January 22, 2020
Message to the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary
Chiefs and Clans
Defenders of the Land, Truth Campaign, Idle No More Networks
Defenders of the Land, Truth Campaign, Idle No More Networks
from the
Continental Commission Abya Yala
Nohuanyolqueh: Amixpantzinco, amixtlamatque
Good greetings relatives,
In September of 1995 our Continental Indigenous Commission was invited to the territories of the Secwepemc Nation to serve as Human Rights observers during the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff. At that time, we joined with our relatives from the sister nations on the northern side of the Medicine Line and crossed over the military police perimeters surrounding the Ts'Peten Sundance camp to deliver in person a request to William “Wolverine” Jones Ignace on behalf of the Continental Commission Abya Yala.
Previously, the Continental Indigenous Commission had traveled to the war zone of Chiapas, Mexico in January of 1994 to extend the prayers and powers of our Indigenous Nations in solidarity with the struggles of the Indigenous Peoples in Mexico. January 1, of 1994 marked the first day of the coming into effect of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has now been modified and “updated” under the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement CUSMA, known in the US as USMCA and in Mexico as TMEC. This international trade agreement among the governments of the three countries is at the moment pending an imminent vote of approval in the US senate.
Today, on January 22, 2020 the 88th year anniversary of the Genocide of the Indigenous Peoples in El Salvador in 1932, we extend once more our original commitment of Continental Indigenous Solidarity and Alliance in the struggle for Self Determination as Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples, “Equal to all other peoples…”
Today we extend our international recognition to the Territorial Protocols of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and Clans in full recognition and respect for having the force of International Law among our Confederations of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples, and demand that these protocols of Indigenous Self Determination be ascribed to as the only future looking path to a just and peaceful relationship with the settler state systems as they now exist in North America, including Canada.
This message is sent to you today from Nahuizalco, in the Nahuat Pipil territories of Cushcatlan, generally known as El Salvador, in Central America. It was here in Nahuizalco on January 22 of 1932 that one of the most horrendous acts of open genocide against Indigenous Peoples in the history of the continent occurred. Known as “La Matanza”, the massacre of the Nahuat Pipil on January 22 in Nahuizalco in El Salvador was one of a month-long series of massacres across the country by the military apparatus of the state in a pogrom of genocide that eventually totaled 30,000 to 35,000 Indigenous Peoples killed and buried in mass graves.
What is especially significant today as the ceremonies of commemoration of the “La Matanza” are being realized by the Indigenous Peoples of Cushcatlan in El Salvador is the political and historic connection with your struggle there at Wet’suwet’en against the INTERNATIONAL AGRESSION of the Canadian government, both provincial and federal, in the unlawful and Machiavellian attempt to normalize colonization and genocide. All of this with both the open and implicit collusion, coordination, and cooperation of other European American “white” colonizing political interests across the continent that combine in the elite power structures of the corporate settler state apparatus in the Americas. Without exception, all of the settler states of the Americas base their purported claims to territorial jurisdiction on this continent as political successors to the nefarious Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom 1492.
In the genocide of the 1932 in El Salvador, it was the military and paramilitary forces of El Salvador that committed the massacres of Indigenous Peoples, but the US and Canadian governments also played a role in support of the Anglo-American oligarchies that had been exploiting the economy of the country for decades. In classic gun boat diplomacy of the age, two Canadian and three US warships took position off the Pacific Coast of El Salvador, deployed in support action for the military dictatorship of General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez, who came to power after a coup d’état in 1931. The blood of the genocide committed against the Indigenous Peoples of El Salvador is on the hands of the dictator General Martinez, but the regime of impunity that persists for the genocide of 1932 is propped today up by the same European American (Hispanic American-Anglo American) consortia of elites and their henchmen who first appeared on our shores on October 12, 1492.
South of the US Mexico border, the Civil Law settler state republics are known as the “Estado Criollo”, the Hispanic-Portuguese equivalent of the US and Canadian systems of the English Common Law that serves as the legaloid colonial infrastructure of States and Realms of Dominion, such as is the case of British Colombia [Canada]. It is why there is a “sheriff” of Maricopa County in Arizona, a title that derives from the name of an official of the English Crown who is charged with carrying out the will of the King in a “shire” under the Realm of the Crown.
Since making the break with direct rule under the Crown Families of Europe as colonies, the cartel of internationally recognized American states continue to operate in collusion and competition simultaneously for positions of geopolitical advantage in order to exploit and expropriate the natural resources and labor of the Original Nations of the continent.
However, today’s world sees the emergence of China and the Asian economies as major players in the global economic colonizing contest. And just as Spain and Portugal turned to the Vatican (king of kings) in 1492 for assistance in ordering the profile of pillage for the “New World” to the benefit of the Old World, the international trade agreements of today take the place of the Papal Bulls that sanctified the colonies, plantations, and haciendas of the earlier colonial instrumentalities of dominion and patriarchy. Today colonization is normalized, promoted, and formalized as “economic development” within the context of the UN Development Goals 2030. It is an age of supranational and corporate empire with the global fossil fuel industry in lead position: The Empire of Petropolis.
Although by 1931, Canada had achieved the status of equality within the British Commonwealth under the Statute of Westminster, and the Canadian navy technically was not under the orders British Crown, it was the urgings of the British consul in El Salvador that led to Canadian forces making landfall during the uprising of 1932. The presence of the American warships off the Pacific coast was a US power play to reinforce the tenets of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, and bring to bear the interventionist policy of the 1904 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine with the “Big Stick” of US economic and military might to protect the American corporate interests.
The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 is the US government’s continental extrapolation of the 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh decision of the US Supreme Court which established the Doctrine of Discovery of Christendom as the fundamental law of the entire juridical system of the United States of America. All US property law, which also includes the possession of US citizenship as a property concept tied to the institutions of American “white” supremacy, is based on this legaloid doctrine. Under the tenets of the Monroe Doctrine, Uncle Sam replaced the Vatican as the Chairman of the Board for the corporate state regimes in the ongoing colonization of the Americas.
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UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples (2007)
Article 18
Article 18
Indigenous
peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would
affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance
with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own
indigenous decision-making institutions.
From the text of CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC:
Subject to Legal Review for Accuracy, Clarity, and Consistency
Subject to Language Authentication
32-1
CHAPTER 32 EXCEPTIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section A – Exceptions
Article 32.5: Indigenous Peoples Rights
Subject to Legal Review for Accuracy, Clarity, and Consistency
Subject to Language Authentication
32-1
CHAPTER 32 EXCEPTIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
Section A – Exceptions
Article 32.5: Indigenous Peoples Rights
“Provided that such measures are
not used as a means of arbitrary or unjustified discrimination against persons
of the other Parties or as a disguised restriction on trade in goods, services,
and investment, nothing in this Agreement shall preclude a Party from adopting
or maintaining a measure it deems necessary to fulfill its legal obligations to
indigenous peoples.”
Of the three countries engaged in
the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC, Canada was the only government that provided
reference of context for this operative Article regarding the rights of
Indigenous Peoples. This implies that
the Canadian interpretation of standards regarding Indigenous Peoples Rights
across the entire CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC market zone will prevail.
The events unfolding in the present Standoff at Wet’suwet’en are a defining moment that will set the precedent and process for how conflicts involving the rights of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent will be addressed and resolved. A telling narrative in the ongoing struggle is also unfolding concurrently in Pahuatlan, Puebla, Mexico where the Indigenous Peoples have also faced off against the same TC Energy petrochemical corporation (previously TransCanada) who operates seven pipelines in Mexico.
In fact, when Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced in January 2020 that in consequence to the demands of the Indigenous Peoples of Pahuatlan, Mexico invoking their rights to FPIC that one of the TC Energy pipelines would have to be rerouted, the violation of the Right of Indigenous Peoples to Free Prior and Informed Consent regarding economic development projects that impact their Human Rights and territories became an issue of FINANCIAL LIABILTY for the constituencies of the states, and shareholders of the corporations operating in complicity and collusion behind the view of public oversight.
BNN Bloomberg cites analysts as saying the action by AMLO in Mexico could create a risky precedent for indigenous communities that are already protesting a number of pipeline projects. This has already led to a decline in investments.
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The reference of context for this
chapter of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC was given in a footnote that reads:
“For greater certainty, for Canada the legal obligations include those recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 or those set out in self-government agreements between a central or regional level of government and indigenous peoples”
Before the question is asked
regarding the mechanisms to enforce legal obligations for Indigenous
Peoples whose rights under International Law are impacted by CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC,
rights that are inherent and inalienable in equality to all other peoples,
beyond the qualifying constraints of section 35 of the Canadian Constitution,
the US Constitution, or the Mexican Constitution - it is
critically important to face the fact that the government of Justin Trudeau has
already established a limiting framework of preconditions to constrict
the debate and define the context of legal responsibilities:
“The Government
of Canada recognizes that meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples AIMS
TO SECURE their free, prior, and informed consent when Canada proposes to
take actions which impact them and their rights, including their lands,
territories and resources."
Canada 10 “principles” on government’s
relationship with Indigenous peoples (July 14, 2017)
These are the same guys who took
aim at William 'Wolverine' Jones Ignace during the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake
Standoff in 1995. They fired 77,000 rounds of ammunition into the camp, yet
Wolverine walked out of the Ts'Peten/ Gustafsen Lake Standoff on September 17,
1995 in full command of all of his physical and spiritual powers as an
unbroken warrior of the Ts’Peten and all Original Nations of Indigenous
Peoples of the Great Turtle Island Abya Yala.
Wolverine did not walk out of the Ts'Peten/ Gustafsen Lake
Standoff to surrender to the RCMP nor submit to the jurisdiction of the
Canadian courts. Wolverine walked out of the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff
to deliver an INDICTMENT on behalf of the Original Nations of the Continental
Commission Abya Yala denouncing the criminal violation of Human Rights and
Territorial Rights being committed by Her Majesty the Queen in the Right of
Canada as an act of INTERNATIONAL AGRESSION against the Secwepemc Nation.
A recent article in The Guardian that reported the RCMP were prepared to use lethal force against Indigenous protesters blocking workers from clearing the Coastal GasLink’s natural gas pipeline route a year ago in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. On January 4th 2020, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs evicted Coastal GasLink corporation from their territory in exercise of the right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples. The eviction notice applies to “Camp 9A” on Dark House territory, as well as the neighbouring Gidimt’en, Tsayu, and Laksamshu clan territories.
In December of 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): issued a statement calling for the Canada to:
A recent article in The Guardian that reported the RCMP were prepared to use lethal force against Indigenous protesters blocking workers from clearing the Coastal GasLink’s natural gas pipeline route a year ago in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. On January 4th 2020, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs evicted Coastal GasLink corporation from their territory in exercise of the right of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples. The eviction notice applies to “Camp 9A” on Dark House territory, as well as the neighbouring Gidimt’en, Tsayu, and Laksamshu clan territories.
In December of 2019, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD): issued a statement calling for the Canada to:
"immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult;"
Meanwhile in Mexico, on
December 19th 2020, the Mexico office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU-DH) said that the consultations
on the government’s Maya Train project failed to meet all international
human rights standards. Such international standards establish that a
consultation process with indigenous communities must be carried out prior to a
project being executed in a manner that is culturally appropriate,
serves to inform and allows free participation.
Final Clarifications:
1.) The designation of Indigenous Peoples in the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC is definitive, in terms of the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples”. In the context of the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was not yet in place in 1994 during the original NAFTA agreement, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples in an international commercial agreement necessarily is accompanied and contextualized by the recognition of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as articulated and affirmed in the principles and articles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
2) The principle of non-discrimination is a preemptive norm in international law. Therefore, the recognition of Indigenous Peoples as “peoples” in USMCA Article 32.5 Indigenous Peoples Rights must be taken as an affirmation and commitment to uphold, recognize, respect, and institute guarantees of protection for the collective rights of Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, without illegal or arbitrary discrimination, including effective consequences in the form of legal remedies to address the violation of these rights. Colonization must not be disguised as development.
3) Consultation is not the same as consent. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent in culturally appropriate manner for all economic development projects that impact the territories and human rights of Indigenous Peoples.
4) The official text in Spanish (or any indigenous language) of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC agreement was never published in Mexico or anywhere else until the date of December 5, 2018 when our sister organization TONATIERRA requested an official copy at the offices of the Mexican consulate in Phoenix, Arizona. Without having the text of the USMCA agreement in advance, there is no legitimate or rational narrative that can explain how the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico have been consulted at least with respect to the protection of their particular and collective rights in the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC, much less taken into account with the opportunity to approve or DENY CONSENT.
5) Before his death William 'Wolverine' Jones Ignace wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in December of 2015, calling for a national public inquiry into the Ts'Peten/Gustafsen Lake Standoff. Today on January 22, 2020, anniversary of the genocide of the Indigenous Nahaut Pipil in El Salvador, the Continental Commission Abya Yala reiterates and extends this call for accountability and inquiry, including investigation of the role of the Canadian government in the genocide of 1932.
As Original Nations, acting in the spirit and responsibility of Self Determination as Indigenous Peoples, equal to all other peoples, we call for an International Inquiry and prosecution on the systematic violation of Indigenous Peoples rights by the government of Canada in complicity with other states and entities of finance such as the World Bank.
We demand an end to the complicity and collusion in the colonization and genocide of Indigenous Peoples on this continent by the consortia of extractive industries whose main base of operations are in Canada.
We call for the public constituencies of Mexico-US-Canada to raise their voice of protest and in denunciation that the public institutions of government are being subverted to the criminal and dehumanizing service of the international corporate cartels of PETROPOLIS.
We demand an accounting and moratorium on the approval of the CUSMA-USMCA-TMEC until the right of Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent is recognized, respected and effective mechanisms of protection are instituted to correct the violation of this right, as is now happening in the Standoff at Wet’suwet’en.
We call for all Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples to stand in defense of the Territorial Integrity of Mother Earth.
TIME IS NOW.
NAHUACALLI
Embassy of Indigenous Peoples
www.nahuacalli.org
For those who have yet to become aware of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán, it is a
megadevelopment project that has been broadly denounced by the Maya communities
of the region, national and international associations of environmental and
Human Rights defenders, and very significantly a growing alliance of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples
that stretches from Mexico, across the USA and into Canada. The Maya of the Yucatán have called the project the “Train that Tramples the Maya” and are moving towards an
international boycott campaign and call to divest.
For comparison, the unilateral and subversive approval of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán by AMLO can be understood as the Mexican version of the underhanded and unscrupulous manner which Donald Trump gave the fast track approval to the permit of the Dakota Access Pipeline when he first took office in 2017. In Canada, under the government of Justin Trudeau, the same scenario is being played out across the country in different levels of conflict such as the resistance to the TransCanada Pipeline projects in the unceded territories of the Secwepemc Nation and the battle of the Unist’ot’en Camp [British Colombia] against the Tar Sands Gigaproject. In the east, the fight against fracking by the Elsipogtog First Nation [New Brunswick] is one of the many ongoing active resistance efforts of the Indigenous Self Determination movement north of the “Medicine Line”, the US-Canada international border.
August 12, 2019
A natural gas pipeline was scheduled to go online in 2017,
but TransCanada wasn’t counting on indigenous resistance.
By Martha Pskowski
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YouTube:
January 1,
2020
January 7, 2020
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Action
Network Online Petition
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, House Committee on
Foreign Affairs
With the vote on the USMCA now pending in the US Congress,
there has been no substantive debate on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples
to be impacted by the modification of the NAFTA multilateral trade agreement
(1994). This is not acceptable, and in fact is a violation of the right of
Indigenous Peoples to Free, Prior and Informed Consent in good faith as is
articulated in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).
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For those who have yet to become aware of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán, it is a
megadevelopment project that has been broadly denounced by the Maya communities
of the region, national and international associations of environmental and
Human Rights defenders, and very significantly a growing alliance of Original Nations of Indigenous Peoples
that stretches from Mexico, across the USA and into Canada. The Maya of the Yucatán have called the project the “Train that Tramples the Maya” and are moving towards an
international boycott campaign and call to divest.
For comparison, the unilateral and subversive approval of the Maya Train project in the Yucatán by AMLO can be understood as the Mexican version of the underhanded and unscrupulous manner which Donald Trump gave the fast track approval to the permit of the Dakota Access Pipeline when he first took office in 2017. In Canada, under the government of Justin Trudeau, the same scenario is being played out across the country in different levels of conflict such as the resistance to the TransCanada Pipeline projects in the unceded territories of the Secwepemc Nation and the battle of the Unist’ot’en Camp [British Colombia] against the Tar Sands Gigaproject. In the east, the fight against fracking by the Elsipogtog First Nation [New Brunswick] is one of the many ongoing active resistance efforts of the Indigenous Self Determination movement north of the “Medicine Line”, the US-Canada international border.
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A Concept of Native Title by Leroy Littlebear
By Leroy Littlebear (1982)
If justice and fairness are underlying goals of today’s
government and court system, then the concepts and the philosophy of Indian
people should certainly be taken into consideration and given as much weight as
British concepts and philosophy. But if
justice and fairness are not underlying goals, then we should stop covering
ourselves with a false aura of sacredness and bring out things in the open, so
everybody knows where they stand. In
other words, if we cannot be bothered with justice and fairness, we should, at
least, be truthful.
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