Asé tsi Tewa:ton,“We Will Renew Ourselves:” The Mohawk Approach to Environmental and Cultural Restoration with Dr. Taiaiake Alfred

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The most common approach to compensating Indigenous peoples for harms caused to their peoples, their lands, and their culture has been to pay them a lump sum of money and call it a day. Taiaiake Alfred, a Professor of Indigenous Governance and Political Science from Kahnawá:ke, however, gave a talk at McGill about an alternative approach to addressing these harms that tends to Indigenous peoples’ actual needs. That is, through the restoration of their land based practices. This program was launched in 2014, in the community of Akwesasne in the US, where master knowledge-holders have since been teaching apprentices how to hunt, trap, and heal through medicinal plants, among other things. 

This talk took place in September 2016 as part of McGill’s 6th Annual Indigenous Awareness Week. The recording is brought to you by LegaLEase’s Emma Noradounkian and Alice Mirlesse.

 

Episode November 2015 – Under Siege

Welcome to LegalEase, a broadcast about law cast broadly. We are your hosts, Lillian Boctor and Rachel Davidson, for this November 2015 edition of Legalease. LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of law students and recently graduated law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-november-2015

 

Coming up in the show today: We hear from David Whit, the founder of the Canfield Watchmen and a community leader in the WeCopwatch movement based in the Ferguson, Missouri neighborhood where police killed Mike Brown. Legalease collective member interviewed him at the recent National Lawyer’s Guild conference in Oakland, California.

We have an in-studio guest from New York City, Richard Semegram, a tenant rights lawyer who will be speaking with us about a proposed U.S. country-wide ban on smoking in public housing and the implication on this ban for low-income housing tenants.

But first we turn to Luis Solana, in studio with us today. He is an investigative journalist from Guatamela, on a Canadian tour, and the author of the report “Under Siege: Peaceful Resistance to Tahoe Resources and Militarization in Guatemala.” The report details the militarization and violent repression of farming communities in south-east Guatemala peacefully resisting Canadian-US mining company Tahoe Resource’s massive Escobal silver mine.

 

Luis SolanominingTahoe Resourcesmilitarizationrepressionwar contractorsindigenousEscobal mineMining Watchimpunitywatersmoking banevictionsNYCWecopwatchRichard SemegramDavid Whittpublic housingCanadaUSCanfield Watchment

Episode December 2015 – Rising

Welcome to LegalEase with your hosts Lillian Boctor and Alice Mirlesse for this December 2015 edition of Legalease. LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of law students and recently graduated law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-december-11-2015

 

We start the show with an interview from Paris with Daniel T’seleie, a Dene and participant in the “It Takes Roots to Weather the Storm” and “Indigenous Rising” Delegations to the COP21 in Paris, which took place from November 30 – December 12, 2015;

we hear the powerful words of Kandi Mosset, the Indigenous Environemental Network’s Native Energy and Climate Campaign Organizer and member of the “It Takes Roots” and “Indigenous Rising” Delegations at the COP21 in Paris, speaking at a press conference by Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus and Women Leading Solutions on Frontlines of Climate Change on December 8, 2015;

we hear from Alexis, a member and community leader of the WeCopwatch movement based in the Ferguson, Missouri neighborhood where police killed Mike Brown; and Tariq Ramadan, who teaches Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University, was speaking at the McGill Faculty of Law last month and we hear an excerpt of his talk entitled, “Accommodation and Securitization, Dilemmas of Muslim Citizenship in Liberal Democracies.”

Episode January 2016 – No Justice, No Peace

Listen to the January 8, 2016 edition of Legalease on CKUT 90.3 with hosts Rachel Davidson, Deborah Guterman and Yuan Stevens.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-january-8-2016

 

• Professor Helena Lamed and Lysanne LaRose from the McGill Faculty of Law are in studio to speak about their sponsorship of Syrian refugees; l
• isten to a live interview with Billy Joe Mills, one of Tamir Rice’s lawyers, speaking about the recent Grand Jury decision to not indict the police responsible for killing 12-year old Tamir Rice;
• and we also hear a clip from a press conference held by the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations, where Mei Ling, a student who filed a complaint for race and gender discrimination and harassment against Concordia University student association ASFA, speaks about the case’s settlement.
• You can hear Legalease the second Friday of every month on CKUT 90.3 and online from 11-12noon EST.

Episode April 2016 – “This drought that will kill us”

Welcome to LegalEase, a broadcast about law cast broadly. We are your hosts Lillian and Rachel…. for this April 8, 2016 edition of Legalease.

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of current and former law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

Coming up in the show today:

• We speak to Will Fitzgibbons, a journalist with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists about the Panama Papers;
• Workers in Texas jails are striking and we speak with the director for the Prison Justice League, Erica Gammill, in Austin, Texas to find out why;
• But first we hear from Leroi Newbold from Black Lives Matter Toronto on the#BLMTOtentcity, or Black City, organizing with #BlackLivesMatterToronto and Freedom Schools.

Episode December 2014 – Making Lives Matter

Legalease is a monthly show on Montreal’s CKUT 90.3FM put together by a collective of law students. It is a broadcast about the law, cast broadly, looking at the law with a critical lens and featuring voices of people most affected by the law and those organizing against injustice.

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/legalease-on-ckut-december-12-2014-edition

In this month’s Legalease, we interview Meena Jaganath, attorney at the Community Justice Project in Miami, about the legal support happening in Ferguson leading up to and after the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown; the delegation of CJP, Dream Defenders, Michael Brown’s parents, We Charge Genocide and other groups to the UN Committee Against Torture; about the growing #blacklivesmatter movement; and the role of community lawyering in the movement.

We hear from Claire Abraham, community organizer at Project Genesis in Cote-des-Neiges, Montreal about the organizing that they are doing in collaboration with housing organizations around the ridiculously long 21-month waiting time for tenants to get their complaint about housing conditions heard at the Rental Board. A Mexican student at McGill University tells us about the Montreal Mexican community’s demand to take Mexico off the safe-country list in Canada, in light of the pandemic of violence and impunity in Mexico.

Finally we speak with Legalease Collective member Garrett Zehr about the extradition of Canadian citizen Hassan Diab to France, after a faulty trial and a shocking lack of evidence, and the injustices in Canada’s extradition law and processes. Legalease can be heard of the second Friday of each month on CKUT 90.3FM in Montreal and worldwide at

ckut.ca/c/

Mike BrownEric GarnerReefaMeena JaganathTortureRental BoardHassan DiabMexico43Safe ListExtraditionCanadaTenantsCommunity Justice ProjectMiamiCommunity LawyeringGarrett ZehrClaire AbrahamProject GenesisBlack Lives MatterRefugeesProtestsPolice brutalityUNImpunityIndicttheSystemFranceGrand JuryMontreal Mexican Community

Episode October 2014 – Stop!

Blast from the Past – An episode from Lillian Boctor, Alyssa Clutterbuck, and Garrett Zehr!

https://soundcloud.com/lillian-boctor/ckut-legalease-october-2014-edition

 

 

Episode – September 2016 – About LegalEase!

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of former and current law students at McGill that explores the law and its institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the jargon of the law more accessible.

Listen to the Episode here

In today’s show we will hear from past and current students about their involvement in social movement lawyering and how it has shaped their experiences in law school. From Radlaw (Legalease’s original affiliation) to Legalease, students’ perspective on the law and the communities whose lives are affected by it on the daily has been sharpened through engaging with these perspectives, both individually and collectively.

LegalEase présente un rapportage de cette été des travailleurs du Vieux-port qui étaient en grève depuis plus de 100 jours. Ils militent pour des bénéfices

Finally, we have put together extracts of past shows, to illustrate the breadth and diversity of topics covered in the show, and give new recruits an idea of what they are signing-up for!

https://soundcloud.com/user-895652362/september-2016-legalease

Episode – August 2016 – Building a Better World

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise. This month the program is entitled, Building a Better Future. As a note, this episode includes content in English, French and Spanish. You can listen to the Episode here. Or below.

This is Host Lillian Boctor’s final show with LegalEase as host. We will miss her devotion and excellent programming over the past several years.

First, the program features “It Takes Roots to Change the System Caravan – from the Republican Convention to the Democratic Convention.” The Caravan is a call to action from communities of color and white folks to confront the growing acceptance and public condoning of racism and xenophobia; from women and trans people to reclaim feminisms for the grassroots; from communities living on the frontlines of polluting industries to build a new economy; from veterans and organized communities around the globe to end U.S. military intervention. Audio from Ariel Goodman.

Next, LegalEase features an excerpt from a panel at the Montreal World Social Forum on the subject of International Solidarity and Honduran Coup Resistance. It featured Félix Molina, of AMCH (Asociación de Medios Comunitarios de Honduras), Jesse Freeston, producer of “Resistencia”, Vicki Cervantes, National Coordinator, Honduras Solidarity Network and Diego Briceño, Makila, Coopérative multimédia, amongst others.

Third, Lillian speaks about Kurdish resistance and independence, with an activist with the Kurdish Women Movement (IRKWM).

Finally, Lillian speaks with Kali Akuno, co-director of Cooperation Jackson, an organization that works for economic justice in the U.S. South, as he was in town to present at the World Social Forum on Economic Democracy.

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive of law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

Episode – October 2016 – Abortion, MMIW, Land Defenders

Welcome et bienvenue to LegalEase: a monthly Montreal-based and produced radio show on 90.3 FM CKUT – a broadcast about law, cast broadly. Le collectif LegalEase est un groupe d’étudiants et étudiantes en droit de la communauté montréalaise. This month the program is entitled,  Abortion, MMIW, Land Defenders. Listen to the Episode here.

Professors Shivaun Quinlivan and Susan Cahill shared their lived experiences and insights on the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution. This Amendment equates the right to life of a pregnant woman with that of a foetus and criminalizes abortion in all cases except where continuing a pregnancy would result in death.
You can read Cahill’s story at www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/…grets-1.2542740

Last week, hundreds walked in honour and solidarity of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) at the 11th annual Missing Justice March in Montreal. Hear from Mohawk artist and activist Ellen Gabriel, who cast doubts over the effectiveness of the current national inquiry on MMIW and Stacey Gomez of the Centre for Gender Advocacy, who shared ways to get involved in raising awareness for MMIW.

And finally, Anishinaabe land defenders Vanessa and Lindsay Gray spoke in Montreal last month. Vanessa is facing a 25-year prison sentence for allegedly sabotaging Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline. We’ll play parts of their talk, in which they discuss environmental racism, organizing in the Chemical Valley, and the importance of defending land defenders.

LegalEase on 90.3 FM is a radio program broadcast every second Friday of the month at 11am EST from Montreal, Quebec. Originally founded by the McGill Legal Information Clinic in 1989, LegalEase is now run by a collective of progressive law students from McGill University. Our weekly radio show deals with legal topics of interest to the community, with the intention of making the law both accessible and engaging. Tune into our show, follow us on Twitter @LegalEaseCkut, email legalease[at]ckut.ca or check our podcast library for past programming.

This month’s edition of LegalEase was produced by Alice Mirlesse, Gwendolyn Muir, and Emma Noradounkian.

https://soundcloud.com/user-895652362/october-2016-legalease