Road to justice not paved with 20-second clips

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I am really trying hard to find something good to write about Oka. Nothing comes to mind. It seems to me the federal and provincial governments escalated events to justify their jackboot tactics. 'Law and order must be maintained,' say government officials.

The televised images of Mohawks fist fighting with the Canadian Army is a gross miscarriage of justice.

Most of the major media outlets fail to portray the Mohawks as feeling, caring individuals, who are fighting for First Nations' rightful place in Canadian society. Instead we have images of Mohawks carrying submachine guns striking menacing poses.

For the most part probably not all Mohawks carry semi-automatic weapons around their houses as part of their daily routine. On the other hand images of peaceful, moderate Mohawks within the confines of newspapers, television and radio don't make for good copy. Hence, no stories about them appear to contradict these images, which help sell a lot of advertising by attracting more readers.

Headlines in major dailies across Canada scream out headlines which serve to inflame the public: "Soldiers Beaten by Angry Indians" or "Shots, Gas End Attack."

These violent images play well into the hands of press hungry politicians, who talk in 20-second sound bites designed to simplify issues into law and order, good guy versus bad guy issues.

The Mohawk people and First Nations across Canada are asking for movement from the federal government on century-old questions of sovereignty. The tactics of the federal government over the last 100 years has been to stonewall Native people in their attempts at throwing off the colonial chains of legislation in the form of the Indian Act.

The latest unrest is a sign First Nations will no longer accept promises in return for quiescence. By the force of our actions we have turned a new page in Canada's history book. No matter what the public or non-Native politicians think about our struggles to reconstruct our position in Canadian society, we will continue to fight with everything at our disposal.

Recent editorials in the provincial dailies seemed to scold Native people for their actions and tried to tell us we are losing public support when we carry arms for the Native cause. What they seem to forget is we are not running for public office when we conduct these protests. It does not matter a heck of a lot if Canadians don't support these actions.

We never had the support of Canadians in the first place. If we did have their support, they would have pressured politicians to settle this through negotiations instead of at the end of a gun barrel.

We have nowhere to run. This issue will not die over the years. In fact, if nothing is done at this time it will serve notice to the First Nations that more has to be done to further the cause.

The responsibility for Oka lies at the feet of politicians who have ignored us over the years and have doe nothing to revamp the totally oppressive Indian Act. It also lies at the feet of the Canadian public who remain blissfully ignorant of our situation.

(Matthew is the managing editor of Kahtou, a monthly Native newspaper published in British Columbia by the Native Communications Society of British Columbia. The above column appeared in the October issue.)