The message below was sent out by MNN at 4:50 pm (April 25). Several updates have been added to the comments:

May 1st A report-back from the solidarity action in Vancouver, and a few videosApril 30th The OPP offensive is over now, and the blockade of Highway 6 has been taken down. Three Mohawks from Tyendinaga remain in custody. (Statements by Hazel Hill and Skyler Williams)
April 28th Update (Opp Moved in this morning, no one was hurt.) and list of (3) solidarity actions
April 28th Open Letter to Police Commissioner Julian Fantino
April 27th Release …

Following up last week’s announcement by the Canadian House of Commons which called on the Federal Government to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an announcement that had me believing pigs could fly, on Monday the (minority) government of Canada was kind enough to set the record straight.

During the first day of the OAS 11th negotiating session for the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, they reaffirmed their opposition to the UN declaration — even going so far as to say they will no longer …

“If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.”

These are the concluding remarks of a statement delivered earlier this week by the Lubicon Cree Nation at an Alberta Utilities Commission hearing in Edmonton. A Lubicon Press …

Roseau River First Nation has just started a video campaign to raise awareness about the issue of oil, poverty, land theft, and violence against indigenous People in Canada - compared to that of what happened to Iraqis when economic sanctions were imposed on them some ten years ago.

Below you will find a Press Release from Chief Terrance Nelson of Roseau River, along with the video itself. Please be advised, the video contains images of deceased persons

CA: Roseau River oil pipelines: Chief Terrance Nelson: Wake Up America!

Links to the videos
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyCeSgHbFbo
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUQqajcUCXI

Roseau River is serious …

Can pigs fly? Well you may be surprised to know one skyrocketed passed the House of Commons on Tuesday. Amazingly enough, it happened just as the House announced their support of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Courtesy of the Western Shoshone Defense Project (WSDP), here’s a joint statement on the matter (of the announcement by the House of Commons, that is)

Photo by abdallahh, modified and republished here under a Creative Commons License

UN Declaration on the Rights …

While the Canadian Government takes great care to ensure its own safety against the dangers of asbestos, you’ll probably never hear them make too big a fuss about it — what with Canada being a leading exporter of the patient killer — it just wouldn’t be economical to draw too much attention to it.

So instead they seem to be using tax-payers dollars and their own embassies to actively promote the sale and distribution of abestos to countries like India and Pakistan. On top of that, at the moment the …

Amnesty International warns that two human rights defenders, Georges Kapiamba and Prince Kumwamba, both from from Katanga, a southern province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), have received several threats related to their human rights work since the evening of April 3.

Along with other activists, Georges Kapiamba and Prince Kumwamba have been planning to visit the town of Kilwa in Katanga province, the scene of a massacre by government troops in October 2004. Amnesty explains that “the visit [is] on behalf of an Australian legal firm pursuing possible …

Well, it turns out the “media release” sent out by Rights Action on Tuesday, April Fools’ Day, was indeed a joke.

I was really hoping it wasn’t. In fact I was eager to applaud the Canadian mining company for pledging to take what would have been an near-unprecedented step… One that may very well have started a trend throughout the so-called business community.

So then, in part, I guess the Joke’s on me and anyone else who believed Goldcorp had the guts. But I don’t we’re the April Fool in this little funny. …

In a curious and surprising turn of events, Goldcorp has announced they are temporarily suspending mining operations in Honduras (the San Martin mine in the Siria Valley) and Guatemala (the Marlin mine in the Mayan territories of San Miguel Ixtahuacan and Sipakapa).

What do you think, folks, is it an April Fools’ joke? Of course, I say that tongue in cheek, but with the way Goldcorp (along with nearly every other mining company in Canada) seems to operate, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.

April 1, 2008. …

Here is a 5 minute summary of a two-day conference held last year at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. Some of the topics discussed at the conference included: Indigenous Nations and the Legal Relativity of European Claims to Territorial Sovereignty in North America; Indigenous Law and its Contribution to Global Pluralism; Aboriginal Traditions of Tolerance and Reparation; Comprehending First Nations Jurisprudence; and, Ethical Space: Transforming Relations.

Following the summary you will find a handful of the full talks, all of which are available online. Each of these are about an hour long, and you will need Real Player or …