TO. Greenspiration Events: youth, workers, CSIS, CC
Angela Bischoff
greenspi at web.ca
Mon Jun 29 23:53:30 EDT 2009
TO. Greenspiration Events
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Grassy Narrows Youth Leader Speaks Out
Chrissy Swain, a Grassy Narrows youth leader and mother will be
speaking about the ongoing struggles for healing and land protection
at Grassy Narrows. Chrissy will also present a new documentary about
the history of the conflict there.
Tues, June 30.
OISE, 252 Bloor West, 7th floor, 6-9pm. Pay-by-donation.
Why: To draw attention to links between environmental destruction and
the destruction of communities, to open dialogue about protecting and
healing the earth, as well as healing communities and the
relationships between them.
Last year, Chrissy Swain led a group of 22 youth from Grassy Narrows
(and a few other First Nations communities), on the Protecting Our
Mother Walk—over 1800 kilometres from Grassy Narrows to Toronto—which
became a catalyst for the Gathering of Mother Earth Protectors and
Sovereignty Sleepover last May at Queens Park, where the message was:
Respect the right of First Nations to say no to economic exploitation
and environmental destruction, no criminalisation of land protectors.
Chrissy has been an integral leader in the Grassy Narrows resistance
to logging on their territory, in the empowerment of youth, and the
traditional resurgence of Anishnabe culture that is taking place in
their community.
On December 2nd, 2002, the youth of the Grassy Narrows First Nation
established a blockade on a logging road in their territory, and
sparked what is now the longest standing and highest profile
indigenous logging blockade in Canadian history. Grassy Narrows
(Asubpeeschoseewagong) is a small Anishnabe community about 80
kilometres north of Kenora in Northwest Ontario. The Grassy Narrows
community has been through many traumas including relocation,
residential schools, mercury contamination, flooding of sacred
grounds and burial sites, and clearcut logging of their traditional
territory. However, resistance is strong at Grassy Narrows where
people are actively resisting the continued destruction of their
territories, re-occupying their lands, reviving their culture and
fighting for the right to manage their land as they see fit.
This tour, for Chrissy is a spiritual journey inspired by dreams and
recent incidents. Chrissy and Grassy Narrows organizer Judy Dasilva
visited the site of the Macintosh Residential School near Kenora.
There, behind the old school site, instead of a memorial, they found
several large hydro towers right at the site of the graves of those
children who died at the school, disrespecting their memory.
Following the visit, Chrissy had dreams telling her that this was to
be a symbol of the connection between the destruction of Indigenous
lands, and the destruction of their communities. She began planning a
second Protecting Our Mother Earth Walk that had been tentatively
scheduled to leave Grassy Narrows on June 15.
The recent and ongoing standoff at Akwesasne is a spiritual sign to
her that the time for the journey is imminent. The events of Friday
June 12 (when the OPP brutally raided a solidarity blockade in
Tyendinaga, and also escalated the police crackdown on protests by
women from the Beausoleil First Nation who are camped at Dump Site
41) were a signal to Chrissy to forgo the walk across Northern
Ontario so that she could be here now, talking to people in both
settler and Indigenous communities, trying to build solidarity and
support for communities engaged in land protection struggles, and to
work towards healing.
There are still tentative plans to extend an invitation to other
Indigenous activists and allies to meet her in Ottawa in August to
tell the federal government that the time is now to protect the
Earth, the time is now for healing and reconciliation—between settler
and Indigenous communities, and between us and Mother Earth as well.
“The government does not understand that words are not good enough.
Talking ‘green’ and making empty apologies that don’t actually deal
with real issues is not good enough. We have to protect the land—
protect our Mother Earth. I want to tell Harper that apologies are
not good enough. Canada needs to give proper respect to the victims,
families and survivors of the residential schools. We need Canada to
recognize the damage those schools have done to our communities and
cultures, and we need an end to the destruction of our lands, and an
end to native people being criminalised when they stand up for their
rights to protect their lands, their cultures, and their
communities.” -Chrissy Swain, June 2009
For more info, email alex at peaceculture.org
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Fighting for a Fair Deal:
Public Sector Workers Resist Concessions
Tuesday, June 30, 7pm
OISE, 252 Bloor Street West
Room 4-414
Speakers:
David Kidd - Vice-President - Chief Steward, CUPE Local 79
Carolyn Egan - President, Steelworker Toronto Area Council; Leading
member, International Socialists
Organized by the International Socialists
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Stop CSIS harassment: know your rights workshop
Targeting of racialized groups, immigrants and refugees...
CSIS HARASSMENT OF CANADIANS:
Know your rights workshop
Tuesday, June 30
6:00pm
University of Toronto Mississauga
3359 Mississauga Road
Student Centre, Presentation Room
Speakers:
Faisal Kutty: Lawyer and human rights activist
James Kafieh: Lawyer and former president, Canadian Arab Federation
James Clark: Organizer, Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Others TBA
Workshop topics:
CSIS history of corruption
Tactics that violate your rights
How to fight back
Personal accounts
All workshops will be interactive. A FREE event. Seating limited.
To register, please e-mail info at csisharassment.com.
For more information, please visit www.csisharassment.com.
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TRANSFORM YOUR WORLD:
Compassionate Communication Foundation Training
led by Henry Wai
Realize your capacities for making the difference you want within
yourself, with others and in your community. This two-day training
provides the learning, practice and coaching for you to begin
applying the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process in everyday life.
With an emphasis on active learning, you will:
- learn how the core NVC concepts and tools support constructive,
authentic relationships
- practice the steps using real examples for expressing yourself and
listening to others in ways which build connection and understanding
- be challenged and moved, receive support and have fun
Sundays July 12 and July 19
10:00 am – 5:30 pm each day
Location: downtown Toronto
Interested in hosting a workshop in your area? Contact Henry to
discuss possibilities.
Fee: sliding scale $250 - $150
(for those with financial barriers please contact
Henry beforehand to discuss options)
Info / Registration: Henry - 416.913.8861; wai_renooy at sympatico.ca
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COMPASSIONATE COMMUNICATION:
Around the world, more and more people are using Compassionate
Communication to support everyday peacemaking, empowerment, conflict
transformation, healing and more. Developed by Dr. Marshall
Rosenberg, this process is practiced in 37 countries in a variety of
settings including family, workplace, activism, social service,
education, mediation, prison, and government. Compassionate
Communication is also known as Nonviolent Communication (NVC).
To learn more:
- Read an introductory chapter www.cnvc.org/node/393
- Read an article www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?id=837
- Visit www.nonviolentcommunication.com/aboutnvc/aboutnvc.htm
- Contact Henry Wai to discuss your interests
"Marshall Rosenberg gives us the means to create peace through our
speech and communication"
- Arun Gandhi, President, MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
"NVC goes along with what I was trying to do. My heart was there
[but] it gave me steps [for] communicating how I always wanted to."
- Primary school teacher
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