CANADA IN CONTEMPT OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AT SIX NATIONS

MNN. March 20, 2006. Canada gives international law the finger. “Screw you”, says Canada. Ontario Superior Court Judge David Marshall, said, “I know you poor people have been victimized for so long. I understand how you feel”, he cooed in a patronizing tone. Marshall said the last thing he wanted to do was to send protesters to jail or give them criminal records for their beliefs. Someone suggested he step down because he has land in the disputed area. He ignored the request and slapped the protesters with a court injunction.

If he was a man of integrity who didn’t have an interest in the outcome, his injunction would have gone against the developers, Henco Industries, who are ruining the land. Instead he made it against the Indigenous owners who are trying to stop trespassing. So now Marshall has shoved the land theft into a closet. Marshall said, “Now you have to deal with the issue of YOUR violation of MY court injunction”.

Native protesters have until 2 p.m., Wednesday, March 22nd to leave the Douglas Creek Estates of Caledonia before facing a possible 30-day sentence. “You won't be arrested unless you want to," Marshall told Dawn Smith of Six Nations, who stood in front of him holding an eagle feather.

Marshall is imposing his law on our territory. How would he feel if the United States did the same thing to him and started imposing their laws on him in his backyard? We assume that when the US sheriff comes to arrest him, he’ll be willing to do whatever they ask him to. After all, it will be his free choice to be arrested!

”Here’s my plan”, said Marshall, on how we’re going to handle the contempt arrests. “Three strikes and you’re out, understand?”

"First, you have five days to think about your position," he said. “See what a nice guy I am! Now if you don’t decide to do what I tell you, then….”

“When the police come in to enforce the order, you will be given a chance to leave. If you don’t leave, then you’ll be brought to the police station, photographed, fingerprinted and released”. This is like a man who says he won’t rape you. He’ll give you a chance to get undressed voluntarily and slip between his dirty sheets. Does he really think that the Women will drop their trust responsibilities because of his whims? Does he think that this warning legalizes his self-interested threats?

“If you don’t do what we tell you, (even though the Indigenous people are trying to stop the robbery) you’ll be brought back here to my court and then I’ll throw the book at you”.

This is RAW Colonialism. The title of this land has been at issue since the earliest British colonization of the area. The Canadian government knows this. A few years back it looked like they were finally attempting to negotiate a solution to the ongoing injustice. Generally speaking, the courts support private land ownership when settlers have encroached. By giving out title that it knows is in dispute, Ontario is making a transparent attempt to do an end run around the law. If anyone should have been given an injunction it should have been the Ontario government and the developer. Judges are supposed to be neutral. As an occupier of land in the disputed area, this judge is by no means neutral. He’s taking sides in a way that suggests he’s trying to prove that he is not a squatter or the successor of an illegal squatter. He has not offered any legal authority for the position he has taken. He’s taking his actions purely on the basis of his ability to bring in state force and to threaten imprisonment of the people who have been protesting the wrongful appropriation of their land. .

There should be complaint to the Judicial Council about this judge who is in conflict of interest.

Smith argued that the Six Nations were allies of the British Crown and any land issues would have to be settled on a nation-to-nation basis. This is exactly the position that was taken by the Six Nations in the 1920’s when Canada refused to hear their case in the Supreme Court of Canada. Duncan Campbell Scott plotted with official at the League of Nations to make sure the case was never heard. He did this because he knew that Canada did not have a legal leg to stand on. It is now 86 years since Canada illegally deposed the Six Nations government in an attempt to shut down these legal arguments. In all this time Canada hasn’t grown any new legs. Its claim to Six Nation lands is just as illegal as it ever was.

Grabbing at straws, realizing he was standing on sandy ground and the water of the Grand River was rising fast, Judge Marshall then made an impassioned plea to the Six Nations people for a peaceful resolution. “What’s the matter with you people? Why don’t you forget all about the past and listen to me?” That’s the only kind of solution that people like him can hope for – that people will forget that the land was stolen.

"Please, I am asking the clan mothers, the chiefs and the Mohawks to turn and walk away”, (from us filthy land grabbing swindlers before we punish you)”, he said softly to the natives in the gallery. So why didn’t he walk away himself? Instead he decided to come down hard on the People with a great big club!

What kind of legal argument does he have up his sleeve? The OPP TRU Team that went into Ipperwash? That’ll scare us, eh? They’re probably looking for work right now since the Ipperwassh Inquiry is folding. Instead of learning from that debacle, they have decided to repeat it.

Is this Ipperwash Round II? Our people are unarmed. We are on our own unsurrendered land. We are the constitutional Rotinoshon’non:we. The settlers are breaking the Two Row Wampum. They’re violating their own constitution. Same old! Same old! Isn’t it time to go back to Day I and renegotiate everything?

Janie Jamieson said, "We can’t walk away. The whole issue of constitutional jurisdiction hasn't been resolved yet."

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
(coming soon daily Mohawk news on www.mnn.mohawknationnews.com ) Contact: Six Nations, D. Hill 519-865-7722 thebasketcase@on.aibn.com Call: OPP Brian Haggith 905-772-3322; Prime Minister Canada pm@pm.gc.ca