AW@L Radio - Smash the State Report: March 29, 2013

From the March 29th 2013 edition of AW@L Radio - The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble starts off the show with their song War and we give a read of an apparent draft version of a call out for the (En)gendering Resistance conference happening April 19-21 in Waterloo. Check their webpage for more details and listen in to the Daily GRRR! for some voices of SPI in the lead up to the event.

We jump into the report with audio from Sakura Saunders of protestbarrick.net grilling the CEO of Barrick Goldas he was speaking on a panel about corporate social responsibility.  Sakura spoke about recent shootings of protestors at a barrick mine and the idea of these mines as sources of "unavoidable conflict".  As security lead Sakura out of the room she handed out a fact sheet.  the barrick gold agm is being held in toronto at the end of april.

In occupied Panama, masked men killed an Indigenous Ngabe man and injured another after they left an organising meeting regarding resisting a dam that would flood sacred Ngabe lands. The flooded territory includes petroglyphys which were recently used to spawn the rebirth of the once lost Ngabe language (in line with prophecy), and the school which teaches the language. The UN calls the dam probelmatic and reports of violence against protestors (including death and rape) has been ongoing.  This has not stopped the Dutch bank FMO or the German bank DEG from investing in the project which does not meet international standards of free, prior, and informed consent of impacted indigenous communities. The global carbon credit market is driving large dam development in South and Central America, by touting the projects as sources of "green energy".

Next up, the ANFQL has released a statement that strongly objects to an exploration or exploitation of uranium on the lands of the 43 AFNQL members, and they encourage other indigenous communities to similarly oppose uranium exploration and mining.  Already 300 communities in Quebec have declared a need for a moratorium on radioactive mining.

In Idle No More news, a Solidarity Spring has been declared as Defenders of the Land have teamed up with INM to call for actions to take place thorughout the spring and for a summer of resistance with non-indigenous people joining in the movement. Actions on and around Earth Day in late April have been annouced and more have been called for.

Also from the INM webpage, we have an update on Jeannette Pillot, an Innu woman who has been on hunger strike since January 1st and has started a complete fast on March 11. There is a list of demands from the elder who is willing to "take this to the end" and says that free, prior, and informed consent must take place before any pipeline projects, deforestation, uranium exploration or any other resource projects are planned. 

Staying with the indigenous resurgence, we play a report from Aaron Lakoff, who filed a piece on FSRN on the Nishiyuu walkers  who arrived in Ottawa after a 1600km trek from their Cree community.  We then play the tune by Kalan Wi which is being dedicated to the walkers - This is Our Song.

Getting to the Grand River watershed, it seems that members of southgate council have been running their citizens around in circles as tonnes of material from the GTA is being dumped on GRCA regulated lands in the headwater area of the Grand River. Dan reads a letter to the editor accusing the mayor and others of some weasily moves. We also note Dundalk sludge plant contractor Lystek Corp wants Waterloo region to reconsider their decision of Lystek was not chosen for the proposed new Waterloo sludge plant.

The growing opposition to Enbridge's line 9 reversal project is heating up as Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, Kingston and other cities are bringing concerns up around the safety of the project and the potential for a disaster similar the the Kalamazoo spill of 2010 (or the recent 2012 Arkansas disaster).  The national energy board is refusing to consider the upstream, downstream, or cumulative impacts of the toxic bitumen that will be flowing through the pipes in their review of the project.

In a wonderful piece of Huck Farper, our ever-bashful pm pulled canada out of a UN convention that is aimed at fighting drought around the world. Claiming the process was too bureaucratic, Harper makes canada the only country in the UN to pull out of the treaty and one of the only recognized international entities to no longer be cooperating on this issue.

And finally we go to a news release from KOALA who dropped a banner over a highway in Kitchener to remind people to SHUT DOWN MARINELAND and come out to the opening day demonstration at the marine animal jail on May 18th, 2013. The banner was up for several hours and was seen by thousands of motorists who were left to search the #opsid hashtag for more info.

Remember to check out the Daily GRRR! for critical #cndPoli every weekday morning from 9-10am on http://grandrivermc.ca

The Smash the State the Report is a segment on the weekly 2 hour AW@L radio (16:00-18:00est) on CKMS 100.3FM CKMS * Community * Co-op * Campus * Radio - Waterloo - http://soundfm.ca