Found at: https://peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint/Racist_attack_hits_Kitigan_Zibi_First_Nation.html
Racist attack hits Kitigan Zibi First Nation
(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Kimball Cariou
On June 21, residents of Kitigan Zibi, a First Nations community 130 kilometers north of Ottawa, awoke to find their cherished cultural centre defaced with swastikas and racist graffiti. Police think the crime may have been committed by residents of the nearby town of Maniwaki, Quebec. A recent successful land claim resulted in restoring a piece of property in Maniwaki to the Kitigan Zibi First Nation. The land is to be made into a park honouring the community's first chief.
In an urgent public message, Claudette D. Commanda said: "On this day when we are to celebration the great and rich heritage and culture of the aboriginal peoples, we, the members of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Algonquin First Nations, have become victims of a hate crime. I am deeply sadden by this - I have no words to describe the sorrow that my spirit and heart are carrying at this moment. My heart is wounded, but my spirit is not broken. I appeal to you for help.
"As a community member, as a mother, as a grandmother, to you my brothers and sisters in culture and spirit, I am seeking your help - sometime during the night, my community, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg has become the victim of a hate crime, our Cultural Centre has been vandalized, with huge black paint swastika signs and with the wording `White Power' written completely around the entire building, furthermore, picnic tables and tents have been destroyed. Just as our community was preparing for its aboriginal day celebration today, there is no celebration, our community is in tears, and I must say that this heinous crime also raises the issue of our safety and security of our people, our community.
"Please, I am asking you as brothers and sisters, to get this message out to media, to the public... I thank you for your attention to this message and for any help you can provide."
Meeting in Toronto over the June 23-24 weekend, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada voted to condemn this racist action, one of a growing number of attacks directed at aboriginal peoples, Muslims, and other minority groups.
CPC leader Miguel Figueroa said, "The Communist Party has warned repeatedly that the so-called `war on terror' is aimed at whipping up hatred and divisions, to promote Canadian involvement in imperialist wars and to attack democratic rights and civil liberties by the Canadian state. The listing of indigenous groups as `terrorists' in an armed forces training manual, and the warnings of state attacks against the aboriginal National Day of Action, are ominous warnings that the struggle by aboriginal peoples for justice is regarded as a threat by the Harper Conservatives and other reactionary forces. Like the attempts to incite violence against the Six Nations at Caledonia, the hate crime at Kitigan Zibi shows that racist and fascist elements are being stirred into action. We urge all labour and democratic movements to condemn this rise in racist and fascist activity, and to stand in solidarity with the aboriginal peoples and other minority groups."
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