National Day of Reconciliation Speach by
Mohawk Council of Akwesasne
Grand Chief Tim Thompson
June 11, 2009
Victoria Island, Ottawa
Grand Chief Tim Thompson
Mohawk Council of Akwesasne
Sekon I am Grand Chief Tim Thompson from the Mohawks of Akwesasne today I stand before you in solidarity with Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse and BC Regional Chief Shawn Atleo to bring you information from our community of the current situation that we face as a Mohawk border community. Our community is divided by the international border between Canada and the United States as well as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of New York. It is important to remember that these borders weren’t put in our community by us - they were put there by the Governments of Canada and the United States. By reason of this border, Canada placed a Customs office on our land in the middle of one of our residential communities.
In 2006 the conservative Government announced that they were going to
implement a policy of the government that would allow the arming of the
Canadian Border Guards. Canadians were told that this was a national
policy to be implemented over a ten year period between 2006 to 2016.
Throughout this process Akwesasne has voiced our opposition to the Arming of the Canadian Border guards that are on our territory of Akwesasne.
The Mohawk Council was never consulted with regards to this policy. The
government doesn’t know what consultation and accommodation is. They have federal court rulings telling them they must consult with First Nations, but they continue to brush those aside and use the strong arm tactics against First Nation people as they have done with Akwesasne.
We opposed the Arming of Canadian Border guards on our territory because we have seen our community members endure harassment by borders guards on our territory over many years. We have documented reports of various incidents that have occurred among our people - from our elders to the youth and to both men and women. We have cases before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. These documented cases include our elders being pushed to the ground, a young 17 year old male being put through a cavity search, and a young women being put though a VACAS machine which is an the X-ray machine that examines trucks. She was put through that machine - not once but twice.
The Canada Border facility that is on our land, it is in a residential
area with homes on both sides of the compound. Our children get on and
off the bus at the crossroads everyday. There is a tennis court and
lacrosse wall in the area and in the winter our kids slide on the hills
around the CBSA facility. The safety of our people would be in jeopardy
if we allowed guards to have fire arms, especially those who are
aggressive, racist and intent on racially profiling our people.
Our community has had enough of the harassment. The Customs officer’s
union has admitted that these officers are under stress. To put guns in
their hands and provide those officers with only three weeks of training
is ludicrous. We have seen our community squeezed to the limit, with the
harassment, USA officials moving forward with their Western Hemisphere
travel imitative and our community forced to wait in lines for hours to
get off the island just to go to work, school, carry on business, visit
family and friends, socialize or go shopping on the weekends.
ENOUGH was ENOUGH
The Mohawk Council has been in mediation in the past with CBSA at the
Canadian Human Rights Commission table. The Mohawk Council had put forward recommendations that may have helped alleviate some of the problems at this border crossing, things like putting a Liaison Officer position in place. By having Cultural Sensitivity training implemented for all CBSA officers. But CBSA officials waited a bit to long to accept any kind of
recommendations. Yeah they had cultural sensitivity training, by bringing
a Professor from Toronto, who knew nothing about Akwesasne, spend an
afternoon at a local restaurant in Cornwall with CBSA employees giving
them misinformation. We all know that the history books are wrong when it comes to our history and culture. It needs to be told by us. As I told
CBSA President your officials just don’t get it when it comes to cultural
sensitivity training, it must come from the people of Akwesasne, who know our real history and culture and our struggles.
The Mohawks Council has never denied any type of cultural sensitivity
training for CBSA officials or the liaison position as the Minister
states. These were and are recommendations that we the Mohawks put forward at the hearings before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan is a liar and continues to lie to the Canadian people when he states the Mohawks have been consulted. He doesn’t know what consultation is.
The Mohawk Council passed a resolution on FEB 28, 2008 banning the CBSA officers from wearing firearms and that it would be enforced before the June 1 deadline. The Government didn’t believe us and each party dug in to make our points.
Mohawk Council officials met in a last ditch effort with CBSA on May 28 to
stop the process of the Arming. After a brief discussion on possible
solutions I asked the President of CBSA Steven Rigby what words I can
take back to my community and he stated to me and the leadership that was with me and I quote “IT IS WHAT IT IS” and my response to him was “WHAT HAPPENS HAPPENS”.
The leadership of Akwesasne has tried to meet with the Ministers of Public Security Stockwell Day at the time and now Peter Van-Loan and the only opportunity we had to have a discussion with Van Loan was in the hallways of the parliament and that meeting lasted 4 minutes and was facilitated by Senator Nancy Green Raine. It is those 4 minutes that he is calling consultation.
Throughout the month of May the community members have been manning a tent in an attempt to get the government to talk to us on this issue. Our community has been bringing this issue to the Canadian people who pass through our territory by providing them with information flyers. We had a peaceful rally at the site. We had a peaceful march on to the CBSA compound. We have done everything in the most respectful and peaceful manner so that no one gets hurt and that includes the officers themselves at the port of entry.
On Friday May 29 the community along with elders and leadership delivered the community driven February 28, 2008 Resolution regarding our ban on arming, to the CBSA officials inside the CBSA compound and asked them to forward the resolution to the president of the CBSA and the Government of Canada.
On May 30 during another peaceful rally the elders and community members asked that I, as Grand Chief read the resolution in its entirety to CBSA officials and that I did. I also informed them that the resolution would be enforced in the coming days before the June first deadline to Arm CBSA officials.
The leadership on May 31 also asked the CBSA officials if we could inspect
the facility to see if there were arms in the facility, that was denied
because it would have been a breach of security. I then asked if they
could tell me if there were arms inside the CBSA facility and again they
couldn’t inform me of that information because it would be a breach of
security.
During this whole incident we have kept this process peaceful - as the
leadership promised as the elders promised and as the community promised.
On May 31 as many discussions were going on, there were also numerous side bar discussions going on with CBSA official in the facility. I was informed at 11:30pm by MCA chiefs that the CBSA officials would
voluntarily leave their post if we the people of Akwesasne would guarantee that we would protect the building, that we would not occupy, we that would not damage and that we would not destroy the building and with the guarantee of the Akwesasne people that night, the CBSA officers and their officials left their post at 11:55pm -five minutes before the deadline line to arm the guards.
With the CBSA officials voluntarily leaving their posts, the International
Border that divides our community and both bridges to the USA and Canada were closed to all traffic according to their protocol. No one from
Akwesasne was allowed back on to territory. Our people could leave, but
couldn’t come back.
On Monday June 1st as daylight came, Akwesasne community members now had a task to react to the closure of the bridge by CBSA and insure the safety of our people. Schools were closed, medical personal weren’t allow on to the territory to tend to out elderly; community members weren’t allowed back on Cornwall Island. Akwesasne began to mobilize our Emergency Management plan. People began to send food to the people on the Island, boats began transporting people to and from the main land.
This situation that the government has put the community Akwesasne in has brought our community together as one, has strengthened our bonds within and has strength our courage to reach out to all first nation communities across Canada and ask that you stand side by side, with our leadership from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, The St. Regis Tribal Council and the Mohawk Nation Council of chiefs.
We ask you to begin a peace fire in your communities, call your MP’S call
your political reps provincial and federal to force the government to meet
with the Akwesasne leadership to resolve the current situation that we
face.
Today the Akwesasne community is still partially closed from the USA side
as there is no through traffic to Canada or the City of Cornwall.
Akwesasne’s economy is suffering because of this closure as are the local economies of Cornwall and many of the neighboring towns to the south of us including Massena New York.
The issue is also before the United Nations as we have asked for official
observers to come to Akwesasne and monitor the situation.
Our people continue to be transported by boats to the main land. The Bank of Montreal has closed, mail delivery is limited to two days a week, our people are being forced to travel by car around Akwesasne which takes and hour and a half.
Our lives have been disrupted by this Conservative Government under the leadership of Stephen Harper.
Minister Van Loan must stop lying to the Canadian people about the situation.
Today we ask for your support also to stand with us in solidarity against
this Gov’t strong Arm tactics.
Thank You from the people and the leadership of Akwesasne
