CANADIAN POLITICS-ONTARIO/MANITOBA:
MORE OLYMPIC TORCH PROTESTS:
The Olympic Torch continues on its tortuous way across the frozen north, as our local federal ruler, Sneaky Stevie, shuts down Parliament until shortly after the Games, no doubt hoping to bask in reflected glory when it is reconvened. Too bad there isn't an Olympic Shot Shovelling event, as our dear Prime Minister and his government would be assured of all the places on the podium. Meanwhile, the torch continues to be met by protests in community after community. Last Saturday it was the turn of Espanola Ontario, as reported briefly in the following from our local Winnipeg Free Press.
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ESPANOLA, Ont. - The Olympic Torch ran into yet another protest in Ontario Saturday as protesters briefly blockaded the Trans-Canada Highway.
Members of several different First Nations say they occupied a bridge on the Trans-Canada west of the community of Espanola.
The protesters say they wanted to try attention to a number of grievances including the environmental damage that the Games are causing and the displacement of homeless people in Vancouver.
A news release from the protesters says police cleared the bridge, arresting eight demonstrators who were later released.
A lawyer for the protesters say police didn't lay any charges.
The Torch has run into protests in Toronto and other communities in Southern Ontario as various protesters try to draw attention to their concerns.
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Here are much more detailed reports from the No 2010 website, including the all important press releases from the protesters, press releases that never seem to make it to the mainstream "press".
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8 Protesters Arrested Attempting to Block Olympic Torch in Ontario:
January 3, 2010 - 07:43 — no2010
ORN-O Blockades Olympic Torch Relay, 8 People Arrested During Shut Down of Trans Canada Highway
For Immediate Release, January 2, 2010
Contact: Attorney Davin Charney – 226 747 2317 or No2010@peaceculture.org
Aboriginal protesters counter Canada and VANOC’s claims that the 2010Games are supported by First Nations
Nairn Centre, Ontario—Today just before 1pm a group of aboriginal youth and allies briefly blockaded the Trans Canada Highway bridge over the Spanish River (west of Espanola), disrupting the Olympic Torch Relay on its way from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie. Youth from several different First Nations attempted to erect a 20ft tripod to block the Torch Relay. All eight have been arrested by local police.
Today’s blockade was to draw attention to the real injustices being perpetuated by VANOC and the IOC for the 2010 Olympics; to draw attention away from the sanitized and greenwashed version of Canada that the government and the Games are trying to present. Olympic Resistance Network protests across the country have highlighted the ongoing colonization of unceded Indigenous territories, environmental destruction caused for the Games, and the displacement and criminalization of the urban poor in Vancouver, the squandering of public resources to pay for the Games, and the instigation of a contemporary police state to secure them.
Anishinabe youth Mark Corbiere, said that, “VANOC and the government of Canada can no longer whitewash Canada’s brutal legacy of ongoing colonialism, nor its abysmal environmental record; these are the things Canada and VANOC really represent, and we will not let them use the Olympic spotlight to put their lies unchallenged before the global public.”
This peaceful blockade, conducted in solidarity with communities affected by the Olympics in British Columbia, comes on the heels of direct actions across southern Ontario, including at Torch Relay stops in Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, Six Nations, Oneida, London, Stratford, Kitchener, Guelph and Barrie. At all of these stops, one of the main messages has been, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.”
The group explains that this anti-Olympic slogan counters recent media claims that Canada’s aboriginal communities support the Games: “VANOC and the government of Canada want Canadians and the world to believe that they have worked with First Nations people in allegedly meaningful ways to create a so-called joint partnership for the Games,” said Corbiere.
All Eight people have already been released. ORN-O’s legal and media teams are waiting for updates.
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PRESS RELEASE
Olympic Protesters Released without Charges after Blockade of Olympic Torch Relay on Trans Canada Hwy:
For Immediate Release, January 2, 2010
Contact: Alex Hundert - 519 500 1878,
No2010@peaceculture.org
*Indigenous youth demonstrate that 2010 Olympics are opposed by grassroots First Nations people.*
M’Chigeeng, Ontario—Today, a group of Indigenous youth and allies were arrested by OPP while setting up a blockade of the Olympic Torch Relay onthe Trans Canada Hwy as it travelled from Sudbury to Sault Ste Marie.Algonquin, Anishnabe and Haudenosaunee youth united today to confront VANOC’s 2010 Torch Relay, a symbol of colonial injustice. All who attended the blockade were arrested during the process of setting up an elaborate ‘lockdown’ blockade that was to include a climber scaling the bridge over the Spanish River to ‘drop’ an anti-Olympic banner. The activists were released without charges, and all the blockade gear was returned by police.
Mark Corbiere, a member of M’Chigeeng First Nation said that the point of the blockade was “to challenge the idea being rolled forward by VANOC that Canada has a respectful and progressive relationship with Indigenous people and their nations.” Corbiere continued, “The truth is that Canada has a legacy of colonialism as brutal as any in history—of cultural genocide, and in fact, colonialism is ongoing in this country, and so is Canada’sattempted genocide of Indigenous nations.” He was arrested and released today without charges.
Anti-Olympic and solidarity activist Dan Kellar, who was also arrested today while covering the event for Canadian independent media, says that the reason charges were not laid is because VANOC is reeling from the attention that Olympic protesters have drawn to the Olympics’ and Canada’s shameful record of abusing First Nations Peoples and their cultures. “VANOC has had the Olympic spotlight shone on the lie that Canada and BC are engaged in meaningful partnerships with First Nations,” said Kellar. “The truth is though, that despite the endorsement of the ‘Four Host First Nations’corporation, the Provincial representative body, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs has gone on record as considering a formal protest of the Games,” he said.
“Even Phil Fontaine, in 2008, while still head of the AFN, during the Beijing Torch Relay, said that the world should expect protests similar to those conducted by Tibetans and their allies against China’s 2008 Olympics,”says Mark Corbiere. “Fontaine said then, that people should be just as outraged at Canada’s treatment of First Nations as China’s treatment of Tibet—today he is a paid advisor for Olympic sponsor RBC, helping direct the whitewash of Canada’s ongoing colonialism.” Corbiere concluded, “From Tibet to Turtle Island colonialism is a crime.”
ORNO contingencies conducted anti-colonial demonstrations against the Olympic Torch Relay in a dozen cities across the Province this month. The predominate theme of those protests is encapsulated by the chant which rang through the downtown streets of Kitchener and Toronto, with each of those events drawing in excess of 200 people, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.”
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Police arrest eight over attempt to delay Olympic Torch in Ontario:
Saturday, January 2, 2010,
CBC/THE CANADIAN PRESS
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/national/100102/n010265A.html
ESPANOLA, Ont. - The Olympic Torch ran into yet another protest in Ontario Saturday as protesters briefly blockaded the Trans-Canada Highway.
Members of several different First Nations say they occupied a bridge on the Trans-Canada west of the community of Espanola.
The protesters say they wanted to try attention to a number of grievances including the environmental damage that the Games are causing and the displacement of homeless people in Vancouver.
A news release from the protesters says police cleared the bridge, arresting eight demonstrators who were later released.
A lawyer for the protesters say police didn't lay any charges.
The Torch has run into protests in Toronto and other communities in Southern Ontario as various protesters try to draw attention to their concerns.
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Eight protestors arrested on torch relay route:
By Susan Krashinsky, The Canadian Press, Saturday, January 2, 2010
ESPANOLA, Ont. - They wanted to disrupt the torch relay's progress across Northern Ontario and the rest of Canada, but in the end the latest protesters didn't even manage to slow it down.
Less than a week after a torchbearer was knocked down during a protest in Guelph ( not the true story protesters claim-see earlier on this blog-Molly ) in a move that sent the torch tumbling to the wet ground, a group of eight protesters were hustled off the road before they could even put their banner up.
The Ontario Provincial Police arrested the young people for mischief just before 1 p.m. at the Spanish River Bridge on the outskirts of Espanola, a town approximately 60 km northwest of Sudbury. They were found there with ropes, road flares and climbing equipment, which they intended to use to erect a 20-ft. tripod in the middle of the bridge.
"We were out here today because the Olympics are taking place on unceded indigenous territory out in B.C.," said Mark Corbiere, a spokesperson for the group. "It's a land grab from the colonial history of the Canadian government."
Mr. Corbiere is originally from the Anishinaabe community on Manitoulin Island, and now lives in Kitchener, Ont. He is a member of a protest group called the Olympics Resistance Network.
Had the protestors succeeded, a banner would have hung there that read "No 2010," with a symbol of the thunderbird, which the group has used as a logo in past protests.
"Our goal was ... to peacefully disrupt the torch relay," Mr. Corbiere said. "We were caught red handed by the police."
On Monday, torchbearer Cortney Hansen was knocked down as the relay passed through Guelph, Ont. Protesters denied that they had pushed Ms. Hansen.( Once more see earlier on this blog- Molly ) A Kitchener woman was charged with assault after the incident, and police with the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit said they would review security procedures around the relay.
Extra police officers were on duty to monitor any possible disturbances along the relay route, said Sgt. Mike Pollock of the Sudbury detachment of the OPP. Because the roadway is narrow by the bridge, the protesters represented a public safety issue, he said.
"We promptly removed them," he said. "There's always a plan in place in the case that there are any incidents."
The protesters were held for about an hour before they were released and allowed to leave together in the white van they had used to travel to the bridge with their equipment.
"I don't even think the relay was delayed at all," Sgt. Pollock said.
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Finally, the torch is due to arrive here in Manitoba tomorrow, and, as usual, it will be greeted by protest. In the morning it will pass through Treaty One land on the Rousseau River First nation. The protesters there will have their own concerns ie hundreds of native women who have gone "missing" over the years. This has its own importance in addition to the land claims issue. The story that follows is originally from the Winnipeg Free Press. It comes Molly's way, once more via the No 2010 website.
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Manitoba Natives to Focus on Missing/Murdered Women When Torch Relay Arrives:
January 1, 2010 - 06:00 — no2010
Manitoba First Nations to highlight murdered women during torch run
By Carol Sanders, Winnipeg
Free Press, December 31, 2009
http://www.theprovince.com/sports/2010wintergames/First+Nations+highligh...
WINNIPEG -- The Olympic torch will be welcomed with the usual hoopla and fanfare when it arrives in Manitoba next week, but when it crosses into Treaty One territory on Tuesday, it will face a stern reminder of Canada's missing and murdered indigenous women.
"Our intention, basically, is to drive home this message what's been happening in Canada and to give information out," said Roseau River Anishnabe First Nation Chief Terry Nelson.
"I am inviting a lot of the families of murdered and missing women to be standing on the road with pictures of them," he said by phone Wednesday.
Treaty One territory begins in eastern Manitoba where the Whitemouth River crosses the Trans-Canada Highway, about two kilometres east of where Highway 11 crosses the Trans-Canada.
"People need to be reminded that these women were not treated with the same respect. ... You look at the response to the death of one white woman on the road. It's not the same thing," Nelson said.
Nelson expects at least two other chiefs from the treaty area to take part in the event near the eastern boundary of their territory.
The Roseau River chief was in Ottawa earlier this month for a special chiefs' assembly. He was among several native leaders who warned Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl the year ahead could see blockades and other forms of economic disruption until more money and support are provided for native education.
On Wednesday, Nelson said there are no plans to trip up any of the torch bearers or disrupt any other community celebrating the arrival of the Olympic flame in Manitoba next week.
"We don't want to interrupt someone else's event," said Nelson, who has orchestrated blockades and demonstrations over the years. "Out of every protest we've been involved in, sometimes we've made white people late for lunch."
The Olympic torch leaves Treaty One territory - which covers close to 43,250 square kilometres - on Jan. 8 near Brandon.
First Nations should welcome Olympic athletes from around the world, but "we cannot allow those athletes to go home believing that Canada is a bastion of human rights," Nelson said in a news release. "We, as indigenous people, are not terrorists. There is no list of over 500 murdered and missing white women killed by indigenous men, there is however a list of over 500 murdered and missing indigenous women, most of those women were killed by white men.
"In Vancouver where the Olympics will be headquartered, 49 women were killed, murdered, terrorized and desecrated after death by one white man. Police failed to take the murders seriously because the murdered (mostly indigenous women) were considered by police to be the lowest of the low."
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said the torch run and the Olympics are about "peace and unity," and more First Nations are involved than ever.
"This Olympics, First Nations are hosting the torch run from one end of the country to another," Grand Chief Ron Evans said in a statement. "As Grand Chief, I will have the honour of bearing the torch, along with others on Jan 7."
Evans said games traditionally played an important role in uniting First Nations.
"The Olympics gives us a forum to showcase our talents, our skills and our diplomacy on an international stage. Games in First Nations' history went beyond simple sports competition.
"They have always been key to the holistic development of individuals and a crucial element to ensure the health and development of our communities," Evans said.
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