NOVEMBER 10, 2012

“IDLE NO MORE” ONGOING PROTEST MOVEMENT BEGINS

Idle No More, an ongoing protest movement founded by 4 women, is an ongoing grassroots effort among the Aboriginal peoples in Canada–First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. On the movement’s national day of action, January 13, 2013, demonstrators halted passenger rail traffic between Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal, as well as highways and rail lines in parts of Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick, and Ontario. Protesters near the Ambassador Bridge to Michigan slowed traffic to the U.S. for several hours. Rallies, blockades, and prayer circles across Canada focused on changes to Bill C-45, the government’s omnibus budget bill. Protesters asserted that C-45 gutted all environmental approval, regulatory and enforcement mechanisms. They used the “reassertion of aboriginal and treaty rights” as a means of protecting both First Nations’ and Canadians’ water, air and soil from oil and mining pollution. Since 2013, it has supported other human rights and environmental protests.

Source: “Idle No More protesters stall railway lines, highways,” CBC, 1/16/2013.  Retrieved 6/5/2019, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/idle-no-more-protesters-stall-railway-lines-highways-1.1303452
Photo:  Moxy, 1/11/2013.   Permissive use.