No Canada Day until catholic church is ordered to pay taxes; pays for their heinous crimes; hands over residential school records of rape, murder, disease, starvation and secret unnamed deaths and burials of children the gov’t and RCMP stole from families; pope apologizes – publicly; feds quit their abusive lawsuits and attacks against the harmed; and Truth & Reconciliation appropriately honestly respectfully completed. I’ve been boycotting Canada’s Colonial Rape & Pillage day for years.

Comments July 1, 2021: A few hours ago, I heard sirens, many sirens, getting louder and louder. I looked out to see flashing red lights on many fire trucks circling the Rosebud church parking area, big puffs of blue fumes waifting up aggressively into our fossil fuel pollution-induced heat dome ravaged sky. I panicked, thinking, what if there are children hurt? Burning? Dying?

Suddenly, to my horror and disgust, I saw the raging red and white trucks boasting Canadian flags. My pounding heart that had been filled with fear, now pounded with rage.

“How dare they!” I yelled out loud to myself.

Who put them up to this? Jason Kenney? Steve Harper? Retired racist judge Brian Giesprecht? CAPP? Racist Gwyn Morgan and the Fraser Institute?

Snap above taken from Google last night, I added the black slash lines.

How can they do this, terrify communities with siren warnings of fire and harm during a debilitating heat dome with Lytton BC burning down (it’s about double the population of Rosebud), pushing colonial propaganda during a time of deep mourning? How frac’ing cruel.

I turned away from the window. I’ve never been more ashamed and angry to be Canadian.

Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society 1-800-721-0066

IRS National Crisis Line 1-866-925-4419

Distress Centre of Ottawa 613-238-3311 YSB

Crisis Line 613-260-2360

Do you find these ideas for celebrating Canada Day provocative? Then ask yourself why by Eva Jewell and Hayden King, June 30, 2021, Toronto Star

For us, Canada Day is an occasion to dread. The rituals of red flags lining residential streets and smog from barbecues giving way to firework fumes — all in the name of national pride — just evokes resentment.

But this year might be different. For the first time we can remember, non-Indigenous Canadians are questioning the desire to celebrate, even comprehending the reasons for our contempt. After weeks of national and international headlines about the scale of Indigenous death in Canada’s residential “school” system, a darkness hangs over us.

As the realities of abuse, forced labour, starvation, experimentation and disease have been brought close to Canadians via ground penetrating radar, those who can read the room will sit July 1 out. A question finally, reluctantly, rising in the throat of the country: how can we celebrate in the midst of these revelations?

Even after emerging from a year of exhausting lockdowns and the promise of safely visiting one another, many will forgo the festivities and instead, cancel Canada Day.

The work that we do, as educators and directors at Yellowhead Institute, revolves around structural transformation. We’re invested in landback and cashback — a renewed relationship that restores Indigenous jurisdiction, wealth, and power. Yet for individual Canadians, those changes are daunting as they require understanding Canada’s opaque and inaccessible governing institutions, a shift in mindset, and even some personal sacrifice.

While we certainly don’t discourage action on those fronts (we are accepting restitution in the form of your cottage or second home on our lands, for instance), today we are also encouraging reflection, learning, and even confrontation.

Here are some suggested alternatives to the ribs and roman candles:

First, end purely performative allyship. If your sympathetic Instagrams and Tweets aren’t backed with substantive commitments, they’re pretty much meaningless. Periodic social media activism on its own is ultimately a disingenuous, self-serving excuse for not doing the hard work our collective relationship requires.

Second, avoid claiming us as “Canada’s Aboriginals” or “our Indigenous people” or whatever possessive grammar you think includes Indigenous peoples in a multicultural fiction. “Inclusion” is an attempt to salvage a vision of Canada that serves very few privileged people and it’s insulting to the rest of us.

Third, talk about the fact that over a thousand Indigenous children’s graves have been located in the last month, with thousands more to come. Sit with your families and friends and consider how you are enjoying the benefits of a genocide.

You need to not be silent about it, on this day especially.

Ask each other what your role in settler colonialism actually is (point A), and what a future where Indigenous peoples have equity, dignity, and control over these lands resembles (point B). Then do the work to figure out the shortest route between them.

Fourth, if you have kids, talk to them. Indigenous babies were old enough at three to go to these schools and die, your kids are old enough to learn about it. Summon the courage to guide them through this Canadian reality; the truth will prepare them for the responsibilities ahead. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, among others, have the resources to do it right.

Fifth, confront any racist relatives, neighbours, pundits, politicians, priests, etc. who insist on celebrating today while we are in mourning. Stand up for Indigenous peoples. Punctuate the absence of conversation on these issues, too, which is sometimes as harmful as the overt denials or racism.

Get used to the confrontation, because there’s a lot of it if you want justice in this world. Indeed, if this terse list of really easy suggestions strikes you as provocative or confrontational, ask yourself why. Dwell on our anger and search for yours. If you only find grief, don’t let guilt immobilize you. Embody contrition, the apologetic space of action and change, and revisit this list from the top.

Given the anguish Indigenous peoples have experienced this past month alone, it feels inadequate speaking to Canadians and asking them to confront their racist rah-rah-Canada uncles. But we also know that there is power in individual acts of low-key treason. We’ll collect them one at a time until all that remains of Canada Day is a memory. That might be something we can finally be proud of.

Eva Jewell is Anishinaabekwe from Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. She is the Research Director at Yellowhead Institute and Assistant Professor in Sociology at X University. Hayden King is Anishinaabe from Beausoleil First Nation. He is the Executive Director at Yellowhead Institute and Assistant Professor of Sociology at X University.

Refer also to:

Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society 1-800-721-0066

IRS National Crisis Line 1-866-925-4419

Distress Centre of Ottawa 613-238-3311 YSB

Crisis Line 613-260-2360

Confession Time:

“Utter disgust” at retired judge Brian Giesbrecht’s “filth” telling us “to move on” from 215 Indigenous children found in unmarked graves at Kamloops Residential School. “He is the disease.” A despicable Canadian Caveman. “I worry about how he may have injected his incredibly biased views against Indigenous people during his time as a judge in Manitoba. I am thoroughly disgusted.”

And then, after the cruel retired racist judge tells us to move on:

Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school,
Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme made announcement Thursday

Nunavut premier asks ‘how many more’ as 751 more bodies uncovered at former school
The unmarked gravesite is located near Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan

Latest First Nations discovery reveals 182 unmarked graves at Canada school, Lower Kootenay Band finds human remains at former residential school in British Columbia – the third such discovery in weeks

We are only beginning to uncover the true horrors of what Canada is.

I have hated fireworks since I was 8. I hate the stupidity, propaganda and ego them, the financial waste when so many in Canada are starving and do not have safe water, the stench of them, the noise, the ugliness, the fire risk.

Fireworks are also a trigger: pedophile rapists ejaculating in or on my little body. They – the fireworks and my rapists (all white married Christian men) – represent for me: Canada’s rape of the environment and drinking water, and Indigenous lands and people, notably the children.

Fireworks are toxic, contaminate us and our environment (never mind poison us with fascist patrionism):

Fireworks get their flamboyance from a variety of chemicals, many of which are toxic to humans. From the gunpowder that fuels their flight to the metallic compounds that color their explosions, fireworks often contain carcinogenic or hormone-disrupting substances that can seep into soil and water, not to mention the lung-clogging smoke they release and plastic debris they scatter.

….fireworks shows spray out a toxic concoction that rains down quietly into lakes, rivers and bays…. Many of the chemicals in fireworks are also persistent in the environment, meaning they stubbornly sit there instead of breaking down. …


For fireworks and other pyrotechnics to blow up, they need to blow up something — usually a blend of charcoal and sulfur fuel. They also need an ingredient that can inject oxygen to speed up the explosion, historically relying on potassium nitrate. These three chemicals are mixed together into a sooty substance known as gunpowder.

When a spark hits gunpowder, the potassium nitrate feeds oxygen to the fire, helping it quickly burn the charcoal-sulfur fuel. This produces volumes of hot, rapidly expanding solids and gases that can be used to fire a bullet, explode an artillery shell or launch a Roman candle.

Perchlorates
The original blends of black powder can be a bit too unstable and messy for some uses, though, so the potassium nitrate is often replaced by perchlorates, a family of chemicals all featuring a central chlorine atom bonded by four oxygen atoms. Two types in particular — potassium perchlorate and ammonium perchlorate — have become the go-to oxidizers of the pyrotechnics industry.

Perchlorates may have introduced a new problem, though: In high enough doses, they limit the human thyroid gland’s ability to take iodine from the bloodstream, potentially resulting in hypothyroidism. The thyroid needs iodine to make hormones that control a variety of body functions, and people running too low on these hormones can develop a wide range of disorders. Children, infants and especially fetuses suffer the worst from hypothyroidism, since thyroid hormones are crucial for normal growth. Perchlorates have also been shown to cause thyroid cancer in rats and mice, but scientists believe humans are less vulnerable to this effect.

… But a 2007 study of an Oklahoma lake following fireworks displays overhead found that perchlorate levels spiked more than 1,000 times above the baseline level for 14 hours after a show.

Particulates
The smoke from fireworks’ burned charcoal and sulfur fuel also contains particulate matter that can get lodged in people’s lungs, an immediate danger for those with asthma or chemical sensitivities. Prolonged exposure to similar airborne particles from diesel exhaust has also been shown to cause lung cancer. Air-quality monitors reportedly spike for about three hours after a fireworks show. …

Fireworks Get Their Color From Metals
In addition to gunpowder, fireworks are packed with heavy metals and other toxins that produce their sparkling shower of colors. …

Red fireworks
Strontium (Red)
This soft, silvery-yellow metal turns red when it burns, and it’s extremely reactive with both air and water. Some strontium compounds dissolve in water, and others can move deep into soil and groundwater. …

Aluminum (White)
… People and animals exposed to large amounts of aluminum have performed poorly on mental and physical tests, and some studies suggest aluminum exposure may lead to Alzheimer’s disease, although that connection has yet to be proven.

Blue fireworks
Copper (Blue)
Fireworks’ blue hues are produced by copper compounds. These aren’t very toxic on their own, but the copper jump-starts the formation of dioxins when perchlorates in the fireworks burn. Dioxins are vicious chemicals that don’t occur naturally; they’re the unwelcome byproducts of certain chemical reactions, one of which happens in blue fireworks. The most noted health effect of dioxin exposure is chloracne, a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions mostly on the face and upper body. Dioxin doesn’t stop there, though — the World Health Organization has identified it as a human carcinogen, and it’s also been shown to disrupt hormone production and glucose metabolism.

Green fireworks in the sky
Barium (Green)
… The silvery-white metal naturally bonds with other elements to form a variety of compounds that all have different effects — none are known to be carcinogenic, but they can cause gastrointestinal problems and muscular weakness when exposure exceeds EPA drinking water standards. Symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, breathing trouble, changes in blood pressure, numbness around the face, general muscle weakness and cramps. High levels of barium exposure can lead to changes in heart rhythm, paralysis or death.

Purple fireworks
Rubidium (Purple)
… It hasn’t been reported to cause any major environmental damage, but it can cause skin irritation since it’s so reactive with moisture, and it’s moderately toxic when ingested, reportedly able to replace calcium in bones.

Cadmium (Various)
Used to produce a wide range of fireworks colors, this mineral is also a known human carcinogen. Breathing high levels of cadmium can seriously damage the lungs, and consuming it can fluster the stomach, often resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. Long-term exposure can lead to kidney disease, lung damage and fragile bones. …

2014: Is this Canada? “Up all night with a license to kill” Miles Howe reports on the trial of Germaine ‘Junior’ Breau and Aaron Francis, Mi’kmaq Warriors

Troops in a semi-circle sweep engaged sleeping campers on the morning of the 17th. ERT members, awake in some cases for over 30 hours, had lethal oversight.[Photo: Miles Howe]

Troops in a semi-circle sweep engaged sleeping campers on the morning of the 17th. ERT members, awake in some cases for over 30 hours, had lethal oversight. Photo: Miles Howe

It is also key to note that a legal challenge to the very injunction that allowed for the RCMP’s October 17th raid was scheduled for the very next day. By October 21st, the injunction had successfully been overturned in a Moncton courthouse.

But by then the damage had been done.The protest had been temporarily smashed.

Key members of the MWS had been arrested during the semi-circle sweep.

So far we have heard two days of testimony from police officers in the ditch adjacent to highway 134. From their vantage point, they would have been looking at Germaine Breau's backside. None have testified he pointed a gun. [Photo: Miles Howe]

So far we have heard two days of testimony from police officers in the ditch adjacent to highway 134. From their vantage point, they would have been looking at Germaine Breau’s backside. None have testified he pointed a gun. Photo: Miles Howe

In any case, the defence is now unable to know whether the officer in question, who noted to the effect that: ‘Crown land belongs the government, not to fucking Indians’, will be taking the stand.

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