My Canada includes rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Love it or leave it! Peace.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Message from the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy:

Stop development and negotiate

Posted 7 hours ago

We the Haudenosaunee government of Six Nations find ourselves in an uncertain position with respect to the relationship between the governments of Canada and Ontario, in right of the Crown.

The actions of your government and its processes have challenged our right to establish our own internal structures for dealing with development issues that we are confronted with.

Between us has been established the treaty belts of the Two Row Wampum and the Silver Covenant Chain of Friendship, in which our ancestors, both yours and ours have declared that there would always be a relationship of peace, mutual respect and friendship between us. These agreements further stipulate a policy of non-interference that must be maintained. We each have the right and responsibility to protect the integrity of our governments.

Over the past two years we have offered numerous options and opportunities to the representatives of the Crown at the negotiating table. The options are based on our treaty rights and responsibilities. Our goal is to ease the tensions that exist due to the continued development of lands which are under dispute, due to unresolved Six Nations lands rights issues. The response to this has been legal actions demanding the appearance of our Confederacy Council-sanctioned Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) into your court.

This total lack of respect for our right to set forth policies and internal infrastructures to govern in the manner that we see as desirable and necessary is completely unacceptable and unlawful by both treaty law and international law. This matter will be further dealt with by our council, carrying out our responsibilities to the people of Six Nations.

We urge the representatives of the Crown to realize the potential for conflict, and the best way to stop a conflict when there is a dispute is to stop doing whatever is at the root of the conflict. We urge the governments (municipal, provincial and federal) to act responsibly and to stop development of disputed Six Nations lands and to come to the negotiating table in a sincere, respectful way and let's resolve our outstanding lands issues in the manner our treaties guide us ... Nation to Nation.

Leroy Hill

Council Secretary

Haudenosaunee Council of Chiefs

Six Nations' Grand River Country

Saturday, May 17, 2008

The Canada we understand now
The schoolyard cigarette butt study suggests the repercussions of a situation that has spiralled out of control are being clearly felt beyond the reserves. There is still no official third level of government in Canada under the Constitution, even if de facto self-government has been established under the Nisga'a Treaty and by a host of other agreements.
The bottom line is the federal government has to insist on its right to tax and not only specify the consequences for non-compliance, but act on them. To do otherwise would be to cede sovereignty and create a very different version of Canada than the one we understand now. jivison@nationalpost.com
The Canada we understand now ... That's a whole topic in itself, isn't it? Is it the Canada jivison understands? The National Post? The one I understand? Whose 'Canada' are we talking about? Does it just come down to the federal has to insist on its right to tax and not only specify the consequences for non-compliance, but act on them. Because that's just silly, for those who have read at least some of the law and the history of Canada. It is a legal fact that the federal government cannot impose taxes on reserves. That war was never fought, nothing was ever won. Are you suggesting we fight that one now? hahahahaha Don't be ridiculous. Read the Constitution. (Try the US.) Canada never conquered any Indigenous Nation. We inherited the Queen's peace treaties with them and we uphold them in the Constitution. The police pledge loyalty to the Queen (treaties) and the Constitution, keeping the peace and preventing crime, in that order. That's the way we like it. Loyalty to law, the people. Does the National Post mislead its readers to believe otherwise? Besides, we accommodate different taxes among provinces and with the US. What difference does another tax jurisdiction really matter? Who really cares? Indigenous Peoples simply are not "within" Canada, necessarily. Canada offers citizenship. They choose to accept or not. No country can force citizenship on other sovereign peoples: There was no surrender. "Poof! You're a Canadian now" (1960?) did not make it so. Treaty-for-settlement promises account for the health, education and other payments from Canada. There is no 'third level' of government within Canada. It is simply the respect due to our legal relationship with Indigenous Nations who are allies of the Crown, through Treaties of Alliance. It's just a legal matter, a Constitutional law perspective that has to be implemented: A say in development and a share in revenues on their traditional land. No big deal. Federal and provincial Ministers have both recently uttered the words "Duty to Consult", and Strahl announced plans and funding. Nobody told Canadians that we have sovereignty over Indigenous Nations or their traditional land. That wouldn't be the truth: Our treaties with them allow us to live on their land. No Canadians who accept the 1982 Constitution of Canada would even question "existing Aboriginal and Treaty Rights". So whose interests does the National Post uphold, if not the laws of the people of Canada? A business reality ... Natural tobacco products are in demand, and are available only from Indigenous sources. For all of us non-native Canadians, that is illegal. Pity. Silly. Given the option, even at the same price, I'd buy natural tobacco, though not 'rollies', but certainly not Canada's toxic smokes that we are forced by law to buy. So much for the 'free market'. -- http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/ My Canada respects rights of Indigenous Peoples: Love it or leave it!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Tobacco war: More of Canada's crimes against humanity ?

Re: Tobacco faceoff looms - Contraband crackdown may spark native 'confrontation' John Ivison, National Post Published: Friday, May 09, 2008

Crown - Haudenosaunee Two Row Wampum Treaty of Alliance"Our doctrine is two boats travelling down the same river that never intersect and which live in peaceful co-existence but do not impose laws on one another," Chief Delisle said. John Ivison, National Post editorializes: Stirring stuff, but somewhat undermined by a closer look at the facts. The Mohawks of Kahnawake, Bay of Quinte, Akwesasne, the Six Nations and Tyendinaga might see themselves as sovereign jurisdictions, beholden to no one, but it doesn't stop them taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Canadian taxpayers.

Mr Ivison,

The payments to First Nations by our Canadian governments are required by our treaties with Indigenous Nations, treaties that allow us to live on their land. In partial return, we pay health, education and some other costs, a more palatable way for Canada to pay some of its debts, but always insufficiently. The treaties provide the only legal right we Canadians have to live in this land we call 'Canada', and they are also the laws that define our border with the U.S. Without the treaties of Indigenous Peoples with the Queen, Canada has no legal land mass, no sovereignty, no country. Too bad you didn't (have the nerve to?) share your opinion about the money with Mike Delisle. He would have easily set you straight about the money to their communities.
"Poof! You're a Canadian now!" (against your will) did not make it so. Sovereignty cannot be taken, only given.
Of course, after Confederation Canada's RCMP persistently dispersed traditional Indigenous governance at gunpoint, stole treaty wampums and removed from their homes and indoctrinated Indigenous children by the thousands, half of whom are still missing. Children and adults were sterilized, especially traditional leaders so their hereditary lines might not survive. However, none of that was legal by the international laws that govern relations among nations. In fact, internationally that is called genocide. And now Canada's legal misdeeds (aka crimes against humanity) are coming home to roost. Canada's genocide is well known by the UN International Centre for Justice, and by school children around the world, but Canadian teachers are not allowed to teach the truth. The payments to communities are at least one thing we did that was legal, though entirely insufficient and designed to keep them in extreme poverty. In my lifetime, I will see Canada acknowledge its crimes, acknowledge the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations, and live up to its agreements. You can count on that. I know it will be in spite of publications like the National Post that encourage and support Canada's past and present immorality and crimes and cover-ups to satisfy your corporate handlers. That is the kind of mind control of the public we will be attacking. Coming to your neighbourhood soon! Keep in mind ... Canada's economy is entirely dependent on the billions of dollars in natural resources stripped from traditional Indigenous lands everyday and shipped south, without consultation or agreement and with no revenues for their deliberately impoverished communities. In typical Canadian corporate arrogance, the shipping roads and railways often go right through traditional Indigenous land, again without any agreement or any compensation. The Indigenous Elders of today still remember Canada's guns that tried to destroy their communities, and they know their land rights and languages and traditions too. The Indigenous Youth of today are now experiencing Canada's guns for themselves. Together, the Youth and Elders are a powerful leadership alliance that now has Canada listening. If confrontation is the way Canada wants to go, we will hear the sound of blockades going up, and Canada's economy coming down. And there is absolutely nothing we can do about that legally. It is traditional Indigenous land. The Crown has a 'Duty to Consult' and make an agreement by Canadian Constitutional law. I have it on good authority that the tobacco war announced by Stockboy Day is just window dressing. As usual, they will make a big show of it, and then quietly drop all the charges before they have to go to court: It isn't about law, it's just harrassment. The reason resides in those same treaties: Canada has no legal authority in Haudenosaunee jurisdiction but Canada does not want that to come out in court, doesn't want Canadians to know. It's just a futile dance the feds do every once in a while: Tobacco sovereignty across the border and among Indigenous communities is a given. The Canadian courts can't touch the Jay Treaty. I deny and I will defy my country's right to send police to hold guns to heads of their young mothers and aim assault rifles at Indigenous Elders and children again, as Fantino's OPP just did at Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The days of Canada rolling over the rights and the bodies and the babies of Indigenous people with brutal force are gone. Our governments, the Crown, have failed in their 'duty to consult and accommodate'. Indigenous Peoples are defending their land interests, legally. Nobody's shooting anybody here, ever again. Oka and Ipperwash will not be repeated. Our Canadian governments and police simply have to obey Canadian law. My Canada respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples: Love it or leave it! Honour the Queen's treaties and Canada's Constitution, Indigenous People's right to "A say in development and share in revenues" on their traditional Indigenous land. Obey the law. No more stupid guns. grannysaga Tobacco faceoff looms

Contraband crackdown may spark native 'confrontation'

John Ivison, National Post Published: Friday, May 09, 2008

Peter Redman/National PostNative groups consider cigarette manufacturing on reserves to be a legitimate enterprise under their legal system and warn against federal government intervention.

OTTAWA -Grand Chief Mike Delisle of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake expects "some kind of confrontation" if the Conservative government acts on its pledge to crack down on contraband tobacco, which has become big business on many native reserves.

The reason is that Mohawks on the reserve south of Montreal do not recognize Canadian law and insist the manufacture of cigarettes is legitimate under their legal system. If the feds think otherwise, they will have to negotiate with the Mohawk Council, Chief Delisle said. "We are a government and we expect to be dealt with on a nation to nation basis."

The Mohawks abide by the "two row wampum" treaty negotiated with the Dutch in the 1600s. This agreement is symbolized by a belt with two lines that run parallel but never meet.

"Our doctrine is two boats travelling down the same river that never intersect and which live in peaceful co-existence but do not impose laws on one another," Chief Delisle said.

Stirring stuff, but somewhat undermined by a closer look at the facts. The Mohawks of Kahnawake, Bay of Quinte, Akwesasne, the Six Nations and Tyendinaga might see themselves as sovereign jurisdictions, beholden to no one, but it doesn't stop them taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Canadian taxpayers.

In the case of Kahnawake, which has a resident population of about 7,000, Ottawa shipped in $48-million in 2006-07 -- $7-million for schools, $7.3-million for infrastructure and housing, $5-million for social development and $4.2-million for health. The Mohawks of Akwesasne, the centre of the contraband tobacco industry, received $41.6-million in the same year.

This sits incongruously with Chief Delisle's contention that the Mohawks have never been citizens of Canada. "We consider Canada to be outside the realm of our confederacy," he said.

Incidents at Caledonia and Deseronto in Ontario have sparked fears of a repeat of the Oka Crisis of 1990, when the Kahnawake Mohawks blockaded the Mercier Bridge into Montreal. Chief Delisle said that, despite escalating tensions with the federal government, he did not think the situation was as grave as at the time of Oka. "We're still willing to talk. I don't think we're facing 1990 now, even though there is an expectation we'll say we'll block the bridge, which is not the case."

But he warned there will be a "problem" if the RCMP or Surete du Quebec raids the reserve to shut down tobacco manufacturers. "The community won't sit back and be run over.... There is likely to be some kind of confrontation -- I just hope it's not physical," he said.

There have been occasions in the recent past in which the local police force has cooperated with other law enforcement agencies. A joint operation in March netted 29 people and seized $3-million in cash, drugs and firearms. "There was a positive response here to make it into a safer place. This isn't a lawless society," he said.

Nevertheless, the federal government and the Mohawk Council have very different views of what passes for legitimate business. In addition to tobacco manufacture and distribution, Kahnawake plays host to 400 or so Internet sports betting sites that Ottawa considers illegal. In March, Rob Nicholson, the Minister of Justice, said he had asked officials to look at ways to "enforce the Criminal Code provisions ... with other measures" -- which most took to mean looking at how to restrict banks and credit card companies from conducting business with sites such as those based at Kahnawake.

Chuck Strahl, the Indian Affairs Minister, has portrayed relations between Ottawa and Canada's aboriginal communities as largely harmonious, marred only by "specific problems that are proving difficult" on a couple of reserves in Ontario. A short chat with Chief Delisle would disabuse him of that notion. Confrontation is coming.

jivison@nationalpost.com

My Canada includes rights of Indigenous Peoples.
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!
Peace.

Two Row Wampum Treaty

Two Row Wampum Treaty
"It is said that, each nation shall stay in their own vessels, and travel the river side by side. Further, it is said, that neither nation will try to steer the vessel of the other." This is a treaty among Indigenous Nations, and with Canada. This is the true nature of our relationships with Indigenous Nations of 'Kanata'.