[IPSM] From Zmag.org, an article on Kanehsatake written by Justin Podur
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Thu May 20 09:06:42 PDT 2004
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Kanehsatake Mohawk Warriors face Canadian-style colonialism
by Justin Podur
May 19, 2004
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On May 20, 2004, people from all over the Ontario and
Quebec will go to the Mohawk community of Kanehsatake to
show their support for a peaceful resolution to a confrontation
between heavily armed agents of the state and a community
that rejects them. The conflict has gone on for months, with a
Grand Chief ousted by the community trying repeatedly to
return to power, against community opposition, at the head of a
group of heavily armed police.
When it is presented in the media at all, the conflict is presented
as one of the forces of law
confronting "organized crime" on the reserve. The reality is quite
different, and the confrontation
at Kanehsatake is a demonstration of the entire relationship
between the Canadian state and the
indigenous peoples.
Indigenous people in Canada are around 4.4% of the population,
according to Statistics Canada's
2001 census. To a large extent, their lives are still controlled
by the Indian Act. This Act,
though it has been amended, was designed to be, and still remains,
an instrument for trying to get
indigenous people to relinquish their land rights, their culture,
and languages. Its first incarnation
was passed by the British House of Commons in 1857, its second by
the Dominion of Canada in
1876. The 1876 version made it illegal for an 'Indian' to sell or
produce goods, or even to leave a
reservation, without written permission from an Indian Agent.
Amendments over the following
years included forbidding the indigenous from practicing rituals,
authorizing the forced removal of
children to 'residential schools' (centres where all kinds of
systematic abuses occurred). These
sorts of laws, particularly the law forbidding Indians to leave
reserves without written
permission (called the 'pass system'), were of interest to the
South African apartheid regime,
which modeled its system on Canada. (1)
Some of the most odious aspects of the laws (the banning of
rituals, the residential schools, and
the pass laws) were repealed in more recent decades. Attempts were
made to bring the Indian
Act in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Perhaps most importantly, the
powers of the "Indian Agent" were transferred to Indian Act Band
Councils and Band Chiefs,
whose status as "self-government" bodies are specified by the
Indian Act.
With these changes, the Canadian government turned the relationship
between itself and the
indigenous from one of straight colonialism to one of indirect
colonialism. In spite of the change,
however, the basic themes remain: communities are not allowed any
genuine autonomy or
self-government; they are denied, ultimately by force, the right to
produce or sell goods without
the permission of the Canadian state; people's freedom of movement
is restricted; and their land
and culture is continually under attack.
All of this is happening at Kanehsatake.
Fact Sheets and Facts
Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs issues 'Fact
Sheets' about indigenous
communities. These are inevitably 'optimistic': they describe the
perpetual 'progress' that these
communities are making towards 'self-government'. The implication
is, of course, that the
communities are backward, and the Canadian government is helping
them to 'progress'.
The Department's 'Fact Sheet' (2) on Kanehsatake does, to be fair,
contain some facts. It
locates the community of Kanehsatake as being about 53 km west of
Montreal, for example.
Other facts, not included: the absence of money for housing or
health care, despite plenty of
money for policing and repression; that the band council is the
community's main employer; that
the band council's deficit of $1.2 million in 2002 was used as an
excuse for the government to
hire a private company, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to manage the
finances of the community,
receiving a large consulting fee for its services. And other parts
of its 'fact sheet' could also be
disputed.
The Development Corporation and Dispossession
The fact sheet, for example, says under its entry for June 1999 in
its timeline for 'progress': "The
Mohawks are now in charge of the management of the land purchased
by Canada in
Kanehsatake and in the Oka area. A property management agreement is
signed by Her Majesty
and the Kanehsatake Orihwáshon:a Development Corporation, which is
responsible for the
management of properties purchased by Canada for the Mohawks."
As presented by the Department, this sounds like 'progress' towards
'self-government'. But Dan
David, a Mohawk journalist writing for a community paper called
'Windspeaker', adds some
detail. The deal "transferred $14 million worth of land purchased
by the federal government to
the control of a private corporation-not the band-called
Kanehsatake Orihwa'shon:a
Development Corporation? Rumors circulated about shady dealings,
conflict of interest and
corruption. Nothing could be proven; everything was done in
secret."
But further investigation (this didn't make the 'fact sheet')
revealed that the deal would turn
Mohawk "lands into "fee simple" ownership, remove tax exemption,
require "harmonization" of
band by-laws with the town of Oka?."
Changing ownership and land tenure rights, tax laws, and the legal
status of the territory are all
annulments of the treaty rights of the indigenous to the land.
Extinguishing those rights, all over
Canada, is a major, long-time goal of the Canadian state. It is a
simple idea, one applied
countless times against the indigenous in the continent: find
someone to sign a 'deal' that
negates the collective rights of the community to the land, so that
it can be parceled away.
This process has been facilitated in Kanehsatake by the fact that
many of those registered with
the Band live far from the community: the community itself has
about 1000 people, but there are
750 members outside, some as far as California, with voting rights,
a situation that the Canadian
government has been able to use to its advantage.
Bill S-24
The second last entry in the 'fact sheet' is for June 14, 2001:
"Bill S-24, the Kanehsatake Interim
Land Base Governance Act, is referred to the House of Commons and
receives Royal Assent.
This Act will give legal effect to the Agreement with respect to
Kanehsatake governance on its
interim land base."
More progress? Dan David's research raises some questions about
the law. Calling it
"the first step in turning Kanehsatake Mohawk territory into a
municipality," David describes
how "in March 2001, then-minister of Indian Affairs Bob Nault
introduced the "Kanehsatake
Interim Land Base Governance Act."
"The minister didn't go to the House of Commons with it, where full
debate of the act might have
taken place. Instead he took it to the Senate, an unusual move for
a bill with far-reaching
implications for Aboriginal and treaty rights.
"Over the next few months, Bill S-24 was rushed through hearings,
most held in camera and
away from prying eyes. The Senate Aboriginal affairs committee
tabled a report, but kept it quiet.
On May 15, 2001 the House of Commons passed Bill S-24 on third
reading. Some MPs had asked
questions, but they didn't have much information to go on. On June
14, Bill S-24 became law.
"It took three months, an amazing-almost unheard of-feat!"
The goal is to turn Kanehsatake into a municipality, which means
the rights of the indigenous
community to the land would be annulled: another step in the
overall project of extinguishing
indigenous rights.
'Organized Crime' and Cigarettes
Without this context, in which the Canadian government is so keen
to expedite the
dispossession of the indigenous that it refuses to follow its own
legislative procedures, the
conflict and violence at Kanehsatake in recent months cannot be
understood. Or, it cannot be
understood without recourse to racism and stereotypes.
The latter abound in the mainstream media. An article in the
Montreal Gazette by Sue
Montgomery, titled "Rein in Kanehsatake Thugs", calls the community
a "hornet's nest" of thugs
and criminals.
The current conflict began in January, when the community's Grand
Chief (reinstated by the
Canadian courts after a no-confidence vote by the community in
2001) James Gabriel's house
was burned down during a protest. Gabriel is the key figure in
this conflict. It was Gabriel who
signed the deal that transferred land ownership to the Kanehsatake
Orihwa'shon:a Development
Corporation and oversaw the "shady dealings". More recently,
Gabriel, according to Dan David,
signed a secret agreement with the solicitor-general "on Christmas
Eve, when offices were
closed and no one was watching, worth $900,000 to bring into the
community 60 Native cops
from across the province to take over from the local police force."
Gabriel's deal on policing is part of his role in a larger strategy
of cracking down on what the
Canadian government, and media, call 'organized crime' on the
reserves. The main 'organized
crime' activity on these reserves is the sale of 'Native
Cigarettes'. The main interest in 'cracking
down' on it is because in a situation where, in David's words,
"Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory is
dysfunctional. It has a population of about 2,500. It's millions of
dollars in debt. It has escalating
legal bills in excess of $1 million, thanks to the endless court
fights between various factions on
band council. It can't afford the $1.5 million it takes to run the
community. Services have been
cut or cut back drastically," the sale of cigarettes is one of a
very few activities that can provide
a minimal income.
Indigenous activist Jake Brant, writing a letter in January of this
year, describes the attack on
'Native Cigarettes' as follows:
"Since the failed Military invasion of our communities in 1994,
which included some 6,000 troops
and months of training, the Federal Government has been quietly
organizing a new strategy to
deal with its approach to "organized crime" within all Mohawk
communities. The crime that was
alleged to have been committed in 1994, and as government suggests,
continues to be committed
is the manufacturing and sale of "Native Cigarettes". One report
suggests the need to "target
the Indians' claims to the inherent right of inter-tribal trade
with sister Mohawk communities and
the native run tobacco manufacturing industry as a whole." It is
concluded that the organized
aspect to the criminal offense exists because all distributors in
Kanehsatake charge the same
price of $25.00 per carton thereby suggesting collusion between
proprietors?
Jake Brant continues:
"In the year 2004, Mohawk people have developed their mental
capabilities to be able to
establish stores that sell pop, chips, newspapers and cigarettes
without mob involvement. There
are craft shops, smoke shops, wood shops and others that don't
charge taxes on their goods or
services and are all perceived as organized crime because they
agree collectively not to collect
taxes."
To the Mohawks, these are just shops that operate according to
their own laws. To the
Canadian state, however, they are an affront to the principle
embodied in the 19th century
version of the Indian Act: the indigenous are producing and selling
goods without permission, so
they have to be demonized and attacked.
Grand Chief James Gabriel and the Canadian Police
By painting the sale of 'Native Cigarettes' as 'organized crime',
the government and media were
able to present Grand Chief James Gabriel as a kind of 'Elliot
Ness', who was going to 'get tough'
on crime in the community (3).
Grand Chief James Gabriel was elected twice, serving two terms
after the former Grand Chief,
Jerry Peltier, resigned under pressure from the community in 1995.
Gabriel was, however,
removed from office by a vote of no-confidence in 2001. After
telling the community that he
would respect their will, he went to the Canadian courts, who
restored him to power over the
community.
Between this act, Bill S-24, and the various other irregularities
in Gabriel's administration (4), a
great deal of resentment was stirred up in the community, and some
of Gabriel's retractors
responded violently. In late 2001, someone shot at Kanehsatake's
police station. Later that
year, according to Dan David, "one of the leaders of a rival
faction in the community assaulted
Chief Gabriel."
Gabriel's secret $900,000 deal for his own police force, mentioned
above, was made in this
context. But when he and his police force attempted to enforce the
new order in January 2004,
they were met by a strong resistance from the community. In a
clash on January 12 where
Gabriel's police gassed the protesters, activist Clifton
Arihwakehte says "Gabriel's house went
up in flames. No one asked for it, and I'm not saying I condone
it, but you have to understand
how and why it happened."
Now, according to Arihwakehte, Gabriel "has vengeance on his mind."
With the scenario set in
the local media as one of a "law-abiding chief" fighting "criminal
elements" at worst, or of a
"divided community" at best (a situation in which outsiders can
wring their hands of any
responsibility), the government, Gabriel, and various levels of
police forces are setting up a very
dangerous situation.
Joining Gabriel's police force in its highly armed attempt to
retake the community are Canadian
Federal Police (RCMP) and Provincial Police, the Surete de Quebec.
Eyewitnesses report that
the RCMP have taken up positions with heavy weapons around the
community.
The actions of one of the members of Gabriel's police force,
Richard Walsh, were instrumental in
earning Gabriel the non-confidence vote of the community that ought
to have ousted him in 2001.
In addition to policing, Gabriel paid Walsh for three separate jobs
out of the community's budget.
Walsh was paid as a Mohawk language teacher, a scuba consultant,
and a janitor, reports John
Harding, one of the chiefs of the Mohawk council of Kanehsatake.
Harding, looking through the
community's records, discovered that Walsh had been paid over
$100,000 this way. Walsh
previously been convicted of impersonating a Mohawk police officer,
of fraud, of possessing a
prohibited weapon, and numerous other crimes.
Two other members of this police force, Larry Ross and Robert
Bonspiel, were involved in the
shooting of Joe David, in 1999. Joe David was a Mohawk Warrior who
was shot in the back
after a long standoff with the police. He was left paralyzed, but
survived until just last week: he
died on May 3, 2004, as his community was again under siege by some
of the very people who
were involved in his shooting.
To chief John Harding, these members of Gabriel's police force are
perfect examples of James
Gabriel's methods of policing: "As a police officer, there are
different ways of doing things. You
can kick the door in and push people around, or you can knock on
the door and present a warrant.
James Gabriel likes to kick the doors in, and he targets his
political enemies using the police.
That is a big part of what he has done in the past six years."
Warisose, a traditionalist who works with the women of the
longhouse in the community,
describes the rising tension. "We don't know what's going to
happen. Every day, we're told that
they are building up more police. We're worried. We don't know if
they are going to come in here
and shoot people." Warisose was part of an effort to find external
mediation by a respected third
party: James Gabriel refused such a solution.
This is far from the first siege suffered by this community.
Kanehsatake was the site of the
'Oka Crisis' in 1990, when Mohawk sacred sites were slated to
become condominiums and golf
courses. When the communities protested, the entire area was
militarized, and a tense standoff
ensued between heavily armed agents of the state and the Mohawk
warriors.
In addition to the military-style siege, with the RCMP deploying
heavy weapons on flatbed
trucks around the community, legal repression has been deployed as
well. Toronto activist
Mostafa Henaway visited the community as part of a delegation that
visited the community in
early May, and describes the way the January 12 clash has been used
as the pretext for a
wholesale assault on the community. 24 people have been arrested
in conjunction with the
clash. According to Henaway,
"people in the community who weren't even there (on the 12th) were
given bogus charges, such
as 'participating in a riot'. As a result some community members
have not been allowed to collect
welfare, or even come back to the reserve as part of their
conditions. Many families have been
broken up. Also, warrants are out for many of the young men,
providing the excuse for the Surete
de Quebec and Gabriel's police force to enter Kanehsatake on these
warrants? on Monday May
3, 24 of these people had court appearances. For three of them,
bail conditions prevent their
return to the community until the trial is over. The police used
this time while people were in
court to make the latest attempt at an invasion, which became a cat
and mouse chase for over 6
hours, but failed."
Henaway thinks that there is one thing everyone he spoke to agrees
upon: Gabriel should not
come back. Clifton Arihwakehte agrees. "If you were to ask," he
said, "80% would be against
Gabriel." What the community opposition to Gabriel wants,
according to Arihwakehte, is
"simple: The police force and the agreement between Gabriel and the
solicitor-general should be
disbanded. Peace in the community will be kept by Kanehsatake
Mohawk peacekeepers. We
want a Mohawk solution to this problem. Last, we want a public
inquiry into the actions of
James Gabriel and of the police in all these matters."
Notes
1) Garth Materie, 'The Indian Act in Canadian History', CBC
Saskatchewan
2) Fact Sheet - Kanehsatake
3) Elliot Ness is the famed Chicago crimefighter who used
paramilitary techniques to 'take on' Al
Capone's criminal empire, as is dramatized in the Brian DePalma
film 'The Untouchables'. It is a
useful image for painting oneself as a 'tough' crimefighter and
ones enemies as gangsters and
thugs. The Montreal Gazette apparently made this analogy
explicitly:
4) According to community activist Clifton Arihwakehte, for
example, Kanehsatake has 750
people who live in the community, but 1800 Indian-Act registered
voters. These outside voters
were used to pass Bill S-24 in a referendum, despite massive
boycotting by those who demanded
more information, by a margin of 239-237. "No one knows who these
outside voters are",
Arihwakete said in a phone interview on May 7, 2004.
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