Mohawks Close Mercier Bridge

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The following from the Canadian Press. Worth noting, for those of you who are not from Canada – the Mercier Bridge connects the Island of Montreal to the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake on the South Shore. In 1990, during the Oka Crisis, Mohawk Warriors seized the bridge and held it for five weeks, in solidarity with Mohawks at Kanesatake who had set up blockades to prevent bulldozers from breaking ground for a golf course that was to be built on a native burial ground. Thus the symbolic significance of this action.

Canadian Press Published: Thursday, April 20, 2006
MONTREAL - A group of Quebec Mohawks are supporting the occupation of a construction site near Hamilton, Ontario, by aboriginal protesters.

The Kahnawake Peacekeepers raised a banner and Mohawks flags on a bridge near Montreal today, snarling traffic.

Mohawk band council spokesman Eric Cardinal says the bridge was blocked for about a half an hour.

Cardinal says the gesture was done in solidarity with the occupation of the southwestern Ontario construction site by aboriginal protesters in Caledonia.

He says there are no further plans to disrupt traffic on the Montreal bridge.

Oh yeah: does anybody have photos or video footage of today’s events in Caledonia?

Likewise, reports on other protests/solidarity actions from around the country… please send them in!