[to
download posters for this event, click here for
english and for french]
Canada: GET OUT!
End colonialism from Kanehsatake to Haiti
Café La Petite Gaulle, 2525 rue Centre (Metro Charlevoix)
January 25, 2005.
Doors: 18h30. Panel: 19h00.
Open to all
With speakers:
Madame Magalie
Arihwakehte (Clifton Nicholas)
Jean St-Vil (Jafrikayiti)
Yves Engler
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Pay what you can
Whisper translation (English-French and French-English) will be provided
The location is wheelchair accessible.
Sorry, childcare will not be available.
For further information, please contact:
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement
ipsm at
resist.ca https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ipsm-c
514.398.7432
Speaker profiles:
Madame Magalie is the coordinator of the Vwa Zanset association (Voices of the
Ancestors), www.vwazanset.org.
She is a jurist (licensed in civil law) and
received her B.A in political science.
Arihwakehte (Clifton Nicholas) is a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk)
living in
Kanehsatake. He has been an active member of the resistance to James
Gabriel,
his policies and the KMP in Kanehsatake.
Jean St-Vil (pen name Jafrikayiti) was born and raised in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
now residing in Ottawa. He is an active member of the Haitian Lawyers
Leadership
Network and is also the founding president of REKA, an internet-based
network of
Haitian Kreyol promoters (www.kreyol.org).
Yves is a Montreal-based activist and writer. He recently traveled to
Haiti.
**
Backgrounder:
The Canadian government played a leading role in planning, supporting
and
orchestrating the coup that overthrew Haiti’s popular and
democratically-elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in February
2004. A
justification of such disregard for another nation’s sovereignty,
autonomy and
democracy was afforded the Canadian government by the United
Nations new
"Responsibility to Protect principle. This principle has
been described as "a
new ‘humanitarian intervention’-based doctrine to be rooted in
international law
amidst a virtual rewriting of the UN Charter that calls for the
relegalisation
of imperialism. At the present time, by aligning itself
with Haiti’s
traditional colonial powers - the United States and France - Canada
actively
supports the tyrannical puppet-government in Haiti. The Canadian
government
recently hosted a conference in Montreal, inviting members of the
Haitian
diaspora élite living in Canada, the U.S. and France to discuss
the future of
Haiti. Those fortunate enough to attend were able to meet with Haiti’s
puppet
Prime Minister Gérard Latortue, Denis Coderre (Canadian Special
Adviser for
Haiti), and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. Meanwhile,
members and/or
supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Lavalas party were curiously not
invited. Protestors, mostly from the Haitian diaspora, did
provide a challenge
to the legitimacy of such a gathering which clearly favoured elite
economic and
political interests. After overthrowing the yoke of colonial
control 200 years
ago, the people of Haiti are now threatened with becoming a colony once
again.
Canada’s implication in the hijacking of Haiti’s affairs has rightfully
brought
accusations that it is assuming a more overt role as a colonial power.
However, Canadian colonialism is clearly nothing new to Indigenous
peoples.
Practices of genocide, assimilation, exploitation and expropriation
continue to
this day within the colonial borders of Canada. In the Mohawk
community of
Kanehsatake, a pivotal struggle is being waged which gravely threatens
meaningful Aboriginal self-determination through the municipalisation of
Indigenous territories. Among other legislation to this effect,
ex-Grand Chief
James Gabriel deceitfully signed Bill S-24, the "Kanehsatake Land Based
Governance Act". Despite being ousted from office by the
community of
Kanehsatake through a no-confidence vote, Gabriel’s spurious
recognition as
sole legitimacy in the eyes of the Canadian government was reinforced
by a
Canadian court ruling which overturned the community’s decision. The
federal
and provincial governments have since actively funded Gabriel’s
politically-aligned Kanehsatake Mohawk Police (KMP), a force notorious
for its
lack of training and volatile nature. It was this same police
force that was
forcefully resisted and kicked out by the community in January 2004.
Subsequently, Anne McLellan (Deputy Prime Minister and federal Minister
of
Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) and Jacques Chagnon (Quebec
Minister
of Public Security) signed the Tripartite Policing Agreement with James
Gabriel
in May 2004 which, among other things, gave unprecedented powers over
policing
matters in Kanehsatake to Gabriel. At the present time, there is a
looming
threat of the KMP (with Sureté du Québec or RCMP backing)
invading the
community to "protect James Gabriel as he begins his re-election
campaign.
The situations in Haiti and Kanehsatake show that Canada’s promoted
reputation
as peace-broker is unjustified and farcical. Links must be made which
expose
Canada’s role as a colonial and imperial state so that governments and
corporations which stand to gain from these injustices can be
targeted. The
January 19th panel will seek to expose the wars Canada wages both
abroad and at
home. It will also stress the importance of solidarity work with
those in Haiti
and Kanehsatake who are resisting Canadian aggression.
