~~~SisterSea~~~

September 11, 2007 (Vancouver, BC) – Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and six other international conservation groups are running an advertisement in today’s Financial Times in London, UK, targeting Royal Dutch Shell’s plan for a coalbed methane gas field in northern BC’s Sacred Headwaters. The ad features protesters at a First Nations road blockade and the headline, “This time it’s Canada .” “Shell’s European executives and the British Columbian government need to know the world is watching their actions in the Sacred Headwaters,” said Lisa Matthaus with Sierra Club of Canada, one of the ad signatories. “If Shell pushes ahead with its plan to drill for gas in the Sacred Headwaters, they will face an escalating international campaign.” The Sacred Headwaters is the shared birthplace of three of BC’s most important wild salmon rivers: the Skeena, Nass and Stikine . It is also home to grizzly bears, caribou, wolves and stone sheep. Last month, members of the Tahltan F...

From CPTnet 26 September 2007 TORONTO : Christian Peacemaker Congress joins witness calling on Ontario legislature to respect First Nation moratoria on industrial use of traditional lands In advance of the October 10 Ontario 2007 provincial election, more than 250 CPTers, native rights and environmental activists joined First Nation leaders at the Ontario Legislature on Friday, September 21, 2007 to issue a challenge to all political parties: respect moratoria issued by indigenous communities against industrial activities on their traditional lands. As part of the witness, participants unfurled a seventy-five-metre-long banner in the shape of a yellow arrow that read, "Native Land Rights Now." Co-sponsored by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the witness was a scheduled event of CPT's first Peacemaker Congress in Canada . Native groups in attendance included representatives from Asubpeeschoseewagong ( Grassy Narrows ), Ardoch and Kitchenuhmaykoosi...

By Bob Holmes Robertsville, ON CPT Canada News September 19, 2007 Harold Perry, honorary chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN), was driven to court in Kingston, Ontario by his daughter Mona on September 18, 2007. He expected to be arrested, something he welcomed because it would bring to a head the on-going conflict of the Algonquins with Frontenac Ventures and the provincial government of Ontario. The government is allowing Frontenac to explore for uranium on unceded Algonquin lands without Algonquin permission. On June 28, 2007, the AAFN, together with the Shabot Obaajiwan First Nation, closed the gate at the entrance of the road being used for uranium exploration. The Algonquins occupied the area inside the gate and, in support, non-aboriginal settlers from the area set up a tent city outside the gate. (Non-aboriginal supporters of the blockade call themselves “settlers” to acknowledge their status as newcomers on the land.) On August 31, a court injunction obtained by F...

By Victoria Marie And they must rejoice when they live among people [who are considered to be] of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside (Francis of Assisi in Lynch OFM, 1998). Feminist theory encourages the researcher to situate herself. In adherence to feminist principles, I wish to situate myself by showing how I arrive at my passion for social justice. I am an African-American (Canadian) Catholic woman and a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Joy, an ecumenical religious community of women. This social position contains several points of marginality within society and the Catholic Church. The Church as a whole is admittedly patriarchal and in North America is a predominately white institution. The community of sisters to which I belong is marginal within the church because of our stance on living without property as individuals and as a community. The concept of social justice has a...

CPT sent a violence reduction team yesterday to accompany the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadijiwan First Nations in their continuing blockade of uranium mining exploration on their unceded territory. An Ontario Superior Court injunction was served against the blockade on August 31, 2007. The injunction grants mining exploration company Frontenac Ventures Corporation “immediate” and “unfettered” access to the 8,000 hectares it has staked and is currently drilling. The Ontario Provincial Police have not said whether or not they intend to enforce the injunction. Ardoch Algonquin First Nation is a non-status, non-treaty Aninshinaabe community of about 700 members located in the Madawaska, Mississippi and Rideau watersheds (Frontenac and Lanark counties in eastern Ontario ). They have not ceded title to the lands currently under exploration by Frontenac. Aboriginal title to unceded land is established in Canadian law by the Royal Proclamation Act of 1763 and was enshrined in...

MONTREAL , Aug. 20 /CNW Telbec/ - A Greenpeace investigative report released today reveals the names of many high profile and recognizable international companies fueling the destruction of Canada 's Boreal Forest to create everyday consumer products. Among the 35 companies listed are Best Buy, Grand & Toy, Toys "R" Us, Time Inc., Sears, Coles/Indigo, Penguin Books US and Harlequin. Rona, the Canadian home improvement and hardware store, is also named in the report. Each company is profiled as a customer of logging and pulp companies Abitibi-Consolidated, Bowater, Kruger and SFK Pulp, whose destructive logging practices are responsible for decimating nearly 200,000 km2 of Boreal Forest, or 3.5 times the size of Nova Scotia . "Today, we're naming names," said Kim Fry, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace. "The logging companies and customers featured in this report are driving the destruction of Canada ...

Jane, white European woman – Thank you for your frank and heartfelt sharing. I speak as a white European woman recovering from familial abuse and entrenched misogyny. I have had to struggle to find new roads on old maps – roads which lead to worthwhile destinations and not pain and self destruction. I am amazed that you are a catholic with the strong misogyny of the male clergy and the euro-centric value system of the present hierarchy. I couldn't deal with the insularity and smug self righteousness of the Christians I met and am no longer a frequenter of any church building. I find a park more holy than any building, but I have had so many miracles that I feel loved by a higher power. I taught children for 25 years but could never decide who was white, coloured or black. They were Carlos or Paul or Catherine. Victoria, woman African descent – There are two issues I think need addressing. The first is my remaining in the Catholic Church. I, too, left the church at one time ...

July 24, 2007 (Source: http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/updates/070724mnn.html) On June 28, 2007 leadership and members of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation moved to secure the site of a proposed uranium mine in the traditional lands of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation near Ardoch Ontario. Frontenac Ventures Corporation, under the ownership of George White had been notified by mail to vacate the premises prior to the 28th with his equipment and staff. On the 28th members of the two Algonquin communities moved in and secured the site to prevent the drilling of uranium core samples which were slated to begin the following week. Upon securing the site, the two communities established an alliance whose overall purpose was to prohibit access to the site and any proposed drilling within and around the site and all associated sites by Frontenac Ventures Corporation. The Algonquin alliance discovered through an initial search that multiple users had been gran...