EVERYBODY KNOWS

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MMN. Jan, 1 2024. Everybody knows and agrees that the defendants violated the judge’s order. If there is no more agreement, then the case reverts to the original mandate. The judge can force the defendants to obey his order of October 27th 2022. In our way, if two indigenous people work out an agreement, and one  violates it, then there would be some kind of serious confrontation. According to all parties, “this was agreed to so that the differences could be resolved in a nice way”. The plaintiffs did all they could to fulfill the agreement. We’ve never withheld any information. Now they lost another argument and have appealed it. 

Finding our children is our destiny. Our three issues are: finding our children, who killed them, and who is accountable. We are unfamiliar with the white man’s court system. We know our system of justice, the kaianerekowa. These children were brought here to McGill and its institutions and they died here. We must find them. Those responsible must be held accountable. Everybody knows murder is a crime. We want proof. Our murdered children are being found all over turtle island. Obviously the institutions do not want to be charged or held accountable. 

The corporation of Canada and its institutions are concerned about money. Their investors want to keep McGill going to make military and mental hardware. They don’t appear to be concerned about students. Quebec Premier Legault wants a French Quebec Republic on indigenous land! Impossible! Mcgill wants to keep everybody at bay. We came to this court because it is their way of law. We have our own justice system with checks and balances that far outweigh the colonial corporate construct of Canada. Since they appear not willing to follow our justice system, the only appellant court we will recognize is the World Appellant Court in The Hague.  

Remember, this is a crime scene. Everybody knows no one is suppose to contaminate a crime scene. If the victims were other than indigenous, nobody would tolerate such tampering of evidence. It is not in McGill’s interest for the truth of the crime to be revealed. 

Sections 35 and 52 of the Constitution Act of Canada 1982 states clearly that Section 35 recognizes the indigenous culture and principles; and Section 52 acknowledges the supremacy of the indigenous way on mother earth. All other laws are null and void. We must find our children. Even Prime minister Trudeau vowed, “We’re going to find those bodies”. 

The judges of the appeal court are appointed by the Prime Minister. So there is a bias here. Our great peace does not recognize the white man’s system. The colonial Constitution Act of 1982 provides that Canada has recognized aboriginal rights which lays the groundwork for the supreme court of Canada to deal with this issue. This ground breaking precedent applies throughout turtle island. McGill and SQI are trespassing on turtle island of which we are the caretakers since time immemorial to the end . We cannot give it up as we belong to the land. Today we are imprisoned in reserve compounds throughout turtle island.  

The appeals court judges must become acquainted with us to understand our natural position on our motherland. We are constantly being bashed with procedural rules from a foreign system of lawyers who take oaths to foreign entities. They create procedural swamps of foreign sewage. 

They try to erase the reality of the murders of our children to stops us from saying anything. They make it like nothing ever happened by putting the genocide into foreign concepts.

The same entity sets up the courts, appoints the judges, makes up those biased laws to cover up their crimes and also carry out the crimes without impunity. This is a “stacked deck”. Like las vegas the house always wins. The “house” is the court of appeal. 

The kasatstensera kowa soiera is the ‘great natural power’ that provides us with the ‘way’ that we are to live, according to the instructions of creation with all our brothers, sisters, families, which includes the natural world of which we are a part.  

No one ever asked us if we agreed to their reservation system or their Admiralty Court system. The citizens of Canada today have never been asked if they agree to be ruled by a Governor General and Privy Council mocking a foreign autocrat.  We wonder what is wrong with the Canadian people who do not event think of these things. The shareholders of the company of Canada don’t ever want their corporate property/citizens to vote on any constitution.

Leonard Cohen says that “Everybody knows”:

Thahoketoteh@ntk.com. Court communication

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kahentinetha2@protsonmail.com

MCGILL MAMBO APPEALS JUDGE’S ORDER

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MNN. Jan, 1, 2024. The McGill Mambo is very similar to the Toronto “two-step” where the provincial and federal governments dance amongst each other while absolutely ignoring the indigenous ways and court procedures.

McGill is not following the rules of the court. Judge Moore’s direction is being ignored. Also they are not giving us the data on their excavations of the Indigenous-owned McGill landscape. We must investigate every shovelful they take looking for our babies.

It is now over a month since the judge of the Quebec Superior Court made the order to restore the Expert Panel to find our murdered children, the victims of MKUltra and other experiments. McGill pays no attention. They fired the expert panel on July 6, 2023.

We have worked very hard to bring this application to the court and how duplicitous are McGill and SQI. In court on December 1 they said they were not applying it. In fact, they were appealing it! We want a court order to stop all work right now or they will land in jail!

McGill is taking the tuition fees of the students to stop us from finding our murdered children.

This investigation must be put back on track as soon as possible. This situation Is chaotic and shameful. They show no respect for us indigenous women.

It looks like they will do anything to stop the investigation and to prevent the expert archaeological panel from investigating.  We won the appeal. We have no money nor lawyers to deal with this. Breaking the court order indicates to us that they are delaying any legal procedures that would delay their renovation of our lands, Mount Royal, Montreal and McGill University.   

It’s detrimental for them to continue their ‘denialist’ approach. They dismiss what the search dogs found. Then they used mechanical sifters to break up the soil so that the bones could not be identified so it cannot be established as to whether they are human or animal. The material is now too fine to identify.

We have to go to court again on January 16, 2024.

Nobody has ever heard of this kind of treatment of human remains except for Jimmie Rodgers who was out in the field looking to get mules to skin for his family: “Good morning, Captain. Good morning to you, son.  Do you need another mule skinner out on your new mud line. yodelayhee”…..[Sing along with Jimmie, “mule skinner blues”]:

Mule Skinner Blues Jimmie Rodgers with Lyrics

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UNREST IN THE COURT DEC. 1, 2023

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Mister Justice, the Kahnistensera made a submission regarding that motion on Case Management, as follows:

MNN. Dec. 1, 2023. “Shekon Judge. I unfortunately have to remind you of a very grave matter about the Defendants TOTAL DISRESPECT for the law. There have been some exchanges between the Special Interlocutor, the Defendants and us since the latest Court Order that you issued.. unrest in the courtMr. Justice, on November 20th 2023, these exchanges are EXTREMELY concerning.  One comes to wonder whether the Defendants consider themselves to be bound by the law as everyone else is in Canadian society.  We wrote to the SQI and McGill immediately after we received your judgment, proposing that we write a joint message to the Expert Panel to share the Judgment and prepare updated information on the archaeological interventions that took place on the site since the Panel was wrongfully disbanded. 

The Defendants responded on November 23rd 2023, that they were “currently studying Judge Moore’s latest decision”, and that “excavation work can continue without interruption”. The language is similar to the email McGill sent to all its students and faculty on November 21st 2023, where they said, “We will study the decision and its implications more fully in the days to come. In the meantime, as per the court’s decision, the work at the site may continue”. The main decision within the Judgment to reinstate the Panel was not mentioned.

Ten days after your Judgment was rendered, we still haven’t heard back from the Defendants. I don’t know how much time it will take them to study the 12-page Judgment you issued, Mister Justice. It took us a couple of hours, without any lawyers to help us. It might take them a few months, or a few years, after the New Vic Project is completed, to actually read the Judgment and contemplate ways to implement it! They seem to have all the time they needed to plan and execute excavation work on the site, which continued ceaselessly.

The patch in front of the Hersey Pavilion McGill where the dogs detected the scent of human remains has now become a huge hole. Ethnoscop produced a report regarding the investigation of the dog alert. They say they didn’t find a burial. More precisely, they say that they sifted 150 bone fragments most of which are too small to determine whether they’re animal or human, and ended up suggesting that they must be animal because of the “archaeological context”, not even explaining what the context was. As far as we know, the context is that search dogs smelled human remains there. 

We recall the Defendants had decided to move the piles of soil excavated where the dogs smelled human remains to another location so they could start their project there. We opposed this because we feared that it would damage any bones contained in that soil.

So the piles were moved elsewhere against our consent. They were sifted using a huge machine normally used for mining.  After being moved around and sifted in a huge machine, all that was left of the bones were fragments that are impossible to identify. This report was written on November 22nd, 2023 two days after the Court Ruling that reinstated the Expert Panel. But the Defendants were too busy to implement it. They just let everything continue in the meantime. 

On November 21st, the counsel for the Special Interlocutor shared a letter with all parties suggesting to “work together to enable the Expert Panel to resume its work” by setting a meeting “to outline draft contracts for the Expert Panel” and to discuss whether to replace Justine Bourgignon-Tetrault or to continue with a two-person panel, in accordance with your suggestion, Mister Justice. What did the Defendants do? They never responded. Were they too busy rereading the Judgment? Your Judgment was clear, Mr. Justice, in stating that continuing the work without the oversight of the Expert Panel creates irreparable harm. It’s written in black and white. 

So it’s obvious that if anyone receives a Court Order to have supervision of your excavation work by a Panel of Experts, your priority is to respect that Court Order and reach out to the Panel.  

It’s now been 11 days since the Court Order was issued, and nothing was done to implement it. That’s in addition to the month that passed since the hearing on October 27, 2023, which was in addition to the almost two months that passed since the Expert Panel was unilateraly fired by the Defendants, transforming this investigation into a blatant insult to our intelligence. The Defendants proved these last 11 days, including the three months before, that they have no intention whatsoever of respecting our concerns and even respecting the law. 

They now want to get rid of the Special Interlocutor to leave us without any oversight from any qualified person committed to the sacred work of protecting unmarked burials. The Special Interlocutor and her attorneys played an essential role in allowing the settlement agreement to happen and to bring some sort of agreement and legibility to this mess.

We’re sorry that it comes to that point, but we have no choice but to ask this court to act upon its own rulings and to compel the defendants to respect its decisions. The Court Order issued on November 20th clearly acknowledged the irreparable harm caused by the Defendants’ refusal to abide by the recommendations of the Expert Panel. Eleven days after the Court Ruling was issued we’re still at the same point. The Panel hasn’t even been told that it’s been reinstated because the Defendants keep postponing the very first step which is to announce the Court Ruling to them. It appears their bad faith is such that they won’t do anything cooperative if it’s not directly ordered in black and white.

If the Judgment doesn’t say that the Panel has to be contacted by the specific date, they’ll just never tell them that they’re reinstated! And during that time, we are being hurt and hurt and hurt every single day the excavation moves forward.

Here’s a story. We’re in the desert and we have a gallon of water for two people, and the court orders that we should share the water. But I actually have the water bottle, and when I learn about the court order I start saying that I have to read and re-read it and think about it. But, in the meantime I actually end up drinking the whole gallon of water. What would that mean? To me it’s crystal clear. It means that the law is breached. That’s all there is to it. 

That’s all I have to say”. Kahentinetha of the Kahnistensera Mohawk Mothers.

Ted Nugent, the Motor City Madman, exclaims: “Sabotage on the downtown streets. Police cars overturned. Can’t do nothing to beat the heat. And if you don’t, you’ll get burned. Sleek women behind every door. Cost more money than you got. You best be up if you want some more cause if you don’t, you’ll be shot. Dog, dog eat dog. [4 times].

Kamikaze from the 100th floor, swan dive to the street. He couldn’t handle this mad house no more. He craved that sweeter meat. Yeah, dog, dog, dog eat dog…..”

thahoketoteh@ntk.com MNN Court Correspondent

Kahnistensera@riseup.net

MohawkMothers.ca

mohawknationnews.com kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

INCONSISTENT ACCESS TO INFO FOR MOHAWK MOTHERS

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MNN. Dec.2, 2023. In the “Admiralty law of the seas” the judge is the Captain of the ship, which is the courtroom, and the banker, who decides who will pay what to who. He decides who will be overthrown or put in the brig. On Friday he told everybody to “Figure it out” and left the ship. Everybody was put on “shore leave”!  See Mohawk Mothers Statement.

On Nov. 1, 2023, the Mohawk Mothers went to Montreal Quebec Superior Court to ask the judge to help get the files on the genocide of the indigenous supposedly commissioned by McGill University and the province of Quebec. These documents are being kept in top secret vaults by the supposed perpetrators. The few who survived one of the biggest holocausts in all humanity are being grossly studied. Indigenous were given numbers, their names changed, they were moved all over, experimented on and “disappeared”. Now the state and its institutions whick are in charge do not want the indigenous to have this information. Shouldn’t the indigenous decide who can have this information about themselves? The so called perpetrators and their lawyers presently have total control!

The indigenous want to go into these vaults to review what is left in the stored boxes. Confidentiality clauses were enacted to allow only certain researchers they permit to see them. The indigenous never consented to their children being taken and never seen again. Now the perpetrators hide behind their confidentiality laws to create books and papers about the indigenous people.

The trauma only becomes worse with each betrayal. Each time Mohawk Mothers make agreements these promises are broken so the genocide continues to be hidden. 

The historians and politicians of the corporation of Canada have been trying to wipe out the indigenous from their history. The land and resource owners, placed on onowarekeh, turtle island, by creation, just don’t fit into their ideological needs of the evolving ‘national’ identity of Canada. Free indigenous are not to be part of the public and educational memory. They are to remain hidden deep in the ground, never to be seen or thought of. The historian’s mission is to organize the historical information in a new way – without the indigenous. 

Maybe we should be looking ahead like Zager and Evans:

In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may findIn the year 3535Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lieEverything you think, do and sayIs in the pill you took todayIn the year 4545You ain’t gonna need your teeth, won’t need your eyesYou won’t find a thing to chewNobody’s gonna look at youIn the year 5555Your arms hangin’ limp at your sidesYour legs got nothin’ to doSome machine’s doin’ that for youIn the year 6565You won’t need no husband, won’t need no wifeYou’ll pick your son, pick your daughter tooFrom the bottom of a long glass tube
In the year 7510If God’s a coming, He oughta make it by thenMaybe He’ll look around Himself and sayGuess it’s time for the judgment dayIn the year 8510God is gonna shake His mighty headHe’ll either say I’m pleased where man has beenOr tear it down, and start again
In the year 9595I’m kinda wonderin’ if man is gonna be aliveHe’s taken everything this old earth can giveAnd he ain’t put back nothing
Now it’s been ten thousand yearsMan has cried a billion tearsFor what, he never knew, now man’s reign is throughBut through eternal night, the twinkling of starlightSo very far away, maybe it’s only yesterday
In the year 2525, if man is still aliveIf woman can survive, they may find

 thahoketoteh@ntk.com court reporter

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#991, kahnawake que. J0L 1B0 kahentinetha2@protonmail.com

MOHAWKS SHOOT THE RAPIDS Press Release

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PRESS RELEASE For Immediate publication

 

 

We indigenous are part of mother earth who continue to be targets of this ongoing genocide by foreigners. 

“Mohawk Mothers Win Superior Court Judgment.

McGill and SQI Ordered to Comply With

Settlement Agreement and to Reinstate Expert Panel”

Tio’tia:ke [Montreal]. After obtaining, one year to the day, a precedent-setting injunction halting excavation at the former Royal Victoria Hospital site to search for the unmarked graves of the victims of medical experiments, the Mohawk Mothers, also known as the Kahnistenaera, have won their bid for a safeguard order they presented at the Superior Court of Quebec on October 27, 2023.

On November 20, 2023, Justice Gregory Moore issued a judgment ordering McGill University and the Societe quebecoise des infrastructure [SQI] to abide by the Settlement Agreement they had signed with the self-represented Indigenous plaintiffs on April 6, 2023, and to respect the recommendations of the Expert Panel of archaeologists they had jointly selected. 

Justice Moore’s statement that the SQI’s and McGill’s position ending the Expert Panel’s mandate “does not set a term for the Panel’s mandate on July 17th is “too restrictive,” as the settlement agreement “does not set a term for the panel’s  involvement in the on-going search for unmarked graves” [para. 34]. According to the Judge, “The delay and costs of the overall project cannot justify the SQI’s and McGill’s unilateral reduction of their obligations under the settlement agreement, especially when doing so will cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs” [para. 39].

For Mohawk Mother kahentinetha, the Judgment is a relief. “We’ve fought so hard for two years to search for these missing children.  Our community was targeted for genocide and our children were used as guinea pigs in these horrific experiments by the CIA to see how to kill the Indian in them.  But since  McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel we had no way to keep track and trust the results of the investigation, which was now being controlled by the perpetrators of crimes against our children.  The point in signing of the Settlement Agreement was to allow the Experts to do their job, and we were betrayed. We had to do it all alone without lawyers, facing such powerful institutions. It wasn’t easy but we made it. The Judge understood that the only way this can go is in a professional way, with independent experts to oversee everything and make sure our community is informed”. 

The Mohawk Mothers submitted that McGill and the SQI had failed to implement numerous recommendations of the Expert Panel, notably refusing to share data from the Ground Penetrating Radar surveys, refusing to adopt forensic precaution to protect the chain of custody of evidence, and depriving the Mohawk Mothers of access to crucial information such as contracts with specialists.

Justice Gregory Moore found in favor of the Mohawk Mothers’ argument that the purpose of the Settlement Agreement was to rely on an independent and impartial Expert Panel to provide ongoing recommendations, in order to ensure that the New Vic Project would not result in the desecration of human remains, which survivors and search dogs indicated were on the site.  

In August 2023, McGill and the SQI fired the Expert Panel, one of whom had recently resigned, after they asked to implement forensic measures and peer review data from Ground Penetrating Radar. 

Although Historic Human Remains Detection Dogs had detected the scent of human remains in the area in front of the Hersey Pavilion, McGill and SQI declared that there was no evidence of burials there, suggested it was a false positive, and started large-sale non-archaeological excavation in the zone. The Mohawk Mothers were concerned that development work in the area could start before the source of human remains in the zone was established, especially inside the Hersey Pavilion, because the dogs signalled remains next to the building’s wall and because unexplained demolition work took place there. 

Judge Moore’s court ruling will allow for the independent Expert Panel to provide updated irecommendations regarding the zone and the larger site, after being cut off from the investigation since August. 

On November 5, 2023, search dogs detected the scent of human remains in yet another zone, close to the Allan Memorial institute, where the CIA’s MK-Ultra experiments on brainwashing took place in the early 1950’s and 1960’s.

The parties will be back in court on December 1st 2023. to address a motion ordering the release of records withheld by the defendants. 

The Kanien’kehaka:ka Kahnistensera [Mohawk Mothers] is a Kahnawake based group that helps Indigenous women accomplish their traditional cultural duty  as caretakers of the land, to protect all life, including their children and ancestors. They have been engaged in a legal challenge with promoters of the New Vic project to stall future excavation of the former Royal Victoria Hospital until a proper archaeological investigation is conducted, using the traditional protocols of the Kaianere’ko:wa. [Great Peace].

https:// www.mohawkmothers.csa/Contact for press: kahnistensera@riseup.net [514]463-8835 Kahnawake, P.O. Box 991, Que. J0L 1B0.

In 1990, not so long ago, the kanienkehaka Mohawks defended the land and people which speaks who hears their own way. This is our people. This is our song. It’s about peace:  

Magik Squirrel: Mohawk War Song

MohawkMothers.ca; 

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PALESTINE TODAY’S SAND CREEK MASSACRE 1864

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THIS IS ONE OF MANY ‘GAZAS’ PERFORMED ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLE WORLDWIDE. 

Republished

“AURORA TODAY’S SAND CREEK MASSACRE 1864

MNN.  July 21, 2012.  The Aurora theatre killer, James Holmes, grew up in San Diego California.  His mother sent him to Denver to study for his Phd in neuroscience. 

Americans are horrified about the chaotic, horrific, tumultuous and bloody mass murders in the movie theatre showing “Dark Night Rises”.  Yet they live unconcerned on top of our graves. This hemisphere is soaked in our people’s blood, all killed by psychotic mass murderers.  

Aurora is 100 miles from the site of the Sand Creek massacre, November 29, 1864.  Old Denver families were behind this mass murder of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women and children.  

In the spring of 1864 the Cheyenne and Arapaho were ready for peace.  They met with US Officers, Evans and Chivington, at Camp Weld outside of Denver.  No treaties were signed.  The Indians were offered a sanctuary at Fort Lyon.  Black Kettle and over 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho travelled south to set up camp on Sand Creek, near Eads, the town later built on top of the massacre site.  Some dissenters headed north to join the Sioux.  

General Samuel Curtis sent a telegram, “I want no peace till the Indians suffer more”.  700 Cavalry volunteers called “100 Dazers”, assembled in Denver.  The camps of Chief Black Kettle, White Antelope, Left Hand and others, lay in the valley before them.   Chivington, with mostly drunken troops, headed to Sand Creek with 4 Howitzers.   Black Kettle raised both flags of peace.  Chivington raised his arm for attack.   Cannon and rifles pounded the camp.  The Indians scattered.  The frenzied soldiers hunted down and murdered the men, women and children.   A few warriors managed to fight back.  Silas Soule of Massachussets did not allow his soldiers to fire into the crowd.  

Troops continued the murders all day.  One bragged about killing 3 women and 5 children who were screaming for mercy.  They murdered all the wounded, mutilated and scalped them.  They cut open the pregnant women’s bellies and laid the fetus on the bodies.  They plundered tipis and divided up the herd of horses.  Black Kettle’s wife was shot 9 times and survived.  The Cheyenne Dog Warriors who opposed the peace treaty provided sanctuary for the survivors. 

The Colorado volunteers returned to Denver as heroes, with scalps of women and children.  Colorado residents celebrated.  Chivington appeared on a Denver stage telling war stories and displayed 100 Indigenous scalps, including pubic hair of women.  Many of the elite of Denver society today are the children of these murderers. 

Eye witnesses came forward and reported the murders.   Silas Soule testified against Chivington, and was murdered by Charles Squires.  It was found to be a carefully planned massacre.  Asked why kids were killed, “Nits make lice”, said Chivington.  

As word of the massacre spread, the Indigenous resistance to white expansion stiffened.  This massacre led to the Little Big Horn battle on June 25-6, 1876 where General George Custer and his men were wiped out by the Lakota lead by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. 

In December 29, 1890, the US 7th Cavalry commanded by Samuel M. Whitside lead the massacre of over 350 Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek. 

We have had to live with these horrors since the arrival of the invaders, while they send their “cry babies” to doctors for counselling.   

That mindset to slaughter people was brought here.  80 are shot and killed daily in the US, not counting stabbings and death by other means.     

Orders always come from the top.  On December 26, 1862 Lincoln sanctioned the hanging of 38 randomly picked Indian men and boys without trial, the largest mass hanging in US history.  One week later, January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves.  The Blacks then formed the regiment called the Buffalo Soldiers who proudly massacred the Indigenous for their masters.  Today both races celebrate their plunder with medals and the theft of our land.  

Was James Holmes trying to mimic the mindset of those Denver people? If he is insane, then Washington, Grant and Lincoln, and all the other presidents who gave orders to totally annihilate us, are all insane as well.    

The Americans must be reminded of this continuing genocide.  If they don’t know their history, it is bound to repeat itself.  The lesson is: be careful what you ask for,  you might just get it.  

The movie-goers went to the theatre to see murder, death, chaos and plunder.  Then they got it for real!”

As Bob Marley sang about, “Buffalo soldier, dread-lock rasta.”

MNN Mohawk Nation News kahentinetha2@protonmail.com For more news, books, workshops, go to www.mohawknationnews.com  More stories at MNN Archives.   Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0

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“SPACES OF EXCEPTION” Genocide of Indigenous & Palestinians

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Photo: Debra White Plume, Oglala Lakota, in the film, “We Love Being Lakota,” which evolved into the film, “Spaces of Exception.”


Spaces of Exception Film Exposes Atrocities and Genocide of Native People and Palestinians

 

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, November 17, 2023


MONTREAL — The film Spaces of Exception revealing the atrocities and genocide of Native people — Lakota, Navajo, and Mohawk — and of Palestinians — was shown in Montreal at McGill University. It is here at McGill that Mohawk Mothers have an ongoing court battle to search for graves of Native children at the hospital where the CIA conducted MK-Ultra torture experiments.

 
Among those who were involved in the series of films in the project were Debra White Plume and Olowan Sara Martinez, our Oglala Lakota friends of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, now in the Spirit World. Their bold stance as defenders of the water and people was manifest at the Red Warrior Camp at Standing Rock, during the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
 
At McGill University, the event included the co-editors of the book, The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival, with Philippe Blouin and Kahentinehta Rotiskarewake. The film showing was given a small room by the university in an obvious attempt to limit the number attending.
 
‘Spaces of Exception’ is the latest in a series of films, which began with ‘We Love Being Lakota.’
 
Alex White Plume says that the ancient people, the Palestinians, and Native people have been oppressed in the same way. “They are committing genocide after genocide over there.”
 
Debra White Plume says the connection goes beyond solidarity.
 
“It is a spiritual connection.”
 
Debra said that the genocide is rooted in the quest of the oppressors to separate the people, for occupation, and to take the minerals and the land — both in Palestine and on this continent.
 

Matt Peterson and Malek Rasamny, who co-edited The Mohawk Warrior Society: A Handbook on Sovereignty and Survival, directed the feature-length documentary film Spaces of Exception.

The filmmakers said, “Profiling the American Indian reservation alongside the Palestinian refugee camp, Spaces of Exception was filmed from 2014 to 2017 in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota as well as Lebanon and the West Bank. It is an attempt to understand the significance of the land—its memory and divisions—and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.”

‘Spaces of Exception’ Standing Rock, Oceti Sakowin Camp, water protectors resisting Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.


Filmmaker Matt Peterson said ‘Spaces of Exception’ includes the Dine’ battling relocation because of Peabody Coal at Black Mesa, the Mohawk Warrior Society and the people of Palestine.

 
“The film investigates and juxtaposes the struggles, communities, and spaces of the American Indian reservation and the Palestinian refugee camp. It was shot over the course of three years in the West Bank and Lebanon, as well as in Arizona, New Mexico, New York, and South Dakota,” Peterson said.
Spaces of Exception film trailer 

“Spaces of Exception features interviews with members of the American Indian Movement, the Mohawk Warrior Society, and Diné families resisting displacement on Black Mesa, as well as members of Fatah, Palestinian environmental and media activists, autonomous youth committees, and the families of political prisoners and martyrs.”

“The film is an attempt to understand the significance of the land – its memory and divisions – and the conditions for life, community, and sovereignty.
 

Akwesasne Mohawk ‘Spaces of Exception’
The first Native land that the filmmakers visited was Pine Ridge in South Dakota, and through activists, were able to reach Olowan Sara Martinez, whose mother had visited Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in 1979 as part of a delegation with the American Indian Movement.


“Once she heard about our project she was excited to meet and talk with us, and from that first trip we made the short video We Love Being Lakota with Ojibway artist Adam Khalil,” the filmmakers said.

 

“The video became something of a calling card to introduce and explain our project and approach. As we continued traveling, meeting people, making and showing short films, it became easier and easier.”

We Love Being Lakota is the first in a series of videos and texts from our documentary project The Native and the Refugee, connecting the struggles taking place on Indian reservations in the United States with those in Palestinian refugee camps in the. Middle East.

Olowan Sara Martinez, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge

Olowan says in the film, “For us, as young Tokalas, we don’t wanna be stuck in the waiting process, waiting for a handout, waiting for something to go our way. Waiting, waiting, that’s what Fat Taker did was he trained us to wait, trained us to stand in line.”

 

“Watch out. Join or get the hell out of the way.”

The filmmakers said, “RIP Olowan Sara Martinez (1974-2022), who was instrumental in inviting us to film at both Pine Ridge and Standing Rock, and who appeared in our films We Love Being Lakota (2015), Indian Winter (2017), and Spaces of Exception (2019). She was a brilliant, eloquent, inspiring, courageous, and incredibly strong woman who will be greatly missed.”

‘Spaces of Exception’
In Montreal, Spaces of Exception held its Canadian premiere at McGill University.

The “Spaces of Exception” event at McGill University was sponsored by Stasis- groupe d’enquête sur le contemporain, GRIP UQAM and the Critical Media Lab.
 
Watch “We Love Being Lakota,” with Debra and Alex White Plume, Olowan Sara Martinez, and scenes from the Occupation of Wounded Knee 1973.
 


The series


We Love Being Lakota Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min
This video was taken during our December visit to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Home of the Oglala Lakota, “the fiercest warrior tribe on the continent”, the film takes a meditative look at Lakota identity in the face of US colonialism, and their relationship to the sacred land they have been pushed out of after two centuries of warfare and theft.Men’s Council of the People of the Way of the Longhouse

Adam Khalil, Matt Peterson, Malek Rasamny, 2015, 12 min
Taking place on the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne–on the borders of New York, Ontario and Quebec–this video juxtaposes footage of a special January gathering at their longhouse, featuring elder Paul Delaronde; archival footage of the Mohawk Warrior Society; and shots of the polluted, decaying industrialized remains surrounding their territory.INAATE/SE/ (excerpt)

Adam and Zack Khalil, 2015, 10 min
“Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil (both Ojibwe) provide a raw take on their ancestral community within the Sault Ste. Marie area — documenting the harmony and debauchery of the Indigenous experience today. This experimental film, now in the works, juxtaposes the voice of the romanticizing settler with contemporary Ojibwe perspectives.” — Gloria Bell, First American Art Magazine.
 

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Ry Cooder reminds us everybody has a natural home provided by creation:

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SIX NATIONS OF GRAND RIVER. A GLOBAL SOLUTION

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MNN. Nov. 13, 2023. As Phil Montour says: “Six Nations land rights are historic and big. Our funds were used to build Canada as it is today” He said those wanting to do business with us said we had to extinguish all the land rights of our children. Our agreement was to share those lands only, that we are to enjoy them forever. All the facts in this video are from Canada’s own records of our funds  and were never paid back. Such as:

The Upper Canada Bank Stock; offsetting government debts; Episcopal Church; Cayuga Bridge Co.; Canada war debt; Desjardin Canal Co.; Erie & Ontario Railroads; Simcoe District; City of Toronto; York Roads; Wellend Canal; Law Society of Upper Canada; Various Public Works; McGill College and University; Municipal Council of Haldimand; Upper Canada Building Fund; Montreal Turnpike; To operate Upper Canada; Niagara District Debts.

Legal Liabilities of 6 of Some Validated Claims from 1807 to 1846:

$2,169,696,141,168.63

As the Tribe Called Red [Halluci Nation] remind us how we feel about the land we belong to: “They have to kill us because they can’t break our spirit.”

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MCGILL: GLOBAL DEMAND FOR CEASEFIRE IN GAZA

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MCGILL TRIBUNE Nov. 2, 2023

 

PROTESTORS DEMAND UNIVERSITY ACTION AND CEACEFIRE IN GAZA midst growing global movement for Palestine-021120231

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2023/11/02/judge-overturns-mohawks-tobacco-conviction/

Content Warning: Mentions of violence, death, antisemitism, and Islamophobia

Students flooded out of class at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 to join a growing crowd at the Y-intersection, many donning keffiyehs, waving Palestinian flags, and holding signs in support of the Palestinians in Gaza. The protest eventually moved to the James Administration Building, where members of Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) McGill blocked the entrance in an attempt to pressure the university to meet their demands.

The protest was part of a wider walkout movement across North America in solidarity with the people of Gaza. In Montreal, SPHR McGill, SPHR Concordia, Solidarité pour les droits humains des Palestiniennes et Palestiniens at Université de Montréal (UdeM) and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), and Al Raya Dawson partnered to organize and promote the walkout. The organizations listed three demands on their social media platforms: “Divestment from weapons’ manufacturers which arm Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” “an immediate end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and U.S. and Canada funding for Israel,” and “to cease exchange programs with Israeli institutions and cut ties with current and future Zionist donors.”

On Oct. 7, Hamas staged an attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and resulted in more than 200 people being taken hostage, according to the Associated Press. Israel has retaliated by launching an extensive bombing campaign, and now ground incursions, in Gaza. Estimates place the Palestinian death toll since Oct. 7 at over 9,000 and the number of people displaced at over 1.4 million, according to Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.

McGill has sent out a series of university-wide statements following the Oct. 7 attack, including one that specifically mentions SPHR McGill, accusing the group of “celebrating violence” on social media and demanding that the group stop using the McGill name. Other McGill communications have encouraged “looking out for each other in sorrowful times” and referenced the university’s Initiative against Islamophobia and Antisemitism (IAIAS). 

Protester Salma El emphasized the importance of everyone—not just people from the Middle East—demonstrating support for the Palestinian cause, and called for an immediate ceasefire.

“I am North African, so we’re kind of brothers with Palestinians,” she said. “To be seeing a genocide happening all over again and no one is talking about it just makes you lose hope in humanity, lose hope in leaders. And I just think that maybe, if anything would have happened to Ukrainians, maybe the world would have reacted another way. Just because it’s Palestinians, no one is saying anything.”

As the crowd grew, SPHR McGill organizers started by leading chants and then delivered a land acknowledgement, drawing a parallel between settler colonialism in Canada and historic Palestine. Chants of “FREE, FREE, FREE PALESTINE” and “VIVA, VIVA, PALESTINA” echoed through the centre of campus as a large Palestinian flag was hung on a rolling whiteboard behind the speakers.

Following the land acknowledgment, an SPHR McGill member reiterated the groups’ demands and voiced support for the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers)—a group of Kanien’kehá:ka women resisting McGill’s New Vic project over concerns that there may be Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves on the site.

Professor of Arabic Literature Michelle Hartman and representatives from SPHR McGill, Socialist Fightback, and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) addressed the crowd. Organizers then called for the crowd to travel up from the Y-intersection to the steps of the Arts Building as the chants continued.

Organizers led the crowd in cheering, “RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED, WHEN PEOPLE ARE OCCUPIED” and “PALESTINE IS OUR DEMAND, NO PEACE ON STOLEN LAND,” followed by chants in Arabic.

The Mohawk Mothers—who held a teach-in on the archaeological work happening on the New Vic site from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the Leacock building—then addressed protesters from the Arts Building steps, reaffirming their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

After the Mohawk Mothers’ speeches, protest leaders continued their rallying calls before announcing that SPHR McGill members had blocked the entrance to the James Administration building, and the protest would be walking to meet them. Much of the crowd followed suit and relocated to the site of the sit-in.

At the James Administration building—which hosts various key McGill decision and policy makers, including the Office of McGill’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Deep Saini—the crowd swarmed to surround the small group that was occupying the area in front of the entrance, blocking office workers from going in or out. One protestor climbed the scaffolding, planting a Palestinian flag above where the student protesters sat. The Tribune talked to an SPHR McGill spokesperson who was part of the sit-in while it was happening.

“The demand is basically to end this bizarre and angry genocidal campaign that’s being imposed on the people of Gaza right now, and also for our universities to divest from arms manufacturing companies, which are actively funding this regime,” the SPHR representative said. “McGill-specific demands were, of course, to revoke the threats that were made about changing SPHR McGill’s name [….] The threat of revoking our name, it came from a place of this university refusing to associate itself with a policy and student movement, but also to pretend that there is no segment of the McGill population which stands up for Palestine.”

In front of the blocked entrance, various professors spoke out in support of the movement, including associate professor of political science William Roberts, associate professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism Lara Braitstein, professor of Islamic Studies Rula Abisaab, and Hartman.

“The administration’s response so far has been timid and cowardly. Generally, the McGill administration cares more about the appearance of civility than about the truth and more about the opinion of a few vocal donors and alumni than about the academic freedom of young scholars,” Roberts wrote in an email statement to the The Tribune after the protest. “I don’t expect that to change. Happily, the students don’t need the administration’s approval or assistance.”

A Palestinian student who wished to stay unnamed expressed the importance of those at McGill and in Canada speaking out.

“It’s important to show solidarity. Especially, you know, we have a lot of privilege here, where we have free speech, we should use it,” they said. “I would like to see the university send an email to us condemning what’s happening to Gazans and also divest from all the money they’re pouring into Israel’s pockets.”

The student, like Salma El, expressed disappointment in the lack of support they’ve received from the school, pointing to the difference between how the university responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“When everything was going on in Ukraine, they sent a very supportive email to Ukrainian students, they announced their support for Ukraine because it was, you know, being occupied, and they were against it,” they said. “So, it’s not that McGill doesn’t want to be political, it can when it wants to.”

In a statement to The Tribune, McGill Media Relations Officer Frédérique Mazerolle expressed that “Members of the McGill community are free to express themselves and to associate within the bounds set by our university’s Statement of Principles Concerning Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly, Charter of Students’ Rights, and Policy on Academic Freedom.”

“Free association and free expression are rights we affirm. But these freedoms are not absolute, and the words we choose, and how we communicate them, matter. We are staunchly committed to building and sustaining a campus community where our diverse identities are honoured and celebrated, where we are safe to express our identities, and where we can all flourish,” Mazerolle went on to write, echoing an Oct. 8 email sent out by Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell and Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Fabrice Labeau.

The university did not answer questions pertaining to divestment from companies that support the Israeli military or the state of Israel, McGill’s Oct. 10 email demanding that SPHR McGill stop using the McGill name, or differences between how the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Palestine conflict have been handled.

While there was a large turnout, some students have expressed concerns about the walkout. A portion of the Mohawk Mothers’ speeches, which was posted on Instagram by SPHR McGill and later deleted, gained traction on X, formerly called Twitter, where users felt it appealed to antisemitic tropes that characterized Zionism as monetization, corporatization, and control. 

“The Kahnistensera stand in solidarity with all oppressed groups,” the Mothers wrote in a statement to The Tribune after the walkout. “When seen through the lens of our own struggles for liberation, it is clear to us that the struggle in Palestine is the same as the struggle of all oppressed groups in the world including Jewish people. The common oppressor is European colonialism.”

“It is very detrimental to consider any criticism of Zionism as a criticism of Judaism,” the group added. “Zionism is not Judaism: it is a modern nationalistic ideology weaponizing antisemitism to displace Jewish people and use them to get rid of Palestinians whom they dehumanize.”

Others pointed to language throughout the protest that they felt lauded Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and criticized a pro-Palestine sign that depicted the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, instead of utilizing the flag of Israel or words.

“Antisemites often find their way into anti-Zionist spaces. This goes the other way, too, by the way, there’s anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia within right-wing Zionist movements. And it’s on those Zionist movements to stamp that out, as well,” a Jewish student who wished to remain anonymous said to The Tribune after the walkout. “Yet, it is so black and white on campus,  that […] there’s seemingly no room for Jewish allies of ending the occupation, Jewish allies of the Palestinian cause—those of us who want to see an end to violence.”

SPHR McGill did not respond to The Tribune’s request for comment before the publication deadline.

The protest continued until around 6 p.m., with the organizers distributing QR-code petitions in support of the people of Gaza.

Our Arawack brother Bob Marley states it clearly: “Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everyhere is war. Everywhere is war. Me say war. That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of no nation, until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance then the color of his eyes. Me say war.’ 

Bob Marley War

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JUDGE OVERTURNS MOHAWK’S TOBACCO CONVICTION

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Jason Magder  •  Montreal Gazette Nov. 1, 2023

Judge overturns Mohawk pair’s tobacco conviction, citing centuries-old treaties

A judge found that White and Montour were exercising the rights of the Mohawk nation to direct its own economy.

Derek White in a NASCAR suit
Derek White was convicted of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and profiting from organized crime for not paying federal excise tax on tobacco that was imported from the United States. A judge ruled those charges are invalid. PHOTO BY CHERYL SENTER /The Associated Press files

The Two men won’t face criminal charges thanks to ancient treaties written in the 1600s and 1700s, a Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday.

In a much-anticipated and precedent-setting trial, Judge Sophie Bourque ruled that the Crown was wrong to charge Derek White and Hunter Montour with criminal charges related to smuggling tobacco.

The pair were among 60 people arrested as part of Operation Mygale on March 30, 2016, an investigation into alleged tobacco smuggling from the United States and evasion of millions of dollars in taxes that should have been paid to the provincial and federal governments.

Police alleged tobacco was traded between North Carolina, New Jersey and Canada. They claimed more than 20 shipments totalling nearly 2,300 tonnes of tobacco were shipped to warehouses in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and St-Rémi. White was charged with defrauding Quebec of $44 million in tobacco taxes.

In 2019, White, a former NASCAR driver, was acquitted on one of the two charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. However, he was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and profiting from organized crime for not paying federal excise tax on the tobacco that was imported from the United States. Montour was found guilty of aiding organized crime. 

White was facing up to 14 years in prison, while Montour was facing up to five years.

Tobacco is used to communicate with creation.

The pair launched a constitutional challenge to that ruling, arguing that Excise Tax Act tariffs on imports are not applicable to Mohawk people based on Section 35 Constitution Act rights as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and rights to trade tobacco tax-free.

They argued that the Mohawk nation has the right to control its economy based on ancient agreements with the British colonial powers.

On the other side, the Crown argued that the Covenant Chain was never considered to be a treaty that is protected under the rights of Indigenous people to self-government.In her 365-page judgement, however, Bourque found that the Covenant Chain was still valid, and that it superseded the other 10 treaties. The Covenant Chain concludes that the Mohawk nation has the right to freely develop its economy, she said. This right is inherent for all Indigenous people and it is protected by the Haudenosaunee traditional justice system. She found that White and Montour were exercising those rights, so the criminal charges against them were not valid.She also found that Article 42 of Canada’s excise law was an unjustified violation, giving the Ministry of Revenue a large discretionary power on issuing licences on the tobacco trade without considering ancestral rights.
Bourque said the trial served as an opportunity to re-evaluate ancient agreements with Indigenous communities in light of Canada’s adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The trial lasted from October 2021 to April 2022. It took Bourque an additional 18 months to render her judgement. The ruling is considered to be an important and precedent-setting one, and as such it may be appealed.

jmagder@postmedia.com

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Message to the government of Canada comes from our great friend, Willie Nelson: “Say goodnight, the party’s over”. 

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