Smuggling about profits, not sovereignty

Page 4

Editorial

Native sovereignty is not for sale.

It cannot be bought. It is something that, over a long period of time, can only be earned. Or, in some cases, won back. But that idea seems lost on some of the Mohawks from the troubled Akwesasne Reserve near Cornwall, Ont.

Some of the reserve's 8,500 residents are using Native sovereignty as their rationale for running case-loads of cigarettes past Canadian Customs. Smuggling makes enormous profits for any one willing to risk the penalty, a mere fine from Customs. Profits have bought a lot of big homes, fast cars and other material goods for the few on the reserve who make the runs from the American side of the St. Lawrence River to Cornwall Island.

Those profits have also split the community. The Mohawk Warrior Society has

no policy for or against smuggling and will neither condone nor condemn the practice because the Warriors believe running cigarettes is a personal choice for each resident on the reserve.

But it's a choice that's rarely discussed in public. Disapproving family and friends must turn a blind eye. The fear of violent reprisal prevents any other kind of response. Intimidation, fear and coerced silence are a part of their daily lives. They sit silently by while the runners wrap themselves in a self-righteous cloak of sovereignty while making money and keeping anxiety levels high.

But smuggling cigarettes from the U.S. is not about Native political and economic independence. It's about greed. It's about a few people making obscene profits through

a geo-political anomaly created by the Akwesasne reserve's location on an international border. It's about a few people holding too much power, derived through firearms and intimidation.

It's not about Native sovereignty. It's about money.