Week 6: No One Is Illegal Summer Youth Leadership Program

As many of you NOII supporters must know, our No One Is Illegal Summer Youth Leadership Program is ending in the following week, and with this comes our final project. We have decided on an Activist Handbook which will incorporate a series of current topics, activism around Toronto and enjoyable interviews with some key activists involved in political work in Toronto.

All this commotion about our final project was well-countered by a day-long visit to Six Nations, where we had the amazing opportunity to be part of their Youth Leadership program. As it is known, the people at Six Nations began a reclamation of the Douglas Creek Estates construction site in Caledonia Ontario, as an attempt to reclaim land that rightfully belongs to the Haudenosaunee people. No One is Illegal has been supporting this reclamation site for months, and it was specially appreciated that they let our Youth group participate in activities with their Youth Group.

Week 5: No One Is Illegal Summer Youth Leadership Program

This week some youth went to their placements at various organizations while others helped to facilitate and learn from a presentation for Youth City Council Candidates Keith Sweeney (Ward 12), Thadsha Navimanikkam (Ward 41), Amarjeet Chhabra (Ward 43), Desmond Cole (Ward 20) as well as members of the Toronto Youth Cabinet. Nahed and Shajia presented the workshop (with some help from Sima and Craig). The event was a huge success and strong first attempt to start building links with immigrant youth city council candidates who are seeking to make the “don’t ask, don’t tell” campaign and the issues of non-status people a key part of their campaigns.

Week 4: The No One is Illegal Youth Leadership Group

For a change of pace, the No Is Illegal team launched the week with a theatre workshop instead of the usual information session. Headed by Pilar (a No One is Illegal member) alongside friends from the Spanish community, we were stirred to explore our senses and get in touch with our emotions as activists. Pilar felt it was important for us to be able to lose ourselves in any space because at times this is what an activist must do in order to avoid burn-out. Her theatre group was also an example of another outreach tool harboured by activists; she was able to build bridges with other politically open-minded people from her community through her interest in theatre.

Following that workshop, Abi from PJAC (Prisoners’ Justice Action Committee) arrived to address misconceptions relating to those incarcerated (e.g. who is really the target of police officers?). It was one of our most interactive workshops to date, employing informative exercises to engage us in the material. Abi also gave us a brief introduction to the 81 Reasons Campaign, which is currently fighting against intentions to build a youth super-jail in Brampton.

The day concluded with a much-anticipated workshop from CAIA members, Kole and Rafeef. Kole spoke about the history and happenings of the turmoil in Haiti, while Rafeef filled the group in on the political unease in Palestine. Being Palestinian herself, her delivery was all the more powerful because she was speaking from first-hand experience, unwavering in her strength despite the difficulty of the discussion. The NOII interns walked out feeling like we learned a great deal about the causes for solidarity that we’ve extended ourselves to as a group.

Another long-term NOII member dropped in the next day to hold a workshop on the Media. Krista enlightened us about all of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ work she had been doing for NOII as the official Media Liaison; instructed us on the basic outline of a press release; and provided us with a recollection of past cases which received wide-spread attention in the media. We learned that it would have been essentially impossible to have made such an impact with media if not for Krista’s hard work.

Week 3: No One Is Illegal Youth Leadership Group

The third week of the NOII Summer Youth Leadership program commenced with a much anticipated workshop on "Know Your Rights," conducted by Jackie. The workshop was an excellent opportunity for the interns to get training on how to deal with possible arrest and police encounters, educating them on their legal rights. Misconceptions about the definitions around words like 'convicted' were also cleared up and information on effective communication with the Police was given.

Week 2: No One Is Illegal Youth Summer Internships

The No One is Illegal Youth Summer Intern Program partook in several workshops. On Monday, Denise Hammond held an information session on running meetings and the basics of facilitation. Covering everything from how to draft an agenda, the importance of maintaining a speakers’ list, to a comprehensive 101 of Robert’s Rules of Order, she ensured that we all became intimate with anti-oppression meeting practices. Justin Podur concluded our week activities on Friday, with an interactive workshop on article writing. After pairing up and conducting brief interviews with one another, we each wrote and read aloud our articles summarizing the information we collected. Justin advised, “Be as merciful to yourself while writing your first draft as you are unforgiving to yourself while editing your final draft… and most importantly, be confident in your writing.”

Youth Leadership Program - Week One Summary

For the first week of the NOII Youth Leadership Program the eight participants traveled to Grassy Narrows to take part in an event sponsored by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), along with activists from other environmental and indigenous rights organizations across Canada.

As one of the first organizations to arrive at the site on Sunday July 9th, the young interns were able to explore the historic campsite, along with the location of first blockade in 2003 whereby students used their bodies to block the path of the logging trucks.

NOII was also able to establish connections with members of the Grassy community as well as those visiting from Six Nations. Two of the interns, were fortunate enough to go on a fishing trip with Shun, a member of the Grassy community who often comes to the campsite to help out and hold workshops on traditional Native cooking and jewelry-making.

Others were kindly invited by Redman, a member of the Six Nations community, to tend to the sacred fire and were taught all of the ceremonial procedures associated with the traditional offering of food and drink to the fire.

Perhaps the most informative and entertaining day was on Tuesday, the day of the great feast, whereby a number of presenters from the Grassy and Six Nations community were invited giving the participants a political and socio-cultural understanding of the indigenous struggle of land reclamation. It was a day full of workshops, speakers and other events which the interns helped execute by preparing and serving the food and running errands along with participants from other organizations.

Though many of the interns were surprised at the strong environmental focus of the program - as most expected indigenous rights movements to be addressed more centrally – they gained a more advanced understanding of the struggle of Canada’s First Nations communities and witnessed different forms of activism and organization.