Our warrior problem: Militant Natives are causing trouble, and they aren't going away
BY KRIS SIMS ATLANTIC BUREAU
Ottawa Sun
HALIFAX -
They block roads, stop trains and fight the cops. Men and women dressed in camouflage, boots and bandanas. They come from reserves, wave red flags, set fires, tear up roads and declare sovereignty for their tribes. They are the so-called 'Warrior Societies' and they mean business.
They even award themselves ranks such as general and lieutenant, insisting a military wing is a part of any sovereign nation. Many aboriginal rights activists consider themselves as members of a sovereign people, separate from Canada.
Many arrested at a recent riot in Rexton, N.B., where six police cruisers were torched, are members of the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society. Charges range from possession of a firearm to unlawful confinement and uttering threats.
Dressed head to toe in combat fatigues, Susanne Patles was released on a $400 bond and talked to reporters outside court and explained where their anger was coming from.
"(Warrior societies) are the boots on the ground to emancipate people, to have the people rise up," she said
"We are a nation. We are above Canada. We are above it all, because we are a nation. Canada is a corporation, we are a nation, and when we signed on to our pre-Confederation treaties it was on a nation-to-nation basis, and we signed it with the British nation, not Canada."
And I really like this...
Gavin Taylor, history professor at Concordia University:
"There was never a point at which those groups signed over their sovereignty to the Crown, or certainly not to Canada ... In the eyes of the Canadian state, yes they are Canadian. In the eyes of the Canadian law, yes they are Canadian. But have they actually formally accepted that ever? Have they ever actually given consent to that? Not really, no, Canada is a colonial country, formed by the arrival of Europeans who took land and resources away from people who lived here originally, and we tend to forget that and paper over it, but it's still there."
BY KRIS SIMS ATLANTIC BUREAU
Ottawa Sun
HALIFAX -
They block roads, stop trains and fight the cops. Men and women dressed in camouflage, boots and bandanas. They come from reserves, wave red flags, set fires, tear up roads and declare sovereignty for their tribes. They are the so-called 'Warrior Societies' and they mean business.
They even award themselves ranks such as general and lieutenant, insisting a military wing is a part of any sovereign nation. Many aboriginal rights activists consider themselves as members of a sovereign people, separate from Canada.
Many arrested at a recent riot in Rexton, N.B., where six police cruisers were torched, are members of the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society. Charges range from possession of a firearm to unlawful confinement and uttering threats.
Dressed head to toe in combat fatigues, Susanne Patles was released on a $400 bond and talked to reporters outside court and explained where their anger was coming from.
"(Warrior societies) are the boots on the ground to emancipate people, to have the people rise up," she said
"We are a nation. We are above Canada. We are above it all, because we are a nation. Canada is a corporation, we are a nation, and when we signed on to our pre-Confederation treaties it was on a nation-to-nation basis, and we signed it with the British nation, not Canada."
And I really like this...
Gavin Taylor, history professor at Concordia University:
"There was never a point at which those groups signed over their sovereignty to the Crown, or certainly not to Canada ... In the eyes of the Canadian state, yes they are Canadian. In the eyes of the Canadian law, yes they are Canadian. But have they actually formally accepted that ever? Have they ever actually given consent to that? Not really, no, Canada is a colonial country, formed by the arrival of Europeans who took land and resources away from people who lived here originally, and we tend to forget that and paper over it, but it's still there."