BC Metis Federation friend and support Mr. david Doyle has the great honour of participating in the UNESCO World Balance Conference in Havana Jan 28 – 30, 2013 and would be pleased if you would read my speech Jose Marti & Louis Riel & the Doctrine of Discovery. It is a major international conference with over 400 delegates from 40 countries registered on the occasion of the 160th birth anniversary of José Martí the Cuban Apostle of Independence. The struggle for independence in Cuba and Canada has taken very divergent but also similar paths, with the Cuban people fighting Spanish colonialism through a series of wars and revolts and the Canadian, Quebecois, Métis and First Nations also involved in revolts against Anglo-Canadian colonialism, but in the end following the British parliamentary system. I propose to relate the career of José Martí tothat of Métis leader Louis Riel ) – in their nineteenth century struggles against colonialism, recognizing that the struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism remains a common concern of contemporary life in the twenty-first century as seen in the IDLE NO MORE movement and the struggle for Indigenous rights and environmental sustainability in Canada and internationally. My work this year is to introduce the noxious, racist, Doctrine of Discovery – the foundation of colonialism from the era of Christopher Columbus to the present.
The racist Doctrine of Discovery remains the foundation of Canadian and American law, and need be repudiated for a new relationship to be established between Aboriginal People and the Canadian state through the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People as signed by the Canadian government in 2010.
Following the work done by the BC Metis Federation I salute your organization and their principled stand in opposition to the Enbridge Pipeline and your active support of the IDLE NO MORE movement, as well as in building a truly democratic, grassroots organization. Your work will be recognized in my travels in Cuba.
[ilink url=”/wp-content/uploads/News-Release-Doyle-Cuba-22-01-13.pdf” style=”download”]News Release Doyle Cuba 22 01 13[/ilink]
[ilink url=”/wp-content/uploads/CUBA-and-CANADA-Marti-Riel-Speech-20-01-13.pdf” style=”download”]CUBA and CANADA Marti Riel Speech[/ilink]
