« Luddites » conduct solidarity sabotages in southeast Quebec

Des « Luddites » font des sabotages solidaires dans le sud du Québec

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Anti-industrial sabotage in the Eastern Townships (Qc)

Brief resume of this communique: A railroad telecom cable was burned and three residential development panels vandalised in response to an eviction of Native resister in Gatineau and in solidarity with the 5E3, somewhere in southern K-bekk.

Full version:

So the other night on September 21, we’ve set fire to a railroad telecomm cable linking Brigham to Sherbrooke (Qc) to the US, thinking about the Algonquins people recently evicted from a resistance camp and detained in Gatineau. We took the time to select a railway bridge in the middle of nowhere near Waterloo, so we’d not have to dig to get to the cables or attract too much attention. Some fuel was dropped through an opening in the steel casing of the cables, then set on fire. Nothing fancy. It worked better as we’d guessed, as a few seconds later it already smelled burning rubber a few meters away. The enclosed air in the conduct apparently turned the fire into something like a blow torch. Kind of easy game to be reproduced elsewhere by others, we told ourselves… so that’s a reason to let others know.

Gatineau (Qc): Cops evict and arrest Native defenders of archeological site, for a development

From Citizens

GATINEAU — The “sacred fire” at a 3,000-year-old aboriginal archeological site in Gatineau was stamped out and six people arrested Thursday when Gatineau police moved in to evict protesters who had been camping out in teepees for the past month.

The city obtained an injunction Thursday afternoon to remove the protesters and gave them a 6:45 deadline to clear out.

But they refused.

Roger Fleury, one of the organizers, had gone to court to ask for more time to prepare a defence. When he returned to the site, which the aboriginal protesters say is sacred, with the news that he had failed, he didn’t apologize. Tossing the injunction into the “sacred fire” at the centre of the campsite, he said:

“We’ll go to jail.”

Minutes after the deadline, about 15 police vehicles arrived. Officers « asked » the protesters to leave peacefully, but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

“This is our land, we gave it to you,” cried Audrey Redman, one of the protesters. “Instead you take us to your prison!”

« Rebel! Rebuild! Rewild! »: Camp d’action de trois jours sur territoire non-cédé Algonquin

Se rebeller ! Reconstruire ! Retourner à l’état naturel !

18 au 20 août 2014

Chères/chers éco-guerrières/éco-guerriers, défenseuses/défenseurs de la terre, jardinières/jardiniers de la guérilla, survivalistes, radicales amoureuses/radicaux amoureux de la nature et libres penseuses/libres penseurs,

Nous vivons au beau milieu d’une longue tempête faite de crises – changements climatiques, extinctions massives, acidification des océans, pic pétrolier, vol de terres, guerre des classes, etc. Harper voit le Canada comme une vaste colonie de ressources, où les ressources naturelles sont exploitées le plus rapidement possiblement pour satisfaire l’appétit de profit des plus grandes corporations de ce monde.

And you thought logging on Native Land was over?

Les Algonquins  de Barriere Lake se soulèvent pour défendre leurs terres contre une nouvelle vague de coupe à blanc

Charest government allows logging by Resolute Forest Products in violation of Agreement, as supporters prepare casserole demo in Montreal

July 16, Poigan Bay, QC – As the standoff between the Algonquin community of Barriere Lake, QC, and Resolute Forest Products (formerly known as Abitibi-Bowater) enters its thirteenth day, members of the Algonquin community are moving their protest camp site closer to logging operations to prevent further cutting.

Algonquin families have camped alongside the road where logging has been destroying the community’s sacred sites and moose habitat, and have succeeded in periodically stopping the cutting. Quebec police, including a riot squad from Montreal, have escorted the loggers and maintained a large presence, issuing threats of arrest to community members.

The Montreal-based multi-national company’s operations have been licensed by the Charest government without the Algonquin community’s consent or consultation, and in violation of the Trilateral Agreement the Quebec government signed with Barriere Lake in 1991.

“I was not properly consulted nor did I provide consent to this logging within our territory,” said Algonquin elder Gabriel Wawatie, whose family territory is being clear-cut, in a letter last week to Premier Charest and the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources that has not been responded to by the Liberal government.

« The Charest government has acted in bad faith, giving this company the go-ahead to log while they ignore their signed agreements with our community, » said Norman Matchewan, a community spokesperson. « It has left us with no choice but to try to stop forestry operations. We have been waiting 20 years for the Quebec government to honour it. »

Barriere Lake wants Quebec to honour the Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development agreement praised by the United Nations. The Charest government has also ignored the formal recommendations of two former Quebec Liberal Cabinet Ministers, Quebec representative John Ciaccia and Barriere Lake representative Clifford Lincoln, that the agreement be implemented. The agreement is intended to allow logging to continue while protecting the Algonquins’ way of life and giving them a $1.5 million share of the $100 million in resource revenue that comes out of their territory every year.

A casserole demonstration in support of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake has been called for this Wednesday (July 18th) at 11:30am, at the Resolute headquarters in Montreal.

IPSMO coverage of the ongoing actions at Barriere Lake

Barriere lake Solidarity