Cecilia Begg is the Head Councillor of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation. She is the lone female community leader in what has come to be known as the KI6, a group serving six months for contempt after blockading a mining company from its licensed operations on disputed land near their community. In her first interview since her incarceration, she spoke with The Enterprise’s Jon Thompson at the Kenora jail about the road that has led her to this point, the reasons she is fighting the development, and the path that she hopes will emerge from her imprisonment.

The land entitlement claim that KI filed back in 2000 had been licensed to junior mining company, Platinex. Did that claim have anything to do with the fact that the government licensed a mining operation on the traditional territory of your people?

FEBRUARY , 2008- Robert Lovelace, former chief of the Ardoch Lake Algonquin First Nation, has begun a six month jail sentence for his role in peacefully resisting uranium exploration near Sharbot Lake this passed fall. He and his community will also have to pay $35,000 in fines. Frontenac Ventures, A uranium exploration company has claimed 30,000 acres of land in eastern Ontario around the headwaters of the Mississippi system, which feeds the Ottawa River.

For over four months now Albert Douglas has been locked up in the Barton Street jail in Hamilton, Ontario. He faces a number of charges including assault and attempted murder. The serious charges stem from an alleged confrontation between Douglas and American government agents at the Douglas Creek reclamation site in Caledonia.

On June 9th 2006 an undercover American ATF vehicle was spotted driving past the reclamation site, the occupants taking photographs of those involved. According to the police Albert Douglas hijacked the vehicle and assaulted those inside, one officer subsequently decided to jump from the vehicle and was injured. After this incident a country wide arrest warrant was issued and Douglas was arrested during a routine traffic stop on Highway 401 on September 27th 2007.

Common Cause Ottawa interview with Pete St-Antoine of Peoples Global Action (PGA) Bloc Ottawa

Q. Could you introduce yourself?

I’m Pete St-Antoine and I organize with Peoples Global Action (PGA) Bloc Ottawa.

Q. PGA Ottawa is organizing around the No 2010 campaign against the Olympics in Vancouver. What are the reasons that you’re opposing it?

There are lots of reasons we’re opposing the Olympics. One of the main ones is that they’re happening on stolen (aboriginal) land. That’s one on the main things that people are rallying around in Vancouver. People are losing their land and they’re also seeing a lot of land being destroyed. A lot of mountains are being destroyed right now. There are huge expansions right now of many resorts. Sun Peaks is one of them. They are countless resorts that are being expanded for the Olympics as part of the infrastructure and also because of the huge amount of traffic that they’re expecting during that time period.

On February 28, on the second anniversary of the start of the Six Nations land reclamation at Caledonia, McMaster University was the site of the important event, “The Land Reclamation at Caledonia/Kanonhstaton: Two Years Later...” The day-long event brought together many of the major figures of this historic and ongoing struggle. The following is a brief summary of the first part of the event.

On February 13, 2008 the “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land” speaking tour passed through Hamilton. The speakers included Kanahus Pellkey, a Secwepemc and Ktnuxa Warrior and member of the Native Youth Movement. They spoke while taking care of their very young children who occasionally grabbed the attention of the 50+ crowd with their laughter and curiosity. Despite the title of the talk, the 2010 Olympics were only briefly mentioned as the speakers spoke freely on a wide range topics. The following is a summary of some of the key themes that we picked up on.

Canada is getting ready to play host to the 2010 winter Olympic games and the 2010 G8 summit, and is also preparing to ratify the SPP agreement.

But resistance to these events has already started! From coast to coast anti-imperialists, anti-capitalists, anti-poverty activists and folks opposed to the military and economic occupations at home and abroad are mobilizing and organizing to confront these institutions!

On February 12th PGA Ottawa is launching its “Capital Punishment 2010” campaign, aimed at disrupting business as usual for the corporations that will be profiting from the Olympics, the SPP and the G8 summit. Join us on Feb 12th (two year countdown to the games). We will be marching through the market area to expose and oppose the NACC, CCCE and Olympics sponsors operating in our city.
You are encouraged to bring noisemakers, a fiery heart and any other instruments to light up the night.

The paper is one arm of Common Cause publishing, the other is our website. There you will find dozens of additional articles and photographs from Common Cause members, as well as announcements and events our members are involved in.
Read more at the Common Cause web site.
www.linchpin.ca

Against The Apartheid Wall

Using festive protests and direct action against the fence and wall, Anarchists Against The Wall have become well known for their creative modes of resistance.

Book review: Free women of Spain by Martha A. Acklesberg
http://www.linchpin.ca/node/521

Karine looks at a book that summarizes the experiences of women anarchist organizers during the Spanish revolution

Review: Perseopolis
http://linchpin.ca/node/522

R. Rosen went to see Persepolis, a film based on the comic strip about the experiences of a young women during the Iranian revolution and the years that followed.

Review: Alan Sears on the infrastructure of dissent

Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization that wants to see anarchists active in every town, neighborhood and workplace across Ontario.

A major focus of our activity is work at those crucial points where working class people are organizing together for control over their lives, the decisions affecting them and against oppression Our general approach is to involve ourselves with mass movements and work within these movements, in order to promote anarchist methods of organization involving direct democracy and direct action.

The methods of struggle that we promote are a preparation for the running of society along anarchist and communist lines after the revolution.

Normally the settlement of claims to property are something the court system takes very seriously. The very foundation of capitalism after all is that some person can claim ownership of a piece of land, and through that ownership charge others rent to use it explains Andrew Fleming