Malette, Chris
Friday, June 29, 2007 - 10:00
Belleville Intelligencer
Chris Malette ’At Large’ - As most of you read this, one of two things have probably happened.
The aboriginal day of action has come and gone with nary a whimper, with peaceful marches achieving a never-before-achieved state of mutual understanding between natives and non-natives... or...
Shawn Brant and his now immortalized group of semi-pro protesters poked a really, really pointy stick in the eye of the civilian authorities of this province and are now nursing pepper-sprayed eyes in a holding tank at Napanee's detention centre.
My bet is on the latter and watch for them leading every national and local newscast and front page in the land Saturday, as a result, including ours. But as I write this midweek, some interesting images have emerged from this weeks-long circus.
Provincial Conservative leader John Tory, appealing to the law and order types in the upcoming election and clearly hoping to score some points by insisting cops take no guff from protesters, said this past week:
"We have to send a message that says, the law is the law. We are all subject to the law. There aren't exceptions to that."
Brant, for his part - and this was rich, coming from a human rhetoric factory like him - termed Tory's get-tough talk a mere attempt by politicians to "ratchet up the rhetoric" before today's nose-thumbing exercises began.
How's this for rhetoric? - "June 29th is the day to start this campaign," Brant told The Canadian Press this week. "We're the people that continue to bury our kids and have to put them to bed hungry at night ... The only voice that we have is when we start to target those things which disrupt people . . . that inconvenience people."
There's no arguing much needs to be done on issues surrounding native communities, but I don't know about the "burying kids" bit and hungry toddlers thing, Shawn. There might be some folks in Canada's inner-city housing projects who could have a thing or two to say about those subjects, but if you've now personally staked ownership to teen deaths and hunger through poverty, have it your way.
Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse said comments like Tory's and Brant's are distorting the true meaning of the day.
"The focus is on positive actions," he said. "It doesn't help when we have an individual who suggests otherwise . . . It's a recipe for getting somebody going.
"This is not a day of bringing Canada to a halt," Toulouse added. "Let's have Canadians stand with us as we express our frustration to government and their lack of action to deal with our issues."
It wouldn't hurt, you know, to get natives on side at least to have combined town hall style meetings to air issues such as cigarette sales that mightily tick off the local health authorities and walleye harvesting that does the same for local "sportsmen."
There was a time when Mohawks spearing walleye in the Moira and other rivers caused a huge hue and cry. Sure, there are still grumblings and some of the same old Indian-baiting cranks fill the radio talk shows with their usual bilge, but the spring fishing season passes now with nary a blink.
That's not to say spearing spawning pickerel is a very smart way to take fish - nor are gill nets across Telegraph Narrows - but that's a column for another day.
Point is, these are things that pissed off the populous in a big way, but after the initial irritation, hunting and fishing rights got to the point where the province permits Mohawks to reduce herd numbers among deer populations at Presqu'ile Park.
Again, there are flamethrowers on the non-native side who screech about that, but we reached that point of jurisdictional evolution by protest actions not many of us liked.
This is a difficult point to make, owing to the fact neither I or many people I know here in Quinte - native and non-native alike - agree with Brant's tactics and theatrics.
But, you really must admit, the man now not only needs a good lawyer, but a press agent to handle his calls. He's probably in the slammer as you read this, having flagrantly violated his bail conditions by taking part in whatever shenanigans he schemed up over the past several weeks, but he got millions of dollars worth of publicity that no paid-for ad campaign could have mustered.
Hell, a full-page ad in the Globe & Mail wouldn't have garnered the attention he got with interviews with the likes of Naomi Klein - who shamelessly and unquestioningly lapped up all of Brant's verbal gobbledygook - and Peter Mansbridge, ditto.
Give credit where credit's due, as tough as it might be to swallow.
Without Brant and his band of hapless sycophants - kids, unfortunately, in many cases, who are amassing a depressingly hefty criminal record - the National Day of Action wouldn't have garnered near the attention it did.
And that is precisely why we have to move past the protests, barricades, threats and counter threats to a place where dialogue and action - most of all, serious government action, on land issues and native living conditions - will make silly and, in the end, destructive spectacles like Brant's a distant memory.
Of course, by then, Brant will be sprung from jail and the subject of a CBC made-for-TV movie, but we'll review that when the time comes.