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Vol. 71/No. 26      July 2, 2007

 
Natives in Canada call National Day of Action
 
BY MARK GRIEVE
AND JOHN STEELE
 
TORONTO—The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has called a National Day of Action for June 29 to “put an end to First Nations poverty as the greatest social injustice in Canada.” The AFN is the main organization that speaks for Native people in Canada.

Actions across the country will include a march of solidarity in Ottawa. The AFN call describes the protest “as an opportunity for First Nations and Canadians to stand together in a spirit of unity to support a better life for all First Nations peoples.”

The government’s failure to address outstanding land claims has compelled some Native leaders to promise widespread economic disruption this summer. Chief Terry Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation announced May 14 plans to blockade the rail line connecting eastern and western Canada on June 29. “If [the rail companies] take a confrontational attitude and start throwing lawsuits around, clearly this could escalate and very likely end up in a monthlong blockade,” he said.

Last April, Bay of Quinte Mohawks at Deseronto, Ontario, blockaded Canadian National and Via Rail lines for 30 hours, stopping freight and passenger traffic on Canada’s busiest rail corridor to press their land claims. They were protesting the slowness of negotiations with the federal government over the 950-acre Culbertson Land Tract granted to the Six Nations in 1793. The Six Nations is the confederacy of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes to which the Mohawks belong. The Mohawks insist that the tract was illegally taken from them in 1832.

While not endorsing civil disobedience, AFN Grand Chief Phil Fontaine said peaceful talks have not produced results. “We are starting to question the so-called rational process because it does not work,” he said. AFN chiefs have called on CN rail and Canadian Pacific Railway to voluntarily shut down operations on June 29, which CN bosses have rejected.

The National Day of Action is being fueled by the conditions the 1.3 million Native people in Canada face. These include grinding poverty on and off reservations, victimization in the prison system, and police brutality. Unresolved land claims on resource-rich land and areas slated for urban development have skyrocketed from 250 in 1993 to more than 800 today.

Also fueling the protest is a report released May 31 from a public inquiry into the 1995 murder of unarmed Native activist Dudley George during a land reclamation protest at Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario. The report placed partial responsibility for the cop killing on then Ontario premier Michael Harris. It revealed that Acting Sergeant Ken Deane shot and killed George only hours after Harris told cabinet ministers, “I want those f___ Indians out of the park.”

Referring to the possibility of rail blockades, federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said such actions will “dissipate the goodwill that exists towards aboriginal people in Canada.”

In five editorials on the National Day of Action the Globe and Mail, Canada’s main national English-language daily, echoed these threats. It accused AFN leaders of “aboriginal hooliganism” for asking rail bosses to stop operations June 29. “The AFN is playing an irresponsible game,” said the May 26 editorial. “It has in effect chosen to fly the warrior’s flag legitimizing what in all likelihood will end in illegal acts as native hotheads don military apparel and roll the old school buses onto the tracks.”

“Since Ipperwash, no government and no police force has had the stomach for confronting native protesters whose tactics are becoming more daring,” the Globe said June 1, calling for “upholding the rule of law in a sober, professional fashion.”

On June 12 Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper announced impending legislation he claimed would “revolutionize” the Native land claims process. The bill is to be cowritten with the AFN and, if passed, would create a new tribunal staffed by judges that would make binding rulings when negotiations fail. Under the current system, where Ottawa acts as the defendant, judge, and jury, the average claim takes 13 years to be dealt with.

Harper’s announcement “doesn’t change one thing,” said Janie Jamieson, a spokesperson for the Six Nations members who have been part of the land occupation in Caledonia since February 2006. “It doesn’t settle anything. It doesn’t give me hope.”  
 
 
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