Idle-No-More movement history...

Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah McLean and Nina Wilson from Saskatoon formed idle No More in November 2012. The Official website address that allow people to follow up the meeting or protests and also to invite others is www.idlenomore.ca. Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal could be known as the vital bases of the movement, which has held successful protests and speeches and gathered a lot of Canadian people to support the movement. An interesting point about Idle No More, that is also known as INM, for me — as a feminist person— is that all the leaders or formers of the movement are women, and this could be very significant incident and motivation for women’s political and social activities and leadership in North America. In order to describe the INM movement I am willing to draw your attention to a part of an article from The Star written by Kent McNei. As Kent McNei (2013) noted, “A major concern of the Idle No More movement is Bill C-45, the omnibus budget bill enacted by the Parliament of Canada as the Jobs and Growth Act, 2012 . This bill received royal assent and became law on Dec. 14. In addition to giving legal effect to the Harper government’s budget of last year, this omnibus statute amends many other statutes, including the Indian Act, the Fisheries Act, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and the Navigable Waters Protection Act (significantly renamed the Navigation Protection Act).”
Generally, between 44 Federal laws that changed in bill C-45, the Navigable Waters Act has also been modified to remove 99% of lakes and rivers in Canada from environmental protections. According to the report from Rubble news (2013), the writer Lora Loreto stated that indigenous communities are worried about recent changes in a way that corporations are able to boost their profits without any tolerance towards environmental protections. However INM movement is a beginner movement with one year of activity, it has been successfully promoted and supported from people and organizations concerning aboriginals’ treaty rights and respects in major cities in Canada. On the other hand, too many Indigenous people are union members in Canada, and they always uphold and encourage community movements. For instance, The Labor Movement could be known as one of the major supportive communities that has accompanied with Idle No More in various ways, such as informing people in working sector and environmentalists as well as promoting INM to different native communities.
 GTA is a wide area with almost one-half million people from many different countries around the world. According to the multiculturalism and different racial groups living in GTA, patriotism could be an invalid expectation. Since Canada is a country with equality and freedom while gender and race discriminations are rare and uncommon, I believe that the majority of immigrants are less likely to get involved in movements and protests concerning Canadian territories and resources in comparison with people that grew up here. Therefore, Idle No More or any similar movements could not be considered as an affective incident in my everyday life in GTA, as a newcomer to Canada. The only aspect of Native people protests that I heard about was last year, November of 2012, at York University that students from a campaign gathered at Vari Hall- One of the main Halls of York University- and they were informing others and giving posters and questionnaires related to an Anti-pipeline protest. At that time I followed up the movement and tried to get news and updates from social networks. During my researches for this paper I noticed about the importance of the legislations that challenge Indigenous people right, control and respect towards lands and waters in Canada. I believe that the longer people live in Canada, the more responsible they will be regarding the protection of the land. For me, after living four years in GTA, it is getting a real concern to get involved in communities and join the movements such as Idle No More, because I understand that whatever happens to this land will affect on my society and finally on my life. I think that everyone need to pay attention and financially and morally assist Native people through the ongoing movements and protests that concern Canadian lands and water occupancy and protection.