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    Refusing To Be Silent

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    Paula LaPierre writes a letter of support to Sue Collis, wife of Shawn Brant, expressing empathy for the economic hardship and injustice they have faced. She details similar struggles facing the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation in having their rights and claims denied by Canada's flawed Aboriginal policies which were designed to minimize Indigenous rights and erode their land claims. While situations differ, the sources of hardship for Indigenous communities across Canada trace back to the same injustices embedded within Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples. By refusing to remain silent on these issues, people like Shawn Brant are helping educate Canadians and move towards genuine reconciliation.

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    Refusing To Be Silent

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    78 views3 pages
    Paula LaPierre writes a letter of support to Sue Collis, wife of Shawn Brant, expressing empathy for the economic hardship and injustice they have faced. She details similar struggles facing the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation in having their rights and claims denied by Canada's flawed Aboriginal policies which were designed to minimize Indigenous rights and erode their land claims. While situations differ, the sources of hardship for Indigenous communities across Canada trace back to the same injustices embedded within Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples. By refusing to remain silent on these issues, people like Shawn Brant are helping educate Canadians and move towards genuine reconciliation.

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    Refusing to Be Silent

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    Paula LaPierre writes a letter of support to Sue Collis, wife of Shawn Brant, expressing empathy for the economic hardship and injustice they have faced. She details similar struggles facing the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation in having their rights and claims denied by Canada's flawed Aboriginal policies which were designed to minimize Indigenous rights and erode their land claims. While situations differ, the sources of hardship for Indigenous communities across Canada trace back to the same injustices embedded within Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples. By refusing to remain silent on these issues, people like Shawn Brant are helping educate Canadians and move towards genuine reconciliation.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    78 views3 pages

    Refusing To Be Silent

    Uploaded by

    api-3758586
    Paula LaPierre writes a letter of support to Sue Collis, wife of Shawn Brant, expressing empathy for the economic hardship and injustice they have faced. She details similar struggles facing the Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation in having their rights and claims denied by Canada's flawed Aboriginal policies which were designed to minimize Indigenous rights and erode their land claims. While situations differ, the sources of hardship for Indigenous communities across Canada trace back to the same injustices embedded within Canada's relationship with Indigenous peoples. By refusing to remain silent on these issues, people like Shawn Brant are helping educate Canadians and move towards genuine reconciliation.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    A letter submitted to Dominion by Paula LaPierre in response to “Refusing to be Silent,

    Economic Disruption in Indian Country” by Sue Collis, Shawn Brant’s wife

    Dear Sue,

    It is with great empathy that I read your article and my deepest support goes out to you, your
    family, and your community...in fact to the broader Aboriginal community of what is known as
    Canada. As a mother, Aboriginal community leader, and a proud descendent of the First People I
    can share with you the questions that you ponder.

    My family has endured terrible economic and emotional hardship during the recent years as we
    attempt to gain recognition for our community's inherent Aboriginal rights against the insidious
    machinations known as Canada's Aboriginal policies, designed specifically to minimize or
    completely erode the actual legal rights and contracts held by the Aboriginal people. As the
    elected leader, and descendent of the traditional hereditary leaders of the Kichesipirini Algonquin
    First Nation, rightful political and economic centre of the Algonquin Nation, I have been
    discriminated against, through the application of Canada's Comprehensive Claim Policy and the
    Indian Act to the point of financial ruin and homelessness, while those with less legitimate claims
    benefit, prosper, and negotiate away our broadest Aboriginal rights under the pretence of the
    "Algonquins of Ontario" Land Claim Negotiations currently underway.

    This situation, the Algonquin Land Claim, is a blatant contemporary example of the many issues
    you, your husband, and community have been attempting to draw attention to for years. Let me
    affirm for you that the issues you address, although distinct to your particular situation, are
    consistent with the concerns and realities faced by thousands of persons of Aboriginal descent
    throughout Canada, and that the sources of such social and personal mayhem trace their way
    back to Canada's severely flawed and devious Aboriginal policy and practices.

    Few Canadians realize the severity of layers of complex injustices woven into Canada's official
    relationship with the Original People of the Land. It has been my contention, as a result of direct
    experience with the Algonquin situation that the people, all people, have not been adequately or
    objectively educated or informed about the actual Aboriginal situation in Canada and the strange
    parodies imposed on the people in the name of reconciliation, Treaty, negotiations, consultation
    or de-colonization. The process is fraudulent, manipulative, intimidating and fraught with
    corruption...as it is designed to be...because the Canada that many call home has been built on a
    false foundation.

    I find myself and my family physically coming full circle...homeless within our own
    territory....."stragglers" and "squatters" again as we were administratively referred to when the
    Canadian government needed to eliminate the Kichesipirini so that they could gain control of our
    great river, currently known as the Ottawa, and exploit the vast natural forest resources of the
    Algonquin Nation. By eliminating the political centre and dispersing the people to Indian Act or
    mission reserves any collective resistance or legal obligation could be avoided....temporarily.
    More than 150 years later, within a process hyped to bring compensation and reconciliation, the
    Kichesipirini are still being denied rightful recognition. Will the oppression of Aboriginal people
    continue....from without as well as within? That is really a question individuals will have to decide
    and act upon.

    Like your community the Algonquins have had boarders imposed, traditional governance
    interfered with, families separated and sabotaged. For centuries the Algonquin people, all
    Aboriginal people, have endured the policies, disruptions and humiliations imposed on us,
    adapting or just existing in whatever means were available.....but the time has come that the
    truth must be told. Canada has not acted honourably. Canada has upheld the honour of the
    Crown as it promised. Canada has perverted the legal and moral obligations owed the Original
    titleholders of the land and the time for genuine reconciliation has come. But we cannot reconcile
    those differences alone. We are equally dependent on all other Canadians to participate in the
    process. Thanks to people such as your husband the difficult facts and the ugly realities are
    gradually making their way into the homes and conversations of the Canadian people. Refusing
    to be silent is a valuable gift being given. Thank you.

    Canada cannot hide or afford the corruption any longer. Bureaucrats, native and non-native alike,
    and businessmen, native and non-native, have illegitimately profited for far too long. The false
    information, the scapegoating, the criminalization of resisters has gone on for too long and
    average Canadians are beginning to get suspicious that they have been manipulated and used as
    pawns in an agenda that they did not give informed consent to.

    Thank goodness for us all that there are individuals as brave as Shawn Brant, Dudley George,
    Leonard Peletier, Anthony Hall, David Clarke, ......countless others, that have attempted to draw
    attention to the terrible injustices regarding the Original People of Turtle Island....Sadly, the
    persons of Aboriginal descent, trying to fulfill their obligations to ancestors, communities and
    descendents, are forced to pay an inflated price for rights and human dignities others can glibly
    take for granted. This is a social rights movement. It is a social rights movement that is far more
    threatening than any previous because human rights, social rights, racial rights, civil rights are
    not only at stake here....but the very foundations of political entities positioned atop mountains
    of legal complicity...and the very title to the land and resources itself. How extremely brave those
    individuals must be that attempt to challenge such powerhouses!!!!!! They will in due time be
    recognized as heroes and rightfully honoured. Explain that Sue to your young children, and take
    comfort in the difficult hours. This is only the beginning.

    But beware of false prophets; leaders and resistance movements just as corrupt as what we are
    trying to escape. Many abound initiating class action suits, organizing new age traditional
    governments, resurrecting myth and legend. Demand facts, legitimacy, truthfulness and
    historical integrity. Rely on the assistance and expertise of those willing to provide....and rely on
    the wisdom and patience of our ancestors. What is right is worth doing right.

    It is my hope, and the hope of my community, that a genuine path can be forged that will honour
    the legal and moral commitments of the past, preserve the resources of today, and provide for
    the needs of the future....sanely and responsibly. Although diverse, and also vulnerable to
    conflicts and divisions amongst us, the Aboriginal people, as tribal people, contrary to
    industrialized societies, for the most part shared a common awareness of their inherent
    dependence on this natural world bestowed us. If we can nurture and expand on that great
    intuition and again exercise responsibility and integrity in that area, in our role as stewards, we
    can move in confidence. If we can act as advocates for sustainability and justice our time should
    come sooner.

    While many, in ignorance, continue to criminalize those that are attempting to initiate positive
    social change, and address the injustices of the past it is often difficult to discern the legitimate
    from the facsimile. Hopefully situations such as what you find yourself in will draw attention to
    the issues....for the benefit of many.

    So I hope to offer you and your family encouragement. Please know that many are watching, and
    many are learning. And thank goodness for all of those that refuse to be silent!!!!!! It is the
    beginning of our real education.

    Be proud.

    Migwetch

    Paula LaPierre
    Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation

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