I really appreciate @CANADALAND having @SeanVanderklis and @KarlDockstader (follow @OneDishOneMic) on to talk about the reclamation ongoing at #1492LandBackLane

But I'm curious why @JesseBrown continually returned to the question of "violence" and "escalation"? /1

Consistently, standoffs between Indigenous land/water defenders and the state/industry have shown that it is always the state/industry who resort to violence.

Whether it's the ongoing invasion of #Wetsuweten territory, #StandingRock, #MuskratFalls, or countless other cases... /2

Land/water defenders have been peacefully standing up for the health of their territories, their own nations, and all those of us who draw life from those lands/waters.

But the questions from media continue to be: what are the defenders "prepared to do"... /3

Or, what the consequences of an escalation might be, both in terms of this nebulous concept (which Jesse does critique) of public sympathy/support and, also, the potential of violence.

But all of this seems to be directed at the exact wrong people /4

How, in the face of 153+ years of Canada colonizing Indigenous nations' territories, are journalists still setting up questions to Indigenous people that presume that settlers and our governments are neutral actors, rather than the main purveyors of violence? /5

I think the @OneDishOneMic guys did a great job pointing all this out in the interview.

Why isn't the possibility of "escalation" discussed as what it is: a #SettlerProblem?

Why aren't journalists directing more questions about state violence at politicians and industry? /6

Ask @fordnation why he thinks it's appropriate to have armed state officers using violence to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands.

Ask Canadians why they think a blockades are a "violent escalation," but a multi-generational project to hoard land and resources aren't? /7

Even a glance at history makes clear that it's the colonial state, industry, and settler vigilantes (see Obomsawin's "Rocks at Whiskey Trench") who need to be asked about violence.

The way we continually see these questions framed just feels like history started yesterday /8

Why aren't journalists asking land/water defenders about the steps that they're able to take towards #SelfDefense against the violence of state/industry?

Or, ask how we can all can work to break the state's capacity to do violence ( #abolition?) /9

@CANADALAND does great media criticism, but it didn't do that in constructing the questions this week.

Settlers gotta start flipping this script and talking about Canada for what it is: an ongoing occupation of Indigenous nations' territories to extract corporate profit /10