An open letter to environmentalists

I'm voting NDP, of course. I am very annoyed with the politicking on the carbon tax by the NDP leadership, but I am also convinced none of our provincial parties have any actual plans to aggressively overturn our carbon economy to a green economy.

The BC Libs are destroying rivers and habitat at an alarming and frightening pace, whereas the Green Party is practically a protest party but without any policy other than bleeding off votes from the other major political parties (the Washington Generals of politics, if you will).

The NDP will be better for the environment than the BC Libs, but it being so intent on dismantling the carbon tax while installing what on analysis by serious environmentalists seems to be a half-assed cap and trade system (the fast ferries of cap and trade programs) that one can't help feeling worried and frustrated by the NDP's major fumbling of this policy.

But unlike the BC Libs, the NDP is susceptible to public pressure. Keep it up, environmentalists. Give Carole James hell until she backs off from the NDP's premature plan to scrap the carbon tax. If she doesn't, then she deserves to lose green support. It'll hopefully learn her to play politics with an issue that's simply too important for politicians to take for granted. She honestly undervalued environmentalists' support, and pledged to policy without actually seeking input from important and renowned figures in this field of study. The NDP leadership seriously need to reevaluate this policy.

At least with the NDP, however, we will see a stop to the firesale of our public properties, lands, and rivers to foreign multinational companies. That'll be a huge victory for BCers. Do not underestimate the impact of saving our lands and rivers from the ravages of Gordon Campbell's 'free marketeering' friends. It is not a value in the millions, or billions, or trillions. We're talking about multi-generations of trillions of dollar value. The damage the BC Libs have committed to our BC's environment is unfathomable, and the predatory corporate behavior Campbell released into BC to ravage the earth needs to be collared and put to sleep.

But believe it or not, my local NDP candidate Steve Gunner ain't getting my vote because of the environment. It's barely even a consideration to me.

Now I know, yes, the environment is absolutely important, and we all need to make our sacrifices now so we don't all lose most of everything later on. But I consider the idea of climate change to be a bigger issue than something politics can solve on its own.

We will not save the world without breaking the oil oligarchy, and dismantling the military industrial complex. Both ideas are currently radical in the extreme, and absolute poison to politicians who have none of the required confidence to lead on either issue. But both stand in the way of the revolutionary change needed to go from a carbon economy to a green economy.

At any rate, I ain't voting NDP because of the environment. I'm voting NDP because of social-welfare. But before I get to that, I wanna speak my mind about environmentalists.

Now I don't know Mark Jaccard or David Suzuki, or any of these famous BC local environmentalists. I don't know their histories, or barely anything about them. But I do know one thing about them. They're trying to wag the dog grabbing its tail.

Let me tell something else about what I think of environmentalists. While I respect them, I also somewhat resent them, and, to be completely honest, if they cost the NDP the election here in BC, I'll resent all the more (if not outright hate them). I honestly wish Jaccard and Suzuki launched their criticisms toward the NDP long before or shortly after the election rather than during it. Criticizing the NDP right now is not an act that will engender people toward your own views. Rather than gaining support from regular people, environmentalists will see their comments polarized. An election is a partisan storm. Whatever your own opinion, if you state it aloud in a public arena during an election, it will be amplified to the extreme.

And yes, I know I'm contradicting my comment above about these people holding James' feet to the fire. But that's because I'm a firm believer in if you're going to test the water, then you mights as well take a plunge. Or in other words, don't do anything half-assedly. Or in words reflecting this matter, if you're going to throw yourself into the nasty political scrum, don't whine and cry when you get bitten in the groin by the other players, which is what Suzuki and Jaccard are doing now that Dippers are going all out against them in a political war. They chose this fight, and they deserve whatever low blows they receive from affronted Dippers and Dipper supporters. And yes, environmentalists, we Dippers are righteously pissed off with you one-issue activists. My own anger is seething. I care for the environment too, but I also care about poverty and all the inequalities such creates. In fact, I care as much for one as I do the other, and if I have to witness the NDP's plans to tackle poverty go down the toilet because you one-issue ponies must absolutely have your own way, and damned be the consequences, then I am afraid we are enemies.

Yes, you read that right. I can't speak for other Dippers, but cross us on poverty in favor of the environment when we're also trying to deal with crime and racism and trade and disasters and whatever else comes down onto our heads, and then you'll be witness to a man getting pissed off.

Why do I utter such declarations? Let me tell you.

I'm dirt poor. Despite the fact that we breath the same air, walk upon the same earth, and drink the same water, we live in completely different worlds.

Environmentalists can afford to worry about one thing. I ain't got that luxury. I don't have nothing but the clothes I wear, and my ID just in case the coppers want to stop me when I have to walk to town for work cause nobody I know has got the gas to make to town and back, and lacks the dollars to procure anymore of that commodity known as gasoline.

The only thing I have to spend these days is time, and that's only because I'm young. But I ain't young as I used to be. I used to have such fancy ideas such as getting a degree. But failure after failure, and with only twelve credits to my name nine years later, the feeling I'll never escape poverty through a decent middle class job begins to wear itself a groove in my soul.

I am desperate for the NDP to get into power. Not because I believe the NDP will solve poverty, but because an NDP government will give us poor folks a bit of breathing room. We'll get an extra foothold or two to escape this other world of which you're seemingly ignorant.

And it is a whole other world. In my world, nobody calls their self an environmentalist. Nobody.

The environment is not even a concern of us poor. Getting food on the table. Getting gas into the car is. Getting to work is. Getting the kids to school is. Saving the Earth is not, whereas doing what we can for the Earth is.

Consider the title of environmentalist, too. Such a damned long title. Full of self-importance. Brings to mind the moving picture of a scientist from the city coming down to the town to sneer at all the folks going about their lives, and then having the gall to lecture us on how we should all be making sacrifices to help save the environment, like paying a new god-damned tax.

"But we're already paying god-damned taxes!" we say. "We're paying gst, pst, income tax, and they're even taking taxes out of my pay cheques! And that's not even taking into account bank fees, the hydro, phone, cable, and internet bill, and all the god-damned loans I've to taken out to cover all that. I'm paying more than I actually earn, and the bills keep getting higher and higher, and the interest just keeps adding up. Just where in the hell am I going to get the money for a new god-damned tax? Why don't they just use some of that tax money I've already paid to 'invest in new technologies'? I'm drowning in dept! Why ain't you talking about how unfair lenders are to us poor people? Why ain't you talking about how the government takes all this money, and spends it on corporations, and cuts back on education and health and welfare? Why do we have to care about the environment, when you don't even care about us? Our money is important, but you won't risk your reputation to help us at all?"

You know what? I'm angry, and I'm out.

Edit: Completely forgot to mention this was a response to a ScruffyDan post.

The BC election, and the environment

I left a comment over at ScruffyDan's expressing my dissatisfaction with the BC NDP's politicking of the carbon tax. I also expressed my anger at the BC Lib's complete and utter inaction besides the carbon tax on the environmental file.

However, I surprised myself. I pulled out some rather bleak thoughts - the sort that float below the surface of your mind - and was faced with an utterly devastating observation of the politics of environmental reform.

Every major progressive political party is approaching climate change far too conservatively: the Libs, the Dippers, the Greens. Doesn't matter which party. None of them are actually speaking of the absolutely necessary changes we all need to make to bring our carbon footprint down. All speak reform, and put on a political show titled carbon tax this, and cap and trade that.

However, reform can also be called compromise, and we can no longer afford compromise. We're broke.

We no longer have centuries before we witness the next dramatic shift in climate change. It's become decades. It will be within my lifetime that the Earth's climate will dramatically shift for the worse, and while the Earth's climate will someday return to the mild levels such as we had witnessed throughout our history, it becomes more and more likely that we humans will not survive to see such, as we're talking thousands, and possibly tens of thousands of years of renewal.

Such a bleak future demands dramatic action. We're not going to witness this change with the idea of reform in our hearts and minds. The pols and the bosses have too much invested in the carbon economy. They will resort to using every dirty trick that's brought them success in every previous mass struggle that's seen them remain on top.

We can't choose the bosses, but we can choose the pols. But even so, they still get caught up in the damn politics. So when they forget their duty, it's our duty to give them hell.

It's revolution we must keep in our hearts and minds. (A Creative Revolution, of course!)

Now, please don't confuse social upheaval with revolution. What I'm talking about is the dramatic change from a carbon economy to a truly green economy. Social upheaval is what we'll get if we don't revolutionize our technology and living habits.

So for those of us living here in BC, there's an election going on. It's not simply our duty to vote. We also need to protest (It's a nice coincidence that May Day is during the election.)

Anyway, let's give the pols hell. Playing politics with the environment, with our very future on the line, is a damned disservice to us all.

Whoops, how'd this get published?

Pretty damn sure I saved it as a draft.

Ah well, I'll blockquote it, and leave it up, despite its unpolished quality, and lack of wrap up.

I'm Secwepmec, which is the people better know as the Shuwsap. To listen to the kids from Attawapiskat tell their stories is as though I could be listening to my own little cousins and siblings.

This crisis up north wears my heart out. I fear I'm losing my faith in Canada. Never have I had much, but it is torn from the indifference I sense from the government and the powerlessness I feel within.

I would try to grasp at the problem, however in observation one sees that this crisis is a symptom of diseases that ravage the very being of whatever democracy Canada has earned through its own peoples' longtime struggles.

The disease is institutional racism. It is a strain from the family of diseases called capitalist paternalistic imperialism.

INAC, which we still lovingly call DIA, is not an organization for the benefit of First Nations but as something nebulous. A systematically designed bureaucratic labyrinth created to enforce the state's interests, which over the generations of European rule of First Nations has always been the interests of the already rich and powerful, whether nobility or merchant. It is a systematically designed bureaucratic labyrinth created to stymie and foil whatever gains First Nations may work to attain, which include both ideas that do not advance the state's interests, and programs that would by their very existence antagonize business interests by empowering First Nations, which is completely counter to the state and corporate interests that ran rampant over First Nations' rights.

A School for Attawapiskat

This has been an ongoing battle for the kids of Attawapiskat, which Cam has been doggedly following.

Here's a video for everyone to share. Blog it. Email it. Share it.




Join the blogburst. Join the protest. Join the struggle.

Gary Mason attempts to sow doubt

It's not such a choice for BCers, Mr Mason.

Actually, Mr Mason, before anything else.... Why is your opinion in the Sports section?

Anyway, Mr Mason, there is a bit of annoyance among us NDP supporters who also want better environmental policies from the provincial government. Mme James stating the BC NDP will scrap the carbon tax seems a bit of unnecessary political theatre.

However, I should probably allow you in on a secret. We aren't feeling betrayed. Where do you find such sentiment within criticisms of the politics? Honestly, I can't be entirely certain, considering I see nothing of the sort.

Let's get honest here, Mr Mason. The BC Libs have done nothing else on the environmental file other than the carbon tax. That's the absolute truth. If the tax isn't noticed, and isn't used to fund environmental projects, then does it really exist?

Sometimes, Mr Mason, it's not the policy, it's the government. We will have to see who wins this next election, and then we will have to see if the government follows through on its green promises. Should the NDP win, and commit to inaction and mere posturing toward the environment as have the BC Liberals have done this past decade, then we will feel betrayed. Otherwise, it's merely scrutiny of a platform that exists only as a document.

The BC carbon tax

Here is The Hook article on Carole James promising to undo Gordon Campbell's carbon tax in the BC NDP election platform for next month's provincial election. Personally, despite being a member of the NDP, I'm completely ambivalent about the tax, as I'm hardly an NDP partisan. I could care less about it, as I've never really noticed it. On the other hand, exactly what have the BC Libs ever done with our share of these tax dollars? Haven't really heard anything in the news. Gregor Robinson's doing something in Slamcouver with electric cars, but is that a part of these green loonies? All this hullabaloo, and we've got... what? Two electric cars with it all?

Call me cynical. Call me uninspired. Call me Troy, but I'm feeling this is all just a really incredibly stupid political football, which has a lot of air let out of it. The BC Libs have done nothing on the environmental file besides this carbon tax, and it's all rather obvious that now it was merely a political tool designed to appeal to environmental noobs. The NDP want to scrap it in favour of... what, exactly? Cap and trade? (or is that only the federal NDP?) I'm all for it. But still, carbon tax? I'm all for it.

It doesn't matter what's in place at this point. There are many who've become fatalistic about our environmental future - I'm not yet one, but we've past an important tipping point when it comes to climate devestation. Generations to come will not know the rather stable environment generations past have known. It will become within my lifetime a world of severe and climatic change and devestation.
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It doesn't matter what's in place at this point. As the BC Libs are more than ably proving is without actual leadership on climate devestation, nothing but posturing is done, even if the idea is sound.

What I'm looking for from the BC NDP is actual leadership. I'd rather not Mme James play around with this issue as though it were a piece on a political board game. I don't care if the tax is axed. I care if something is done. Something substantional. Something that everyone can see. Something that's needed doing since scientists and activists first raised this challenge facing humanity as a major cause for concern.

I am and am not a Canadian, but I am Secwepmectsin

On March 27th, I did up a post called The Cons are simply racist. I got a response, which is here. I wanted to respond to it directly, but my thoughts twisted and turned about, leaving me a bit lost.

I wish to wander about in my thoughts, and was thinking perhaps some of you all might want to come along for the walk.

I'll start in my memories. We'll begin at the Trans-Canada, at the entrance to my reserve.

---

My hometown I.R. #3. Standing at the mouth of the reserve, we're looking down the old dirt road. We can see quite a ways, but it turns gently rightward. More so than the road, however, we see potholes. Deep, deep potholes. It's my own belief that there have been cars lost in them. The highways department grades the road every spring, but the potholes are ancient, having existed before time began, and so return the very next day, simply waiting.

Now before we actually start walking, let's have a show of hands. How many of you people have ever been on a reserve before? You may experience a bit of culture shock, but I can't guarantee that. Many things are the same, but things are also different. It's difficult to state what exactly, but you'll probably notice the small details.

Behind us, across the highway, we see a funeral home, and a towing company. Where the funeral home is, there used to be a fruit stand. When I was seven, I used to buy cigarettes from there, uh, for my mom (they weren't for me at all).

Anyway, let's return to the rez itself. Right away, there's two small, two bedroom houses. They're both over fifty years old. There's about seven or eight houses that age on the rez. There used to be more, but they were torn down due to being crappy houses. Right from the beginning, they were poorly built buildings. The carpenter that built them cheaped out on the materials, and pocketed the difference. The band was never able to get the money back on those houses. People still live in them though, condemned as the buildings (and us Secwepmec, it would seem) are. It's that, or live in tents, or leave the reserve entirely and disappear into the cities. And it's likely those tiny two bedroom houses are overcrowded as well, with two people per bedroom, and three in the living room.

Anyway, let's leave these houses behind. We've still got a ways to go.

Past the houses are empty fields. It seems strange to have these fields here, and it's doubly odd that there's no development happening on them, I suppose is what some of you might be wondering. All that space, and nothing.

Well, there's a story there too. Let me take you all back to the mid-eighties. We used to have a potato, cabbage, and corn field here on the left side, and if you stare across the field on the right, you'll see way on the other side an old greenhouse. We had managed to get a grant to develop all this farmland, but we weren't able to break into the market, being shut out by the rich farmers in the area. The funding dried up, as did our interest.

Moving along. We come upon a bit of forest, which now that I think about it, should probably be spaced out, as the underbrush is rather thick. I remember when I was small, and troubled, and walking after dark, I was always afraid of bears coming from that forest.

Now we've come upon the A-Frame, which as the names suggests is an a-frame building. It used to be the reserve band office, but there'd be years when there was nobody working in it, as the main band office is over in Chase. Right beside the A-Frame is where the Log Building used to be. It was used as a meeting place. I remember for a few years, we used to have bible readings there, but attendance was always minimal, especially after we started having bingo on the same night up on the other reserve. I do remember those Christians scared the wits right out of me when they described Hell, and the Apocalypse. I was only eight or nine years old, and I spent the whole night crying thinking the world would end. A week had passed, and the world was still turning, and I never saw any sign of either gods or devils, and I honestly became an atheist right then because of that experience.

Behind the A-Frame and Log Building was the Root Cellar. We kept our potatoes and corn, as well as the farm equipment and machinery, there. My friend (the only other kid my age on the rez) and I used to play around in there, despite the stories my parents would tell us about the Potato Rats, which were apparently the size of greyhounds. Never saw any, although I did look out for them.

Right across from the log building is where my old home had stood. Mind waiting a moment?

We Secwepmectsin believe homes have a soul or spirit. That old house of mine wasn't a happy spirit, although it wasn't terribly unhappy either. Perhaps it was a tad on the optimistic side despite having been built on the cheap. It was a tiny little thing. Two bedrooms, with two people per room, with three in the living room. There were three beds in the entire house. We had an uneasy and even adversarial relationship with the mice though, with which we were waging a long fought war of attrition, which, in hindsight, I think we were losing, as the mice had allied with the termites, and had also built up a huge stock of dog food, which they had used to replace all of the insulation in the entire house. The mice were in it for the long haul, while we were only surviving on food from week to week.

There used to be a parked truck near the root cellar, which me and the other kids on the rez used to play around. All of my cousins were older than me, so they knew a lot which they used to share with me, such as it was possible to get high sniffing gas.

I know. Shocking. Native kids sniffing gas. Oh, how horrid.

We sniffed right up until the point one of us went into a state of.... Don't even know what to call it. The kid wasn't right in the head at all. We all thought the kid would never be the same, and the kid never was the same, although s/hey did recover his/her senses eventually, much to our relief, since we never had to tell our parents. Although in hindsight, that was probably a mistake. Although in hindsight, with the rampant alcoholism on the rez, I'm not sure if anyone would've actually listened to us then. That's when I myself stopped sniffing, though. I was simply too scared of what happened to that kid to continue. Reflecting, I sniffed gas because it was a relief. I never saw it as a solution, but as a way to lift the troubles in my soul and mind. Even back then, I knew life was tough, although I couldn't understand many of the complexities. Still don't, although now I do understand all problems revolve around capital and poverty, as having the former allows you participation in whatever pittance of democracy exists, while being poor damns you into obscurity.

Where my old house used to be, the burr bushes and stinging thistles now stand tall. It's almost symbolic. A representation of the old, which is gone.

The new is right next door. Not my home, of course, but it's one of the new houses bands have been building for their residents, which is basically the same design for every house on the reserve. There's some cosmetic changes from house to house, but otherwise, they're basically all the same on the inside.

Lemme tell you bout the new houses. They're okay. They're definitely worth whatever was paid for them. Seems they'll last for some time. What's odd though is how even these houses, with four or five rooms each, are still overcrowded. Or maybe not. My own home has my parents, my siblings, and their kids. Three generations worth of family in one house. We also take in other kids, usually kids of relatives in the big city who for whatever reason are unable to look after their own children.

Perhaps a few of you are wondering why us siblings simply don't move out then. Let me tell you the reason. We have moved out, each of us, at one time or another. We've had jobs in the city, worked our butts off, but have always returned home. We've always been defeated in our return.

To escape poverty is an incredibly difficult task. You have to work to exhaustion. You have to stay focused. You have to remain disciplined. You must always keep a little extra patience stored away for the days when you're short of it.

To leave the reserve is to escape poverty. You're chained to the perception of the bosses who would hire you. You're a slave to the rent and bills. Food is a luxury for those who make more than minimum wage.

Have you ever seen a spider in a steel sink? It'll run up the side, reach a certain point, and then slide back down. Again, and again.

But we're not spiders. Eventually, perhaps after the second or third time, we stop trying to climb the sink. We all are too capable of recognizing futility. So we remain on the reserve, providing an all too important unemployed mercenary army for the local seasonal jobs: apple/fruit picking, firefighting, logging, and so on, and so on.

Let's leave this topic. Let's leave these houses behind. We've got a walk ahead of us.

Maybe on the reserve, we've got a dozen houses, with maybe two or three dozen on the Chase reserves. But we have maybe four hundred band members. There's something wrong with that, as in we don't have enough houses.

Our walk has taken us past the houses, and we're walking past fields and forests. All undeveloped, although some of the fields are used for hay for local farmers.

But we're coming upon the railway. The railway has used up a lot of lives. People I know, and people I love have died on those tracks. Do they lay on the tracks, and wait for tonnes of steel to end it all? I don't know.

I used to lay rocks on the tracks, in long, long lines, and then take off running. The sound of the rocks being crushed under the wheels could be heard miles away. They had an engineer come into my elementary school after a whole summer of doing that. We were told not to place things onto the tracks, especially not pennies and rocks. I never put a penny onto the tracks. What a waste of money that would've been, in all honesty.

You know, that railway is on native land? We actually never gave permission for CP Rail to build on our land, but still the rails are there. We've never taken any money from CP Rail. They did offer some, some few years ago, but many felt it was a pittance of an amount and an insult, and so we rejected it. What is the worth of our land, split into two, such as it is? Were it whole, and not cleft apart as it is, what could we develop? If we were not trapped between the highway and the railway, how far could we spread our wings?

Our last stop is the graveyard, literally, and even metaphorically. Lots of good people up in there. A few bad people there too. All are gone. Many from disease. Many from alcohol. And far too many from suicide. Weeds grow in much abundance, as we have no one to constantly care for the grounds. The ground is mostly clay, which proves a huge difficulty in digging new graves. There are many forgotten graves back where the trees are now growing tall. Those graves are from the days of smallpox and the flu, when there were so many deaths that entire families were buried together. So many names lost to history, and the most these forgotten people ask is to be left alone. The forgotten graves stretch so far back into the forest that they built part of the highway over top of them when they drove that monstrous thing through our reserve (again, without our permission). It too uses up a lot of lives, but in a different manner than the railway – there's a fatal accident on that stretch of highway every couple of years or so, especially around that blind corner at the rock bluff, right after that straight stretch. (Slow down, people! And don't drink and drive.)

Anyway, such is my home. I think I got most of everything in here. Missed out on the new Health Centre, but it's just a new band office, but without any mice.

Let's return to the highway. As we're going there, I'll think aloud for a bit.

---

If this were a story of hardship and triumph, we'd have something to show for our generations of poverty and powerlessness From all our decades of adversity, we'd be standing tall and proud with the very solution to all our problems within our hands, held tightly and confidently. Tomorrow, we'd....

Well, in all honesty, tomorrow will remain the same as today, but we may be a bit more positive than negative, or a bit more pragmatic than foolish, or whatever. It may be raining sunshine, or pouring rain, but not much will change.

We will still be struggling, just hoping to get to the day's end with a bit of good news or a funny story to share around the dinner table.

We're all still searching for something better, although we're not quite certain what that is. Living from cheque to cheque doesn't provide much time for observation.

Trapped on this old self-administered concentration camp called a reserve, we've come to view the world as openly hostile. Whatever the Charter of Rights may bestow within a court of law does not apply to politicians hoping for a little success appealing to the very most ignorant of human emotions by declaring they would rollback any progress in regards to First Nations rights via referendum, or by championing the 'opening up' of native lands to corporations as a small political favour to their friends however so much the current occupants of said land object to such treatment. We cannot help but be witness to the governments declaring our own governments as corrupt, and then installing their own choices to soften our protests to whomever we'd appeal.

Should we choose the court of law, considering we're far too poor for any protracted action, we're all too often beset by forced delays, the government's lawyers using many legal tricks to keep any case before a judge from advancing.

And to appeal to the general public is to witness our pleas for understanding and collective action drowned out by the cacophony of the everyday news, and to be regulated to page 17, opposite the ads for strip clubs and adult video stores.

Am I to somehow reconcile my bitterness of hearing of stories of police dumping drunk natives in allies where later on the poor man dies of hyperthermia (and the coppers face as the worst punishment a slap on the wrist), with a vision of Canada that I have never actually observed to really exist?

Whether I offend or shock or startle you with my next pronouncement, I cannot be certain of your reaction, but I must state it loudly and clearly. A Canada in which I am a citizen of equal standing with somebody who is white does not exist (although there are plenty of white people who are equal to me when considering such in reverse).

That Canada, in which all are truly equal, whether in political power or in the court of law, seems a faint pipe-dream that I should not dare envision.

But I do dare, much to my own self-inflicted disappointment.

I admit that I consider myself a Canadian, but such an admission is painful and frustrating, as like redressing a wound over my injured heart.

Anyway, I thank you for coming along with me. Perhaps we'll travel this highway together, and find that Canada somewhere down the road, eh?

Crossposted at A Creative Revolution

Don't worry! The CSIS is on the case!

Actually, it's probably the CSIS involvement that has you worrying.

Here's a short G&M story on how important information used from a torture interrogation actually was.

The victim was tortured into providing false information that was used by the CSIS, and which later mutated into creating another victim of torture: Maher Arar.

It's a rather sad and pathetic affair which the CSIS has made for itself.

A tale of sound and fury

Chrysler gets a huge dose of reality.

After months of trying to force the CAW (and also Canada) onto a barrel, Chrysler is given an unexpected shot to the ribs from a brawler they never considered: the US president.

It was rather obvious to most observers that Chrysler has been running on fumes these past few months. After receiving a pittance of a bailout compared to what it had asked of the Bush administration, Chrysler's future was very doubtful. However, only Chrysler was unable to notice its own very precarious position.

It had sought to beat the union, and force out of Canada three billion dollars, otherwise it would leave Canada. However, much to the Canadian government's credit, it waited for the American government to make its own decision regarding Chrysler, as ultimately, irregardless of whatever Canada had done, Chrysler's destiny was always the American administration's decision.

Again, for those who've been living under a rock with their ears covered, and their eyes blinded by perpetual darkness, Chrysler had been given thirty days to partner with Fiat, or else it would be forced into bankruptcy.

What happens now is now the subject of speculation and educated guesses. And we, the powerless, are again left to our own destinies in this ruthless game of the powerful.

It's always refreshing to read the London newspapers

You get actual reporting, is what I mean.

One of my complaints of the American and Canadian news organizations is they zone is on a single issue. By this time tomorrow, the North American papers will have singled out the poor man who died, and we will probably all know his name, date of birth, blood type, and which way it hung. He'll have become a symbol, depending on whether he was a protester, or a banker, or somebody caught in between the police and the crowds. He could even become a martyr for the sake of capitalism... but again, depending.

Or not. Perhaps by this time tomorrow, there'll be another shiny thing for the North American reporters to focus upon, and then chase after like dogs in heat.

Blockade on Unceded Secwepemc Territory between Chase & Kamloops

I lifted this from The Dominion (I love five fingered discounts).

Sheesh. It's my own band, and I didn't know a thing. I'll try making it that way by this weekend.

I think it's near Hoffman's Bluff. But I don't know where that is. But I do know where Pritchard is. It's that bridge leading to a trailer park town right across the river.

Blockade on Unceded Secwepemc Territory between Chase & Kamloops

[[Update]]

Wednedsay April 1, 11 am UPDATE:

The blockade itself has been postponed to a later time based on spiritual guidance and advice. A continuous camp presence, however, is currently being maintained and ceremonies for protection and guidance are being conducted. Police helicopters are circling above and RCMP is around the area.

[[Reposting]]

NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT
APRIL 1ST, 2009

Unceded Secwepemc Territory, between Kamloops and Chase, bc, kkkanada

KKKANADA--STOP THE NEW WESTWARD EXPANSION

THE GENOCIDE CONTINUES WITH THE DESECRATION OF OUR ANCIENT SECWEPEMC BURIAL AND VILLAGE SITES FOR HIGHWAY & RAILWAY EXPANSION

The Secwepemc Peoples and their allies will be conducting a roadblock today to demand the halt of the Trans Canada Highway and Canadian Pacific Railway expansion through the highway corridor along the South Thompson River and Shuswap Lakes. The expansion of these two major federal and provincial transportation systems has been involved in the desecration of our ancestral burial and village sites, as well as, the continued genocide of our Peoples.

We, as Indigenous Peoples, have the right to have the spirits of our ancestors rest in peace in their original resting place. We will not give up our principles and values for the benefits of a highway or railway. The desecration to our graves and burial sites is considered a hate crime against humanity and a violation of our Indigenous and human rights.

The picture goes much deeper than this however, since kkkanada and the province of british Columbia have no legal authority to be making decisions about our Secwepemc Territory and giving permission to the CP Railway and Trans Canada Hwy to expand onto unceded Secwepemc lands. The Secwepemc Peoples still remain a distinct Nation and hold there ground to defend their rights and title to these lands.

The new westward expansion of highways, railways, pipelines and fibre optic lines all go through Indian Territories and Reserves, these infrastructures are all used for the benefit of the continued invasion and theft of our last remaining lands, water and “resources.” The transportation system in the past was used to colonize the west and now our lands have become the new frontier for the new age of development: mining, tourism, logging, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, the Tar Sands, these are all the elite that will benefit from the transportation route expansion, while the Indigenous Peoples are being threatened once again.

The Canadian Pacific Railway, known as CP Rail, is mainly a freight railway now, was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP company became one of the largest and most powerful in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. CP Rails network stretches from Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United States such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City.

The Trans Canada Highway system was approved by the Trans-Canada Highway Act of 1948, construction commenced in 1950, officially opened in 1962, and was completed in 1971. This federal-provincial highway system joins all ten provinces of Canada.

WE have never given permission to Canada, nor BC to build this highway or railway through our lands, it has actually cut our access to our sacred water and forcibly removed out Peoples from our traditional village sites and kekuli’s (underground homes), which are forms of Genocide.

The ancestors remains found by a team of archaeologists have been dated back 7,500 years and the Secwepemc woman was found holding a traditional root digging stick, surrounded by Secwepemc artifacts and ceremonial items. Since contact there has been into the tens of thousands of artifacts and remains found and now are in the hands of museums all over the world.

The Secwepemc have conducted ceremonies at the site and the Sacred fire has been lit and the protection of the site is under vigilance.

STOP THE DESTRUCTION AND THEFTT OF OUR LANDS AND SACRED BURIAL SITES. OUR SECWEPEMC ANCESTORS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR. WE WOULD NEVER DIG UP SOMEONE ELSES GRAVE OR CEMETARY AND IT WOULD NEVER BE TOLERATED, WELL WHY SHOULD WE BE THE ONES TO ALWAYS BOW DOWN AND PUSH OUR PRINCIPLES ASIDE FOR THE BENEFITS OF OTHERS, WHEN THIS IS OUR HOMELAND.

CANADA WILL NOT GET OUR PERMISSION TO DESTROY OUR SACRED SITES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE ELITE GREEDY FOR MONEY.

Contact on site: Miranda (250) 256-1548
(250) 679-7663

NYM Communications
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
FIGHT FOR LIFE & FREEDOM
WARRIORS UNITE FROM ALASKA TO ARGENTINA

[[Reposting press statement]]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- POST WIDELY

MEDIA ADVISORY

SECWEPEMC TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT THEIR ANCIENT BURIAL & VILLAGE
SITES

CP Rail and Trans Canada Highway expansion desecrates our Secwepemc burial
sites

When: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 10:30 am
What: Secwepemc Peoples and their allies will be conducting a roadblock to demand the halt of the Trans Canada Highwayand Canadian Pacific Railway expansion.

Where: unceded Secwepemc Territory, in between Kamloops and Chase, BC, near Pritchard, BC (about 3 km from Pritchard)

Look for cars, signs and tent. Coming from Kamloops will be in the right hand side before Pritchard and coming from Chase is on the left
after Pritchard, BC.

Demands: To halt the expansion of the Trans Canada Highway and CP Railway along this highway corridor bordering the South Thompson River and Shuswap Lake because this is the home to thousands of ancient burial and village sites that must be protected.

Background: Secwpemc ancestral remains of a Secwepemc woman (dated back 7,500 years) were found by a team of archaeologist at a site that is being threatened by CP Rail and Trans Canada Highway
expansion.

On Wednesday, March 25, 2009 a meeting was held at Neskonlith Hall.

On Sunday March 29, 2009 it was determined the remains were going to be placed back where they were found. A ceremony at the site was done and the Sacred fire has been lit and the protection of the site is under vigilance.

This is one of thousands of remains and artefacts that have been found by settlers and archeologists along this highway and railway corridor and valley, where Secwepemc Peoples have never given authority or permission to the Canadiain and BC government to build the highway or railway, both in the past and present. The desecration must stop.

Protection of the sacred burial sites is the priority here.

This site lies within unceded, unsurrendered Secwepemc Territory, where the Secwepemc Peoples of the Shuswap Lakes refuse to enter into the current BC Treaty Process for a land settlement because of the fraudulent extinguishment of Secwepemc lands and title.

Instead Secwepemc Peoples choose to assert Secwepemc title and rights to the land and challenge the governments’ authority over the land and
resources while working on many international levels to bring attention to this.

“We will never go dig up the cemeteries in the village of Chase or
Kamloops, it would be considered a hate crime against humanity. We expect the same respect.”

Media Contact:
Miranda Dick (250) 256 1548
(250) 679-7663

NYM Communications
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
FIGHT FOR LIFE
WARRIORS UNITE FROM ALASKA TO ARGENTINA

Centre for Research on Inner City Health states the obvious

A group has studied the first nations of Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and come to a blindingly obvious conclusion: people in poverty can't afford to buy decent food, and so are less healthy as a result.

Anytime I see a study like this, I feel a bit cynical and bitter about it. I live on the rez, and I already know all of this, cause I can see it right in front of me happening everyday. How is it that it's only official if a university or science group does a study of us, and comes to the same conclusion we've been trying to get out as a message for generations?

Ah well, whatever. Thanks. We appreciate this. Any help we can get is truly appreciated.