ALCAN'T IN INDIA CAMPAIGN

3 DEAD + 5 YEARS + NO JUSTICE = NOT JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR ALCAN!

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VIGIL IN MEMORY OF THREE COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS KILLED AS A RESULT OF ALCAN'S "DEVELOPMENT" IN INDIA: 5TH ANNUAL COMMEMORATION
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CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL & FILM PROJECTIONS
+ music, speakers, tea, snacks

WHEN: DECEMBER 16TH, 2005, 4:00 TO 6:00 pm
WHERE: MAISON ALCAN, 1188, Sherbrooke W. @ Stanley (Peel Metro)

Called by the Alcan't in India Solidarity Project

Alcan't in India will also hold an all-day picket outside the Maison Alcan (8 am to 6 pm). Come show your support!

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REMIND ALCAN THAT DECEMBER 16TH WILL NEVER BE JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE.
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On December 16th 2000, several policemen were dispatched to the village of Maikanch, in India's Kashipur region. Their orders: to search for and arrest targeted "leaders" of a peoples' rally that had taken place the day before.

The gathering had been organised to denounce the development of a lucrative mining project by the Utkal Consortium - owned in part by ALCAN of Canada - on the sacred land of the Adivasi (indigenous) and Dalit (lower-caste) People of Kashipur.

On that day, the police shot and killed three villagers: Damodar, Raghunath and Avhilas Jhodia. These men's opposition to the plundering and destruction of their ancestral land by a foreign corporation was their only "crime".

ON DECEMBER 16TH, 2005, THE ADIVASIS AND DALITS OF KASHIPUR WILL CONFRONT POLICE AND PARAMILITARIES TO GATHER IN COMMEMORATION OF THE SHOOTING OF DAMODAR, RAGHUNATH AND ABHILASH. SOLIDARITY MOVEMENTS FROM ALL OVER INDIA AND THE WORLD WILL GATHER TO DO THE SAME.

Five years later, ALCAN still denies any responsibility in this tragedy. Yet the company continues to push the Utkal project forward and its active share has grown to 45%.

Despite having no documented evidence, Alcan executives continue to allege that the project has the support of local villages. At the same time, Alcan refuses to acknowledge signed statements of opposition by elected village leaders and a motion passed in the village council calling for the projects' cancellation.

Over the last thirteen years, the people's grass roots resistance has actually prevented the company from beginning construction. But in the last year, the company and its allies within the Orissa government have once again resorted to police violence to repress the people's movement.

After Chief-Minister of Orissa called for the suppression of all anti-mining activity in Kashipur in late 2004, police executed a
violent charge with batons against villagers who had gathered to propose the mine. Since then, targeted "leaders" have been bullied and jailed under dubious charges while anti-mine villagers and local pro-People NGOs have been submitted to continued political harassment. The entire region is essentially under police occupation.

Remind Alcan, as repression continues due to its investment, December 16th is not just another day at the office.

For more information on Alcan's Kashipur project and the people's resistance movement or to get involved: