Oka Crisis

In 1717 The Governor of New France, granted some land that included an old Mohawk cemetery to a Catholic Seminary, this is where the Oka crisis began. The Mohawk believed that the catholics were only going to hold the lands for a short time before turning them back over to them. This never occurred and in 1868, one year after confederation the leader of the Mohawk condemned the seminary for holding the land illegally even though they had every legal right to hold that land. The Mohawk proceeded to attempt to seize the seminary by armed force, local authorities dealt with the problem. I believe this shows one of the key points about the crisis, the land didn't actually belong to the Mohawk. Other important parts about this are the lives that were lost and the fact that the people who killed them never faced charges. Also, why did the Mohawks believe that they had the right to commit acts of terrorism?

Firstly this Crisis should never had occurred, the Mohawk had no rights to the land anymore, nor did they ever really. They did have the right to protest yes, but building a barricade and having armed men guard it is absolutely unacceptable. They had even tried to make a claim on the land multiple times, every time their case was dismissed. This shows that they were really the only ones who thought that the land was theirs. The response by the Mohawk in my opinion is childish at best.

Corporal Marcel Lemay, a police officer was killed during the short burst of fighting that this Crisis created. We don't know who killed him, but considering the tactics used by the Canadian Armed Forces, one could accurately guess that he was killed by the "Protesters" in the confusion created by the Concussion (Flash Bang) grenades. Why wasn't this case ever investigated and the perpetrator brought to justice? What was so special about this situation that made it ok for an officer to be killed? there is no logical answer to these questions, someone is being allowed to avoid paying for his acts and this is nothing short of disgusting.

Why oh why were the Mohawks allowed to commit terrorist acts and get away with it? This is a flaw in the way our government deals with Aboriginal issues. What honestly makes them think that they can do these kinds of things? If it had been any other kind of group doing these protest they would have all been severely prosecuted and convicted of acts of terrorism. But somehow they are simply allowed to return to their reservations and continue collecting money from the government. How much longer are we going to take this? The Mohawks decided that the land was theirs, no one agrees with them and instead of doing what everyone else has to and just adapting to the change, they think that if they just get louder and whine more that people will give them their way, and we did. What are we, Spineless?

In conclusion, all this Crisis has shown is that we are a far weaker nation than we think, we need to start dealing with our own problems within our borders before going ashore, like Afganistan.