huge protest over land rights in ontario, caledonia

Ok so lets see, it turns out the three guys pulled from their vehicle were actually one US Border Security Guard and 2 Provincial Police officers. The incident with them stealing the vehicle and trying to run over the OPP officer is the attempted murder charge.

The OPP has a protocol to abide by but are working in connection with the Six Nations Police hopefully to nab these nasties.

Hmmm... what is the penalty for attemped muder of a cop? Pretty serious I would think.

cnews.canoe.ca...

M

Ok so lets see, it turns out the three guys pulled from their vehicle were actually one US Border Security Guard and 2 Provincial Police officers. The incident with them stealing the vehicle and trying to run over the OPP officer is the attempted murder charge.

The OPP has a protocol to abide by but are working in connection with the Six Nations Police hopefully to nab these nasties.

Hmmm... what is the penalty for attemped muder of a cop? Pretty serious I would think.

cnews.canoe.ca...

Mmm..sorry double post.

[edit on 11-6-2006 by alphacenturi]

Tension s, blockade on rise once again.

www.citynews.ca...

Again. Way to establish rule of law, OPP.

As a side note, flying below the Mohawk nation flag are two very interesting items...a Palestinian flag, and a sign stating that "We are North Americans, not Canadians".

Saw it on Global tonight, can't find a clip on canada.com yet. Things are getting bad again. Van Doos, where art thou?

DE

Originally posted by DeusEx


As a side note, flying below the Mohawk nation flag are two very interesting items...a Palestinian flag, and a sign stating that "We are North Americans, not Canadians".

Saw it on Global tonight, can't find a clip on canada.com yet. Things are getting bad again. Van Doos, where art thou?

DE

I would think that identification with the Palestinians -- by flying the Palestinian flag -- would be a case of the Six Nations trying to draw a parallel between the plight of these two nations; Palestine and the Six Nations. Both Palestine and the Six Nations have had their land usurped through arms and legal means (of course what one considers as being legal is often in the hands of the one who wields the power).

As far as holding up a sign that says "We are North Americans, not Canadians" well it's a true statement from a perspective that many Six Nations peoples, and other indigenous peoples, must hold through experience.

Let us remember that the indigenous peoples of Canada are not what anyone could really consider as "conquered" peoples. These peoples made treaties, pacts and alliances with the British and, subsequently, as a direct result of these pacts, Canada is, likewise, bound. The problem is that Canada has had a long history of not living up to its' of the deal, so to speak.

The native peoples of Canada were not even giving citizenship in Canada until the Citizenship Act of January 1, 1947. Even then, native peoples were considered less than "second-class" citizens. After all, natives weren't given the same right to vote that all other "citizens" of Canada had until August 10th, 1960. Still, issues of true Canadian citizenship for natives Canadians is a muddled affair.

I found an excellent
essay that succinctly describes why some of the native protesters in Caledonia might not feel that they are Canadians.

Alright, history's bad, mmmkay. So, that clearly gives them carte blanche, right BT? Is that the answer, anyone with a historic grievance can do what they want, when they want, and we just have to take it, because it's 'justified'?

You want to be treated reasonably, you don't run around arbitarily blockading roads, or lobbing rockets, or suicide bombings. The ontario judge has overstepped his bounds, but I agree with the idea behind it- act peaceable, negotiate. S'what civilized folks do to solve their problems, like I don't beat the waiters for bad service. And as tempting as it is, I don't put a shotgun slug into the engine of every thumping, riced-out civic I see. Natives blockading roads whenever they feel oppressed isn't any more reasonable than the slug solution to the Food Court Gangsta's ride.

DE

Ok, so what exactly hapened? is it still going on, or is it over?

Roughly ongoing, Time. native and Caledonian confrontations are still fairly common, from what I hear, and the blockade is ready to go up agian at any moment.

The problem stems from Native insistence that the land is theirs, despite government claims to the contrary, and absolutely no attempts to claim or use the lands in years previous. So, the town of Caledonia sprung up, they put a highway through the land...and then, once a contractor started putting up pricey condos on the land, they objected and staged a sit in protest.

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) came in with a paltry and ill-planned fifteen officers to clear them off the land so construction could continue. They were run off, and the natives called in reinforcements. They set up the blockade, and then it was up and down, up and down based on the whims on the native leadership.

So, major charlie-foxtrot all around. The government and OPP aren't really enforcing the law on the natives because of incidents like Oka and Ipperwash. We're looking at a long haul now, so long that the government bought out the contractors building on the site.

DE