Police called in to quash riot at Brandon jail
Isolated to one area of facility
By: Jillian Austin
Winnipeg Free Press
October 5, 2009
A member of the BPS Tactical Response Unit trains his weapon on a portion of the east side of the Brandon Correctional Institute on Veterans way during a disturbance that lasted over four hours on Sunday afternoon. A group of prisoners took over a portion of the facility and began damaging it. They were eventually contained by members of the Corrections Emergency Response Unit.
BRANDON — It took four hours and heavily-armed tactical police units using pepper spray to bring a riot by 27 inmates of the Brandon Correctional Institute under control Sunday.
Witnesses say police also used flash-bang stun grenades and water hoses to regain control of the jail.
One inmate suffered minor injuries in the riot, which began about 12:45 p.m.
Officials are still assessing the damage to the Brandon jail, and still trying to find answers — why did the riot start? Who was involved? And was it gang-related?
Officials said the riot was brought under control after roughly four hours of emergency response and negotiations.
It was a dramatic scene outside of the jail, as members of the Brandon Police Service’s tactical response unit lined the perimeter with guns trained on the east side of the facility.
Authorities said the incident began around 12:45 p.m., when inmates began damaging the units.
“Initially, what was requested of us was to contain the situation from a perimeter standpoint,” Brandon police Sgt. Bruce Klassen said in a press conference Sunday night.
“Upon further incident… our tactical response unit was also requested.”
Klassen confirmed pepper spray was used as a tactical response.
A witness reported seeing responders fire a stream of water into the area, as well as using flash-bang stun grenades.
Guards were seen wearing riot gear and gas masks.
The incident was quickly isolated to one area in the east side of the facility.
“The rest of the facility locked down without incident, and it was contained to those two smaller sub-units, which is a fairly small portion of the facility,” said Michelle Duncan, superintendent of the Winnipeg Remand Centre, who quickly came to Brandon to brief the media one behalf of the corrections division of Manitoba’s Justice Department.
The Riot Act was read.
However, Duncan said, officials at the scene didn’t consider it a “full-fledged situation” based on the number of prisoners involved.
Along with Brandon’s correctional emergency response unit, both the Headingley correctional response team and the provincial crisis negotiating team assisted with the incident.
About 282 inmates were in the jail at the time.
Once the situation was brought under control, inmates involved in the incident were either secured elsewhere in the Brandon facility or transferred to Winnipeg.
No staff members were injured in the incident.
One offender sustained minor injuries requiring stitches, Duncan said.
Authorities were satisfied with the quick and successful response.
“Our staff did an extraordinary job, as they always do,” Duncan said.
From outside the jail, substantial damage can be seen to the area impacted by the riot. Whether prisoners used weapons during the disturbance, or if the incident is tied to gang activity, remains to be seen.
“I’m not aware of any (weapons) but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t,” Duncan said, adding more details will be released once the province’s investigation is complete.
The provincial department of justice issued a statement Sunday evening that said 27 inmates were involved in what the government called an incident, and that 255 other inmates who had not been involved were in lockdown.
Yet, the government’s own website says the Brandon Correctional Institute is designed to hold 157 adult men, along with short-term holding areas for 10 young offenders and four women.
The Manitoba Government and General Employees Union spokesman John Baert said it’s too early to say if overcrowding played any part in the riot, which he believed was the worst to hit a Manitoba facility since the Headingley riot of 1996.
“We’ve said that about facilities in Manitoba, we’ve been vocal about the issue of overcrowding,” Baert said Sunday night.
MGEU opened its offices in Brandon Sunday evening to help any staff suffering stress or trauma, Baert said.
“I can confirm that no correctional officers were injured,” said Baert.
He said Ken Crawford, the MGEU’s representative for correctional officers, left Winnipeg for Brandon late Sunday afternoon, along with other union staff to meet with employees of the Brandon jail.
Baert said the union would likely make a statement this morning.
“Certainly, we’ll be asking those questions” about who was involved in the riot, how and why it happened and whether there were any warning signs of trouble, Baert said.
RCMP spokesman Const. David Obirek said that the Mounties were not called in to help.
Warkworth Inmate Found Dead
Mix 97 News – Aug 27, 2009
An inmate serving a 3-year sentence for robbery has died at Warkworth Institution. A release issued from the prison says Gregory Kuipers was found in his cell at 2am yesterday morning from an apparent suicide. Staff tried CPR and used a defibrillator but couldn’t revive Kuipers. The Correctional Service of Canada is conducting an investigation. Warkworth remains in a semi-lockdown following a fiery riot over a month ago.
=====================================================
Probe continues into Warkworth Institution riot
Northumberland Today
Aug 20, 2009
Posted By SARAH DEETH, SUN MEDIA
The longest lockdown in history continues at the Warkworth Institution. The cleanup and a probe into a July riot at Warkworth Institution continues, four weeks after an inmate riot damaged parts of the federal facility, sent 13 inmates to the hospital and led to the overdose death of another.
The riot began July 21 when inmates in the recreation area refused to return to their cells at about 9 p. m.
An intense standoff ensued, lasting for about 20 hours.
A fire burned throughout the night and correctional officers, dressed in riot gear, fired teargas in amongst the inmates.
For the first time in Warkworth’s history the Riot Act was used, allowing the institution to use whatever force necessary to regain control.
About 200 of Warkworth’s 579 inmates were involved.
During the riot prisoners gained access to the prison’s narcotics supply in its Health Care Centre.
One inmate died, the result of a suspected drug overdose. Thirteen others were taken to the hospital, and nine of those are suspected of overdosing on narcotics.
Ann Anderson, assistant manager of warden services, said prisoners are still in lockdown, which has been the situation since the riot ended.
That means prisoners eat in their cells, don’t mingle with other prisoners and aren’t allowed visitors.
Inmates are allowed to shower, Anderson said, but showers are done one at a time and are supervised.
Prisoner living units, or cells, have been searched, she said.
“We’re still searching the outside areas.” Anderson said she didn’t know how long the facility
would remain in a lockdown. “We believe the facility is safe and we’re working on
getting back to normal,” she said. Officials are working with staff and union representatives to make sure the facility meets all health and safety standards, she said.
The health centre has been cleaned up and inmates are receiving health care at a triage centre located in another part of the prison.
Anderson said the recreation area, damaged by fire during the riot, would likely need some construction.
She didn’t have an estimate for the damage. All 13 inmates taken to the hospital have returned
to Warkworth, she said.
The cause of the riot is still under investigation, and
Anderson said it’s served as a learning experience for staff.
Prison situation stalemated
Inmates at Matsqui Institution are still on strike and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Some inmates have already been transferred to other facilities as tensions mount. JOHN VAN PUTTEN (Abbotsford News)
By Rochelle Baker – Abbotsford News
Published: June 12, 2009
Inmates and Matsqui Institution officials are deadlocked again after prisoners who initiated court proceedings citing inhumane conditions during a work strike have been shipped off to other jails or put into solitary confinement.
“As I understand it, there’s an impasse now,” said Abbotsford lawyer John Conroy, who represents the prisoners.
He called the move by officials “outrageous.”
Conroy said inmates want their representatives back, and the strike will continue until that occurs.
The representatives approved by Matsqui officials, including Stephane Turcotte and Jean Paul Aube, are some of the same prisoners transferred out, said Conroy.
“[The spokesmen] negotiate in good faith on behalf of the prisoners, try to keep the peace, and what does the administration do? They grab the leaders trying to keep the peace and ship them out.”
Prisoners have waged a non-violent strike, he said.
“But one of the problems you always have to worry about in a prison context is that some may lose it and a riot will break out.”
Turcotte and Aube have been put into solitary confinement at Mission and Mountain institutions.
A number of tier reps were also shipped to Kent, a maximum security facility near Agassiz.
“We don’t know all the details. There are others in the hole at Matsqui as well,” said Conroy.
The inmates at the medium security prison went on strike March 30, refusing to go to work or participate in programs, to protest a restructuring of their workday and time in the yard.
A lock down initiated May 11 saw prisoners kept in their cells for 23 hours a day.
Prison officials said the restrictions were put in place because of threats to inmates inclined to break the strike.
Inmates were given limited access to bathroom facilities, and had to buzz guards to be let out of their cells, said Conroy.
After long waits, inmates said they were forced to find a plastic bag or waste basket to relieve themselves in their cells.
Matsqui, an older institution, has no toilets or sinks in the cells.
Conroy said the stench on the lower tier of the institution was vile, and that the situation was both cruel and unhealthy.
Conroy and Vancouver lawyer Donna Turko had plans to take the prison to Supreme Court at the beginning of this week.
However, the court date was adjourned Friday after the administrators agreed to allow inmates more freedom of movement during the day to access toilets, as well as more yard time.
Prisoners will also have some access to facilities at night, with guards accompanying two inmates at a time to the washroom.
However, at the same time Matsqui was grabbing inmate spokesmen, said Conroy. It bodes ill for the situation at the institution, he said.
“Who’s going to want to stand up, and be a representative in the future, if this is going to happen?”
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT WARRIOR SHARK REFUSED RANSOM (BAIL) FOR LAND STRUGGLE, RCMP TARGETS HIS WIFE FOR REFUSING TO BE SILENT
Native Youth Movement Warrior Shark is still denied bail by KKKlanada and the illegal province of so-called british columbia. He is being held captive for defending the Land and Secwepemc women and children against Sun Peaks resort corporation and their mercenaries the royal canadian mounted pigz (RCMP). His illegal capture took place on Thursday, May 21st, 2009, almost 8 years after he was charged with defending the Land and People. Now his wife is being targeted for being a community organizer.
Sun Peaks Resort Corporation is illegally built on Un-Surrendered Secwepemc Territory. In 2000 Secwepemc people moved back to the Land surrounding Sun Peaks to stop their illegal expansion and destruction. Immediately the people were targeted, over 70 arrests have taken place in an effort to chase the people back to the reserved concentration camp. The Secwepemc continue to oppose Sun Peaks’ destruction as well as all destruction to the Land, Water and Air.
Shark’s wife, Miranda Dick, a mother of 5, is a part of the Secwepemc Women’s Council and a Warrior for the Land and People. She has been targeted by the RCMP and threatened with criminal charges for refusing to be silent about Shark’s capture and her uncompromising stance to protect her ancestor’s remains and sacred sites from the highway and railway’s destructive illegal expansion.
A RCMP officer, from the Chase detachment, approached the Neskonlith Chief and Council and said Miranda could be charged with Fraud for collecting donations towards Shark’s legal costs while she is on social assistance. The RCMPigz are trying their best to use fake petty threats to shut Miranda and the Secwepemc people up. They want Shark to be isolated and the world [to] stay uninformed about the Indigenous Land fight here in so-called british columbia. KKKlanada does not want anybody to know about the destruction that Sun Peaks, the Highway and Railway expansion, Mining, IPP’s (Dams), and the oil pipelines and tar sands are doing to all Life. Their attempts to scare off community support and create in-fighting will fail, the people are smarter than that. The People will not be silenced, we are Earth’s Army, here to speak for the speechless and defend the defenseless.
A day before Shark was arrested, a Mohawk Warrior, Gator was arrested for defending his Land from illegal destruction (development). In the same time frame, the RCMPigz threatened Miranda (through DIA chief & council) [and] 15 individuals were harassed and targeted by the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (VISU) for organizing against the 2010 Winter Olympics, to be illegally held on Un-Surrendered Native Land.
Also over 100 Native People were massacred in Peru for stopping illegal destruction on their land. In Oaxaca, Native people fighting a mine were attacked by mexikkkan police and military. In Mohawk Territory, our brothers and sisters are refusing to allow armed border guards on their land and have been roadblocked onto Cornwall Island by KKKlanadian and ameiKKKan forces. We are Unified with all Indigenous People Worldwide, we must know each other and our struggles, so we can help each other defeat the enemies of the Earth.
World War 4 is here, the last battle of Nation states vs. Indigenous People and the Land. What would Crazy Horse do? Native people will not sit by and be silenced and massacred, our brothers and sisters in Peru have killed over 20 police in response to the massacre of their people, our ancestors are with us, we stand in full solidarity with
our people in the Amazon, we will defeat these illegal invaders, have no fear.
Write to Shark at:
Joseph Romandia
05474879
Box 820
Kamloops,
BC V2C 5M9
We will not stop until we win! No Surrender!
We are seeking donations from all those out there that support the Indigenous struggle for land and Freedom. All those that support Native youth, here is your chance to make a donation for a good cause.
All donations can be made to:
Skwelkwek’welt Protection Centre
c/o PO Box 837
Chase, BC V0E 1M0
Miranda Dick
Royal Bank (in the midst of switching to climate friendly banking)
Shuswap Ave., Chase, BC
Transit # 00880
Account # 5055447
If you are sending donations from the US, please send “international money order” or it will take 30-business days to clear for cheques and other money orders.
Any donations that [you] would like to [be made] contact:
resistance515[at]hotmail.com
Prisoner restrictions halted at Matsqui
Lawyers plan to take complaints to court
Mary Frances Hill, Vancouver Sun [British Columbia]
Published: Saturday, June 06, 2009
Corrections Canada called off severe restrictions on prisoners in Matsqui Institution on Friday after lawyers for the prisoners went public with complaints about deteriorating conditions.
Prisoners had been locked in their cells for 23 hours a day for nine weeks following a protest against an increase in work hours.
However, authorities did not reverse the transfers of 14 convicts who had come forward with prisoner complaints.
“This is a partial victory,” said lawyer Donna Turko, who represented the group along with prison rights lawyer John Conroy.
Turko said the convicts will again have access to toilets, sinks, phone facilities and common areas in their “ranges,” or wings of the prison.
She said the lawyers still intend to go to B.C. Supreme Court on Monday to deal with issues that have arisen from the conflict, such as the transferred prisoners and other rights issues.
Conroy said the 14 had acted as representatives for 220 Matsqui prisoners. Two of the transferred prisoners, Jean Paul Aube and Stephane Turcotte, had claimed in court documents that prisoners were getting limited access to food and facilities since staging the protest.
Some were defecating in their cells and throwing the waste out the windows, and the lawyers said the stench of human waste permeated the upper floors of the prison as record-high temperatures hit the Fraser Valley this week.
Turko said Corrections Canada had bowed to media pressure.
———————————————————————————————–
“Conroy said the prisoners have solidarity. When they held a strike vote, about 95 per cent supported the action. He said there is no threat of a riot.”
- Abbotsford New, June 6, 2009
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
STATEMENT TO THE PEOPLE
May 24rd, 2009
NYM Warrior arrested and held on 7 year old charges for Defending the Land!
On Thursday May 21st, a Warrior from the Native Youth Movement Warrior Society was arrested and detained in Halkomelem Territory (near so-called hope, british columbia, kkklanada).
Shark is a 27 year old Father of 5 Secwepemc children, from the Ohlone & Chumash Nations. He is currently being held for ransom in the Kamloops Regional Correctional Center (KRCC), facing charges stemming from protecting Secwepemc mountains, Skwelkwek’welt. These Sacred Mountains are being destroyed by Japanese company, Sun Peaks Resort Corporation. The governments of “British Columbia and Canada” are illegally selling Native Land to foreign invaders, and companies. These companies develop mass destruction to the land water, in turn killing the original, natural habitat of these mountains, including the Secwepemc People.
Since 2000, Secwepemc people have been taking direct action to stop Sun Peaks from destroying Skwelkwekwelt, their Hunting, Berry Picking & Medicine Mountains. The People left the Indian Reserve to take back their traditional territory and stop Sun Peaks expansion.
In 2001, the Secwepemc formed a chapter of the Native Youth Movement. They called other Native Warriors to help Defend the Land for the Future generations. Shark was one of those who responded to the call.
From May to December 2001 there were over 50 arrests made of Secwepemc People & their Allies, among them were 74 and 78 year-old women. Since then, there has been targeting of Native Youth Movement and Skwelkwek’welt Defenders. Many have been arrested in connection with Taking Back The Land at Skwelkwekwelt.
We are asking all those who support the struggle for the Land and Indigenous Autonomy to make a donation & spread the word to Free Shark. Those who put themselves between the Invader and the People must be protected. A Warrior is a special person who understands that their willingness to protect women, children, land & water, may result in incarceration, injury or death, but they do it anyway knowing that Truth & Mother Earth are on their side.
Send donations ASAP to help Free Shark to:
Miranda Dick
Royal Bank (in the midst of switching to climate friendly banking)
Shuswap Ave., Chase, BC
Transit # 00880
Account # 5055447
FREE SHARK! FREE PELTIER! FREE JOHN GRAHAM! FREE MAPUCHE WARRIORS! FREE WARRIORS OF ATENCO & OAXACA! FREE JACABO & GLORIA! FREE MUMIA! DROP ALL CHARGES ON POCC MOI JR. VALARY!
NO OLYMPICS ON NATIVE LAND! NO MINING! DOWN WITH SUN PEAKS! NO SKI RESORT IN MELVIN CREEK! DOWN WITH THE TAR SANDS! NO INDEPENDENT POWER PROJECTS (DAMS). NO RAILWAY & HIGHWAY EXPANSION!
IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE MAYAN ZAPATISTA, THE MAPUCHE, THE KUNA AND ALL THE MILLIONS OF WARRIORZ FIGHTING THE ENEMIES OF THE EARTH WORLDWIDE. IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL WE WIN! TAKE BACK THE LAND!
NATIVE YOUTH MOVEMENT
Work refusal leads to Matsqui lockdown
Christina Toth, The Abbotsford Times [British Columbia]
Published: Friday, May 22, 2009
Matsqui Institution inmates have been confined to their living units since May 19, in an effort by prison officials to douse potential unrest over new structured work schedules, and in response to threats of assault against some inmates.
Since March 30, inmates at the Abbotsford prison have refused to attend work or programs because they oppose the more stringent hours and restrictions to upper and lower exercise yards, said Gordon Tanner, an assistant warden at the facility.
Threats made by some inmates against other inmates who were willing to return prompted the lockdown.
Tanner said a prisoners’ committee was struck recently and its representatives have been in talks with prison administrators to resolve the situation.
As of April 1, Tanner said Correctional Service Canada began implementing a series of changes nationally that address five themes, including eliminating the presence of drugs in institutions and making inmates more accountable.
Inmates are encouraged to attend their work, classes and other programs during structured morning and afternoon hours, as they would have to do if they weren’t in prison.
“The structured work day is getting closer to the work day they would have in the community. We’re trying to get them accustomed to that,” in preparation for their release, Tanner said.
Until recently, inmates had access to large yards on the prison grounds, but these areas were also where outsiders would regularly toss drugs and cell phones over the fence.
In order to gain control over this entry method of contraband, the prison is changing the landscaping around the fence perimeters and boosting surveillance. Inmates can exercise in the gym or have monitored one-hour sessions in the large yards, said Tanner.
But prisoners want freer access to fresh air. Through negotiations, officials have agreed to give them access to a smaller ‘day yard,’ after staff erect an internal fence.
“I’m hoping that will be done in the next couple of weeks,” Tanner said last week. Talks between inmates and managers continue. No injuries to prison staff or inmates as a result of the work refusal have been reported. Regular scheduled visits and family visits to the facility continue as usual.
Anarchist solidarity with indigenous warrior John Graham
By some Vancouver anarchists
January 19, 2008
Anarchists in Vancouver, Canada, have been standing in solidarity with indigenous warrior John Graham since his extradition hearings began here in 2004.
The FBI charges that Graham killed his comrade Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, his friend and fellow warrior in the American Indian Movement (AIM). Aquash’s body was found on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, in February of 1976.
Although Aquash was a well-known AIM leader and fugitive, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) police claimed they couldn’t identify her. Their pathologist claimed she died of exposure and removed her hands. The BIA prevented people from viewing her body and had her body buried without a death certificate or burial permit before her hands were sent to the FBI for identification. A second autopsy requested by her family and friends revealed that she had been shot.
In the 1970s, the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) was targeting AIM and traditional Lakota people for destruction, in part because of high-profile actions such as the armed re-occupation of Wounded Knee at Pine Ridge. In the course of three years, an FBI-backed death squad, the Guardians Of the Oglala Nation (GOONS), which included many BIA cops, killed more than 60 AIM members and traditional Lakota people on the reservation. BIA Tribal Chief Dick Wilson, founder of the GOONS, signed over Lakota territory for exploitation by various energy corporations, including uranium-mining companies.
In the 1990s, law enforcement agent Robert Ecoffey began to fabricate a case that AIM leaders ordered Aquash killed because they believed that she was an FBI informant. This was based on the FBI’s attempt in the 1970s to spread rumours within AIM that Aquash was an informant and to shift suspicion for her murder from themselves to AIM after their failed attempt to cover-up her identity and true cause of death.
In the 1970s, Ecoffey was a member of the BIA police force at Pine Ridge and took part in the FBI-led assault on an AIM camp set up to protect a Lakota family from the GOONS. This event became known as the “Incident at Oglala” and led to the deaths of AIM warrior Joe Stuntz Killsright and two FBI agents. Ecoffey later testified as a government witness against AIM warrior Leonard Peltier at the 1977 frame-up trial over the killing of the two FBI agents.
We believe that the case against John Graham is an attempt to cover-up the deadly counter-insurgency campaign waged by government agencies at Pine Ridge in the 1970s. We also believe it is an attempt to cover-up Aquash and Graham’s history of resistance to the corporate theft and destruction of indigenous land, cutting-off today’s generation and future generations from an important point-of-reference. Both Aquash and Graham opposed uranium mining as being in total conflict with the traditional indigenous way of life. In the 1980s, Graham continued to fight against uranium mining in Native territories in Canada.
At different times, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Leonard Peltier and John Graham all said they were offered their freedom if they collaborated with the FBI against AIM leaders. They all refused. Myrtle Poor Bear said that FBI agents threatened her with photos of Aquash’s body, saying it would be worse with her if she didn’t sign false affidavits against Peltier to have him extradited from Vancouver. Peltier said he was offered his freedom in 1998 if he falsely pointed the finger at John Graham and AIM leaders for Aquash’s death. He refused. Graham has said US law enforcement agents visited him in the Yukon in the 1990s and threatened that he’d face a murder charge if he didn’t falsely point the finger at AIM leaders for Aquash’s murder. He refused.
John Graham is currently imprisoned at the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City, South Dakota, and his trial date has been set for June 17, 2008 [now May 12, 2009]. He was arrested in Vancouver in December of 2003 and spent 40 days in prison until he was released under house arrest to face his extradition hearings. He was taken back to prison on June 26, 2007, just before the Supreme Court of British Columbia rejected his appeal. The Supreme Court of Canada rejected his final appeal on December 6, 2007, and he was extradited to South Dakota that same day. That night, the locks of the probation office he was forced to regularly check-in with were glued shut and “Free John Graham” was spray-painted on one of its walls. There is also an on-going graffiti campaign in Vancouver in solidarity with him.
Vancouver anarchists first learned about the case from the local Native Youth Movement, mutual friends and John Graham’s family. We further educated ourselves, got to know John himself and talked with him about his history. Anarchists in Vancouver (and at times anarchists from other parts of British Columbia) have attended his court dates, visited him in prison, put on informational events on the case, put up posters, produced leaflets and supported events held for John Graham by the Native Youth Movement or his daughters. We’ve also supported indigenous warriors who’ve publicly challenged speakers spreading disinformation around the case.
Indigenous resistance to colonization is one of our primary sources of inspiration in our own anarchist struggle against industrialism, capitalism and the State. By standing in solidarity with John Graham we are strengthening our own struggle for freedom.
For us, solidarity with John Graham also means continuing on with the struggle against development, against uranium mining, against the police, against all prisons everywhere. As Anna Mae Pictou Aquash herself said after she was arrested and threatened by the FBI in September of 1975, “Jails are not a solution to problems.”
- >
To write to John Graham at Pennington County Jail, address envelope as follows:
John Graham
307 St. Joseph Street
Rapid City, SD 57701
USA
- >
John Graham’s history of resistance (actions and activities he took part in):
Early 1970s -
- Beothuck patrol by the Native Alliance for Red Power, monitoring police harassment of
Natives in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
1974-
- Second Native Peoples’ Caravan to Ottawa and occupation of abandoned Carbide Mill (Native Peoples’ Embassy).
- Mohawk warriors armed re-occupation of Ganienkeh territory in New York State.
1975 –
- Security at Farmington, New Mexico, AIM convention related to racist murders of Navajos.
- Security and safe transportation for traditionalists at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Lakota territory.
1980 –
- Caravan for Survival from Regina to uranium boomtown, La Ronge, Saskatchewan, to protest Key Lake uranium mine government board of inquiry.
1981 -
- Anna Mae Aquash Survival Camp near Pinehouse, Saskatchewan, on Key Lake road to stop the development of what became the world’s largest uranium mine (John was instrumental in the founding and naming of the camp).
1983-1984 -
- Red Peoples Long Walk from Victoria to Ottawa and Akwesasne for survival and against assimilation.
- European speaking tour against uranium mining.
Anna Mae Pictou Aquash’s history of resistance (actions and activities she took part in):
1969 –
- Aquash is arrested in Boston after jumping onto a group of police when they arrested a friend of hers who was assaulted at a bar.
1970 –
- Boston Indian Council and AIM demonstration against Mayflower II, Thanksgiving Day.
1972 –
- Trail of Broken Treaties leading to occupation of Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington DC.
1973 –
- Armed liberation of Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge, Lakota territory
1974 -
- Training in Karate at AIM gym.
- Armed re-occupation of Anicinabe Park in Kenora, Ontario, by the Ojibway Warriors Society.
- Research, teaching and creating programs for the Red Schoolhouse, AIM Survival School in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- Re-organization of Los Angeles AIM chapter, fundraising and expulsion from office of then suspected FBI informant Douglass Durham (later confirmed).
1975 –
- Armed occupation of religious building in Gresham, Wisconsin, by Menominee Warrior Society.
- Farmington, New Mexico, AIM convention related to racist murders of Navajos.
- Security and health for traditionalists at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Lakota territory.
- >
Websites:
http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com
Recommended reading:
The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash by Johanna Brand
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
Ottawa: Shut Down Cansec April 10, 2008
SHUT DOWN THE WAR MACHINE!
CANADA OUT OF HAITI!
CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!
US OUT OF IRAQ!
FREE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR!
FREE ALBERT DOUGLAS!
FREE JOHN GRAHAM!
ABOLISH THE SPP!
DESTROY STATE AND CAPITAL!
solidarity and resistance,
~ottawa anarchists~
