This day in 1890: The massacre at Wounded Knee

Court of Leaves, Painting by GateKeeper

By TONY SEED

Originally published December 28, 2018

1890 (29 December): The 7th U.S. Cavalry commanded by Col. James Forsyth massacred 300 unarmed and peaceful Lakhota Sioux Indians, many of them women and children, at Wounded Knee Creek (Chankpe Opi Wakpala), South Dakota – a Lakota encampment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation – after a fruitless search for weapons in their encampment. In other words, the Sioux are completely disarmed. About thirty soldiers also died, many victims of their own crossfire.

This day. Day of indigenous rebellion for their land and nature

Illustration in Prensa Latina

By Marta Denis Valle, Prensa Latina 

Havana (Prensa Latina) More than 500 years after the controversial discovery of the so-called New World, descendants of the original peoples of the American continent maintain their sense of rebellion, in defence of their land and nature.

The arrival of the first expedition of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón, 1451-1506), on October 12, 1492, to the island of Guanahaní, in the Lucayas or Bahamas, is an event celebrated for decades as a national holiday of Spain, with the qualification of Columbus Day, an ambiguous term.

Vikings spread smallpox around the world 1,400 years ago

A thousand years before the great epidemics

Viking bones from 1,400 years ago

Researchers found the oldest smallpox strain in the teeth of Vikings, the remains of which were recently discovered. Now the Covid-19 travels faster.

This Day. The Summer Solstice and Quebec’s National Holiday

186 years of National Day celebrations

On June 24, 1834, 186 years ago, Ludger Duvernay, founder of the patriotic institution Aide-toi le ciel t’aidera (God helps those who help themselves) inaugurated this day as the National Day of the fledgling Quebec nation and dedicated the first toast to “the people, the primary source of all legitimate authority.” Ever since, “this celebration, the purpose of which is to cement the union between Canadiens,”[1] is the occasion to celebrate, through music and song, gatherings, parades and neighbourhood activities, who we are as a people, where we come from and where we are going. It is a multi-dimensional celebration of the season, very much like the summer solstice and celebrates the need for us all, of diverse social and national backgrounds, to come together and take stock of our common history and social relations.

This Day. ‘Discovery’ of New Found Land and Cape Breton: Who was Caboto and what was his claim on Canada?

The Venetian navigator Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), commissioned by Henry VII of England, landed in Newfoundland, on June 24, 1497 believing it to be an island off the coast of Asia and named it New Found Land. [1] Under the commission of this king to “conquer, occupy, and possess” the lands of “heathens and infidels”, Caboto reconnoitred the Newfoundland coast and also landed on the northern shore of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. [2]

He returned to England on August 6 and took three Mi’kmaq with him, thereby introducing slavery into North America. This may be responsible for his disappearance when he returned to Newfoundland with five ships in 1498. When his ships arrived in northern Cape Breton Island, the Mí’kmaq attacked. Only one ship returned to England, the other four, with Caboto as Captain, never returned.

Military reports on seniors’ homes in Ontario and Quebec: A clumsy attempt to find a role for the military in civilian affairs

“It is all about systematically introducing the military to play a larger and larger role in civilian life. All the while governments continue to refuse to permit the unions and civil society organizations to play the role that belongs to them by right” | TONY SEED*

Following the release of the report by the Canadian Armed Forces on the conditions in long-term care homes in Ontario this week, CBC defence reporter Murray Brewster, who used to be embedded in Afghanistan by the Department of National Defence, wrote on May 27: “Sending soldiers to long-term care homes seemed like a strange idea – until they told us what they saw there.”[1]

The people are not the problem – they are the solution

Without the mobilization of the human factor/social consciousness of the working people and their organizations to address the crisis of the pandemic, all that is left is police powers, repression and blaming the workers and people | STEVE RUTCHINSKI

This day in 1945: On Holocaust Memorial Day

Red Army doctor attends to Auschwitz prisoner after its liberation on January 27, 1945

In this seminal essay originally published on this website in 2009, Dr Hakim Adi challenges the false narrative around Holocaust Memorial Day. January 27, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945, is commemorated as Holocaust Memorial Day internationally.

152nd anniversary of Confederation: All out to give Canada a modern constitution and definition of rights

July 1 marks the 152nd anniversary of Confederation. On this date in 1867, the British North America Act, 1867 united four separate colonies of the British Empire in North America into the Dominion of Canada. The Indigenous nations and peoples were made subject to the racist colonial Indian Act and subjected to genocide on a grand scale while the Métis people were also treated on a racist basis and the Métis Nation was ignored.

A reflection on Mangkhut, Florence and the state of the Philippines

Canada must provide humanitarian assistance without conditions to the people of the Philippines | TONY SEED

My thoughts have been with all my friends and the fraternal peoples of the Philippines and South Asia threatened from super typhoon Mangkhut. My aim in this reflection is to analyze the news coverage of both Florence and Mangkhut and to inform Canadians about the reality facing the Filipino people.

(September 15) – Mangkhut is the 15th and strongest storm this year to batter the Philippines.

Mangkhut (also known as Ompong) has brought ferocious winds of up to 130mph and a storm surge of up to 23ft. The Category 5 typhoon greatly surpasses the strength of Hurricane Florence now striking the US Atlantic coast.

No consent – No pipeline! Canadian’s opposition to Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project

Protesters block the gates of Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain facility, March 17, 2018.

Sighting. Map of Tenochtitlan, 1524

Context for the first European image of the Aztec capital, razed by the Spanish in 1521 | KATE WILES

This day. Quebec’s National Day

June 24, 1834. Ludger Duvernay and the members of the Aide-toi, le ciel t’aiders Society (“God helps those who help themselves”) institute June 24 as Quebec’s National Day | http://www.fetenationale.qc.ca

On June 24, the people of Quebec officially mark their National Day established in 1834 by the Quebec patriot Ludger Duvernay and the members of the Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera Society (“God helps those who help themselves”). The Society was founded on March 8 of the same year with the aim to “provide a designated place for thought to discuss the country’s state of affairs” and “to rekindle the burning desire of love of country, either by shedding light on the deeds of those governing us, or by paying fair tribute to the eloquent and brave defenders of our rights.”

We dot the I’s: Obama, CNN and political prisoners

By TONY SEED (Published March 21, slightly revised by the author on March 26) 

According to CNN, Cuban president Raul Castro “refused to answer the question,” when US president Barack Obama called on Jim Acosta, the Senior White House Correspondent for CNN, a Cuban-American, to ask the first question in a joint press conference with President Raúl Castro at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana on March 21. (After the presentations by the two heads of state in the joint press conference, the floor was opened to questions from the large number of international and Cuban journalists.) Acosta cynically asked if Cuba would release political prisoners.

President Castro immediately replied:

“Give me the list of political prisoners and I will release them immediately. Just mention a list. What political prisoners? Give me a name or names. After this meeting is over, you can give me a list of political prisoners. And if we have those political prisoners, they will be released before tonight ends.”

Before her assassination, Berta Cáceres singled out Hillary Clinton for backing Honduran coup

Berta Caceres at the banks of the Gualcarque River in the Rio Blanco region of western Honduras where she, COPINH (the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) and the people of Rio Blanco have maintained a two year struggle to halt construction on the Agua Zarca Hydroelectric project, that poses grave threats to local environment, river and indigenous Lenca people from the region.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is facing a new round of questions about her personal role in the 2009 coup in Honduras that ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup, Honduras has become one of the most violent places in the world. Last week, indigenous activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home. In an interview two years ago, Cáceres singled out Clinton for her role supporting the coup. “We’re coming out of a coup that we can’t put behind us. We can’t reverse it,” Cáceres said. “It just kept going. And after, there was the issue of the elections. The same Hillary Clinton, in her book, ‘Hard Choices”, practically said what was going to happen in Honduras. This demonstrates the meddling of North Americans in our country. The return of the president, Mel Zelaya, became a secondary issue. There were going to be elections in Honduras. And here she [Clinton] recognized that they didn’t permit Mel Zelaya’s return to the presidency.”

Yesterday Amy Goodman of Democracy Now played this rarely seen clip of Cáceres and interviewed historian Greg Grandin.

Condemn the assassination of Honduran leader Berta Cáceres

Berta Cáceres in Intibuca, Honduras, January 2015 | T. Russo

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) condemns the assassination of Honduran Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres. Cáceres, co-founder of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) was shot by gunmen who broke into her home in the early morning hours of March 3. A tireless fighter for the rights of the peoples, she was a leader of the Lenca people of the Rio Blanco area of Honduras. Most recently, she was leading the fight against the Honduran government’s violation of Indigenous title and in favour of the requirement to obtain the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples for any proposed new hydroelectric projects on their territories.

Australia’s day for secrets, flags and cowards

By JOHN PILGER

On 26 January, one of the saddest days in human history will be celebrated in Australia. It will be “a day for families,” say the newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Flags will be dispensed at street corners and displayed on funny hats. People will say incessantly how proud they are.

Genocidal health conditions of Indigenous peoples

The CBC in August 2015 reported the results of a study from Statistics Canada showing risk of avoidable death for First Nations peoples twice that (in some cases five times that) of non-natives. On January 15th, 2016, it featured a plea by the Ontario First Nations Regional Chief, Isadore Day, that Canadians deal with the fact of inadequate health care for aboriginal peoples.

What does jailing a Palestinian political leader say about Israeli ‘democracy’?

Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, was sentenced to 15 months in prison this week by a kangaroo court for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, but was her trial in a military court just? The use of military courts is in contravention of international law and may constitute a war crime. And what does it say about the irrational political, diplomatic, economic and military support successive Canadian governments give the State of Israel under the hoax that it is “the only democracy in the Middle East”? Four articles and photos.

Khalida Jarrar in the courtroom of the Ofer detention facility, in May 2015 | AP

Hareetz Editorial (December 9) – Khalida Jarrar is a political prisoner. The Ofer Military Court, which on Monday sentenced the Palestinian parliamentarian to 15 months in prison for membership in an illegal organization and incitement, is a political court that punished her for her political activity, and for that alone. Thus Israel, which pretends to be a democracy, has political prisoners, political arrests and political prison sentences, at least in the occupied territories.

UN COP21 Paris Climate Accord: Indigenous rights on chopping block

– Indigenous Environmental Network –

Paris (December 5) – On Friday December 4th, Indigenous Peoples from around the globe demonstrated inside the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC/COP21) convention centre at Le Bourget. The protest was carried out to highlight objections to the proposed removal of language pertaining to both the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights from Article 2.2 of the draft Paris Accord, ending the first week of negotiations. Norway, the UK and the EU have been key players in this removal of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Changing of the guard: Canada’s new government takes office

At 10:30 am on November 4, surrounded by a lot of hoopla, Justin Trudeau was sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister. Prior to that, Stephen Harper tendered his formal resignation to the Governor General in a private meeting.

The cabinet is comprised of 31 members including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who is also Minister for Youth and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. It is comprised of 15 women and 16 men. The average age is 52, with ages ranging from 30 to 69.

Zero tolerance for barbaric acts of the Harper government!

The Harper Conservatives have gone beyond the pale, announcing they would establish a “tip line” to goad people to report their neighbours if they suspect them of “barbaric cultural practices.” Their aim is to divide the polity and justify what cannot be justified. PEGGY ASKIN

Peggy Askin is the MLPC candidate for Calgary Midnapore.

Jason Kenney Minister of Defence and Minister for Multiculturalism was one of the main figures pushing the Conservatives’ Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act adopted June 16, 2015. In speaking about it in Parliament, Kenney first said that there is a problem that people refuse to leave behind their “barbaric cultural practices” when they come to Canada. He then used this allegation to say that immigrants have a “duty to integrate” into Canadian society. What he was suggesting is there is no problem of violence against women in Canada, only that brought by immigrants. Instead of taking measures to end violence against women and increase the safety of women at risk, passions are inflamed and communities singled out for scrutiny. None of this actually deals with the issue of violence against women.

Official admission of long-concealed genocide by the Canadian ruling circles

Tens of thousands First Nation children died in residential schools. The fact that Canada’s Aboriginal peoples have not been wiped out, and are indeed growing in numbers, is not proof that genocide never occurred, as some would have us believe. The historical and psychological reality of genocide among our Aboriginal communities is very much alive and a part of living memory. The sooner we recognize this truth, the sooner accounts may be truly rendered without impunity.

By Dene Moore | The Canadian Press

(This article was originally published on March 14, 2014) – The death records of tens of thousands of First Nations children who died during the time residential schools were operating in Canada have been handed over to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Evo Morales: Indigenous people are prepared to govern

Bolivian President, Evo Morales, stated on October 22, that indigenous people are prepared to govern, despite what neoliberal politicians have said for many years.

Morales, who participated in the inauguration of irrigation projects in Ocuri, in the north of Potosí, stated that in the past it was said that indigenous people were only good for voting and not governing.

Palestine and the Onkwehonwe

By CLIFTON ARIHWAKEHTE NICHOLAS*

(July 30) – “Palestine, that’s none of our business.” Or so some may think and say.

The genocide unfolding in Palestine has been intensifying over the last five years and particularly over the last few weeks. Why you ask, should Indigenous people in the Americas be concerned or vocal about these atrocities?

Ontario election: The need to establish relations with First Nations on a modern historical basis

Philip Fernandez, Ontario Political Forum (May 22) – THE RING OF FIRE is a massive deposit of chromite and other strategic minerals in Northern Ontario worth some $60 billion. Located in the traditional lands of seven First Nations, it has been the subject of debate and discussion for a number of years since it was discovered. Its development has been blocked from proceeding because the First Nations concerned have affirmed their right to a say and control over how this mineral wealth is to be developed.

Ontario: Wynne’s no-win whammy

January 26, 2014 marked one year since Kathleen Wynne was selected as premier by 1,115 delegates to the Ontario Liberal Party’s leadership convention. Many of these were Liberal MPs, MPPs, failed candidates and party “insiders.” They were not elected as delegates but entitled to attend the convention according to provisions in the party constitution.

Britain has invaded nine out of ten countries in the world

“The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the world found only 22 which have never experienced an invasion by the British.” So are Mali, Chad and Belarus next then? (In fact, since early 2013, Britain has been intervening militarily on the side of the French, who are using airlift supplied by Canada and the USA to intervene in Mali.) In this connection, it is sobering to reflect that leading British politicians openly justify or even celebrate the crimes of colonialism. Tony Blair infamously stated that the British Empire was a “remarkable achievement.” Gordon Brown declared that Britain should stop apologising for colonialism, although nobody has been able to find any evidence of such an apology. David Cameron prefers to speak about colonialism in terms of the great “benefits” that Britain gave to the world in the 19th century and declares that overall, Britain’s “contribution” was a “good one.” The crimes of British colonialism in India alone resulted in the deaths of over 20 million from famine alone.

For his part, Stephen Harper, echoing the Cameron approach, shamelessly hails the “benign” “benefits” of the British Empire, sponsors lavish royal visits and restores “royal” to the navy and air force. It is unfashionable, Mr. Harper acknowledges, to speak of colonial legacies as anything other than oppressive, although there is no evidence of any Tory official speaking against British oppression: “But in the Canadian context, the actions of the British Empire were largely benign and occasionally brilliant.” Speaking as a colonialist, British magnanimity, he acclaimed, ensured the survival of French culture;  Québec is an oppressed nation without the right of self-determination but with a culture that is Québecois and not French, which is a language. British approaches to the aboriginal population, “while far from perfect, were some of the fairest and most generous of the period.” The Beothuk and Mi’kmaq will be pleased. So far as the native peoples are concerned, of course, the “approaches” were genocide. which was “far from perfect”: apart from the Beothuk, the First Nations actually survived, a testament to their resistance.

21 of the 22 countries that have not been invaded by Britain

Jasper Copping, The Telegraph (Nov. 4, 2012 ) – EVERY SCHOOLBOY used to know that at the height of the empire, almost a quarter of the atlas was coloured pink, showing the extent of British rule.

But that oft recited fact dramatically understates the remarkable global reach achieved by this country.

A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe.

Idle No More reiterates call for nation-to-nation relations

On October 7, the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, a Day of Action was called by Idle No More to mark the anniversary of the Proclamation. Events were held across Canada and world wide. TML Daily summarizes the salient issues and reports on these events with many photos.

THE Royal Proclamation was issued in the context of the British acquisition of France’s colonial territory in North America after France was defeated in the Seven Years’ War. The Proclamation was issued by King George III to officially demarcate what were considered the lands of the British Colonies and lands considered the territory of the Indigenous peoples (Indians), within the British Dominion. It states, “And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to Our Interest and the Security of Our Colonies, that the several Nations or Tribes of Indians, with whom We are connected, and who live under Our Protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the Possession of such Parts of Our Dominions and Territories as, not having been ceded to, or purchased by Us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as their Hunting Grounds; […]”

Elsipogtog First Nation’s defence of rights met with state violence

RCMP pepper spray peaceful protestors, October 18, 2013.

TML Daily (Oct. 21) – THE Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick has been blockading a fracking operation by SWN Resources Canada, a subsidiary of Texas-based Southwestern Energy (SWN). This spring, SWN began preliminary testing for shale gas exploitation in the area without prior consultation with First Nations, as required by law.