Video: Naverone Woods Family Statement

Naverone Christian Landon Woods, 23 year old Gitxsan man, fatally shot by transit police on Dec 28, 2014. His death at the hands of police was profoundly tragic. It was also incredibly troubling; raising many questions about the use of deadly force by police, the role of armed transit police on our public transit system, and the broader dynamics of racism and colonial violence.

Watch statement from his family:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UmMRLObbW0&feature=youtu.be

Hubie, The Watchman

Since 2000, Hubert Jim has watched over the area known as Sutikalh—in the pristine wilderness of Cayoosh Canyon near Pemberton, British Columbia—with an attentive eye and clear love for it. From the nearby highway, following along a creek bed to a small opening, he occupies a lone cabin that was erected during a blockade. Hubert Jim, a member of the local St’át’imc First Nation known as “Hubie” to locals, has lived at Sutikalh since the blockade began. Outsiders commonly refer to Sutikalh as a “camp,” but Hubie explains that “15 years is too long to call this place a camp. For me, its Sutikalh Home.”

Read more: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/opinion/hubie-watchman

Grassy Narrows First Nation Holds Logging Protest in Kenora

In March of last year, the Grassy Narrows’ youth group released a statement rejecting the plan, as did the community’s chief and council. “The trees, like the water, are sacred,” stated Brenda Kokokopenace, an Anishinabe Elder from Grassy Narrows. “We have a duty to protect Mother Earth, and that duty is sacred, too. It is good to see the youth standing up for the land. It shows they know who they are and that they can wake up the people who have lost that connection.”

Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/grassy-narrows-first-nation-holds-logging-protest-in-kenora-1.2996899

Peter Kulchyski | March 1st 2010 | Canadian Dimenision

Early this fall, an event largely ignored by the mass media in Canada, took place in northwestern Ontario. A floatplane filled with equipment and staff from the Platinex mining company attempted to land on Big Trout Lake, known as Kitchenuhmaykoosib to the local Inninuwug. The chief and other members of the community got in their boats and played a game of “chicken” with the plane, maneuvering their boats in front of its landing trajectory to keep it from being able settle onto the lake. After making several attempts, the pilot turned around and returned south. A few months later the community heard the news that the Ontario government had bought out Platinex’s interest in the disputed territory (part of Treaty 9) and announced that the platinum mining development in the region would not proceed.

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It was below zero degrees Fahrenheit on the night of Dec. 2, 2002, when sisters and young indigenous mothers Chrissy and Bonnie Swain from the Grassy Narrows First Nation drove from their reserve, located in the southern fringe of the vast Boreal Forest in northern Ontario, to the logging road just a few miles from their home. The sisters felled trees over the road to protest unwanted logging on their land by Abitibi Consolidated. They then headed home, afraid their father would be mad at them. Instead, he was proud. Their protest was the spark that ignited their small community of 1,000 to launch a sustained direct-action campaign to stop logging.

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By BRYAN MEADOWS. Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Forest industry giant AbitibiBowater Inc. is pulling out of the Whiskey Jack Forest north of Kenora.  The company says it has more available and accessible fibre elsewhere, and that it can‘t wait four more years for the province and Grassy Narrows First Nation to come to an agreement on acceptable logging practices there. “We plan to discontinue the use of the Whiskey Jack Forest while the government and Grassy Narrows conducts their negotiations,” company spokesman Jean-Philippe Cote said Tuesday.

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GRASSY NARROWS SPEAKING TOUR

Saturday March 17th from 5-9 pm
Simon Baker Room, Aboriginal Friendship Center, 1607 East Hastings Street (at Commercial)

Members of the Anishnabek (Ojibway) community of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) will be speaking in Vancouver on Saturday March 17th as part of a speaking tour that aims to educate people about the longest running Indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history.

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