“They want our water. They want our energy. They want whatever they need” “That’s Free Trade” complains Frank Dottori, as reported in the Montreal Gazette of Wednesday, April 11, 2001.
Déjà vu. Guess who said that a long time ago? Welcome to the real world, Canada! Aboriginal peoples have been dealing with this kind of problem since your ancestors washed up on these shores. But nobody listened to us. Why do you expect the world to listen to you now? As soon as Britain signed the Confrauderation papers, Canadians rushed out west in one of the biggest land grabs in world history. They kicked the Metis off their land where they were already farming. They starved the Plains Nations by killing millions of buffalo. They herded their victims into postage stamp sized prisons of grass and dumped a paltry collection of second rate agricultural implements on them, hoping they would all die. They filled up the land with hewers of wood and drawers of water enticed from the slums of Europe with promises of free land.
But the Aboriginal Peoples didn’t do what they were supposed to do. We did not die and after stealing everything that the Aboriginal Nations owned, Canadians had the gall to complain that “Indians” weren’t self-supporting.
There’s a lesson in here, folks. How did the Europeans get kicked out of their homes in the first place? Why weren’t Europeans self-supporting on their lands? Why did they want our land? Why did they want our water? Why did they want everything that gives us energy?
Why did they swarm over here to filch what they thought they needed to live? Even at that time they knew what they were doing was wrong.
If Western technology is so great, why do Euro-Americans have to go around the world scavenging the treasures other people have because they are modest, conservative and know how to live in harmony with the land?
What is wrong with the American breed of Europeans that no piece of nature is good enough to support them? No matter how bountifully nature serves them, they want more.
They’re always jealous of what other people have and their sticky fingers always find a way to take it. If they can’t con people into giving it “voluntarily”, they get out their guns and their hired guns to bully you into submission. They manipulate the media. They pass biased legislation, and resistors are dragged through their kangaroo courts.
So how does it feel, Canada? Especially now that they are fencing off Quebec City to keep out the people and to make sure that you have no say in your future just as you gave us no say in ours. What’s free trade about? It’s about greed. It’s about control. It’s about letting the fat cats run free to grab more than their share. What are the people getting out of it?
You say, “there’s a fair amount of hypocrisy between what they say publicly and what they practice”. Your dam tootin’,
Mr. Dottori, they’re playing the same game with Canada that Canadians have been playing with Aboriginal People.
If you want to know the future, look at the Aboriginal experience. They took total control of our lives – “in our best interest”. We weren’t allowed to leave our homes. They took our livelihood. They took our land and resources. They deposed our governments. They took our children. They controlled our money. They controlled our schools. They punished us for speaking our languages and for trying to do business. They made it illegal for us to hire lawyers. And they told the world they were benevolent. Canadians want their independent jurisdictions. We do too. We know how to do it. Cooperation without hegemony, that’s possible, you know. If we really believe in equality, we can work together. But Canadians have to learn how to respect us first. Then maybe they will know to make the rest of the world respect them.
We’ve been waiting for hundreds of years to give advice. I hope you know by now we don’t want to be dominated, manipulated, patronized or bullied by you or by anyone just as you don’t want to dominated, manipulated, patronized or bullied by the Americans or by governments pretending to act in your best interests. Onen
