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URGENT ACTION
Public Notice Physical Assaults Continue against Kevin Annett
October 10, 2006 Vancouver, Canada For the third time since 2002, Helen Michel has made an unprovoked physical assault against Kevin Annett in public. Today, at 11:45 am at 800 Smithe street in Vancouver, in front of more than a dozen eyewitnesses, Helen Michel deliberately drove her scooter into Kevin Annett while he stood speaking peacefully to a group of people who were gathered in support of residential school survivors. Kevin had said or done nothing to Michel prior to her driving into him. She then proceeded to call Kevin names, wrongfully accuse him of actions he has never done, and generally malign him and his reputation before others in public. Michel was accompanied in this latest assault by her partner Frank Martin, who has also physically assaulted Kevin in an unprovoked manner. Information recently supplied by a government source quotes RCMP "E" Division documents which claim that two operatives codenamed REDMAN ONE and REDMAN TWO have been paid at least $3000 since September, 1998 to harrass Kevin Annett and publicly subvert his efforts to document crimes in Indian residential schools. This source, and another informant, believe that Michel and Martin are these RCMP operatives. This Public Notice urges all people who support justice for residential school survivors to oppose these attacks by Helen Michel and Frank Martin on the one man who has consistently fought to expose the full truth behind the crimes in Canadian Indian residential schools: Kevin Annett. We, the elders of The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, believe that this recent attack on Kevin Annett is not accidental, for it is coming just when Kevin is organizing a public campaign to oppose the government of Canada's attempt to close down all further legal action by residential school survivors, and exonerate the churches of Canada for their crimes of genocide in residential schools. We therefore call upon people to more actively defend Kevin from such attacks, for if his efforts are thwarted by the vile lies and assaults being employed by Helen Michel and Frank Martin, and their government bosses, then all residential school survivors and their families will suffer. Accordingly, we call for aboriginal volunteers to serve as Kevin Annett's bodyguards, to assist him in his public work and witness, and to stand by him in the face of Helen Michel's and Frank Martin's efforts to make it appear that aboriginal people oppose Kevin's work. We also call for a full public inquiry into the "dirty ops" campaign being employed by the RCMP and the United Church of Canada against Kevin Annett, and for an opening of all RCMP and United Church files and correspondence concerning Kevin Annett and his work. In conclusion, if these attacks against Kevin Annett continue, we will make a call for international human rights observers and United Nations Peace Keepers to come to British Columbia to monitor these assaults, and actively defend Kevin Annett in his work as a human rights campaigner. In solidarity with Kevin Annett, we remain, The Elders, The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada Speaker: Elder Whispers Wind, Anishinabe Nation www.hiddenfromhistory.org |