Your Photos: Skyway bridge blockade
- June 9, 2009 12:17 PM |
- By Your Voice
Submitted by Christopher Clarke
About/Bio: Christopher Clarke is a journalism student living in Belleville, Ontario.
My take: UPDATE: On Friday June 12, 2009, the blockade of the Skyway Bridge ended. As was widely reported, the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police Service, with assistance from the Ontario Provincial Police, confronted the protesters around 6:30 am, which resulted in a number of injuries to both protesters and police. The police received minor wounds, and the protesters suffered more serious ones, and an elderly protester was reported to be in critical condition, though was released later the same day.
A short time later, a group led by Mohawk women blockaded the bridge again, setting up a peace camp on the corner of the highway perpendicular to the bridge entrance on the Tyendinaga side. They refused to re-open the bridge until all of the men arrested, except for those who already had conditions attached to them from previous charges, were released. This occurred around 5:00 pm, and the protesters left the bridge to the police.
The confrontation between the protesters and the TMPS left many people bitter, as a community meeting to discuss the blockade was scheduled for that morning at 9:00 am. Because of this, many people there were angry at the police and band council for not waiting a few hours for the chance to arrive at a peaceful, negotiated agreement.
June 9: About 40 Mohawk protesters blocked a bridge in eastern Ontario Sunday evening in support of a nearby First Nations community engaged in a standoff with the federal government over the arming of border guards.
Belleville resident Christopher Clarke sent these photos of the standoff.
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Comments (7)
Not another summer of this ... it is getting old. Can't these "professional protesters" find another way to raise their concerns ... oh I don't know - why not something that works. We've gone from residential schools to
residential road block!!
The border guards work for Canadians. If Canadians in that region don't want them armed then they shouldn't be armed. It's that simple.
There haven’t been any incidents in that region that would have turned out better if a guard is armed. It just seems to be causing more trouble than it's worth.
pope backed by the queen ,still trying to corral the natives , still stealing our natural resourses ,as they have been doing centries,and keeping the "loyal subjects" loyal and paying "royalties" and "dumbed downed" please watch "END GAME" by alex jon
es thanks
This is nonsense and the OPP should be clearing these native terrorists off the roads the minute they block traffic.
Obviously Shawn Brant learned his lesson well. Of course, he did. nothing happened when he caused the highyway 401 disruption.
Yes I use the word terrorist. That is supported by the Canadian Criminal Code definition, An act "(i) that is committed
(A) in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause, and
(B) in whole or in part with the intention of intimidating the public, or a segment of the public, with regard to its security, including its economic security, or compelling a person, a government or a domestic or an international organization to do or to refrain from doing any act, whether the public or the person, government or organization is inside or outside Canada, and
(ii) that intentionally
(A) causes death or serious bodily harm to a person by the use of violence,
(B) endangers a person’s life,
(C) causes a serious risk to the health or safety of the public or any segment of the public,
(D) causes substantial property damage, whether to public or private property, if causing such damage is likely to result in the conduct or harm referred to in any of clauses (A) to (C), or
(E) causes serious interference with or serious disruption of an essential service, facility or system, whether public or private, other than as a result of advocacy, protest, dissent or stoppage of work that is not intended to result in the conduct or harm referred to in any of clauses (A) to (C).
That is what the Warriors, the "Men's Fire" in Oshweken, and other native groups committ when they block highways, sabotage power stations [Caledonia], dig up the highway, burn brdges [Caledonia]and block rail lines.
Bob
Ok....
1) Seneca_Man is so "in touch" with the people and obviously so better informed than we are that he manages to consistently mistranslate the word "Haudenosaunee" as meaning Mohawks. It means "People of the Longhouse" and is a term for all of those in the Confederacy, not just Mohawks. But hey, we know wheat he meant.....
2) Anyone else think rarahkwisere is in fact ALEX JONES and he is trying to sell some DVD's?!?!? "GO WATCH END GAME"!!! *snicker*....the Pope and the Queen...hehe. Hell, why not lets throw Colonel Sanders into the mix! Now there's a conspiracy theory for ya!
But seriously...Our First Nations Brothers and Sisters have historically suffered injustices we can hardly imagine and in many cases, they still suffer from grievous injustices to this day. We should never forget that we wouldn't even have this great country if it were not for our Iroquois allies (see the War of 1812) who fought so valiantly beside our forefathers. We repaid a lot of this loyalty with treachery.
As a people we should be standing up and demanding justice be done and obligations lived up to.
But Mr. Brant is not a true Warrior for the cause. He is a goon, a bully and a coward who hides behind women and children. His promotion of hate and intolerance as well as his tactics fly in the face of the Great Law of Peace that the Mohawks were proudly the first to accept from The Peacemaker. This blockade of the Skyway Bridge is unjust and is in no way related to situations elsewhere. Those situations were merely the excuse Mr. Brant was looking for to continue his crusade to remain in the headlines at the expense of others.
Should the Police move in and clear the blockade? Probably a poor idea. The confrontation is likely to only play to his megalomania. The solution? The Mohawk People themselves should go there and remind this militant that they are the power, not him.
Thank you.
I have heard that emergency response has been able to get through on bridge .What is the truth ? one paper says one thing and a website says another . I think if people are covering this event they should get the whole story first so the community is not miss informed .I do not agree with the blockade because for one the band council is not supporting it so in a way it they are hurting their very on people.It is also creating a negative reflection on the protesters people .
I live in a community near the reserve and always see the same individuals having these protest .Why is it that they get away with it ? Do i think that water issues are something that should be fixed on reserve yes sure i do... I just feel like blockading a bridge that people travel through and spend in that area doesn't make sense .Is it that they are trying to get noticed by the goverment because the only thing i see is people in surrounding community being punished for what the government has or didn't do .The only thing the protesters are doing is creating turmoil with their community and outside communities.I just hope that this ends peacefully for everyone and that something will be resolved
It is finally down, the blockade is down and 13 were arrested. It took them long enough, oh wait someone had to shoot up the Police Chief's truck first. Belleville Intelligencer reports that more than 100 Mohawks were against this blockade and confronted the warriors on Thursday night. Also reports that the Native made threats to the newsreporters and followed them off the territory.... funny how they don't want the media around when things are going against them..... but it appears to be over, I hope I need to go over that bridge today....
We'll just see how long Brandt stays in jail this time....