Native warriors are “pirates” now?

By Special Correspondent Jessica Yee

Purported “root causes” for anti-industrial actions are complex, tied into land disputes and First Nations’ social issues. But such actions are proliferating because “warriors” are getting away with them. Caledonia’s Douglas Estates project has been illegally occupied since 2006, while Ontario refuses to enforce the law. When Mohawks blocked and threatened border agents at Cornwall Island this summer, apparently unhappy that the officers’ newly issued sidearms might disrupt bootlegging operations, Ottawa capitulated, relocating the crossing. When Terrance Nelson himself was chief of Manitoba’s Roseau River First Nation in 2007, his threat to blockade rail lines prompted Ottawa to gift his band 75 acres of Winnipeg land. More unlawfulness, Nelson knows — as do the 57 bands backing him for AFN chief — provokes bribes, not enforcement.

And so things will get worse. First Nations are bursting with waves of young, often unemployed, disaffected members reared on a sense of grievance. A 2006 Compas poll found 61% of aboriginals predicted more anti-industrial actions ahead. There’s no shortage of targets. “There’s hardly a road, a railroad line, a transmission line or oil pipeline that doesn’t go through some disputed property territory,” former Ontario premier David Peterson warned in 2007. The economic stakes are steep.

-Kevin Libin, The National Post on Anti-Industrial Actions By First Nations Militants Threaten The Canadian Economy. We Won’t Achieve Peace Until We Stop Giving Into “Warrior” Demands

Some starting points for discussion on this racist piece of shit I’d like to offer:

• First off it’s quite interesting the author bothers to dabble into the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) electoral results right off the bat of this article and attempt to analyze them as if he understands even a SMIDGEN of First Nations governance with Chief and Band Councils

• Oh, the misuse and misunderstanding of the term “warriors” yet again. When will these ignorant closeted bigots realize the English language translation kind of fucked it up for the real meaning of the word

• Piracy? We’re pirates? For real? Or are YOU the pirates seizing the land?

• As if this is really about industry for us “poor, young, unemployed Natives”.  More like it’s industry for THEM. I think White people in this type of situation just can’t STAND the fact that we have our own rule of law – which is actually to take care of the environment – and preserve the land they are trying to stomp all over and denigrate for this young population he speaks of.  Or more to the point – they just can’t stand it when they CAN’T do something.

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Photo credit: The National Post