SIX NATIONS CLOSES DOWN FOUR ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENT SITES OF BRANTFORD ONTARIO
On Monday July 7th at 9:00 a.m. the people met at the Ohsweken Arena. From there they went to close down four construction sites in Brantford. These four were involved in getting the injunction to bring in the armed forces if we interfered or stopped construction in any way or even went nearby and looked at them. Staring while being Indigenous is prohibited! The first was “ Birkett Lane ” where ground was to be broken for 120 houses; “ Hampton Hill Heights ” on the outskirts of Brantford near Paris Ontario; and two other sites. At Hampton Hill Heights a large fence had been built around the whole site. It was locked. 40 workers inside were operating machinery and glancing over their shoulders, scared of being circled by Indians. They knew that they had no right to be there. Our people walked up to the fence gate and moved it back and forth until the whole gate came off. The people walked onto the site. The foreman called the Brantford City Police who were already there. They did not know what to do. It could be because on that day a decision had just been rendered by a panel of three judges of the Ontario Court of Appeal in the case of the Kichenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug “KI6”. They had received six months in jail for protesting the junior “penny stock” mining company, Platinex Company. They were planning to dig out platinum over the protests of the Indigenous owners of the land and mineral. As Justice Smith said, “jail only served to acknowledge an already weak Indigenous faith” in the colonial courts. Duh! He asked, “How can 6 months in jail create a solution” to the intractable problem facing Canadians, who wish to steal resources without regard to its Indigenous owners? They know why we’re angry! The judges decried the previous decision to “bring down the hammer” on Indigenous people who had already been subject to huge bills by the legal process. Aboriginals’ right to protest “cannot simply be dismissed as illusory, flawed or weak. Imprisonment, far from being a meaningful sanction for the community, had the affect of pitting the community against the justice system”. Duh!! Criminalizing and jailing us will never deter us from protecting our land, resources, rights and lives. According to this decision if the agents lay a hand on us, they are law breakers. At the Hampton site the cops grabbed their cell phones and video cameras and started to film us and wrote down our license plate numbers. They are building up files on us for “a rainy day” like martial law. The cops appeared to be assigned to identify us only. Warrants would then be issued for our arrest once they invent some ‘criminal’ activities to charge us with. They wait to execute the warrants when the target is vulnerable and alone somewhere. That’s the methodology. The workers were aware that the land is subject to actions by the Indigenous people. They cordially asked for an explanation of Canada’s position. They said their own politicians had been brushing their questions aside or given them false information. After 45 minutes the site was shut down and cleared out. According to the Ontario Court of Appeal we have a right to demonstrate all we want. Protecting our land is our duty towards the future generations. “Any new development in this area or on our land has got to stop.” Confederacy chiefs – Allen MacNaughton, Ron Thomas and Butch Thomas – publicly supported the demonstrators. MacNaughton said, “The city has accelerated things to hurry and cover up our land. They’ve interfered with our people’s rights to free speech and tried to silence our voices.” At the first two sites, Brantfod police inspector Scott Easto told the Indigenous people, “You’re breaking the law,” “You’re breaking the injunction”. The rolling demonstrations were largely peaceful, telling departing workers to, “Have a good day off!” So what are the courts and cops going to do now? When this appeal court crumb was thrown to us, it left a great big void. So they will escalate Plan B. That is, to bring in “instigators”, “agent provocateurs”, “information gatherers” and “moles”. The developers and their buddies will bring in skin heads, KKK, infiltrators, Indian and non-indian strangers who suggest extreme violence or utter confusion in order to set us up for the cops, courts and jail. The infiltrators go into a community and take any side. Then another is sent in to take the opposite side. They both stir up dissensions and waste our time by drawing attention away from the real issues and the solutions that would benefit our people. The mole is a long term asset who stays for decades. Some even marry into the community and have families to gain complete trust while they do their subversive work. The others are “short-term” assets. One dirty rotten trick is for an “infiltrator” to start a whisper campaign against key people. They tell everybody, “Don’t tell anyone I told you this about so-and-so…”. Before you know it, they have everybody looking suspiciously and distrustingly at each other, ready to fight. It’s an old trick that the “the band council” uses to spread all kinds of stories against their non-supporters. On the other hand, the infiltrators that appear neutral or benign are just there to gather information. Watch out for the “saviors”. That’s when somebody materializes out of thin air, [like Cathy “Space-Cadet” Duchene] who arrived like a locomotive from the West to pose as a long lost “Mohawk”. She’s “going to straighten the whole mess out” at Sharbot Lake , from her trailer next to the cop shop. Just look for the huge satellite dish on top. Remember, don’t divulge information to strangers that are skulking around trying to pander and stroke us. Don’t forget the motto, “Loose lips sink ships”. About 5 Six Nations people decided to commemorate the July 11, 1990 “Mohawk Oka Crisis” by shutting down an illegal construction site in Brantford . On Friday morning they arrived at 4:00 am where the insulation factory was being built. When the workers arrived around 6:30 am, they told them, “There’s going to be no work here today or ever”. The Brantford Police, acting as go-betweens, said that their law and injunction were being “broken”. They informed the cops they were trespassing. The cops videotaped and wrote notes. More Six Nations people arrived. The workers left with almost everything. On Monday they are coming back for their concrete forms and office trailers. They said they’re going after the city of Brantford for lying to them. They should sue the city for issuing illegal building permits. Stay tuned! This ain’t the end! Karakwine of Kanehsatake Click News & See category “Six Nations” | ||
| poster: katenies | ||
