Venezuelan Ambassador visits Six Nations

Edward Lovo

I witnessed an historic exchange between the peoples of Six Nations and the Venezuelan ambassador to Canada Wilmer Barrientos. We were warmly welcomed into the longhouse, which few outsiders have set foot in. There was some controversy about this as someone had earlier made the quip who will we invite next—the Israeli ambassador? Thankfully, we had enough of their trust. To keep their trust it was enough to exclude media, the RCMP, OPP, and CSIS, and we had the vote of confidence of a trusted community member

As one of the Six Nations spokespersons explained a profound pain of oppression breeds mistrust of outsiders. The speaker then acknowledged that the ambassador paid a visit to the Six Nations before approaching Ottawa, an unprecedented first in recognition of their land. The speaker shared some history of Six Nations with the ambassador, explaining to him the Two Row Wampum which few Canadians are familiar with.

Motherland amidst Imperialism: A Story of Indigenous Resistance and Settler Mutiny

Occupation site in August - J-l Fournier

By Siegfried Barazov

"In our opinion, the foundation for national liberation rests in the inalienable right of every people to have their own history…. It may be seen that if imperialist domination has the vital need to practice cultural oppression, national liberation is necessarily an act of culture." —Amilcar Cabral, Syracuse University speech, 1970

There are times when the power of a culture can make time stand still.  The elder of the Cree nation spoke to me of the sanctity of fire, and I, a settler on stolen land, had to struggle to find an adequate response to stories and traditions that seemed in that moment to be as old as the Ottawa river itself: born countless thousands of years before European imperialism’s chosen killers came bearing their guns, germs, and steel.  However, in meeting with this old man at the site of the occupation where the Ottawa and Gatineau rivers combine, I am happy to say that I had the knowledge and the memory to reply with the example of Beltane, the ancient Celtic fire festival from the days long before this monstrous colonial enforcement agency, referring to itself as the ‘white race’, was ever invented to stain the moral fabric of the European peoples and set them against the rest of the world.

The elder was one member of small group consisting of people from several Indigenous American nations, coming from as far away as the Yukon and the southern United States to stand in solidarity with the local Anishnabe, and Mohawk peoples who were struggling to protect a sliver of their ancient heritage from destruction.

Pictou’s Trials and Tribulations: The Tragedy of Boat Harbour

Pictou Landing First Nation Chief Andrea Paul
 (second from Right) - Photo: Pictou Advocate

By Peter Bazarov

In Northern Nova Scotia, tucked away between the forests and the sea, sits the small community of Pictou—home to 3000 people, and tragically, one of Nova Scotia’s most shameful secrets.  Though it is located in the beautiful Nova Scotia highlands, with beaches facing the warm lapping waters of the Northumberland Strait, Pictou is nevertheless avoided by most tourists, and is best known instead for its legendary ill health. Cancer, heart disease, lung disease, rates of miscarriage and infant death; in all of these Pictou is either the worst county in the province or among the worst.  The waters of Pictou Harbour test positive for a variety of toxic heavy metals, and the air tests positive for pollutant rates thousands of percent above Federal limitations.

The source of all this? A dammed off poisonous stew, a toilet for the toxic excretions of the local pulp and paper mill—Boat Harbour.

Part 4 of 4: Canada -- a country of many nations

Taken from Canada's Future is Socialism, The programme of the CPC.

In this excerpt:

• National minorities;
• Immigrant and migrant communities, immigration;
• Problems with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
• For a new constitution;
• The struggle for socialism and the national question

National Minorities

Within each nation, there are national minorities whose national homeland is within the borders of another nation within Canada.

Francophone minorities living in English-speaking Canada, Anglophone minorities living in Quebec, and Aboriginal peoples and Acadians living away from their national homes are all national minorities with the right to educate their children and receive state supported services in their own languages, wherever numbers warrant.

Immigrant and migrant communities, immigration

With the exception of the Aboriginal peoples, Canada is a country of immigrants, old and new. Comprised of hundreds of diverse ethnic groups, who will eventually merge with French-speaking Quebec or English-speaking Canada, these ethnic groups have the right to preserve their language and heritage and to pass it on to succeeding generations through state-supported language and cultural programs, and through state-supported cultural and community activities.

The Communist Party recognizes that this two-sided process of merging and preserving language, culture and heritage, is of long duration, influencing and enriching Canadian culture as a whole.

Part 3 of 4: Canada -- a country of many nations

Taken from Canada's Future is Socialism, The programme of the CPC.

In this excerpt:

• The Metis nation;
• Aboriginal peoples;
• The policy of genocide;
• Acute poverty and oppression;
• For immediate achievement of national rights

The Metis nation

The Metis nation emerged in the period of merchant capitalism in the 18th century based on the fur trade and was mainly situated along the rivers flowing into Hudson Bay. The assertion of national rights by the Metis in the rebellions of 1869-70 and 1885 was brutally crushed by the dominant English-speaking ruling class, who were backed by the expansionary industrial capitalism of Ontario and Quebec.

Nevertheless, the resistance of the Metis led to the establishment of the province of Manitoba and helped keep alive the spirit of resistance against all national privileges in Canada today.

Aboriginal peoples

The Aboriginal peoples had been in Canada for thousands of years when the first white settlers arrived. Prior to European settlement, the social organization of many Aboriginal communities was progressing – depending on the development of the productive capacities of each community – from smaller, dispersed and relatively isolated tribes into more complex, organized and technologically advanced societies.

Part 2 of 4: Canada -- a country of many nations

Taken from Canada's Future is Socialism, The programme of the CPC.

The 2012 Quebec Student Strike

In this excerpt:

• Quebec's status as a nation;
• The way forward;
• Flaws of the BNA act continued;
• The Acadian people

Quebec's status as a nation

The sharpest expression of the constitutional crisis relates to Quebec’s national status and the failure of the Canadian state to recognize Quebec’s right to national self-determination, up to and including secession.

This non-recognition of Quebec’s rights is itself an expression of the historic national oppression of Quebec – its political, economic and social oppression – since the British conquest of New France in 1763.

This national oppression has in turn aroused national indignation among the Quebec people, and spawned bourgeois and petty-bourgeois-led nationalist and separatist movements there.

Part 1 of 4: Canada -- a country of many nations

Taken from Canada's Future is Socialism, The programme of the CPC.

The Big Daddy's of confederation

In this excerpt:

• A definition of a nation;
• A proposal for a new constitution 

A definition of a nation

Canada includes small and large nations, each of which is an historically-constituted community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and national consciousness manifested in a common culture.

Nations come into existence and pass out of existence, by forcible and peaceful historical processes, or a combination of both. It is a dynamic process in which, in each case, the path of development into nationhood is specific and different.

As a result, the struggle for a democratic solution to the national question requires an understanding and respect for these objective differences.

Amongst the smaller nations in Canada are groups of Aboriginal peoples who are exercising their right to sovereignty with the demand for autonomy and self-government. Amongst these are the Northern Cree in Quebec, and the newly created territory of Nunavut, the Nisga’a on the west coast, and others. The Acadians in the Maritimes also constitute a smaller nation in Canada. The two largest nations are English-speaking Canada and Quebec.

First Nations: The Long Shadow of Assimilation

Hennessy's Index: A number is never just a number

by Trish Hennessy

National Office of the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives (CCPA)

January 3, 2013

Hennessy's Index is a monthly listing of numbers, written by the CCPA's Trish Hennessy, about Canada and its place in the world. For other months, visit:http://policyalternatives.ca/index

• 150,000

  Number of Aboriginal children who were taken from their families and forced into residential schools as part of Canada’s assimilation policy from the 1870s onward. In 2008, the government apologized to Aboriginal peoples “for failing them so profoundly.” (Source 1, 2)

• 70 cents

  Amount Aboriginal peoples earned for every dollar non-Aboriginals earned in 2006. At this rate, the income gap between Aboriginal peoples and the rest of Canadians won’t disappear for another 63 years, unless Canada adopts a new approach. (Source)

• 1 in 4

  Number of children within First Nations families who live in poverty in Canada, much higher than the 1 in 10 children in non-Aboriginal families who live in poverty. (Source)

• 444

  Number of recommendations to improve the lives of Canada’s First Nations people within the landmark Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report, now 16 years old.  (Source 1, 2)

• $7.5 billion

  Estimated annual cost of doing nothing to resolve First Nations employment and social problems in Canada (in 1996 alone). (Source)

• 5-7

  Number of Aboriginal youth suicides for every non-Aboriginal Canadian youth. Suicide rates among Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, 11 times the national average.  (Source)

• 600

  Number of unresolved cases of missing and/or murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. (Source)

• 120

  Number of Aboriginal communities with a drinking water advisory, as of October 31, 2011. Of the more than 500,000 First Nations people who live on Canada’s reserves, thousands live without indoor plumbing.  (Source)

• Nearly half

  Number of houses on Canadian reserves in need of major repair. The federal auditor general says Aboriginal housing is subject to overcrowding and requires more federal funding to keep up with the growing Aboriginal population. (Source 1, 2)

• $169-$189 million

  Estimated federal government underfunding of capital expenditures on reserves annually. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says 40 new schools, at a cost of $12.5 million each, and 85,000 housing units would have to be built to meet current needs. (Source)

• C-45

  The federal omnibus bill that sparked a movement in Canada called Idle No More, which points to eight legislative bills that violate treaties. Amnesty International says changes to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act, the Navigable Waters Act, and the proposed Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act have profound implications for the rights of Indigenous peoples as set out in treaties, affirmed in the constitution, and protected by international human rights standards. (Source 1, 2, 3)

• 35.1

  Section of Canada’s constitution that commits the Prime Minister and First Ministers to meet with Aboriginal peoples before changing federal responsibilities that affect First Nations. (Source)

• December 11, 2012

  The day Chief Theresa Spence’s hunger strike began. She says she is willing to die for her people “because the suffering is too much”. Her request: a commitment by the Prime Minister to meet with Canada’s First Nations chiefs. (Source)

• 24,815

  Number of tweets attributed to the #IdleNoMore Twitter hashtag on December 23, 2013 alone. The movement has not only gone viral, support has spread beyond the Canadian border in a phenomenon considered “too big to track”. (Source 1, 2)