New Brunswick, January 3, 2013 – The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is honoured to stand beside the people of Wabanaki in the Idle No More movement. The Idle No More movement inspires us and renews our resolve to continue our support for Aboriginal treaties and rights and all efforts aimed at decolonization.
New Brunswick, January 3, 2013 – The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is honoured to stand beside the people of Wabanaki in the Idle No More movement. The Idle No More movement inspires us and renews our resolve to continue our support for Aboriginal treaties and rights and all efforts aimed at decolonization.
The Idle No More movement in Canada has inspired people across the world through road and rail line blockades, flash mobs and round dances at busy shopping malls, fasting and ceremonies. The Conservation Council expresses its solidarity with Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence, who is on a hunger strike on Parliament Hill, and her demands for a meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Queen Elizabeth II (or a representative) and First Nations leaders to address the urgent needs of her nation and other indigenous communities across the country. The failure of Canada to honour Aboriginal treaties and rights is behind the social, economic and environmental crises that we see in First Nations communities today.
In light of mounting opposition to the Alberta tar sands, shale gas development, related pipelines and shipping routes, and the gutting of regulations that protect our rivers, oceans and fish habitat, the Harper government's response has been to weaken legal and political opportunities for resistance. Bill C-45 is the latest attack on democratic processes, environmental protection and Aboriginal treaties and rights. Bill C-45 doesn't just affect indigenous peoples but all Canadians. We all breathe from the same air, drink from the same water, eat from foods grown and sustained by the same earth, and keep warm, but not too warm, from the same sun.
The Conservation Council has worked closely with the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot people for decades. We acted as observers during the fisheries crisis in Esgenoôpetitj in 1999-2001 when Mik'maq fishermen were under attack by the Canadian state for simply exercising their inherent Aboriginal fishing rights. We stood on the steps of the New Brunswick Legislature with the Maliseet Conservation Council and others on May 10, 2011 to demand an end to clearcutting and the spraying of our forest with herbicides. We collaborate with the Passamaquoddy people to protect their land and waters from toxic industrial development. We continue to march and rally against shale gas with indigenous peoples and settlers in Wabanaki territory. This summer, we participated in the Wabanaki Confederacy Conference at St. Mary's First Nation. We regularly host discussions and films at Conserver House on Maliseet territory on topics aimed at deepening our understanding of indigenous struggles such as why the people of Tobique took control of the hydro-dam on their territory in 2009. We consistently remind all levels of government that the lands of the province of New Brunswick were never ceded to the British Crown by the First Nations. We demand that governments fulfill their duties and obligations to indigenous peoples in discussions over natural resources management and protection of the environment.
We stand opposed to Bill C-45 and other pieces of legislation that maintain colonial relations, destroy our lands and water, and erode democratic processes.
We call upon the Prime Minister to not only meet in good faith with Chief Spence and other indigenous leaders, but to commit his government immediately to the principles of equal funding and accessibility to health, education, infrastructure and social services for all Canadians; and to respect the constitutional and treaty rights of First Nations people in regards to natural resources.
We remain committed to transformative processes of decolonization that free all of us from colonial relations that dehumanize us and wreak havoc on our natural world. We defend the protection and reclamation of traditional knowledge and culture, and the reassertion of the original inhabitants of this land as a distinct identity.
The Conservation Council has been present at the Idle No More flash mobs and round dances at the Fredericton and Moncton malls and we look forward to being part of a growing movement that protects our lands and waters and our shared co-existence for seven generations. The Conservation Council encourages your active participation. This movement needs all of us. Don't be idle.