Welcome to the online journalism portfolio for Krystalline Kraus
This site is designed to be the online journalism portfolio of Krystalline Kraus. These examples of my writing are posted according to date published.
Here you will find writing samples from my work on rabble.ca. I have been writing for rabble.ca
since September 2001. From 2001-present, my duties include feature news and current event articles, publishing photo-essays and writing a daily blog column. My articles are also published in Manitoba’s First Perspective News and The Drum.
Working in the news media, I have experience in writing professional news articles quickly and accurately to meet deadline
I also have experience writing speeches for the mayor of a large GTA municipality, as well as research documents for projects; both skills enable to me conduct accurate background, investigative research under time constraints.
Rabble.ca is a Canada, online political and current issues magazine, which began publishing in April 2001 under publisher Judy Rebick. Therefore, my writing in this case is geared towards an audience that is progressive. This said, while I understand that journalism isn’t activism, activism can make for some interesting journalism.
Of overall importance, is allowing individual and community stories to reach a mainstream audience. It is this act of storytelling that emphasizes Atkinson’s principles of “focussing public attention” on matters of social, political and economic importance.
Thank you for considering my work.
Sincerely,
Krystalline Kraus
416-829-5729
Blog column post example
Activist Communiqué: Dene First Nation throws support behind stopping Enbridge Pipeline
By Krystalline Kraus | July 25, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/07/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-dene-first-nation-throws-support-behind
The Dene First Nation –whose territory stretches from Northern Alberta to across the entire North
West Territories – passed a resolution supporting British Columbia’s Yinka Deneerent in their opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and supporting the right for Indigenous decision making power over their territory.
Much of Dene territory is coveted by the Enbridge Corporation (over 50 per cent of the pipeline and tanker routes) for its Northern Gateway pipeline project, a $5.5 billion dollar project. When completed, it will carry an average of 525,000 barrels of petroleum per day.
Enbridge Corp. notes the benefits to Northern businesses during the three year construction of the pipeline as well as the creation of thousands of jobs, including “approximately 62,700 person-years of construction employment throughout the Canadian economy, including a peak workforce of approximately 3,000 workers”.
It has also pledged one per cent of pre-tax revenue to First Nations communities.
This said, at the 41st Annual Dene National Assembly earlier this month, the thirty-five Chiefs of Denendeh (representing the Dene First Nation) voted in solidarity with the Yinka Dene Alliance to oppose the pipeline project, as it is, “also a direct concern for members of the Dene Nation and communities in Denendeh, the Northwest Territories, who are feeling the effects of tar sands expansion.”
“We know this pipeline will enable further development of Alberta’s destructive tar sands projects, which are contaminating the waters of Denendeh, and which are a growing source of greenhouse gas pollution responsible for the climate changes that are impacting our communities, cultures, and ways of life,” Erasmus said.
“We are also concerned about the potential for a spill from this pipeline, which would run through the headwaters of the Mackenzie River watershed. We are currently experiencing the impacts of an oil spill from Enbridge’s Norman Wells pipeline in the Deh Cho region. The company failed to detect this estimated 63,000 gallon spill, which was ultimately discovered by Dene hunters,” said Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus.
While on its website, Enbridge claims that it operates “according to the highest industry standards for safety and environmental protection” the Dene First Nation notes that “with over 100 pipeline spills and accidents recorded in Canada over the past two years there is only one thing to say about pipelines; they will spill,” Erasmus said.
He went on to note that, “More than 50 per cent of the proposed Enbridge pipeline and tanker route passes through the territories of First Nations that have banned this development according to their traditional laws. These Nations now have the support of Dene from northern Alberta to the Arctic coast.”
In the neighbouring First Nation of the Alberta Lubicon Cree, the TransCanada Pipeline’s North Central Corridor project has experienced its own environmental catastrophic leaks when 4.5 million litres of tar sands crude and diluent spilled uncontrollably out onto Lubicon Cree traditional territory in May, 2011.
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Feature news writing example
Death and the plastic shamans
By Krystalline Kraus | July 18, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/07/death-and-plastic-shamans
First, I’d like to pass some virtual tobacco to Robert Animikii Horton for his words of wisdom in an earlier article for rabble.ca concerning the appropriation of Indigenous culture: On the theft and appropriation of Indigenous cultures.
There is no need for me to, in turn, appropriate the ideas of Horton in an attempt to re-write his wisdom for context on why theft and cultural appropriation of Indigenous cultures is so harmful, but I would like to use his article as context to the “Sweat Lodge Deaths” in 2009 in Sedona, California. Award-winning author James Arthur Ray who facilitated the sweat lodge was found guilty on June 22 of causing the death of three people. It is unsure what will happen to Ray’s “spiritual career” now.
James Arthur Ray is the self-help guru. He is also a Plastic Shaman.
A plastic shaman is defined by Horton as someone who performs First Nations spiritual “services for profit, as well as personal opportunism and ego taking advantage of others due to inadequacy, a lack of moral compass, or the vain wish to be reborn within an objectifying obsession and fascination…This is to appropriate, to exploit, to steal, to acquire, to minimize, and to capture a sacred culture.”
Thus is the idiocy of trying to jam too many people into a First Nations “traditional” sweat lodge in the Sedona heat and bullying them to stay inside the lodge, causing the death of three participants on Oct. 8, 2009. Ray was found guilty of negligent homicide in the deaths of James Shore, Kirby Brown and Liz Neuman.
On that day at Ray’s New Age “Spiritual Warrior” retreat at his Angel Valley Retreat Center near Sedona, Arizona, other than the three deaths, 18 others were hospitalized after suffering burns, dehydration, breathing problems, kidney failure or elevated body temperature from attending his sweat lodge ceremony.
Another red flag is that Ray is making people pay for a Vision Quest. The attendees of the “Spiritual Warrior” retreat paid $10,000 each to participate in the retreat, had fasted for 36 hours during a vision quest exercise before the next day’s sweat lodge.
In case you want to try and wrangle up some sympathy for Ray as newbie to all this, know that in 2005, at the same ranch during a similar “Spiritual Warrior” retreat led by him, a 42-year-old man was seriously injured after reportedly falling unconscious after exercises inside the sweat lodge.
In response to the sweat lodge deaths, on Nov. 12, 2009, the Lakota Nation (located in North and South Dakota) launched a lawsuit against the United States, the state of Arizona, Ray, and the Angel Valley site owners under the Sioux Treaty of 1868 between the United States and the Lakota Nation.
“The Lakota Nation alleges that Ray and the Retreat Center have (1) Violated Article 1 of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 by violating the peace between the United States and the Lakota Nation, (2) Desecrated the Onikig’a (sweat lodge ceremony) by causing the three deaths, (3) Violated the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Arts. 29 & 36, and (4) that Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center committed fraud by impersonating an Indian and should be held accountable for the deaths to the survivors.”
Ray’s spirituality seems to revolve around wealth attainment. Consider the titles of his books: The Science of Success, Practical Spirituality: How to Use Spiritual Power to Create Tangible Results, Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want and The Seven Laws of True Wealth: Create the Life You Desire and Deserve.
I honestly don’t know how spirituality and wealth can be mashed together, as new-agers often mash up different cultures, religions and concepts of spirituality into a mush palpable to the eager but often timid white tongue. But I don’t believe it’s very spiritual to take advantage of — to the tune of $10,000 each — people who are perhaps so spiritually bankrupted from capitalism themselves that they think they can throw more money at the problem.
Money to buy a Vision Quest Experience. Money to buy entrance into a Sweat Lodge Ceremony. Maybe get a “proper Indian name” or dodem which will have to include references to Thunder Horses or High Flying Eagles or other cool, white-people-like animals.
I can only speak from my white-skinned perspective, but this whole situation — the selling of appropriated Indigenous culture for profit by someone non-Indigenous — surely required a white-person-to-white-person intervention since I think it’s important that we stand up to this kind of cultural abuse by others of our kind. Enough is enough.
We need to make a public stand against this appropriation by first seeking advice and guidance from the aggrieved culture — not simply acting on their behalf. I know First Nations have had enough of us white knights, rushing into a situation and asking questions later.
In an Angel Valley press release dated Oct. 13, 2009, it states its “sympathy“.
Regarding the cultural appropriation of First Nations traditions (such as the sweat lodge), it claims, “We want to express our sincerest feelings towards the Native American Community for this having taken place on the sacred land that we are the stewards of. We have been offered assistance by Native American friends to heal the land, which we have accepted with gratitude. We also know that an initiative has been taken among those who lead sweat lodges in the authentic way, to get together and review how incidents like this can be avoided in the future. We feel the pain of the Native American Community”.
The lack of understanding is clear in how the letter is signed off, with “Michael and Amayra Hamilton, the co-founders of Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center”, claiming they are the “owners of the land”. I point out: no-one can own the land.
So where does that leave us, with the “owners of the land” claiming they “understand the pain of the Native American Community”?
Let me again return to the words of Robert Animikii Horton, “The above-described thieves, whether they realize it or not, have assumed the duty to finish what many, such as; residential school priests and administrators, assimilationists in the halls of government fuelling the fires in the engines of colonialism, and those who sought to exploit resources; have sought to do in the past. This is to appropriate, to exploit, to steal, to acquire, to minimize, and to capture a sacred culture.”
Do they, can they, really feel this pain?
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Blog column post example
Victory! ESKA pulls its racist ads
By Krystalline Kraus | July 8, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/07/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-eska-water-needs-stop-its-native-white–
UPDATE late July 8, 2011: Responding to community pressure and a boycott, ESKA announced yesterday that it was pulling its racist ads from circulation and apologizes.
Please take note of the following information issued by ESKA Water concerning its most recent advertising campaign.
“In light of concerns that have been expressed over the past few days, ESKA Water is bringing an immediate halt to its current advertising and marketing campaign. All television, print and collateral representations of the campaign will be removed from market as quickly as possible. In addition, ESKA Water wishes to apologize to all those who may have found the campaign and its images disrespectful. Certainly, that was never our intention. In the days to come company officials will be meeting with local community leaders to reinforce ESKA’s commitment to working in partnership and to ensure that future marketing efforts reflect both the strength of our premium brand and the values of those in the community.”
Jim Delsnyder
President and CEO
Eaux Vives Water Inc. (ESKA)”
**
Has red face become the new blackface medium for Canadian advertisers?
Is this a horrible misjudgment at flattery? Or does this reflect a deeper racist attitude towards First Nations communities in Canada, especially in Quebec?
ESKA Water has recently unveiled its new ad campaign featuring white-washed men dressed as fierce Indigenous warriors.
Why would Indigenous warriors need to be white-washed?
Or is the chalky appearance (especially over the already chalky skin of the tall, thin man on the left) supposed to make them all look more white and fierce…oh my sky, I don’t like where this train of thought is going.
I do want to note that the Saami — Indigenous to the Arctic and winter-pale — do not have any warriors who dress like these men. Too damn cold for us to be running around with so much bare skin susceptible to frost bite.
You can view an ad campaign picture posted above or watch the video. This Quebec corporation’s marketing is trying to claim that ESKA has a ancient society of warriors always at the ready to defend the purity of its Quebec product.
Quebec + purity = “pure laine.”
Now things are getting ugly.
For the non-Quebec minded, “pure laine” is an unfortunate francophone racist attitude that only white, Catholic and French speaking people belong in la belle province. This gives the ESKA slogan of “protecting the purity” a whole new meaning.
Or, officially as it has been stated, multiculturalism in Quebec won’t work. The French were here first, they claim. Forgetting the fact that, actually, in that annoying and historically accurate way that seems to annoy racists, First Nations were here first.
Which brings us back to two troubling concepts.
1. The Quebec government does not have the best relationship with its First Nations.
We need to look no further than the Oka crisis or the Quebec government’s current relationship with the Algonquins of Barierre Lake.
“This is a racist and degrading caricature of indigenous peoples, especially for the Algonquin people whose traditional territory includes the Saint-Mathieu-Lac Berry esker [where the water is sourced],” said Marlene Jerome, Vice Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, told the Globe and Mail. “Natives are presented in the advertisement as primitive beings and ridiculous, again carrying old prejudices.”
2. Viewing Indigenous peoples through the single lens of the warrior not only stereotypes First Nations communities, but robs them of the rich complexity of their identity and culture.
In this view, I think I can maybe understand what the ESKA Corporation’s marketing department was thinking, trying to pay homage to Indigenous cultures as strong and courageous in their defense of Mother Earth and their traditional way of life.
But ESKA is not supporting Indigenous resistance, it is selling water — the blood of Mother Earth which many argue should not be commodified, bottled and sold in the first place.
Blog column post example
Ontarians say no to the Mega Quarry
By Krystalline Kraus | July 5, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/07/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-ontarians-say-no-mega-quarry
A US corporation is trying to construct a quarry of over 2,300
acres in Southern Ontario — a hole deeper than Niagara Falls. Yes, you read that right — deeper than Niagara Falls.
The Highlands Company is privately backed by a Boston multi-billion dollar hedge fund and is currently seeking a licence from the Ontario government to operate an open mining pit to extract Amabel dolostone (limestone) in the Melancthon township.
In its Aggregates Overview statement, it claims a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda: “The site of the Melancthon Quarry was carefully selected so that our aggregate operations could be conducted in an environmentally, socially and economically responsible manner. We have also stated our goal of progressively rehabilitating the site to agricultural and associated uses.
Local residents, farmers and activists claim this deep open mining pit threatens not only the headwaters of five major rivers — the Grand River, Pine, Nottawasaga, Saugeen, Noisy, Boyne, and the Mad River — but also the habitat of fox, coyote, wolf, beaver, lynx, rabbits, deer, duck, geese, turkey, pike, pickerel, trout, salmon, turtles, salamanders, and snake.
According to the Council of Canadians‘ assessment of the issue, “The Highlands company started buying farmland in Melancthon several years ago saying they wanted to become the province’s largest potato growing operation — which made sense to local farmers as the area is well known for its particularly high quality soil and micro-climate. After many local farmers had sold their farms — some of which had been in the family for generations — the real motives of the company became apparent. Under that rich and rare soil is a fortune in high quality limestone worth upwards of eight billion dollars.”
“The Highlands company started buying farmland in Melancthon several years ago saying they wanted to become the province’s largest potato growing operation — which made sense to local farmers as the area is well known for its particularly high quality soil and micro-climate. After many local farmers had sold their farms — some of which had been in the family for generations — the real motives of the company became apparent.
Under that rich and rare soil is a fortune in high quality limestone worth upwards of eight billion dollars. The Highlands Company started buying farmland in Melancthon (township) several years ago saying they wanted to become the province’s largest potato growing operation — which made sense to local farmers as the area is well known for its particularly high quality soil and micro-climate.”
Residents claim a “five-year history of deception” by Highlands Company which they claim led them to believe the company was interested in potato farming. It was described as, “the company bought farms under the auspices of maintaining them for agricultural use, however, the company began clearing trees, demolishing homes and doing test drilling while attempting to get new land assessments.”
Regarding the negative impacts the mega quarry will have on the land and water, in an open letter written by Danny Beaton (Turtle Clan, Mohawk), “It is obvious to many that this quarry would create a wasteland and dust in a rural farmland setting. It can poison the drinking water for our children and our children’s children and their children, so we must think of protecting their future and our elders say we must think Seven Generations.
The hole that will be dug to extract the product for China and Boston etc, will be 20 stories deep and possibly 7500 acres wide, one of the largest open pit mines in Canada. Will Ontario allow such a monster to rape and kill life? As a native environmentalist I urge the Assembly of First Nations and Chiefs of Ontario to get involved in this struggle now and demand a stop to this development and all mega projects on the farmlands of Ontario and water supply! ”
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Walk 4 Justice 2011 for Indigenous women
By Krystalline Kraus | June 29, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/06/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-walk-4-justice-2011
2011. This is the fourth annual “Walk 4 Justice”, a cross-country walk to raise awareness of Canada’s dirty little secret — something to think about this Canada Day — the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Co-founded by Gladys Radek and Bernie Williams, these woman and others walk across Canada every year. That is dedication. That is the truth of women’s strength. They will walk.
The dead cannot, so they will walk for them. For all the missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada. That is the strength of women, supporting women. Sisters in Spirit.
Walk 4 Justice’s mission statement is a declaration: “Aboriginal Women, our life-givers and their children, our future, are still suffering from generations of Canadian policy. A policy that is contrary to article 2 of the United Nations International Convention on Genocide. We are walking for justice, closure, equality and accountability…There is a dire need to address the discriminatory, racist practices that have taken place involving the police, politicians, the judicial system and societal acceptance of the horrendous crimes against humanity.”
The history is haunting. According to Walk 4 Justice, “Since our first walk, conditions have not improved for women in Canada. In our view, they have worsened. Women in Canada are still being raped, tortured, sold for sexual slavery and murdered at an alarming rate. Aboriginal women (according to Amnesty International) are three to four times more likely to be victims of violence than other Canadian women. In the Western provinces and including Ontario, more than 50% of the children in care are aboriginal. A recent study by the Children’s Advocate of B.C. found that; of 21 children murdered while in Ministry care, 15 were Aboriginal.”
Even relying on the more modest statistics from Native Woman’s Association of Canada (NWAC), the list of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada grows: Out a total of 582 cases, 393 died as a result of murder or negligence. And 115 remain missing. Only 53 per cent of the cases involving native women was someone charged, whereas the average rate for charges in a homicide in Canada is 84 per cent. Others like Gladys Redak predict the true numbers are much higher.
All these missing Indigenous women is tantamount to a continuing pattern of genocide. I want to re-assert — and yes, I will be saying this over and over until comfortable Canada listens — if as many white-skinned women were to disappear without even the whisper of justice, the reaction from mainstream Canada would be different.
I also want to reinforce that it’s not like Canada is unaware of the situation. Two years ago, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued this statement: “Hundreds of cases involving Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered in the past two decades have neither been fully investigated nor attracted priority attention.”
Things have become more dire when the Harper government killed the Sisters in Spirit program on October 29, 2010, with the waif promise of something better. Promises. Promises. Promises.
Until justice comes, the women will walk.
**
For details of this year’s route, and where you can join up with the walk, please see here.
For more information on how to get involved, please see here.
For more information on the campaign for justice for murdered and missing women, please see:
Women’s Memorial March (B.C.)
Highway of Tears (B.C.)
Justice for Missing and Murdered (Montreal)
No More Silence (Toronto)
Native Women’s Association of Canada (Sisters in Spirit program)
You also listen to this 2009 interview with Radek here.
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Feature news writing example
Speaking out against an unwanted Quebec mine
By Krystalline Kraus | June 8, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/06/speaking-out-against-unwanted-quebec-mine
The Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, Quebec, have for weeks
been confronting a new threat to their unceded indigenous territory.
Cartier Resources — a Val d’Or based corporation — has begun line-cutting in preparation for its mining exploration. According to its website, the mining company claims that their “100 per cent owned” land base of 439 sq. km boasts rich copper deposits ripe for exploitation.
The question is, owned by who?
Community members and members of the Barriere Lake Solidarity group are concerned, especially with regards to land ownership and the mining ethics, situations that apparently violate international and nation-to-nation protocols for the management of indigenous lands. This includes, for example, the yet-to-be-honoured Trilateral Agreement signed in 1991 between Barriere Lake and the Quebec and Canadian governments, the latest examples of the provincial and federal governments’ long history of not honouring agreements and treaties with First Nations.
Regarding First Nation-to-First Nation solidarity, the community reports, “the workers on site, predominantly Crees from the Mistassini and Oujebougamou First Nations, agreed to leave when the Algonquins travelled to the proposed mine location and explained their opposition to the development.”
The Mitchikanibikok’inik Council of Elders sent a letter on May 2 behalf of the community to MPs Nathalie Normandeau (Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife), Geoffrey Kelley (Minister of Native Affairs) and Serge Simard (Delegate Minister for Natural Resources), stating their strong stance against resource development in the area until certain agreements — including as the Trilateral Agreement of 1991— are honoured.
The commitment to resistance from the community is clear: “under these circumstances, any attempts at natural resource exploitation within the Trilateral Agreement Territory will be viewed by our First Nation as a breach of the 1991 Trilateral Agreement and the 1998 Bilateral Agreement, as well as, a violation of the government’s duty to consult and to accommodate.”
This is not the first time the Algonquins of Barriere Lake have stood up to defend the land from resource extraction. The impact of logging within the territory came to the world’s attention since the late 1980s and early 1990s. At the time, Chief Harry Wawatie warned that “Quebec’s decision to unilaterally move ahead with cutting permits in the territory of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake will plunge the region into a logging crisis.”
Traditional governance vs. the Indian Act
The Barriere Lake community states it has not been properly consulted (and represented) when it comes to the Québec government’s mining interests in the area.
Currently governed by a band council implemented under a Federal Indian Act provision not employed since 1924, it has used Section 74 to remove the community’s traditional governing system called the “Mitchikanibikok Anishinabe Onakinakewin.” Section 74 was implemented by the Minister for Indian Affairs on April 8, 2011. The Section 74 council is currently without its chief who resigned in protest after being nominated.
Community resistance to this Indian Act-imposed council is strong. A letter by the Mitchikanibikok’inik Council of Elders, representing the will of the community, states: “We do not accept the illegitimate DIA (Department of Indian Affairs) imposed Section 74 council (Hector Jerome, Anida Decoursay, Chad Thusky, Steve Wawatie), nor, will our people be bound by any decision they purport to make on behalf of our First Nation. We will oppose and resist any and all efforts by the federal and/or Quebec governments to legitimize or use the DIA imposed Section 74 council as our First Nation’s purported representatives.”
It is this appointed Section 74 council that the government has been negotiating with in regards to any mineral exploration and extraction in the area; effectively bypassing the wider community in order to step out of previously signed agreements of 1991 and 1998.
The letter further states, “to avoid their obligations, the federal government has deliberately violated our leadership customs by ousting our Customary Chief and Council.” The community thus does not feel it is being properly consulted regarding what happens on their territory.
Norman Matchewan, spokesperson for the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, commented, “In what amounts to a coup d’etat, they are recognizing a Chief and Council rejected by a community majority. The Quebec government is cooperating with the federal government because they are using the leadership issue as an excuse to bury the 1991 and 1998 Agreements they signed with our First Nation.”
Community members currently refuse to be bullied by both the federal and provincial governments through the implementation of what they consider to be an illegitimate and colonial governing system and a backhanded way to impose the economic will of governments and corporations at the expense of the people and the land.
Resistance has been fertile with letter writing campaigns and highway blockades, made easier by the closeness of the community of 500, situated 300 km north of Ottawa. These are people who have kept to long-held traditions and speak Algonquin as their first language.
According to First Nations ally Corvin Russell, “the Algonquins of Barriere Lake have survived as an Aboriginal culture because of a determination to hold on to their identity, and to preserve their relationship to their traditional lands, which provide them life and sustenance.”
This Algonquin Territory is considered as unceded according to British Common Law, so it is for this reason that any relationships or negotiations with the federal or Quebec government are considered nation-to-nation since the Algonquins of Barriere Lake consider themselves to be a nation in their own right. The federal and Quebec governments need to heed this and should act as prescribed under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Rights (UNDRIP), which Canada signed in 2010.
Accorded under UNDRIP is the right for indigenous peoples to have control “over developments affecting them and their lands, territories and resources will enable them to maintain and strengthen their institutions, cultures and traditions, and to promote their development in accordance with their aspirations and needs.”
The government of Canada and Quebec are not fulfilling this obligation if there is such documented resistance against the Section 74 Council and any extractive industry projects. In fact, the conduct of they are behaving contrary to the spirit of the UN resolution. But they can get away with it. Unfortunately, this declaration is not binding.
While the Barriere Lake community of northern Quebec is small, and the struggle against the federal and Quebec government a David vs. Goliath battle (or a Windigo vs. community battle), the solid traditions and steadfast resistance towards colonialism and environmental degradation forms the strong heart of this community.
The Algonquins are clearly saying that it is not the federal or Quebec government that speaks for them, but the Algonquins themselves.
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Blog column post example
The story behind the story of the Lubicon Lake Cree First Nation near Slave Lake
By Krystalline Kraus | May 26, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/05/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-story-behind-story-lubicon-lake-cree-fi
Sadly, it seems that people don’t respond to a problem until it hits a critical stage, leaving underlying issues to rot until a critical mass disaster strikes.
Sadly, this is true regarding the attention now paid to the Lubicon Lake Cree First Nation — it took a pipeline spill and the threat of forest fires near Slave Lake to propel it to national media attention.
And while this focus has been on the twin disasters which threaten this small Northern Alberta community around Little Buffalo, it is only the most public face of the environmental and health disasters which threaten the lives of the Lubicon Cree and their natural environment.
To touch quickly on the catalyst for this attention:
On April 29, 2011, within unceded Lubicon territory, the Plains Midstream Canada (an indirect subsidiary of Plains All American Pipeline) pipeline burst and caused nearly 4.5 million litres of tar sands crude and diluent to spill uncontrollably out onto Lubicon Cree traditional territory. Ironically, it is called the “rainbow pipeline.” This was the largest spill in Alberta since 1975. The spill occurred on the Friday before the federal election but was not nationally reported until after.
Plans All American Pipeline refer to the burst pipeline as “the incident” in their (the only) press release on April 29, 2011, stating, “Environmental assessment staff, spill response specialists, and monitoring equipment are being mobilized. Our crews are working to contain the spill, minimize its impact, and begin clean-up efforts. Southbound crude oil flows on the Rainbow Pipeline from the Nipisi Terminal to Edmonton remain in service.”
It’s nice that the press release noted what the corporation considers to be its most crucial fact last, that the pipeline “remains in service”.
Regarding its earnings, “Net income attributable to Plains for the fourth quarter 2009 was $110 million… Looking forward, our current 2011 organic capital program totals $550 million, a 55% increase over 2010. Additionally, we are well positioned to continue to pursue strategic and accretive acquisitions.”
Members of the Lubicon community and allied groups such as Indigenous Sovereignty and Solidarity Network (ISSN), Environmental Justice Toronto (EJT) and NGOs like Greenpeace Canada and Amnesty International (AI) are critical of the official response to the oil spill and its cleanup; including the effort of one of the Alberta monitoring institution responsible — the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB). Reserve members werecritical of the lack of communication between the ERCB and the community.
In a community message hosted on the Greenpeace website concerning how the oil spills was affecting air quality in and around a local Little Buffalo school (reporting that children were suffering from nausea, burning eyes and headache), “Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the ERCB faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School.”
The ECB has stated that it feels the spill is under control and there is no threat to the community. Regarding air quality, it conducted a series of tests and have “detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines.” The distant relationship between the ERCB and the community did little to reassure anyone.
In an Environment Justice Toronto — a group which held a Lubicon community support meeting on Monday — statement, “Corporate negligence, coupled with government inaction, compounded by the racism of indifference has left the community reeling. They have been forced now to take matters into their own hands.”
The Lubicon Cree are calling for the following immediate measures:
— The ERCB should meet with the Lubicon community to effectively answer community members’ questions.
— There should be an independent environmental assessment that reports to community.
— A health response team should be stationed in Lubicon community immediately to respond to those who continue to get sick, especially children.
Forest fires which were raging uncontrolled destroyed an estimated 40% of the Slave Lake area and burned near the location of the pipeline break. These facts only served to further exacerbate the impact of the oil spill in the region. The threat from the fires caused Plains Midstream Canada to temporary suspend its clean-up efforts.
This time
This time it was the Rainbow pipeline that burst. This time. But in truth, the area is riddled with oil pipelines that crisscross the territory like an underground cancer.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner said: “The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible.”
According to Amnesty International (AI), there are more than 2,300 kms of oil and gas pipelines through the traditional lands of the Lubicon Cree. In 2008, AI reports, “when the province of Alberta approved the last major pipeline across Lubicon land (TransCanada Pipeline’s North Central Corridor project), the Alberta government Utility Commission denied the Lubicon the opportunity to present their concerns. The Commission ruled that the Lubicon had not established that the project was harmful to their rights. The pipeline was then built over the community’s objections.”
International human rights bodies such as the United Nations (UN) have long been critical of the poverty and environmental destruction within Lubicon territory. In 1979, large scale development began in their territory which threatened the hunting, trapping and other traditional activities that had made the Lubicon Cree largely self-sufficient. Since 1979, there have been more than 2,600 oil and gas wells drilled into the land, as well expanding situ tar sands projects, all to the objections of the community.
Despite the fact that the Lubicon Cree have never entered into a treaty with the Canadian government — the last round of federal negotiations fell apart in 2003 — the Alberta government has leased approximately 70 per cent of Lubicon territory to natural extraction industries. In a treaty no-man’s zone, the government is operating with relative impunity. The lack of a treaty is considered by the Lubicon as the basis for their demand of a nation-to-nation relationship between the Lubicon Cree nation and the Canadian government.
Development continues regardless of a lengthy rap sheet of international condemnation
The UN Human Rights Committee ruled back in 1990 that Canada was in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, “by failing to properly protect Lubicon land rights from the impact of resource extraction activities.”
In 2006 and 2007, it received condemnation by the UN Human Rights Committee again. In 2006, by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In 2008, by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Adequate Housing. Since 2008, by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. In 2009, by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people.
Amnesty International released this report on the impact of oil and gas resource extraction in 2010 titled: From Homeland to Oil Sands.
“New maps of resource development on the traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree in northern Alberta reveal a reckless disregard for Lubicon rights in the licensing of oil and gas development on their land. The maps commissioned by Amnesty International use government and industry data to demonstrate the scale of development since oil extraction began on Lubicon land in 1979.” They can be viewed here.
Of ongoing concern for the Lubicon Cree is the access to clear water with all the resource development in the area, declared a human right by the UN. The Lubicon community of Little Buffalo has no running water and no sanitation system. Quoting a video produced by Little Buffalo Media, “before the Alberta government permitted large-scale oil and gas development on their land, the Lubicon took their drinking water from the muskeg and the lakes and streams. They can no longer safely do so.”
And yet the extraction from Lubicon land by the government continues.
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Feature news writing example
The last jailed Toronto G-20 activist is released
By Krystalline Kraus | May 22, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/news/2011/05/last-jailed-toronto-g-20-activist-released
Computer security expert Byron Sonne was granted finally bail after 330 days behind bars on May 16. He waited until Wednesday to be released, however, following the final bail hearing, when the crown attorney had the opportunity to contest the decision. Fortunately, the judge disagreed and he was free to go.
Sonne spent roughly 11 months in custody. The 38 year old was denied bail twice since his June 22, 2010 arrest, which took place just prior to the start of the G-20 Summit in Toronto.
Bail was set at $250,000, and Sonne is now free until he returns to court for trial in Nov. 2011.
Supporter Kate Milberry called Sonne’s bail conditions “undemocratic and apparently random.” Sonne has non-association conditions that prevent him from having contact with members of activist groups such as AW@L, Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance (SOAR), and the now-defunct Toronto Community Mobilization Network (TCMN) (now resurrected as the Community Mobilization Network), whose membership included the over 3,500 people who belong to their list serve.
Sonne and his supporters claim he was never in touch with these groups prior to the G-20, though many activist members have taken up his cause post-G20 in a #freebyron campaign. This, of course, does not mean that Sonne himself is speaking to these individuals.
Sonne must live at his parents’ Brampton home and can only leave the residence if accompanied by either his father or mother, except to attend work, school, court or for medical emergencies. He is also barred from using computers or accessing the internet, except for employment purposes. These conditions are similar to what other G-20 defendants received.
On Laurel L. Russwurm’s blog Oh! Canada, she notes, “something that has disturbed me from the outset is that the denial of bail appears to be punitive. Is this a case of Canada’s Crown prosecution ensuring that an innocent man will pay the price of incarceration before trial since the trial is likely to exonerate him? In fact, our federal government has published statistics indicating an increase of the use if the remand process which could well indicate that the process is being deployed as punishment rather than waiting for a judicial finding of guilt, particularly when it is unlikely to happen at all.”
Sonne was originally charged with six offences relating to his actions just prior to the G-8 and G-20 Summits held in Ontario last June. The charges against him stem from his alleged willingness to publically share information he researched by listening to police radio scanners regarding G-20 security plans.
This research included posting “how-to” counter-surveillance guides and posting photos of the security fence and various surveillance cameras. These posts included critical editorial opinions such as a photo of a group of bicycle unit police officers with the caption, “Bacon Wheels.” He was also critical of the amount of taxpayers’ money was being wasted on G-20 “security.”
His supporters feel it was this behaviour, the tenacity that he approached the dissemination of G-20 information and his personal beliefs about the dangers of a Canadian security state that caused him to run afoul with the law.
“He did not hide anything because he knew what he was doing was not illegal,” said Madison Kelly, another supporter. “If the system was working they would have looked at him and said, ‘Ah, shit disturber,’ and ignored him. Not only did they not ignore him, they came down on him like a ton of bricks. The first thing he said to me in jail was, ‘I never thought it would go this far.'”
After his arrest in Forest Hill, Toronto, where he lived with his wife, Sonne was charged with possessing explosive substances, intimidating justice officials, mischief, attempted mischief and possessing dangerous weapons. With the exception of explosives charge, the other original charges were dropped earlier this year at pre-trial while the additional charge of counselling to commit mischief not committed was added.
All evidence from the courts up to this point is under publication ban.
Kelly, now a member of the Free Byron campaign, believes the federal government and members of the G-20 Investigative Unit wanted to make an example of Sonne. “He embarrassed the hell out of them,” she said. “They wanted to spend $1.2 billion and they didn’t want anybody to question it. And when someone not just questioned it but pointed out the faults in it, well, you have the story that Byron has now.”
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Blog column post example
The Dene Suline of Cold Lake First Nation win injuction to halt the destruction of Sacred Land
By Krystalline Kraus | May 16, 2011
Article link: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2011/05/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-dene-suline-cold-lake-first-nation-stop
The Dene Suline of Cold Lake First Nation (CLFN) Alberta have won an interim injunction to halt construction on campground improvements to be made on Sacred Land — Sacred Land that was being occupied by a “cultural camp” set up on May 6, 2011 by the Dene Suline to prevent the construction of an RV park on their traditional territory.
The interim injunction was granted by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Don Manderscheid and will continue until the courts can hear an injunction application that was filed by the Cold Lake First Nations back on May 10, 2011. As part of the injunction, members of the cultural camp must remove all signs or blockades from the road into the campground and allow representatives of the Ministry of Tourism, Parks and Recreation to access the area.
“We’re not going to relinquish our access or our rights to this land,” said Chief Cecil Janvier. “We’re going to voice our opposition to their proposed development.”
The contested campsite in the English Bay Provincial Recreation Area, locally know as Berry Point, is on territory used by the Dene Suline for fishing, hunting and gathering medicines since time immemorial. The earth also cares for the bones of their ancestors buried in gravesites there. For these reasons, the area slated for construction holds tremendous cultural and historical significance for the CLFN.
On the location, a small campground has been operating since the 1950’s, which the Province of Alberta seeks to expand into a larger and more extensively developed campground suitable for large recreational vehicles (RVs).
The expansion project was stopped soon after it began in 2006, when historical artifacts were discovered on the land — some over 4,000 years old — which prompted a wider archaeological study of the site. The project received the go ahead again earlier this year.
While the Alberta government did perform some local consultation, it was not described as extensive or in good faith. Described by the Dene Suline community, the new construction “would include extensive surveying of the area, further removal of natural resources such as trees, plants and wildlife, the creation of a modern road into the area, large gravel pads and paths throughout the park as well as any other number of disturbances which may arise from the expansion.”
“The Province will also impose barriers upon the Dene Suline. For instance, fire bans will interfere with smoke houses; gates and fences will physically restrict Dene Suline access; and payment of fees may be required.”
CLFN has this message for its allies in the struggle to protect Indigenous Sacred land:
“Attention all Nations:
We the Dene Suline of Cold Lake Alberta are presently occupying a proposed provincial park on our traditional territory.
We are asking the nations for verbal support on our position. We are denying contractors and the Alberta government access to our territory.
We are protecting burial sites and many other cultural significant areas.
We may be forced by the RCMP to leave or worse.
We need our people across country to support our position.
We are being supported by CLFN chief and council
In the spirit of total resistance CLFN.”
**
The CLFN is asking for supporters to write letters to:
Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation (Alberta)
Cindy Ady
Phone: (403) 256-8969
Sample Letter:
To the Honourable Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation Cindy Ady:
cc’d Premier Stelmach
Phone: (780) 427-2251
fortsaskatchewan.vegreville@assembly.ab.ca
Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Len Webber
Phone: (403) 288-4453
calgary.foothills@assembly.ab.ca
I want to register my support for the Cold Lake First Nation and their right to full consultation before any development occurs on their traditional territory. The area that the Province is seeking to develop, the English Bay Provincial Recreation Area, holds tremendous cultural and historical significance for the Cold Lake First Nation. The expansion of recreational areas is not as important as respecting the rights of First Nation peoples. Every level of government must acknowledge and protect the constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples.
I hereby urge you as Minister of Tourism, Parks and Recreation to suspend all development of this area until proper consultation has been conducted with the Cold Lake First Nation and their concerns have been properly addressed.
Thank you for your attention in this matter and I look forward to your reply to my concerns.
Sincerely,
<your name & address>
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Krystalline Kraus - journalist, blogger and photographer. 