Sunday, October 1, 7-9 pm, Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave.
The Struggle At Muskrat Falls: Indigenous Rights, Green Energy Myths, and Criminalization of Land Protection
Please join us for an urgent discussion on the struggle at Muskrat Falls, where scores of Indigenous people and settler allies face serious criminal charges for acts of land and water protection. Elders have been jailed, journalists have been charged for covering the issue, and the Trudeau government has invested billions while saying nothing in defence of those being targeted for state repression. Ways of life that have existed since time immemorial are now under threat from methyl mercury poisoning as well as the very real risk of catastrophic dam break given its construction on quick clay (which moves).
A panel discussion featuring Kelly Morrissey, a Nunatsiavummiuk Inuit woman from Labrador, Matthew Behrens (Homes not Bombs, Ottawa-Muskrat Solidarity Committee), and more will explore why hydro projects are not the green panacea they are made out to be. It will also discuss how the project fails the most basic tests of free, prior and informed consent under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Muskrat Falls has received under Harper and Trudeau over $9 billion in federal loan guarantees for a project that threatens the survival of Indigenous people in Labrador. As with other so-called "green" measures, this one sacrifices the most basic rights of Indigenous people so the federal government can claim to meet its climate action goals. Far too many people live with the constant fear that they will drown in their sleep or that they will be killed off slowly and painfully by the effects of chemical poisoning, a condition akin to the psychological torture of living under drones.
This event is sponsored by the Peace and Social Action Committee of Toronto Monthly Meeting, Homes not Bombs, Toronto Action for Social Change, and the Ottawa Muskrat Solidarity Committee.
Join us the following morning, Monday, October 2, at the constituency office of Colonialism Minister Carolyn Bennett for a vigil in support of Labrador Land Protectors from 11 am to 12 noon, 1650 Yonge (just north of St. Clair subway)