Activists planted a pine on McGill University’s in downtown Montreal campus to promote peace.
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Great White Pine The Tree of Peace
On Sunday activists planted a tree in “hopes for justice for all oppressed peoples around the world.”
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel said the great white pine is a symbol of peace. The small tree was brought from Kanesatake to be planted to promote peace among all people. The tree planting ceremony was conducted by the Traditional Longhouse people on the university’s lower field, where a pro-Palestinian encampment stood for over two months last spring.
All injunction requests that were filed in Quebec court were rejected. McGill hired a private security firm to dismantle the camp in July. Activists felt that McGill has been suppressing students’ free speech.
Though McGill told Gabriel and other activists that they were not allowed to plant the tree on campus, security didn’t stop the activists.
Many donned keffiyehs and carried Palestinian, other flags and the Mohawk Warrior Society flag. Gabriel said the tree planting was “a gesture of solidarity for all those who are fighting for peace for people everywhere. It’s important to promote this message of peace. We want wars to stop. We want peace for everybody.” said Gabriel.
McGill was informed twice that a group planned to plant the white pine as a “permanent monument.”
In 1779 George Washington’s favorite general, John Sullivan, marched with 13,800 men through Seneca country to Onondaga to chop down the white pine, the great tree of peace. Natives of north and south America knew about this tree of peace. It was the greatest crime ever committed by the settlers on turtle island, and they doomed themselves to forever become the Republic of War.
“When we were told that this plan would not be approved, we received a reply stating ‘We reiterate that we will be planting a tree of peace on Nov. 17,’ and that ‘We will decide what to do on our homelands,’”
McGill had “various reasons” to reject the tree’s planting. “McGill’s commitment to the spirit of reconciliation is enduring” through other university initiatives. Okay, let’s plant the tree together somewhere else for the next seven generations to behold our joint act of peace today? Gabriel reminded McGill that “You are on our homeland, and we want everyone to act peacefully.”
“The tree is a symbol of peace that the world badly needs,” said Gabriel. McGill and the people could together plant it elsewhere.
Listen to the two main speakers: tekarontake and katsitsakwas:
Margaret Whiting in the 1940s sang a beautiful song about a tree in the meadow. Let us plant the indigenous white pine somewhere so that we all can watch it grow into beauty and power: there’s a tree in the meadow with a stream drifting by, and carved upon that tree I see ‘I’ll love you until I die. I will always remember the love in your eye… but further on down lover’s lane a silhouette I see. I know you are kissing someone else. I wish it were me by that tree in the meadow…
MNN. NOV. 12, 2024. Akwesasne 8 DISMISSED. NY Power Authority fails to produce documents necessary to move forward. The charges of Conspiracy to a Felony, and Trespassing against the six of the Akwesasne 8, who appeared today, were dismissed today at Massena Town Court. The District Attorney stated that New York Power Authority (NYPA) did not produce appropriate documents to move forward. Researchers for the Akwesasne 8 had gone to the St. Lawrence County Office for Deeds and Records to find a Deed/Land Title showing NYPA ownership. There is no record. When discovery documents were offered to the Akwesasne 8, each asked whether the documents contained a Title to the land on which the Akwesasne 8 were arrested. The District Attorney implied such documents were not part of the discovery packets.
In March 2022, Federal Judge Kahn of the Northern New York District of US Federal Court, ruled that New York State possession of Mohawk land is a violation of the Nonintercourse Act which prohibits land transfer of Indian land to non-Indians without Congressional approval. On May 22, 2024 eight Kanienke’háka were arrested for Trespassing at Niionenhiasekówahne (Barnhart Island). Seven of the eight were charged with Conspiracy to a Felony. One person was charged with a Felony. There is a long history of Onkwehonwe relations to Niionenhiasekowá:ne (Barnhart Island) – from the Dish With One Spoon Agreement, to Onkwehonwe families living on the island, and continue today through Kanienke’háka assertion of hunting, fishing, tree tapping, and medicine gathering liberties.
The Akwesasne Mohawk Land Claim Settlement agreement seeks to sever Onkwehonwe relationship to Niionenhiasekowá:ne, formally ceding the island’s title to New York State for $70 million and subjecting our hunting and gathering rights to foreign governments. The Onkwehonwe that began construction at Niionenhiasekowá:ne acted in assertion of Kanienke’háka inherent and original rights as well as the pre-existing governance of Kaienerekowa. “The Band Council, Tribe, state and federal governments are outside Kaienerekowa governance as younger governmental entities cannot and will not ostracize us from our lands and waters.” Said one of the Akwesasne 8. “We are going back to Niionenhiasekowá:ne because it is Kanienke’háka land.” A group of the Akwesasne 8 stated.
Johnny Cash sings about our love for the Big River:
MNN. Nov. 5. 2024. The key components of the Crime of the Century by survivors as living witness has been documented by Kimberly Murray of Kanehsatakeh Mohawk Territory and head of the Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children & Unmarked Graves & Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools. The astounding report released on November 30, 2024 in Ottawa Canada documents the “Plan for the Indigenous-Led Reparations Framework for Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children in Canada”.
To Find and Protect the Truth and Counter Settler Amnesty by Expanding the Truth, the key components are: Upholding International Obligations; Amending Canadian Laws; Establishing a National Commission of Investigations; Exercising Indigenous Sovereignty and Rights; Applying Indigenous Laws; Supporting Indigenous Approaches to Healing.
FINDING AND PROTECTING THE TRUTH:
Fully implement TRC Calls to Action 71-76 and expand the scope to include cemeteries and burial sites associated with other institutions,
Provide long-term, sufficient and flexible funding for indigenous-led investigations and support Survivor Gatherings and the recording if Survivor Truths.
Amend or enact legislation to establish an Indigenous Burial Site designation to protect burial sites and include robust enforcement mechanisms.
Enact federal Right to Truth legislation requiring all records relating to Indigenous Peoples to be registered in a National Records Registry and establish moratorium on the destruction of government records.
Review, amend and modernize federal access to information system to align with UN Declaration Joinet-Orenlicher Principles, and the right to truth, and ensure no records are destroyed without the free, prior and informed consent ofo indigenous Peoples.
UPHOLDING INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS:
Establish a National Commission of Investigation tha adapt the human rights-based forensics guiding principles of tge UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
Publicly acknowledge Indigenous children as victims of enforced disappearance and provide full reparations, including compensation to families and communities.
Sign and ratify the American Convention on Human Rights and accept the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.
Sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all persons from Enforced Disappearance; Codify Enforced Disappearance as a crime under the Criminal Code and Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
Refer the enforced disapearance of Indigenous children to the International Criminal Court.
JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY:
Uphold Indigenous Peoples’ human rights, including the right to reparations for genocide and mass human rights violations by fullu implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Support and respect Indigenous Peoples’ inherent right of self-determination including the right to apply Indigenous laws and legal systems.
Establish a National Indigenous Data Sovereignty Strategy Action Plan.
Appoint an independent panel of experts to investigate the history and legality of land transfers of burial sites and rematriate these lands.
Enact an Indigenous Repatriation Act and develop an Action Plan for implementation.
Establish ethical guidelines, and a certification process for archaeologists, anthropologists, and other professionals, asnd include powers of investigation and enforcement for breaches of regulatory requirements.
REPARATIONS AND COUNTERING SETTLER AMNESTY:
Establish healing lodges and centres in Indigenous communities and provide sufficient health and wellness supports.
Issue apologies for the harms of genocide , colonization, and mass human rights violations.
Enact commemoration laws to protect against historical negatism and the spread of hatred and regulate educational curricula.
Include provisions in Bill C-63: An Act to Enact Online Harms, to address forms of denialism and amend the Criminal Code, making it an offence to promote hatred against Indigenous Peoples.
Universities, media, medical organizations and professional associations investigate their past complicity in mass human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples, including their knowledge and involvement in human experimentation on Indigenous children.
Supertramp sings about the crime of the century asking the same questions about who are the perpetrators:
______________________________________________________________________Upholding Sacred Obligations Reparations for Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada Volume 1
Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools
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Activists planted a pine on McGill University’s in downtown Montreal campus to promote peace.
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______________________________________________________________________FRENCH VERSION
