CSIS, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has indeed been monitoring First Nations. Here’s a column by Pam Palmater on this very subject.

I’d been reading into the Pine Ridge conflict, but…. At Pine Ridge, for years, it was Oglala Sioux versus Oglala Sioux. It was the Pine Ridge government against its own people. Eventually, AIM occupied the town of Wounded Knee, which forced both the US government and the state of South Dakota into the conflict. However, [...]

I’ll add to my earlier comment : Canadian First Nations have been working toward such a show of strength for quite some, now. I never thought much of it at the time, but I can now remember sitting in general band meetings listening to guest presenters who’d painted such a scenario. They would call this an economic [...]

I listened to it, earlier. It was unfortunately far too short, but Ms Palmater got in as much information as she could.

It will be unprecedented, in all honesty. I can only point toward a couple of different conflicts in recent history that might give us some insight into what might happen next. 1991: The province of Quebec waited over two months before calling the RCMP to confront a Mohawk blockade outside the town of Oka, but [...]

Idle No More’s, and Chief Spence’s, message has been simple and consistent. It has been, words are now useless. Only action can show Canada’s true intentions. So far, Harper has shown himself as someone who would prefer to avoid and to ignore First Nations. He would send a man who has betrayed his own people, [...]

Thanks for commenting. I’ll help out, for sure. And about that Carlisle school. They, the US Army, really need to learn to take healing one step at a time. Just destroying the school won’t heal anything. But it does remove the opportunity for the community to come to terms with what actually happened. The elders [...]

Well, as a Secwec, I welcome you to learn all you can, to listen to all who would share, and to read any book you’re able to find on First Nations. We’re not a populous people, so we’re likely to welcome any support we can get. It’s terrifying, even just speaking out.

We’ve always been standing up for our rights, mainly because we don’t have the population to make a difference at the ballot box. If it seems as though there’s been a lull in First Nations organizing since the nineties, it’s because it’s been a generational shift. The youth are now coming into power, as has [...]

Thanks for the heads up on that interview. I’ll watch it, too.

No, she may be Canada’s sovereign, but increasingly, Canada’s Prime Ministers, as well as the provinces, have limited and assumed the powers the Governor-General historically wielded. It is the PM who appoints the GG. Besides, the PM, Stephan Harper, is Canada’s problem. It would be the height of embarrassment for Canadians to plead to the [...]

While the Quebec referendum on sovereignty was over fifteen years ago, it’s still fresh enough for many voting Canadians to remember, and easily feeds into resentment the Conservatives use for their own purposes. An NDP/Liberal coalition is popular, whereas an NDP/Liberal/BQ coalition is unpopular. There’s been no polling of NDP/BQ acting together, but the BQ [...]

Well, I’m not gonna make any certain predictions, but I think the Conservatives will only win about 130 seats, which is what they had before Parliament’s dissolution. They simply haven’t made any gains with the Canadian electorate. What remains to be seen, though, is whether Layton and the NDP can win enough seats from the [...]

I’m cautiously optimistic regarding an NDP victory. I can’t safely predict what Harper’s fate will be after this election, either. I can voice my hopes, though. I hope the NDP wins 100+ seats, and I hope Harper, for again failing to win a majority government, is savaged by own party for being such a perennial [...]