I've been toying with this idea for a while now and need to get it out.

The United Church has been on a mission to live into right relations with the indigenous peoples of Canada, commonly known as Aboriginals or First Nations. This began with the Apology in the 80s, which was recommitted in the 90s, and has recently been stressed over the past triennium (due to what occurred at General Council 39). But what does the church really mean by this "living into right relations"? I'm sorry, but I am pissed off and need to challenge our committment to this path, as well as our committment to social justice as a whole. The institutions of the church desigend to deal with these issues are obviously not working. Here is why: the 40th General Council is being held in Kelowna, BC, near the sights of the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Games and is completely ignoring the biggest violation of indigenous rights that this country has seen in years, being the aforementioned Olympics.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics have already been thoroughly worshipped by the Canadian public, media, politicians, and coporations. But as always, indigenous peoples have been left out. To make Vancouver "clean" for February 2010, hundreds if not thousands of homeless have been kicked out of areas of the city, and are already being bussed out of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES), where the population is largely indigenous. DTES slum-lords who own the many hotels from which many neighbourhood residents rent have been shut down by the city in the wake of new by-laws promising money for renovations, while hundreds ae thrown onto the street with little or no notification. Vancouver's city police have increasingly targeted the neighbourhood's residents, ticketing for things such as jaywalking and not-wearing a bicycle helmet. Hundreds of dollars of fines are building up against many residents, who have not a hope of paying off the fees.

The attack on the Downtown Eastside is the first wave of gentrification for Vancouver's toughest and hardest to "clean" neighbourhood. The complex world of drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution, and violence is being ticketed, evicted, and bussed away by the city of Vancouver in preparation for February 2010. Is this the way Canadians deal with the stigmatized, oppressed, marginalized, and abused people of our country?

In attempts to take advantage of the floods of people who will stream into the province next February, BC has passed laws designed to fast-track mega-developments aimed at taking advantage of the increased tourist traffic. For BCs already oppressed indigenous peoples (who have suffered outrageous violence against their women, denial of traditional land, as well as horrific residential schools experiences) this has meant a further violation of their land claims and rights. The entire province of BC - everything - is unceded indigenous land that was promised to the indigenous people of BC in treaties. These treaties have been outrageously violated, and this recent development is fast-tracking the dispossession of indigenous people of their land. Massive amounts of land in the mountains are being developed into tourist attractions complete with ski-hills, tourist villages, outlet shops, and newer, better highways that completely obliterate traditional hunting land of BCs indigenous peoples. No concessions are being made, and protestors are being treated like criminals.

BC and especially Vancouver have become increasingly militarized in preparation for the olympics (note the security budget increase from $200,000, 000 to more than $1 billion). A police state of sorts has been set up in Vancouver; homeless are being shuffled off to less visible parts of the cities, and anti-Olympics activists are being questioned and harrassed.

If you're looking for more than just my word on all of this, check out http://www.no2010.com/. The violations have been well documented by many dedicated individuals and groups, and everything that I have typed has been because of their dedicated work for justice.

If anyone is reading this, you probably don't believe most of it. I didn't want to believe this could happen here either, but now I do. Because it is happening. And everyday we continue in our lives, oblivious. We lick our Olympic stamps and buy our Olympic Cheerios. We watch Olympic commercials with pride and wait in anticipation for the games to begin and for the spotlights to be on us. But what will we see in that spotlight? More importantly, what won't we see?

We certainly won't see the Canada that has abandoned and oppressed its indigenous peoples for generations; we won't see the hundred of "disappeared" or murdered indigenous women from BC and the rest of Canada; we won't see the stolen and abused land; we won't see the further degradation of indigenous culture and life; we won't see the racism, the misogyny, the indifference; we won't see the corporate circus; we won't see what we've become.

So I ask myself - and all of you - what does right relations really mean? And what the hell is wrong with the United Church that it can be so blind to what is happening in our own backyards? How can we hold a General Council in a place where so much hurt is happening and continue oblivious to it? How can we claim to care about social justice and living in right relations when we miss what is happening so close to us, and don't even acknowledge it? What does justice mean for the United Church? Is anything it does even working or helping or anything?

Is it right that at this 40th General Council, no word will be spoken of these injustices, not while we discuss right relations, social justice, the environment, our church's future...?