Indigenous

An agreement in principle has been reached regarding land in Oka, Quebec that was claimed by the Mohawk community of Kanesatake.

On Monday morning, the citizens of Batchewana First Nation gave their support to have a blockade initiated on the rail line that passes through their land.

Located in northern Ontario, the Batchewana Nation is blocking trains running between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

The federal and Ontario governments have agreed to give the province's First Nations point-of-sale exemption from the blended sales tax that begins July 1.

Starting this morning and running til Saturday, thousands of aboriginal residential school survivors are meeting in Winnipeg for the first national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The gathering is a follow-up to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement reached in 2006. The agreement gave roughly 80,000 former students about $1.9 billion in compensation, and it also set up the Commission as a forum for their stories to be heard and recorded.

The online magazine Intercontinental Cry reports that Innu communities are blocking access to two mining projects in northeastern Quebec and western Labrador.

As of Monday, June 14, roughly 100 Innu from the communities of Matimekush-Lac John and Uashat mak Mani-Utenam are attending the blockade, which officially began on Friday, June 11. The two mines are being proposed by New Millennium Capital and Labrador Iron Mines Holdings.

Last Tuesday afternoon, demonstrators concerned with the policing of their community blockaded the road to Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) First Nation. Grassy Narrows residents say that some calls to the Treaty Three police are never responded to, and that when police do respond, intimidation and mistreatment can occur.  It can take up to half a day for the police to respond to an emergency call.

On Monday, six women peacefully occupied the office of Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, refusing to leave until he restored funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. RCMP officers arrested the women after 45 minutes.

Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, of the Montreal-based grassroots group Missing Justice, was one of the women arrested.

March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In recent years however, the day has been appropriated by white supremacist groups as a date to hold White Pride World Wide day.

On March 21 in Vancouver, 300 anti-racist activists crashed a white supremacist rally that was intended to begin at a train station. The anti-racist protesters claimed victory after the expected neo-Nazi march failed to materialize.

March 8, International Women's Day, saw hundreds of events and around the world where women took to the streets to demand justice. International Women's Day is an event that emerged from women's struggles for better working conditions and for the vote in the early 20th century.

After the death of a native hunter in Labrador last fall, Quebec's Innu leaders are threatening court action and barricades to disrupt economic development in the region to assert their ancestral hunting rights. Yesterday, Innu from five Quebec communities said that they are willing to block every development project in northern Quebec and Labrador until all of their rights, including the caribou hu

On Saturday, February 13, members of the Katzie First Nation and supporters took part in blocking the Golden Ears Bridge spanning the Frazer River between Pitt Meadows and Langley, British Columbia.

Construction of the bridge desecrated a 3000 year old burial ground. It’s massive pilings in the river disrupt currents, and the ability of local Katzie fishers to fish.