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“No Olympics on Stolen Native Land”

On Saturday December 27th, in Kitchener Ontario over 200 people headed the call out for a public mobilization against the 2010 olympic torch and acted in solidarity with those on the west coast of this country who are being negatively impacted because of the upcoming winter games.

Down in the basement of a typically plush Toronto public library, residents from the Davenport Neighbors for Peace group, several US soldiers that had jacked in active service and their partners gathered to sketch plans for their fight for sanctuary. A palpable disappointment dripped - really this was a meeting borne from desperation, some weeks prior the Canadian Supreme Court had rejected refugee status for American troops refusing to serve in Iraq.

One of those present, Kim Rivera, a red head in her early twenties, served in an Artillery unit in Baghdad from August 2006. Not long there she'd hear tales of gore, IED's and guts through the combat zone grapevine. It wasn't the "gory part of war" that changed her mind on the mission but the dehumanisation of Iraqi workers forced to etch out employment inside military compounds.

"We checked the vehicles, the civilian personal for things they couldn't have, like audio players. Things you take for granted every day."

Nine months into an occupation at a previously non-native, privately operated gravel quarry, the Bay of Quinte Mohawks are preparing for winter. The quarry is part of the Culbertson Tract, about 900 acres, which includes much of Deseronto, ON, that is being discussed as part of the land claims process. The land is recognized as Mohawk land, negotiations are around how to return it. The feds want to pay the Mohawks for the land, the Mohawks want the land itself. Until the occupation, 800 dump trucks of gravel per month were being taken from the land under discussion. Now this has stopped, and the negotiations continue.