CHUGABOOZE MUST BE GIVEN EVERYTHING

[Gary Oak]

Now what would it take to make the chugabooze happy ? I believe that being a politically correct nation we must all leave Canada except good looking girls, and pay for everything from overseas and in infiinate quantities and then beg for forgiveness for everything real or imagined and then when we are still hated give them even far more





Canada's First Nations: Respect Existence or Expect Resistance

First Nations activists and supporters show their support for Chief Spence on Parliament Hill, despite blizzard conditions, December 21, 2012.

First Nations activists and supporters show their support for Chief Spence on Parliament Hill, despite blizzard conditions, December 21, 2012.

First Nations activists and supporters show their support for Chief Spence on Parliament Hill, despite blizzard conditions, December 21, 2012.

Mon Jan 7, 2013 3:42PM GMT

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By Eric Walberg



Canada's natives fought for their land, but were overwhelmed by the wily and land-hungry colons, and today represent only three percent of Canada's population living for the most part short, bleak lives in dire poverty on the dregs of land allotted them by the victors. But resistance is alive and well."

Related Interviews:



    'Racism still plagues Canada natives'

    'Aboriginals fight against legacy of genocide'



"Respect Existence or Expect Resistance", chant native Canadians as a showdown 11 January looms with Prime Minister Harper.





Sparked by Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike on tiny 'Victoria' Island near Ottawa's Parliament Hill, now in its third frigid week, the native uprising across Canada is in fact the latest manifestation of the world's colonized peoples trying to throw off the shackles of imperialism; an exciting moment, one of vital import for us all.



    Their warrior path brings to mind Egyptian Muslims fighting their westernizers and Mubarakite old guard since the revolution in January 2011, or the struggle by Palestinian natives against Israeli theft of their land. It is a continuation of the Iranian people's struggle in the face of unrelenting subversion from the West. It's no coincidence that Cairenes were some of the demonstrators at Canadian embassies, or that native activist-leader Terrance Nelson recently was offered support in Tehran for his efforts to gain a seat at OPEC for the real owners of Canada's oil and gas resources.





This struggle has been going on for more than two centuries. In Canada, it really got underway in the 19th century, as the trickle of colons became a deluge and the theft of native lands accelerated. In Egypt, it began in 1798, when Napoleon invaded, and crescendoed in 1875 when British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli 'brought' the Suez Canal - built by indentured labor at the cost of tens of thousands of Egyptian lives. In Iran, it also began in the early 19th century, when Russia seized northern Iran (present day Azerbaijan), and picked up steam when Reuters and other western businessmen bribed the Shah to grant them lucrative economic concessions. Palestine has been at the center of the anti-imperial struggle since the western powers imposed illegally a Zionist entity at the heart of the Muslim world.



Canada's natives fought for their land, but were overwhelmed by the wily and land-hungry colons, and today represent only three percent of Canada's population living for the most part short, bleak lives in dire poverty on the dregs of land allotted them by the victors.



But resistance is alive and well. "Idle No More" has swept Canada since Spence pitched her tent near Parliament Hill. Egyptians have risen up four times since Disraeli's coup, eventually taking back the Canal and today are fashioning a new political order inspired not by western imperial dictates, but by the Quran. Iran finally had its revolution in 1979 and has been affronting the imperial monster ever since, telling truth to the world's would-be masters.



The ploys of the imperialists were all variations on the program to steal others' lands, and tie their economies to a world order policed by imperial guns and money. There are many weapons in the imperial arsenal, including nuclear weapons capable of destroying all life on Earth many times over, the latest being the armed drone, deploying 'depleted' uranium bunker-buster bombs (guaranteed to 'keep on giving' for hundreds of thousands of years).



Postmodern imperialism, the latest fashion, cloaks itself in 'human rights' and the fight against WMDs and terrorism. That this is mere subterfuge is revealed by the invasion of Iraq (and planned invasions of Iran and Syria) on the pretext of WMD eradication. Instead, hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed by US-led invasions, with no one accepting blame and no end in sight.



Israel's flagrant violation of all international norms similarly goes unpunished, indeed is subsidized by the US and and enthusiastically endorsed by Canada.



    Imperialism is alive and all too well, and Canada is fortunate to at last have a clear voice shouting this grim truth to other Canadians and the world. The alarm went off for Harper last year when native activist-leader Terrance Nelson went to Tehran, defying the Conservatives' unprovoked cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran last November. Nelson was pilloried as a traitor, though it should be clear by now to Canadians who is trading away Canada's sovereignty and our reputation.





Attawapiskat Chief Spence was inspired by four native women in Saskatoon who began a hunger strike also last November, protesting the Harper government's omnibus bill C-45, which:



- abrogates the Indian Act, ending native sovereignty,

- gives band councils greater municipal powers,

- makes reserve lands "fee simple property" (which can be bought and sold, not only leased),

- allows taxes to be charged and collected by the new Native governments.



The battle lines are drawn. The Harperite status quo is now being mobilized to push through his agenda. Commenting on the 1905 treaty governing Attawapiskat, the National Post's Jonathan Kay wrote: "The whole basis of the treaty was destroyed as soon as traditional native hunting life came to an end. This is the fundamental reason that the Idle No More message on treaties is irrelevant: The great challenge of native policy in the 21st century will be to integrate natives into the larger economy that is based in Canadian population centers. Remote fly-in communities such as Attawapiskat, on the other hand, are doomed: You can't turn the clock back to 1905, or even to 1930." The only answer, the assimilationists claim, is to push the remnants of the natives into urban ghettoes, where they can live like other Canadian poor on welfare handouts.



The Globe and Mail's Jeffery Simpson lectures natives for "living intellectually in a dream palace", built on "mythology about environmental protection and the aboriginals' sacred link to their lands". Harper was correct in refusing a face-to-face meeting with the native chief, since a prime minister should not be "blackmailed" into doing what any lobby group or individual wants.



As a First Nations chief devoted to her people, it is the "lobbyist" Spence who has the credentials as a Canadian leader, not the scheming power-hungry Harper, who clawed his way to the top of the Reform/Conservative Party over broken promises and lies.



The "scattered incidents" Simpson sneers at are taking place spontaneously from coast-to-coast by members of the three percent of Canadians who survived the genocide against them as First Nations, closing rail lines, roads, even disrupting and closing several bridge border crossings with the US. Demonstrations have been held around the world - Palestine, Cairo, London, the US, Aotearoa (New Zealand).



Despite media disdain, there has been an outpouring of sympathy from Canadians native and non-native. NDP MP Charlie Angus visited Spence in her tent, as did Justin Trudeau: "It was deeply moving to meet Chief Theresa today. She is willing to sacrifice everything for her people. She shouldn't have to."



The struggle has quickly been taken up by band leaders trying to co-opt the protests. Shawn Atleo, head of the Assembly of First Nations, has called for a renewed campaign of civil disobedience beginning 16 January with "country-wide economic disruptions" and "breach of treaty" declarations. This should climax with the proposed Crown-First Nations Summit 24 January, a repeat of last year's meeting, when the appalling housing conditions on the Attawapiskat reserve first hit the media.



INM may well act as a catalyst and ignite a broader struggle against Harper's agenda, his hollowing out of environmental protection laws and Canada's declining record on human rights. Perhps Harper's grudging agreement to meet with native leaders 11 January is too late for him. Starving a native women leader at the heart of Canada's democracy, at Christmas no less, is not conducive to good PR for a leader whose hold on power is shaky. Spence agreed to attend but refused to end the hunger strike she began 11 December until she is convinced this isn't just another PR stunt. She insisted that Governor General David Johnston and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty be at the meeting.



Canada is at last seemingly seeking to redeem itself in the world's eyes after seven humiliating years of kowtowing to the US-Israeli agenda both abroad and at home, and we have the First Nations people to thank, their resolve "a conduit for the pain of the world", comments Naomi Klein. Idle No More speaks for all Canadians against the one percent who so eagerly sell out Canada's resources and smirch its reputation in the world. "The greatest blessing of all is indigenous sovereignty itself. If Canadians have a chance of stopping Harper's planet-trashing plans, it will be because these legally binding rights - backed up by mass movements, court challenges, and direct action will stand in his way."



Not only do Canada's natives empower all Canadians against the one percent, they also help us understand Canada's actions in Palestine and Iran, countries whose people love Canada and rout for our natives, whose struggle against the imperial order is their struggle too. Victory against Canada's Mubarak helps Egyptians shake off the legacy of neoliberalism, helps Palestinians in their struggle against Zionist colons in Israel, and Iranians made to suffer for lack of medicines due to the embargo intended to crush their independence.



EW/HMV

[Obvious Li]

[size=200]WTF WAS THAT[/size]

[Obvious Li]

This is the one that really should scare people:



Not since the late David Marshall, another judge of the Ontario Superior Court, waded into the violent 2006 Six Nations occupation in Caledonia, Ont., has anyone on the bench spoken so plainly and bravely about the politicization of policing in Canada.



Enter another Superior Court judge, and as it happens, another David — this one Judge David Brown.



Judge Brown on Monday issued what amounts to a lament — I mean it in the crying-out-loud-in-grief sense too — for the rule of law in Ontario in giving the latest of a series of decisions on Idle No More rail blockades in two opposite corners of the province.



Though based in Toronto, Judge Brown ended up hearing the first application brought by CN Rail last month in relation to an aboriginal blockade in Sarnia, Ont.



This blockade began in the small southwestern Ontario city on Dec. 21, but because it wasn't until late in the day that it became clear that the protesters weren't going to move, Judge Brown ended up hearing an emergency after-hours motion from lawyers for CN Rail in Toronto.



The blockade was on what's called a "spur line," an industrial single track that runs from Sarnia to Cortright through the area's "Chemical Valley." The line services a handful of chemical and industrial plants, one of which, Entropex, is a plastic recovery facility that processes blue box recycling for more than 70 municipalities in Canada and the United States.



This first hearing was preoccupied with the hearing of evidence about the "just-in-time" nature of CN customers affected by the blockade and about the protest: Importantly, out of the protesters' own mouths, was the fact that the blockade didn't involve a claim to aboriginal title or land-claim issue, as was the purported case in Caledonia.



This protest was rather, as Judge Brown put it in his original decision, "more in the nature of an expression of opposition by one group of Canadian citizens to legislation which they oppose."



He granted the injunction.



As he put it six days later, in a continuation of that injunction, "As a judge, I make an order expecting it will be obeyed or enforced. If it will not be enforced, why should I make the order?"



To the astonishment of the judge, however, nothing of the sort happened with his first order.



CN served the right people — the chief of the Aamjiwnaang Chippewas of Sarnia, the band office and of course the Sarnia police.



Evidence at the continuation hearing showed that process servers and CN officials went to the blockade — there were never more than 50 protesters there, sometimes just a handful of people — and tried desperately "to engage the Sarnia police."



    I must confess that I am shocked by such disrespect shown to this court by the Sarnia police



One Sarnia staff-sergeant told a CN Police inspector that his force would not assist in serving the order. An inspector told him "their regular members have been directed not to attend at the blockade," an order that I have confirmed independently. (Sarnia rank-and-file officers were told "there would be absolutely no enforcement, observation of or engagement at any level.")



In fact, one staff-sergeant, Jeff Hodgson, who stopped by the blockade did so only to join a circle of protesters who were drumming; the YouTube footage of that little exercise is still online.



The CN inspector was also told that Sarnia police "advised they would not accompany them to the blockade, but did provide a police radio."



CN lawyers were back in court before Judge Brown on Dec. 27, on which occasion the force didn't even bother to send anyone to appear.



"I must confess," the judge said that day, "that I am shocked by such disrespect shown to this court by the Sarnia police."



The force lawyer, Glen S. Donald, did send a note to CN lawyers; it is a document stunning in its arrogance, urging CN to "edify" the judge.



Again, Judge Brown reviewed the evidence — that this didn't even pretend to be a land-claim issue.



"Simply put," he said, "they have chosen the spur line crossing as their Hyde Park [Speakers' Corner] and intend to express their views from that location regardless of the harm caused to those who use and rely on the spur line."



    It was not open to the Sarnia police to interpret the injunction order as permitting the blockade to remain indefinitely



Thus, he said, their aboriginal identity didn't "immunize" them from the law, as sometimes, as Ontario's appeal court has found, it may entitle native protesters to a more "nuanced" interpretation.



He was deeply troubled, in particular by the Sarnia force's refusal to enforce his order. He clearly understood that police have operational discretion; his order allowed for that. Such disputes require precisely such a division of labour between courts and police, as he noted.



But, he said, "It was not open to the Sarnia police to interpret the injunction order as permitting the blockade to remain indefinitely...." Yet six days after his first order, there was the blockade, still in place, and there were the cops, sitting on their hands, when they weren't drumming.



"With all due respect to the Sarnia police," the judge said, "local police agencies cannot ignore judicial orders under the guise of contemplating how best to use their tactical discretion. Such an approach would have the practical effect of neutering court orders."



A court order, Judge Brown said, "is not one amongst several chips to be played in an ongoing contest between the police and transgressors of legal rights.



"On the contrary, a court order is intended to initiate the process of bringing unlawful conduct to an end in a short period of time..."



Worrying that he perhaps ought to decline to grant a continuance of his order — because it would surely undermine the legitimacy of the courts to keep on making toothless orders — he nonetheless couldn't bring himself to do that.



That was Dec. 27; the barricade stayed up until Jan. 2, when Sarnia police, under pressure from another judicial order, finally enforced the injunction.



Then, this past Saturday night, native protesters blocked the CN main line between Toronto and Montreal, again as part of Idle No More.



Again, on an emergency basis, the judge heard from CN lawyers, who were again seeking an emergency injunction to remove the blockade.



Judge Brown granted it, and when on Sunday morning, he read in his morning paper that the blockade had ended at midnight, he asked for evidence how it had come about.



He learned that the local sheriff had a copy of the order by 10:30 that night, and asked the local OPP for help.



There were all of 15 protesters present.



OPP Staff-Sergeant Scott Semple advised the sheriff it was "too dangerous" to serve the order, but said the OPP would accompany her the next morning. So, while the protesters left, the judge noted it was "not, as it turns out, because the police had assisted in enforcing the order."



    Without Canadians sharing a public expectation of obeying the law, the rule of law will shatter



"That kind of passivity by the police leads me to doubt that a future exists in this province for the use of court injunctions in cases of public demonstrations," he said.



Furthermore, he asked, given that police have powers of arrest already, "why does the operator of a critical railway have to run off to court to secure an injunction when a small group of protesters park themselves on the rail line bringing operations to a grinding halt. I do not get it."



The rule of law — that arrangement by which citizens cede the use of force to public government agencies — is in some fundamental respects quite simple. It means, as the judge put it, that "no person in Canada stands above or outside of the law. Although the principle of the rule of law is simple, at the same time it is fragile.



"Without Canadians sharing a public expectation of obeying the law, the rule of law will shatter."



As he said on Dec. 27, "In a real, where-the-rubber-meets-the-road sense, our courts are powerless."



And there you have it: Judges can't predict with any confidence if police forces will enforce their orders, and one of them even wonders aloud if he should issue another toothless direction; police don't even do the court the courtesy of appearing when summonsed and native protesters need not bother with the ruse of feigning a land claim.



To borrow from Yeats, when things fall apart and the centre cannot hold, how far behind can the blood-dimmed tide be?



Postmedia News

cblatchford@postmedia.com

[Anonymous]

The squalor on Native communities is depressing by world standards. By Canadian standards it's a national disgrace.

[Gary Oak]

The squalor on Native communities is depressing by world standards. By Canadian standards it's a national disgrace.

    Yes aren't white people horrible. it's all white peoples fault too

[Gary Oak]

Can't you immigrants understand that if big Chief Theresa Spence cheats here people living like a queen with a bigger salary that Prime Minister Harper while her people live in poverty that it could not possibly be her fault and ALL the fault simply must be blamed on the horrible white people and everybody should just give them infinately more

[Gary Oak]

You just aren't morally superior and on a high enough mental plain to understand the caring  I care you pay philosophy of the white liberal lefty freak

[Anonymous]

The squalor on Native communities is depressing by world standards. By Canadian standards it's a national disgrace.

    Yes aren't white people horrible. it's all white peoples fault too

Nobody said that dumbass. You don't have to be so defensive.

[Gary Oak]

I was unaware that Koreans and Seoulfag were so concerned about chugabooze

[Gary Oak]

Don't you immigrants understand ? We simply don't give the chugabooze nearly enough and when their leaders misappropriate the funds we do give it is the white mans fault  but really let's face it....everybody just simply always at all times give more money to chugabooze because they want it