[IPSM] Are Military Forces Operating From Hamilton Airport in Six Nations Standoff?

[Dru Oja Jay]

http://dominionpaper.ca/canadian_news/2006/04/22/are_milita.html

Are Military Forces Operating From Hamilton Airport in Six Nations 
Standoff?

Officials "not aware" of military involvement in Six Nations crisis, 
but won't deny reports

by Anthony Fenton and Dru Oja Jay

A military force of unknown size and capacity seems to be operating out 
of the Hamilton airport, according to information gathered by the 
Dominion. The deployment of military forces would be a major escalation 
in the standoff between native protesters and the Ontario Provincial 
Police (OPP). The OPP has tried once, unsucessfully, to remove 
demonstrators occupying a housing development that Six Nations 
Kanienkehake (Mohawks) say is illegal under Canadian, Haudenosaunee and 
international law.

In an interview, an Airport official initially confirmed that Canadian 
Forces were at the airport in a "back up support" capacity. Mary Beth 
Horvath, Marketing/Commuications Coordinator for the Hamilton Airport, 
initially told the Dominion that Canadian Forces were not "using it 
[the airport] as a staging ground. I haven't heard it regarded in that 
term."

Asked later to confirm, Horvath repeated that "there is some backup 
support there." When asked to specifically to confirm if Canadian 
Forces were on site, Horvath responded that "I don't know if, again, I 
don't know to what extent or to what, so I'm not, I really don't want 
to be quoted on that because I'm not there to actually see it, 
physically."

Horvath referred the Dominion to two other officials, neither of which 
denied that Canadian Forces were operating from the Hamilton Airport.

"I know nothing about that," said Haldiman County official Bill Pierce 
when asked about a military staging ground at the airport.

Dave Rector, a spokesperson for the Ontario Provincial Police, said "I 
am not aware of the presence of any Canadian armed forces."

As of this writing, the Dominion could not find any officials willing 
to deny the deployment of military to the airport.

Federal Involvement?

The deployment of military would mark the involvement of the Federal 
Government, marking a departure from what officials have repeatedly 
insisted is a Provincial matter.

The last time Canadian Forces were deployed against native 
demonstrators was during the 1990 Oka crisis, when Kanienkehake 
citizens occupied land that was slated for a golf course development. 
The land had been stolen a century earlier by the Catholic Church, and 
a century of Kanienkehake protests had not changed the situation. 
Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa invoked the National Defense Act, 
requesting "military aid to the civil power". The deployment of the 
Canadian army ended with one dead soldier, two civilian deaths, and 
reports of torture and unjustified tactics earned Canada the 
condemnation of the International Federation of Human Rights and a 
place on Amnesty International's list of violators of human rights.

Provincial officials requested the deployment of Canadian 
Forces--specifically, the elite Joint Task Force Two--during the 1995 
Gustafsen Lake standoff, but were officially denied. According to court 
testimony by police officers, police took flack jackets to a firing 
range and fired guns at them in order to create the appearance that 
police had been shot by the small group of natives occupying the site. 
Internal police video showed commanders stating the need for a 
"disinformation and smear campaign" against the native occupiers. With 
77,000 rounds of ammunition shot by police, the deployment of amoured 
vehicles, and the use of a land mine against a truck driven by one of 
the demonstrators, Gustafsen lake has been cited as the largest 
paramilitary deployment in Canadian history.

Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese, in his book Canada's Secret 
Commandos: The Unauthorized Story of Joint Task Task Force Two, wrote 
that officially, JTF2 "wasn't deployed to the standoff."

"But civilian police officers privately confirm that JTF2 operators 
were at the siege, helping them in covert intelligence gathering as 
well as determining the lay of the land in case the entire unit was 
needed for an assault on the native encampment," wrote Pugliese. "Some 
of the native protesters also insist that it was members of JTF2, and 
not the RCMP, who engaged them in a gun battle in early September."

Federal officials have denied that the current standoff at Six Nations 
has anything to do with land. "This is not a lands-claim matter," 
Deirdre McCracken, a spokesperson for the Minister of Indian Affairs 
Jim Prentice told reporters. McCracken also said that the blockade "has 
nothing to do with the federal government."

The presence of Canadian Forces on the ground, if confirmed, will be a 
stark change from the government's stated policy.