-Mandisodza, 17, of St. Mary's First Nation, says it's an historic occasion.
"My mom, in her lifetime, said she's never seen all the Maliseet communities being brought together until this week," said Acquin-Mandisodza, the keeper of the sacred fire at the longhouse.
"This gathering here is a show of unity and solidarity among the nations here," said elder Alma Brooks.
Harry LaPorte, grand chief of the Maliseet First Nation, said he hopes the unity shown among the Maliseet will be echoed by the Mi'kmaq andPassamaquoddy nations they also invited to the longhouse.
"I think they showed their support by being here, witnessing what we did," said LaPorte
Organizers said the longhouse will remain until they are able to present their stance to Premier David Alward.
Laporte said Alward is welcome to visit the longhouse any time.
"Our unified front has already been established by us meeting in here today in our government longhouse. Mr. Alward probably should come talk to us. Then he'll have a better understanding of who we are. And what we are. And why we are."
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Stop Mainstream Canada's Apathy Toward First Nations Abuse
Shahla Khan Salter, President, Muslims for Progressive Values MPV Ummah Canada, Director Universalist Muslims
Posted: 10/25/2013
One week ago, First Nations community members in New Brunswick, from the Elsipogtog and Mi'kmaq tribes blocked a road, in protest. The blockade was formed in an effort to prevent the passage of vehicles, belonging to American shale gas company SWN Resources, which is engaged in development in the area.
First Nations activists and others worry that the company's activities will cause fracking, damaging the environment, and poisoning the water.
In response, RCMP arrested at least 40 First Nations community members. It was reported that police attempted to break up the protest using dogs, pepper spray, fire hoses, tear gas, rubber bullets and snipers.
It was further reported that the protesters included women, seniors and children. Approximately five RCMP police cars were torched and equipment belonging to the company removed. Reports conflict on who caused the damage to the vehicles -- protesters or an RCMP informant.
What happened in New Brunswick is not an isolated incident.
First Nations communities across Canada are uniting, in the struggle to maintain and preserve their land from environmental destruction, as corporations remove resources on native land with our governments' blessing. In doing so, they are also working to save their individual and treaty rights from further deterioration.
A movement has taken hold. It arose amidst the apathy and racism of mainstream Canadian society that surrounds First Nations people wherever they go.
It arose notwithstanding the torturous abuse First Nations people withstood as children and youth at Canada's residential schools which took place during the course of my generation and previous generations. The after effects of the abuse continue to haunt communities.
It is a movement that exists despite the poverty that indigenous people face daily.
It is a movement that has gained strength notwithstanding the challenges First Nations communities face as a result of addiction, violence and suicide.
And it has been born to oppose a system, instituted by our governments, who remove native control of resources on reserve land and continuously fail to deliver basic necessities such as food, water, adequate shelter and education to First Nations families.
It is a movement that has grown into the worldwide Idle No More, made famous by the fast of Chief Teresa Spence last year at Victoria Island.
Thankfully, it is not going away. And it must not be ignored by Canadians -- including those of us from first and second generation immigrant communities.
Two evenings ago, a film was shown at Octopus Books, an independent book store here in Ottawa, called The People of Kattawapiskak River. The film was the first of three being shown, as part of a series by Cinema Politica, entitled "Divine Interventions".
There, I had an opportunity to hear First Nations activists speak before and after the film as part of a panel.
Among them was Clayton Thomas-Muller. Muller is from the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. He is the campaigner for Defenders of the Land and Idle No More Joint National Campaign and co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign of Polaris.
Muller is described as being "on the front lines of stopping industrial society's assault on Indigenous Peoples lands". He spoke to the crowd that evening.
"We know that the system is broken," he said. "It was designed to exploit, and we need a new economic paradigm, one that doesn't sacrifice communities at the altar of irresponsible economic policies for the benefit of the privileged few."
It was a reminder that it is not only the human rights of citizens, led by dictatorships, in far off lands, that are sacrificed for corporate business. It is happening here too -- at home.
Joining Muller and hosting the panel was First Nations activist, Andrea Landry of the UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus.
Landry addressed the failure of mainstream media, at times, to report the entire story; the burden on First Nations activists and leaders to come up with quick fix solutions to problems that developed from centuries of oppression; and the racism and bigotry that promote the removal of both the basic human rights of individuals and land rights. I found myself inadvertently making connections to issues I once believed, long ago, were uniquely Muslim. But they are not.
Stories of oppression all contain common narratives, including the corrupt influences of power and greed, the silencing of oppressed individuals and the demonization of an entire nation.
What must we do?
Inspired by The Creator, their spirits fed by the earth, our First Nations friends are not interested in being "saved" by outsiders. (Who is? Not me or my fellow Muslims.)
As the children of immigrants, it is not our role, no matter how many connections we may make between the injustices we face anywhere and the injustices they face here, to provide the sort of support that may deny, in any way, the existence of qualified leadership within First Nations communities.
We can only stand in solidarity behind our First Nations friends and in doing so, open our eyes to the corporate greed, environmental damage and the breakdown of civil liberties that will soon affect us all. And convey our thanks for the land on which we find ourselves standing.
Shukran. Megwich.
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UN Urged To Declare Canada's Treatment Of Aboriginals 'Genocide'
The Huffington Post Canada | By Michael Bolen Posted: 10/19/2013
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A fresh campaign is underway to push the United Nations to label Canada's treatment of First Nations people "genocide."
On Monday, former National Chief Phil Fontaine, elder Fred Kelly, businessman Dr. Michael Dan and human rights activist Bernie Farber sent a letter to James Anaya, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, arguing that several specific crimes against aboriginal people in Canada qualify as genocide under the post-Second World War Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG)
Article 2 of the Convention states that "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The letter writers assert that at least three actions on the part of Canadian governments constitute genocide under those rules.
1. Sir John A. MacDonald's policy of deliberately starving First Nations people to make way for settlers in the Canadian west.
2. The residential school system and especially the decision of Department of Indian Affairs chief Duncan Campbell Scott not to address rampant tuberculosis among students.
3. The forcible removal of aboriginal children from their homes for the purpose of adoption by white families, a practice known as the "Sixties Scoop." Estimates put the number of children removed between the 1960s and the mid 1980s at around 20,000.
Farber and Dan have previously argued that the recently revealednutrition experiments performed on children at residential schools also qualify as genocide.
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The genocide argument has been criticized by Sun News pundit Ezra Levant, who wrote this summer that "Canada does not and never has had a policy of exterminating Indians. Genocides don't normally include billions of dollars a year in government grants to the group in question, affirmative action hiring quotas, land reserves and other privileges."
Levant accuses Dan of hiring Faber to curry favour with First Nations people so his Gemini Power Corp. can get permission to build power plants on reserves.
Farber told HuffPost Canada in an email that Levant's characterization is inaccurate.
"Ezra, as usual, gets it wrong."
The letter from Farber and company was sent as special rapporteur Anaya concluded a visit to Canada. He said Canada faces a "crisis" regarding its indigenous people and called for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
The Conservative government pledged to renew efforts to address the issue of murdered and missing aboriginal women in its throne speech Wednesday.
Earlier this year, former prime minister Paul Martin referred to residential schools as "cultural genocide." In 2012, Justice Murray Sinclair, the chairman of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the removal of children from their homes to residential schools was an act of genocide, but that it didn't necessarily qualify under the UN Convention.
There have only ever been two successful prosecutions under the Genocide Convention, former Rwandan prime minister Jean Kambanda and ex-mayor Jean-Paul Akayesu for crimes during the 1994 slaughter in that country. The UN's highest court cleared the government of Serbia of genocide charges in 2007, but found it breached international law in failing to stop the killing and by not handing over officials accused of war crimes.
The push for action from the UN comes amid renewed violence between authorities and aboriginal peoples. On Thursday, police cars were torched during an attempt bythe RCMP to enforce an injunction to end a demonstration against shale gas exploration in eastern New Brunswick. The Mounties said at least 40 people were arrested
The violence has sparked a renewal of the cross-country protests seen during the Idle No More movement last winter.
With files from The Canadian Press
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