Sunday, May 27, 2007
Canada's Final Solution
For those who've been in a media-induced stupor for the last ten years, it might come as a shock that First Nations north of the 49th parallel have called for a national day of blockade of Canada's major transportation corridors on June 29. For those who are accustomed to framing relationships between nations and states, original peoples and settlers -- worldwide -- in terms of US treaties with Native American tribes, the situation in Canada is bound to seem puzzling. But for those who are aware that many First Nations have no treaty with the Canadian state, and thus retain unencumbered rights of sovereignty over their lands and resources under Canadian law, it will come as no surprise that Canada has repeatedly chosen to resort to armed violence against them in order to assure unlawful access to these resources by the ecologically destructive corporations rebuffed by the lawful owners and caretakers of these lands.
As the Cree, Haudenosaunee, and Salish rise up against Canada's infamous final solution for their cultural extermination, it should come as no great shock that the indigenous peoples and their supporters throughout the rest of North America will heed the call to conference, feast, and mourn the losses they've endured in the 500-year age of destruction.
As a call to both celebrate life and fight to protect it, how can we respond otherwise?
As the Cree, Haudenosaunee, and Salish rise up against Canada's infamous final solution for their cultural extermination, it should come as no great shock that the indigenous peoples and their supporters throughout the rest of North America will heed the call to conference, feast, and mourn the losses they've endured in the 500-year age of destruction.
As a call to both celebrate life and fight to protect it, how can we respond otherwise?
