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If the headlines are to be believed and why shouldn’t they be, they were in the Toronto Star, after all the Canadian military doesn’t have enough to do with distractions like Afghanistan and is busy planning an incursion right here on Canadian soil.
Welcome to cigarette country
May 27, 2006
By JOE WARMINGTON
TYENDINAGA -- It's a smokers' Heaven.
Thanks to this native reserve not charging all that tax on a pack of smokes, it's also a smokers' haven.
This is Mohawk territory. The rules are a little different.
The terrain is pretty -- picturesque with rivers and creeks and fine Ontario farmland. This is home to 2,400 people -- 2,100 band members -- who live on 7,700 hectares.
This is also home to the cigarette trailer. About a dozen of them line the roadway and sell cheap, tax-free smokes
They sell both the name brands and native-made brands. You take the tax off and there can be quite a saving -- up to $3 per pack.
Many drive in from Belleville, which is just west along Hwy. 401 or Hwy. 2, not just to save on smokes but to have one too. Most establishments still permit this.
There aren't many places like this left. As of May 31 -- when the wide-ranging Smoke-Free Ontario Act -- there may be none.
But will they be still smoking here? You betcha. Some tease it should be called the Smoke-Cheap Ontario Act.
"As far as I know it will be status quo," said Chief R. Donald Maracle.
Don Werden is pleased about that. He lives in nearby Plainfield and comes over all the time to Deb's Restaurant for a coffee and a cigarette and one of their famous burgers.
"This is about the only place left where you can do that," said Werden as he takes a puff.
You certainly won't be able to in Toronto -- soon to be known as the BigSmokeless.
"Toronto Public Health shares the provincial government's commitment to protecting the health of all Ontarians by prohibiting smoking in all enclosed workplaces and public places," Dr. David McKeown, medical officer of health, wrote to restaurant and bar owners yesterday.
He's such a zealot he even added a sentence: "If you or your staff smoke and are interested in quitting, call the Smokers' Helpline at 1-877-513-5333."
Some of the bartenders and waitresses won't be able to afford to smoke -- with so many regular customers being abolished like that. Maybe we should list the Food Bank's number?
One thing is for sure, bars and restaurants were warned not to try to test this. "Toronto Public Health staff will enforce the Smoke-Free Ontario Act and will continue with routine inspections throughout the city," wrote McKeown.
They're not as militant in Tyendinaga.
In fact, walk into Deb's on the reserve and it looks just like the old days. A time warp. You see ashtrays on the tables -- and cigarettes and lighters. A plume of smoke fills the air. It's perfect for friendly staffer Megan Connor, who works the cash and regularly puffs on a butt while she does.
No one tells her she can't smoke there. "And we don't have to go outside and freeze," the 25-year-old writer says, laughing.
While this may be one of the final places left where you can enjoy an indoor social smoke it may also be one of the final places where smokers are not ridiculed. "We are not a disease," she said. "This is the last bit of freedom."
And that's the whole issue for the chief -- a non-smoker himself. You won't find him chewing the fat with smokers often. "I don't like being around cigarettes," he says with a laugh.
But he defends their right to do it on First Nation's land.
"Cigarettes are bad for you," he said, adding there will be further debate amongst chiefs at the national level about this issue.
But, he said, no one from the province has indicated they are going to come onto Indian land and impose a provincial smoking ban. "Trying to enforce it would not be applicable," he said. "It's a constitutional thing. It would open things up to a court challenge."
Lord knows Premier Dalton McGuinty doesn't have the courage to take on something like that. Just look at the mess his government hasn't been able to handle near Caledonia -- a place where the afraid-of-controversy premier never did go.
No, it looks like after May 31 smoking in restaurants will continue on Tyendinaga, and other reserves, and the cigarette trailers will stay too.
"The trailers are a symptom of a bigger economic problem," Maracle said, adding people on the reserve are in need of money "and it doesn't take much capital" to set up a trailer.
But for those looking to pay less for their habit, one man's trailer is another's Pearly Gates -- in this case welcoming people to Ontario's last smoker's Heaven. Read
| | | Canada: Mohawks Told to Brace for RCMP / Military Invasion in Spring
March 13 2006
| Recently, Tyendinaga community members have been told on two separate occasions, by two different sources, that an invasion into the community, led by the RCMP and backed by the Canadian Military, is planned for Saturday April 1st, 2006. Mohawks Told to Brace for RCMP/Military Invasion in Spring http://sumoud.tao.ca/?q=node/view/544For more information and background documentation please see the document "Preparing for Invasion" on End Israeli Apartheid website: http://arab.sa.utoronto.ca/Resources.Turtle-Island.htm Recently, Tyendinaga community members have been told on two separate occasions, by two different sources, that an invasion into the community, led by the RCMP and backed by the Canadian Military, is planned for Saturday April 1st, 2006. Please read on for further understanding of the context in which this invasion is likely to occur. 1. Recent Military Training Exercises Wednesday, February 8, 2006, 8:30 PM – 2 army helicopters conduct flights, flying at levels of less than 100 feet and spotlight people’s homes and businesses. One chopper lands on the centre runway of the Tyendinaga Airport. When questioned by community members as to the purpose of their presence, military personnel, wearing full uniform, helmet and night vision goggles say they are conducting routine training. They do not respond to questions with respect to who has provided them authorization to engage in ‘training’ on the Territory and instead, return to the helicopter and fly away, conducting no further manoeuvres over the Reserve. Thursday, February 9, 2006 – Similar night flights occur in Kahnawake, Akwesasne and Kanehsatake. Wednesday, February 15, 2006, 9:30 PM - 2 Army helicopters conduct low-level flights, spotlighting homes and businesses in Tyendinaga. Summer 2005 - Canadian and U.S. Special Operations Soldiers are discovered where the CN Rail Lines cross into the Reserve. Once confronted, they leave without further incident. Summer 2005- Canadian Military personnel are discovered on a stretch road near the northern boundary of the reserve. When confronted, dozens of soldiers emerge from the trees on either side of the road and leave. These and numerous other incursions that have occurred over the past months and years cause the community grave concern and have prompted Tyendinaga’s Band Council to write the Military as recently as February 9, 2006. 2. Tobacco Since 1994, the Federal Government has been quietly organizing a new strategy to deal with its approach to tobacco sales within all Mohawk communities. The crime that they allege is committed is the manufacturing and sale of Native-made Cigarettes. A deal signed in November 2003 between Kanehsatake and the Solicitor General was reportedly aimed at targeting the Indians' claims to the inherent right of inter-tribal trade with sister Mohawk communities and the native run tobacco manufacturing industry as a whole. The Federal Government reaps billions of dollars in revenue from the taxes on tobacco. However, massive military and police operations are deemed by the government to be warranted against the very people it has kept drinking dirty water and living in sub-standard housing, at the very time when we have begun to develop self-reliant economic strategies to improve our quality of life. Tyendinaga has brought the use of tobacco as a viable economic resource for the community to the forefront. We are not afraid to talk about the First Nations tobacco trade and we will not allow our families to be criminalized for engaging in simple, straightforward business practices. 3. Government Lies Here on Tyendinaga, we expect to be imminently confronted with Government propaganda attempting to portray us as dangerous and criminal. There are clear historical precedents upon which we base this belief. In September 1995, Government propaganda specifically stated, "There is no burial ground in Ipperwash Provincial Park. These people are on the fringe and are not supported by the council for the Band." A few short days later, three Anishnawbe were shot, one fatally, and people who tried to help were beaten. The most severe beating was in-fact reserved for a band council member. Then Minister of Indian Affairs, Ron Irwin, was forced into admitting that there was in fact a burial ground in the park, after proof was presented and Dudley George lay dead. In 2002, Ottawa Citizen journalist David Pugliese published a book entitled “Canada’s Secret Commandos, Joint Task Force Two”. Detailing the aborted Scorpion Saxon Operation of 1994 (referenced below), Pugliese talked about Tyendinaga and the possibility of community members planning to sabotage the water treatment plant in the neighbouring community of Deseronto, Ontario. According to Pugliese, JTF2’s intelligence cell was to watch for the releasing of “toxic waste into the treatment plant to poison the water system.” Pugliese neglected to note that no less than half of Tyendinaga’s households draw water from that very plant, making its sabotage a remote possibility to say the least. 4. The Prepared Invasion in 1994 In 1994, the Canadian Military trained for an invasion of 4 Mohawk communities: Kahnawake, Akwesasne, Kanehsatake and Tyendinaga. Entitled ‘Scorpion Saxon Operation’, it was to have involved some 1,500 soldiers, 2,000 RCMP and 2,000 Quebec officers. The invasions were to take place at night with the forces arriving by road, rail and air using helicopters and armoured vehicles. The soldiers would have had access to tear gas, smoke bombs and pepper spray. They were trained and had apparently perfected the use of 66 millimetre rockets and M-67 type fragmentation grenades. The operation involved low level helicopter training flights, flying below power lines and conducting shooting exercises at flight levels of 100 feet. At this time, the Military’s most secret and elite unit, Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), was also trained and on standby to participate in the operation. JTF2 soldiers were informed that the planned assault was expected to spark countrywide native protests and were told to prepare for multiple native-led strikes. At the time, the Military called their assault preparations ‘simple routine training’. It would appear the invasions were called off largely for two reasons: (1) CSIS issued a warning to the Federal Government that the police measures would cause such “grave political violence” that it would be unpalatable to the Canadian public. (2) There were so many leaks, rumours and media coverage about the Military’s training activities at the time, the Army felt its element of surprise had been compromised. The Federal Government maintains the entire exercise was simply an attempt to curb the sale of Native Cigarettes. 4. In Conclusion In the spring of 1992, Tyendinaga fishermen renewed the practice of harvesting fish by spear in various rivers throughout the Bay of Quinte area. These rivers fall within Mohawk Territorial waters, but run largely off reserve. While non-native fishermen are bound by Ontario law with respect to fishing seasons, catch quotas and licences, Mohawks fish free of similar, or in fact any, outside restrictions. Although this is based on historical practice and rights that have never been relinquished, the fishermen endured racist slurs, accusations that they would decimate the fish stocks and violence in order to provide food for their families. 14 years later we are still fishing and there are lots of fish. It appears that we may again be facing violence and racism as we utilize another resource that has been with us since time immemorial. Tobacco can contribute to the maintenance and development of our families and our nation, on our own terms, and for years to come. In 2006 Mohawk people have established stores that sell pop, chips, newspapers, and cigarettes without criminal involvement. Tyendinaga is home to a number of viable and successful businesses that do not charge taxes on their goods or services. This does not make them criminal; it makes them Native-run.
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Item on impending tobacco raid not worth the price of ink
By Chris Malette
Chris Malette ’At Large’
March 10, 2006
If the headlines are to be believed and why shouldn’t they be, they were in the Toronto Star, after all the Canadian military doesn’t have enough to do with distractions like Afghanistan and is busy planning an incursion right here on Canadian soil.
Likewise, the RCMP have their battering rams at the ready and are poised to pound their way into the dozens of cheap cigarette shacks that have sprouted, mushroom-like, in our otherwise peaceful, verdant corner of Ontario.
It all stems from a news report by a reporter who’s carved quite a name for himself covering native issues in general and the Ipperwash clash, in particular. We’re told, then, that an invasion is imminent on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.
The target? Why, the military and RCMP are going after God-fearing, hard-working cigarette retailers who are exercising their rights as free-enterprisers who don’t have to remit sales tax on the devil’s weed.
The story appeared in The Star, an otherwise responsible journal, but was penned by a journo who was clearly hoodwinked by a number of smokescreens. Those include smokin’ hot allegations of a quasi-military “operation,” racy quotes from sources who seemingly are well-connected but spectacularly vague on details and who clearly are spinning something that’s based more shakily on speculation, rumour and supposition than on fact and high-percentage probability. The whole piece floats on a host of those hot-button bedfellows, natives versus military and natives versus cops.
This story has it all. If you were from elsewhere and unfamiliar with some of the players, you’d be hanging on the edge of your seat as you read about our Tyendinaga neighbours nervously looking skyward as low-flying military aircraft swoop overhead, ostensibly on spy missions for illicit ciggie-trading activities.
(Of course, this is assuming you didn’t know that low-flying aircraft in these parts was, indeed, a rare occurrence. Well, maybe prior to CFB Trenton’s opening in the 1930s it was a rare occurrence, but since then?)
Military officials confirmed this week, that on the night of Feb. 8, a Gryphon helicopter was on a routine night training flight when its crew, as part of the training mission, was required to put in a landing at a random airfield other than CFB Trenton. It could have been done at Mountain View, but on this night, the Deseronto airfield formerly an RCAF training site, a privarte airport, once a drag strip and currently home to First Nations Technical Institute flying school was selected for a practice landing. Deseronto is, noted an 8 Wing official we spoke with this week, among a group of listed, smallish airfields across the country at which no prior permission is required for a practice landing by military aircraft.
Well, mister man, combine an unscheduled night landing by a scary looking military helicopter with some hepped-up paranoia at a place where there are no fewer than 70 or 80 tax-free smoke outlets on the go at any given time and you have your next Oka or Ipperwash. At least, that’s what the self-agrandizing flamethrowers who’re quoted in this piece would have you believe.
Or, so you’d believe if you believed some of the smoke that was blown up readers’ backsides in this wild piece of inflammatory fiction masquerading as fact.
The band chief, R. Donald Maracle, on hearing of the helo landing, testily reminded the base there had been a complaint lodged about this very activity in 2001 and base officials report they have assured the chief that, yes, 8 Wing still has his request on file and this was an oversight by a chopper crew that was unaware Deseronto was an airfield where prior notice was requested though, not officially required. The base has assured that it will, as a courtesy in future, respect the wishes of the chief and band council with regard to night landings of this nature.
In the days after the mysterious night landing and based on the fear-mongering by some well-known reserve spit disturbers and folks in the smokes trade, a “community meeting” was called and the allegations were laid out as fact. One antagonist is quoted as saying the “whole community thinks (an invasion by Mounties in choppers) is the gospel and people are gearing up for it as if it was a fact.”
Another, whom we had thought might not get caught up in such hyperbolic hysteria, warned there’s a “growing animosity” toward the military darn, those nosy Hercules snooper-stealth-aircraft and said he feared “any operation (by military and police commandos) would end tragically, like when the Ontario Provincial Police marched on Ipperwash Provincial Park late at night Sept. 6, 1995...”
Now, this would all be almost laughable if it wasn’t so damned dangerous in spooking people who are now being made to fear a military transport base, nearby, and the national police force are massing on the borders of the rez as storm troopers.
There are at least four players in this farce who ought to be ashamed of themselves for needless fear-mongering. One, the protagonist who now only thrives on seeing his name in print or his face on the evening news, is entirely understandable. He thrives on this stuff and has likely come to believe his own B.S. The other is a chief who’s become wildly erratic over the years and is now, frankly, a pretty scary individual prone to rants and autocratic fits of pique over some perceived slight or insult, and a third who, as we mentioned should have known better, being an educator on the reserve.
The final and fourth who should wear the goat horns, aside from the editors who let this piffle out of the gate, is the reporter who swallowed the whole baloney banquet. Inexcusable, this bit of drivel, really, and I’m surprised it saw the light of day.
Keep your eyes peeled, though. That next creaky old Herc flying low over your farm might not be practising a tactical approach to Kandahar airfield. It could be looking for bootleg Belvederes.
Duck.
link to original article ( in last weeks Canadian newsletter)
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