Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has expressed her support for the Declaration by the Kanien’kehà:ka Kanehsatà:ke Territory issued on December 6-7.
She has tweeted:
Was an honour to stand with Ellen Gabriel and pledge support to the Kanesatake declaration to oppose Energy East pic.twitter.com/4wY6plgHGY
— Maude Barlow (@MaudeBarlow) December 9, 2014
This past Sunday December 7, Barlow and Council of Canadians energy and climate justice campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue participated in an Indigenous strategy gathering opposed to the Energy East pipeline in Kanehsatà:ke.
The declaration states, “We the Kanien’kehà:ka people of Kanehsatà:ke are gathered here today to assert our authority and jurisdiction upon our un-ceded traditional. Settlers call this part of Kanehsatà:ke ‘Parc Nationale d’Oka’, however we have never surrendered our rights to our ancestral lands and resources. We are here today to remind the Government of Canada, Quebec and the authorities of this fact. Kanehsatà:ke existed long before Europeans arrived in the Americas and is the oldest Kanien’kehá:ka community, part of the Iroquois Confederacy.”
The declaration highlights, “Resource extraction and their accompanying pipeline by companies like TransCanada, Enbridge, Gazoduc and condo development by GDB Construction violate the land rights of the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawks and threaten the health of the environment.”
On December 5, 2013, Barlow signed the Solidarity Accord to the Save the Fraser Declaration in opposition to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline. On that occasion, she stated, “I am honoured to sign this historic document as it is crucially important that community and civil society stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples in their resistance to these pipelines. We recognize and respect First Nations’ decisions to ban tar sands pipelines and tankers from their territories and we offer our support and solidarity.”
For more on our campaign against tar sands pipelines, please click here.
