OTL Blog

On Thursday afternoon a rally called Native Rights Under Lock & Key assembled outside the Montreal offices of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, on McGill College Avenue.   As security guards locked the doors to the glassy tower housing Charest’s offices, protesters unfurled a banner reading “Honour Your Word: Protect the Environment. Share the Land’s Wealth” and proceeded to demand justice for the Algonquin First Nation of Barriere Lake.

The protesters included Mohawk, Algonquin, and others showing solidarity with the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a much-neglected community that the Québec government refuses to support, let alone acknowledge. The impoverished reserve is about 300 kilometres north of Ottawa, and has sometimes witnessed riot police sent from far away to suppress dissent. Recently unrest has been brewing at Barriere Lake over issues such as land claims, stolen resources, grinding poverty, and imposed leadership.  In March 2008, Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl deposed the acting chief, Benjamin Nottaway, and empowered a minority faction – composed mostly of people living off-reserve – as the new leadership.  Fed up with the federal government’s interference, members of the community blockaded Highway 17 in protest. On November 19, 2008, SQ riot police arrived and arrested five Algonquin people, including Customary Chief Benjamin Nottaway, who was sentenced to 45 days in jail. After spending the holidays imprisoned, he remains locked up to this day for his political activity.

The scandalous behaviour of the Québec and Canadian governments follows a long line of oppression against First Peoples from contact in the 1600s right up to the present era.  While it used to be the norm for white Quebecers to ignore the brutal effects of colonization caused by their ancestors and present-day governments, nowadays a movement is building to demand social justice for the First Nations.  Artists are effectively disseminating this message with projects such as the acclaimed film Le Peuple Invisible, which documents the devastating effects of colonization on the Algonquin people in present-day Québec, and OTL’s Sinking Neptune, which deconstructs Eurocentric norms in Canadian arts, and examines the roots of cultural genocide inflicted on native peoples.

We encourage you to get involved.  You can find out how to support with your time, money and/or voice by clicking here.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Activism, Community issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.