The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.32           September 16, 1996 
 
 
Native Canadians Fight For Land Rights  

BY ROGER ANDREWS

SURREY, British Columbia -Eighteen people are on trial in this Vancouver suburb following a government and police assault last summer on Native Indian rights at Gustafsen Lake in north central British Columbia. The defendants, 14 of whom are Native, face charges ranging from trespass and public mischief to possession of firearms dangerous to the public peace.

Two defendants, Jones (Wolverine) Ignace and his son JoJo, are also charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing on police. Ignace has been imprisoned since his arrest last year and his repeated requests for release on bail have been denied by the courts.

The police assault was the latest chapter in a decades-long government campaign against the Shuswap Indian people's struggle for land rights. Ottawa and the provincial government of British Columbia back the claim of a rancher to several tens of thousands of acres of Shuswap land, including the shoreline of Gustafsen Lake. But the Shuswap have never signed a treaty nor recognized anyone's purchase or claim to this land.

"Here's a rancher with tens of thousands of acres," defendant Suniva Bronson said during a break in the trial on August 19, "while the entire Shuswap people have hardly any land. Yet they are criticized for being poor and collecting welfare."

What led to confrontation
Every spring for seven years, Native residents and friends have camped on the shore of Gustafsen Lake for religious and cultural ceremonies called sundance. In May 1995, they built a fence to prevent cattle from despoiling the site. The rancher demanded their eviction.

Several weeks later, the British Columbia government approved a massive Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) operation to violently break up the Native encampment. Hundreds of heavily armed police were mobilized and began threats and provocations. Units of the Canadian army joined the buildup in August 1995. By the middle of that month a siege was in place.

The besieged Natives were painted as heavily armed and were falsely accused of firing on police. "What do you do with people who defy the laws of the country and shoot at you?" an RCMP SWAT team member told a television journalist in July. "You kill them."

Authorities tried to exploit alleged support from government- funded tribal councils of the Shuswap people. But despite media claims repeated by RCMP cops at the trial, only a few members of the councils supported the police operation.

Testimony by police at the trial has contradicted the government claim that the encampment was an illegal occupation. Several cops who had been assigned to the dispute in its early stage and who are Native testified that their investigations in June and early July 1995 concluded that there was a decades-long land claim dispute in question and the rancher's complaint should be handled through a political process. They said their superiors concurred.

The staff commander, however, of the RCMP detachment in the nearby town of 100 Mile House, one of dozens of cops testifying, offered the official line at the trial on August 19 this year. Under cross-examination, he said he backed the rancher's claim from the start and based his decision on "hearsay evidence" gathered from some non-Native residents. He acknowledged the rancher did not possess a survey nor other documentation to prove his claim to the land surrounding the lake.

The cop also shed light on a public relations frame-up he orchestrated, one of many staged by the force. He admitted that police had no proof that a cache of weapons allegedly smuggled out of the encampment and intercepted on August 19, 1995, originated there. A much-publicized press conference and display of weaponry was staged on that day, aimed at fanning the flames of fear among local residents and justifying an eventual armed assault on the encampment.

He surprised many in the courtroom when he admitted that there were no fingerprint tests ever conducted on the weapons, saying it was "overlooked."

The most serious police assault on the encampment occurred on September 11 last year. Suniva Bronson and two other occupants of a truck set out to fetch water and miraculously escaped injury when their vehicle was blown up by a remote-controlled land mine detonated by cops. Police sharpshooters then opened fire, showering the camp with thousands of rounds. Bronson was shot in the arm even though she had moved back in an area the police had earlier declared a "safe zone."

The occupation ended peacefully on September 17 with the arrests of the 18.

Trial, defense effort unfold
Jones Ignace is pursuing his fight for release from prison. He has been denied bail since his arrest. "Maybe because I stand up and speak my rights, is that why they keep me in?" Ignace asked the court on July 15 during another bail release hearing. "It's not only us on trial," he told the judge. "This court is also on trial."

The trial is expected to continue for many months. The big- business media in British Columbia and across Canada have maintained a virtual news blackout of the proceedings.

"The government campaign at Gustafsen Lake was a murder operation to crush a legitimate protest," Bill Lightbown, one of the participants in the encampment, said in an interview. "If we let them get away with such things then we will eventually be overwhelmed by a police state with no justice."

"That's why we must speak up and organize to defend the Gustafsen 18."

The committee organizing the defense is asking that letters of support and funds be sent to: Ts'peten (Gustafsen) Trust Fund, Box 6475, Hinton AB T7W 1X7, British Columbia, Canada.  
 
 
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