[reproduced with permission from They Call it Struggle for a Reason #6, a publication produced by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty– see www.ocap.ca or write to [email protected] for details on the publication]

It goes without saying that the Canadian Government and Military has a history as long as its own of involvement, interference and assault on First Nation lands and communities. Generally speaking, talk of such interference conjures up images of Oka (Kahnasetake) in 1990 or Stoney Point (Aazhoodena) and Gustafesen Lake (Ts’peten) in 1995. Such heightened points of conflict force glimpses into the ramifications of the Government’s actual orientation and policy towards First Nations into the public psyche (beyond the cloak of money for aboriginal children found in budget speeches and the Governor General’s address). These conflicts do not, however, speak to the day-to-day nature and effects of policies of assimilation, nor the regular (if rarely heard of) Military intrusions that in many ways define the relationship between Canada and First Nations, and which keep communities constantly vigilant.

Tyendinaga, a community that is widely recognized by both friend and foe as a most militant and uncompromising force of sovereignty within the Mohawk Nation, has had to deal with a number of disturbing incidents of Military interference during the past year. Throughout the spring, summer, and into the fall, massive planes that community members have identified as CC-130 Hercules conducted a number of low-level flights over the reserve. The aircraft, used by the Military’s most elite units for transport and parachuting, can carry 90 troops (or 64 fully equipped paratroopers) at a time (Pugliese, p. 140). A plane of that size, flying back and forth (and back and forth, and back and forth) so low it is barely clearing the tree line, let alone one’s rooftop, is a formidable sight in the sky.

A grade four student recounted one such occasion. He talked about how he and the other children at the Quinte Mohawk Primary School/daycare (attended each day by more than 350 children aged 2 to 13 years old) were subject to repeated low-level flights directly over the schoolyard during their lunch hour. This student also witnessed one such plane dropping a large, unidentified crate barely two miles from the school grounds. Alarmed parents and angry community members were later assured that the flight path and drop(s) had been organized to deal with an apparently nasty raccoon problem that had sprung up on the few miles of land that stretched between the Bay of Quinte and the reserve school. The Canadian Military seems to have adopted a rather strong sense of duty in addressing problems with the small animal wildlife in Tyendinaga. As the (non-native) communities directly to the East, West, North and South were not subject to similar flights, it would appear that these particular raccoons also observed Reserve borders.

Not two months later, the Military ensured that its presence was felt once again. The Canadian Forces Base at Trenton chose Remembrance Day to engage in water and ground maneuvers on the Territory. Tyendinaga’s monthly newsletter reported the incident in its “Police Beat” column. Listed between the theft of an X-Box game console and the tipping over of a local pop machine, it was explained this way: “During the morning of November 11th, military personnel from the Canadian Forces Base Trenton were conducting a training maneuver on land around the Mohawk Airport. At approximately 9:30am, an unknown person or persons fired several shots at some of the armed forces personnel. While no one was injured, some rounds hit very close to the men. The Military members were later confronted by some community members and ceased their training exercise.”

The exercise, which apparently started at 4:00am, involved a full military landing using rubber boats. It included an unknown number of armed soldiers, one of whom carelessly threw his rifle in the ditch, in a vain attempt to conceal it when questioned by a community member.

Relevant to this whole fiasco is the fact that the Mohawk Nation had a huge enlistment of soldiers in both the First and Second World Wars. These men, fully trained and professional combatants, like all soldiers, lost many comrades in battle. Their families, like all army families, lost fathers, brothers and sons on the battlefields. That the Canadian Military should attempt to conduct a training operation on the unceded lands of the Mohawk Nation is hugely inappropriate. That they should make this attempt on the very day where literally everywhere else they would have been holding Remembrance services simply adds insult to injury.

Training Exercises

Such “training exercises” are cause for concern for good reason. It was training exercises on and around reserves, revealed by rumours, government and military leaks thought 1994, that led “Journal de Montreal” journalist, Marco Fortier, to file a Freedom of Information Act request in 1999. Nine months after filing the request, he received 1599 pages of documents outlining massive preparation for a planned invasion of several Mohawk communities that would have involved some 1,500 soldiers, 2,000 RCMP and 2,000 Surete Quebec officers. According to the documents obtained, the SQ and RCMP would be deployed to follow and secure the Territories. The strategists for the operation had their troops trained literally for the better part of a year and had them at such a state of readiness that they could be deployed with only 48- 72 hours notice.

The planned invasions were to take place at night, with the forces arriving by road, rail and air, using helicopters and armoured vehicles. The soldiers would have had access to tear gas, smoke bombs, and pepper spray. They were trained and had apparently perfected the use of 66 millimeter rockets and M-67- type fragmentation grenades. In the air, they were trained to fly helicopters below power lines and conducted exercises shooting at flight levels of 100 feet. They sought and secured an agreement with the Federal Minster of Transportation for an allowance to fly over the targeted reserves without restriction. Also trained and on standby was the Military’s most secret and elite unit, Joint Task Force 2. The unit was informed that the planned assault was expected to spark country-wide native-led strikes. It is estimated that in all, “a quarter of the Canadian Army’s combat power was at a high state of readiness.” (Pugliese, p. 36)

At the time, the Military called their assault preparations “an exercise,” and the Canadian Government still maintains that they whole thing was an attempt to curb the smuggling of cigarettes as its official line. In the end, the invasions were called off only when CSIS issued warnings to the Federal Government that the police measures would in all likelihood cause such grave political violence and bloodshed that it would be unpalatable to the Canadian public.

Present day points of (heightened) conflict and Government/Military involvement

Since that time, Pikangikum, as isolated Northern community that was plagued by the highest rate of suicide anywhere (34 times the national average) until September of 2001, has refused the Canadian Government access through their territory to the lucrative mining and exploration sites which lie to the north that the Feds so desperately want. As a result, the community has had to face down the severing of its funding, an attempt to control all Band Finances, the imposition of an Indian Agent (a tactic not used by the Government for decades) and delegations of RCMP called in to monitor the situation. Pikangikum’s unwavering resolve and will, coupled with solidarity actions in the South, seem to have proven victorious.

More recently still, the community of Grassy Narrows has set up a blockade that has seen children as young as six and seven years old lie down on the frozen roads in the paths of logging trucks. A recent seventeen hour stand- off, where trucks were not allowed entry nor exit once they had arrived, ended with the logging company begging to have the trucks turned away from the clearcuts, only to see them held another eight hours by the community as pure punishment. Since then, three other communities have set up blockades. As Grassy further asserts itself, Canadian Forces maneuvers and operations have begun on the surrounding lands. As I am writing this, the responsible people of the Oneida Nation are asserting their power. The battle between the Indian Act band council system and the fight for recognition of the Longhouse Government continues, some 80 years after the Act’s imposition.

Significant progress has been made in the level of involvement from non-native organizations and alliance groups seeking to form a collective response with coordinated actions. The government must constantly be weighing the possibility of national native-led resistance as an ever-present threat. A strengthened show of commitment and support on the part of non-native organizations will help ensure the greatest chance for success in dealing with all First Nations issues. As the maneuvers around Grassy indicate a Government demonstrating once again its readiness to deploy its forces, we should be ready to deploy our own.

Sources: “Canada’s Secret Commandos – The Unauthorized Story of Joint Task Force Two” – by David Pugliese

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