The Law of the Land

A country's laws are to be universally recognized by all its citizens, and the security agencies, local police, provincial police, municipal and provincial governments all have an obligation and a duty to ensure that any who flout the law - in an attitude of impunity no less - be disabused of the quaint notion that they will not be taken into custody. Such is not the case, however, when First Nations militants express their ire, claiming to be exempt through their aboriginal status from Canadian law.

That governments at all levels, including federal, and their policing agencies, decline to prosecute law-breakers claiming to exemption through their status as First Nations, is a travesty. From drug- and tobacco-smuggling operations in border towns between Canada (Ontario/Quebec) and the U.S. where crime runs rampant, and there are apprehensions at all levels of government about confronting the lawless in places like Akwesasne and Kahnawake, crime and illegal operations get a free ride.

That situation harms everyone, impacting on society in general with illegal and cheap cigarettes available to tempt young people, and teaching smugglers that they can get away with whatever they wish, because of their purported independent status. Just as egregious, and infinitely more compelling in its societal-destructive impact is the ongoing blemish to the society compact where First Nations militants - goons of aboriginal extraction - feel perfectly free to prey on innocents living near Caledonia, Ontario.

For years, the area has been beset by the uncertainty of whether or not the government will act to instruct the local police and the Ontario Provincial Police to clear out the illegal squatters who threaten law-abiding Ontarians. Instead, a situation amounting to a perpetual stand-off between the OPP, the Government of Ontario and a collection of thugs masquerading as 'native protesters' have felt perfectly free to hold people hostage in their own homes.

In particular, the family of Dana Chartwell and David Brown, owners of the only home that has been barricaded inside the area that those native protesters consider their very own stamping grounds. No one in provincial government or in the police authority appears to be able to focus intelligently and authoritatively on the matter. To gather their lawful instruments of apprehension and detention to draw the teeth of that particular dragon.

This family has been left to fend for themselves, hapless victims of a cadre of brutish clods - First Nations 'warriors' - claiming to represent the interests of First Nations peoples in respect of a still-unsettled land treaty. It's a mystery to any sane thinker how unabashed thuggery can be seen to represent honest claims of having been ill done by through the inaction of current and past governments incapable of dealing honestly with First Nations land claims.

And how such thuggish groups of 'protesters' can possibly believe that they are advancing a legitimate and longstanding cause by criminally harassing innocent people, by creating an atmosphere of chaotic destruction of civil property and natural surroundings. There is nothing that can excuse the miserable excesses of the protesters aimed at civilian bystanders who want nothing better than to be allowed to live in peace.

There is little that can excuse a government that prefers to sit back and do nothing to solve the obvious problems, while a family is being victimized and their agonized cries for help go unanswered by the very police society entrusts with keeping the peace and ensuring justice prevails. In the process actually enabling the 'protesters' to feel entitled, and exonerated of all civil offences.