First Nations leaders and Idle No More activists have promised only peaceful protests on their national day of action Wednesday, but once the snow melts and warmer weather sets in, key highways — including the main road to Alberta’s Fort McMurray, a major oil production hub — could be blocked for days, weeks or even months, prompting what one chief called “chaos.”These latest threats of economic upheaval come at a fragile moment in First Nations-Crown relations, especially now that National Chief Shawn Atleo announced on Monday that a regional chief will take over his duties while he takes a “brief” doctor-ordered stress leave.
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam said that while there are no plans to shut down Highway 63, the only all-weather road to Fort McMurray, on Wednesday, the government should expect a months-long summer blockade if it does not repeal or amend its recently passed omnibus budget bill that made changes to the Indian Act and the Navigable Waterways Act.
“If we’re going to shut down that highway, we’re going to shut it down completely — and not just for one day,” he said, warning that “every major highway across the country” would fall to a similar fate. “It’s escalated to a point where people’s frustrations are beginning to run out, and when people’s frustrations run out, things happen.”
In Southern Ontario, Grand Chief Gordon Peters of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians warned that Wednesday’s planned disruption along Highway 401 near Windsor is just a taste of what could come if the Harper government does not acquiesce.
“We want to demonstrate some of the things we have the power to do,” he said, adding that he plans to raise the issue of a longer highway blockade at a chiefs assembly sometime in the spring. “There would be chaos.”
In an interview with the National Post, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Chief Chris Lewis agreed that there would, indeed, be chaos if protesters shut down Highway 401 for days on end, though he emphasized the force’s commitment to avoiding another Ipperwash — the 1993 standoff that saw First Nations protester Dudley George shot and killed by police.
“There would be a point where we’d have to take action,” he said. “How we do it and when we do it is critical.”
That fact is not lost on the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, which sent letters to all the major police forces across the country on Monday asking them to avoid using “unnecessary force or tactics.” Nor is it lost on Rob Clarke, an aboriginal Conservative MP and an 18-year veteran of the RCMP, who said he is “worried” about the looming protests, or Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan, who on Monday told Postmedia News that he expects police to step in if demonstrations lead to “things being shut down.”
Activists warned last week they would wreak economic havoc across the country on Wednesday, with reports of at least one major protest shutting down a lane of traffic along the Ambassador Bridge, North America’s busiest border crossing that connects Southern Ontario with Michigan. Commissioner Lewis said the OPP has been in touch with the organizers, but said the bridge itself falls under the jurisdiction of Windsor Police.
“If people get pushed the wrong way, then [violence] could happen,” Chief Adam said. “One wrong move … one wrong spark, and it will erupt.”
Idle No More blockades along Ontario rail lines already provoked two court decisions since December, shining a bright light on the murky world of policing First Nations protests. For Commissioner Lewis, the OPP’s main role is keeping the peace and protecting the public — and not, in any way, purporting to play a role in resolving the centuries-old issues underlying the protests.
For Grand Chief Peters, First Nations protests are “not a police matter,” but rather a “political” one. When asked about an officer’s duty to enforce the rule of law, he said it is not the officer’s job to get involved because he should not “get caught up being the middleman.”
While he and Chief Adam threaten road closures, several high-profile chiefs have gone to great lengths to distance themselves from such rhetoric. On Sunday night, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs released a statement saying Grand chief Derek Nepinak does not condone violence, and on Monday Grand Chief Stan Louttit — whose territory includes Chief Theresa Spence’s Attawapiskat — said in an interview that protests should be strictly peaceful.
“I can’t speak for [Chief Adam],” Grand Chief Louttit said. “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.”
A spokesperson for CN Rail said the company is “watching the situation closely.” The RCMP did not provide comment before deadline Monday evening.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Kathryn Blaze Carlson
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