OPP condone mob rule
"All hell and shit has broken loose"
YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED RIGHT NOW!
MNN. 1:00 Monday. May 22, 2006. Day 83 of the land reclamation. In a gesture of goodwill, Six Nations people took down the barricade on Argyle Street in front of the Caledonia at 6:00 am this morning. Yesterday the Caledonians blocked the road for 6 buses of supporters from Toronto. They also blocked ambulances from going to the hospital. One man died alone because they did not let his family go to his bedside. A car with a reporter and some women from Six nations paper was surrounded by Caledonian men and women. They smashed the windows. The Ontario Provincial Police stood around shoulder to shoulder without moving, just watching, allowing the hooliganism to go on. "We are looking after it," they told the Six Nations people. When Six Nations people went to help the people who were being attacked, they were surrounded by more Caledonians, who shoved and hit them and accused the Indigenous people of instigating the violence. When the woman was hit, the Six Nations men jumped in and about three or four big fights broke out. The OPP continued to allow these Caledonian hoodlums to keep up their attack.
The Six Nations have put up the barricade again.
There is a large police presence. But just standing there. They are not stopping the Caledonia people from coming in. Everytime we try to soften things up and deal with people on the expectation they will behave in a civilized way, look at what happens.
This is public misbehaviour which is a direct result of the way the issues are handled by the Canadian government and the Canadian press. They do not present the legitimate basis of the Six Nations people's complaints. They make it look like we are the law breakers. They are wrong in letting the public no know of our legitimate claims. The blame for this lies squarely on the shoulders of the public officials in the way they are presenting this whole issuer.
EVERYBODY DO SOMETHING.
Try the Prime Minister, the police, the UN, anyone you can think of who may take responsibility for law and order in Ontario.
Monday, May 22, 2006
OPP Allow Anti-Native Violence in Caledonia
From the Mohawk News Network and Solidarity with Six Nations:
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5 comments:
As respected Hamilton lawyer Andrew Orkin wrote in a recent letter, which I posted about ten days ago, "It is far from clear that the Iroquois Confederacy members re-occupying their lands are legally in the wrong." In fact, if the settler state were to respect its treaty obligations and its own laws, none of this would be happening. Six Nations people are not protesting anything, they are reclaiming land which is already rightfully theirs.
I would also point you towards this great post on another site that talks about the difficult realities at the root of this conflict, and how those of us who are settlers have a choice -- we can choose to support a just future for all on Turtle Island or we can continue to remain complicit.
Its author write: "The Mohawk Nation is not asking you to 'go back to Europe' (or wherever you came from), nobody is arguing that you should become second class citizens, so you should just calm down and take a deep breath. This is a serious situation, incredible injustices have been done, genocide on an unparalleled scale, but you don’t have to remain complicit. You have a choice."
Somena Media has posted a link and media round-up on this story, including a link to this post.
In reference to the first comment above, she says: "Note that in the comments section a Snogging Bory has already weighed in with a big 'yawn'. Like I said.. The view amongst Conservatives is that if natives peacefully protest, they are dangerous criminals. If non-natives attack people, and engage in vandalism this is perfectly acceptable."
An accurate and succinct way of summing things up, though I doubt that view is restricted to Conservatives.
Terrorism is...
"the UNLAWFUL use of force or violence against persons or PROPERTY to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.
And don't try to tell me that a "blockade" is not unlawful Andrew Orkin is a hack. 'Nuff said
Responding to the Canadian settler state's historic and ongoing massive violations of domestic law, international law, human rights, treaties solemnly entered into by the Crown, and common decency by creating a minor impediment to traffic seems a remarkably measured and restrained response to me. Especially when you consider how solicitous the occupiers have been of their immediate neighbours, how they were letting folks come in to church, and that sort of thing. Seems like the same sorts of violations of what was technically treated as being the law by an oppressive state that you saw during the civil rights movement in the U.S. south.
And I know you were trying to demonstrate your own expertise at law and history in doing so, but I'm afraid calling someone a "hack" doesn't really count as a rebuttal. Next time maybe you could try actual arguments!
"the UNLAWFUL use of force or violence against persons or PROPERTY to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."
This definition would certainly apply against Gandhi, anti-war protest, George Washington, Btselem, every single independence movement, and almost every single social justice movement in history. Pretty useless as a concrete definition no? Terrorism is a useful construct because it quarantines all in one place all actions that are against any government.
You might ask yourself who benefits from such an amorphous definition.
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