FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FROM TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY:
Ontario Jails Five More First Nations People Involved in Land Struggles
(Sunday, April 27, 2008 -Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory) Five men from Tyendinaga are in jail today bringing the total number of First Nations people in Ontario jails for defending their land to 12.
Ontario, it appears, has opted for the incarceration of First Nations people over the resolution of outstanding land issues as their status quo.
As for the Ontario Provincial Police, it appears the adoption of Justice Linden's Ipperwash Inquiry recommendations is experiencing some delay. While in custody at the Napanee Detachment several different officers repeatedly informed Shawn Brant that they were going to "slit his throat" and that he was a "dead man."
This followed a similarly disturbing incident that occurred on Monday, April 22nd during the road closures in Deseronto when an officer on the scene clearly and audibly commented to her colleagues "we should just shoot them (Mohawks) all."
Meanwhile, road closures continue in Tyendinaga and Six Nations until, as one man said, "We finish the job."
Contact: Jay Maracle: 613-243-4993
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
More Political Prisoners in Ontario
Another example of the more blatant side of 21st century colonialism in Canada:
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2 comments:
No matter what, I wish the people responsible for land claims would show up, namely the Federal Government
On a certain level, I agree completely...there is a responsibility for relations between settlers and indigenous peoples to happen at a nation-to-nation level. It is disgraceful that no federal government in Canadian history has ever deviated in any significant way from the colonial course, and the state at the federal level must change for any just solution to occur.
But while the feds are constitutionally responsible for land claims, colonization is larger than that...the province is responsible for facilitating the colonial exploitation of land that the settler state should not have in the first place, the municipalities often play a role in some forms of exploitation, many individual settlers happily ignore the whole issue, right-wing settlers whip up a racist frenzy to advance their own crackpot politics, capitalists push for the frontiers of colonization to continually advance in the name of the bottom line, and settler leftists (and I include myself in this) wring our hands and still don't have our act together enough that we can intervene in useful ways when crises like this happen.
So I wholeheartedly endorse the feds taking responsibility, so long as we all understand that advocating that doesn't absolve the rest of us (i.e. settlers in the canadian state and the institutions we control) from our responsibilities.
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