Victoria Independent Media Center
Bare Mountain Three Years Later
Last Updated (Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:41) Written by indymedia & Cheryl Bryce Tuesday, 17 November 2009 17:28
Nov 16th Marks the three year anniversary of the blockade that launched Spaet Mountain into the publics attention, and opened up our eyes to the injustices that Bare Mountain.inc was trying to quietly commit. The pre dawn action organized by first nation activists was to stop the developers from further despoiling the sanctity and ecological integrity of the SPAET cave. It also spurred many others to take action as well. Three years later Cheryl Bryce asks what has changed while government and private industry continue to do their best to decimate this and many other sacred sights.
I am writing to ask what you did on this day three years ago? What do you remember three years ago today? What are you doing today to protect Indigenous/First Nations homelands including our sacred sites? Please read below what I am remembering today.
Today I remember this day three years ago. I remember like it was yesterday or even today. Today first nations continue to fight to protect their homelands while the provincial government turns a blind eye, ignores and eve participates in the aggressive destruction of our homelands for economic development. This is one of the many shameful things the provincial government inflects on to the land and Indigenous people. Over 150 years ago this was genocide and colonialism. Today it is colonialism living and genocide.
There are other players in the old colonial game of destroying Indigenous homelands. Yes, corporations and developers. They are famous for casting the colonial stone wrapped in money and messages of, "My right to make money is more important then those "Indian's" and their false claim to their rights. This is my land and their is no sacred site or burials and if there was it my right to bulldoze them off my property!" That is putting it a lightly or polite colonial quote.
The corporate and developer's supporters roll in to cheer on the violent actions. Municipal government's are great supporters at defending and promoting development. They look all nice in their photographs cutting the ribbon or swinging their golf stick together, right. Your government bureaucrats do their time at their desk dodging questions, resist rightful actions and spin words and defining in legislation, treaties and policies to justify violent destructive decision and actions. When appears to be ineffective they will pass the buck.
In the end there were is your RCMP? There is no effective enforcement for the existing Heritage Conservation Act. There is no intention of implementing the HCA to protect Indigenous homelands. Regardless of the RCMP being an call enforcement officer to the BC Archaeology Branch (administrators of the HCA).
Below is on of many incident's first nations fought for their homelands over the past 150 plus years:
Remember:
http://www.firstnations.de/development/coast_salish-spaet.htm
http://members.crcable.net/pumpkinpatch/
For this I fought and I remember today.
Cheryl Bryce, Lekwungen (Songhees)
Think Racism is over?
Last Updated (Monday, 09 November 2009 16:54) Written by Colours of Resistance Monday, 09 November 2009 16:35
Demonstrators Disrupt Olympic Torch Relay
Last Updated (Monday, 09 November 2009 16:56) Written by indymedia Monday, 02 November 2009 09:45
Demonstrators Disrupt Olympic Torch Relay
The Five Ring Circus anti-olympic festivities commenced in a sprit of resistance to the Vancouver 2010 games. Speakers and performers addressed a swelling crowd of people wearing costumes and halloween masks that grew at the same time as official torch events were being held across the city.
Hundreds of people converged for the event to voice dissent over issues relating to poverty, environmental destruction, native rights, and other injustices. As the day went on, dancers, musicians, zombies and demonstrators snake marched through downtown victoria for several hours blocking an intersection in front of the the RBC, disrupting traffic, and occupying a part of the olympic torch route. No arrests were reported as the crowd remained peaceful while engaging in civil disobedience, and successfully thwarted the multimillion dollar Olympic security apparatus. As the opening ceremonies grow closer more resistance is expected growing against the games. For more information about the olympic resistance movement visit any of these sights:
On Burning Nazi Idols
Thursday, 05 November 2009 05:44
Halloween Olympic Torch relay spectacle put to shame by peaceful demonstration.
By Tavis W Dodds, Republic of East Vancouver/World Olympic Watch
On Monday November 2nd, BC MLA Harry Bloy from Burnaby Loughheed stated in the Legislative Assembly that anti-Olympic demonstrators are terrorists with limited intellect. A rally against the torch relay in Victoria on October 30th was accused of using marbles to assault police horses. Demonstrators that noticed the marbles told the police about them before any damage was done. Police spokespeople claimed the marbles were thrown at the feet of the horses, but the marbles were actually found at the feet of the stationary march. Police seem to accept that damage really could have been done, such as falling officers and horses, or the “stampede” that Bloy suggests could have happened. NDP MLAs consider calling protesters terrorists “a bit over the top.” The torch relay was well behind schedule throughout the day and many people were unable to see it as it bypassed much of the route, a fact that VANOC blamed on the activists’ disruption, which became the whole of the media response to the march and rally. To many in Victoria on Oct 30th, the protest rally was an enriching and illuminating experience, and the mind numbing festivities of the torch relay and ceremonies were where intellect was really limited.
Anti-Olympic Activists Mark the Arrival Of the Torch in Victoria
Last Updated (Monday, 02 November 2009 10:06) Written by NO2010 Saturday, 31 October 2009 00:14
Anti-Olympic Activists Mark the Arrival Of the Torch in Victoria
The Olympic torch relay began today in Victoria. The torch lighting ceremony that took place at the BC Legislature was attended by a few hundred people, many of them classes of primary school children brought down fill in the crowd that took up only a small portion of the lawn. During the 105 days leading up to the Vancouver 2010 games the torch will be carried throughout Canada rallying up support for the Olympic games, and fostering nationalist pride. On day three of the torch's journey it will be paraded through the streets of Port Alberni on the back of a logging truck to celebrate Canada's long history of profit driven environmental devastation.
Upon the torches' arrival Premier Gordon Campbell was quick to mention the involvement of first nations in the olympic process, a process that has already been boycotted by the groups such as the Native Youth Movement, and criticized widely by native groups across Canada. Campbell spoke of the torch as a symbol of olympic pride, a "golden light" that has no precedent from the ancient greek games and in fact was started as a modern Olympic tradition by the Nazis, in the 1936 summer games. Highlighting this fact, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre has just opened an exhibit profiling Canadas' involvement in the spectacle.
Indymedia will bring you more updates on this story as it develops
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