Duly Warned

"If we're going to shut down that highway, we're going to shut it down completely -- and not just for one day. It's escalated to a point where people's frustrations are beginning to run out, and when people's frustrations run out, things happen."
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adams

Speaking of the fact that at the present time as far as he is concerned there are no plans to blockade Highway 63, the sole all-weather road to Fort McMurray. On the other hand, should the federal government not see fit to accommodate itself to the just demands of First Nations leaders, government could anticipate a summer blockade lasting throughout the season as a meaningful symptom of aboriginal ire.

To avoid such draconian steps in civil disobedience (that government and policing and security agencies will be delicately loathe to deal with as a criminal infraction of the law, lest it seem to the uber-sensitive aboriginal community that white-European-Canadians are once again going out of their way to lack respect for aboriginal traditions), the government must undertake to repeal budget bill changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Waterways Act.

Simply because a voter-significant proportion of Canadians elected a majority Conservative government is no reason for that government to hubristically feel, as federal law-makers, that they have the moral and legal instrument at their hands to pass such aboriginal-indigestible laws. Which are hugely offensive and as nation-to-nation, unacceptable.

"We want to demonstrate some of the things we have the power to do." And should they be done, explicated Grand Chief Gordon Peters of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, such as disruption along the major Ontario arterial, Highway 401 near Windsor, "There would be chaos." As there would indeed most certainly be. Notice noted.

"If people get pushed the wrong way, then [violence] could happen. One wrong move ... one wrong spark, and it will erupt", cautioned Chief Adam. Which is to say the closing down of traffic along the Ambassador Bridge, known to be North America's busiest border crossing, connecting Southern Ontario with Michigan. Violence, the sinister warning tells, 'could happen'.

Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Chief Chris Lewis is in complete agreement. Chaos would result if Highway 401 were to be effectively shut down for days, let alone weeks on end. The Ipperwash Provincial Park standoff of 1993 remains an acutely painful reminder of what could result with a challenge answered by a solution that becomes a disaster.

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples had disseminated letters to all major police forces countrywide, cautioning them to avoid the use of "unnecessary force or tactics". No word was given whether the Congress similarly cautioned aboriginal warriors and other protesters to use restraint in their determined efforts to make life painful for other Canadians.

"I can't speak for [Chief Adam]. We don't know what could happen, but we know the history of Oka, Ipperwash and Caledonia. When push comes to shove, yeah, it could end up in the balance, but that's not our intention", stated Grand Chief Louttit whose territory includes Chief Theresa Spence's Attawapiskat. Be so good as to suspend disbelief.


Pugnacious violence on the part of the Indian warriors; submission and respect on the part of answering security authorities.

Peace.