How the System Works

Two First Nations north of Kingston is currently occupying land where a proposed uranium mine is to be dug (after clear cutting the forest above it). Members of the Ardoch Algonquin and Shabot Obaadjiwan Nations have been on the site since June 29. They are calling for negotiations to settle their land claim and quite rightly they don't want anyone to start building mines on their land. Until it's settled it's their land.

But watching the proceedings you get an insight into how these "negotiations" proceed:

1) Provincial and federal governments refuse to deal with outstanding land claims for centuries. In most cases they engage in genocidal practices (spreading disease, residential schools etc).

2) Eventually First Nations act to put pressure on governments after a corporation attempts to build homes, mines or bulldoze forests on their land.

3) First Nations are accused of being violent and extra-legal. The public is manipulated into believing this is actually the case despite centuries of violence flowing the other way.

4) Police or army surround "protesters" despite the fact that they have not engaged in violence. No one questions this provocative act.

5) Called by the corporation in question, the Canadian courts are asked to make a decision on ownership (despite the facts that these courts only really have jurisdiction over the Canadian government and Canadian corporations--not the First Nations who are a separate nation).

6) The court issues a decision which demands the "protesters" leave the site peacefully and puts off the land decision until a later date. Occasionally the corporation in question is barred from accessing the land in the interim.

7a) At a later date if the "protesters" have left the blockade, the court rules in favour of the corporation and, almost instantaneously, the police or military secure the land and prevent the re-erection of the blockade and facilitate the extraction of the desired resource.

7b) If the "protesters" do not leave the site, the court may forestall its decision in favour of the corporation and continue to issue injunctions. The decision in favour of the corporation however is a foregone conclusion; how could it be otherwise? Military options are pursued as in Ipperwash (never considered violence) or else the blockade remains in place forever as in Caledonia. The hope apparently is that the First Nations will become bored, disheartened and leave or that the public will embrace violence as a solution given the "protesters" unwillingness to talk (never mentioning the previous centuries of silence on the part of governments).

And if you're insane, this makes perfect sense.