As one of the four Saskatchewan women who founded the Idle No More movement late last year–a phenomenon which in only two months has transformed the conversation in Canada around Indigenous People – Sylvia McAdam has faced a steep learning curve about social activism, political manoeuvering, and media spin.
More than 1,000 people protested against the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway project as its public hearings moved to Vancouver on Jan. 14, the largest anti-pipeline demonstration since the 4,000-strong “Defend Our Coast” protests in Victoria last October.
Court cases continue for 10 protesters after controversy over logging on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast escalated to an injunction and arrests on Dec. 7.
Could the battle against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline have a parallel in the NorthWest Rebellion, the 1885 uprising of Métis and First Nations which led to Canada’s infamous hanging of Louis Riel and others?
Mobilized by online social media, a good 3,000 people showed up for an Idle No More flash mob at the West Edmonton Mall, staging a full-scale Grand Entry, the ceremonial procession that opens pow wow gatherings.
Opposition continues to grow against Enbridge’s proposed 728-mile, $5.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline, which would pump 525,000 barrels of diluted bitumen crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast, to be loaded on tankers for Asian export.
Through stinging temperatures far below freezing—plummeting down to -53F with windchill—six young men and a guide are snowshoeing on a historic two-month, more than 900-mile journey south to Ottawa as part of the Idle No More movement.
As Idle No More prepares for its next day of action on January 28, Indigenous activists and thinkers are taking time to reflect on the grassroots movement
Ontario is leading the way towards an American-style private health care system, says the Ontario Health Coalition. But communities are mobilizing to protect medicare.
Labour, First Nations and environmentalists warn that too much is at stake with the TransMountain project.
David P Ball 