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Native Roadblock in Quebec

The_Falcon

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http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/BreakingNews/2007/03/13/3742908.html

Tue, March 13, 2007

Natives protest along highway north of GatineauTuesday, 10:30 a.m.
By CP, Sun Media

   


GRAND-REMOUS, Que. — A highway blocked by a group of armed aboriginals to protest forest management by the province was partially reopened late Monday evening.

Transport Quebec said traffic was making its way in both directions after the site of several protesters carrying guns forced its closure for a time on Monday. The protesters appear to have scaled down their tactics this morning.

"No firearms are visible today," police spokeswoman Melanie Larouche said this morning.

Larcouhe said police have had no significant problems from the protesters and traffic continues to be flowing north and south.

Protesters had originally said that the highway would stay closed until they spoke with an official of the provincial Natural Resources Department. But Public Security Department negotiators said during the evening that wouldn’t happen as long as the road remained closed.
 

Quebec provincial police said between 25 and 50 people set up the blockade around 5:30 a.m. on Highway 117, north of Maniwaki.

The protesters say the Quebec government reneged on a verbal agreement that ended earlier protests by granting local aboriginals living outside reserves the right to harvest trees.

“The protest is about the government of Quebec, the Liberals, lying to us,” said Guillaume Carle, chief of the recently formed Confederation of Aboriginal People of Canada.

“As soon as we lifted the barricades (last time) they turned on us,” Carle said in an interview.

Two vans, a pair of teepees, heavy equipment, barrels and logs were set up across the highway, the only route between the Laurentian and Abitibi-Temiscamingue regions of Quebec.

Police set up a secure perimeter about 200 metres from the blockade after some protesters were spotted with hunting rifles at the blockade site, located within Verendrye provincial park.

“Some firearms have been seen at the roadblock,” said provincial police spokeswoman Melanie Larouche. “We won’t let anybody pass that line.”

Carle said Quebec has allowed rampant clear-cut logging in the region but left aboriginals out of the planning and the economic benefit from forestry activity.

“We’re being robbed,” he said as he drove to the site of the protest earlier Monday.

Calls to newsprint giant Abitibi-Consolidated (TSX:A) weren’t immediately returned on Monday.

Carle said protesters are also upset about living conditions for aboriginals across Canada who live outside reserves.

“No electricity, no heat, no water,” said Carle, who said his group has about 6,000 members across Canada. “The conditions are unacceptable.”

Last month, the protesters picketed the office of the Quebec minister of natural resources.

Carle said the group wants rights to log in the region as well as a say in overall forestry planning. He said the barrier will remain on the highway until the province sends someone to negotiate a proper agreement.

Lise Guerin, spokeswoman for the Quebec Department of Natural Resources, said the department is following the situation.

“The Surete du Quebec (provincial police) is in place and they’re in contact with the protesters,” she said.

Police said they want to re-establish the flow of traffic as soon as possible but had no immediate plans to dismantle the blockade by force.

“Above all, it has to be determined whether intervention would actually complicate things,” Larouche said.

She said police remained on-site but were not negotiating with the protesters. That is up to the province.

“It’s not our job to do that,” Larouche said. “We’re there to ensure the safety of everyone.”
 
Do these freaking people know how to bring things up to government through official means?
How about everytime I don't get my way I start burning tires on the freaking road,put on a balaclava and sport a SKS.

I as one Canadian am sick and tired of the aboriginals setting up road blocks.Get a grip on democracy or head to the former Yugo where it's an acceptable form of government.

1 word:Bulldozer.
 
No lets rethink this.

I am upset about something too!  The price of fuel....so, following the example set by both the protestors and the police...

1.  I am going to gather 25-50 people I can find who are upset as well, and own firearms.

2.  We will blockade the refinery here in Woodside, blocking off traffic between Dartmouth/Halifax, and Shearwater/Eastern Passage/Cow Bay.

3.  Nationally, when protestors arm themselves, not much happens, and they certainly are not treated with hostility by the police.  So, we should be safe from criminal prosecution, if following the standard set in this incident and others.  I mean, equal treatment of ALL Canadians is the name of the game right?  So...even non-native protestors should be able to carry out Para's 1 and 2.

Man this blockade, people with arms running around stuff is getting old. 

:brickwall:





 
Mud Recce Man said:
No lets rethink this.

I am upset about something too!  The price of fuel....so, following the example set by both the protestors and the police...

1.  I am going to gather 25-50 people I can find who are upset as well, and own firearms.

2.  We will blockade the refinery here in Woodside, blocking off traffic between Dartmouth/Halifax, and Shearwater/Eastern Passage/Cow Bay.

3.  Nationally, when protestors arm themselves, not much happens, and they certainly are treated with hostility by the police.  So, we should be safe from criminal prosecution, if following the standard set in this incident and others.  I mean, equal treatment of ALL Canadians is the name of the game right?  So...even non-native protestors should be able to carry out Para's 1 and 2.

Man this blockade, people with arms running around stuff is getting old. 

:brickwall:

Nope, you're not privledged. You'll be given one chance to cease and desist. Then you'll get beaten by the riot squad as they tell you to "Quit resisting". You'll lose all your firearms privledges for life, and will be prosecuted to the full extent the Crown can gather. Wiping you and your family out financially for the rest of your lives. Your name will be international news, and everything that the media can find out, or make up, about you, will be put before the world. Except for the court portion, it'll take the Tac Squad about one hour from start to finish, after the first native calls and says he can't access the hiway because of your blockade. There are, supposedly,  ::) "Haves" and "Have Nots". However, somehow, the latter seem to have more than the former.

Once you give in to terrorism, it's a long hard road back. We have yet to find out how hard that's going to be, but it'll be neither pretty, cheap, or painless.


Army.ca Poster
 
recceguy said:
Then you'll get beaten by the riot squad as they tell you to "Quit resisting".

Ok I am not sure why, but that one line made me laugh out loud!
 
What do you do when you contact a blockade?

Fill it full of HESH.

MRM,Recceguy,that's the exactly point I was hoping to point out.This is seeming to be the only way the native community can properly get a message across.How come it's such a touchy topic?"We will not use force until the province decides is crap".As recceguy said if it were anyone else they would be face in the dirt with a knee in the back.

What about ferry prices to Newfoundland?What about gas prices?Hey Quebecois who want to separate.Albertains who wish to separate.
YOU all should start fires on the freeways across Canada.The provincial and federal governments have made it quite clear (at least to myself)that this is now an acceptable form of protest.

Will I need to carry sleevo bottles in my car to start paying check points off soon?
Property tax went up 300 bucks in Oromocto...yet no armed people on the roads....Weird eh?
 
Well, if you want thru the checkpoints in Tignish PEI, you better bring 'shine or Blue.  ;D
 
...if it were anyone else they would be face in the dirt with a knee in the back.

Playing devil's advocate here, but do we have any examples of other groups putting up illegal roadblocks with this being the result?  I'm not talking with weapons, just a plain, old, road block like you would see during a strike.
 
BTW, I've heard on the radio that the blockade was lifted...
 
Strike said:
Playing devil's advocate here, but do we have any examples of other groups putting up illegal roadblocks with this being the result?  I'm not talking with weapons, just a plain, old, road block like you would see during a strike.

What would that have to do with this thread?  Wouldn't taking the weapons out COMPLETELY change the scenario from say, a legal union strike like I have witnessed here on the Dockyard a few years back?

No one had rifles there.  Although, IIRC, I may have seen some Timbits on the pickett lines!
 
Good point Strike.

weapons mighta been there... people say they might have seen guns but, that's not, in itself, the point.  Have been to Akwasasne, Kanawake & kanasetake - seen many guns over the years but have not had em shoved in my face and have not felt threathened (OKA dustup excluded).

have seen too many picket lines outside plants & see the reaction when someone; employee or client tries to cross the line.... no guns present, but plenty of other unpleasant things can be done to make you regret having tried to cross.
 
OK granted but...I think, and this is just me, that completely blocking a highway...and stopping entrance to a plant/site are not exactly the same things, nor do they send the same message to "the public".

While no shots were fired, there was the potential for that to happen, even if it was a ND by a protestor. 

In our criminal justice (cough) system, isn't "a crime committed" usually punished less than "if the same crime committed but with a firearm"?
 
just a plain, old, road block like you would see during a strike.

I'm not comparing strike action to these types of roadblocks.  What I'm asking is, has anyone here seen a roadblock "like you would see during a strike" (ie -- plackards, people yelling, walking across the road, vehicles in the way, etc) run by anyone other than the group in question?

I only ask because eveyone assumes that if they were to participate in one they would be charged with obstructing traffic or some other thing.

How many times have we seen truckers, farmers, and other groups snarl traffic with their rigs?  Were any of them arrested?  No.

Sure, weapons in this case is going a little far.  I'm just disturbed that the general thought is, "If we were to do it [put up a roadblock] we would be thrown in jail.  But these guys can get away with it."  Guess what.  Other groups have done this, and were not put in jail.

Generalizing makes me sick.  Whether or not I agree with the action, I cannot agree with generalizing of a people.
 
Strike said:
I'm not comparing strike action to these types of roadblocks.  What I'm asking is, has anyone here seen a roadblock "like you would see during a strike" (ie -- plackards, people yelling, walking across the road, vehicles in the way, etc) run by anyone other than the group in question?

I only ask because eveyone assumes that if they were to participate in one they would be charged with obstructing traffic or some other thing.

In the not-so-distant past there were a series of blockades and counter-blockades by environmentalists and loggers over a timber license to be issued north of Whistler.  No one was arrested, iirc, but I can't tell you what brought it to an end.  This far into the "war in the woods", as people have dubbed it, it's just background noise for most in the Lower Mainland.

DF
 
armed aboriginals

OKAY so let me get this straight...  I'm a good guy. I pay my axes, I have no criminal record, I serve my country overseas, I forked out cash for a new PAL and hunting licence, I registered all my guns in that joke of a registry- and when I go camping on land my family has leased for over 100 years i STILL get game wardens busting my balls. They could have checked my licence 5 times in a day as they walk by my cabin and when they walk by it for the 6th time, they check my licence again.

They've admitted to being told to harass hunters (I dont even hunt) and these guys are putting up road blocks and their armed?

Is the ministry sending game wardens in to check THEIR goddamn PALs and huntng licences? Are they checking to see if THEY registered their firearms

Sorry in my books what their doing warents sending in armed police officers to disarm this militia
 
Strike said:
I'm not comparing strike action to these types of roadblocks.  What I'm asking is, has anyone here seen a roadblock "like you would see during a strike" (ie -- plackards, people yelling, walking across the road, vehicles in the way, etc) run by anyone other than the group in question?

I only ask because eveyone assumes that if they were to participate in one they would be charged with obstructing traffic or some other thing.

How many times have we seen truckers, farmers, and other groups snarl traffic with their rigs?  Were any of them arrested?  No.

Sure, weapons in this case is going a little far.  I'm just disturbed that the general thought is, "If we were to do it [put up a roadblock] we would be thrown in jail.  But these guys can get away with it."  Guess what.  Other groups have done this, and were not put in jail.

Generalizing makes me sick.  Whether or not I agree with the action, I cannot agree with generalizing of a people.
Good point Strike.
From folk here that I have heard say time and again, "Treat everyone equal" it sure goes out the window when political protest is being coordinated by a  group of people they do not like.  Then all sorts of extranious issues get pulled out of ... somewhere; hunting rights, past actions of totally non-related people etc... Then they want them treated harshl simply because they are native.

Looks to me like these guys in this community are suffering miseably and want help. They know to ge attention they have to get press.  Easiest way to get press in their area? 
 
Its Canada, not Iraq or some other greasy shytehole of an arsehole of a place.

I don't care if they are natives or not, simply they are Canadians conducting an illegal act, and armed at that. That tells me they are a threat to the general public at large, and these 'dime store' terrorists should be rounded up and arrested, their firearms and vehicles used in the incident should be confiscated, and they should have the book thrown at them regarless of their ethnic background. Discipline by example.

They would not be carrying rifles around if they did not intend to use them, or threaten to use them, adn since they were being carried at a road block, thats threatening enough for me.

No double standards, we're all equal, all Canadians as far as I am concerned, all with the same rights, with the only difference my relatives came out from Northern Ireland in the mid 1800's, their's crossed the Bering Straight when there was a land bridge before the last ice age.

Illegal acts involving firearms should have a zero tolerance, no matter who you are, the appropiate firearms licenses for possesion and acquisition should always come into play.

I am a firearms owner (restricted and non-restricted), and I always obey the laws governing such equipment both in dear ole Canada and in Australia.

Owning a firearm in Canada is a privillage, not a right (we do not have the right to bear arms, or arm bears for that matter ;) ), and those who abuse the privillage deserve to have that taken away in court. After all, thats why we have laws, to protect the public, and this unacceptable behaviour shows nothing but the direct contempt for the laws of Canada guarding such.

Thats my 2 cents on using firearms illegally, and its got nothing to do with the colour of one's skin.

Regards,

Wes
 
Wesley (Over There) said:
Its Canada, not Iraq or some other greasy shytehole of an arsehole of a place.

I don't care if they are natives or not, simply they are Canadians conducting an illegal act, and armed at that. That tells me they are a threat to the general public at large, and these 'dime store' terrorists should be rounded up and arrested, their firearms and vehicles used in the incident should be confiscated, and they should have the book thrown at them regarless of their ethnic background. Discipline by example.

They would not be carrying rifles around if they did not intend to use them, or threaten to use them, adn since they were being carried at a road block, thats threatening enough for me.

Wes

+1 wes.
UberCree said:
.. somewhere; hunting rights, past actions of totally unrelated people etc... Then they want them treated harshl simply because they are native.
Yes were all racist POS.STFU.Did you ever stop to think other members who commented are not the "whiteman"?When did anyone say anything racist?Subtract native in any comment and put basque whalers,gay community,rednecks,and it would have the same feelings from myself.
However this is becoming a guaranteed thing everytime theirs any dispute in the native community.

You bring in weapons and that to me screams hostile protest.Sitting on the side of the road with signs,no problem.


Are you racist?Sure sounds like it.Stop the poor poor me crap.Or continue to believe everyone is out to get the aboriginals....its your life to waste thinking bullsh*t.
 
Hey Ubercree,
Used to really enjoy your posts over at socnet when I was lurking around here. Enjoy them here too I think you should try and hop on more often.
WRT what you said I don't agree at all

From folk here that I have heard say time and again, "Treat everyone equal" it sure goes out the window when political protest is being coordinated by a  group of people they do not like.  Then all sorts of extranious issues get pulled out of ... somewhere; hunting rights, past actions of totally non-related people etc... Then they want them treated harshl simply because they are native.

I don't want someone treated harshly because their native. Personally I love native american culture, I'm beginning to pick it up and I'm even going to attempt to build a sweatlodge at my hunting cabin.

I want these guys treated harshly because their breaking the law. Wes hit the nail on the head. This isn't Iraq, Afghanistan or some back water warlord country whre you can load up in a pick up truck grab some shotguns and go play mr law. It's Canada.

It's a mockery of our gun control laws when your above them simply because your a visible minority and it's not convienient for the government to enforce the laws.

These roadblocks (unfortinuately) make natives look like assholes and thats the first thing anyone thinks about when we read this stuff.  It's not empathy for the situation, it's not oh wow I wonder what the larger issues here are. It's oh wow look another native road block where their waving guns around.

These guys should protest and find ways to reach out and educate the community, not intimidate them and make them late for work.
 
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