Tweet
Canadian natives in open revolt
OTTAWA - Government plans to crack down on the thriving underground cigarette trade will lead to needless confrontation, native chiefs told a committee of MPs studying contraband tobacco Wednesday.
Mohawk leaders from Akwesasne and Kahnawake near Montreal slammed an RCMP report that they say unfairly casts their First Nations as willing partners in organized crime.
They conceded that smoking is harmful, but said the manufacture and sale of cheap cigarettes on reserves is an economic lifeline.
It sets a "dangerous" precedent to lump sellers of "baggie" smokes in with drug traffickers and terrorists, they said.
And they urged Ottawa to recognize their jurisdiction over aboriginal territory and help them to regulate the trade - or cultivate other job prospects.
"It's time for Canada and Kahnawake to renew our historic relationship so that solutions to these troubling issues can be harmonized between us," said Michael Delisle Jr., grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
"In this environment we can expect positive outcomes. The alternative is something we don't wish to consider."
Mike Mitchell, former chief of Akwesasne, said imposed provincial and international borders make his community a "jurisdictional nightmare" that straddles the U.S, Canada, Quebec and Ontario.
The solution?
"Move that border. Move it aside and create that Mohawk territory. We're capable of providing the law and order that would be acceptable to the U.S. and Canada. We are citizens of the Mohawk Nation - and neither Canada or the United States can ever change that. But we can build on it."
The leaders stressed that First Nations, having been shunted on to reserves with limited economic potential, have turned to tobacco to make a living. Talk of breaching Canadian tax, marketing and packaging laws is offensive to communities that consider themselves self-governing nations, said Delisle.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced plans last month to target contraband tobacco with more police and a campaign urging Canadians to stop buying.
The Mounties seized a record 618,000 cartons last year alone.
Police cite manufacturing plants on the American side of Akwesasne as a major source of contraband tobacco. Investigators say cheap loose tobacco from states such as North Carolina is used to make plain, unmarked cigarettes and divide them into plastic bags of 200.
The "baggies," as they're dubbed on the street, can sell for less than $20 - much less than the cost of legal cigarettes that would range from about $65 to $85 depending on the province.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Tim Ranger listened to the native leaders as they spoke Wednesday on Parliament Hill. Organized crime takes advantage of the location and geography of reserves, he said outside the meeting room.
"What we're trying to point out is that they're being used by certain criminal organizations. ...The bad guys are exploiting some of the gaps in the system."
There have been recent high-profile cigarette busts in the last year in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Quebec. Twenty suspects were targeted in March when Quebec police smashed a contraband cigarette ring that investigators said drained $5 million in taxes from federal and provincial coffers.
Two suspects were from Akwesasne and two more from Kahnawake.
Ranger says the RCMP has a good rapport with native police forces and wants to work with them.
Mitchell says there is a peaceful solution if Ottawa will listen to native governments.
"Ninety-eight per cent of the population is law-abiding," he said of Akwesasne. "Kids are going to school. People want to work.
"You need to trust the Mohawk governments that exist in our Iroquois communities," he told MPs. "You need to establish a partnership with them so that something is going to be enacted that will ...guarantee the safety of your people and ours."
Mohawk leaders from Akwesasne and Kahnawake near Montreal slammed an RCMP report that they say unfairly casts their First Nations as willing partners in organized crime.
They conceded that smoking is harmful, but said the manufacture and sale of cheap cigarettes on reserves is an economic lifeline.
It sets a "dangerous" precedent to lump sellers of "baggie" smokes in with drug traffickers and terrorists, they said.
And they urged Ottawa to recognize their jurisdiction over aboriginal territory and help them to regulate the trade - or cultivate other job prospects.
"It's time for Canada and Kahnawake to renew our historic relationship so that solutions to these troubling issues can be harmonized between us," said Michael Delisle Jr., grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
"In this environment we can expect positive outcomes. The alternative is something we don't wish to consider."
Mike Mitchell, former chief of Akwesasne, said imposed provincial and international borders make his community a "jurisdictional nightmare" that straddles the U.S, Canada, Quebec and Ontario.
The solution?
"Move that border. Move it aside and create that Mohawk territory. We're capable of providing the law and order that would be acceptable to the U.S. and Canada. We are citizens of the Mohawk Nation - and neither Canada or the United States can ever change that. But we can build on it."
The leaders stressed that First Nations, having been shunted on to reserves with limited economic potential, have turned to tobacco to make a living. Talk of breaching Canadian tax, marketing and packaging laws is offensive to communities that consider themselves self-governing nations, said Delisle.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced plans last month to target contraband tobacco with more police and a campaign urging Canadians to stop buying.
The Mounties seized a record 618,000 cartons last year alone.
Police cite manufacturing plants on the American side of Akwesasne as a major source of contraband tobacco. Investigators say cheap loose tobacco from states such as North Carolina is used to make plain, unmarked cigarettes and divide them into plastic bags of 200.
The "baggies," as they're dubbed on the street, can sell for less than $20 - much less than the cost of legal cigarettes that would range from about $65 to $85 depending on the province.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Tim Ranger listened to the native leaders as they spoke Wednesday on Parliament Hill. Organized crime takes advantage of the location and geography of reserves, he said outside the meeting room.
"What we're trying to point out is that they're being used by certain criminal organizations. ...The bad guys are exploiting some of the gaps in the system."
There have been recent high-profile cigarette busts in the last year in Newfoundland and Labrador, Manitoba and Quebec. Twenty suspects were targeted in March when Quebec police smashed a contraband cigarette ring that investigators said drained $5 million in taxes from federal and provincial coffers.
Two suspects were from Akwesasne and two more from Kahnawake.
Ranger says the RCMP has a good rapport with native police forces and wants to work with them.
Mitchell says there is a peaceful solution if Ottawa will listen to native governments.
"Ninety-eight per cent of the population is law-abiding," he said of Akwesasne. "Kids are going to school. People want to work.
"You need to trust the Mohawk governments that exist in our Iroquois communities," he told MPs. "You need to establish a partnership with them so that something is going to be enacted that will ...guarantee the safety of your people and ours."
Comment