by Kahentinetha Horn
Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
Special to The Libertarian Enterprise
MNN. Mar. 25, 2008. Was the Mohawk-Oka Crisis of 1990 a dry run for overseas terror? On July 11, 1990, the Quebec Police paramilitary forces opened fire on a group of peaceful demonstrators in the early hours of the morning. We were resisting the nearby town of Oka from illegally building a golf course on top of our burial and ceremonial site. The attack on us escalated after Prime Minister Brian Mulroney met with President George Bush. 4000 heavily armed soldiers surrounded three of our communities, Kanehsatake, Kahnawake and Akwesasne. They wanted us to fire a shot so they would have an excuse to kill us. We were on to them.
Col. Musgrave of the British Secret Service was brought over by a Canadian think tank to put a plan in motion to break us down. He was going to use tactics the Brits used against the Irish. He vowed to accomplish this in three weeks.
The corporate press stepped up its habitual demonization of us. The soldiers shouted and threatened us. The media "spinners" portrayed our men, women and children as the nasty enemy and we were less than human. This created the conditions required to get the public to accept mistreatment and violations of our rights. We were subjected to sleep deprivation by flying choppers over us all night long. Even jets were flown close over our heads. Bright lights were shone on us and into our windows. Food was cut off or left to rot or spat upon and peed into by the soldiers before it was turned over to us. Water and hydro were turned off and on. Incendiary devices were blown up around us. Snipers were everywhere.
When we finally walked out September 26th 1990, the soldiers and cops attacked, beat and threw us into buses and took us to prisons at Farnham army base. We were left on the tarmac all night long. They would not let us go to the bathroom or get medical attention for our injured. The soldiers beat their guns on the sides of the bus to stop us from sleeping, swore and shouted racial slurs at us and took out their penises and urinated at us...