From subMedia
This week on TFN we give you a peek into what could become Klanada’s Standing Rock and bring you updates from political prisoners in the United Snakes and Greece.
To find out how to support Red Fawn go to https://www.standwithredfawn.org/
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Six photos of the vandalized statues are available here:
Montreal, June 26, 2018 — We are anti-colonial activists and artists who vandalized two monuments in Montreal celebrating British and French colonialism. The Maisonneuve Monument at Place d’Armes in Old Montreal, as well as the Macdonald Monument at Place du Canada in Downtown West, were both covered in red paint last night. The monuments are unapologetic public icons to the genocide of the Indigenous nations of Turtle Island, and racism in general.
We chose to deface these monuments between two nationalist holidays – St-Jean-Baptiste and Canada Day – as a rejection of all forms of settler-nationalism . We embrace the street slogan of Montreal’s anarchists: Ni patrie, ni état; ni Québec, ni Canada! We also denounce and resist the racist far-right — whether Quebec or Canadian nationalists, whether francophone or anglophone — who are nostalgic about a racist, genocidal, and white supremacist past. Our vandalism is also aimed against them.
The Macdonald Monument, erected in 1895, celebrates a white supremacist. As Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald was directly involved in the genocide of Indigenous peoples through measures like residential schools, meant to destroy and eliminate Indigenous cultures. He was an open racist, hostile towards both Chinese and Indian migrants to Canada at the time, and openly promoted an “Aryan” Canada. Macdonald is also responsible for the hanging of Métis martyr Louis Riel.
The Maisonneuve Monument, also erected in 1895, commemorates the settler ‘founder’ of Montreal, Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, with an offensive monument celebrating the massacre and forced conversion of Indigenous peoples. One of the quotes on the monument, attributed to Maisonneuve, celebrates colonial aggression against the Haudenosaunee Confederacy: « Il est de mon honneur d’accomplir ma mission; tous les arbres de l’île de Montréal devraient-ils se changer en autant d’Iroquois. »
Both these statues should be constantly vandalized until they are finally removed from public space and instead placed in archives or museums, where they belong as historical artifacts. Public space should celebrate collective struggles for justice and liberation, not white supremacy and genocide.
– Some anti-colonial activists, artists and vandals
Background Information:
– Amherst, Maisonneuve et notre mémoire trouée (septembre 2017): www.lapresse.ca/debats/chroniques/rima-elkouri/201709/17/01-5134211-amherst-maisonneuve-et-notre-memoire-trouee.php
– Monument raciste et colonial à John A. Macdonald défiguré à Montréal (novembre 2017) https://montreal-antifasciste.info/fr/2017/11/12/monument-raciste-et-colonial-a-john-a-macdonald-defigure-a-montreal-avec-video-et-photos/
– Deux statues de la reine Victoria vandalisées à Montréal (mars 2018) www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/faits-divers/201803/15/01-5157416-deux-statues-de-la-reine-victoria-vandalisees-a-montreal.php
– Deux statues de la reine Victoria sont vandalisées à Montréal (mai 2018) https://sub.media/video/deux-statues-de-la-reine-victoria-sont-vandalisees-a-montreal/
– Montreal’s Monuments to Colonialism (September 2017) https://ricochet.media/en/1949/montreals-monuments-to-colonialism
– Colonial and Racist John A. Macdonald Monument Defaced in Montreal (November 2017) https://montreal-antifasciste.info/en/2017/11/12/colonial-racist-john-a-macdonald-monument-defaced-in-montreal-with-video-and-photos/
– Two Queen Victoria Statues Defaced in Downtown Montreal (March 2018) https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/two-queen-victoria-statues-defaced-in-downtown-montreal
– Queen Victoria Statues Vandalized in Montreal (May 2018) https://sub.media/video/queen-victoria-statues-vandalized-in-montreal/
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
On July 1, hate groups like La Meute and Storm Alliance have announced a demonstration in Montreal against illegal immigration. Not a good move, because we do not like racists and we do not like July 1st, the colonial Canada Day.
The racists forget where they are about to step foot … Montreal is against racists and we will remind them. It will take more than dozens of riot police to allow them to demonstrate.
We call ALL people who have something to say about the presence of these racists to react with concrete actions, everywhere in the province:
– the weekend of June 30 – July 1, multiply direct or symbolic actions against racism and colonialism.
– until July 1st, redecorate the city with stickers, graffitis, posters, etc … so that everywhere one reads only one message on the walls of the city: “Fuck La Meute”
A gray wall near you? Leaflets to distribute? An address that you’ve been keeping for the right occasion? Some posters to put up in your neighborhood? It is time :)
Let’s strike everywhere. It’s a collective responsibility.
Send us your photos and reports to welcometohell@riseup.net
From subMedia
In advance of colonial ‘Victoria Day’ holiday, two Queen Victoria statues are (again) vandalized in Montreal
Racist and imperialist legacy of the British Monarchy denounced
May 18, 2018, Montreal – Days before the outdated and insulting Queen Victoria holiday, two landmark statues to Queen Victoria in Montreal were vandalized last night.
The Victoria Memorial in downtown Montreal (erected in 1872) as well the bronze statue on Sherbrooke Street (erected in 1900) at McGill University were both sprayed in red paint.
This action is rooted in opposition to colonialism and imperialism, and a dislike of the parasitic British monarchy (and all monarchies). We are also directly inspired by the recent vandalism (with green paint) of the same Queen Victoria statues in advance of St. Patrick’s Day this past March by the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Bridage
These statues represent, to quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, “a legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture, massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, theft, cultural denigration, racism, and white supremacy.”
The Queen Victoria statues should come down and be placed in a museum as a historical artifact. Public statues and monuments should not represent oppression. The presence of Queen Victoria statues in Montreal is, to again quote the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, “an insult to Indigenous nations in North America (Turtle Island) and Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire committed its atrocities.”
These statues are also insulting to people who represent the progressive struggles of the Irish, as well as Québecois. However, we denounce the far-right anti-immigrant racist souchebags in Quebec who coopt the legacy of the patriotes, but actually represent neo-fascist ideas.
Important context: our action last night contributes to a tradition of targeting colonial symbols and monuments for vandalism and eventual removal: Cornwallis in Halifax, John A. Macdonald in Kingston and Montreal, the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, the resistance to racist Confederate monuments in the USA, and more.
To once again repeat the words of the Delhi-Dublin Ant-Colonial Solidarity Brigade: “Our action is a simple expression of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity, and we encourage others to undertake similar actions against racist monuments and symbols that should be in museums, not taking up our shared public spaces.”
— Communiqué by the Henri Paul* Anti-Monarchy Brigade
* Henri Paul was the driver of the luxury Mercedes with Lady Diana that crashed in Paris in 1997. Every member of the British monarchy deserves a drunk French driver!
From subMedia
Update from the Treaty Camp blocking Alton Gas in so-called Nova Scotia. Security guards hired by the company went to the camp and attempted to serve Mi’kmaq water protectors with verbal PPAs (trespassing warnings). People a the camp let them know that this is stolen land, and folks mobilized quickly in support of the water protectors.
From the Collectif de résistance antiraciste de Montréal (CRAM)
[Early this morning, the Collectif de résistance antiraciste de Montréal (CRAM) received a weblink to an anonymous communiqué which is cut and paste and shared below, including video and photo links. We encourage you to share widely in your networks.]
Video: https://vimeo.com/260188932
Photo: i66.tinypic.com/9se2k7.png
March 15, 2018, Montreal — Two landmark statues to Queen Victoria in Montreal were vandalized last night, a few days before St. Patrick’s Day. Both the Victoria Memorial in downtown Montreal as well the bronze statue on Sherbrooke Street at McGill University were both covered in green paint. The statues were unveiled in 1872 and 1900 respectively, more than a century ago.
The presence of these racist statues in Montreal are an insult to the self-determination and resistance struggles of oppressed peoples worldwide, including Indigenous nations in North America (Turtle Island) and Oceania, as well as the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, and everywhere the British Empire committed its atrocities.
The statues are also an insult to the legacy of revolt by Irish freedom fighters, and anti-colonial mutineers of British origin. The statues particularly deserve no public space in Quebec, where the Québecois were denigrated and marginalized by British racists acting in the name of the putrid monarchy represented by Queen Victoria.
Queen Victoria’s reign, which continues to be whitewashed in history books and in popular media, represented a massive expansion of the barbaric British Empire. Collectively her reign represents a criminal legacy of genocide, mass murder, torture, massacres, terror, forced famines, concentration camps, theft, cultural denigration, racism, and white supremacy. That legacy should be denounced and attacked.
We are motivated and inspired by movements worldwide that have targeted colonial and racist statues for vandalism and removal: Cornwallis in Halifax, John A. Macdonald in Kingston, the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa, the resistance to racist Confederate monuments in the USA, and more. We are also inspired by the recent action in Montreal, in November 2017, against the John A. Macdonald Monument (background: http://bit.ly/2DtJgcd; video: http://bit.ly/2pdPA2s).
Our action is a simple expression of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist solidarity, and we encourage others to undertake similar actions against racist monuments and symbols that should be in museums, not taking up our shared public spaces.
Communiqué by the Delhi-Dublin Anti-Colonial Solidarity Brigade, shared anonymously.
From subMedia
Thousands of people are taking action after “Canada’s” criminal justice system acquitted two men of second degree murder charges in the separate cases of two Indigenous youth – Colten Bushie and Tina Fontaine. This has so far included the establishment of Soaring Eagle camps in Winnipeg/Treaty 1 territory and Calgary/Treaty 7 Territory. More actions are planned.
For more info:
Soaring Eagle’s Camp – Treat 1/Winnipeg
Soaring Eagle’s Camp – Treaty 7/Calgary
From Ni Québec, ni Canada
The 28th of February is the next court appearance of Freddy Stoneypoint at the Palais of (In)justice of Percé. The legal bozos of perpetuated genocide will evaluate if the evidence gathered by the armed wing of the Quebecois state, (in service of Junex), are sufficient to commence the circus—-in other words, whether the trial will take place. These supporters of a deadly economy are acting completely illegitimately on sovereign Mi’kmaq territory (more precisely on the unceded sovereign 7th District Mi’gmaq territory as affirmed by the 1763 Royal Proclamation indian lands protection clause).
Gary Metallic, the traditional chief of the 7th District of Mi’kma’ki, sovereign territory of the Mi’kmaq people, served a tresspassing notice to Junex, but Junex is not on trial. Only an indigenous comrade of the Mi’kmaq people in struggles, Freddy Stoneypoint, is persecuted, because he was supposedly at a blockade to defend the territory, blockade that was hold with the authorization of Gary Metallic, the traditional chief. Gary Metallic has repeatedly reasserted his people’s refusal of the extraction of fossil fuels. Despite the fact that the Mi’kmaq never abandoned their sovereignty, the Quebecois state continues to repress comrades arrested for resisting extraction and for the recognition of Mi’kmaq sovereignty.
As comrades of Freddy Stoneypoint and the Mi’kmaq people, we call for the 28th of February to be a day of solidarity and action for the complete and total liberation of those accused under colonial law. We call for the recognition of Mi’kmaq sovereignty, land and struggle, and for the sovereignty of other native territories. And we stand against the extraction industry.
We would also like to underline with this action our solidarity with the River Camp and Treaty Truck House against Alton Gas.
Whether we’re in Gespe’gewa’gi or elsewhere, let’s continue to work in the spirit of total resistance for decolonization, the sovereignty of native people, and for life.
Statement from Freddy Stoneypoint:
As a sovereign man who is indigenous to Turtle Island, my rights and responsabilities include practicing ceremony and walking on the land with love and respect. I am not an activist. I am simply an Anishnaabe man concerned with the unborn and the safety of the lands and waters they rely upon. I am thankful towards the many folks, ranging from all walks of life, who have been supportive of the kindship and relationality that I hold for the sacred. Miigwetch.
For more information:
Legal fund for Freddy Stoneypoint
From subMedia
Last week, white Canadian farmer Gerald Stanley was found not guilty of murder against Colten Boushie, a 22-year old indigenous man, who was trespassing on Stanley’s farm. People all across Canada responded by hosting vigils and demos in solidarity with the Boushie family, and to demand justice for Colten.
From subMedia
Mi’kmaqs have been blocking a fracked gas storage project by Alton Gas that would pollute the Shubenacadie river. Alton Gas project manager and ex-RCMP agent, Rob Turner, showed up to the camp to put up a “no trespassing” sign. Not only was the sign covered up, but the camp also called for another work day where allies came in to help build infrastructure and prepare the camp for the struggle ahead. Water protectors are engaging treaty law in the anti-colonial struggle. This law supersedes all Canadian law. Follow this struggle!
