What others say

Page 4

From the outside, the massive police assault on the Mohawk blockade of a rural Quebec road seem like a complete blunder. The Quebec government now has two tasks: to assess responsibility for the assault and to begin to restore relations between government and Mohawks to something better than a state of war.

The extent of the government's role in authorizing the military-style raid is murky, although about 100 provincial police officers in riot gear took part. It may be the government's own responsibility in the affair lies more in permitting the dangerous situation to develop.

The same cannot be said for the Montreal bedroom community of Oka, whose council precipitated the blockade by approving the expansion of a golf course on land claimed by the Mohawks. It was the Oka council, blind to everything but its golf course, that requested police to enforce a court order the blockade be removed.

Only the day before, Quebec Native Affairs Minister John Ciaccia had pleaded with the council to delay its golf course in the interests of peace. Oka's mayor Jean Ouellette apparently took these words of reason as a red flag and called upon the police to act.

And they did. The Romanian government could have learned something from the early morning raid, which featured tear gas, heavy equipment, stun grenades and police snipers with automatic weapons. In the ensuing shootout, one police officer was killed and the Mohawks of Eastern Canada and the United States were perhaps confirmed, yet again, in their growing and tragic belief they are in a state of war with white society.

The Mohawks on Oka reserve had been maintaining their blockade for several months. Many of them were armed and many wore masks like Palestinian demonstrators. They had made plain their intention of preventing the town from bulldozing trees on land they claim. The situation, in a word, was volatile and demanded serious negotiation. Violence, it could be safely assumed, would beget violence.

The province now has a dangerous situation to defuse - one that will require consummate negotiation. It has a shooting to investigate, which will require the co-operation of Mohawk officials. And it has to determine how this situation deteriorated into a predictable gun battle and how moderation can be restored. And it has to start immediately.

Edmonton Journal / 12 July 1990