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Windspeaker Writer
UPDATED: Feb. 19 with a retraction from Grand Chief Serge Simon on lifting blockades.
It’s time for Canada and the provinces to understand that they are the cause of the events that are happening across the country in support of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs, said Kahnawake Grand Chief Joe Norton. This includes the rail shut down at Tyendinaga.
“It’s not by accident,” he said. “It’s by the way laws are put in place. It’s by the way the Constitution is structured, the courts. All that stuff that’s out there is against us. We don’t stand a chance.”
Norton was speaking at a press conference called by the Assembly of First Nations this morning to provide First Nations’ inspired resolutions to the Wet'suwet'en solidarity demonstrations that have shut down segments of Canada’s economy.
Norton said divisions caused between traditional governance and elected councils in First Nations is because of the implementation of the Indian Act, bringing Canada again to a place of rising tensions.
First Nations spend hundreds of millions of dollars walking into courts “sort of knowing that we’re going to get our ass kicked... The Wet'suwet'en people in B.C. are a perfect example of that. Trying their best, the hereditary chiefs, to defend the land, to protect their people and find themselves in court, find themselves then being bullied, being attacked physically, weapons pointed at people. Luckily nobody was shot. People being arrested, put in jail. For what? Protection of land. Protection of our territory.
“Our people are here, and they see that, and they see themselves in that. They feel that pain and that anger. They sense it. And they know it, ‘cause we’ve seen it happen to ourselves. So we’re prepared to defend ourselves too.”
Norton was joined by Mike Mitchell, a former grand chief of Akwesasne and a cultural leader for the AFN, Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon of Kanesatake's Mohawk Council, elected Chief of the Mohawks of Bay of Quinte Don Maracle, and AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde.
Grand Chief Norton began by recalling another tension-filled, dangerous time in Canada-First Nations relations, the 1990 so-called Oka crisis. He said today’s circumstances with the Wet'suwet'en have similarities with that time 30 years ago.
Norton described his community today, which is just across the river from Montreal, he said, and the imposition of 100,000 people going back and forth through the territory daily, with bridges, railways and an international seaway.
“For somebody else’s purposes. Not for ours…. We know what it is to be imposed on.” He said the brothers and sisters of Wet'suwet'en are suffering the same circumstances.
Bellegarde said “When governments ignore First Nations’ rights, title, jurisdiction, it creates conflict and court cases. But when governments respect First Nations’ rights and title it’s a path to peace, progress and prosperity.”
He called for calm over the rail disruption at Tyendinaga and solidarity demonstrations elsewhere, and “creativity and constructive dialogue.” He said the Wet'suwet'en have asked for three things—for the RCMP to be out of their traditional territories, for industry players to look at options, and for a formalization of the process with the Crown.
“And I ask that once that process is formalized that people give time for that process to bear fruit.”
He said the Wet'suwet'en have asked for the space for their own internal dialogue and ceremonies to be held. He called on the Crowns — the federal and the provincial governments — to support that process.
And when people start to see that the space is being given and allowed to happen, then they will respond in a positive way.
Grand Chief Simon, for his part, suggested the demonstrators consider lifting the rail blockades, at least temporarily, by asking themselves ‘have you made your point, yet? Has the government and industry understood?’
“I think they did.” By removing the blockades doesn’t mean a surrender of anything, he said, but time to allow a different process to unfold. Describing himself as a strong advocate for Indigenous rights, he said he doesn’t take the suggestion lightly.
It would show good faith and compassion, said Simon, but it also tells the government to keep in mind “if you do not continue on a dialogue of respect with the hereditary chiefs, then we’ll be back. The next one might last longer...”
He said there is a bigger picture to be considered. Canada has of late begun to see the point of view of Indigenous peoples, and the blockades could lead to an erosion of good will from Canadians, thereby setting back progress made and maybe even stalling such important work as the implementation of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
He said there are many ways other than blockades to show support that puts an enormous amount of pressure on governments and industry.
Simon believes the rail blockades and the resulting shortage of supplies to communities across Canada, including to Indigenous communities, is “self-defeating.”
On Feb. 19, Simon retracted comments recommending the blockades be lifted, saying maybe it was an error and too soon because the RCMP was not yet out of Wet'suwet'en territory.
In a letter, Simon wrote it “was not my place to make such judgment: I leave it up to the people on the ground and Wet’suwet’en Nation leadership to make such calls…. Sometimes as a leader, you have to know when to lead and when to follow. I am deciding to follow the people.”
He said he would not be making further comments, and apologized for any harm and confusion his remarks caused.
He’s paid the price for making this recommendation, having been locked out of his own office and people calling for his ouster.
“Bringing down the blockades doesn’t mean that you surrender," Simon said on Feb. 18. "It doesn’t mean that we are just going to lay down and let them kick us around. No. But it would show compassion along with the strength. And that’s what I think needs to be promoted and talked about a little bit more.”
In the press conference, Norton said “at some point this has to come to a peaceful end. But in the meantime there are certain guarantees that everybody’s looking for that need to be put in place.”
Maracle said the blockade at Tyendinga was not the doing of the elected band council, but there were people in the community that saw injustice being done in Wet'suwet'en. He said he respected his people and their right to stand up for what they believe in. He said he wanted to emphasize the need for peace and dialogue.
He said that the situation of the Wet'suwet'en resonates with other First Nations across the country “because it strikes at the issues that we all deal with. Respect and implementation of our rights by the federal and provincial governments, our right to make decisions that affect our land and lives, and the right to have a say when it comes to resource development within our traditional territory and its impacts on our territory.”
Maracle said it was time to hear from the Wet'suwet'en traditional leadership on a path forward. He called on the good light of the Creator to shine the path for peace, harmony and happiness on the people who share the lands across the country.
Mitchell invoked a name from history during the press conference—The Peacemaker, a “very spiritual man born at a time when there was great violence and turmoil.”
The Peacemaker was born at Tyendinaga, and convinced warring nations to come together by providing them “with a constitution based on peace,” Mitchell reminded people. That constitution was instrumental in forming the Iroquois Confederacy, and also ultimately guiding the structures of democracies of Canada and the United States.
“I want to invoke that because this is the time to remember what that message of peace was about. It’s always easy to go the other route,” said Mitchell.
Canada and First Nations are today at a crossroads, he said. “Peaceful relationship, or not. It’s our choice.”
Maracle said “All parties in both the federal and provincial governments needed to support dialogue and do their part not to inflame the situation by using aggressive language and actions that will not be helpful.”
The chiefs condemned outgoing Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer for his recent statements about the solidarity activities, calling them illegal, saying he would direct the RCMP to move in.
Bellegarde said it was not a time for divisive comments from any leader. “It’s a time for calm.”
Norton said there are “war mongers out there who are quick to pull the pin and throw the bomb,” demanding that “harsh things be done”.
No one needs another Oka crisis, or Ipperwash, he said, where people were injured and died in those conflicts. These are reminders to use restraint. “Nobody wants to see that again.”
“It’s easy to send in the military or the Ontario Provincial Police… ‘Go in, go in and do our bidding, do our work for us while we sit back and we watch’. It’s another thing to be on the front lines. And I’ve been on the front lines.”
Simon said “Mr. Scheer and those right wing politicians are always going to come out with that kind of solution, a hard line for everything… I’m sure him and his Conservatives would love to send in the army to prove some kind of parliamentary supremacy over First Nations people.”
He told the demonstrators at Tyendinaga not to let the Mr. Scheers bait them into something you don’t want to do.
Maracle said when countries and provinces have disagreements with others “they never use racism as a tool to silence the voice of other people. They call meetings and they have dialogue and that’s what the Prime Minister did in this case. And that shows good leadership… And I think we need to be patient to see what dialogue will bring.”
Scheer doubled down today in the House of Commons with his comments, calling solidarity demonstrators ‘radical activists’ and their activities illegal. This was in response to the prime minister statement on the struggles facing Canada over the Wet'suwet'en situation.
He asked if the country will be one of the “rule of law” or will it be one of the “rule of the mob.”
The prime minister held a meeting of party leaders after the speeches in the House to discuss the Wet'suwet'en situation, excluding Scheer.
“Mr. Scheer disqualified himself from constructive discussions with his unacceptable speech earlier today,” said Trudeau about the snub of the leader.