November 9, 2016
University of Toronto’s Palestine Solidarity Movement Expresses Support for Standing Rock
The University of Toronto’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid, Graduate Students’ Union Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Ad-Hoc Committee, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3902 BDS Political Action Committee express unequivocal support for the sovereign Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (the Great Sioux Nation), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and its people in their physical and legal resistance to settler colonial encroachment on their lands and sacred burial sites. We express our solidarity in light of the recent escalation of state violence at the Sacred Stone Camp, Iŋyaŋ Wakháŋagapi Othí, where land and water defenders are protecting their territories by resisting the construction of the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Their resistance in the face of settler colonial aggression is a testament to their strength, and to the resilience of Indigenous peoples everywhere.
The construction of the DAPL, stretching from North Dakota to Illinois, violates treaty obligations, including the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties. It poses a threat to Treaty lands as well as the surrounding environment, including the Missouri River, which serves as a critical source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe along with countless others living downstream. The permits issued for the construction of the pipeline were granted without proper consultation to obtain free, prior, and informed consent for the pipeline’s construction from Indigenous peoples, and is in contravention of federal cultural and environmental laws. This form of environmental racism, along with the militarized police presence and violence perpetrated against land and water defenders, is one of the many ways in which settler colonial states continue to practice genocidal strategies against the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America). We oppose the development of oil pipelines in North Dakota and across Turtle Island – infrastructure that violates Indigenous sovereignty; that threatens the health of present and future generations and their environments; and that exploits land and people for capitalist profits.
In expressing our solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, we also reaffirm our solidarity with the struggles of the Indigenous peoples on whose territories we live, work, and study, and who are also resisting settler colonial violence and dispossession. The City of Toronto, including our university campus, sits upon the territories of the Huron-Wendat, Petun, Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit River people.
Alongside a highly militarized police force, Energy Transfers Partners have contracted G4S, a security firm, to pursue their colonial project by violently suppressing efforts to defend Indigenous territories, sacred sites, and the planet. In Palestine, as in Standing Rock, G4S works hand-in-glove with the settler colonial government to uphold corporate interests, and facilitate Indigenous ethnic cleansing and dispossession. G4S provides security services for illegal Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and prisons, where Palestinians are routinely tortured and indefinitely detained. In the face of over five centuries of continuous attack on their nations and lands, the steadfastness of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island is, as the Palestinian Boycott National Committee observes, an inspiration to the Palestinian resistance movement.
The illegal occupation and dispossession of Indigenous land; the use of militarized, state-sanctioned violence; and the systematic destruction of the environment are colonial strategies that have long been resisted by Indigenous peoples, both on Turtle Island and in Palestine. We stand in solidarity with all Indigenous peoples and their ongoing struggles to defend their lands. We call for the respect of the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; the immediate cessation of the DAPL’s construction; a halt to the violence against the land and water protectors; and the unconditional release of all those arrested in defence of Treaty rights and Indigenous land.
Contact: divest@utgsu.ca.
University of Toronto’s Palestine Solidarity Movement Expresses Support for Standing Rock
The University of Toronto’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid, Graduate Students’ Union Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Ad-Hoc Committee, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3902 BDS Political Action Committee express unequivocal support for the sovereign Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (the Great Sioux Nation), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and its people in their physical and legal resistance to settler colonial encroachment on their lands and sacred burial sites. We express our solidarity in light of the recent escalation of state violence at the Sacred Stone Camp, Iŋyaŋ Wakháŋagapi Othí, where land and water defenders are protecting their territories by resisting the construction of the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Their resistance in the face of settler colonial aggression is a testament to their strength, and to the resilience of Indigenous peoples everywhere.
The construction of the DAPL, stretching from North Dakota to Illinois, violates treaty obligations, including the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties. It poses a threat to Treaty lands as well as the surrounding environment, including the Missouri River, which serves as a critical source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe along with countless others living downstream. The permits issued for the construction of the pipeline were granted without proper consultation to obtain free, prior, and informed consent for the pipeline’s construction from Indigenous peoples, and is in contravention of federal cultural and environmental laws. This form of environmental racism, along with the militarized police presence and violence perpetrated against land and water defenders, is one of the many ways in which settler colonial states continue to practice genocidal strategies against the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island (North America). We oppose the development of oil pipelines in North Dakota and across Turtle Island – infrastructure that violates Indigenous sovereignty; that threatens the health of present and future generations and their environments; and that exploits land and people for capitalist profits.
In expressing our solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, we also reaffirm our solidarity with the struggles of the Indigenous peoples on whose territories we live, work, and study, and who are also resisting settler colonial violence and dispossession. The City of Toronto, including our university campus, sits upon the territories of the Huron-Wendat, Petun, Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit River people.
Alongside a highly militarized police force, Energy Transfers Partners have contracted G4S, a security firm, to pursue their colonial project by violently suppressing efforts to defend Indigenous territories, sacred sites, and the planet. In Palestine, as in Standing Rock, G4S works hand-in-glove with the settler colonial government to uphold corporate interests, and facilitate Indigenous ethnic cleansing and dispossession. G4S provides security services for illegal Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and prisons, where Palestinians are routinely tortured and indefinitely detained. In the face of over five centuries of continuous attack on their nations and lands, the steadfastness of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island is, as the Palestinian Boycott National Committee observes, an inspiration to the Palestinian resistance movement.
The illegal occupation and dispossession of Indigenous land; the use of militarized, state-sanctioned violence; and the systematic destruction of the environment are colonial strategies that have long been resisted by Indigenous peoples, both on Turtle Island and in Palestine. We stand in solidarity with all Indigenous peoples and their ongoing struggles to defend their lands. We call for the respect of the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe; the immediate cessation of the DAPL’s construction; a halt to the violence against the land and water protectors; and the unconditional release of all those arrested in defence of Treaty rights and Indigenous land.
Contact: divest@utgsu.ca.