Photos copyright by Ben Powless, Mohawk. Toronto: Indigenous Day of Action, Thursday, June 24, 2010. .
DEMOCRACY NOW! Indigenous Activists Protest G8/G20 in Toronto
TORONTO SUN: Peaceful March Raises Native Rights Issues: Chanting that no G20 meeting should be held on stolen native land, about 2,500 Aboriginal Peoples and their supporters peacefully marched Thursday from Queens Park to Allan Gardens in protest of world leaders who, they say, ignore native rights. Signs such as “Shame third world conditions on reserves” and “G8 G20 countries never ask permission” were everywhere. “I am marching for my children, for clean water, for the rights all people regardless of race,” said Liz Nootchtai of the White Fish Lake Reserve in northern Ontario. Read article ...
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Indigenous Day of Action
This June, Canada will play host to the G8 and G20 summits, which bring together the world's largest economies and colonizers. The G8 summit will take place in Huntsville, Ontario, in traditional Anishinaabe territory, and in Toronto, on unceded traditional Mississauga territory. Social movements and non-governmental organizations from around the world, including representatives of Indigenous Peoples, will also gather to hold a people's summit and engage in action to hold G8 and G20 governments accountable.
This year, Canada has made climate change and poverty among women and children the priorities of the summit. Yet the Harper government has only worked to obstruct action on climate change; it has continued to develop the tar sands, the world's single most destructive fossil fuels project; and Canada has done nothing to address the poverty and racism underlying the murder and disappearance of hundreds of Aboriginal women, or the desperate poverty among Indigenous women and children caused by Canada's theft of Indigenous economic resources.
July 11th of this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Oka crisis. Since that time, there has been the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the murder of Dudley George and the Ipperwash inquiry, numerous Supreme Court cases affirming Aboriginal and treaty rights, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Despite all the words, Canada's fundamental policies towards Indigenous Peoples still have not changed.
Who are the G8/G20?
This June, leaders of the world’s biggest economies (and biggest colonizers, and biggest polluters) will be coming to Canada for the G8 and G20 meetings. The G8 meeting will be held June 25 in Huntsville, Ontario, traditional Anishinaabe territory, while the G20 summit will be held June 26-27 in Toronto, on traditional unceded Mississauga territory.
The G8 brings together Canada, the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, and Germany. The G20 includes these countries, as well as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Australia, China, Mexico, and South Africa, among others. The G20 meetings also bring in the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and finance ministers for the countries named.
The governments of the G8/G20 have been responsible for the exploitation and devastation of Indigenous Peoples the world over. These meetings are meant to coordinate the continued economic, ecological and cultural domination of poor, powerless and Indigenous communities
Read more:
http://www.defendersoftheland.org/dayofactionUPDATE:
Journalists, Artist, Code Pink Denied Entry into Canada
Canada Becomes Police State during G8/G20
Independent Journalists denied entry into Canada
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/91343/index.phpArizona artist, 79, denied entry into Canada:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1188789.htmlCode Pink denied entry into Canada, activists detained 48 hours:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/25/medea
