Canada
Canada,
A country of immigrants,
Founded on genocide,
Maintained with white privilege and collective denial,
Imagined as “our home and native land,”
Visualized as one,
Fragmented as many,
And managed by violence and repression.
That’s what I think when I watch the video below of First Nations blockading a road in Northern Quebec (Algonquin). The police march into them as if they have no entitlement, as if this land belongs to the police and the state that signs their cheques. That’s not my Canada. My Canada would also be a country that had a real independent national media system that actually REPORTED on such ongoing brutal conflicts. But instead, we hear more about Palin in the US. Luckily, The Dominion is picking up where state and corporate media are failing miserably. The grassroots paper has constant updates online about the Algonquin standoff and repression. Check them out here. You can also email the CBC and ask them where their coverage of this social, political and cultural crisis is. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of turning on the radio and hearing discussions revolving around “concerned citizens” who are worried about their portfolios in light of the recent economic meltdown south of the border. We have other kinds of meltdowns occurring within our own borders, and we need to know about them so we can take action or at least be aware. Visit the Barriere Lake Solidarity blog here.
Police attack Algonquin families at peaceful blockade of highway 117 in northern Quebec from Barriere Lake Solidarity on Vimeo.