Sadly the summer of 2008 will see an increase in the unified actions of certain native radicals within Ontario and probably across Canada; and the police will be keep any non-native radicals under control. Although I refer to "certain native radicals" it is clear that a growing number of silent majority aboriginals are giving a reluctant nod to their methods. Yet at the same time they express wonderment at the hardening attitudes of so-called non-natives.
It has increasingly come down to that, native versus non-native. It is a real shame to see it, but once again the line in the sand has been drawn by the protagonists and their actions. And when it comes to racial taunts, remember it was an Indian leader in Manitoba last year who stated, "the only way the get the white man's attention is to hit him economically."
Non-natives are now being targeted for where they live and work in order to create as much inconvenience as possible, so as to generate political pressures on our governments. The ordinary Canadian citizen is being used as both pawn and hostage to gain points at the negotiating tables.
Municipal instability, loss of property values, local fear and uncertainty are all part of the calculated collateral damage purposefully inflicted upon us simply because we are who we are, ordinary Canadians trying to live a quiet life.
So far, the only severely injured person is the Hamilton gentleman beaten in his Caledonia house who is still recovering. Mercifully no one has been killed. I fear that may change as the radicals harden their position.
As the heat is turned up on us this summer we should all get behind our Brantford mayor and demand two things: one, that our leaders in both the provincial and federal governments get off their duffs and get this problem settled once and for all; two, that our police forces actively enforce Canadian law when ordinary people are bullied, threatened, extorted and prevented from going about their normal lives.
You know, there could even be a criminal element in all of this! Not having "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" written into our constitution, we do however aspire to those values. We are yet not like Palestinians and Israelis battling each other over ground, but let the lands claims continue and that abyss is there for us to fall into.
Robert Thompson
Brantford