Category Archives: Advocacy

#IdleNoMore Teach-in at UBC on Friday (February 1)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | 1 comment

Idle No More Teach-in
First Nations House of Learning
University of British Columbia

First Nations Longhouse
Friday, Feb. 1, 2013
1pm-3pm

Distinguished Aboriginal faculty will provide a background to the movement, outline the aspects of Bills 38 and 45 that are seen as problematic and discuss ways that classroom dialogue around this issue can be incorporated in an informed and productive way.

Everyone is welcome including students, staff, faculty, TAs and community members.

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Free speech, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Government, Idle No More, Protests, Students

#IdleNoMore Demonstration at UBC on Thursday (January 31)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | 1 comment

Idle No More Demonstration at the University of British Columbia
Thursday, January 31
10:30am – 5pm
meet in front of UBC’s Museum of Anthropology
for a march to the Student Union Building

The UBC Idle No More Demonstration is an educational campaign led by both First Nations and Non-Indigenous students.

We will meet in front of UBC’s Museum of Anthropology for a march to the Student Union Building for a day of music, dancing, guest speakers, and alliance building between the grassroots Idle No More Movement and the wider UBC community.

10:30 am Meeting at MOA for opening prayer with Musqueam community members and Doctor Lee Brown. 11:00 to 12:00 March around campus (route to be determined) lead by First Nations Studies students.

Drummers and Singers from the Coast Salish, Tsimshian, Nisga’a Tlingit, Haida, and Kwakwaka’wakw Nations will be sharing their songs and dances throughout the demonstration.

**We invite people from all Nations to come with their drums to join in on songs and share songs of your own**

12:00 to 4:30 Meeting in front of the SUB between Brock Hall and the Goddess of Democracy Statue

Order of Speakers

1.) 12:00/12:30 to 1:00 Professor Glen Coulthard, Yellowknives Dene First Nation
2.) 1:00 to 1:15 Karina Czyzewski (student)
3.) 1:30 Shannon Hecker (student)
4.) 1:45 Professor Charles Menzies
5.) 2:00 Professor Coll Thrush
6.) 2:30 Miles Richardson (Haida Gwaii, UBC Alumni, David Suzuki Foundation, British Columbia Treaty Commission)
7.) 3:00 Angela Code (Sayisi Dene and UBC Alumni)
8.) 3:30 Professor Bruce Miller.
9.) 3:45 to 4:30 Open Mic and performances (weather permitting).
10.) 4:30 to 5:00 Closing

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Free speech, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Idle No More, Protests, Students

#IdleNoMore World Day of Action

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Today (January 28) is the first #IdleNoMore World Day of Action, with events and protests planned around the globe and in at least 30 Canadian cities.

This day of action will peacefully protest attacks on Democracy, Indigenous Sovereignty, Human Rights and Environmental Protections when Canadian MPs return to the House of Commons on January 28th. As a grassroots movement, clearly no political organization speaks for Idle No More. This movement is of the people …

INM urges the government of Canada to repeal all legislation; which violates Treaties, Indigenous Sovereignty and subsequently Environmental Protections of land and water.

INM is grateful to many leaders who have supported this vision and the movement of the grassroots people. “The Treaties are the last line of defense to protect water and lands from destruction,” stated Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs.

Here in Vancouver, the rally and Gathering of Nations will begin at 12:00 at the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada Department office, near the intersection of Melville and Thurlow (1138 Melville st).

At the University of Mannitoba, Buffy Sainte-Marie will speak at the University of Manitoba Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m. about the momentum of the movement as part of the university student union’s annual Week of Celebration. Students and youth from First Nations in Manitoba are walking this weekend along Highway 59 to rally at the Manitoba Legislative Building on Monday at 5 p.m. Sainte-Marie is expected to join the rally and round dance at the Manitoba Legislative Building today. Read more: Winnipeg Free Press

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Events, Free speech, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Free speech, Government, Idle No More, Protests, Students

“Premier’s plan is flawed:” BCTF responds to plan to undermine bargaining

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Premier Christy Clark’s proposed plan for a 10-year deal with public school teachers ignores court rulings, contradicts government’s own legislation, and risks scuttling a positive bargaining framework on the eve of its expected ratification by the BC Teachers’ Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association.

“The premier’s plan is flawed in a number of significant ways,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert.

“The key problem is that it ignores the ruling of the BC Supreme Court that teachers have the right to bargain working conditions, such as class size and class composition. The Liberals’ own Bill 22 also allows for these issues to be negotiated in this round but her new plan requires teachers to give up this hard-won right. Over the past decade, when Liberal policy regulated learning conditions, class sizes grew and support for students with special needs suffered,” Lambert said.

As a consequence, BC has the worst student-educator ratio in the country, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. In order to bring BC’s teacher staffing levels just up to the national average, the province would have to hire an astounding 6,800 more teachers.

Another major problem is the indexing of teachers’ salaries to average increases of other government employees. “This is fundamentally unfair because it effectively prohibits teachers from negotiating for their own salaries,” Lambert said. “Under such a scheme government has all the cards. The average of net zero is zero.” BC teachers’ salaries are lagging far behind those of other teachers in Canada, and the gap will only widen under this plan, she added.

Lambert questioned the government’s timing on today’s announcement, given that it comes one day before the beginning of the BCTF’s Representative Assembly and the BCPSEA’s annual general meeting. Representatives of both organizations are slated to vote on a new Framework Agreement which offers a positive process for the upcoming round of bargaining.

“In recent months we’ve quietly had productive conversations with the employer about how to achieve a smoother more effective round, and it’s most unfortunate that government chose to intervene at this time,” Lambert said. “The BCTF will continue to recommend ratification of the Framework Agreement and we hope this abrupt announcement from government will not prevent BCPSEA from doing the same.”

On the surface the premier’s rhetoric sounds conciliatory after more than a decade of conflict between the BCTF and the BC Liberals but, in reality, her plan is yet another effort to severely limit teachers’ constitutional right to bargain.

Mi’kmaq students stage #IdleNoMore rally at CBU

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Chris Hayes, Cape Breton Post, January 25, 2013 — Dancing a round dance of friendship and speaking out against legislation by the federal Conservative government, Mi’kmaq students at Cape Breton University held a rally on Wednesday in support of the national grassroots Idle No More movement.

The students, who are in a Mi’kmaq governance class, wanted to raise awareness about legislation by the federal Conservative government they describe as a threat to their treaty rights and, in a wider sense, to all Canadians.

Class member Janine Christmas said the legislation is being pushed ahead without consultation with First Nations.

“These are things that not only affect our treaty rights and communities but also all Canadians,” she said.

Students wearing Idle No More T-shirts passed out information sheets to a crowd of CBU students and faculty at the rally about federal omnibus legislation called Bill C45, which was described as the bill causing greatest concern to First Nations across Canada.

A definition of aboriginal fishery in Bill C45 doesn’t recognize a moderate livelihood fishery and the bill drops protections that were in the Navigable Waters Protection Act for a list of federally protected lakes and rivers, reducing it in Nova Scotia, for instance, to just the Bras d’Or Lake, Great Bras d’Or and the LeHave River, the handout said.

The omnibus bill, which is about to be proclaimed by the Governor General, also changes how the federal government does environmental assessments in a way that could limit the role of First Nations people and alters the Indian Act when it comes to how bands may lease reserve lands to third parties. The new way of leasing land will be by “simple majority” voting.

The handout at the rally said there was no consultation on the changes to the Indian Act and chiefs feel the way they came about calls into question the honour of the Crown.

Christmas suggested a lower threshold could ease the way for the development of pipelines and power lines that are a threat to the environment and health.

First Nations have concerns about other federal legislation, she said.

The rally began with a smudging ceremony and honour song by the Stoney Bear Singers.

Judith Sayers on #IdleNoMore: ‘A real need to join the people’

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Globe and Mail, Rob Mickleburgh, January 21, 2013 — As a former chief of the Hupacasath First Nation, a past executive member of the First Nations Summit and currently a visiting professor of business and law at the University of Victoria, Judith Sayers has long been one of B.C.’s most prominent natives, with a reputation for seeking solutions over confrontation. But there she was last week, part of the Idle No More highway blockade near Victoria. Afterward, Ms. Sayers talked with The Globe and Mail about her support for the burgeoning movement, and her unhappiness with current native leadership.

How was the protest?

I didn’t plan to go, but I was checking Twitter and felt a real need to join the people. It’s such a good feeling to be with people of one mind, walking, hearing the drums and the singing, and just listening to people.

What brought you to Idle No More, which is very much outside the formal channels you’re used to?

Well, those formal channels aren’t getting us anywhere. I have always said we need leaders who are going to put our issues on the front page, make them election issues. None of us, including myself, have been able to do that. I see this movement able to do that. It’s amazing. Our people have never really taken this kind of initiative before. It’s across the ranks. All of the issues have come to a boiling point.

Students and young people behind #IdleNoMore

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

What’s behind the explosion of native activism? Young people

JOE FRIESEN
The First Perspective

The First Perspective, Joe Friesen, January 20, 2013 — Erica Lee is a 22-year-old Cree woman raised by a single mother in a rough part of town. She’s the first of her family to finish high school, the first to go to university and, as an organizer of the Idle No More movement, she represents a sea change in Canadian life and politics.

When she was in high school in Saskatoon, Ms. Lee’s history teacher was a woman named Sheelah McLean, one of the four founders of Idle No More. Together they embody one of the movement’s most intriguing aspects: It has been led and organized almost entirely by young, university-educated women. But Idle No More is also shaped by a collision of demographic and historic forces: a very young population, rising levels of income and education and a community that has suffered decades of injustice. It reads like a recipe for a resistance movement.

So why is it taking off now and not five or 10 years ago? A critical mass of educated young people.

“One of the things I look at is the number of aboriginal students in university and college. In the early 1970s, the number was counted in the low hundreds. If you look now, you’ll find the number is around 30,000. It’s a staggering number, a wonderful indication of a major transformation,” said Ken Coates, Canada research chair in regional innovation at the University of Saskatchewan.

Prof. Coates describes Idle No More as part of a revolution of rising expectations. The number of aboriginal university graduates increased by a third between 2001 and 2006. Over that same period, incomes rose and employment grew. Forty-four per cent of those 25 to 64 now have some form of postsecondary credential. More and more young aboriginal people are connected to the mainstream economy, and more communities are finding some measure of prosperity through economic development. There’s a long way to go to achieve equality with the rest of Canada, but there are signs of progress.

“The whole balance in the first nations community is radically different than it was before,” Prof. Coates said. “They have companies, they have success, they have graduates. All these elements, which Canadians are not used to seeing, have made it so that first nations people are saying, ‘Why shouldn’t we aspire to more?’ ”

Ms. Lee is a fourth-year student in political philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan. She has been active in Idle No More since its first rally in a Saskatoon community centre, where she spoke to a humble gathering of 100 people. At the time, she thought it was no different than the other political activities she’d taken part in. The crowd was familiar, many of them veterans of the local activist scene, and there were no signs that this time was different. But within weeks, the movement started to take off.

Gyasi Ross : : The #IdleNoMore Movement for Dummies (or, ‘What The Heck Are All These Indians Acting All Indian-Ey About?’)

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Gyasi Ross, Indian Country Today Media Network, January 16, 2013 — Lately, Native people have taken to the streets malls in demonstrations of Public Indian-ness (“PI”) that surpasses the sheer volume of activism of even Alcatraz and the Longest Walk. There’s a heapum big amount of PI going on right now! Many people, non-Native and Native alike, are wondering what the heck is going with their local Native population and how this so-called #IdleNoMore Movement managed to get the usually muffled Natives restless enough to be Indian in public. I mean, like Chris Rock said, he hasn’t ever even met two Indians at the same time. He’s seen “polar bears riding a tricycle” but he’s “never seen an Indian family just chillin’ out at Red Lobster.”

Yet, now people can’t seem to get away from us.

And that’s cool—but isn’t that what pow-wows and November is for? People (non-Native and Native alike) can only take so much PI, right? Is that what the Idle No More Movement is—an extended Native American Heritage Month, where non-Natives have to act like they’re fascinated by Native culture?

In a word, no. It is much more. Please consider this a fairly exhaustive explanation of the Idle No More Movement, what it is not and what it is. If for some reason you cannot read the next 1000 or so brilliant words, I can be summed up thusly: the Idle No More Movement is not a new movement. Instead, it is the latest incarnation of the sustained Indigenous Resistance to the rape, pillage and exploitation of this continent and its women that has existed since 1492. It is not the Occupy Movement, although there are some similarities. It is not only about Canada and it is not only about Native people. Finally, and probably most importantly, it (and we) are not going away anytime soon. So get used to it (and us).

#IDLENOMORE MOVEMENT: WHAT IT IS ABOUT

“The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”
Chief Plenty Coups, Apsaalooke

“…you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live.”
Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala Lakota

As the above quotes display, the Indigenous Resistance to the raping and pillaging of the Earth is not new. Likewise, Indigenous peoples’ efforts to protect the mothers of our Nations—the women—are not new either. The Idle No More Movement is simply the latest chapter in that resistance.

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Posted in Advocacy, Equity, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Students

Dalhousie University Student Activism & Teach-In @ #IdleNoMore

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Dalhousie University Teach-In videos, by Solidarity Halifax:

Idle No More Teach-In at Dalhousie University Jan. 10, All Parts, Full Video

“An evening of education, action and ceremony, teachers share information and analysis on the economic and political structures that have and continue to shape a colonial relationship between First Nations and Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state. The upsurge in parliamentary legislation in the form of Bill C-45 and other proposed bills is a recent manifestation of this relationship.”

See More: Halifax Media Co-op

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Posted in Academic freedom, Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Ethics, Government, Organizing, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Students

Patricia Doyle-Bedwell : : #IdleNoMore A Movement for Change

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Dal News, Misha Noble-Hearle, January 18, 2013 — Thirty years ago, Patricia Doyle-Bedwell sat in Dalhousie’s Student Union building with four other aboriginal students discussing issues such as class, racism and indigenous rights. She would never have guessed that 30 years later, more than 400 people would be packed into the Scotiabank Auditorium in support of, or simply eager to learn about, the same issues.

“I am overwhelmed with joy for the support of Idle No More,” says the Dalhousie professor and director of the Transition Year Program, speaking about the teach-in event held on campus last week.

Growth of a movement

Idle No More is a grassroots movement that began as an email exchange between four aboriginal activists in Saskatchewan last fall. Their discussions focused on Bill C-45, a 400-page bill passed in December 2012 by the Canadian government that made changes to the Indian Act, the Navigation Protection Act and the Environment Assessment Act, among others.

Worried how these changes would affect them and their treaty rights, the activists organized a rally in Saskatoon peacefully protesting the bill. Since then, the movement has caught fire, spreading rapidly and prominently around the country.

With live tweets during events and more than 75,000 “likes” on Facebook, Idle No More is powered by social media as well as the inaccuracies of mainstream media, says Howard Ramos, a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology and an expert in Canadian Aboriginal mobilization and issues of ethnicity and race.

“The movement spread not just through social media, but when the media got it wrong,” says Dr. Ramos.

Often, Idle No More has been portrayed in affiliation with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike. After declaring that her First Nations band in Northern Ontario was in a state of emergency due to severe economic issues, she began a liquids-only diet on Dec. 11, 2012, demanding a meeting with Stephen Harper and Governor-General David Johnston. This media coverage sparked interest in Idle No More, merging the two separate movements, but Idle No More is about a lot more than one hunger strike.

The protection of Aboriginal Rights and environmental concerns are high on the to-do list of Idle No More organizers and supporters, but the movement also provides a platform for social learning and “unlearning,” an idea that Erin Wunker, English professor, explained at the January 8 event. She defined unlearning as the act of acknowledging something we thought was true as not being the truth.

“I am part of a population that has learned that I have always had a right to be here, and that is untrue,” said Wunker, identifying herself as a descendant of European-Canadian settlers. “We need to learn each other’s stories and unlearn the dominant discourse of them.”

Sparking a dialogue

Idle No More promotes education about issues that affect not only Aboriginal Canadians, but all Canadians, say those who are following it closely.

U Fraser Valley (UFV) #IdleNoMore educational forum

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) #IdleNoMore Educational Forum

17 January
1:00 – 3:30
Aboriginal Gathering Place at the Canada Education Park campus in Chilliwack

The University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) will host an Idle No More educational forum on January 17 from 1 to 3: 30 p.m. at the Aboriginal Gathering Place at the Canada Education Park campus in Chilliwack.

Speakers include:

Joanne Gutierrez (Xwiyolemot, Sto: lo/ Cree woman) who will talk about indigenous government and Idle No More capacity building
Sakej Warden (Master of Indigenous Government degree from University of Victoria Member of Warrior Societies Alliance) who will talk about indigenous nationhood
Hamish Telford (UFV political science instructor) who will talk about omnibus bills and Bill C-45
Robert Harding (UFV social work instructor) who will talk about media representation of the Idle No More movement and the context of the representation of aboriginal peoples and issues in the media

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Events, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Government, Idle No More, Students

#IdleNoMore at U Victoria: Where do we go from here?

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

#IdleNoMore at U Victoria: Where do we go from here?

Teach-In and Public Forum

A town hall and public discussion co-sponsored by the Faculty of Human and Social Development and Indigenous Governance examines the Indigenous Peoples’ movement that is generating debate from coast to coast.

Panelists include:
Dr. Taiaiake Alfred (Professor, Indigenous Governance, UVic)
Janet Rogers (Victoria Poet Laureate, INM Victoria Organizer)
Mandee McDonald (MA Student, Indigenous Governance, UVic, INM Victoria/Denendeh Organizer)
Special Guest: Wab Kinew (Media Personality, Director of Indigenous Inclusion, University of Winnipeg).

What: “Idle No More: Where do we go from here?”
When: Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Where: First Peoples House, UVic

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Politics, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Idle No More, Protests, Students

At social media command centre, U of S student in eye of storm of #IdleNoMore

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Erica Lee, photo by Richard Marjan

Jeremy Warren, StarPhoenix, 16 January 2013: Erica Lee is at the centre of Idle No More and has witnessed the best and worst of the made-in-Saskatchewan national movement.

Lee, a 22-year-old University of Saskatchewan student, manages the movement’s main Facebook page, which serves as Idle No More’s unofficial headquarters. It’s the hub where people from around the world go to find help organizing rallies, share stories and support the cause.

The Idle No More page is also where people go to vent and berate. Lee spends much of her day checking it to remove racist and violent comments.

“A teenage boy sent me a message calling me a ‘squaw,’ ” Lee said while scrolling through comments at a computer in the U of S Aboriginal Students’ Centre this week. “I’ve deleted messages that say, ‘Quit drinking Lysol.’ That’s a really common one.”

Lee, who also sits on the Indigenous Students’ Council, is never without a cell-phone and she regularly checks it between classes. The page reached 1.5 million people in the week leading up to Friday’s meeting between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, according to Face-book measurements that account for views, “likes” and “shares.”

There are also posts that inspire, Lee says. She is particularly fond of a picture someone posted of a lone person standing on a building in Palestine holding an Idle No More poster.

Lee deletes much of the racist comments, but she doesn’t shy away from criticism. Many people have questions about the goals and activities of Idle No More and honest dialogue might lead to some good, Lee says.

“We don’t want to remove dissenting comments because we want a good discussion,” she said.

“If you delete a question, people will never learn. There’s still so much misunderstanding about First Nations in Canada.”

Sylvia McAdam @ U Regina on #IdleNoMore

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Global News, 14 January 2013. At a presentation to University of Regina students on Monday, Idle No More co-founder Sylvia McAdam wasn’t afraid to air her own criticism of how some in the mass media have portrayed her grassroots movement.

“I have an issue with media. There is this automatic idea that indigenous people and leaders are misusing funds. That is not true,” McAdam told students, referring to allegations of mismanaged funds on Chief Theresa Spence’s Northern Ontario Attawapiskat reserve.

McAdam was also quick to point out that while they may share common goals, Chief Spence is separate from the Idle No More movement. Her message to future journalists, besides making sure to get the facts straight was that more dialogue is needed.

Idle No More wasn’t present at the meeting on Friday between Stephen Harper and First Nations Chiefs. McAdam says they weren’t invited, but had they been, they would have probably not attended anyway because the government had made it clear Bill C-45 would not be repealed.

When asked if the movement will soon likely run out of steam, she replied, “Resistance is creative. It’s very creative. I don’t think it will slow down because on January 28^th we’re having a worldwide Idle No more call to action, so it’s still growing.”

U of R professor Leonzo Barreno invited McAdam to speak to his Indigenous People and the Press class. He says it’s important for the students to hear all sides and to be able to sort out a very complicated and sensitive issue, but hesitates to liken Idle No More to other recent popular movements…

See video of Sylvia McAdam, Idle No More co-Founder, at the University of Regina (sponsored by The event was jointly sponsored by the School of Journalism, University of Regina, and the Indian Communication Arts program at the First Nations University of Canada).

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Posted in Advocacy, Campus Life, Diversity, Equity, Free speech, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Free speech, Protests, Students

“Academic Theory behind Idle No More” @ National Post

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

As if Idle No More can be reduced to academic theory, today’s National Post went a step further and reduced the academic theory to “indigenism.” Drawing on an analysis from University of Calgary professor an ex-advisor to the Harper government Tom Flanagan, the Post strikes a defensive tone from the start: “It is a realm in which it is uncontroversial to call Canada an illegitimate, racist, colonial power, or to claim its government is now engaged in the genocide of its native peoples, or that non-native Canadians, especially those of European descent, are “colonizers,” at best blind to their own bigotry and privilege.” Flanagan concludes that this is “standard fare among the academic left.” “That’s what’s driving Idle No More,” he says. “It’s not new. This whole vision was widely articulated during the hearings on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.” Read more: National Post.

Rather than begging a question of academic theories behind the movement, the Post would be much better off covering the movement behind the theories or asking whether theorists are now poised to invite and welcome the movement to the doorsteps and inside the halls of academia.

All of this begs the question of whether students, this year nationally, will have the politics such as that demonstrated in force across Quebec from February through August to sustain their foothold on Idle No More. As Algonquin journalist Martin Lukacs wrote last year in “Quebec student protests mark ‘Maple spring’ in Canada,” “the fault-lines of the struggle over education — dividing those who preach it must be a commodity purchased by “consumers” for self-advancement, and those who would protect it as a right funded by the state for the collective good — has thus sparked a fundamental debate about the entire society’s future…. Little wonder students’ imagination was stirred by the past year of world rebellion. That inspiration has been distilled in the movement’s main slogan, “Printemps érable,” a clever play on words that literally means Maple Spring but sounds like Arab Spring.”

Indeed, the Quebec student association ASSÉ released a statement yesterday committing to solidarity with indigenous students and Idle No More: “We stand in solidarity with Idle No More. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous hunger strikers Theresa Spence, Emil Bell, Raymond Robinson, Aniesh Vollant and Janet Pilot from the Quebec Innu community of Uashat, and others whose names we have not yet learned.”

“If 2012 was the year of our Maple Spring, we are ready to greet the Native spring of 2013.”

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Posted in Academic freedom, Administration, Advocacy, Campus Life, Equity, Governance, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Media, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Faculty, Government, Protests, Research, Working conditions

Idle No More Vancouver w Ta’Kaiya Blaney

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Today marked a milestone for Idle No More as thousands gathered for protests, sacred drumming and fires, and speeches sustained throughout the day, across Canada. Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, one month into a hunger strike, made a brief press statement while other First Nations chiefs led rallies or represented in a high stakes meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In Vancouver, over 500 marched and rallied in solidarity on City Hall. As if on queue, at the mid point an eagle soared overhead, suddenly the PA system was patched, and the poignant statements of speakers resonated louder throughout the park at the seat of Vancouver government.

Shortly after, Ta’Kaiya Blaney stepped up to the mic and stilled the crowd with her resolute insights on Idle No More, education, and the environment. “We were given a voice for a reason,” she began, “to speak out for those who have no voice, like the whales, the salmon.” “We have a voice and do not be afraid to speak out for what you’re passionate about, about what concerns you” she continued. “We were given that voice for a reason, to use it, and each and every one of us here has a gift, share it.” “We are idle no more.”

At 11 years old, Ta’Kaiya has already established herself as First Nations singer-songwiter and international activist. About a year ago, at an Occupy rally, she introduced Earth Revolution and without missing a step today from her position on Idle No More she performed a heartfelt rendition of this amazing song.

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Posted in Advocacy, Diversity, Economics, Equity, Idle No More, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Protests, Students

Idle No More @ Universities

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

University administrators in Canada are bracing as Idle No More energizes students, staff, and faculty members dissatisfied with business as usual. Protests have been fluid, with flashmobs and scaled demonstrations moving from streets to campuses and back. Massive demonstrations across the country were held today in solidarity with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, now one month into a hunger strike, and other First Nations chiefs.

Carleton and Ottawa universities for the past week have seen a series of round dance flashmobs, and activism from the People’s Council of representatives of the movement, Indigenous students and communities, and the wider student movement. On 8 January, the Indigenous and Canadian Studies Students’ Association (ICSSA) of the University of Ottawa raised the following five demands for decolonization of the campus:

That Omaniwininimowin (the Algonquin language) and Kanien’keha (the Mohawk language) be taught every semester, and that this leads to the creation of a minor in both these languages.
A substantial increase in scholarships for Indigenous students by the administration of the University of Ottawa, in recognition of the treaty rights of Indigenous nations to higher education.
An Indigenous portal on the University of Ottawa website, including a statement recognizing that our campus is built on non-ceded Algonquin nation territory.
A commitment to the recognition of the Algonquin nation in the physical landscape of our campus, for example through the naming of buildings.
The immediate and substantial increase in the allocation of resources to the Aboriginal Studies program in the Faculty of Arts, leading to the creation of an Institute of Indigenous Studies and Decolonization.

The Idle No More student movement is holding steadfast: “Higher education is a treaty right guaranteed to Indigenous nations that has been consistently violated by Canada. It is time for students and Indigenous nations to stand together and be IDLE NO MORE.” The emphasis is on a “commitment to the struggle for justice in both higher education and the wider Indigenous and settler societies.”

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Posted in Academic freedom, Advocacy, Economics, Free speech, Government, Human Rights, Idle No More, Organizing, Politics, Protests, Solidarity, Student Movement, Students

Tagged Equity, Government, Protests, Students

Pro-Labour NDP Open to Real Bargaining with Unions in BC

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Feeling pressures of government intervention and the net zero worker mandate of the Liberal Government’s Public Sector Employer’s Council (PSEC), CUPE 2278 Teaching Assistants curtailed job action and the University of British Columbia ratified an Agreement yesterday. The 0%, 0%, 2%, 2% wage increases for the 2010-2014 contract is in line with the average annual increases of just 0.3% for public employees in the province, the lowest in Canada.

With an upcoming election in the spring of 2013, at this point unions are better off deferring settlements and betting that the 99% have had it with the BC Liberals and will elect an NDP government on 14 May 2013. After years of the Liberals suppressing wages under PSEC’s net zero worker mandate, which made wage negotiations with employers a fiction, bargaining with the NDP will actually be bargaining.

NDP leader Adrian Dix has demonstrated the signs necessary to lead a pro-labour party to election victory and was quite candid about this in a recent interview with BCBusiness:

Public-sector unions have tolerated “net-zero” wage controls in recent years, but tolerance seems to be wearing thin. Would you be in favour of substantial “catch-up” wage hikes? You negotiate at the bargaining table and what we’ve had over the last period was real inconsistency from the current government in the way they’ve treated public-sector unions. You’ve had, contrary to specific promises, the tearing up of contracts. Can you imagine engaging in that practice on the business side and that being good for the economy? The [current] government’s bills 27, 28 and 29, which were singularly important in health and education bargaining, were found to be illegal in the courts. That’s their approach. We had to pay for those actions. So I think you need to be balanced in these things.

These are difficult fiscal times and I expect negotiations to be difficult and challenging. Remember, the government at the bargaining table right now is offering wage increases. Should they be offering wage increases? I think the Liberals have answered yes. In order to get agreements in these next two years they’re offering wage increases right now as we speak. So they’re no longer at net zero. You only have one government at a time and they’re negotiating right now. My recommendation to all parties is that they negotiate at the bargaining table.

Faculty and Staff withdraw services at BCIT

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Following strike approval of its membership last week, the Faculty and Staff Association (FSA) at the British Columbia Institute of Technology have withdrawn services this afternoon. Seen as a wake-up call, job action will escalate until the Union reaches an agreement. Like a number of other locals in the province, the Union’s contract expired 30 June 2010. “Better salaries and working conditions are needed to attract career-seasoned professionals from industries where wages have kept pace with inflation,” FSA executive director and chief negotiator Paul Reniers said in a press release. “Fair wages will ensure that BCIT can hire and hold on to the kinds of professionals who built this important institution.” The FSA represents over 1,400 BCIT employees including technology and part-time studies faculty, assistant instructors, technical staff, researchers, curriculum development professionals, librarians, program advisors and counselors.

Reniers noted that “low wages are already impacting BCIT’s programs. Our rates for night school are among the lowest in the region, yet 60% of BCIT registrations are in Part-Time Studies. We are losing instructors to other colleges and universities.”

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Posted in Advocacy, Employment rights, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Technology, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged Salary/Economic Benefits, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Unions, Working conditions

Open letter from SFU faculty in support of striking workers

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Stephen Petrina | Comments Off

Open Letter on the SFU labour dispute:

We, the undersigned SFU faculty members, are in solidarity with the TSSU and CUPE in their struggle for better working conditions.

The workers represented by TSSU and CUPE deserve a better deal — they deserve better working conditions, they deserve a better wage, and they deserve more respect from their employer for the work they do.

And they deserve a real contract, having been without one for two years now.The campus unions’ struggle, however, goes beyond their immediate bargaining demands. The primary mission of this public university — to teach its students well — is not accomplished only in the classroom. It is also accomplished by the example the university sets.

The university should be an engaging and engaged intellectual environment, and a good and fair and decent place to work. But working conditions at SFU have been worsening for years. Wages have been frozen while workloads have risen.

The educational system is under increasing stress, from reduced faculty numbers to larger classes, from rapidly rising fees to streamlined academic programs.

Students are paying more for reduced programs, and graduate student workers are being paid less for doing more work. Everyone is told to “do more with less.” But that is another word for austerity at SFU and in the university sector in BC at large.

The university administration is passing on the burden of austerity to its workers. While administrators raise their salaries at a rate faster than faculty and staff salaries, while resources are diverted to areas of the university that are not of direct benefit to its education mission, SFU’s most vulnerable employees — TAs, sessionals, contingent faculty and staff — are being hit the hardest.

The TSSU and CUPE struggle is a struggle against this austerity. It is more than a demand for better wages for the unions’ members; its aim is more than better working conditions.

Its aim is for a better university, a university worthy of being called a place of higher education. It is a demand for a university that is truly engaged in the world and that is a truly engaging place to work and teach and learn.

In other words, TSSU and CUPE’s struggle is a struggle that concerns every member of the SFU community and we should all, wholeheartedly, support and engage in this struggle.

Signed,

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Posted in Advocacy, Employment rights, Faculty, Organizing, Solidarity, Strikes, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Student Movement, Students, Unions, Working conditions

Tagged Faculty, Strikes & Labor Disputes, Students, Unions, Working conditions

Category Archives: Advocacy

#IdleNoMore Teach-in at UBC on Friday (February 1)

Idle No More Teach-in
First Nations House of Learning
University of British Columbia

First Nations Longhouse
Friday, Feb. 1, 2013
1pm-3pm

#IdleNoMore Demonstration at UBC on Thursday (January 31)

Idle No More Demonstration at the University of British Columbia
Thursday, January 31
10:30am – 5pm
meet in front of UBC’s Museum of Anthropology
for a march to the Student Union Building

12:00 to 4:30 Meeting in front of the SUB between Brock Hall and the Goddess of Democracy Statue

#IdleNoMore World Day of Action

“Premier’s plan is flawed:” BCTF responds to plan to undermine bargaining

Premier’s plan for 10-year deal ignores court rulings, again

Mi’kmaq students stage #IdleNoMore rally at CBU

Judith Sayers on #IdleNoMore: ‘A real need to join the people’

Students and young people behind #IdleNoMore