ROAD Kingston

To All People Who Support Traditional Indigenous Peoples & Customary Governments: This is a Call for Support and an Update on Our Situation

We are known as the Algonquins of Barriere Lake (also known by our Algonquin name, “Mitchikanibikok Inik”) we are a First Nation community of approximately 500 people, situated in the province of Quebec, 3 hours drive north of Ottawa, Canada.

We, the Barriere Lake traditional people have always lived under our customary laws, which we have codified as our Mitchikanibikok Anishinabe Onakinakewin.(Barriere Lake Customary Governance Code). This is what our great grandparents left for us, for our children, grandchildren and the coming generations. Our responsibility is to make sure that our customary laws will always be respected and protected. Our Feast is where we give thanks for what we feed our families, the foods that come from our lands and waters. The Three String Wampum, this is where we shake hands to our Brothers and Sisters and their children and to all living things. This is where our teachings come from.

We have a big responsibility; To Protect Our Land, To Protect Our Animals, Fish and Birds. To defend our hunting way of life so our teachings and our feast, will continue to exist for our children, grandchildren and the coming generations, along with our Language and Beliefs.

Today as the traditional people of our community, we are fighting back to defend our customary laws from being violated and disrespected by individuals who no longer respect our customs, including how we govern ourselves.

We will honor what our great grandparents left us, nobody is going to take our customary laws and side with the federal government to gain money from our rights and interests.

Read the full Call for Support here.

From CBC News

Teams of heavily armed police were poised to crack down on native demonstrators who erected blockades during a day of protest in eastern Ontario in June, CBC News has learned.

CBC’s The Current obtained a series of notes handwritten by Ontario Provincial Police officers that describe how Commissioner Julian Fantino planned a morning raid of the blockades set up overnight on June 28 on Highway 401, Highway 2 and a CN Rail line in the Kingston area.

The raid ultimately did not happen, and protesters removed the blockades peacefully later in the day on June 29. Mohawk protest leader Shawn Brant surrendered to police and was charged with mischief and other offences.

But the notes, written in the early morning hours of June 29, described the situation at times as “anarchy” and said Fantino “would not/could not tolerate the 401 being closed all day.” The notes ask how long before the force would “lose credibility” over the situation.

Read the rest of this entry »

Workday at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory
Sunday, March 30

9 am, meet at the Sleepless Goat Cafe, 91 Princess St.
9:15 sharp - departure

Kingston Indigenous Solidarity Network (KISN) is organizing another day-trip to the reclaimed quarry in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, about 40 minutes west of Kingston. We will be helping to collect fire wood, perhaps rebuilding the on-site kitchen.

If you would like to join us, please contact KISN at mohawksupport (at) riseup.net

Also let us know if you can offer rides or have any specific skills that might help us plan for the day.

To learn more about the land reclamation at Tyendinaga, please see
http://ocap.ca/supporttmt.html

a couple of things about the quarry workday on sunday:

each person should bring:
-warm clothes
-work gloves and work boots (if you have them)
-a hammer (if anyone has a chainsaw that would be great)
-a lunch and liquids to drink throughout the day

in addition to bringing a lunch, those who are vegan/vegetarian may
probably want to bring either a meatless dish to contribute to dinner at
the quarry or some veggie dogs to cook over a fire.

Kingston’s only anarchist infoshop moved its materials into the OPIRG Kingston office this weekend. You can now purchase any of our materials during office hours, available on the OPIRG Kingston website. We will continue to have a presence at concerts and events, and hope to move into the bottom floor of a new local social centre this fall. For a list of materials, see Miasma’s webpage.

On March 25th at 7pm, come out to OPIRG Kingston’s Annual General Meeting to find out what we have been up to this past year, to meet the new board and more! Stick around to celebrate 15 years of research, education and action on social justice and environmental issues in Kingston!

Meet us at The Grad Club (1st floor-wheelchair accessible) at 162 Barrie St. For more information please email info[at]opirgkingston.org or call 613 533-3189 ex2. We hope to see you there!