Wednesday, August 29, 2007 - 10:00
Belleville Intelligencer
Editorial - The movement started among Toronto activists to label Shawn Brant a political prisoner and to campaign for his release from jail is nothing short of ridiculous.
Dubbed the Tyendinaga Support Committee, the group is circulating a petition to have the 42-year-old Mohawk protester released on bail for a third time this year from the Napanee Detention Centre where he is being held on several charges.
Brant is charged with breaching bail conditions imposed after being charged with uttering death treats at a Deseronto protest last November, leading a group of Mohawk protesters that obstructed the main CN Rail line in April and for his role in what police charge was co-ordinating the blockade for the National Aboriginal Day of Action June 29 that blocked a large section of County Road 2 and two CN Rail line crossings.
The support committee was started by a 23-year-old Toronto student after a group of Brant supporters gathered outside a Napanee courthouse this month for the protester's bail review. Brant was first denied bail in July.
The committee will host a meeting in Toronto Wednesday with well-known anti-globalization author Naomi Klein set to speak.
While the group has every right to their beliefs, it is ludicrous for them to call Brant a political prisoner.
A political prisoner is someone who is held in prison without legitimate legal recourse because his or her ideas are deemed by a government to either challenge or threaten the authority of the state. Brant, however, is being held without bail because he has been charged with breaking bail conditions twice this year - not because of a government conspiracy - and he continues to have legal recourse.
An example of a real political prisoner is Chia Thye Poh who was arrested in Singapore in 1966 and imprisoned without charge or trial until 1989 on suspicions he was a member of the Communist Party of Malaysia. He spent another three-and-a-half years confined on the island of Sentosa for which he was charged rent and was made to find his own food. The last of the restrictions limiting his civil and political rights were lifted in 1998.
Probably the most famous political prisoner to date is Nelson Mandela. Mandela spent nearly three decades - 1962 to 1990 - in prison for his campaign to end apartheid in South Africa. Following his release from prison in 1990, his switch to a policy of reconciliation and negotiation eventually led to multi-racial democracy in South Africa where he was elected president in 1994.
Mandela has received more than 100 awards over 40 years, including the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Brant's situation is nothing like Poh's who was arrested without evidence, nor can he be compared to Mandela, a crusader to end segregation and racism in his country.
While Brant is touted by fellow protesters as a leader for native rights, he is, in fact, acting without the support or sanction of his own band council - the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte.
Chief R. Donald Maracle has spoken out in anger against the group's blockades. In fact, Maracle said the actions of Brant and his followers could "significantly compromise" ongoing land claim negotiations with the federal government regarding the 923.5-acre Culbertson Tract.
He also said Brant's brash actions alienate non-natives - Deseronto residents, for instance, have voiced their anger and frustration at Brant's antics.
Based on Brant's history of causing trouble, the Tyendinaga Support Committee will have little support locally, despite bringing in a big name author like Klein to speak at their rally.
No eloquent speaking can mask the fact that Brant has broken his bail conditions several times. Jail is where he belongs until our courts, not the government, decides his fate.