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How much of Earth's atmosphere must we contaminate? How much of our lands and waters must we pollute? How much of our resources must we plunder, deplete? How many species must we ravage, despoil, extinguish? How many people must we degrade, deprive, destroy with toxic wastes and wars, before we learn to respect one another, to live in harmony on this planet, our Home? "All living beings are brothers and sisters, nourished from the same source of life.." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

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I was born in Eastern Europe during the height of the Stalinist regime's reign of terror. Thus, I know what it is like to live under a repressive, dictatorial regime. The fear and terror -- as dissident friends and family members were tortured, imprisoned and some were executed -- is indelibly etched in my memory. That is the reason I have always been an ardent advocate of freedom, social justice, civil liberties, human rights and a voice of peace. The way I see it, war is morally wrong, regardless of who wages it, for whatever reason. No piece of land or commodity is worth the sacrifice of one human life. We are all members of the same race - the "human race" - and must learn to coexist peacefully. Our planet cannot sustain us much longer if we do not stop our wars, nukes, polluting, deforestation, and the wasteful, gluttonous consumption and depletion of our natural resources.

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    Monday, April 17, 2006

    Six Nations Update from MNN, April 17th

    I just received this information from Kahentinetha Horn at Mohawk Nations News and re-posting it here, with permission.

    This occupation to stop outside construction on our land has been going on for over 6 weeks. Here's an update. Your continued support is needed. Kahentinetha Horn.


    CANADA’S ‘3 BLIND MICE’ WANT TO APPEASE SQUATTERS AT THE EXPENSE OF THOSE ‘BAD’ SIX NATIONS INDIANS.


    MNN. April 17, 2006. Ontario has a population of about 10 million. It’s growing so that within a very short time there will be 13 million. They have to take over Indian lands to accommodate these people. They don’t want the Haldimand Tract to be in dispute. They want investors from all over the world to have no fear of putting their money into towns, homes, golf courses, highways and industries throughout Rotino’shon:ni land in southern Ontario.


    They should instead be working on a plan to make Indians, who will never relinquish title to our lands, to become their partners in all of these developments. The Crees of Quebec were made beneficiaries in the James Bay Agreement instead of being robbed. If millions of people are coming onto our land, we demand a say in what’s happening. As the land is held by the Indigenous Women, they need our permission to do anything. We must be consulted on everything that’s going to be done on all of the Haldimand Tract.


    Ontario and Canada can’t do anything without consulting us, the Confederacy. They can’t go running to their illegal band council puppets.


    If you read the Hamilton Spectator, you would think everything is “hunky dory”. They state there is going to be a buy-out of Henco, land is going to be returned to the Indians and the Ontario Provincial Police are going to take down their command post. There is even going to be a campaign to educate our tenants about us.


    Indian Affairs even brought some puppet chiefs from British Columbia into the circus to guide the Six Nations into the Canadian way of how land claims should be dealt with. They’re putting out the lie that Douglas Creek Estates is “privately held” land which is being claimed by Six Nations people. It is and always has been communally held sovereign land.


    The land under the protection of the Haldimand Proclamation is 384,451 hectares of land which is six miles on both sides of the Grand River from its mouth to its source. The whole tract consists of over 1 million hectares. The land was stolen, natural resources were fraudulently extracted on numerous occasions over the centuries and funds were misappropriated and invested. Sometimes they were outright unauthorized loans made to such institutions as McGill University and the Law Society of Upper Canada. They never paid back these loans. This creates a major bias on the part of the judiciary against the Six Nations. We need an international mediator that is neutral, has no interest in the outcome and is acceptable to both parties.


    Canada says they are not accountable for actions of the British Crown before Canada was founded in 1867! They’ve been running that lie for years. This is like the colonial practice of sleazy business men who abandon one bankrupt company and start fresh with a new one.


    The 1978 Vienna Convention on the Succession of States says you can’t get out of your obligations by turning yourself into another state. The consent of the other parties is required before a successor state can escape the obligations undertaken by a predecessor state. We never gave that. Canadians seem to have forgotten that they’re the ones who benefited from Britain’s agreements with us. There is no reason why the people who are Indigenous to Britain and stayed behind should have to compensate the Indigenous people of Turtle Island for the benefits they got as the people who immigrated to our land.


    It is sad that Canada refuses to decontaminate its laws and get rid of colonial thinking. Those people negotiating on behalf of Canada could be presenting the kind of partnership and solidarity that could lead to a strong economic partnership. It should be based on Canada honoring its agreements with Indigenous people. When people work together in a positive way more can be achieved.


    This proposed solution means that millions of more dollars and decades of more effort will be misspent on legal battles. Are we going to continue to throw documents and legal arguments at each other? There is no dispute. We own this land. Is Canada going to continue to harass and imprison the brightest and best of our young people? When is Canada going to allow us human rights?


    The Spectator is moaning on and on about losses to non-native developers, carpenters, plumbers, roofers, brick layers and home owners. It completely ignores our losses over the past two centuries. We have been denied our own economic, social and political system.


    Most of Six Nations people are opposed to the band council. Negotiations are still at the point of an OPP gun. They are itching to try out their fancy weaponry and enforce an illegal court order on us. We never gave consent for Canada and Ontario to have jurisdiction over us. They complain that this standoff “is giving rise to disrespect for the law and the police!” However, they represent the country that has totally disrespected our laws and agreements to conduct a nation-to-nation relationship.


    The OPP has no respect. When will they come clean on exactly what they did at Ipperwash when they killed Dudley George over a land issue? We’re waiting to hear them say, “We’re going to talk instead of shoot you”.

    As stated by the Australian court in Mabo, “we were not a “legal desert” when the British arrived”. The idea that only British colonists or their descendants like Australians and Canadians were the only people who had “law” is a legal fiction.


    At the Sunday April 16th emergency meeting [an emergency for Canada], the band council voted 7 to 6 in favor of turning land matters over to the Rotino’shon:ni Confederacy. In other words, we’d like to see them keep the same standards of excellence that they had back in the 1920’s. Council meetings were open to the public and were fully recorded so that the public had a better understanding of the Six Nations people. The newspapers then were not advocates for any side. They were not a propaganda sheet for the government and the police like they are now.


    The band council decision to hand matters concerning land over to the traditional Confederacy council that Canada violently deposed in 1924 is a political breakthrough. It suggests that Canada can no longer “buy” enough support to keep up its pretense that their puppet government is legitimate. It shows that even those people who take part in the band council elections are aware of the frauds that were perpetrated on the Six Nations people.


    This does not mean that Canada will respect the right to self-determination of the Six Nations people. The Minister of Indian affairs still has a right to veto it. This Indian Act provision violates international law and is ultra vires the Six Nations. We don’t really need the Minister’s consent or a resolution from the illegal band council to do anything! The band councilors’ move reflects the attempt by the Six Nations people to express their will in terms that Canada must accept. Canada and Ontario were told to honor our wishes. The Supreme Court of Canada has recognized that “aboriginal rights” must be interpreted as understood by the Indigenous people.

    How do you think Indian Affairs responded to this?


    Their point man, Dave ‘Colonial’ General, did not vote in favor of this resolution. Instead he read out his, Canada and Ontario’s schemes on how to resolve the occupation. They want an extension to the current Douglas Creek Estates’ injunction to May 24th 2006 [rather than disposing of it because it’s illegal]. They want a poll to be conducted of all members 18 years of age and older on whom should oversee the land issue. Will it be the traditional Confederacy, the band council or a jointly appointed committee? The band council is supporting the Confederacy and Dave General is still pushing the colonial agenda. Hey, Dave, whose payroll are you on anyway?


    Dave, Canada and Ontario, the Three Blind Mice, want to send a notice out on April 19th. They want the poll to take place on May 22nd, on “Bread and Cheese Day” [when everybody gets constipated. Let’s hope that’s not how they vote!]. This is when Queen Victoria distributed bread and cheese to celebrate her birthday. After she died the practice fell into disrepute. It was revived in the late 1920’s when the people were struggling to control the Agricultural Hall they had built and was illegally confiscated by the band council.


    Dave asks for this, “in good faith [so that] all parties will honor the result of the poll”.


    Dave and the other mice know full well that this is an old deceptive trap. It is like the time in 1686 when Marquis de Denonville invited the Rotino’shon:ni for a peace meeting in Montreal. When they arrived, most of our people were either killed or forced into galley slavery or died in prisons in France. Is Dave trying to invite all the Six Nations people to his peace treaty and trick us into sanctioning this land theft? We are very suspicious of voting in any polls or election run by his colonial master. We have our own way of making decisions which includes all people of all ages according to the Kaianereh’ko:wa.


    Only about 3% will take part and they are all employed by the band council. Dave and his puppet masters want an agreement with Henco Industries, a colonial court date as soon as possible, the appointment of a polling officer [we thought polls were for dogs] and to get the vote done right away.

    Let’s ask them this! Would the colonial people agree to be dispossessed of their lands and homes on the basis of a poll? We don’t think so.


    There are 22,000 members of the Six Nations community. A legitimate poll should have at least 13,000 to 14,000 people voting. Only 500 people voting would be completely illegal according to international law. A valid poll would sanction the traditional chiefs to speak on our behalf. There has to be complete disclosure and fully informed consent of a majority of the people. Otherwise it would be the decision of a small group of elitists who are likely pawns of the outside interests.


    They want to use such a fraudulent vote as showing that we have agreed to cede the entire Haldimand Tract. Dave and his cohorts want to say, “We have settled this conflict once and for all. We have relinquished all our interests except for where our people actually live. Just think, we will get some cheese, beads, promises of some money and a few parcels of land”, or words to that effect. Remember, the vote will be run by Indian Affairs. To be fair and legal, it should be run by the United Nations.


    The people say emphatically once again, “We aren’t leaving until all the land is in our name and we have control over it. Any settlers who want to occupy and use our land has to consult us and get our permission, according to law. Start showing us some good faith!”


    Kahentinetha Horn

    MNN Mohawk Nation News

    Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com


    Contact: Dick Hill 519-865-7722; Hazel Hill at 519-445-1351 or 519-445-0719; thebasketcase@on.aibn.com; Jacqueline House 905-765-9316 jacqueline_house@hotmail.com ;



    Please send your concerns to: Globe and Mail - letters@GlobeandMail.ca; Toronto Star - letterstoed@thestar.ca; CBC - national@cbc.ca; Politicians: Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper harper@parl.gc.ca; Justice Canada webadmin@justice.gc.ca; Indian Affairs InfoPubs@ainc-inac.gc.ca; European Union press.office@consilium.eu.int; Minister Indian Affairs Jim Prentice prentice.j@parl.gc.ca; Ontario Govt. Brendan.Crawley@jus.gov.on.ca; Ontario Premier Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca; Some of the towns around Six Nations that are on our land - warden@duffereincounty.on.ca; OnondagaCo. info@city.woodstock.on.ca; Waterloo sken@region.waterloo.on.ca; Henco Industries owner mhancock@brantford.ca; anyone anywhere in the world who will listen.

    posted by Annamarie at 5:27 PM

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