The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 71/No. 29      August 6, 2007

 
Natives hold rallies across Canada
demanding land and basic services
 
BY SANDRA MITCHELL  
OTTAWA, Ontario—Aboriginal groups in Canada staged nationwide protests and some transportation closures as part of a National Day of Action June 29. The actions were called by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

The mobilizations helped “inform people about the devastating conditions native people face and help build solidarity with our fight for justice,” Sylvester Green, an elder from the Nisga’a Nation in northern British Columbia, said at an action of 500 in Vancouver.

In Toronto, 500 marched in two separate actions. One of the rallies numbered 300, the majority of them members of the Mississauga band. The Mississauga has unsettled land claims in Toronto. Nationwide, more than 800 unsettled land claims are currently backlogged in Canadian courts.

Angus Toulouse, the Ontario regional chief of the First Nations, told the Toronto rally, “We are here to send a message to the governments that we are standing together.”

In the small northwestern Ontario town of Kenora, 250 people protested. The Grand Council there represents 28 First Nation bands with 80 unsettled claims.

Approximately one hundred rallies and marches took place across the country with well over 5,000 participating. Hundreds—the big majority Natives—marched in Winnipeg and Edmonton. In Regina, Saskatchewan, 100 protested.

Here in Ottawa, 2,000 people marched from City Hall to Victoria Island carrying signs that said “Make Native Poverty History.” AFN Grand Chief Phil Fontaine told the crowd, “We are looking for the basic necessities of life that come with being Canadian—clean drinking water, decent housing, education, and health care.” In Deseronto, Ontario, protesters lit bonfires on a highway and parked a bus on a Canadian National railway track. The blockade was taken down a few hours later. Last April, Mohawks blockaded rail lines for 30 hours there to protest violations of a long-standing land claim.

In Montreal, Mohawks from the Kahnawake reserve shut down the Mercier Bridge for an hour as 150 people marched and listened to speeches by Native leaders. The one-hour shutdown was a symbolic act of solidarity with a previous action by Mohawks from Kanesetake in 1990 when federal government mobilized police and troops to force them to remove a barricade they had erected to prevent the expansion of a golf course on their lands.

Steve Penner and Joe Young contributed to this article.  
 
 
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