Cheam Solidarity Committee
The Anti-Poverty Committee has recently re-started a solidarity committee that would immediately respond to any call for support from the people of the Cheam Nation.
This committee was first formed in the fall of 2003 in response to the escalating campaign of direct action against the Canadian National Railway and the Cattermole Timber Company. The committee has been regrouped amidst growing concerns that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will increase their policing of Cheam Territory and deploy more “preventive measures.”
The push for more racist policing is coming from the Federal Conservative party who, in chorus with other white supremacists, allege that the Fraser River is being over fished by aboriginal people. Local MPs are demanding the DFO establish a ‘separate and beefed-up enforcement branch headed by a regional director with extensive law enforcement experience who would report to an assistant deputy minister responsible for enforcement.’
The call for increased repression come, at a time when, according to Ernie Crey of the Sto:lo Tribal Council, “there is more enforcement by the DFO on the lower Fraser River than at any previous time in history.”
The Anti-Poverty Committee calls on all supporters to join our solidarity committee. We will respond to any crisis by sending people to the Cheam Reserve and by doing support work in the city. Our friends in Cheam will contact us when they need us and we will reach our supporters through a phone tree or over e-mail. Please send your name and contact information to
apc@resist.ca and we will add you to our list.
