03) TORIES ESCALATE FIRST NATIONS SURVEILLANCE

PV Vancouver Bureau

            An in-depth report by Russell Diabo and Shiri Pasternak, published recently by The Media Co‑op, reveals internal government documents showing that immediately after his election in 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stepped up spying on First Nations activists across Canada. The surveillance is largely focused on grassroots indigenous groups and campaigns, but the news has also sparked anger from other First Nation bodies.

            Documents obtained by Access to Information requests shows that the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) was given the lead role to spy on First Nations leaders, participants and outside supporters of occupations and protests.

            INAC established a "Hot Spot Reporting System," which puts together weekly reports highlighting movements engaged in direct action to protect their lands and communities.

            As the Media Co-op authors note, "What we see in these documents - from the hot spot reports themselves, to the intelligence‑sharing between government and security forces - is a closely monitored population of First Nations, who clearly are causing a panic at the highest levels of Canadian bureaucracy and political office."

            INAC focused on conflicts of "growing concern" due to "unrest" and increasing "militancy". In a briefing to the RCMP, INAC identified "hotspot" communities such as Caledonia, Ontario (Douglas Creek Estates occupation); Belleville, Ontario (Montreal/Toronto Rail Blockade in sympathy to Caledonia); Brantford, Ontario (Grand River Conservation Authority Lands); Desoronto, Ontario (Occupation of Quarry); Grassy Narrows (Blockade of the TransCanada highway by environmentalists); and Maniwaki, Quebec (Blockade of Route 117).

            But the weekly reports cover all actions taking place from Vancouver Island to the east coast, naming dozens of communities as sources of potential unrest organized by "Aboriginal extremists."

            Such protests, according to INAC, "are arguably harder to manage as they exist outside negotiation processes to resolve recognized grievances with duly elected leaders. We seek to avoid giving standing to such splinter groups so as not to debase the legally recognized government."

            This fear of aboriginals who function "outside negotiation processes" is as old as the Canada itself. The colonization of the prairies is largely a story of the emerging Canadian state's strategy of compelling tribes to sign unfair treaties (invariably broken to a greater or lesser degree), while crushing resistance movements which rejected this process.

            At the heart of the new revelations is the reality that to this day, the Canadian state seeks to channel all relations with Aboriginal peoples through forms which reject inherent indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. In fact, aboriginal movements and forces based on such concepts are regarded by definition as outside the bounds of legality.

            From this perspective, the role of INAC is clear. Rather than functioning as a regular government ministry or an "institution of reconciliation and negotiation," INAC is closely integrated with the state security forces, especially the RCMP, with the mandate of controlling "unrest".

            The Media Co-op article reports that the Harper government established a "Standing Information Sharing Forum," chaired by the RCMP. This "Forum" includes the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Department of Fisheries, Natural Resources Canada, and Transportation Canada, holding weekly conference calls.     "Harper is moving towards a security paradigm familiar since the War on Terror was launched in 2001," say the authors. "The inclusion of Transportation Canada at the Information Sharing Forum should also alert us to the commercial threat of blockades to the free trade agenda. Aboriginal people who are defending their lands are now treated on a spectrum from criminals to terrorists."

            The authors report that the government seems "particularly worried about the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy" and "Warrior Societies" with an "illicit agenda," such as tobacco smuggling without paying federal taxes.

            The Haudenosaunee/Six Nations are also seen as a threat because of the land reclamation at Caledonia, which "continues to serve as a beacon on land claims and Aboriginal rights issues across Canada," according to the documents. For this reason, the authors say, "hard‑nosed, experienced negotiators (have) presented unmovable positions from the Harper government, which is likely why there hasn't been any negotiated resolution of the situation at Kanenhstaton/Caledonia to this date."

            The 2007 National Day Of Action launched by the Assembly of First Nations was another source of government concerns. The documents point to "the often disparate and fractured nature of these events," which can damage the public's perception of the police. The documents imply a fear that a violent response by police to First Nations actions could result in solidarity actions across the country, such as railway blockades outside the control of the AFN.

            The authors find that "most threatening of all to security and government forces is coordinated First Nations action... Their fear is palpable where they follow the trajectory of the Day of Action ... first proposed by Chief Terrance Nelson at the Assembly of First Nations' general assembly, where the motion carried."

            Noting the historic government tactic of "dividing First Nations into the `progressive' Indian Bands and the backward or `traditional' Indian Bands," the authors conclude that "what the INAC and RCMP briefings show is that there needs to be unity on the ground with coordinated political actions between First Nations Peoples in order to protect, defend and advance First Nation pre‑existing sovereignty, and First Nation Aboriginal and Treaty rights to lands and resources. Divide and conquer tactics can only be met with new strategies of alliance‑building, and by bringing the leadership back down to the land."

(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)