From From Embers
A conversation with two anarchists following a workshop they gave at the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair entitled 10 years since the strike: the place of nationalism within militant struggle. We discuss the history of Quebec nationalism and its influence in anarchist and radical milieus, responsibilities of settlers in anti-colonial struggle and in relating to land, possibilities and uncertain futures opened up by anarchism as a guiding practice, and more.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
We have assembled this publication in solidarity with the ongoing Wet’suwet’en resistance to industrial expansion. This struggle for Indigenous self determination and land defence has become a landmark moment of rupture across the colonial nation of Canada and beyond. We felt the need to compile this zine in an effort to take a step back and witness the breadth and fierceness of these last few years – with a particular focus on the year that has just passed since the start of ‘Coyote Camp’ and the specific battle against the attempt to drill under Wedzin Kwa. Not to produce some stale collection for the history shelves, but to inspire and learn from these events as they continue to unfold. As we go to print, CGL has just begun the drilling under the river that many have fought so hard to prevent. It’s a sad day and this part of their destruction will have devastating effects. But this doesn’t mean that this fight has been in vain, the project is not complete and opportunities for intervention abound.
Inside you will find an overview of Wet’suwet’en resistance from the emergence of Unistot’en Camp until the most recent endeavors on the Gidumt’en yintah, as well as the closely related Lihkts’amisyu actions and Gitxsan rail blockades nearby. We’ve included a centerfold map outlining the widespread scope of coast to coast solidarity actions from fall 2021 to summer 2022, along with communiques found online that offer reflections and analysis from people behind some of these actions. The topic of antirepression and overturning the state’s attempts to isolate and criminalize us is also explored. A Well Oiled Trap introduces the history of the British common law, tracing it as foundational to the Canadian state, its justice system and colonial projects, outlining their incompatibility with our dreams. Lastly, we address another antipipeline fight brewing up in Gitxsan territory (Wet’suwet’ens neighbors and ancient allies); An analysis of the proposed related projects is presented in the article Face to Face with the Enemy: An Introduction to WCCGT line, PRGT line and Ksi Lisims LNG Terminal.
This publication is intended to be printed on 11×17 size paper, if printed using normal paper size its likely to become difficult to read.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
We are settler anarchists acting independently in solidarity with the Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera. We support the Mohawk Mothers strong opposition to the New Vic renovation project. Our action is an artistic intervention that seeks to amplify the dire consequences of McGill’s current approach to the area; that is, covering up possible evidence of unmarked graves and ancestral sites of the Rotino’shonni people.
We decided to act because we oppose the settler colonial state and the grotesque society that exists in this colonial context. We want to make it very clear that we planned and carried out this action completely independently of the Kahnistensera and did not communicate with them about it in any way.
The Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera (known in English as the Mohawk Mothers), a group of women from the Mohawk communities of Kahnawake and Kanehsatake, are considered progenitors of the Kanienke’hà:ka nation, and the sovereign caretaker of the land and the soil, including Tiohtiá:ke (so called Montreal). They have been resisting the New Vic Project for more than a year. They are currently engaged in a court case against McGill and the SQI (Société québécoise des infrastructures), who are behind the renovation project. Their next court date, October 26th, is fast approaching.
This specific site, the grounds around the Allen Memorial and the Royal Victoria, is very likely to contain unmarked graves of victims, many of whom were Indigenous children, from the MK-Ultra psychiatric torture experiments that happened at the hospital. These experiments were conducted by the CIA and funded by the Canadian government. Over the past year, across the so-called Canada, Indigenous people have demanded the investigation of unmarked graves at colonial institutions, such as the residential schools. In spite of this, McGill refuses to respect this broader political context surrounding their planned New Vic renovations.
For these reasons, we chose an artistic intervention at the suspected gravesite. We arranged childrens’ shoes and clothing, assembled tombstones labelled “unknown” with flowers, and lined the area with “crime scene” tape because McGill and Arkéos are actively going against the kaia’nereh’ko:wa (Great Law) by digging up potential unmarked graves against the Kahnistensera’s wishes. This space should be considered as the crime scene that it is.
These children should have been allowed to grow out of these shoes, and to remain within their communities where they belong. We want these material items to invoke the lost relationships and the open wounds that remain when any family member goes missing. We want to honour the possibility that there are potentially buried bodies that need the proper care and attention so they can rest peacefully. We want the broader communities of Kahnawake and Kanesatake to be able to tend to such bodies in their diverse and proper ways. More so, we chose this intervention to remind McGill, Arkéos, and the public at large that there are so many unknown factors at play that an intrusive dig set to be completed within 5 days is completely careless and outrageous.
The Kahnistensera have explicitly demanded the following: 1) McGill University must stop the New Vic’s renovations, 2) The Kahnistensera must be overseeing searches, including an non-intrusive forensic investigation of the grounds of the Allen Memorial and the Royal Victoria to locate possible unmarked graves of victims from the MK-Ultra experiments, along with 3) a proper non-intrusive investigation of Rotino’shonni archeological sites known to be in that area. There is no excuse for McGill to refuse to hear and comply with the Kahnistensera’s demands.
The potential for unmarked graves of Indigenous children and adults is a harrowing ordeal. McGill and Arkéos (the firm hired by McGill to conduct the investigation) have demonstrated contempt and disregard for the Kahnistensera’s demands. The so-called archeological inquiry taking place at this very moment goes against these demands, and risks destroying evidence. Both McGill and Arkéos need to be held accountable for this, as well as for the rest of their shameful history.
Arkéos, the company conducting the work, isn’t equipped to do this type of forensic investigation. They haven’t even discussed with the Kahnistensera before planning or starting the digging. However, this isn’t very surprising considering the previous collaborations that Arkéos has had with other violent, colonial projects with extractive companies and the state. McGill, having been built on white supremacist foundations and with the profits made from the slave trade and stolen Rotino’shonni Trust Fund money, has nothing to show for conscience as they shamelessly move forward with this project while knowing that children’s bodies who were scooped from the arms of their mothers are lying underground. Their work must be stopped immediately.
We also want to empasize that Kanien’kehà:ka sovereignty on this land goes well beyond this current campaign. Some land acknowledgment in McGill’s official communication is not enough. We support the Kahnistensera’s broader vision of a university which has been renamed to not pay homage to James McGill, a colonial slaveholder. We also agree with the Kahnistensera that McGill should at the very least repay its financial debts to the Rotino’shonni peoples, and stop all military research, in accordance with the Kaia’nereh’ko:wa.
We hope that this action, as only one humble portion of this ongoing struggle, reminds McGill, Arkéos and those who collaborate with them in this unacceptable colonial desecration that they must stop the digging immediately and cooperate fully with the Kahnistensera’s demands. Once again, we want to make it very clear that we planned and carried out this action completely independently of the Kahnistensera and did not communicate with them about it in any way. There is very little time to stop Arkéos from completing these senseless acts of violence, it remains urgent for independent groups to use a diversity of tactics to discourage them while respecting the Kaianereh’kowa (the Great Law of Peace).
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Important Update: Monday, October 17, 2022
It has come to our attention that certain phrasing of our previous communique requires immediate correction and clarification. We deeply respect and honour the hard work the kahnistensera have done, so in an effort to address certain concerns we would like to communicate the following.
Since the colonial institutions involved in supporting McGill’s New Vic project have apparently attempted to use this action against Arkéos to threaten the kahnistensera and their ongoing court case, the organizers of the action want to add the following update to our statement below: we planned and carried out this action completely independently of the kahnistensera and did not communicate with them about it in any way. Our use of the word “accomplices” in the original communique was influenced by broader anti-colonial anarchist discussions around the use of that word in other contexts, with our working definition being that ”the work of an accomplice in anti-colonial struggle is to attack colonial structures & ideas.” (See here.) We also wish to redirect you to this engaging text about similar issues, titled “On the question of allies”, which can be found here. Our point isn’t to squabble about term usage, but rather, to give context as to why we chose this term. In retrospect, we realize the use of this term was not appropriate given the ongoing, separate and independent legal battle the kahnistensera are involved in.
Again, let us reiterate, under no circumstances are we working for or on behalf of the kahnistensera. As settler anarchists, we decided to take our own initiative to attack Arkéos, without any involvement from the kahnistensera. This is an autonomous action, we alone claim it. We see Arkéos as another obstacle McGill has put in the way of the kahnistensera to prevent them from conducting a proper non-instrusive forensic investigation. Arkéos will be proceeeding with an intrusive dig, which is against the public demands of the kahnistensera.
In the realm of the legal fight that is set to reconvene in court on October 26th, McGill, and to some extent, Arkéos, are using this action to strategically try to undermine as well as cast doubt upon the goodwill and honourable way the kahnistensera have fought this legal battle. There is ample evidence throughout history that shows the state, the police and/or corporate entities working together with the media to create narratives of doubt, conspiracies, and mistrust between all parties acting in solidarity with an Indigenous-led campaign. This is often referred to as a tactic of counterinsurgency.
Let us once again redirect the attention to the real culprits: McGill and Arkéos who are collaborating in acts of colonial violence for profit. With such a short timeline to stop Arkéos, it is imperative for independent groups to use a diversity of tactics while respecting the Kaianereh’kowa (the Great Law of Peace). Such autonomous organizing is not new, this is how anarchists have worked in other anti-colonial struggles.
Friday October 14, 2022
Since the eviction of the camp from the Royal Vic site on Tuesday morning by police, McGill’s contractors have begun their excavation of the site, putting up fences and hiring a security guard who himself doesn’t seem to know who he is working for. They have already stripped the asphalt and broken ground, and reports say that the archeological firm Arkéos is planning to start the digging of sensitive material on Monday.
The Kanienkeha Kahnistensera (known in English as the Mohawk Mothers) have opposed the New Vic Project multiple times over the past several months. They initiated a court case against McGill and the SQI (Société québécoise des infrastructures), who are behind the renovation project in April of this year. The Kahnistensera are presently awaiting their next date in court against McGill, which will come on October 26, long after Arkéos has stripped the earth around their historical village.
We as settler anarchists and accomplices decided to attack Arkéos today, because we want them to know that they must be accountable for working on this colonial project for McGill. This university, founded with profits from selling the products of the slave trade and from stolen Haudenausaunee Trust Fund money, has yet again acted in total disregard of Indigenous sovereignty by ignoring the legitimate demands made by the Kahnistensera, the guardians of the land under the Great Law of Peace.
We demand that Arkéos takes responsibility for the work they are doing for McGill. After McGill cancelled consultations with the Mohawk Mothers, Arkéos has still not met with the Mothers to address their concerns over the excavation. Despite a flurry of calls and emails to Arkéos to cancel their involvement in the project, Arkéos has continued their participation in this excavation without any consultation with the Kahnistensera. Arkéos is not an apolitical actor in this struggle, as they prepare to work behind fences and guards while they desecrate a historical Indigenous cultural site.
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the past of that very company. Indeed, Arkéos has been founded by engineers who needed archeologists and anthropologists to legitimize construction projects. It’s definitely not the first time that Arkéos stands hand in hand with the Quebec Settler colonial state, as they have been involved in Hydro-Québec projects on Eeyou Istchee, mining projects on unceded Nitassinan, pipeline projects in the south of so called Québec as well as various gentrification projects in the so called cities of Montréal and Québec.
To Arkéos, we would like to say this: next time, if you don’t wanna cry over a couple of spilled boxes and some dirt on your luxurious couches, maybe dont get involved in fucking colonial contracts.
Sincerely, a couple of anarchists.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Update – 11 October: Next Steps for Anti-Colonial Direct Actions Against McGill’s New Vic Project
The camp that was setup on October 10th against upcoming excavation work by McGill was evicted by police this morning. There is currently excavation equipment on site, fences are being erected, and work is planned to begin October 12th by the McGill-hired archeological firm Arkéos. Even though they are supposedly investigating Indigenous archeological remains, Arkéos has had no discussions with the Mohawk Mothers, and is not equipped to a forensic investigation for unmarked graves. Please send them as many phone calls, emails, and faxes as you can in the next 48 hours to let them know that this work should not be going ahead without the direct involvement of the Mohawk Mothers and that Arkéos should withdraw from the project.
Phone: 514-387-7757
Fax: 514-382-5659
Email: info@arkeos.ca
Follow our Twitter @stopthenewvic to find out how you can provide on the ground support
We are settler anarchists who have initiated an anti-colonial solidarity action to block the renovations of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, which McGill University has said they plan to begin working on in early October as part of their campus expansion project. We are disturbed but not surprised that McGill would insist on pushing ahead with this work despite concerns that it may destroy forensic evidence of unmarked graves in the area. McGill has already invested immensely in this campus expansion project, and the possible discovery of unmarked graves would be a financial loss and tarnish their pro-reconciliation public image. We are taking direct action to stop their renovation work before it covers up the truth of their own violent history.
We have started this action on October 10th, so-called Thankgiving Day in Canada, and Columbus Day in the US. Such holidays represent the ongoing colonial violence of the settler-colonial state. We believe that there can be no peace on these lands until the colonial states of Canada and the US are abolished. We give thanks to the Kanien’kehà:ka people, who after centuries of resistance to colonization, continue to fight to defend these lands. We give thanks to the Kanien’kehà:ka women who have done extensive research, made this information public, and taken action to address the problems with this New Vic renovation project.
The Kanien’kehà:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) are a group of women from the Mohawk communities of Kahnawake and Kanehsatake. Based on the kaia’nereh’ko:wa (the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee confederacy), the kahnistensera are considered progenitors of the Kanienke’hà:ka nation, own and are the caretakers of the land and the soil, including Tiohtiá:ke (so called Montreal). They are declaring that McGill stop planned renovations of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, that there be an investigation of the area for unmarked graves, as well as further study of Indigenous archeological sites known to be in the area. The investigation would be to find bodies of victims of CIA and Canadian government funded MK-Ultra psychiatric torture experiments that took place in the 1950s and ’60s at the Allan Memorial Institute, which is directly adjacent to the Royal Victoria.
The kahnistensera refer to the testimony of survivors of the MK-Ultra experiments, who say there were also Indigenous children being brought to the Institute and experimented on at that time. In recent years, thousands of unmarked graves have been found using ground-penetrating radar on the grounds of former residential schools for Indigenous children. A forensic investigation of the grounds of the Allen Memorial and the Royal Victoria, supervised by the kahnistensera, could determine the truth about some of the terrible things that happened there. The planned renovations would risk destroying this evidence, and must be stopped before an investigation can happen.
In April 2022, the kahnistensera filed a legal claim to the Superior Court of Quebec to stop McGill and the Société Québécoise des Infrastructures (SQI) from proceeding with the renovations and the next date in this process is October 26th. As usual, it is very unlikely that the colonial courts will take the demands of the kahnistensera seriously and do anything to stop the colonial university and state from proceeding with their plans. That is why it is important for all of us who support Kanien’kehà:ka sovereignty on this land to organize ourselves in solidarity with the public calls of the kahnistensera against the renovations.
As settlers and anarchists, we attempt to act as accomplices in Indigenous-led fights to abolish the settler-colonial-imperial-capitalist state and insititutions, such as McGill. We also recognize that Kanien’kehà:ka sovereignty in this place goes beyond this current campaign. We support the kahnistensera’s broader vision of a university which has been renamed to not pay homage to a colonial slaveholder, has repaid its financial debts to the Haudenosaunee peoples, has stopped all military research, and is governed by the kahnistensera in accordance with the kaia’nereh’ko:wa.
From Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Rage
This is a call for an Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage Against Colonialism on Sunday, October 9, 2022, everywhere.
We heard that mass actions are a bit out of fashion this season & lone wolfs or affinity groups are all the rage.
Counter the spectacle of the “good, respectable Indian” and their mundane celebrations of assimilation. Your ancestors invite you to embrace the veracious criminality of anti-colonial struggle and be smart (don’t get caught).
A banner drop? An attack on colonial symbols, monuments, etc. Spray paint? A broken window here, a burning xxxxxxx there? Be fierce and fabulously unpredictable and strike in the darkest part of the night (points if you use glitter). Even the smallest Indigenous dreams of liberation are greater than the settler nightmares we live everyday.
We won’t be making any lists or asking for emails this year due to a heightened sense for the need of greater security culture. Though we will post any securely and anonymously sent reports and pics in the aftermath.
In the spirit of Jane’s Revenge, abort colonialism. Colonizer (c)laws off our bodies!
– The insurrectionary anti-colonial invisible council of IPDR. www.indigenouspeoplesdayofrage.org #indigenouspeoplesdayofrage #indigenouspeoplesday
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Wednesday evening, a collective of Indigenous and settler activists blocked the Roberval-Saguenay railroad belonging to the multinational corporation Rio Tinto in solidarity with the National Committee for First Peoples’ Rights which is paralyzing for a third consecutive day the railroad line located at the border of Labrador and Schefferville, which is used by the mining company Tata Steel. The solidarity blockade lasted one hour. These actions have the objective of reminding the governments that the members of the Indigenous communities in this country will no longer accept any compromises regarding criminal acts committed against them.
The band councils of Uashat mak Mani-utenam (ITUM) and Matimekush-Lac John are suspected of having obtained the majority of electoral votes through corruption, fraud, extortion, and breach of trust. The alleged acts took place between 2019 and 2022 and involved nearly $1.8 million in bribes and favors of various kinds. In the official complaint formulated to the Sûreté du Québec by the First Peoples’ Rights Committee, a list of evidence coming directly from ITUM’s accounting system shows that there were, without the knowledge of the members, approximately 325 billing payments from registrants for an approximate amount of $1,780,000. This amount would be the result of a contract signed with the mining company IOC Rio-Tinto in 2020, in which Chief Mike McKenzie’s team would have hidden the legal meaning of the numerous clauses of this agreement from the members, which would have had the effect of giving away, in an exclusive manner and without any time limit, all future rights to decision-making about exploitation of natural resources on the unceded Great Nitassinan, the territory of the Innuat people!
Today’s action by the collective in Saguenay is a reminder that the Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) and the band councils, which are nothing more than organizations of colonial assimilation set up by the federal government, are not masters of unceded Nitassinan. Agreements signed illegally, by extortion, without the consent of the entire Innuat people, will never again be tolerated. The mining companies have been destroying and polluting the territory of the Innuat for several decades. Our action is a direct act of ancestral sovereignty of the First Peoples. We have been perpetuating this ancestral governance for thousands of years. We are also acting for future generations to leave them a healthy land and to perpetuate our ancestral rights, our sacred relationship with Assi (the Earth) and all living beings. Enough is enough! Today we are acting in the name of a movement by Indigenous people and their allies, to denounce these criminal acts sanctioned by the Canadian and Quebec courts. We call for the multiplication of solidarity actions in relation to this struggle.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Creeker is a grassroots, anti-authoritarian zine series that aims to bring depth, variety, critique and continuity to the ongoing process of reflecting on the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek blockade and related efforts. It is intended for creekers themselves, land defenders elsewhere, and the land defenders yet to come.
Last summer on so-called Vancouver Island, thousands of people moved through a de-facto autonomous zone spanning multiple watersheds. A constellation of struggle burned bright, welcoming into its fold a new generation of land defenders. We cannot begin to fathom the amount of stories of collective and individual experience that have piled up, but we also recognize how sleep deprivation, trauma loops, burnout, and the shock of returning to society can preoccupy our minds.
In response to an open invitation to contribute to this zine project, many have shared some of what they have begun to process. Creeker Vol 1 and Vol 2 include art, analysis, photography, history, personal reflection and poetry that were anonymously sourced from participants at the blockade.
Creeker Vol 2 expands on some of the themes of Vol 1 with eloquent and hard-hitting writing exploring the dynamics of autonomous forest defense in conflict with recuperative tendencies at Fairy Creek, and the ever-present treachery of environmental NGOs and the non profit industrial complex. Vol 2 also begins to revive vital histories of radical, uncontrollable resistance in the nearby Kax:iks/Walbran and Elaho Valleys, helping to bridge emerging generation gaps caused in part by decades of pacifist liberal whitewashing.
The Creeker Companion zines are curated to complement the Creeker zines with material that’s relevant to Ada’itsx and similar movements, but much broader in scope. Companion Vol 1 and Vol 2 both explore topics such as movement history, state repression, and thoughtfully critical approaches to identity politics. Vol 1 features mostly longer form pieces, while Vol 2 samples briefly from various material including essays, poetry, communiques and more, joined together with a playfully insurrectionary vibe.
Both Creeker and the Creeker Companion may be of interest to anarchists and land defenders in general.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Early Monday morning, several small groups targeted 7 RBC branches spread across so-called Vancouver. We damaged locks, smashed windows, and left messages.
RBC continues to provide funding for the Coastal Gaslink pipeline crossing Wet’suwet’en territory. They are violating Wet’suwet’en law and are complicit in the criminalization of land defenders on their own territory.
We have not forgotten RBC. Lack of media attention will never diminish our hatred for CGL and their financiers. State repression won’t take away the joy of destroying their property.
May we find love and solidarity in the struggle against extractive projects.
Fuck RBC. Fuck the RCMP. No pipelines on Wet’suwet’en Yintah.
Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info
We heard some Wet’suwet’en Chiefs were visiting Six Nations territory Tuesday. We appreciate the energy and determination the Wet’sutwet’en have shown towards defending the land and lives of their people. We wanted to welcome them to the area.
We cannot be out west with you, but we are with you from here.
In the night of July 31, 2022 several small groups enjoyed the cool evening and – where opportunities presented themselves – took small actions against local rail infrastructure. We see rail as a colonial imposition, forced upon the territories of Turtle Island (and beyond) to expand colonization – and eventually industrialization and destructive extraction. An attack on rail is an attack on those things, and rail is everywhere and indefensible – so it is also an opportunity that is available to most.
Using various methods such as connecting copper wire between fish plates, smashing hot wheel equipment with hammers, and kicking large rocks into track switches we had ourselves a low stress evening which ultimately endangers no one but ourselves, but does create several annoyances for operators.
You, dear reader, can do any of these things too! We can slowly erode this system, as water will do even to rock.
We remember the rail blockades of 2020. We remember the slow build. The energy. We remember people stepping on to railways and wanting to know what was next: wanting more. They were ready to take a stand for the Yintah. For its people. And against our genocidal government and corporations.
We think it will look different – but believe we can get there again. The same way in which the hottest of fires can overwinter in a tree trunk only to burst forth when the time is right, making way for new life and a new world.
We stand with the Haudenosaunee taking back their land.
We stand with the Wet’suwet’en defending their land.
Welcome to the territories of the Haudenosaunee, Missisaugas, Huron-Wendat, Chonnonton, Erie & Petun people.
Signed,
some people.
