The Assembly of First Nations is at the Intercontinental Hotel to promote the Olympics and make deals with its corporate sponsors. But, grassroots movements in indigenous communities are saying no to the Olympics. They see their land being irreparably damaged by expanding Olympic developments. The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) has gone to great lengths to hide the negative impacts that the Olympics will have on indigenous peoples, by obscuring the facts on their participation in these games. The Olympics have brought a frenzy of development to BC – the Olympics are the new gold rush bringing displacement and destruction to indigenous communities and culture.

February 26, 2009, By Laura Track, Georgia Straight

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” —Olympic Creed. This February, I joined hundreds of Downtown Eastside residents for the second annual Poverty Olympics. Featuring events like Skating Around Poverty, Housing Hurdles, and Wrestling for Community, this year’s theme was “End Poverty: It’s Not a Game”.

» click here to continue reading

SAT FEB 28TH from 4:30 – 7 pm. 706 Clarke Drive (between Hastings and Venables) Right on #22 or any Hastings busline
* Dinner served at 4:30 and childcare on site

We know you already know that mega-corporate industries like the 2010 Games and Tar Sands suck. But how does it affect displacement of peoples from their land, their homes, their jobs, their communities. From traditional Indigenous territories to urban ghettos, from migrant workers to low-income families, thousands are being evicted or pushed out, and once displaced many become cannon-fodder as precarious labour.

As intense policing and security measures (like 1000+ military personal in Vancouver earlier this month for training exercises!) disproportionately target the dispossessed, the ones with the wrong skin colour, the undesirables, we rise in struggle against injustice. against the ongoing occupation of this land. against the racist police state. against the exploitation of displaced migrant workers. against gentrification and so-called revitalization. For our dignity as the poor, the displaced, the colonized.

» click here to continue reading

Belleville Intelligencer, December 16 2008

TYENDINAGA TERRITORY — A group of residents, fed-up with what they charge is an “illegal” quarry and asphalt plant here, have launched a $74-million lawsuit against the Mohawk band council, varying levels of government and the owner of the operation, The Intelligencer has learned. In a 40-page statement of claim filed in Belleville court last week, a group claiming to represent the majority of those living on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory alleges both projects “are extremely detrimental to the environment and to human life and habitat on the Mohawk Territory. The environment and human life and habitat are being irreparably harmed by these projects.”
» click here to continue reading