Hi All,

Here is a brief account of the recent AITO (Amnesty International Toronto Organization) Regional Meeting. Links to all websites are on my 'Links' page.

March - September 2006:
I volunteer for the planning committee for AITO's next Regional Meeting. I also suggest that the film, U.A.I.L. Go Back (link: alcantinindia) along with perhaps Angad Bhalla, the filmmaker, for one of the workshops. It never occurs to me that I will be the one to present this!

The monthly planning meetings proceed, and somewhere along the way I volunteer to coordinate the group actions. Again, I don’t realize that it’ll be up to me to make it happen.

Over the planning months I start to think about actions, but, never a great long-term planner, I delay. Also, AI's actions can change at any moment, so it seems prudent to wait. With the help of a friend, I come up with a tentative design, and with assistance from the planning committee and Fiona Koza, the campaigner for AI Canada's Business and Human Rights, it gets refined and becomes the final product.

The four main actions:
• A letter to Alcan Inc. congratulating them on awards they have received for their attention to human and environmental rights (!!!). This is followed by a request to ensure that their concern is extended to the Adivasi (tribal) people living in the Kashipur area, Orissa, India. Alcan holds 45% of the Kashipur project, and currently infrastructure is being built, in spite of the fact that there is no environmental impact assessment. We decorate each letter with a tin-foil dove sticker.
• A petition supporting the Grassy Narrows First Nations in northwestern Ontario (link: Freegrassy.org). Pulp and paper companies have devastated their land, ruined their rivers, and created dissention among the people. In addition to the petition, I prepare a letter to David Ramsay, Ontario Minister for Natural Resources, and Minister Responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, asking him to ensure that the rights of the Grassy Narrows are respected. Letters are personalized by decorating with stickers of leaves, trees, flowers, etc., and leaf stamps. A few artistic participants colour in the stamped leaves, or draw icons of their own.
• A petition on behalf of the Lubicon Cree in northern Alberta. This is about a land claim dispute that has been going on since the late 1800s, and remains unsolved. Oil and natural gas reserves on the land complicate matters, and the government of Alberta has been issuing licenses for its exploitation without consent from the Lubicon (link: Friends of the Lubicon).
• A petition asking the Canadian Government to enact legislation to make Canadian mining companies accountable for any human or environmental violations they may commit in another country. Currently the companies are not accountable to anyone.

October 14, 2006:
About 100 people attend the Regional Meeting, and the day goes off well. We are complimented on our planning. During the Alcan in India workshop people are attentive, and have lots of questions during the Q & A. Everyone does the action—they sign the letter and affix a tin-foil dove. Throughout the day many people tell me that they had known nothing of this issue.

The group action table is unfortunately only moderately successful. Although many say it is a great table, only 65% of the participants do the Alcan letter, and even fewer—55%--do the letter to David Ramsay. Personally, I find this aggravating from an AI crowd.

Thoughts:
The issues in Canada and India are similar. There's a racist dynamic happening that makes the stomach churn. Why do we think it is okay to commit genocide in the name of 'development'? Why do we think our lifestyle is so 'developed' at all, given our incessant search for happiness and thrills? And why, in our wildest imaginings, do we think it's okay to forcibly relocate people from their homes?

Do we, the so-called privileged race, have such a lousy short term memory that we forget that it was WE who screwed up the First Nations in the first place? Why can't we share this planet and people can live as they want to—providing our ecological footprint is not ruled by Greed?

Why do we choose to close our eyes, not watch the news, not listen to today’s thinkers? It's not at all okay to put the blinders on, the earplugs in, and hold our noses while we hurtle through space. It's not okay because if we don't wake up and smell the stench, the conditions on our Earth will become (and indeed are becoming) inhospitable to human habitation. The Lubicon and the Grassy Narrows and the Adivasis—and all who are the first to bear the brunt of insufficient and/or contaminated air, water and land—will go first. There is no such thing as benign relocation. In any situation, enforced relocation is traumatic. Where can we relocate to from Mother Earth?

Take care,
Ellen