Idle No More goes international

Idle No More rumbles from Cairo to Ottawa, Prince Albert to Los AngelesIt began in Cairo with a sign.

Patricia Stein, a Lakota from South Dakota, attached an Idle No More sign to the wall of the Canadian embassy in Cairo on Friday morning.

It then moved to London, where a handful of people also rallied in support of Idle No More.

And as the sun rose across the Atlantic, the hashtag #idlenomore began to flash with increasing speed across Twitter.

By mid-morning Friday, about 500 people gathered in Ottawa on Victoria Island in preparation for march to Parliament Hill. With drums pounding and flags waving, they gathered outside the compound where Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is staying in a teepee during her now 11 day-long hunger strike.Idle No More Sweeps Canada and Beyond as Aboriginals Say Enough Is Enough

By David P. BallThe second wave of Idle No More protests swept across Canada on Friday December 21, with support events held across the U.S. and as far away as Europe and New Zealand, less than two weeks after the movement burst onto the political scene on December 10.

Indigenous activists used social media websites to organize round dances, highway blockades, protests and ceremonies from east to west of the country, as Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence entered her 10th day of a hunger strike that she has vowed to see through to the end.

Thousands of people turned out for social media-organized flash mobs—seemingly spontaneous assemblies in malls and other public places—in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and beyond, and rallies criticized not only the federal omnibus budget bill C-45, which passed into law this week, but also the wider living and rights conditions that aboriginal peoples are subject to.

Ryerson University Indigenous Governance professor Pamela Palmater, Mik'maq, attended the 4,000-person rally on Parliament Hill, the largest of the Idle No More events.Comment:  For more on Idle No More, see Idle No More Sweeps Canada and Idle No More Is Just Beginning.

Below:  "Jerilyn Webster, aka Nuxalk and Six Nations rapper JB the First Lady, speaks at IdleNoMore Vancouver." (David P. Ball)