Category Archives: Advocacy

Edmonton students’ views on symbols of #IdleNoMore, Occupy expressed in artwork

Heather McIntyre, Metro Edmonton, April 18, 2013 — The use of symbols in relation to movements, such as Idle No More and Occupy, have become pieces to admire at the Art Gallery of Alberta. The AGA Ledcor Theatre Foyer currently holds art from students in the Modern Languages and Cultural Studies department at the University of Alberta.

The students’ assignment initially was to focus on Occupy – hence the exhibit being called Occupy The Gallery! – but as the Idle No More movement grew, many students turned to it, including Erin Hunt and Mohamad Mahfouz.

“It’s just taking a movement and what we were learning as symbolism and symbolic interaction, and looking in our own community and engaging with things that were happening in our own community,” said Hunt. Hunt’s piece is four photographs of nature within a sanded wood frame.

“The part of the Idle No More movement that I identified with the most was environmental protection,” said Hunt. “I’m giving people the opportunity to identify with nature through the pieces I chose through the photographs I took, and to almost challenge them to take on the same kind of declaration that I did.”

Mahfouz focused on land, but chose to do so through a video, which consists of a woman wandering through the woods, “appreciating it while also lost.”

“Then a feather magically falls from the sky and she picks it up… and then eventually she finds her way, and reaches the downtown view and holds the feather up saying ‘This is where I belong,’” he said. “Then the feather lands on the ground firmly, to symbolize roots.”

The exhibit opened earlier this month, and will remain at the gallery until April 28.

Read More: Metro Edmonton

BC election heats up as NDP promises extensive education increases while Liberals want school property used from 7am to 6pm

Dirk Meissner, The Tyee, April 18, 2013– …[NDP Leader Adrian Dix] said his plans to improve public education in B.C. involve spending $372 million over three years.

“If you look at what’s happened over the last 10 years, education has unfortunately been a battleground, and kids have suffered, and so we have to change that and that’s what this plan seeks to do,” he said.

Dix said the NDP plans to spend $265 million to hire new teachers, counsellors, education assistants and librarians. He said the money could be used to hire up to 1,000 specialized classroom assistants.

He told a crowd of parents and children who were at his announcement that years of Liberal cuts and confrontation has left British Columbia with too many overcrowded classrooms.

The New Democrats say another $300 million that is sitting in the bank from the current Liberal government’s RESP fund will be set aside for use in other issues involving children, including early learning and childcare.

BC Teachers Federation president-elect Jim Iker said the NDP education funding announcement is a good start.

“We have a political party that recognizes the need for improved supports for our students as well as recognize what’s happened in the last decade with the underfunding and the cuts not only to classroom teachers but our specialist teachers.”

Read More: The Tyee

 

Yolande Cole, The Georgia Straight, April 17, 2013– THE B.C. LIBERALS’ promises on childcare won’t make much of a dent in the shortage of spaces, according to Sharon Gregson.

Read More: The Georgia Straight

David Suzuki: Government not protecting wild salmon, scientists censored

David Suzuki, CBC Radio, April 18, 2013– David Suzuki gave an extended interview on CBC’s On the Coast, profiling Alexandra Morton’s new film “Salmon Confidential” and elaborating on the Canadian government’s censorship of scientists.

Listen to CBC’s On the Coast Interview with David Suzuki

Support the Student Loan Fairness Act (H.R. 1330)

StudentDebtCrisis.org
Support the Student Loan Fairness Act (H.R. 1330)

It’s only been 2 1⁄2 weeks since we launched our latest petition in favor of H.R. 1330, The Student Loan Fairness Act and, already, we have over 185,000 signatures!

Our goal for this week is to reach 200,000 signatures or beyond, but to do that, we’re going to need your help!

First, if you haven’t already done so, please share the link to the petition via email with everyone you know:

Support the Student Loan Fairness Act (H.R. 1330)

Next, share the petition on Facebook and Twitter by using these simple links:

Click Here to Post the Petition on Facebook

Click Here to Post the Petition on Twitter

Thank you for all you’ve done so far to make this petition a success.  Now, let’s keep the momentum building by reaching that next milestone!

Sincerely,

Rob, Natalia, Kyle, Aaron & The Student Debt Crisis Team

8 Big Reasons to Boot the BC Liberals #bcpoli

BC Federation of Labour
8 Big Reasons to Boot the BC Liberals

  1. Here are 8 big reasons to vote for change in 2013
  2. Hydro rates keep going up because of expensive private power projects
  3. Raw log exports totalled over 6 million cubic meters last year
  4. BC Liberals spent $15 mil in ads about a skills shortage but cut funding for training by $37 mil #reasons4change
  5. Students deserve better than larger classes and less one on one time with teachers #reasons4change
  6. Hallways and Tim Hortons shouldn’t double as a post-op facility
  7. For thousands of children that go hungry, BC is anything but the best place on earth #reasons4change
  8. BC seniors are not getting the respect they have earned

Copyright © 2013 B.C. Federation of Labour, All rights reserved.

Phil Fontaine speaks to University of Winnipeg students on #IdleNoMore

CBC News, March 13, 2013— It has been weeks since Idle No More protests have made headlines, and now a former national chief is saying the movement needs to change direction to get things moving again.

Phil Fontaine, the former chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, spoke to University of Winnipeg students alongside federal Liberal leader Bob Rae on Wednesday.

Fontaine lauded the efforts of the Idle No More movement while speaking to students but said those behind the grassroots movement should now try to align with chiefs to move forward.

“I think it would be a mistake to marginalize the chiefs in this very important process, and so the point I was making is, I think they have to work together,” said Fontaine.

The Idle No More movement was sparked by opposition to Bill C-45, an omnibus budget bill that had far-reaching implications for the Indian and Environmental Assessment Acts.

The grassroots movement said the bill endangered the environment and infringed on treaty rights.

But the movement was at times at odds with aboriginal leadership, pointing to quick progress made by Idle No More protests that took chiefs years to achieve.

Indigenous Studies students Carl Balan and Allan Cochrane attended Fontaine and Rae’s talk Wednesday but said they weren’t convinced the movement should change direction.

“I was extremely optimistic to hear some of these ways forward, but it was the same old talking about the past,” said Balan.

Cochrane said he wasn’t impressed with Rae’s suggestion the movement lacked focus.

“To close in on any one issue opens up the possibility for the federal government to come up with a quick fix,” said Cochrane.

He said what’s more important is a change to the status quo.

For now, Idle No More organizers are maintaining their focus on grassroots protests, with more events planned for next week.

Quebec students back in streets protesting tuition hikes

Photo by Ryan Remiorz, CANADIAN PRESS

Photo by Ryan Remiorz, CANADIAN PRESS


Lynn Moore, The Gazette, February 27, 2013 — Thirteen people were arrested Tuesday as a thousands-strong student-led march against tuition hikes became a mêlée that saw snowball fights and police, some on horseback, chase protesters along Montreal streets.

Five people were charged with armed assault of a police officer, Montreal police Sgt. Jean-Bruno Latour said.

The “arms” included snowballs, chunks of ice and rocks, Latour said.

One protester was arrested for causing damage to parked vehicles, one was arrested for possession of incindiary material, while six were arrested for illegal assembly, he said.

About 20 busloads of students from across Quebec converged on Montreal Tuesday afternoon for the demonstration and march.

Favouring free tuition, they were angry over the announced indexation of university tuition, a notion that emerged as the solution to last spring’s prolonged and costly student protests. That announcement was made by Pauline Marois, Parti Québécois leader and Premier, at a high-stakes political summit on higher education on Monday evening.

Several handmade signs brandished by protesters criticized the PQ and others described former student leader Léo Bureau-Blouin — now a PQ MNA — as a “traitor” while yet more took aim at Marois.

Although police had already declared the protest to be illegal, students and their supporters marched from Victoria Square in Old Montreal through the downtown core.

There is no official source for crowd estimates but there were enough protesters to fill the three blocks of Mansfield St. between René-Lévesque Blvd. and Sherbrooke St. and still have overflows of people at both ends.

The procession wound its way to St. Denis St. and Carré Saint-Louis where some of the biggest confrontations between police and protesters occurred.

Several sound bombs, flash-bangs, were set off, a happening which often follows orders to disperse and generally means police are set to get tougher. Police sprayed cannisters of CS gas into the crowd, which did little to deter the protest. Some people came equipped with their own first aid kits while others would use snow or a milk-like solution to clear their eyes of the chemical irritants.

What set off the police charge is unclear — it could have been projectiles hurled at police officers and horses — but in short order, ragged lines of police officers and mounted police were chasing protesters along streets and through the snow-covered square.

Twice during the march, Gazette reporters saw protesters toss snowballs or ice at police horses or officers. And twice officers on horseback sought the safety of side streets. In one incident, the horse-mounted officers went at the crowd, breaking up a knot of masked protesters.

Near Carré Saint-Louis, two injured protesters, one bleeding from the hand, refused to allow ambulance personnel to help, relying on medics supplied by protest organizers. The men hobbled quickly away as police converged.

The protest was organized by the student group Association pour un solidarité syndicate étudiante (ASSÉ), which boycotted the higher education summit because the government refused to put a complete rollback of tuition fees on the table.

The summit ended Tuesday around lunchtime with Marois pledging to index tuition fees at three per cent per year or about $70 a year — a far cry from the $1,625 hike that the previous Liberal government announced that set off months of paralyzing demonstrations, created social turmoil and wracked up large bills for police overtime.

It also prompted the election that led to the Charest government’s ouster.

But after months of pre-summits, research and public discussion, the much-hyped summit ended without the broad social consensus the Parti Québécois government sought — and with students back where they began just over a year ago: in the streets.

Read more: Montreal Gazette 

Conestoga students kick off final weeks of term with #IdleNoMore powwow

Linda Givetash, The  Record — To give students a boost in the final weeks of the academic term, Conestoga College hosted a powwow Saturday.

The annual event, held at the recreation centre at the Doon campus, brought a sense of home to the campus for aboriginal students and taught non-aboriginal community members about the culture.

“The powwow is a really good time for (students) to bring their families together and a lot of students do better after this powwow,” said Myeengun Henry, manager of aboriginal services for the college. “We have students from way up north and they miss their families … so when their families come and visit them, they get rejuvenated.”

Members of aboriginal communities from across the province and even the U.S. came to the event. It included traditional ceremonies, food, dance, crafts and more.

The powwow comes right at the end of reading week for students, marking the final half of the term. Henry said it brings students back to campus and gets them in the mindset for school after the week off.

Keeping an eye on her four-year-old son running around the recreation centre, community and criminal justice student Tina Allardyce, 28, said she has volunteered with the powwow for the last three years to help promote her culture on campus.

“It’s great that it’s a part of Conestoga College … and that we can bring our community and the Native members of the community in Kitchener-Waterloo here,” she said. “The more people that come out to learn and experience the aboriginal traditional culture is amazing.”

The education the powwow provided for non-aboriginal visitors reflects the current state of the Idle No More movement that launched in November. Henry explained that although the movement is no longer in the spotlight, activism and public awareness is ongoing.

“Idle No More has moved to a different thing now,” Henry said. “Instead of being on the streets and doing rallies, we’re starting to take them to institutions and schools to allow people to ask questions on what is about.

Read More: The Record

#IdleNoMore Lecture Series at U Saskatchewan

Idle No More Discussion Series
What’s it all about?
University of Saskatchewan
Weekly, February 25 – April 3

INM Poster4

#IdleNoMore Teach-in Week (March 2-8) at UNBC

 Idle No More Teach-In Week at UNBC
March 2-8 2013

http://www.womennorthnetwork.com/images/stories/idlenomore.pdf

Idle No More as a Social Movement has been prominent in media and social media within the last several months, and is generating a great deal of interest in students and faculty both here at UNBC, across post-secondary institutions in Canada and worldwide. It is a grassroots movement begun by four First Nations women in Saskatchewan in response to the ecological and socio-political challenges generated as a result of Bills C-38 and C-45 and other actions recently initiated by the current federal government.

Idle No More has quickly become the leading voice for indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians speaking out against the government’s drastic and unilateral modifications to treaty and environmental legislation. Specific areas of concern include changes to the regulations governing environmental assessment of proposed resource developments, fisheries, protected waterways, and private ownership of treaty land. Three Idle No More Rallies have been held locally in Prince George on January 12, January 26 , and one February 14 @ 4:00 at City Hall.

Many universities and colleges are sponsoring or have sponsored teach-ins on Idle No More in an effort to have actual realistic educated opinions on the issues at stake. These teach-ins have involved faculty and students from different disciplines, as well as key politicians and Indigenous community members addressing issues arising from the omnibus bills. Some forums have been interdisciplinary and some have been discipline specific.

We are organizing an Idle No More Teach-In Week at UNBC to be held March 2-8 2013. We plan to create places and spaces on campus to have informed faculty and students, both Indigenous peoples and allies, share their research, programs, experiences, stories, poetry, music and art, focused primarily on our responsibility to honor and defend the lands and waters at this time. The academic and artistic events will coincide with other campus events for the first week of March being sponsored through the First Nations Center, NUGSS and The Women’s Center. All members of the UNBC, including the Regional Campuses are welcomed to attend these events in person or through distance delivery. As much as possible events will be video recorded and made available for viewing through social media like utube.

The preliminary Schedule of Events is available here:http://www.womennorthnetwork.com/images/stories/idlenomore.pdf.

If you want to get involved or want to chat about how you can become involved in Idle No More UNBC Teach-In please contact Fyre Jean graveli@unbc.ca.

Read More: PovNet

#IdleNoMore @ Douglas College

New Westminster News Leader, Grant Granger, February 19, 2013 — The Idle No More First Nations movement arrived at Douglas College’s New Westminster campus on Tuesday.

At a rally organized by the Douglas Students’ Union, speakers called for the federal government to abandon its omnibus Bill C-45 that many First Nations leaders believe will pave the way for pipelines and other infringements on native land, native rights and the environment throughout the country.

“This act is pretty much going to erase all of our strides as aboriginal people,” Mique’l Dangeli, a UBC doctoral student doing a PhD in First Nations studies, told the gathering. “They pretty much clear the way for Enbridge to exploit our lands without consultation with the First Nations especially on our reservations.”

Dangeli grew up in Metlakalta, Alaska on Annette Island just south of Ketchikan while her husband Mike was raised a short distance away on land that straddled the U.S.-Canadian border. They now live in Burnaby.

“These huge (omnibus) bills bury the issues,” said Mique’l.

The Idle No More Movement was started in Saskatoon in November by Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah McLean and Nina Wilson to call attention to the damage the legislation could do to First Nations rights and lands, as well as to the environment. It has spread across the country and also received international attention with solidarity protests supporting the cause in the United States, Stockholm, London, Berlin, Auckland and Cairo.

“It took meticulous reading by those four women to realize the implications,” Dangeli told the audience of about 200 in the Douglas College atrium.

Dangeli’s husband Mike, an artist, carver, dance group leader and business manager, said the legislation should concern everybody because Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government wants to be able to make moves however the Conservative majority sees fit.

“They’re getting rid of protected lakes and streams to make way for pipelines,” said Mike, whose powerful voice and loud drum boomed throughout the cavernous atrium as he spoke, and performed a traditional song and dance. “It’s not about yes or no [to the projects], it’s about asking. How would you feel if they wanted to put it right through your backyard or your front yard for that matter?”

And it could be even in the backyard he lives in now, considering Kinder Morgan is proposing an expansion of its Alberta-to-Burrard Inlet pipeline which could mean coming right through Robert Burnaby Park, he said.

Douglas College student Sheena Wong, one of the event’s organizers, was dressed in a traditional red-and-black cloak as she rallied the crowd.

“They’re selling our land to foreign countries,” said Wong. “I will not stand by and watch him (Harper) sell our land out from underneath us.”

Organizer Madison Paradis-Woodman said the intent of the event was to educate everyone of how the changes in social and environmental policy will affect all walks of life. He estimated there were 350 people throughout the day who absorbed the positive energy of the speakers, the drummers and the singers.

“I have never felt so proud to be an indigenous person. If anything this movement is proof of the power we can receive when we stand not behind people but in front of people and stand for environmental and social justice,” he said. “Just seeing people from all walks of life come out and participate and take something out of it, that made me feel good inside.”

Read More: New Westminster News Leader

CUFA BC on Liberals Budget: Cuts Will Hurt Students, Grant Program a Gimmick say Profs

CUFA BC, Robert Clift, February 19, 2013 — The 2013/14 provincial budget shortchanges students and their families according to the organization representing professors and other academic staff at BC’s public research universities.

“The provincial government perpetuates the myth that its cuts to the operating grants for universities, colleges and institutes will have no effect on students,” said Robert Clift, Executive Director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC (CUFA BC).

“Students have already lost support services and learning opportunities due to inadequate funding and these new cuts will shortchange students even further.”

“By 2015, per student operating grants to universities, colleges and institutes will have dropped 20% in real terms since the Liberals formed government,” Clift added.

The creation of the BC Training and Education Savings Grant will do little to help students and their families, say the professors.

“The BC Training and Education Savings Grant is a cynical gimmick”, Clift said. “The value of the government’s contribution will not even cover the increase in tuition fees by the time a child reaches age 18.”

“Using the government’s numbers, the value of the government’s contribution will fall $466 short of the tuition fee increase. Using more realistic calculations, the gap is $819,” Clift added. “This is on top of tuition fees that have already increased 99% under the Liberals.”

The government’s Skills and Training Plan also falls far short of what is needed, according to the professors.

“The investments announced by the government are one time and will not add a single new student space”, Clift said. “Moreover, the plan ignores the fact that 2/3 of job openings over the next decade will require a college or university credential other than trades certification.”

“The government’s training plan turns back the clock 40 years, treating British Columbians as hewers of wood and compressors of gas,” Clift added. “It practically ignores the growing impact of the value-added and knowledge economies.”

The Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC represents 4,600 professors, librarians, instructors, lecturers and other academic staff at BC’s five public research universities – UBC (Vancouver and Kelowna), SFU (Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver), UVic (Victoria), UNBC (Prince George, Quesnel, Terrace, Fort St. John) and Royal Roads (Victoria and international)

#IdleNoMore @ U Maine: Building multi-ethnic and multi-generational networks of women

“We have reached a nexus point where Indigenous land rights, environmental justice and human survival all collide.” “It is here, at this point of collision, that we have the opportunity to facilitate real change as the various collectives — like we’re seeing around this room — of effective parties are thrown together in a literal fight for human survival.” Sherri Mitchell, Director, Land Peace Foundation

The Maine Campus, Dominique Scarlett, February 18, 2013 — On Wednesday, Feb. 13, the Women’s Studies program hosted “Idle No More: Building Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Generational Networks of Women,” the third in a series of their Women in Curriculum, or WIC spring lunch lectures, in the Bangor Room of the Memorial Union.

Sherri Mitchell, the director of the Land Peace Foundation, and Maria Girouard, assistant coordinator for student development at the University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center, presented the lecture, which focused on the “Idle No More” movement, recent controversial Canadian legislation and the need for supportive allies within the movement.

“Idle No More” is a grassroots movement that protests legislative abuses to the rights of aboriginal and indigenous people in Canada, which consist of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people.

“We have reached a nexus point where Indigenous land rights, environmental justice and human survival all collide,” Mitchell said during the presentation. “It is here, at this point of collision, that we have the opportunity to facilitate real change as the various collectives — like we’re seeing around this room — of effective parties are thrown together in a literal fight for human survival.”

The movement was formed in late 2012 by a group of female activists who organized a series of “teach-ins,” a form of non-violent protest where participants engage in free discussion about a controversial topic, to protest the induction of Canada’s C-45 bill.

The activists believe the controversial bill weakens environmental protection laws — particularly those that protect navigable waterways, many of which surrounded land that belongs to the First Nations.

“We have one planet. The type of destruction that we are facing respects no boundaries, it knows no division,” Mitchell said. “Therefore, if we hope to survive, we must eliminate all divisions between us. We must be allies and work collectively to stop these archaic practices of domination in the greed-driven industry that is threatening our planet and destroying all life.”

Mitchell argued that several policy measures, led by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, violate the rights of the indigenous and aboriginal people of Canada.

“[Harper’s] goal is to completely get rid of all people that identify as indigenous or aboriginal in Canada so that nobody has that status, because there are certain protections that are afforded under the law as a result of that status,” Mitchell said.

She spoke of the implementation of a three-tier policy strategy that, through several proposed and passed policy measures, negotiates with First Nations to sign new agreements that terminate their status as First Nations, eliminate funding and remove all funding for legal consultation.

She spoke of the steps that everyone could take to become involved in the environmental, indigenous and aboriginal rights movements.

“Educate yourself about the issues, attend informational sessions, do the research, talk to people, seek advice from the group for which you’re being an ally [and] listen to their critique of what you’re doing,” Mitchell said.

Read More: The Maine Campus

UM Student union throws support behind #IdleNoMore

Winnipeg Free Press, February 14, 2013 — The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) endorsed the Idle No More movement and pledged to provide resources and supports to local organizers, an UMSU news release said today following a teach-in at the U of M by the aboriginal student representative.

“Students recognize and understand that Indigenous people and communities continue to confront the systems of colonization and oppression established by successive Canadian governments,” UMSU president Bilan Arte said in the news release.

“As an organization committed to social justice and increasing access to higher education, it is natural for UMSU to support the Idle No More movement in its efforts to educate and inform the rest of the country on the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada.”

UMSU is the largest students’ association in Manitoba with more than 25,000 undergraduate student members.

Ryerson University professor Pam Palmater, key spokesperson for Idle No More, said in an interview with Postmedia News:. “We’re in this for the long haul. It was never meant to be a flashy one month, then go away. This is something that’s years in the making,”

U of Toronto Student Torbold Rollo on #IdleNoMore

Georgia Straight, Torbold Rollo, February 1, 2013 — IT IS SOMETIMES quipped that democracy is like two wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. This Darwinian image of vulnerable minorities falling prey to a “tyranny of the majority” is why few believe that democracy can be reduced to participation in elections. If democracy has value it is because it allows people to have a meaningful say in the rules that govern them. Anything that precludes or impairs this “voice” is anti-democratic by extension.

The Idle No More indigenous rights movement is a democratic movement par excellence. It seeks to challenge those mechanisms of Canadian governance that preside over the lives of indigenous peoples and in this sense their demand for self-government—what ancient Greek theorists called “autonomy”, from auto (self) andnomos (rule)—is a genuinely democratic aspiration. Canadians are coming to see this more clearly as the movement articulates its recommendations. (No surprise, then, that “Idle No More” was just voted “Best Democratic Moment of 2012” in a poll conducted by the research group on democracy, Samara.)

What exactly precludes and impairs the autonomy of indigenous peoples? The Indian Act stands out as the most glaringly anti-democratic impediment to self-government. Not simply because it shatters the 60 or so original indigenous nations along with their traditional governments and traditional territories into the 614 arbitrary “bands” now scattered across Canada on tiny “reserves”, but also because band leadership has no real say in political and legislative life on those reserves. Although they are elected, chief and council have no democratic authority to govern because they are constrained from above by the Indian Act rather than from below by their people. They are replaceable managers, in essence, not law-makers. Real authority resides in the enforcement of the Indian Act by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. The whole arrangement is insultingly arbitrary from a democratic perspective.

Read More: Straight.com

#IdleNoMore alive and well, University of Alberta forum hears

Edmonton Journal, Alexander Zabjek, February 8, 1013 — The Idle No More Movement is not dead, dying, or dormant.

That was the message at a University of Alberta forum Friday that attracted more than 300 participants and nine speakers, including Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat in northern Ontario.

Spence, via video link from her home community, was making her first major public appearance since ending her six-week fluid-only diet in Ottawa two weeks ago. Spence started her protest around the same time as Idle No More gained speed but the two protests were separate entities with separate tactics, although Spence often seemed to dominate headlines.

On Friday, however, Spence urged First Nations leaders to work with the Idle No More movement and other grassroots organizations. She said she was glad to be back in her home community and spoke relatively briefly, alongside Danny Metatawabin, her spokesperson during her protest,

“In retrospect, I see (she) really drew attention to Canada’s indigenous people, not just in Canada but outside Canada. People started to hear about this First Nations chief in Canada who is on a hunger strike in this country that is supposed to be such a great place to live,” said speaker Tanya Kappo, of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, after the forum.

Kappo was the first person to use the Twitter hashtag #idlenomore in December and has spoken extensively about the Conservative government’s Bill C-45 and the effect it will have on laws governing navigable waterways. She addressed the crowd with personal stories of activism, including the time she explained to her young son why she couldn’t in good conscience attend Alberta’s centennial celebrations.

Read More: Edmonton Journal

#IdleNoMore UNBC students in action

Rolling Stone, Brooke Jarvis, February 4, 2013— As members of Canada’s House of Commons returned to work last week in Ottawa, they found several hundred protesters waiting for them under a heavy snowfall on Parliament Hill. Many were dressed in traditional clothing of Canada’s First Nations….

Similar protests took place in Halifax, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Vancouver and other cities across Canada and in the United States. They were part of a “world day of action” organized under the banner of Idle No More – a native rights movement that has been heating up since October, when the Canadian government proposed a bill, known as C-45, that included provisions to undermine environmental protection and indigenous sovereignty.

C-45, which passed in December, changes the way that First Nations approve the surrendering or leasing of territory, making it easier to open indigenous treaty lands to development. The law also reduces the number of development projects that require environmental assessment and dramatically changes the nation’s Navigable Waters Protection Act – which, since 1882, has made it illegal to “block, alter or destroy any water deep enough to float a canoe without federal approval.” Now, only specifically enumerated bodies of water have that protection….

Shalane Pauls is a 24-year-old biochemistry student at the University of Northern British Columbia and a member of the Tsimshian and Tahltan nations. In the last few months, she has organized three Idle No More rallies. She is in the process of planning a teach-in to discuss what she calls myths about the movement, primarily claims that First Nations receive unfair government support. But the biggest myth, she said, is that water pollution only matters to native people. “It’s not just a First Nations issue,” says Pauls. “It’s a human rights issue. It’s a Canadian issue. It’s not just aboriginal children we’re looking out for; it’s the children of the nation.”

Idle No More has been subject to many of the same criticisms as other social movements: that its purpose isn’t sufficiently clear, that tactics will turn off potential allies, that infighting and tribal mismanagement mar the message. There’s no way to tell how long its momentum will last. Still, Pauls sees the movement as a turning point in the political involvement of Canada’s First Nations. “For so long, we haven’t been heard. And so, for so long we just sat, idly. But the title in itself really wakes people up. To be like, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be idle anymore – this is what I want to see, this is how I feel.’ There’s always going to be something worth fighting for.”

Read More: Idle No More: Native-Led Protest Movement Takes On Canadian Government | Politics News | Rolling Stone.

Power of #IdleNoMore movement lies in direct action, says UBC prof

Georgia Straight, Yolanda Cole, February 6, 2013 — THE IDLE NO More movement is undergoing a moment of “pause and critical reflection”, in the view of one participant.

Speaking at an Idle No More “teach-in” event at the University of British Columbia on February 1, Coulthard addressed the potential impact of direct actions staged by the movement.

The political science and First Nations Studies faculty member argued that grassroots forms of protests such as blockades have historically led to changes on indigenous issues.

“Historically, I would venture to suggest that all negotiations, over the scope and content of aboriginal people’s rights in the last 40 years, have piggybacked off of the assertive direct actions, including the escalated use of blockades, spearheaded by indigenous women and other grassroots elements of our community,” Coulthard told a crowd of more than 300 students and members of the public at the First Nations House of Learning at UBC.

Coulthard, a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, disputed what he said is an assumption that official negotiations among leadership are the “most productive means to forge real change in the lives of indigenous communities”.

“I think that there’s a latent understanding that the negotiations aren’t about making the transformative changes that indigenous peoples need in order to live healthy, cultured lives, and if you look at the history of negotiations, they’ve always come in order to placate the transformative energy that has emerged in more grassroots forms of protest actions,” he said in an interview.

In fact, he argued, inquiries such as the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the B.C. missing women inquiry wouldn’t have occurred if sustained direct actions led by indigenous communities hadn’t brought attention to the issues.

Coulthard noted it wouldn’t surprise him if Idle No More demonstrations escalate to “more assertive” forms of peaceful protest. Idle No More actions in Ontario have included railway and highway blockades.

“I think that it’s pretty clear that the federal government is maintaining its stance on the problematic pieces of legislation that have upset indigenous peoples so much,” he stated. “And if history has taught us anything, these cycles of anger and pent-up frustration will tend to be played out in activism.”

The demonstrations were initially sparked out of opposition to federal omnibus legislation that included changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act.

Coulthard noted that the movement has gained unprecedented sustained attention from the general population.

“I think it’s because Canadians, nonindigenous peoples, are seeing their own interests perhaps better represented by indigenous peoples, especially concerning environmental sustainability and the land,” he said in an interview. “These legislative changes are also violations of nonindigenous peoples’ aspirations with respect to the integrity of the land, having it shared more equitably.”

In Coulthard’s view, movements like Idle No More “have within their sights, now more than ever” a restructuring of the relationship between indigenous peoples and Canada. But he added that changes to that relationship are a “distant, long-term goal”.

“The impacts [of the movement] will be long-term, and they will eventually compel Canada to come to the negotiating table on equitable terms, honor its treaty obligations, and correct the colonial relationship between indigenous peoples and the state,” he said.

“The inequalities and the privileges that have built up are centuries old now, so it’s not going to happen overnight.”

Red More: Georgia Straight

#IdleNoMore Teach-In and Demonstration at #UBC

Well over 300 gathered this afternoon for an Idle No More Teach-In at the University of British Columbia. This followed a late morning and afternoon INM demonstration yesterday with 100+ in attendance at any given moment. Today’s Teach-In at the First Nations House of Learning was broadcast by CITR (101.9 FM), the student run (since 1974) radio at UBC. If you were unable to attend, I encourage all to listen to the podcast for today and view videos from yesterday’s demonstration, as these were truly memorable and significant events at UBC. On a campus that has become renowned for apathy, Idle No More is a welcome and extremely promising change of both outlook and power dynamics. If you’re on the Board of Governors at UBC, you are likely proud and anxious at this point: Proud in that students are waking up and organizing demonstrations and teach-ins such as Idle No More and anxious in that none of this bodes well for business as usual and continuos expansion into unceded Musqueam territory and lands endowed in trust about 100 years ago (Musqueam home from time immemorial to “Crown Land” in late 1800s into “Endowment Lands” in 1910). Thank you to all who organized and participated these past two days in Idle No More at UBC!

#IdleNoMore Demonstration at UBC

Lee Brown Speaks wisdom to power at Idle No More Demonstration at UBC

Thank you to Idle No More student planners of the extremely important demonstration at the University of British Columbia yesterday (31 January). This was the first of many to come at a University that has grown irresponsible in its expansion throughout the unceded Musqueam territory on which it is settled. This was a refreshingly catalytic exploration of the varied and complex issues represented within the Idle No More movement for a campus waking up from a decade of messages from the University that an inactive and idle student body is the best student body.

The Idle No More Teach-In at UBC this afternoon at the First Nations Longhouse will work from yesterday’s demonstration to generate next steps for this decreasingly idyllic, but no longer idle, campus.

Most videos from the Idle No More Demonstration at UBC (31 January 2013) are accessible: