November 19th, 2014 Guelph, Ontario Tonight, in a snowstorm in downtown Guelph, a group of people came together to show solidarity against the corrupt governments of Canada and Mexico, and with the people who are fighting for a different way of life based on justice, love, respect, and safety from harm. Some of us are smiling in the photographs, not because we are happy about the violence in Mexico or the complicity of the Canadian Government in this same violence; we are smiling because in the moment we felt connected to everyone who is involved in these struggles from Oaxaca to Guelph to Fresno to Vancouver to Mexico City to Iguala to Montreal united by our shared desire to live with dignity. We said to Canada tonight, Take Mexico off the Designated Countries of Origin Safe Countries List Better known as the Refugee Exclusion Act. This Safe Countries List cowardly denies asylum for people fleeing violence in Mexico. Canada a hypocritical country that issues travel adviseries to its residents for going to Mexico, but convienently refuses to aknowledge the plights of Mexican people fleeing violence, or worse the same Canada that actively supports its resource extraction companies in Mexico to destroy the land and water, push people off their lands and kill those who resist. Seperated by thousands of kilometers, we honoured the memory of those who have died today with our small act. To the disapeared students of Iguala, to Mariano Abarca Roblero killed in Chiapas State in 2009 for resisting Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration, to Bernardo Mendez Vazquez killed in Oaxaca in 2012 for resisting Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mining Company, to Ismael Solorio Urrutia and Manuela Martha Solis Contreras who were killed in Chihuahahua for resisting a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Mag Silver, and the thousands more who have died In Mexico for refusing the plans of government, narco gangs, and corporations, we are continuing the struggles. The people who participated from Guelph would also like to show solidarity with CIPO-RFM members from Oaxaca who have faced persecution and violations from the Mexico State for defending their people, lands and way of life. We demand the immidiate freedom for Pablo Lopez Alvarez who has been imprisoned on trumped up charges; justice for Carlos Rene Roman-Salazar who after recieving multiple death-threats was disapeared in 2011 and is now presumed dead; Rodrigo Flores-Penaloza, who is currently being threatened by para-military groups with ties to the corrupy governments; and a safe return to Oaxaca for Raul Gatica-Bautista, who came to Canada as a political refugee after multiple assasination attempts and torture at the hands of the corrupt government.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 04:56:13 +0000
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