Justice for Our Stolen Children – Idle No More

Idle No More Stands In Solidarity with Justice for Our Stolen Children Organizers

HealingCamp.jpgIdle No More stands in solidarity with the Justice For Our Stolen Children (JFOSC) camp in Treaty 4 territory, and agrees with the organizer’s call to reform the foster care system in the province of Saskatchewan. The peaceful demonstration began in the late spring at the legislative building in Regina in response to the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the murder of Colten Boushie and the acquittal of Raymond Cormier in the murder of teenager Tina Fontaine. The purpose of the camp is to expose and draw attention to the inequalities of the systems in place that kills Indigenous men, women, Two-Spirit people and children on a daily basis. The practices of these systems go unscrutinized by most Canadians.

Recent arrests and calls from the premiere of the province to shut the camp down have not stopped the dedication of the JFOSC organizers. The original Tipi was forcibly removed to clear the park, outrageously the day before National Indigenous Day. Days later, organizers re-erected the tipi at Wascana Park where it currently remains. The camp has since grown to an astounding 14 tipis. For several months the JFOSC camp has continued to draw attention to the often deadly overrepresentation of children and youth in Canada’s setter state systems like the foster care system, the adult and youth criminal court system, the prison system and the epidemic of murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples. The unparalleled statistics of detainment, control, and death for Indigenous people in every institution is an example of ongoing colonial genocide.

 

Idle No More supports the growing Tipi Actions that have recently begun in Saskatoon, Treaty One Territory (Manitoba) and Tkaronto, respectively. Calls for more camps across Turtle Island have gone out to grassroots people.

(Saskatoon Tipi camp. Picture by Erica Violet Lee)