INDIGENOUS BLOCKADE TACTICS AND THE FICTION OF RECONCILIATION

BILL LEE

March 16, 2020

BLOCKADES

During and after (and continuing) the Wet'suet'en blockades in defence of their traditional lands in the face of the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, there was a good deal of talk and some wringing of hands among the punditry that the various blockades in support of the Wet’suet’en campaign for recognition of their traditional land rights (See Foot Not. 3). The concern was that these were causing not just inconvenience, but serious disruptions for Canadian society and for our economy. It should be pointed out that the Parliamentary Budget Officer for the Canadian, Yves Giroux, reportedly said their reaction was exaggerated.1 The protests did negatively affected the economy “but not as much as some pundits were pretending. " Nevertheless, we can, and should, have genuine sympathy for the workers and businesses that truly were temporarily injured. On the other hand, Indigenous people have been enduring "serious problems" and injury for over three hundred years. We need to come to terms with the facts of the police actions that we saw during the blockades (and what we also saw, for example, during the Oka Stand Off of 1990, the Iperwash Crisis of 1995, and the Gustafson Lake Standoff of 1997) were all occurring in a society that was, and was, and still is, profoundly shaped by the colonial regulation and discipline of Indigenous people2. We cannot, must not, expect Indigenous people to be compliant and remain silent at centuries of the disadvantage built into our colonial system. What do we expect oppressed people to do?

WHAT WE SEE IS WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT

The great American social justice organizer, Saul Alinsky, in his book Rules For Radicals (1970) said something to the affect that, any people can only, and must, use the tactics that are available to them in their particular situation. Colonialism is by definition a policy and practice that maintains Indigenous people in a second class status position (legal and social), one that regularly deprives Indigenous people of access to the levers of

change open to the whitestream majority3. Thus, Indigenous people, like other marginalized groups, by definition, are without the necessary ability to confront business and government and protect themselves from negative changes, like the pollution of their land, or to make positive changes that will further their wellbeing. Thus, they must look for, and be prepared to use whatever leavers they have or can find that will provide for them the power, the ability. in unequal struggles with more powerful advisories like corporations and government. Our governments have left very few tactics open to Indigenous people to press their cases for justice. Courts sometimes provide a means but they are usually long drawn out affairs, and very expensive to boot. Thus, if they are to be successful must use the tactics that our colonial system has left them.

WHAT OF RECONCILIATION?

During and after the events of the blockades there were many statements in the print and radio media, not to mention posts on Facebook, that "Reconciliation is dead". Indeed, though the Covid-19 virus has taken some of the spotlight away form the issues. there are still stories and opinions concerned about, or proclaiming its death, or that it is at least on life support. They come from Indigenous people, who see the attack by the RCMP in BC (the force is the provincial police force as in eight of the provinces and in the three territories) as violating a process of mutual respect and discussion. But whitestream individuals are also voicing a similar lament. Some see the ongoing injustices to Indigenous people as the death knell. Others however, simply do not seem to be able to countenance the notion that Indigenous people are actually using means that disrupt business as usual for us non Indigenous people. They purport to see the "death of reconciliation" linked to the extra legal means that have been taken. In each case there is deep concern for ever getting back to a move toward reconciliation. But folks, we have a news flash, reconciliation was never alive, it simply was always a comforting (for some) fiction. We live in a colonial country. What are Indigenous people supposed to be reconciled to, the perennial underfunding of crucial aspects of community life like education, health care? Perhaps they can be expected to reconcile, in the name of "law and order" the ability and practice of the RCMP and other forces going onto their land at any time, for any purpose4. With whom are they to reconcile, the likes of Andrew Scheer, Peter McKay, Jason Kenny and the other colonial racists yowling for the use of lethal force on Indigenous protesters?

THE ISSUE IS COLONIALISM AND ITS DISMANTLING

So the life, or death, of the fictional reconciliation is cannot be the issue for Canadians, Indigenous, whitestream or others. It is the dismantling of colonialism that we all should be working for. We whitestream citizens of the colonial class have a particular responsibility to confront our complicity. We need, if we want to be able to say, and believe we live in a country that is just, to join with our Indigenous brothers and sisters, confront colonial institutions that render them second class citizens. The colonial institutions have to be destroyed, their practices banished and fair reparations negotiated for the centuries of social, economic and spiritual damage. That should be the focus of everyone. Anything less is certainly fiction and will result in more blockades or other disruptive tactics. What would we expect?

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1 “Based on what we are seeing right now and the data we’ve gathered from VIA, CN, and CP, it was overblown.” (https://aptnnews.ca/2020/03/13/rail-disruptions-overblown-by-rail-companies-politicians-says-parliamentary-budget-officer/?fbclid=IwAR0-GKkXsH45QUmHAsxE8BAn5FyTBbPa-Y8BLfxQ0Lrbl08qc8CLo2110bg 
2 Each took place in a different province. The first was in Quebec, the second in British Columbia and the third in Ontario. Thus there were three different police forces involved.
3 In the case of the Wet'suet'en, a BC court okayed the injunction against the disruptive, though peaceful protest, which seemed to clearly ignore the spirit, if not the absolute letter, of the Delgamuukw Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada (1997), which dealt with the definition, the content, and the extent, of Aboriginal title. It also seemed to go against the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People to which Canada is a signatory, which guarantees, "guarantee that Indigenous Peoples rights to self-determination, to lands and territories, to cultural identities, to self-representation and to their unique values and beliefs will be respected at the international level."
 4 Far from a one-off event, the RCMP’s operation in Wet’suwet’en territory is part of an ongoing pattern of police and military units being used by governments in Canada to suppress Indigenous resistance and clear the way for continued capitalist accumulation by colonial dispossession. (Carleton, 2020)

References;


Alinsky, S.D. (1989). Rules for Radicals. New York: Vintage.

Antar (1997). UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. https://antar.org.au/campaigns/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples.

APTN National News. (2020). "Rail disruptions ‘overblown’ by rail companies, politicians says Parliamentary Budget Officer". https://aptnnews.ca/2020/03/13/rail-disruptions-overblown-by-rail-companies-politicians-says-parliamentary-budget-officer/?fbclid=IwAR0-GKkXsH45QUmHAsxE8BAn5FyTBbPa-Y8BLfxQ0Lrbl08qc8CLo2110bg. March 13.

Atlas of Public Management (1997) The Delgamuukw Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. http://www.atlas101.ca/pm/concepts/delgamuukw-decision-of-the-supreme-court-of-canada-1997/

Carleton, S. (2020). "Putting the RCMP raid on the Wet’suwet’en in historical perspective". Toronto Star, February 11. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/02/11/putting-the-rcmp-raid-on-the-wetsuweten-in-historical-perspective.html.