Border blockades don’t have support from Idle No More founder
Grassroots movement is about peaceful protests, says Jessica Gordon
Reported by Karin Yeske, CKOM Radio, Jan 5, 2013
Some planned protest blockages at border crossings in Canada on Saturday don’t have the support of an Idle No More movement founder.
Blocking traffic sends the wrong message, said Jessica Gordon, one of the four founding members of the grassroots movement making waves across the nation.
“If anything, it just disrupts the flow of traffic and gets people upset,” she said.
It’s been difficult for her to keep up with the events scheduled in the name of Idle No More. She tries to post as many as she can to the website (http://idlenomore1.blogspot.ca/) and screens the events to make sure they are casual in nature. However, she’s not the only person posting events on the website and sometimes ones like a border blockage can fall through the cracks, she said.
“If I’m posting, I’ve been able to look at that and make sure that they are all peaceful. That’s what we’ve been saying from the beginning,” she said.
“We’ve had pipes raised, prayers done, ceremonies and so on to ensure that we keep it peaceful and that’s what we will respect.”
Idle No More will continue despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper scheduling a meeting with a delegation of First Nations leaders for Jan. 11. Gordon, nor the other three Saskatchewan women who started the movement, were invited to the meeting.
Idle No More will not stop at anything less than repealing Bill C-45, said Gordon.
kyeske@rawlco.com
http://ckom.com/story/idle-no-more-border-blockades-don-t-have-support-founder/90166
Posted on January 6, 2013, in Uncategorized and tagged #IdleNoMore, border blockades, Idle No More, Idle No More border blockades, native blockades, native protests. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
Warrior Publications 
The International Peace Garden border Round Dance in support of IdleMore made sure that traffic was not stopped. The crowd was wonderful and the border guards supportive 🙂
I’m sure the border guards supported your efforts to not stop traffic.
Well, this is new. I wasn’t aware that having militarized arms of the state support your efforts was conducive to resistance…
She doesn’t speak for INM. She doesn’t speak for the grassroots. Not enough is being done yet. The heat is just rising this red winter. The people know the truth. A paper revolution accomplishes nothing. Diversity of tactics is needed. Hurt the creed ($) and results will follow.
Reblogged this on Mexika Resistance.
“We’ve had pipes raised, prayers done, ceremonies and so on to ensure that we keep it peaceful and that’s what we will respect.” -Jessica Gordon
Wow. She straight up admitted in that quote that they use spiritual practices to force their aspect of peace/assimilation onto everyone at their events. Thats pretty coercive and fucked up to abuse something spiritual like that for political purposes or control…. Even her opinion on blocking traffic during a protest is very weak. For one thing, its safer to block traffic while your in the street to prevent an accident, or a road raging asshole from mowing down people in your march. Secondly, the point of a protest is to stop business as usual and put pressure on the state to meet your demands. If no one minds or cares your protesting than what is the point other than to make yourself feel good? Dancing and doing ceremonial practices in public is more of a spectacle than a protest if thats all thats happening. Its a good thing people are realizing what control freaks privileged middle class professionals can be, regardless of their race, when their given too much power or positions at the top of a hierarchical pyramid.
For some, non-violence is a principle, for others a tactic. Until we have support from a good percentage of the surrounding population – sick to their back teeth with corporatist rule – I think we need to use non-violent resistance. This is my view as a student of colonizer history who wants to keep demonizing of Indigenous people – and deaths and jailing of Indigenous people – to a minimum.
when the time comes, the real warriors wil stand and be counted. Thier numbers are great! thier cause is just and they cannot be stopped by empty words. they will “proclaim” and “denounce” and they can be damned!
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