by Sara Jaffri On October 22, a public memorial to honour the life of a young Indigenous woman murdered in Winnipeg was taken down and thrown in the garbage by a landlord just hours after her family and friends left the site of the gathering. “I attempted to speak to the landlord and ask him…
by Nooria Alam The Canadian federal government reached a settlement agreement during the month of October with the survivors of the Sixties Scoop in Ontario, after almost a decade of dragging its feet and trying to get the case thrown out of court. The federal government has been ordered to pay $750 million to the…
By Harshita Singh From August 19th to the 21st, organizers from Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines (ASAP) held their annual Toxic Tour. Buses were organized by allies and ASAP to come from Waterloo, Toronto, London and other locations. The weekend was free, and ASAP invited people to attend a Water Gathering, educational workshops and a…
In December 2014, BASICS people’s journalists Shafiq Aziz and Steve da Silva travelled to Mishkeegogamang First Nation, a remote Ojibway reserve located 7 hours north of Thunder Bay as part of a serve-the-people project launched by the First Nations Solidarity Working Group of union local CUPE 3903. Through a look at the housing situation on the reserve, BASICS…
by PJ Lilley This article is reprinted with permission from the Red Sparks Union In early August a massive tailings pond at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley copper and gold mine burst. The Secwepemc, the Xatsull and Esketemc Nations in the Cariboo region of BC immediately mobilized as the toxic waste spilled through their territories. Further north, in…
By Nicole Oliver If you roll along the curves of 6th line following the flow of the Grand River you will come across two of the three sites where the Six Nations Farmers Association (SNFA) has planted community white corn that is ready for harvest. Arthur Porter of the Oneida Nation and head of the…
by Nahnda Garlow SIX NATIONS – Late Friday, Two Row Times learned that the CAS and McMaster Children’s Hospital are seeking a push from the courts to forcibly return Jada Johnson into chemotherapy. The 11-year-old female from Six Nations was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in August. Initially the CAS did inform the child’s mother…
Connecting the Old Canada with the New Canada: a legacy of Racism By Tascha Shahriari-Parsa On May 23rd, 1914, the Komagata Maru steamship arrived in Vancouver with 376 passengers who were fleeing India. There were already over 2000 Indians living in Canada, primarily Punjabis, who faced blatant discrimination. Due to racist government policies to keep…
by Aiyanas Ormond Reproduced with permission from author and The Mainlander: Vancouver’s Place for Progressive Politics AUTHOR’S NOTE | This article emerges from 5 years of working as a community organizer for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). Thank you to the VANDU Board for allowing me to lean on their community organizing work and…
But consent from First Nations and B.C. residents wholly absent by Steve da Silva The writing on the wall couldn’t have been written in bigger, bolder, and clearer letters over the past year: The relentless exploitation of fossil fuel is rushing the planet beyond a series of irreversible environmental tipping points. Melting glaciers. Acidifying oceans.…
