ltmurnau: (Default)
ltmurnau ([personal profile] ltmurnau) wrote2009-06-01 09:48 am
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Oh, this one's rich... empahsis added par moi:

Border closed in eastern Ontario over handgun dispute

By David Gonczol, Ottawa CitizenJune 1, 2009

OTTAWA — A border crossing in an eastern Ontario native reserve remained closed in both directions Monday morning due to a protest by local Mohawks who were angered by a new policy that would have armed Canadian border agents as of June 1.

Shortly before midnight, Canadian Border Services Agency guards left their posts on the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles the Ontario, Quebec, and New York borders, for “their own safety,” Mohawk leaders said early Monday morning.


After a night of negotiations with officials from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne about the contentious plan to arm border guards, the post was abandoned, Grand Chief Tim Thompson said in a statement.

“Canadian Border Services Agency officers have voluntarily decided to leave the Akwesasne Mohawk territory before midnight (Sunday) for their own safety,” the statement said.

Mohawk council spokesman Brendan White said: “They (Mohawk leaders) just concluded discussions with them. They have been in and out of the building (border post) all evening.” White said a protocol that would allow residents to enter and leave the reserve was under discussion.

Chris Kealey, a spokesman for the CBSA, declined to comment when reached just after midnight.

The arming of the guards comes on the same day as border crossers, including Canadian and U.S. citizens, will need to produce a passport or other secure documents approved by the American Homeland Security Department to cross the border.

The agency started arming guards in 2007, and officers at the Akwesasne reserve are scheduled to begin carrying 9-mm handguns on Monday. The Mohawks at the reserve near Cornwall, Ont., have said they don’t want armed guards at the post because it would violate their sovereignty and increase the likelihood of violent confrontations.

Earlier Sunday, Mohawks were ordered to use peaceful means in any confrontations with Canadian border guards, who are expected to start carrying guns Monday. Singling out the Mohawk Warriors, a group that is separate from hereditary chiefs or more modern elected chiefs and councils, the order came out of a meeting Sunday night. Residents debated three strategies to address the arming of the border guards, two of which involved confrontation.


Ultimately, residents directed the Mohawk leadership to use only peaceful means to settle the dispute with the Canada Border Services Agency.

This is the first time in this dispute that Akwesasne leaders are directing everyone, including the Mohawk Warriors, to refrain from confrontation, said Brendan White, a spokesman for the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne.

“They (the Mohawk Warriors) are individuals within our community and our community is asking them to not be violent and anything they do is the result of individual actions and does not have the support of the community and our leaders,” White said.

“It was an appeal, a request to that group, that they have to keep the community in mind. . . . We can’t fight guns with violence. We can’t give them justification to carry firearms. We can’t play into their hands,” White said.

Mohawk Warriors, who were present at the meeting, made it clear on Saturday that they would storm the border post Monday and drive the guards off the reserve if the Canadian government did not deliver a signed promise that the guards would not carry guns on the reserve.

Earlier Sunday, members of the Mohawk council were barred from entering the border post near Cornwall as they attempted to verify if there were any guns in the building.

The border crossing was also closed for about an hour around 8 p.m. Sunday, but it was unclear why.

© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service


I mean, setting aside the nonsense and unnecessary expense of arming our border guards in the first place
(http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/121055.html, http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/127844.html,
http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/161265.html)

we have the situation of an unofficial, apparently-disavowed-by-the-community ("well, we did ask them not to be violent"), and well-armed (perhaps not as well armed as the police, but certainly better than the border guards) vigilante group warning off an agency of the Federal government from doing its job because their agents might be carrying guns too. Is this perhaps verging on "apprehended insurrection"? (possibly, if anyone knew what precisely the term meant...)

Anyway, it's common knowledge what the situation is really about: it's not about sovereignty, it's that the Warriors want to preserve the status quo in these reserves that are adjacent to or straddle the border, to preserve the flow of contraband. And having more than one gang of people with guns around at a time leads to shootouts, and if anyone gets shot, especially a border guard (and, I repeat from earlier posts, having this happen would be a first in the 200+ year history of the Customs Service), this will bring down large amounts of Federal heat.

Best for the Warriors just to threaten, bribe, or otherwise coerce these community college summer hire kids while they are unarmed, and therefore unable to do much about it.

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