I was going to refrain from comment regarding the so-called Truckers for Freedom Convoy that rolled into Ottawa on the weekend.
I have friends who, for their own reasons, decided to join the protest.
Most are non-vaccinated and they don’t want to be forced into vaccination and I respect their opinion. I have family members who are non-vaccinated and I will refrain from comment.
I myself have participated in countless peaceful demonstrations on the Hill in Ottawa in the name of Indigenous rights. In that area, I am compelled to comment. I have also had the opportunity to negotiate with Ministers and Prime Ministers on behalf of my people inside the Parliament buildings as a chief and a councillor. Those two things were the same experience only for the increased police presence at each one.
In 2012, as we were about to finalize the Coldwater Narrows Treaty land claim, I was in Ottawa with a delegation of chiefs and councillors from the Anishinaabeg Tri-Council — Rama, Georgina Island and Christian Island.
As we exited our taxi to attend the session at a Centre Town hotel, I stopped for a moment to look above me after noticing a slight movement in my peripheral vision (military training gives you that instinctive reaction) and there on the rooftops above us were snipers following our movement.
I caught the attention of my brother, who was chief at the time, and like me, also ex-military, and I told him we have company and I questioned why we would be seen as a threat.
Later that same year, during the Idle No More movement, I participated in a number of peaceful demonstrations (Round Dances) on the Hill and each time we saw a heightened number of police assigned to observe our Round Dances. Many wore tactical gear and carried assault rifles. And once more, there were snipers on the rooftops.
This wasn’t new to me. In the summer of 1990, as chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, I organized a food drive for the people of Kanehsatake, Que., who were having food shortages due to the Sûreté du Québec (Police) not allowing provisions into the community during what was termed the “Oka Crisis.”
A small convoy of vehicles from the Anishinaabeg Tri-Council travelled to Kanehsatake and when we got there we were brought through four police checkpoints. At each one we were subjected to verbal abuse, searches, we were spat upon, and we were made to lie spread out on the pavement with guns pointed at us.
Eventually, just as we reached the town of Oka, we were turned away. On a side note, we were resourceful and we completed our humanitarian mission. The truckloads of food were brought into the community on a back road after we met up with a sympathetic Quebecois farmer. That is a story in itself, for another time perhaps.
My point is, that the reaction to peaceful Indigenous protests/demonstrations in Canada are very dissimilar to peaceful protests like the one in Ottawa on the weekend. I saw no SWAT teams, no guard dogs, no helicopters, and no snipers on rooftops. To be fair, perhaps they’re still tired from the last Round Dance on the Hill.
In all my years in the military I can count on one hand how many times I had an assault rifle pointed at me. As an Indigenous civilian, I’ve had that experience more times than I care to count.
As I saw images depicting evidence of demonstrators desecrating, urinating on the National War Monuments including the Indigenous Veterans Monument, I can’t help but compare the response by police and authorities had this been an Indigenous protest.
But, in the traditional way of my ancestors, I shall refrain.
Jeff Monague is a former chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, former treaty research director with the Anishnabek (Union of Ontario Indians), and veteran of the Canadian Forces. Monague, who taught the Ojibwe language with the Simcoe County District School Board and Georgian College, is currently the superintendent of Springwater Provincial Park.
