[R-G] Fwd: [Lfd] [Fwd: NATIVE 2010 RESISTANCE Statement]

[Anthony Fenton]

Approxmately 100 protesters, mostly Indigenous, marched from the
Vancouver Art gallery to the Hyatt Regency Hotel  where Gordon Campbell
and VANOC were hosting a "Countdown to 2010 Luncheon".


* Raw footage of rally:
http://www.cbc.ca/mrl3/8752/bc/ondemand/video/bc-080211-oly-protest.wmv


NATIVE 2010 RESISTANCE STATEMENT
FEB 11 2008

The Native 2010 resistance was established in December of 2007. We
represent the Skwxwú7mesh-ulh (Squamish), Lil'wat, Stölo, St'at'imc,
Nlaka'Pamux, Secwepemc, Kwakwaka'wakw, Haida, Carrier, Wet'suwet'en,
Nisga'a, Tsimshian, Gitxsan, Gitnyow, Tuchone, Cree, Annishnabe, Cayuga,
Onondaga, and Oneida nations.

We stand in full confrontation with the International Olympic Committee
(IOC), the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), 2010 Legacies
Now, the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Canadian Government and
corporations supporting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

We are here to expose to the world that we have never welcomed the  
Olympics
and we continue to resist corporate Olympic invasion, development and
industrialization of Mother Earth. Already Olympic construction and
expansion of roads, highways and ski-resorts (including fake snow made
with
sewage) has disrupted and destroyed trap lines, hunting grounds, salmon
stocks, mountain animal habitats and sacred sites.

Our blood and the blood of the land has been spilled for the Games  
and the
government to profit. Despite VANOC's claim to be the most 'green  
games',
so far they are demonstrating to be the most 'blood red games'.

Supposedly so called BC is the 'best place to live on earth', yet for
Indigenous people, 'British Columbia' has only served to wreak havoc on
their lives and land. Olympic myth making and corporate brainwashing
attempts to hide the facts that while Canada remain one of the richest
countries, it remains home to approximately 300,000 homeless people,  
while
another 1.7 million residents struggle with housing affordability  
issues.
Indigenous people account for 30% of this homeless population, despite
making up under 5% of the total population.

While the Olympic organizers operate with a budget of almost $2 billion
(costs for the Vancouver's Trade and Convention Centre alone has reached
almost $900 million) and other costs to government surpassing an  
estimated
$6 billion, Vancouver is now home to North America's fastest growing
homelessness crisis. Dozens of low-income hotels and apartment buildings
are being converted to condominiums to house the rich.

We are also concerned about the prominence of an abusive and violent  
police
state. The death of Frank Paul, Gerald Chenery, Connie Jabobs, and  
hundreds
of other Indigenous people, points to the racist and heightened state of
police brutality that is being accelerated by the Olympics. There is a
growing concern about the new militarization of police that is  
focused on
terrorism, new weapons and training and the targeting of Indigenous
people.
At Sun Peaks (Skwelkwek'welt) ski resort near Kamloops, over 70 arrests
have been made of mostly Secwepemc youth & elders.

We hold the Canadian government, the British Columbian (BC) and Canadian
Judicial systems working in conjunction with VANOC responsible for the
death of Indigenous Elder and Warrior Harriet Nahanee , and acknowledge
her death and the persecution of Indigenous dissent as a direct  
result of
the Canadian Government's objective to drive out opposition in order to
make room for the Olympics 2010.  There can be no justification for the
targeting, imprisonment and death of an esteemed Indigenous Elder.

We acknowledge that the Olympics will encourage sex tourism and hence
living in extreme poverty, many Indigenous woman and children will be
forced into the sex trade. Aboriginal women and children need safety  
from
poverty and violence, and we disagree that a sex brothel should be
afforded amnesty from the city and/or government to accommodate business
investors and tourists.

We reject VANOC's mockery and ridicule of Indigenous cultures through  
the
Olympic mascots and the Olympic logo. Our sacred stories and symbols are
misappropriated and demonstrates theft of Indigenous stories, and  
aspects
of our culture.

The Four Host First Nations do not speak for us, or represent us,  
they are
merely window dressing for the atrocities our Indigenous people face
everyday. They do not represent the poor, the homeless, or the common
Indigenous people, they represent the rich and continue to collaborate
with
governments and corporations for profit that will benefit very few
Indigenous people.

We stand strong in our fight against the 2010 Olympics and will  
continue to
resist Olympic poverty and homelessness, the theft and exploitation of
Indigenous land, cultural appropriation and police violence.


NO 2010 OLYMPICS ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND!
NO MORE DEATHS ON THE SKI TO DIE HIGHWAY!
STOP CULTURAL APPROPRIATION!
RESIST POLICE VIOLENCE!
END OLYMPIC HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY!


-- 
The Indigenous Free School

"It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in  
the
hand. ~Apache"