Welal'in, Woliwon, Nia:wen, Chi Miigwetch, and thank you to all the First Nations people who took the time to write me letters, call me, come visit me in person, or who sent e-mails, Tweets and/or commented on my blog posts, news articles and media. I know how crazy politics makes people feel; how confusing the many conflicting reports, positions and media stories can be; and how hopeless it might feel when you think no one hears your voice.

I am moved to write this blog because of Minister Duncan's outrageous remarks that residential schools were NOT cultural genocide. This has led to discussions about whether or not the murder, torture and abuse of Indigenous peoples in this country "qualifies" as genocide, given the more recent, and much more distant atrocities committed in countries like Rwanda. Rwanda gained international attention because upwards of 800,000 people died in less than a year by brutal means. The Srebenica genocide resulted in the murder of approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and women in 1995. The holocaust of millions of Jewish people is likely the most famous of all.

When I first heard of the Occupy movement, the first thing that popped in my head was: "Wait a minute, North America/Turtle Island is already occupied; it has been occupied for the past 400 years."

So in case you're wondering, the answer is no, I don't like the title of this movement and the least I can do is refer to the different cities involved as Occupy cities, as opposed to occupied cities because, well, like I said, they are already occupied.

I also use the term "are" in that last statement as opposed to "were" when referring to this land's occupation status since racism and colonization in Canada is not something of the past, but an ongoing, destructive process that Canadians need to admit to.