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For more information about the NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION - June 29 - visit the Assembly of First Nations web site at http://afn.ca/nda.htm to find out how you can get involved.

From Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs ...

SOLIDARITY FOR ABORIGINAL JUSTICE
MARCH AND RALLY
June 29, 2007

The March will start at
12:00 Noon
from
Vancouver Art Gallery
to Library Square (300 West Georgia Street )

The NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION is a time for First Nations and Canadians to stand together in the spirit of unity to demand the Federal Government to deal honourably with First Nations Title and Rights and to call for an end to First Nations poverty.

(604) 684-0231
NDOA@ubcic.bc.ca

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From Toronto Star ...

Indian Summer
 
Jun 02, 2007 - Sandro Contenta - Staff Reporter

By Terry Nelson's calculations, Canada's security forces don't stand a chance if the summer turns hot and nasty.

The native leader figures that in Winnipeg, the car theft capital of Canada, there's no shortage of abandoned vehicles to set alight across train tracks that haul resources to the United States.

"There's 30,000 miles of railway lines in this country and more than 50,000 miles of (oil and gas) pipelines," says Nelson, chief of the Anishinabe First Nation, south of Winnipeg.

"The reality is that there's no army that can actually protect all of that. Not the United States army, not the Canadian army, not any."

That kind of talk would get the attention of intelligence agencies in most countries and Nelson says he's already had talks with Canadian Security and Intelligence Service officials. But nothing they've said has made him back off his threats.

Nelson, 53, has been at the forefront of calls for militant action on June 29, when First Nations across the country will protest decades of poverty and neglected land claims.

He's a controversial figure, denounced by some in his own community for racially charged attacks against the "white man" and the "Jewish-controlled media." But he's also been re-elected chief three times and his tough talk commands a strong following.

This week's report on the inquiry into the shooting of Dudley George by an OPP officer in 1995 in Ipperwash warns of the continuing schism between Canada and its aboriginal peoples.

No one knows how many of Canada's 630 First Nation communities will opt for barricades rather than peaceful marches on June 29. A minority of elected band council chiefs are calling for militant action, but young men are increasingly prepared to take matters into their own hands.

"There's a growing number of young people who feel they don't have any hope," says Maurice Switzer, spokesperson for the Union of Ontario Indians. "And whether that happens in downtown Winnipeg or the Gaza Strip, young angry men are not a good thing to have."

Ontario seems especially susceptible, with recent occupations that stopped housing developments in Caledonia and Hagersville, and a barricade near Kingston in April that blocked Via Rail service to Toronto for 30 hours.

Much depends on federal Native Affairs Minister, Jim Prentice. He has promised to announce an overhaul of the land claims process, which resolves disputes at a snail's pace, before the First Nations' national day of protest.

Even Nelson says he'll call off his blockade if Prentice's plan allows his community to quickly negotiate an expansion of its reserve by almost 6,000 acres, a dispute that has dragged on for 125 years.

Nelson vows his band members will block the railway line that cuts through their reserve. He calls the trains stacked with lumber and minerals "the getaway car." The resources come from traditional native lands, he insists, and Indians are owed a share of the wealth.

With anger and desperation running high, Nelson warns that the one-day protest could spiral out of control and jeopardize Canada's revved up economy.

He says native people have been left with little choice. Years of appealing for justice have led nowhere.

"If I talked about native poverty, nobody would give a damn," he says.

Given the desperate state of affairs on many reserves, where unemployment can reach 80 per cent, native people have largely shown remarkable patience. Switzer, a former publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press, partly attributes the current media focus on potential unrest to the Hollywood image of rampaging Indians.

"Some people really do think that we will scalp them," he says.

But warnings are also coming from moderate and independent voices.

On Thursday, an Ontario inquiry into the 1995 police shooting death of an unarmed native protester in Ipperwash concluded that the "flashpoints" that led to the confrontation are as intense as ever.

The biggest source of distrust and anger is the failure of governments to deal quickly and fairly with breaches of treaties and land claims, said Justice Sidney Linden, who headed the inquiry.

Ipperwash is a particularly stark example. The federal government took the land from the Kettle and Stoney Point people in 1942 to set up a military base. Native people occupied the provincial park in September 1995 to demand its return. Linden said racism played a role in the Ontario Provincial Police raid that killed protester Dudley George.

"The immediate cost of conducting relations with aboriginal people through confrontations and over the barricades is very high," Linden said. "All Ontarians risk even more if we leave long-simmering disputes unsettled until they boil over."

An estimated 900 specific land claims – those involving alleged breaches of treaties – currently remain unresolved. At the present rate, it's expected to take 100 years to settle them all.

In this slow-motion universe, barricades are increasingly being seen as the only way to get results.

The occupation 15 months ago of a Caledonia construction site by members of the Six Nations community stopped the housing development and brought the federal and provincial governments to the negotiating table.

On Wednesday, federal negotiators offered $125 million to settle the 20-year-old land claim. It was rejected by some Mohawk leaders, but few would dispute that barricades fast-tracked the claims process.

But progress has come at a price. The barricades split the community and highlighted the kind of local infighting that complicates attempts at speedy land claims solutions.

Poverty and hopelessness has fueled a spiritual revival in many native communities. At Six Nations, some have turned to a traditional, consensus-based form of government that in the 1920s was suppressed by police, which imposed a federally sanctioned and locally elected band council.

Hazel Hill, a representative of the once-outlawed Haudenosaunee government, said attempts by Ottawa to restrict native representation to elected band councils in a reformed land claims process is doomed to failure.

But the elected Six Nations chief, David General, says people are "sick and tired" of renegades holding land claims negotiations, and the whole community, hostage.

General calls for peaceful protests on June 29, insisting that blockades and barricades make Canadians less sympathetic to the cause of First Nations.

"We're not going to get anywhere by continuing to be angry," he says.

But he admits that his own elected council is split on what action to take June 29. Some want to shut down Brantford casino and Highway 6, which runs through their community south of Hamilton.

Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, feels similar pressures.

He's made diplomacy and negotiations a hallmark of his leadership. He notes that the majority of chiefs at an assembly meeting last month saw education and peaceful demonstrations as the best way to inform Canadians of the plight of First Nation peoples later this month.

Yet the assembly passed a resolution that "acknowledged the plans of Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation to block railway lines on June 29." And it called on CN and CP rail to shut down parts of their operations that day – a move the companies have rejected.

CN spokesperson Mark Hallman says the company has pressed the federal government to speed up land claims. But it will take legal action against natives who disrupt its transports.

Fontaine says CN should inform Canadians that its rails run through expropriated native land.

"I don't think there's anyone that can calm down chief Nelson or anyone else that wants to engage in barricades," he says.

"The anger is building and people are getting more frustrated. And they question the approach that we've been advocating for a long time. Sometimes we (also) question whether that is the right way," he adds.

Fontaine says his preference for negotiation took a serious hit when the minority Conservative government scrapped an accord that former Prime Minister Paul Martin and the 10 premiers agreed to in 2005. Known as the Kelowna accord, it targeted $5.1 billion toward improving education and housing on reserves, and reducing youth suicides and infant mortality rates.

First Nation chiefs want an apology for a federal policy that tried to assimilate generations of native children by placing them in church-run residential schools until the 1970s. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse.

Fontaine also calls for a land claims system that is fast and independent. Currently, the federal government acts as ultimate judge and jury of claims that it has violated its treaties and legal obligations.

Native chiefs see land control as the basis for raising reserves out of poverty. They want compensation for past resources extracted from their traditional lands, and profit sharing agreements for future exploitation.

Land is the basis for getting natives out of a patronizing federal relationship where half of the estimated $10 billion funding for aboriginal affairs goes to pay the salaries of federal bureaucrats, Fontaine says.

"Discussions with Prentice give me cause for optimism," he says. "There's a glimmer of hope that something significant will happen in the next while that will give people I represent reason to celebrate."

Switzer warns this optimism had better bear fruit.

"If nothing happens after the Ipperwash inquiry from either the provincial or federal levels, I think it's going to be a hot summer," he says.

Flash Points
Hagersville: Six Nations upset because retirement complex is being built on what's known as the Haldimand tract while talks on contested land are continuing.

CALEDONIA: Six Nations force construction to a halt on Feb. 28, 2006, claiming 200-year-old treaty proves land is theirs. Since then, protests continue.

DESERONTO: Mohawks in the Bay of Quinte paralyze freight and passenger rail traffic with a blockade on a busy Toronto-Montreal line near Deseronto in April.

How blockade hurt one developer (http://www.thestar.com/Article/220688) - No one has to tell developer Dan Valentini that aboriginal blockades can have a direct impact on the economy.With a national day of protest slated for June 29, native groups across Canada are weighing the merits of action over negotiation

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From Cornwall Standard Freeholder ...

Mohawks plan June protest

May 31, 2007

CORNWALL — Akwesasne Mohawks will be organizing a large protest at the base of the Seaway International Bridge in June to raise awareness about First Nations issues.

The protest, scheduled for June 29, is part of a national "day of action" sponsored by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

While the event is still in its planning stages, Chief Larry King of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne (MCA) was firm that there were no plans for a blockade of the bridge.

"The agenda is not to be ... militant, for lack of a better term," said King. "This is all about awareness."

The AFN has outlined a number of issues that the Canadian government has been dragging its heels on, including settling land claims and ensuring First Nations communities have access to clean drinking water.

King said he hoped the City of Cornwall would take an active role in the protest.

Mayor Bob Kilger said he would be waiting to see the MCA's official plans for the protest before making a commitment.