Article by PBI-Canada

PBI-USA is thrilled that Russ Diabo will be speaking at the upcoming PBI webinar on police violence in Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Kenya and Nicaragua.

Russ Diabo is a member of the Mohawk nation of Kahnawake, a well-known policy analyst and adviser, and a prominent critic of the Canadian government’s resource extraction, assimilation and “reconciliation” agenda.

Beginning in 1987, Russ has been taking Indigenous rights and environmental issues to international forums, notably the United Nations in New York and Geneva.

Russ has also been on the frontlines of many struggles.

Among them, Russ, when he was just 16 years old, was at the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC in November 1972 that drew attention to living conditions and Treaty rights. He was also at the Wounded Knee standoff in 1973 that took place at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Russ was also an adviser to the Algonquins of Barriere Lake during a blockade against logging on their territories in 1989. There were numerous logging blockades and a blockade of Highway 117 in 1990 which led to a 1991 Trilateral Agreement for forests and wildlife management between the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, Quebec and Canada.

And in 1990 he escorted Jean Chretien, then the Leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Commons, to Kahnawake and Kanehsatake while both communities were under siege by the provincial police (the SQ) and later the Canadian Army.

To read Russ’ full biography, please click here.

You can follow him on Twitter at @RussDiabo.

To register for the webinar this coming Friday October 30 at 10 am ET, please click here.

Along with Russ, this webinar will feature Faith Kasina (Kenya), a representative of the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya (Guatemala), a member of Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Mas (in exile in Costa Rica), and Berenice Celeita and Germán Romero (Colombia).