It is time to do something about the Mohawk Warriors...

It is pretty rare that I agree with the stuff written in the Capitalist Pravda (National Post) but this author is the only one to have the balls to say what is true.

This is not about aboriginal rights, this is about rampant criminality - and I wish law & order Stephen would do something about it...





Say no to Mohawkistan

Section: Editorial Byline: Lorne Gunter Column: Lorne Gunter Source: National Post

Ottawa must reopen the Cornwall Island border crossing with the United States, whether the Akwesasne Mohawks like it or not.

The Ontario crossing has been closed since the end of May because the Mohawks oppose border guards being armed with handguns to protect themselves while on duty on the island. The Mohawks claim that giving pistols to Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) customs agents, whose post in the middle of the St. Lawrence is on the Akwesasne's island reserve, violates Mohawk sovereignty.

They also oppose the arming of agents because doing so raises the risk of violent confrontation. True, but only if the Mohawks start something first.

Customs agents abandoned the post with the tacit approval of the CBSA and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan late on May 31 and have not returned. After 200 or so Mohawks -- many of them masked, some of them armed and claiming to be members of the infamous Warrior Society -- encircled the border post and lit bonfires, one former Mohawk chief, the current chief and the chief of the reserve police entered the building and warned agents they could no longer ensure their safety.

Since the Warriors had already sent the agents anonymous threats, guards left to the cheers of protesters.

While for some Akwesasne residents, this dispute may be about who controls the land and who has the right on the reserve to stop and inspect visitors coming into Canada, mostly it is a fight between Ottawa and on-reserve smugglers, with the chief, reserve police and the majority of residents caught in the middle.

Armed customs agents would be bad for the illegal trade in guns, cigarettes and other contraband that pours through the reserve. They could disrupt the tens of millions in profits the "Warriors" and others make sneaking tobacco and firearms, perhaps drugs, too.

When Jean Chretien was prime minister, our Armed Forces refused to fly over the reserve out of fear that the lawless elements below possessed shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles that are capable of downing a helicopter or fixed-wing plane flying low.

Marijuana grow-ops are said to be plentiful on the reserve, too.

Whenever a community reaches the level of lawlessness reportedly present on the Akwesasne reserve, it becomes difficult for civic authorities to keep the peace. Sometimes they aren't even the ones in charge; the criminal gangs are.

I would not want to be the chief of Akwesasne or the head of the reserve police. The pair are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they try to bring order, the criminals living among them may get vicious to protect their illicit incomes. But if they cannot bring matters under control, their law-abiding majorities may never know safety and their reserve's limited economic opportunities will be in jeopardy.

Add to this the sovereignty angle -- and on-reserve politicians' need to placate it -- and a situation has been created in which there is almost no way for a chief to win.

But all that aside, the fact remains that federal border agents have been driven from a federal office by lawless Canadians threatening violence. Ottawa must step in to stop this, even if it means calling out the military to protect the agents at the Cornwall Island crossing.

The laws of Canada must apply equally to all Canadians regardless of skin colour or treaty status. So just as non-aboriginal Canadians may not use violence or threats to make the federal government back down, neither may aboriginals.

What if a group of cantankerous white farmers along the Manitoba-North Dakota border decided to declare a few thousand acres to be their sovereign nation and then chased federal agents from the adjacent border crossing so they could start trucking in semi-automatic rifles, tax-free booze and (horrors) free-market wheat and barley? Would Ottawa and the provincial government roll their eyes skyward, whistle nervously and drum their fingers hoping the tempest would blow over?

Of course not.

There would be a standoff and hours of fruitless negotiation, followed by a SWAT takedown if the other side did not comply.

Akwesasne Chief Mike Mitchell says he is willing to try alternatives to arming CBSA agents. Ottawa should listen. But if none of these is workable, the CBSA must reclaim its post for the good of Canadian sovereignty.