Six Nations: Canada Hosts Secret ‘Bag of Wind’ Negotiations at Best Western in Brantford

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I am relaying the following reaction from Kahentinetha Horn to yesterday’s meeting organized by the government to discuss the standoff in Caledonia:

MNN.   April 13, 2006.   Is this a turning point or a set up?  Canada has supposedly made a commitment to peace.  However, they continue to keep Six Nations under siege by surrounding it with police cruisers, trucks, vans, arrangements for a ward at the hospital, ambulances at the ready and emptying local jail cells.  It looks frighteningly similar to the first stages of the Mohawk/Oka Crisis of 1990.

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The people from the protest site weren't invited to these negotiations at the Best Western in Brantford.  A few people went there to see what's going on and to report back to the people.  They were almost kicked out by Dave General of the Six Nations band council.  The few chiefs there demanded they stay.  What's wrong with this scenario?  Can negotiations work when one of the parties isn't there?  

The traditional chiefs who are there were contacted by Canada and not selected by the people.  If Canada really wants to undo its mess, they should have advertised and notified the whole community that negotiations were going to take place.  

Canada is negotiating only with the band council that they set up illegally in 1924 through procedures that violate international law.  Only 26 people voted in that election.  If Canada is serious about maintaining peace, getting to the bottom of the problems and making sure everything is resolved, they need to acknowledge these actions were illegal.  

This would make it possible to approach problems related to land title on a more rational and even-handed basis.  If they want to negotiate in good faith, they could start by announcing an intention to rectify the problems they have caused.  

Then they should announce an intention to negotiate with the Six Nations people at a future time.  This would give the people the time they need to go through the procedures to select their representatives.    

These private negotiations violate the legality required under the Kaianereh'ko:wa/Great Law and even their own laws.  According to the Royal Proclamation, in any dealings with land, there has to be a public meeting of all people, not just a select group.  This was the law of Britain in 1763.  Canada has acknowledged that the Royal Proclamation is still a part of Canadian law.  To this day, the United States must adhere to this process.  Negotiations must always be conducted in public in order to be legitimate.

The last time a Minister of Indian Affairs made a legitimate attempt to negotiate with the Six Nations people was in the 1920's.  It was publicized in advance.  It took place in the Brantford YMCA.  The meetings were open to all members of the Six Nations and the colonial society.  Hundreds attended.  The discussions were recorded in detail by the Brantford press.  At that time normal Six Nations consultative procedures ensured that the positions represented the will of the people.      

Even under the Indian act, they must follow the pattern that was established under the Royal Proclamation.  They have to have three public meetings of the People.  If Canada doesn't comply, they are in breach of the responsibility they pretend to uphold.  This does not mean we are acknowledging any loss of our sovereignty or our constitutional jurisdiction over our land.  It is the process Canada is supposed to use under their law.  They were to always work in the best interests of Indians.  They cannot sit on the other side of the table from the Indians in an adversarial position.  

Since 1924 most of the business of the Six Nations concerning practical administrative matters such as roads, schools and health care have been taken over by the puppet government installed by Duncan Campbell Scott.  Since then legitimate traditional procedures have been ignored.  If Canada really wants to undo the wrongs that lead to this demonstration against Henco Industries, it has to undo the problems caused when the Six Nations traditional government was illegally deposed in the 1920's.  The Six Nations people need a reasonable opportunity to restore their traditional government.  This is why the current secret negotiations cannot resolve the situation.  

Canada at present faces an excellent opportunity to correct the injustice imposed through Scott's shenanigans.  If it is sincere, it could start with a public announcement they are committed to peace and they will not use force.  It is not enough for us to hear about this through the grapevine.  Secondly they have to announce that there will be negotiations in public so everyone can hear what is going on.    

Canada is encroaching onto another people's land.  They do not have a right to impose procedures and laws on us without our knowledge or consent.  (Where was the Best Western back then?)  We suggest that Canada respect democratic processes as defined in international instruments that Canada has signed.  

It is supposed to be a negotiation meeting to resolve the long standing default by the Canada and Ontario who have allow and promoted squatters to encroach on our land.   Almost half of the early cases that went to court in Upper Canada concerned Six Nations land.  Nothing was resolved.  These secret meetings are leading to more distrust.  

One of people from the site reported that Canada stated that they won't come in as long as negotiations are going on.  He also got the impression that they assume that peace will result when the Six Nations people leave and not when the Henco Industries squatters depart.  

All Indian lands are held communally and everyone has an interest in that land.  That's why all the people have to be at the negotiations.  The OPP expressed how anxious they are to go to the site and exercise their "order" from the court to clear the protesters off in anyway whatsoever, peaceful preferably, but otherwise too.

Dave General was concerned about the "yellow alert" issued by the Warrior Societies across Turtle Island.  He called Terrance Nelson in Manitoba to get him to take it off and let "his" government deal with Canada, Ontario and the police.  Nelson reassured Dave General that nothing would happen as long as the people's land rights are respected and no force is used and no blood is shed.    

Dave General told Canada and Ontario he's ready to take the money for the land.  He has no rights as a puppet of his masters, who are all sitting on the same side of the table, to ask for anything!  

The spirit in which the people are conducting themselves comes from the Peacemaker.  They want to negotiate peace.  The government does not adhere to the same spirit.  They believe that "might makes right".  With enough force they think they will make the people succumb to their authority.  We are facing them with an attitude of peace and resolution.  The other side is threatening and are the only ones threatening.  

Does Canada really think that paying what is in effect a puppet government and using Aboriginal mercenaries to attack the women and clan mothers is really going to solve this problem?   It looks like the Canadian government is trying to create warfare between Indigenous nations by bringing in Aboriginal mercenaries from other nations to attack us.  A similar tactic was used in Rwanda.  The colonial powers wanted a war to divide the Indigenous people.  Canada seems to want a war between the Indigenous nations on Turtle Island, in violation of all the agreements made between us so long ago.  They're setting us up against each other so we look bad.      

Is Canada trying to rig a situation that will make it look as if Indigenous people are to blame for the use of violence?  They want to make a deal with Dave General and get him to send in Aboriginal mercenaries.  Canada wants to say it's not another Ipperwash, even though they are in control of everything.  Canada decides who they will pay and who will represent the Six Nations people.  Get it?  

Would Canadians accept it if the Americans decided that they would rather deal with Belinda Stronach (Canada's own Paris Hilton) because she dresses better than the legitimately chosen representative of the Canadian people?  I don't think so.  Why should Canada expect the Six Nations people to accept their well-paid puppets?  There are no clear parallels because the United States has not yet deposed the Canadian government the way Canada deposed ours.  

Everyone at that table at the Best Western hotel is on the same side.  One party to the dispute is not there, those asserting their legitimate title to the land.  The colonizers are rattling their sabers.  This pseudo negotiation is taking place under conditions of duress.  They have the whole neighborhood surrounded by cops.

Indians are being made targets to be shot at.  There is a media black out so Canadians don't know what's going on.  This was planned a while ago.  Canada planted a big story in the New York Times demonizing us, which went all over the world.  To Canada it looks like Indians can be shot and killed without impunity.  They are conditioning the world to not react to these attacks upon us.  Canada seems to be deliberately creating this situation.    

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News



Categories: canada, colonialism, first-nations, mohawk-nation, protest