> Some years ago, the fellow who is the spiritual leader, a real
> indian, went to the rancher that owns the land and got permission to
> have a sun ceremony at that site, which supposedly came to him in a
> vision. Then as time went by, built a cabin, against the agreement
> and last year stayed in it year round. This year, it was decided that
> cows weren't wanted and a fence to keep them out was built. Also many
> of the participants did not leave after this year's ceremony. The
> rancher being frustrated in his talks with the people asked the
> police to evict them. Also supposedly there were threats made to
> other individuals who were passing through the area for whatever
> reasons. Cops surrounded the area and started their plan. You
> probably know as much about that part as I do.
>
> Religious zealots? who knows? The sun ceremony is not native to that
> area and is a new thing that has come in from the prairies.
>
> Plastics? yeah there are some there.
>
> The unfortunate part is everybody is jumping on this and whipping
> their own favorite horse. The lawyer they have has his own agenda.
> The province can use this to galvanize public opinion and the cops
> get to flex their muscles. (this is the police force owned by Walt
> Disney Corp. - the R.C.M.P. ) Of course the native politicos are
> honking their songs too. B.C.T.V. and other media are conected to
> the same multi-national corps that control our goverments and so are
> helping with the propaganda effort. None of the media has been
> outraged by the police banning the media from a 15 km circle around
> the area. Police have already stated that any video etc. taken by
> media types that are in the camp will be seized as evidence and not
> aired. When Ovide Mercredi went in to negotiate, the cops cut the
> radio phone access that had been present. The people in the camp
> were therefore pissed off and any headway he had made the first day
> was lost. The minister of the provincial legislature, newly
> appointed, is an east indian immigrant which of course is really
> helpful, refuses to negotiate saying this is a criminal matter in
> police jurisdiction. The people in the camp are backed into a
> corner, with others egging them on and being isolated are becoming
> paranoid due to police harrassment. eg. buzzing the camp by plane
> even when Mercredi was in camp trying to negotiate. Basicaly, if
> they don't give up, people will get hurt. That's the setup. As far
> as I'm concerned everybody is wrong. This isn't the way to do things.
> But you're going to see a lot more like this as that's the way the
> multi-nationals want it. It's just part of the destabilization plan.
.......................................................
H. Henning Riebe <riebe%dtmgmbh@Germany.EU.net>
+49 2351-28425 (fon/fax)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Comments from NativeNet listowner, Gary Trujillo (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us):
[ In order to post a followup to this article, just use the "reply" function
of your mail system (preferred) or send your article in a new message with
the subject line "Re: Gustafsen Lake standoff" to the address:
indig.canada@gnosys.svle.ma.us
This address *does not* represent a different mailing list from NATIVE-L;
it just makes it easier to route articles to the "indig.canada" conference
on the systems maintained by the Association for Progressive Communications
(APC), with which most of the NativeNet lists are linked.
We cannot carry copyrighted news stories in their entirety, but it is OK
to post brief excerpts from those stories. For current information on
this and other important news from Canada, let me again suggest that you
take a look at "http://www.infomart.ca/todays_news/" for press accounts
and "http://www.cbc.ca/sites/ptn/ptn.html" for news from CBC television. ]
Ordinarily, we do not permit discussion on the NATIVE-L mailing list, since
the NATCHAT list was established for that purpose. However, there's a lot
going on on NATCHAT just now which is important in its own right and most of
the background information about this issue has been posted here on NATIVE-L,
where there are archives for people who come in late can retrieve to get a
basic understanding of the issue and a record of what's been said about it
to date. Therefore, in this case, I am going to permit NATIVE-L to be used
for an examination of the issues (I hope to create a new list one day before
too long to serve as a companion to NATIVE-L where discussion specifically
about the issues raised here can take place).
I ask only that people who want to contribute to a group analysis of the
issues and events now unfolding at Gustafsen Lake, British Columbia, observe
the same guidelines (largely unwritten rules) that apply to the NATCHAT list
such as avoiding personal attacks and abiding by ordinary standards of good
taste and decorum. I suggest that we look not only at the immediate issue,
having to do with the standoff at the camp in B.C., but that we include an
examination of issues of sovereignty of the First Peoples of North America
and the extent to which the present situation and the people who have pre-
cipitated the current standoff is/are genuinely reflective/representative
of a significant segment of opinion within the Native population. I hope
we can get an understanding of who actually supports the standoff and why,
the extent to which there has actually been media manipulation by the RCMP
and/or the governments involved, and what "hidden agendas" might be involved
on both sides. There are bound to be many other more specific questions we
will find ourselves needing to ask as we go along. (If there turns out to
be enough interest in the more general issues involved in Native land claims
and sovereignty issue, I may be able to start a new mailing list on that
subject.)
I've continued to receive information from the person writing anonymously
via the service in Finland which permits one to submit mail (to a person
or to a mailing list) without being identified (some of you may want to use
this facility [see the note at the end of this article for more details]-
but the NativeNet moderators do reserve the right to decline to relay articles
which are not attributable - in this case we will relax that rule to the
extent possible). Here is a list of newspaper stories which I've received
from this anonymous source, writing by means of the address (which you can
use for a reply) "an308331@anon.penet.fi":
To: gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
From: an308331@anon.penet.fi
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 10:12:01 UTC
Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - Siege outlook
Organization: Anonymous forwarding service
Message-Id: <9508301012.AA07966@anon.penet.fi>
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Tuesday, August 29, 1995
==========================================================================
page A3:
SIEGE OUTLOOK
--Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 10:11:54 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - White Vigilantes predicted
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Tuesday, August 29, 1995 ========================================================================== page three:
GUSTAFSEN IMPASSE
--Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 12:14:48 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - Law Enforcement
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Tuesday, August 29, 1995 ========================================================================== page A3:
LAW ENFORCEMENT
--Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 12:28:22 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - National View of Chiefs
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Tuesday, August 29, 1995 ========================================================================== page A3:
NATIONAL VIEW
--Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 10:04:42 UTC Subject: Land-Claims: Claims Panel says program is not working
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Wednesday, August 30, 1005 ========================================================================== page A5, NATIONAL NEWS:
MEMBERS OF CLAIMS PANEL SAYS PROGRAM IS NOT WORKING Most recommendations ignored by what seems an indifferent government, Dene commissioner says
--Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 04:33:13 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - Rancher deals, two leave camp
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Thursday, August 31, 1995 ========================================================================== front page:
THE NATION
--Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 04:33:24 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Native Film premiere Sat. Sept. 2 in Vancouver
THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE, Thursday, August 31, 1995 ========================================================================== page A14:
NATIVE FILM-MAKER'S EYE ON THE FRASER
--Date: Sun, 3 Sep 1995 01:29:20 UTC Subject: BCnews: Gustafsen Lake - Sundance ceremony significant
THE VICTORIA COLONIST, Thursday, August 31, 1995 ========================================================================== front page:
NEWS FOCUS
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 01:20:57 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gustafsen Lake - Mounties to keep talking
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Saturday, September 2, 1995 ========================================================================== page A4:
MOUNTIES TO KEEP TALKING IN STANDOFF B.C. Attorney-General says he'll have nothing to do with bid to contact Queen
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 01:42:03 UTC Subject: BCnews update: Gitxsan - told to lift Salmon River blockade
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Saturday, September 2, 1995 ========================================================================== page A2, British Columbia section:
LAND CLAIMS
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 03:44:34 UTC Subject: BCnews Sept 2: Gustafsen Lake - Standoff lawyer parries with police
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Saturday, September 2, 1995 ========================================================================== front page:
GUSTAFSEN LAKE
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 03:44:41 UTC Subject: BCnews Sept 2: Gustafsen Lake - profile of BC Attorney-General
THE VANCOUVER SUN, Saturday, September 2, 1995 ========================================================================== page A2, British Columbia section:
B.C.'S ATTORNEY-GENERAL
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 07:59:57 UTC Subject: BCnews Sept 3: Gustafsen Lake - RCMP declare 7770 sq km no-go zone
THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE, Sunday, September 3, 1995 ========================================================================= page A6:
STANDOFF AT GUSTAFSEN LAKE
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 10:02:31 UTC Subject: BCnews Sept 3: Gustafsen Lake - Clark no longer welcome
THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE, Sunday, September 3, 1995 ========================================================================== page A6:
GUSTAFSEN LAKE STANDOFF
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 10:40:32 UTC Subject: BCnews: Gustafsen Lake - Petition to Queen
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT (Vancouver, BC) September 1, 1995 ========================================================================== page 7, Straight Talk:
THE PETITION PREPARED for the Queen and her Privy Council by the Gustafsen Lake rebels' lawyer, Bruce Clark, asks the question: "Is the popular assumption that the Canadian courts and police have jurisdiction legal? Or is that assumption criminally treasonable, fraudelent and complicitous in the genocide of the aboriginal peoples of Canada as alleged in the petition?"
His clients asked that an impartial third party, neither Canadian nor Native, be convened to answer this question.
This has consistently been rejected by provincial and federal authorities, most vehemently after the RCMP reported that two officers wearing bulletproof vests had been fired upon near the rebel camp on August 27.
Clark claimed in his petition that in 1704, by order-in-council, Her Majesty Queen Anne constituted an independent committee with "jurisdiction over boundary disputes between the Indians' Hunting Grounds and the Crown Governments' Public Lands."
He also claimed that the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which followed the Seven Years' War between France and Britain, created large hunting grounds separate from colonial governments.
Clark argues that the ursurpation of jurisdiction by colonial judges (and the domestic courts of Canada as their successors) over the hunting grounds constituted a treasonable and fraudulent contempt for the 1704 and 1763 Crown policies.
However, on several occasions Canadian courts have rejected claims that they have no jurisdiction over the so-called hunting grounds.
Last April, Vancouver lawyer Geoffrey Plant, who was counsel to British Columbia in the Delgamuukw trial, wrote in a `Vancouver Sun' opinion piece that the historical evidence does not support any suggestion that the British government in 1763 considered that North American aboriginal tribes possessed sovereign "nation" status equivalent to European countries.
In a paper prepared for an Asia Pacific Institute conference, Plant also pointed out that in the Delgamuukw case, Chief Justice Allan McEachern held at trial that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 never applied or had any force in B.C., a finding that was upheld by a majority on the B.C. Court of Appeal.
As the Straight went to press, Clark was expected to enter the rebels' camp. He told Canadian Press that the Supreme Court of Canada had decided to hear arguments on Canadian courts' jurisdiction in aboriginal-rights disputes between Natives and the government in a case involving the Gitxsan.
Nonpractising lawyer Lyn Crompton, who was once Clark's co-counsel, told the Straight that if Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh is so certain that the province has jurisdiction over land not ceded by treaty, he shouldn't fear allowing both sides to have their say before an international court.
"To me, it's a civil property dispute," she said.
On August 24, Clark wrote a letter to Governor General Romeo LeBlanc that described LeBlanc's office as "the safety net that exists to save Canada from her own Ministers and Judges." If LeBlance refused to get involved, Clark wrote, "my clients will have no option but to seek to appeal Queen Elizabeth's apparent refusal to act without your advice to the European Court of Human Rights, on the legal ground her breach of constitutional duty constitutes complicity in genocide."
--Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 10:10:27 UTC Subject: BCnews: Gustafsen Lake - Roots Deep in Rebel Conflict
THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, September 1, 1995 ========================================================================== page 9, News:
ROOTS DEEP IN REBEL CONFLICT
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