On June 10, 2019 NAMRA will join Indigenous Land and Water Defenders in Ottawa on for a peaceful protest against megadams at the site of the International Coalition on Large Dams (ICOLD) conference. Over 1,100 delegates from over 85 countries will be meeting at a conference.
Representatives of a number of Indigenous communities adversely affected will converge at the protest.
Attendees will include:
Amy Norman, Nunatsiavummiuk, Labrador Land Protector, Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Dr. Ramona Neckaway, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House, Manitoba)
Carol Kobliski, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House, Manitoba)
Rita Monias, Pimicikamak Okimawin (Cross Lake, Manitoba)
A press conference will be held prior to the protest at Room 135-B in the West Block. Here is the press release.
Rita Monias is a leading advocate for Indigenous rights and spoke in Manitoba in 2018.
Labrador Land Protectors protesting Muskrat Falls:
In a related story, on June 6, 2019, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and wastes, Baskut Tuncak called on Canada to use its leverage to address concerns about lack of proper consultation with Indigenous people (especially with respect to the parameters outlined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as well as the impending threat of methylmercury poisoning downstream of the massive Muskrat Falls megadam in Labrador.
“I urge the Federal Government to use its leverage as the largest investor in the project to review whether UNDRIP compatible procedures were followed for all affected indigenous peoples, and to prevent the release of methyl mercury,”the Rapporteur told a news conference on Parliament Hill. The federal government backs the megaproject with $9.2 billion in loan guarantees despite well-documented concerns about dire ecological impacts and adverse affects on the lives of Indigenous people downstream. Courtesy of: http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.com/2019/06/united-nations-calls-on-trudeau.html