Decolonization involves dismantling colonial systems, transferring power to Indigenous peoples, and seeking redress for past injustices in the pursuit of social justice.
What does decolonization mean?
Decolonization constitutes a multifaceted process that entails the dismantlement of the complex systems of colonialism in a particular territory or region. It involves a substantial shift of power and control from the colonial authorities to the native population, resulting in the creation of independent nation-states. This intricate process can take various forms, such as political independence, economic self-determination, cultural revival, and the acknowledgment of Indigenous rights and sovereignty. Furthermore, decolonization frequently involves struggles for social justice and the redress of historical injustices, including but not limited to, the expropriation of land, the imposition of forced labor, and the annihilation of cultural practices.
Decolonization, as an ongoing phenomenon, has left an indelible impact on the political and social landscapes of numerous countries and regions worldwide. It has provoked significant changes in the lives and identities of Indigenous peoples and has fundamentally altered the relationships between former colonizers and colonized populations. Decolonization represents a vital juncture in the modern history of numerous regions and has contributed to shaping the complex and intricate global landscape of today.
What is colonization?
Colonization represents a complex and multifaceted historical process, characterized by the imposition of political and economic control by a dominant society or nation over another territory, people, or region. The colonizing power endeavors to assert its authority and extend its influence over the colonized society, frequently utilizing forceful or coercive measures to extract resources and labor to further its interests.
The varied forms of colonization include direct rule, where the colonizing power establishes a formal political and administrative structure, and indirect rule, where local elites are co-opted to govern the colony on behalf of the colonizer. Invariably, the process of colonization involves the imposition of a new language, culture, and social system on the colonized population, often having profound impacts on their way of life, traditions, and beliefs.
In particular, Turtle Island, also known as North America, has a history of colonization by European powers such as Britain, France, and Spain, which resulted in the dispossession and displacement of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. The impacts of colonization on Indigenous peoples have been extensive and long-lasting, including economic exploitation, cultural assimilation, and political oppression, which have significantly shaped the political and social landscapes of Turtle Island.
As the enduring impacts of colonization continue to reverberate in numerous parts of the world, it remains imperative to acknowledge and redress the ongoing legacies of colonialism, particularly those experienced by Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island.
Overall, decolonization requires a long-term commitment to structural and systemic change and demands a collective effort to promote social justice, healing, and reconciliation. As individuals, we can all play a role in this process by educating ourselves, amplifying Indigenous voices, respecting Indigenous knowledge and culture, building relationships, taking action, and promoting environmental sustainability.
Decolonization demands acknowledging the impact of colonization, empowering Indigenous peoples, challenging dominant narratives, promoting healing and reconciliation, advocating for environmental sustainability, and supporting Indigenous-led initiatives. It requires a long-term commitment to structural and systemic change, rooted in understanding and respect for Indigenous peoples and their rights.
Why is decolonization important?
Decolonization is crucial because it seeks to address the historical and ongoing injustices faced by Indigenous peoples as a result of colonization. It is a process of returning power and control to the colonized populations and recognizing their sovereignty and rights. Decolonization can help to promote social justice, foster healing and reconciliation, and support sustainable and respectful relationships with the environment and ecosystems.
The potential systemic investigation comes after over 500 complaints were put forth to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).
Among the complaints, over 100 grievances allege excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behavior, racism, discrimination, and charter violations by the RCMP’s C-IRG.
In the article, the CBC reports a statement made by CRCC communications director Kate McDerby, who confirmed the severity of these allegations against the RCMP.
“The CRCC is aware of the systemic issues raised by many of these complaints and is exploring options to determine how best to address these issues within our mandate,”
RCMP Superintendent John Brewer in Afghanistan, 2010 USM Photo
The CRCC’s comment to the CBC was in response to RCMP Chief Supt. John Brewer told CBC News he was satisfied with how his unit investigates complaints.
In the article, Brewer is highlighted as suggesting that the allegations against the RCMP are from upset activists making the complaints in defiance of their arrests.
Protesters retake Camp Land Back from RCMP at the Fairy Creek Blockade
In 2021, the C-IRG was deployed to the Fairy Creek old-growth logging protests on Vancouver Island, which took place on unceded Pacheedaht territory. The resistance action is known to be one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history, with over 1,000 protestors arrested on the site as of February 2022.
In one of the CRCC complaints highlighted in the CBC article, a complainant alleges Mounties, with their name tags and regimental numbers removed, broke their thumb during an arrest at Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island on September 9, 2021.
“He twisted, and I felt the bones snap. I was in extreme pain,” wrote the complainant, who provided X-rays from their hospital visit, redacted for privacy reasons.
“I was told I had an extreme fracture of the bones in between my thumb knuckles. The bone was broken into three wedge-shaped pieces.”
These allegations of C-IRG officers breaking bones are a common thread among many who have told their stories of police interaction publicly over the last few years. However, according to the Mountie in charge of the C-IRG, those allegations are often understood as ‘false,’ according to comments made to the CBC.
“I’m aware of allegations made against C-IRG of breaking legs, breaking bones, and when we do the follow-up on that, it turns out to be false,” Chief Supt. John Brewer said.
Image of injury sustained during arrest on September 9th, 2021, at hands of RCMP
A few weeks after the CBC article was published, a Fairy Creek land defender became aware of their complaint being highlighted in the news story and wished to set the record straight.
Courtney Chapman, a 38-year-old activist living in Toronto, has faced numerous stalls in resolving her complaint with the CCRC about her treatment at the hands of the C-IRG, which resulted in her broken thumb.
“I submitted a request to obtain the footage of my arrest to the privacy commissioner back last summer, following radio silence on an [Access to Information and Privacy] request, which was long expired, with no reply from the CRCC,” said Ms. Chapman.
Like many complaints made to the CRCC involving the 2021 Fairy Creek protests, Chapman’s case is currently being delayed due to the commission claiming to be actively investigating.
“I’ve been getting stonewalled because the investigation is ‘still ongoing,’ despite the fact that I haven’t seen any movement in the last ten months and keep receiving identical form letters.”
Image of bruises sustained during arrest on September 9th, 2021 at hands of RCMP
According to Chapman, the C-IRG pushed numerous news media members away from the September 9 arrests, so photography or video of the police interaction remains scarce. However, Ms. Chapman says she and other land defenders have managed to identify the brutalizing officer.
“The Staff Sergeant investigating my complaint has confirmed the officer who broke my thumb is identified/badge number is known,” Ms. Chapman said. “I also have a friend from the blockade who has photos of the individual from a separate interaction.”
Despite attempts at concealing their identity, the officer in Chapman’s complaint may face disciplinary action, but only once the CCRC wraps up their investigation. Until then, she looks to set the record straight about the brutalization she and many other activists endured.
X-ray of broken thumb sustained during RCMP arrest on September 9th, 2021
“At the time of my arrest, I was a 36-year-old healthcare worker helping defend the land from resource extraction,” Chapman said. “I have no reason to embellish or exaggerate the fact that they broke my thumb.”
When asked about the comments made by the C-IRG Chief Brewer, suggesting complaints and allegations of officers breaking bones at Fairy Creek were false, Chapman responded to those sentiments as unsurprised.
“We have seen this repeatedly with police officers, and the fact is that cops lie. It’s common knowledge: they hide evidence to obscure their abuse of the public, they act on corporate interests, and unnecessarily escalate legitimate conflict,”
Chapman’s complaint was published just a few weeks before the Canadian investigative online magazine the Narwhalannounced legal action against the RCMP.
RCMP Police Brutality Highlighted In Latest Legal Action
Photojournalist Amber Bracken was arrested by RCMP in November of 2021 while covering resistance to the Coastal Gas Link pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory. This week, the Narwhal and Bracken announced a lawsuit filed in the British Columbia Supreme Court against the RCMP for wrongful arrest, wrongful detention and violation of charter rights.
Bracken was arrested along with independent documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano, who was on site for nearly a year before his arrest.
Both journalists were detained for days before being released on bail in Prince George, B.C.
The RCMP has been known to target journalists covering environmental resistance and land defense actions in Canada over the last few years.
In May 2021, the RCMP arrested a journalist for allegedly obstructing the work of the logging company. However, video later surfaced of the journalist in question repeatedly asking what they were blocking, with police failing to respond adequately before the arrest.
Caycuse, B.C. Tuesday, May 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne
Besides further allegations of RCMP police brutality, the RCMP came under further scrutiny when several officers were seen wearing ‘thin blue line’ patches while on duty at the Fairy Creek site, despite RCMP guidelines forbidding the symbol.
According to CBC News, since its inception in 2017, the RCMP’s C-IRG has spent nearly $50 million on its operations, which continue on Indigenous territory throughout so-called British Columbia to the present day.
More to come on this story…
If you have recently been a victim of RCMP police brutality and would like to tell your story, please reach out to alcontent@proton.me
Delgamuukw is a landmark court case in Canadian history that acknowledged the existence of Aboriginal title. Decolonize.ca recognizes the 50th anniversary of the Calder vs. B.C. Supreme Court decision as an important moment in the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights.
Dr. Frank Calder, Supreme Court of Canada, 1999.
decolonize.ca in the Canadian state would like to acknowledge that January 31, 2023, marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Calder vs. B.C. Supreme Court decision, which rendered the first acknowledgement of Aboriginal title within the scope of Canadian law.
This anniversary also takes place just one year after the passing of Delgamuukw, the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief whose name is known in Canadian history for the landmark 1997 Supreme Court decision on Aboriginal title.
The Delgamuukw case saw the term Aboriginal title first established in the 1973 Calder vs. B.C. case, further asserted into Canadian law in 1997. That decision became the legal basis for the first successful declaration of Aboriginal title in Canada by the Tsilhqot’in Nation in 2014.
While the Tsilhqot’in Nation managed to have their land claim recognized, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people represented in the Delgamuuk case have yet to achieve the same, as a second trial in the case has yet to take place.
Wet’suwet’en translator Dinize Wigitimst’ochl, Victor Jim, left, and Neil B. Sterritt Jr., a leading Gitxsan figure during the court case
Despite that, the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa decision still holds substantial legal significance for its’ use of oral testimony of Indigenous leaders as evidence of their people’s ancestral inhabitants. This testimony was integral to the Supreme Court’s decision on Aboriginal title encompassing the right to exclusive use and occupation of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people’s traditional territory.
The struggle for rights to land, language and culture is not new for the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people, with the fight for their sovereignty spanning almost two centuries. From the time the first fur traders, missionaries, and pioneers reached the lands that would later be claimed as so-called British Colombia, the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people have had conflict with the various settler forces infringing on their territory.
When British Colombia entered Canada’s confederation in 1871, the Canadian government made it illegal for First Nations people to fish commercially. In 1872, a smallpox epidemic that peaked a decade earlier continued to threaten First Nations communities across the territory, wiping out a large portion of the Indigenous population in the Pacific coastal regions.
In 1890, the B.C. and Canadian government established the Kuper Island, Kamloops, and Williams Lake residential schools, which operated as compulsory by the Indian Act for nearly a century.
Some thirty years after the 1894 amendment to the Indian Act made attendance at residential schools mandatory, an amendment in 1927 made it illegal for First Nations communities to raise funds or hire lawyers to pursue land claims.
First Nations people resisted the policies of the Indian Act well into the 20th century. However, after increased expansion of the Canadian state’s colonial project, death and disease would be brought to many Indigenous communities by the time the outbreak of the Spanish Flu hit its peak in the second half of 1918.
Apart from the spread of disease, First Nations people were subject to increased land incursion by the Canadian military and Parks Canada. Indigenous people were also subject to religious manipulation by Papal missionaries like Catholic priest Adrien-Gabriel Morice, with many rivers, lakes and forts in British Colombia still bearing the name Morice till this day.
With these and many other combining factors, the population of First Nations people reached a historical low point in the 1920s, with the genocidal residential school system peaking in the early 1930s.
Modern Age Sparks New Fight For Indigenous Sovereignty
Canadian war hero and First Nations activist Francis Pegahmagabow.
In an attempt to assert position and status in society, many Indigenous people living in Canada willingly joined, or were coerced into fighting for the Canadian state during the first and second world wars. During these wars, Canadian military bases were established on Indigenous territory, with many Indigenous soldiers returning home to find themselves forced back onto Indian Reserves.
In 1945, the Canadian government abolished the pass system, which restricted all Indigenous people with status to those reserves for more than a half-century.
Soon after the second world war, after obtaining once-revoked fundamental rights such as freedom of movement and freedom of assembly, Indigenous people living in Canada became more involved in Canadian society. With these newly established freedoms, First Nations people living in the Canadian state managed to organize and advocate for their rights and claims to land in ways that were once unattainable in the previous century.
In 1946, Canadian Parliament created a special joint committee to assess the effects of the Indian act. By the second half of the 1950s, activism continued to rise on First Nations reserves, with widespread Indigenous rights movements blossoming across the Canadian state.
By the late 1950s, Indigenous people living in so-called Canada could again fish commercially, hold Feasts and pursue land claims in Canadian courts. However, most land claims at that time were delayed, dismissed, or ignored entirely.
First Nation’s village in the Halwilget Canyon in c. 1900
In 1959, Indigenous people with status were granted the right to participate in Canadian elections and hold public office. However, just as the Indigenous people of Turtle Island living in the Canadian state began to achieve their own sovereignty, the government of so-called Canada quickly moved to reestablish itself on the same jingo-colonial principles it was founded on.
Later that year, the Canadian government allowed blasting to clear boulders that retained salmon in the Bulkley River. After the blasting, the Hagwilget village fishery would be without fish for more than 50 years, sparking litigation that remained unresolved until 2009, with the Canadian government agreeing with residents on a settlement of $21.5 million.
By the 1960s, a ‘Red Power‘ movement emerged across the Canadian state, inspired by the Black Power movement south of the border in the United States. Indigenous activists called for decisive and aggressive actions, with many land defenders borrowing the famous phrase stated by Black liberation leader Malcolm X, “by any means necessary.”
Throughout the 1960s, Indigenous activists began to publicly detest the noted abuses of First Nations people at the hands of the Canadian state, along with the deplorable living conditions that many Indigenous people living in so-called Canada were forced to endure.
In 1966, anthropologist Harry B. Hawthorn published a crown-commissioned report on the social conditions of First Nations people in Canada.
This class status was attributed to years of abusive government policy, including the residential school system, which was noted to have disadvantaged generations of Indigenous children by failing to provide the essential needs and necessary skills required to succeed and survive in adulthood.
Hawthorne’s report recommended that all forced assimilation programs be abolished immediately and that Indigenous people living in Canada be seen as ‘citizens plus,’ given fair treatment, and given access to the resources needed to establish self-sovereignty
In 1968, in the shadow of their new leader Pierre Trudeau, the Liberal party of Canada won re-election under the slogan of creating a ‘Just Society.’
Later that year, as a part of the ‘Just Society’ platform, Jean Chrétien, then Minister of Indian Affairs, was tasked with making foundational changes to the Indian Act.
The following year, Prime Minister Trudeau and Indian Affairs Minister Chrétien issued what is known today as ‘the White Paper‘ (officially entitled Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy).
The White Paper proposed the total abolition of all legal documents on Indigenous matters that had previously existed in Canadian law, including the Indian Act and all other existing treaties in Canada. The statement proposed recognizing First Nations people as an ethnic group would obtain equality among all other Canadian citizens.
Jean Chrétien and Pierre Trudeau, Red Paper Brief, 1970
The statement was met with widespread criticism, as many Indigenous activists felt the proposal reflected that forced assimilation in Canada still existed and remained the government’s long-term goal.
Calder v. B.C. Case Forces Acknowledgement Of Aboriginal Title
First B.C. Chiefs Conference, 1969
The same year the White Paper was published, Frank Calder and the Nisga’a Nation Tribal Council brought legal action against the government of British Columbia; with a declaration that Aboriginal title to their traditional territory had never been lawfully extinguished.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, right, and Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chretien, second from right, meet with Nisga’a First Nation leader Frank Calder, centre, on Feb. 7, 1973
The Calder v British Columbia hearing took place in late 1971, with the decision rendered on January 31, 1973. The Calder decision was the first time Canadian law acknowledged that Aboriginal land title existed before the colonization of Turtle Island and that it was not merely derived through treaty or statutory law.
The Supreme Court of Canada recognized that the Nisga’a had Aboriginal title to the lands dating back to before European settlers arrived since the Nisga’a had been “organized in societies and occup[ied] the land as their forefathers had done for centuries.”
In the Calder case, the courts found that if there ever was Aboriginal land title, it was indeed extinguished by the colonizing forces. However, the court was split three to three on whether that title was still valid or had been lawfully extinguished by some means of succession. Due to this split, the two three-justice groups developed competing tests to determine Aboriginal title and ultimately came to differing conclusions.
British Columbia cabinet minister Frank Calder talking to the media, February 8, 1973.
In the end, the court’s decision concluded that while Aboriginal title within the borders of then Canada could exist, more was required to demonstrate that the First Nations in question held such title to those territories.
While most Indigenous rights advocates at the time saw the ruling as controversial, the decision caused the Canadian government to overhaul much of the negotiation process involving land claims with First Nations people. It was the first of many cases that would go on to definitively assert the right of Aboriginal title in Canadian courts.
Frank Calder, (August 3, 1915 – November 4, 2006) was a Nisga’a politician in Canada.
Frank Calder was a hereditary chief of the House of Wisinxbiltkw from the Killerwhale Tribe and the founder of the Nisga’a Tribal Council, who spearheaded the litigation effort for his people against the Candian government and continued to fight for Nisga’a treaty rights for decades after the 1973 decision.
By appealing this case to the highest court in Canada, the Nisga’a land claim, which was argued by Thomas Berger, managed to establish that Aboriginal title exists in modern Canadian law, which became the basis for British Columbia’s Nisga’a treaty.
Before the Calder case, Indigenous rights defenders had no transparent process for asserting land claims in Canadian courts. The Calder case clarified that at the time of the decision in 1973, nearly 40% of Canada’s land mass was negotiable with First Nations people.
Shortly after the decision was published, Canada developed a land claim policy to help guide negotiations between the government and First Nations groups.
The Calder decision was a bittersweet moment for Indigenous land defenders like Frank Calder, who had fought for so long to gain recognition and legal claim to their own traditional territory. Though the ruling was understood as an overall victory for many First Nations groups, the court’s decision was still limited in scope and would need to be challenged with more proceedings soon after.
Members of the Constitution Express, 1980
Just a few years after the Calder ruling, the colonizers of Canada were negotiating the repatriation of the Constitution of Canada, which many Indigenous rights advocates saw as an opportunity to codify the newly established legal term Aboriginal title into Canadian law.
In response to the rising of this opportunity, Chiefs and elders from many First Nations living in Canada sent a delegation known as the ‘Constitutional Express’ to travel to England, lobbying for the inclusion of Indigenous land rights and Aboriginal title in the repatriated Canadian constitution.
Elizabeth II, proclaims the Constitution Act, 1982.
The campaign garnered great success, and in 1982, the Constitution Act was passed, which included Section 35(1), stating, “The existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed.”
In response to the constitutional assertion of Aboriginal title, the legal team representing the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people moved into action and quickly began weighing their legal options. Not long after the Constitution Act was signed, the Wet’suwet’en-Gitxsan people decided to escalate their resistance to a court battle.
Canada’s new constitution was yet to be thoroughly tested in court. With an opportunity to assert their rights, the Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council began gathering evidence to present their case in front of the highest courts in the land.
The process of litigation that began in 1984 was a long and strategic battle of attrition, with each move made by the Wet’suwet’en-Gitxsan legal team having been highly thought out and in a coordinated effort, with many meetings taking place to discuss strategy for each specific goal.
Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa legal team at the Smithers courthouse in 1984.
The Wet’suwet’en-Gitxsan land defenders operated on the principle of a ‘diversity of tactics’ and remained focused on each goal they wanted to accomplish when carrying out their actions. When land defenders put up blockades, they did so with an intention and stated purpose. If those actions were not serving the cause of the Wet’suwet’en-Gitxsan people, they would back down, regroup and diversify their approach.
The Delgamuukw legal team were determined to take the fight to wherever it would lead, and while the last place they wanted the fight to go was the Supreme Court of Canada, they were more than prepared to take it there.
On October 24, 1984, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en Hereditary chiefs filed their claim to Aboriginal title of approximately 58,000 square kilometres of land in North Western British Colombia.
Just a week later, on November 1, 1984, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in the case of Guerin v. The Queen. The Guerin ruling became integral to interpreting the newly established protections in Section 35 of the Constitution Act, as it defined the principle of “fiduciary duty” and established Aboriginal title as a sui generis right.
Earl Muldon, 2009
Delgamuukw, later anglicized to Earl Muldon, was a Gitxsan Indigenous rights leader, one of the Hereditary Chiefs in the Office of the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen, and a representative for the joint Tribal Council of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en nations. He was 48 years old at the time of the filing in 1984 and was the main claimant in the case.
Meanwhile, Gisday’wa (Alfred Joseph) was a well-known Wet’suwet’en claimant and was advised by long-time Wet’suwet’en speaker Satsan (Herb George) of the Frog-Clan.
From 1984 to 1997, this team of Indigenous rights advocates and litigators took on the spirited fight for the jurisdiction of their territories in the northwest of British Colombia. The trial began in 1987 and spanned 374 days in court, from May 11, 1987, to June 30, 1990, in both Vancouver and Smithers, B.C.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs holding the 1991 B.C. Supreme Court decision, which ruled against them.
Then in 1991, the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people were handed a devastating blow, as a controversial decision rendered by Chief Justice Allan McEachern ruled that while First Nations people may have held Aboriginal title, that title was legally extinguished in 1871 when British Colombia entered Canada’s confederation.
Many legal and historical scholars immediately criticized McEachern for the decision, to which he referred to the pre-contact life of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en as “nasty, brutish, and short.”
McEachern failed to recognize the presence of pre-contact “institutions,” systems of government, and inhabitance, and devalued Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people’s culture by stating, “they more likely acted as they did because of survival instincts.”
Satsan (Herb George), Speaker for Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs
In response to the ruling, the Canadian Anthropology Society stated that the judgment “gratuitously dismisses scientific evidence, is laced with ethnocentric bias, and is rooted in the colonial belief that white society is inherently superior.”
With a new provincial BC NDP government in power, the court was instructed to abandon its previous position taken at trial on the matter of extinguishment and appointed a special third-party council (amici curiae) to assist with the decision.
On June 25, 1993, the B.C. Court of Appeal officially rejected the McEachern ruling due to deficiencies relating to the pleadings and the treatment of evidence.
Chief Justice Antonio Lamer, writing for the majority at the Supreme Court of Canada, acknowledged that Chief Justice McEachern did not have the benefit of the reasons from R v. Van der Peet, which says “courts must not undervalue the evidence presented by Aboriginal claimants simply because that evidence does not conform precisely with the evidentiary standards [applied in other contexts].”
Members of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en First Nations hug to celebrate the 1997 Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to recognize Indigenous land rights.
The case was then ordered back to trial, with the appeal case heard in June of 1997.
On December 11, 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada announced its decision to grant a new trial in the Delgamuukw case, citing the court’s error in failing to recognize each of the fifty-one claims individually during the original hearings ten years prior.
“I have arrived at the conclusion that the content of Aboriginal title can be summarized by two propositions: first, that Aboriginal title encompasses the right to exclusive use and occupation of the land held pursuant to that title for a variety of purposes, which need not be aspects of those Aboriginal practices, customs and traditions which are integral to distinctive Aboriginal cultures; and second, that those protected uses must not be irreconcilable with the nature of the group’s attachment to that land.”
The front page of the Vancouver Sun the day after the Supreme Court of Canada handed down their decision.
The decision published in the appeal of this case left a monumental mark on how Canadian courts define Indigenous land rights. Previous to the Delgamuukw decision, no Canadian court had extensively defined the meaning of Aboriginal title. While the importance of the term Aboriginal title became further defined in Canadian courts in the lead-up to the 1997 decision, the judgment remains a seminal one up until the present day.
The second trial ordered in the Delgamuukw case has never occurred, and the land claim remains unresolved. The decision did not order the government to change any of its positions on Indigenous sovereignty but only clarified what exactly defines the term Aboriginal title.
In the 25 years following the decision, the province of B.C. has maintained less than a status-quo position in its negotiations with many First Nations, with considerable violations of Indigenous sovereignty currently ongoing within the borders of so-called British Colombia and many other Indigenous territories on Turtle Island.
The Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa case did open the door for other Indigenous land claims, like the Tsilhqot’in Nation in 2014, which led to the first official declaration of Aboriginal title in Canada. However, the Tsilhqot’in nation is just one of the hundreds of First Nations that are now being forced to fight for Indigenous land title in the Canadian courts, a fight that many lack the resources to take up on their own, and for some First Nations people, time is running out.
Delgamuukw Forever
Earl Muldoe, also known as Delgamuukw, 1991
Apart from being a Gitxsan hereditary Chief, Delgamuukw, also known as Earl Muldon, was a world-famous Gitxsan artist who received the B.C. lifetime achievement award for his Indigenous art in 2009 and was given the honour of the Order of (so-called) Canada in 2010.
decolonize.ca would like to pay tribute to the life and accomplishments of Delgmuukw (Earl Muldon, 1936 – 2022), who passed away one year ago, on January 4, 2022, at the age of 85.
We raise our fists in gratitude for the courage of both Delgamuukw and Gisday’wa, who carried in their names the strengths of their clans with honour and great responsibility.
It is with great shame that we must acknowledge that both the late Chiefs Delgamuukw and Gisday’wa, along with their people, were forced to face such ill-treatment at the hands of the ethnocentric colonial Canadian government. Only for twenty-five years later, that same government remains in a struggle to uphold the essential findings the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people forced the court to produce.
Satsan, Herb George, speaks at Delgamuukw 25-year anniversary event.
In 2019, as recommended in the Canadian government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the provincial government passed the declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) into law.
However, while the Declaration act set out to change the relationship between Indigenous people and the Crown, that change has taken place at a painful pace, and only on the terms of the Canadian state.
This, while the colonial government of so-called Canada continues to use instruments embedded in the old thinking used by the colonizers, such as the first Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, Joseph Trutch, who believed in Terra Nullus, Manifest Destiny, and the Doctrine of Discovery.
RCMP officers detainong Freda Huson (Howilhkat) and others based on an injunction obtained by Coastal Gas Link (2020)
While legal teams representing the institution of the Canadian state continue to use such colonial tactics in court, those same tactics of conflict are being used through colonial enforcement, which continues to take place in British Colombia from the days of confederation until the current present day.
Heavily armed RCMP police enforcement continues on Wet’suwet’en territory, despite numerous government officials formally agreeing on police enforcement being something the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people would no longer face.
Despite the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2020, the government of so-called Canada has continued to favour conflict over negotiation, as resource extraction projects continue to be given approval by both the provincial and federal governments. In the simplest terms, if the government of so-called Canada is continuing to allow the destruction of Indigenous territory to take place without consent, then reconciliation is not happening.
Now, after 25 years, what rests in the wake of the Delgamuukw decision is a reflection of the mythopoetic colonial folklore in which the country of Canada was established.
Indigenous activist with Mohawk flag in front of Toronto street car, November 5th, 2022.
The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people never gave up their land. They did not lose it in a war or sign it away in any treaty.
Despite what the government of so-called Canada says, the land is still that of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en people, and they are going to take it back.
If they can’t do it in the courts, it will be done in the streets, and it will not be a fight that will be fought on their own.
The anniversary of these land-back decisions should spark a new wave of solidarity protest action across the Canadian-state. decolonize.ca will continue to give unrelenting solidarity and support to the Wet’suwet’en people, their right to sovereignty, and all Indigenous people living on Turtle Island.
There can be no reconciliation between the Canadian state and the Indigenous people of Turtle Island without restitution. This includes Land Back, a seizure of the major resource corporations and their sponsors (such as the Royal Bank of Canada), and returning those resources to the Indigenous people of the common lands.
For more information on upcoming actions associated with this cause, please visit Decolonial Solidarity. In the meantime, if you want to support the Wet’suwet’en resistance today, visit yintahaccess.com.
How I learned to decolonize socialism. Preventing the process of self-replication to counter the rise of oppressive and elaborate neo-colonial frameworks. by Al Content
I became a socialist through the identity of a cishet white settler male living within the Canadian state, with a cultural identity of primarily Scottish, with some French heritage.
Over time as a leftist, I learned more about myself, traced my heritage, and formed an ethnic identity.
After digging deep into my matriarchal lineage, I recognized my ethnic identity as Metis, which I confirmed with genealogical records and databasing. I finally understood myself as a Scottish white settler with Metis heritage. However, something was still missing.
Upon learning more about my Métis ancestry and the history of Métis peoples in the context of settler colonialism, I was struck by the unique approach of French European settlers who arrived on Turtle Island. Unlike other European powers, the French established natural kinship bonds with certain Indigenous communities, ultimately leading to the emergence of the Métis as a distinct people with a unique cultural identity. This history highlights the complexities of colonial relationships and their enduring impacts on the identities and cultures of Indigenous peoples.
While the imperial British settler colonial state enacted its power through ridged segmentation, which included binding various sexual identities into the easily sortable male/female binary, the social colonies of the Metis took on a different approach.
At first, rather than taking the typical colonial pathway of dominating, segmenting, and extracting from nature. The diverse Metis colonies took on a social structure in an attempt to be in harmony with nature and the Indigenous people of Turtle Island.
The unrestrained way of life for the Metis people created a culture that incentivized a harmonious and sustainable social structure that fragmented away at times, only to return shortly after, which acted as a natural means to ward off the emergence of any hierarchal structures.
However, as the British Crown’s colonial project on Turtle Island continued to expand, the Metis colony became entrapped in the rigid social segmentation of the colonial framework and found itself binding to the norms of what we understand as the state and statehood today.
Unbinding the Social Framework
As I understood this phenomenon, I looked at myself. I became fully aware that I do not fit into that colonial binary framework and that my ethnic, sexual, ideological, and interpersonal identity can not be segmented into an easily organizable category or partition.
I came into the journey of this understanding as a cishet male with white settler heritage and came out with a personal understanding that I can’t even begin to describe, nor will I try to in this thread. This is more than that, this isn’t about me, but this is how I got here.
For many of us who identify as settlers, we only understand the oppressive imperialist state we live in through the lens of the state itself. We can only identify and relate to THIS structure through our experience of alienation within it; we’ve never had anything else.
If our understanding of social liberation can only be framed within this oppressive system, any alternative system we form together will only replicate the system we are currently experiencing. We must think far beyond our understanding of how these social structures operate.
Decolonize Socialism, End Self-Replication
The old socialist project, the idea of seizing the means of production to bring about workers’ liberation, stands ultimately as a chauvinistic, ethnocentric, and non-sectional approach to achieving global solidarity.
Confronting The Faults Of A Failed Revolution
To truly begin this process, we must first acknowledge the faults of old socialism without judgment but with empathy and an informed understanding of the phenomena of self-replication.
If we as settlers only understand the concept of liberation and equality in the framework which upholds a system that impedes the liberation and equality of non-settlers, our understanding of this mythical colonial concept that is ‘equality’ will be perpetually flawed.
The state acts as an unconscious collective of the dominating human psyche and will forever replicate the state structure in which that dominating human psyche can exist. Regardless of ideology, if conceived within this framework, it will replicate it.
That framework is a pyramid-shaped hegemonic social process that naturally alienates and oppresses a section of society for a smaller section to prosper.
Any attempt to reform this oppressive system from within will only be a more complex replication.
If we’re going to change society, we must first change our minds and understand the social framework we are currently collectively experiencing. The only way to do that is to unite and break out of that framework with collective collaboration.
Human beings are not naturally meant to be rigidly segmented into binary identities. We’re not meant to live in a world where our only understanding of ourselves is through the experience of how we are alienated and oppressed for the benefit of the system we’re forced to serve.
A system that perpetuates itself on each individual’s own self-exploitation is a system that is defined by its own ultimate self-destruction. Humanity is a collective experience, not a singular one, we have to share our environment collectively, or we’re destined for destruction.
The way to stop this process goes far beyond ‘seizing the means of production,’ but yes, that’s a start.
Revolutionism, socialism, communism, reformism, electoralism, and activism are tools, but they are not a solution. The solution is all of it and none of it.
We can’t comprehend the solution because we’ve only ever been able to understand solutions within the framework of the oppressive social structure we exist in. We must decolonize our understanding of these things and reshape them to form new understandings. We must decolonize socialism.
This is not an attack on any socialist ideologies or practices but an acknowledgment of their functions, what they do that provokes positive change, and what they do that can cause regressive harm. This is how we stop the phenomena of social self-replication and how we decolonize socialism and our politics entirely.
The colonial concept of ‘socialism’ has proven to be an excellent method of understanding for us as settlers to identify how these oppressive systems operate.
However, this understanding of socialism is still ultimately flawed. When implemented, it will replicate as such. Only until we decolonize socialism will our efforts as settlers amount to anything more than self-destruction.
One day we’ll reach a collective understanding of how exactly to bring about a revolutionary post-colonial system that can implement itself without replicating past oppressive systems, but that won’t be done by attempting to achieve colonial concepts like ‘equality.’
It will be done by coming to terms with ourselves, our humanity, and our own self-destructive nature.
It will be done by achieving holistic harmony with the planet and all other living species on earth and, by doing such – ensuring our survival as a species and a planet.
On the afternoon of June 5th, 2020, the local Toronto website ‘BlogTo’ put out a story concerning the upcoming protests that were planned on Saturday, June 6th. The article was entitled: What is the Black Bloc and why are they coming to Toronto?
(K. Van Paassen/Globe and Mail – June 25th, 2010: G20 Summit Protest)
The blog shares a number of unverified claims, including tweets that seem to indicate (via Facebook and Instagram stories) that the protests on June 6th could have in fact turned violent.
Numerous unverified photos of bricks being laid out along Queen and Ossington in Toronto have made their way across social media. However, as CBC disinformation reporter Andrea Bellemare confirmed, it seems to have been some form of an ill-thoughtout, social media hoax.
There are misleading posts about bricks at Queen & Ossington. Dan Welch at Garb Consignment at 1046 Queen W said the bricks were outside for an hour yesterday & taken into 1048 Queen West which is under construction. Here's what it looks like now: pic.twitter.com/hn0kSsQ4Kk
— Andrea Bellemare (@andreabellemare) June 5, 2020
BlogTO also goes on to claim (with no verified source)
‘Rumours are swirling that “Black Bloc members” or “a group called the Black Bloc” will be descending upon Toronto from Montreal this weekend to raise hell under the guise of protesting.’
All of these claims have been proven to be completely baseless, and are based on social media rumors of unverified twitter accounts, as explained in a previous SOL blog post.
Now let’s be perfectly clear. The ‘black bloc’ did not burn this police car at the G20 in Toronto. This photo is of the cop car that was set on fire at Queen and Soho, the police pulled up, quickly abandoned their car, and allowed it to be burned by random, unorganized protestors. (The entire incident is on video)
People surrounded the burning car for about an hour, and then the riot cops surrounded all of the protestors, kettled them, brutalized them, and then made mass arrests.
The Globe and Mail: Why were police cruisers left to burn at G20 summit?
Hours after groups of “black bloc” vandals on Queen Street allegedly forced Toronto police to evacuate two cruisers on the Saturday of the G20 summit last June, the vehicles were still abandoned. Eventually, Toronto police cruiser 3251, and then car 766 were set on fire by onlookers-turned-hoodlums, their actions photographed by bystanders and posted on YouTube.
Even after the vehicles were alight, emergency personnel were absent on that stretch of Queen. Instead, eyewitness photos show riot squad officers nearby on Spadina Avenue, preventing people from walking south. Dozens of people watched the cars engulfed by flames in the middle of downtown Toronto, with nary a police officer impeding their view.
Again, let’s be perfectly clear. The black bloc is not a protest group or activism organization. It is a tactic, it is an excuse to brutalize peaceful protestors. These tactics are meant to traumatize victims and the thousands of people that witness these acts of violence. Whether it be by police, neo-nazis or accelerationists; the tactic is to embed themselves into peaceful protestors, cause destruction, for the purpose of villainizing and taking cover behind the protests.
During the 2010 G20 Toronto Protests, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested two vandals that were undercover members of the Toronto Police Service. This is a verified fact.
CBC: G20 report clears RCMP but raises questions over ‘kettling’
The RCMP arrested five people during that incident, “two of whom turned out to be undercover Toronto police officers,” said McPhail. It’s unclear what the Toronto officers did to get arrested because McPhail found there was no record-keeping for the reason of their arrest. “There were inadequate notes taken,” said McPhail, adding that the circumstances may have been “difficult,” but in terms of a post-event review, they really are “necessary.” To that end, McPhail’s top three recommendations have to do with better note-taking and record-keeping.
The RCMP and the Toronto Police Service fully admitted the fact that they used undercover agents and embedded them within the protests groups, but the facts uncovered show that much more than embedding was done.
Based on federal court documents, the RCMP claimed to have taken ‘inadequate notes’ concerning the exact charges that the two undercover Toronto Police Officers were facing, claiming that the ‘circumstances may have been difficult at the time of the arrests.’
Of the 28 complaints made against the Police during the G20, 12 of them were ‘investigated and deemed “unsupported.”, two of them were found to be outside of the commission’s jurisdiction. Source: CBC
The complaints concerning the two undercover Toronto Police officers, were the two that were found to be outside of the commission’s jurisdiction, which is likely because they were involved in a covert police operation.
A few years later it was uncovered that the RCMP, OPP and Toronto Police, all used undercover agents to infiltrate and incite protest groups.
WSWS: Police helped plan vandalism at Toronto G20 summit
In documents released last week as part of a plea deal between 17 social activists and Crown attorneys, it was revealed that 12 undercover police agents either spied on or infiltrated protest groups who were planning to participate in demonstrations against world leaders at the June 2010 G20 summit meeting in Toronto, Canada.
At least two of these undercover officers played central roles in organizing protest activities of various anarchist collectives. This included helping to identify targets to be vandalized in downtown Toronto. This “target list” was one of the key pieces of evidence used by the prosecution to pressure the defendants to enter into plea bargain discussions.
These undercover agents have been known to: cause, suggest or incite some form of destruction or violence, and then gather information and arrest individuals who also partake in the destruction or violence, they themselves have incited.
Once again, let’s be perfectly crystal clear. This is fascism, and the corporate media is feeding you propaganda to make you think their brutalization of peaceful protestors is a just cause. When it is, in fact, all apart of their systematic oppressive police state.
Whether it be undercover agents, or ‘participants’ working as an agency of the police, or independent perpetrators, their only goal is to incite violence for the purpose of it being blamed on others. All of this falls under what is known as ‘the Black Bloc.’ It is a deception tactic and strategy, used to incite further unrest and to discredit peaceful protest.
The violence and destruction they help create is then used as an excuse to expand police budgets throughout the country.The facts are there, we have seen this all too often. (G7, Montebello, G20, etc).
TorontoStar: Police accused of using provocateurs at summit (2007)
Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders’ summit in Montebello, Que. Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged “agents provocateurs” have been caught on camera.
Canadian protestors, be aware! If you see large, out of place people, causing destruction and violence during protests, take photos of them! Those images will be very important when it comes to pinning undercovers for the destruction they wish to bring to our communities. Stay safe!
It should be a cause for concern to Toronto citizens that @blogTO claims that ‘Rumours are swirling that “Black Bloc members” or “a group called the Black Bloc” will be descending upon Toronto from Montreal this weekend to raise hell under the guise of protesting.’ without any factual basis.
The claims of ‘rumors’ made by @blogTO are based on a tweet from an unverified account with 19 followers by the name of ‘POOP_TROOP’
would be worried about the protesters in other cities too. word is they're bussing toronto black bloc members to hamilton, montreal members to toronto, and quebec city ones to montreal. i do not know where this circle starts/ends but it cannot be good for the country… https://t.co/Q5HVOs7SrE
The next ‘source’ for @blogTO ‘s ‘rumor’ is taken from a reply from a James Woods tweet that shows a Mexican protestor lighting a police officer on fire. ‘gypsydawl‘ is an unverified account with 33 followers.
Large protest scheduled for tomorrow in Toronto. A warning was issued that a group by the name of Black Bloc will be coming from Quebec to riot. This is not what George Floyd would have wanted.
— This Canadian Chick Eh 🇨🇦 (@gypsydawl) June 5, 2020
This is not journalism.
Fact is, ‘the Black Bloc’ isn’t even an actual organization. It is a tactic and strategy used by agent provocateurs and violent autonomous groups, who want to incite violence, for the purpose of it being blamed on others. Their goal is to criminalize peaceful protestors and to effectively take away their rights to protest, all while violently destroying our communities.
Gerry Lougheed Jr is a member of the “Order Of The Lion Of Finland” and a “Worshipful Master” of Freemasonry
The Annual Lodge Memorial Service was conducted under the direction of the Worshipful Master. Bro. Gerry Lougheed Jr., presented an address.
Finnish Ambassador Charles Murto, along with (R.W. Bro.) Brian Koivu (Algonquin Lodge No. 536), president of the Sudbury Finnish Rest Home Society, presented the Order of the Lion of Finland to (Bro.) Gerry Lougheed Jr. (Nickel Lodge No. 427) at Finlandia Village, 233 Fourth Ave, in the new Voima Hall. The Order of the Lion of Finland is one of three official orders in Finland. It was founded on Sept. 11, 1942, and is awarded for civilian and military merit.
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that traces its origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of masons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of freemasonry, its gradal system, retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by craft, or blue lodge Freemasonry. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are now administered by different bodies than the craft degrees.
The basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the lodge. The lodges are usually supervised and governed at the regional level (usually coterminous with either a state, province, or national border) by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, world-wide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry.
Gerry Lougheed Jr. is a founding member of the ‘Rotary Club of Sudbury Sunrisers.’ His father Gerry Sr. was a member since 1951 and became President in 1964.
Rotary Club celebrates centennial
The Rotary Club was started on Feb. 23, 1905 by American lawyer Paul Harris, and celebrated its 100th anniversary last week. The Rotary Club of Sudbury was started in 1924, and Gerry Lougheed Jr. founded the Rotary Club of Sudbury Sunrisers in 1991.
Lougheed certainly isnt the first in his family to be involved in the Rotary Club. His father, Gerry Sr., first joined the club in 1952, and was president of Sudbury Rotary Club in 1964. His mother, Marguerite, and brother, Geoffrey, have also been involved.
Rotary International is an international service organization whose stated purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. It is a secular organization open to all persons regardless of race, color, creed, religion, gender, or political preference. There are 34,282 clubs and over 1.2 million members worldwide. The members of Rotary Clubs are known as Rotarians. Members usually meet weekly for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, which is a social event as well as an opportunity to organize work on their service goals.
The first Rotary Club was formed when attorney Paul P. Harris called together a meeting of three business acquaintances in downtown Chicago, at Harris’ friend Gustave E. Loehr’s office in the Unity Building on Dearborn Street on February 23, 1905. In addition to Harris and Loehr (a mining engineer and freemason)
Shriners International, previously known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (A.A.O.N.M.S.) and also commonly known as Shriners, was established in 1870, and is an appendant body to Freemasonry.
Gerry Sr. is seen below in a Freemasonry publication wearing the St. John of Jerusalem Star
Bro. Lougheed a respected businessman in Sudbury who with his wife Marguerite founded the Lougheed’s Limited in 1952. With much hard work and vision they established one of the largest funeral and floral companies in Canada.
Bro. Lougheed has been a member of the local Rotary Club since 1952, holding every office and served on several district committees. He has been awarded The Paul Harris Fellowship Award for his humanitarian work. Besides his work with the Rotary Club, Lougheed rebuilt St. John Ambulance in Greater Sudbury. St. John Ambulance provides services like first aid at many events. On Oct. 26, 1990, he became the first Sudburian ever to be knighted at a ceremony performed by the Governor General of Canada, Ramon Hnatyshyn.
Gerry Sr. and Gerry Jr.’s brother Geoffery are the only Father/Son members of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in Canada.
In Memory of Gerald Malcolm “Gerry” Lougheed Sr.
When his son Geoffrey was also knighted under the auspices of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem making Gerry Sr. and Geoffrey the only father/son Knights in Canada, a Lougheed crest was commissioned to commemorate that historic event. The motto on the crest is “Servire est vivere” (to serve is to live). Gerald M. Lougheed Sr. has by his service lived well and now hears the Lord’s words; “Well done good and faithful servant, enter yours is the Kingdom of Heaven”.
Gerry Lougheed Jr. photographed here wearing his Order Of St. Jerusalem family crest
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta (Italian: Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta), also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order of, traditionally, a military, chivalrous and noble nature. It is the world’s oldest surviving order of chivalry. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is headquartered in Rome, Italy, and is widely considered a sovereign subject of international law.
The St. John Of Jerusalem Star that Gerry Lougheed Sr is wearing is a Maltese Cross which signifies a deep personal allegiance to The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta.
Maltese Cross
The Maltese cross, in Italy also known as the Amalfi cross, is the cross symbol associated with the Knights Hospitaller (the Knights of Malta) and by extension with the island of Malta.
Both the Order of Saint John (in German, the Johanniterorden) and the Venerable Order of St John teach that the eight points of the cross represent the eight Beatitudes. The Venerable Order’s main service organisation, St John Ambulance, has applied secular meanings to the points as representing the traits of a good first aider:[4]
Observant (“that he may note the causes and signs of injury”)
Tactful (“that he may without thoughtless questions learn the symptoms and history of the case, and secure the confidence of the patients and bystanders”)
Resourceful (“That he may use to the best advantage whatever is at hand to prevent further damage, and to assist Nature’s efforts to repair the mischief already done”)
Dextrous (“that he may handle a patient without causing unnecessary pain, and use appliances efficiently and neatly”)
Explicit (“that he may give clear instructions to the patient or the bystanders how best to assist him”)
Discriminating (“that he may decide which of several injuries presses most for treatment by himself, what can best be left for the patient or bystanders to do, and what should be left for the medical men”)
Persevering (“that he may continue his efforts, though not at first successful.”)
Sympathetic (“that he may give real comfort and encouragement to the suffering”)
The Maltese cross remains the symbol of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, of the Order of Saint John and its allied orders, of the Venerable Order of Saint John, and of their various service organisations.
December 25th, is the day that you may finally accept something that that many others have all been quietly denying in the back of their mind for years. That is, if you are a true bible believing Christian, than Christmas, and capitalism is not of your faith.
The facts can not be ignored anymore. The facts concerning the absence of any type of ‘Christ-mass’ celebration anywhere in the pages of the bible. Nor can we ignore the absence of any type of direct command from Jesus Christ to his followers to observe his birthday.
To celebrate Christmas is to support the countless amounts of mega wealthy, multi-national corporations that make their biggest profits during this time of year. Companies that have increasingly promoted Christmas as a chance for special commercialized advertising campaigns and new product placements.
Meanwhile, good hearted, well meaning people go in debt during this time of year to please their children and relatives with expected gifts. In turn, this motivates others to give gifts in return., along with the gifts our children, nieces and nephews had asked of Santa Claus. These meaningless and mostly useless purchases create a financial burden on us all.
The Bible teaches it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts:20:35). During christmas time, you see little joy in giving and children always eagerly expecting to receive. The real Christian believes that Godly blessings come from carefully obeying God. Not from a gift card or petty possessions.
This is all behavior that makes no real sense at all, and has no true meaning as a ‘spiritual holiday.’ Seeing as nothing about what ‘Christmas’ represents is at all biblical in any sense of the word. A celebration that can not be found anywhere historically in biblical times, promotes perpetuating lies to children and puts people in a exponential cycle of debt. All of this blinds people to what Christ really taught.
In fact, celebrating Christmas violates at least the First, Second and Third Commandments of God’s Ten Commandments. Observing a pagan holiday is a sin. God condemns the worship of pagan gods.
A true Christian (follower of the biblical gospel) wouldn’t even dignify these ‘holidays’ as a Christian celebration to begin with. Historically, there is simply no evidence that the early apostolic church observed christmas or tried to ‘Christianize’ a pagan festival that predated Christ’s birth. Research shows that early, pre-catholic Christians never even celebrated Christ’s birthday at all. Period. Let alone on December 25th.
It was only until the year 338 when Roman Catholic Pope Julius I declared it to be the official recognized date of the birth of Jesus Christ. the Romans (the ones who killed Jesus 338 years or so prior) declared that date forever to be known as ‘Christmas’ However, this is a total perversion of the true Christian teaching.
Let’s explore the stars.
The date of December 25th comes from Rome and was a celebration of the Italic god, Saturn, and the rebirth of the sun god. Again, this was done long before the birth of Jesus.
It was noted by pagans, that daylight began to increase after December 22nd, These ancients believed that the sun god rose from the dead three days later as the new-born and venerable sun.
The Bible does not command people to observe the birth of Christ as a holiday. Again, Dec. 25, is the date that has been observed for centuries as a pagan holiday in honor of the pagan sun god. God commands those who want to serve Him not to observe pagan celebrations or any custom that breaks his holy laws. The Romans (The sames ones who killed Jesus) celebrated “the new sun” on December 25th.
So therefor, claiming that Christmas is a ‘purely Christian holiday’ is actually not factually accurate at all and simply does not take the history of the occasion into consideration. Also, it’s acceptance as a Christian celebration actually helps perpetuate the two thousand year perversion and bastardization of true Christianity.
Jesus Christ Himself and the apostles and early church knew what the scriptures said about trying to use other religions’ practices to worship and honor God. It just doesn’t work; God expects better from us. God tells us to avoid the ways of the ancient pagans. Though modern Christianity observes Christmas. However, Christmas is pagan. Christmas is a lie. Christmas is a substitute for righteous behavior. It makes people think they are doing good things for God, when they toil in toxic co-dependence, alcoholism, and narcissism.
Most people who claim to be Christian frankly have never looked into the Bible and it’s history to learn for themselves the true origins of Christmas. It’s an eye-opening fact that people would rather toil in human traditions that have no basis in the Bible than to embrace the gospel for it’s word.
Sadly, most people who claim to be Christian do not want to ask the obvious questions. For example, how does the use of Santa Claus depict the birth of Christ? How does the Christmas tree depict Christ?
Think of the songs we sing, ‘O Tannenbaum’ and ‘Oh! Christmas Tree.’ Singing to a tree as though it were alive and had some strange power. Decorating it and placing gifts below the tree as though the gifts and good feeling emanated from and through the tree. A quick encyclopedia search will uncover that the origins of the Christmas tree, its ornaments and giving of Christmas gifts come from ancient Roman festivals. Also, that the Christmas tree represents idolatry, which is a sin.
Think about the words to ‘Silent Night, Holy Night,’ a truly beautiful piece of music. Now think about the shepherds and their flocks in the blooming fields on a lovely mild evening, at the end of December. This is a complete contradiction, Jerusalem has rain and cold that time of year, it sometimes even snows in the region. Sheep are sheltered in the wintertime, not left out in inclement weather.
It’s all one big red lie, and for this matter we should not celebrate something that has nothing to do with our spiritual or moral belief system. Further I firmly believe that people that do claim to be of the Christian faith, can not – and should not, partake in the celebration of “Christmas”
Simply put, Christmas, and all of it’s false worship. Can not be redeemed.
The 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill in Ottawa were shootings that took place on October 22, 2014 when Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (born Michael Joseph Hall) fatally shot Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a Canadian soldier on ceremonial guard duty at the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada and the nearby Centre Block Parliament building where members of the Parliament of Canada were attending caucuses.
There is an ongoing investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) into the murder of Cpl. Cirillo and The Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the security response to the attack.
Multiple media agencies are begining to give a full understanding of the days leading up to actions of Bibeau, where he was and what he was doing before he carried out the attacks. One small piece of info seems to stick out.
CBC News has learned Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the man who attacked Parliament Hill and killed a reservist on Wednesday, drove around for almost 24 hours with a piece of junk mail taped in the rear window of his car in place of a real temporary licence plate.http://cbc.sh/4mPuf0S
One question that needs to be answered is: How did a man driving a car with no license plate manage to drive up to the Parliament undetected? There is plate scanners in almost every major Canadian city. Try driving to get a bag of milk in your town without a license plate, see how far you get before being stopped. Let alone the nation’s capital. This seems like utter incompetence by the police.
One tiny bit of news that can be shared is that – Zahef-Bibeau bought the car in Ottawa and was unable to get it plated due to lack of proper ID, so he drove to Montreal to visit a relative then drove back to Ottawa – approximately 2 hours each way depending on where in Montreal area he went.
This only raises further questions.
Let’s focus directly on the use of these ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) cameras. The OPP and many municipal police services have had them since after 9/11 in almost every major city. I live in Sudbury and they have them here. It’s a camera that has plate recognition software, it that takes a picture of your plate and then scans it in conjunction with a large database of plate numbers, and gives a notification or alert if something doesn’t jive with the records. The majority of police communications centers have them.
I became aware of the extent of the use of these devices during the Tim Bosma murder story, the southern Ontario man, who went missing and later found dead, after he posted a kijiji ad about a truck for sale. That’s how the OPP tracked the vehicle in that case. They (local police and OPP) can see what vehicles have been in which areas over a certain amount of time. When you sign for your vehicle registration you agree to this. It’s nothing exotic or unconventional. It’s simple police Intel.
How They Work
… the system will make it easier to identify expired validation tags, especially at night. And [it] can also serve as an investigative tool, allowing police, for example, to scan certain areas in search of a stolen vehicle or amber alert situation”
We can verify that cities between Niagara Falls, all the way to North Bay have use of these devices. Whether mounted on police cars, or simply mounted to a pole at a busy intersection. It is no secret that the authorities use these devices. Some people will argue that the use of these devices is only restricted to man operated police cruisers, and the notion of them being on street corners mounted to poles – is an American ‘police state’ inspired myth. However, research shows that this is simply not the case.
‘Special cameras are mounted on police vehicles or on poles in certain areas of town that have the ability to scan about 3,000 licence plates per hour.’
Fact is, they (Local Authorities, OPP & RCMP) had them for YEARS. Next time your’e at a major intersection in your area. Look up. It’s not just a camera, it is equipped with plate recognition technology that is used in conjunction with the scanning data base – all automatically, and gathers data and alerts police of at risk drivers, people with prior chargers, people on bail, house arrest, ect, ect.
It’s NOT new, and ALL major local police. Including Ottawa Regional, Including the OPP, including the RCMP – have them. They exist from Niagara Falls to Northbay to Ottawa and London. All over the province, not “just on the 407″ as some will argue.
Further…
“While ALPR (Automated License Plate Recognition) systems generally do not film vehicle occupants — their focus is on the licence plates of vehicles — associated cameras could be configured to capture images of all drivers and passengers, as well as vehicle licence plates. ALPR systems — whether they are focused on licence plates or enhanced to create a more detailed record of a vehicle and its occupants — MAY BE DEPLOYED OPENLY FROM A STATIONARY PLATFORM SUCH AS A POLE, or mounted on a vehicle such as a marked police cruiser. Nonetheless, in many circumstances, they may operate in an opaque manner that may go unnoticed by much of the effected public.”
There is multiple cases over the past few years where they have traced the location of a vehicle using the pole cameras. The Tim Bosma murder, the Loretta Saunders murder, ect.
“The system is capable of scanning for specific licence plates during an amber alert when a child is missing and there is a suspect vehicle description.”
I hope this gives a better idea of how widely used this technology is. This is the Greater City Of Sudbury 400kms away from the 407. Plate scanners in full use.
Anyone can figure it out for themselves, if you disagree – go for a ride around your town with no license plate on your car and see how fast you get pulled over. But yet in the Nation’s Capital we have this man driving around for a reported 24hrs between Ottawa and Montreal without being stopped once. We know there is plate scanners all over every major city in Canada. Even in smaller cities at main intersection. We know these scanners help aid the police in their communications centers as to the whereabouts of certain individuals with prior chargers or travel restrictions such as someone on probation, or conditions of release.
So the fact that this guy was able to drive around for so long in the nations capital, when police and intelligence were already on high alert. Is just incomprehensible. This all begs the question. How was this radicalized individual, who was known to police, able to evade intelligence agencies and police and able to carry out such a monumental attack on the capital? Incompetence? Complacency?
Oct 23rd, 2014 Ron Atkey is a law professor at Osgoode Hall at York University where he teaches national security law. He was also the first chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee – an independent agency of the government that oversees CSIS.
Ron Atkey: “I always think of terms of trying to prevent something before it happens, through good security intelligence and the question that raised in my mind. Is our security agencies working in cooperation with the police, had information about these individuals – why didn’t they prevent it? How did CSIS miss them? they are supposed to be the people who have all the information, about people on watch lists. And taking into account certain things that can be passed onto the police to prevent from it occurring. Prevention is always better than after the event.”
7:15′
Anna Maria Termonti: “Now the legislation that the government had been poised to bring in yesterday, or to uh atleast introduce yesterday – would have done some of that, would it not have?”
Ron Atkey: “Yes, its very ironic, they wanna bring in the powers that are necessary. The very acts, they are trying to prevent, occur.”
Oct 23rd, 2014 Ron Atkey is a law professor at Osgoode Hall at York University where he teaches national security law. He was also the first chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee – an independent agency of the government that oversees CSIS.
Ron Atkey: “I always think of terms of trying to prevent something before it happens, through good security intelligence and the question that raised in my mind. Is our security agencies working in cooperation with the police, had information about these individuals – why didn’t they prevent it ?? How did CSIS miss them ?? they are supposed to be the people who have all the information, about people on watch lists. And taking into account certain things that can be passed onto the police to prevent from it occurring. Prevention is always better than after the event.”
7:15′
Anna Maria Termonti: “Now the legislation that the government had been poised to bring in yesterday, or to uh atleast introduce yesterday – would have done some of that, would it not have ??”
Ron Atkey: “Yes, its very ironic, they wanna bring in the powers that are necessary. The very acts, they are trying to prevent, occur.”