Confronting the Child Killers: Deadline issued to United Church expires this Monday

Confronting the Child Killers: Deadline issued to United Church expires this Monday - action suggestions - and please circulate this you tube link: www.youtube.com/user/hiddenfromhistory

13 February, 2010
Squamish Nation territory

Dear friends,

It's been over two years since the United Church of Canada (along with the Catholic and Anglican churches) was formally asked by native survivors to identify the grave sites of children who died in their Indian residential schools. Two years later, nothing has happened: no reply, no disclosure, and no return of the missing children's remains.

In response, this past week, we delivered an ultimatum.

That ultimatum, which was issued from The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) to the United Church of Canada on February 8, requires that its officers begin the repatriation of the remains of children who died in their Indian residential schools. The deadline given to the church was this Monday, February 15.

If the church has not replied or begun the repatriation by noon of that day, an escalated public campaign by the FRD and its supporters will commence, aimed at 1) disrupting the normal operations and income of the United Church, and 2) holding that church's officers personally liable for its crimes against native people, especially for the deaths of residential school children.

As a first step in this campaign, we ask you to please watch, post and circulate the three videos of our recent actions in Toronto, including the delivery of our ultimatum to the United Church head office, which can be found on our youtube site:

www.youtube.com/user/hiddenfromhistory

Next, unless you hear from us that the church has agreed to our demands, we ask you as of this Monday, February 15, to commence any or all of these recommended actions as part of our new campaign:

Disruption of church income and operations:

1. Sign and circulate the following Declaration to the United Church and its local affiliates:

Declaration of Conscience Form -

I, the undersigned, cannot in good conscience contribute money to this church until it returns the remains of the children who died under its care, in Indian Residential Schools and hospitals, and fully discloses their fate and cause of death.

Until this occurs, I am refraining from financially supporting this church. I will not make any form of donation or pledge to this church, nor will I rent your facilities. I will urge others to conduct a similar boycott of your institution.

____________ _________ _________
Name

____________ _________ _________
Date


2. Sign our online petition to Revenue Canada (found at www.hiddenfromhistory.org) , asking that the charitable tax exempt status of the United Church of Canada be revoked.

3. Hold rallies at United Church offices and outside its worship services in your local community, and ask parishioners to sign the above Declaration.

4. Ask community and activist groups to refrain from renting or using United Church facilities for their meetings or forums.

5. Support more direct civil disobedience actions initiated by the FRD against the church, by contacting us at this email or at 250-753-3345 (Canada).

Holding United Church officers personally liable for the crimes against native people and the deaths of residential school children:

1. Join others in issuing legal commercial liens against the personal property, income and assets of United Church officers to recover damages suffered by you and your family members because of residential school crimes or the death of a relative.
Survivors in B.C. have already begun such actions, and the FRD can provide you with advice and support on how to take such a step.

2. Support the campaign to disaffiliate local United Church congregations and its clergy from the national corporate body of the United Church of Canada. This campaign has been already established with sympathetic United Church clergy and members. Contact the FRD for more information.

3. Join our "Naming the Names" campaign to publicly identify the criminals: those surviving and documented perpetrators of crimes against residential school children, including United Church officers and clergy.

Generally, you can also help prepare for the Sixth National Aboriginal Holocaust Remembrance Day this April 15, 2010, by holding public actions and meetings on that day to demand the return of the missing children - and an end to the continued theft and trafficking in native children.

Our website www.hiddenfromhistory.org has many of the resources and arguments you'll need to help this campaign, especially our award-winning documentary Unrepentant, copies of which we can also provide you.

Stay tuned to the same website's Updates section for the most recent news of this campaign. And please take action today to stop the United Church from getting away with the murder of children!

(A similar campaign against the Catholic and Anglican churches will commence over the coming months).

Good luck and please contact us with news of your work!

Sincerely,

Kevin Annett
The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, National Executive
250-753-3345 or 1-888-265-1007 (messages)

Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org , and watch Kevin's award-winning documentary film UNREPENTANT on the same website.

UNREPENTANT: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide
- Winner, Best Foreign Documentary Film, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, March 2007
- Winner, Best Canadian Film, Creation Aboriginal Film Festival, Edmonton, 2009


“Kevin is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than many who have received it in the past.”
- Dr. Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“A courageous and inspiring man." (referring to Kevin Annett)
- Mairead Corrigan-Maguire
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Belfast , Northern Ireland

"As a long time front line worker with the Elders' Council at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, I stand behind what Kevin Annett is trying to do for our people. The genocide that continues today and which stemmed from the residential schools needs to be exposed. Kevin Annett helps break the silence, and brings the voice of our people all over the world."
Carol Muree Martin - Spirit Tree Woman
Nisgaa Nation

"I gave Kevin Annett his Indian name, Eagle Strong Voice, in 2004 when I adopted him into our Anishinabe Nation. He carries that name proudly because he is doing the job he was sent to do, to tell his people of their wrongs. He speaks strongly and with truth. He speaks for our stolen and murdered children. I ask everyone to listen to him and welcome him."
Chief Louis Daniels - Whispers Wind
Elder, Turtle Clan, Anishinabe Nation
Winnipeg, Manitoba