Amnesty International

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL OPEN LETTER:
Ontario's duty to ensure rights are upheld in police response to
Indigenous protests

November 12, 2008

Ontario's duty to ensure rights are upheld in police response to
Indigenous protests

Open letter to the Honourable Rick Bartolucci,
Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

Dear Minister:

Amnesty International Canada is reiterating its call for the Province of Ontario to immediately:

• Publicly affirm its support for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP)Framework for Police Preparedness for Aboriginal Critical Incidents and commit to ensuring that officers are held accountable for any breaches of this Framework.

• Work with Indigenous peoples' organizations to establish a timetable
and process for an independent evaluation of the OPP Framework and appropriate codification of the Framework in provincial laws and policies.

In light of very serious concerns that have been raised over the OPP
response to land rights protests at the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on June 28-29, 2007 and April 21-28, 2008, Amnesty International is also urging the Province of Ontario to
establish an independent, impartial probe into OPP actions on those dates and to make the
findings of such an investigation public.

During the Ipperwash Inquiry, the Ontario Provincial Police described
its Framework for Police Preparedness for Aboriginal Critical Incidents ("Framework") as
the "centrepiece" of its commitment to respect the underlying rights at issue in Indigenous
land protests and to minimize the potential for escalation and violence. However, three
months after the Framework was strongly endorsed in the report of the Ipperwash Inquiry, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said during cross-examination in a provincial court that the Framework is "not a firm and fixed mandated way of doing business."

Commissioner Fantino was being questioned about the large number of
police deployed and the aggressive tactics used in response to a June 28-29, 2007 protest by activists from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. The Commissioner's response raises
serious questions about the amount of discretion being exercised by the OPP with respect to the Framework and whether the OPP is being appropriately held to account for full and consistent implementation of the Framework.

Over the last 20 months, protestors from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory have engaged in a
series of actions intended either to directly protect their interests in the Culbertson Land Tract or to attract public attention and put pressure on the federal government to resolve this long-standing land claim. Some of these actions have involved rail and road closures. This has resulted in public inconvenience and created a complex policing challenge. At the same time, there is no indication that these protests presented any threat to public safety. Although a spokesperson at one protest publicly alluded to the possibility that the protestors had access to weapons, Amnesty International is not aware of any evidence to suggest
that this was in fact the case. As such, it appears to us that these protests give rise to
precisely the kind of situation the OPP Framework for Police Preparedness for Aboriginal Critical Incidents was intended to address, and with which the Ipperwash Inquiry dealt exhaustively.

The Ontario Police Services Act states that: "Police services shall be provided throughout
Ontario in accordance with...the importance of safeguarding the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights
Code." Among the rights protected in law in Canada are rights to peaceful assembly and
protest and the specific Treaty and Aboriginal Rights of Indigenous peoples. The OPP Framework is a critical tool for ensuring that officers respond to Indigenous land protests in a manner consistent with and supportive of these rights.

As we said in a letter to you in August 2008, Amnesty International believes that any policing
policy intended to uphold and protect human rights must be treated with extreme seriousness and consistency. Where such a policy is breached, it is important to determine why it was breached and whether the breach was in fact warranted and acceptable.

In this light, we are deeply troubled that your government has not demonstrated real and serious concern over Commissioner Fantino's remarks about adherence to the Framework.

According to testimony in the case of Regina v. Shawn Brant, OPP actions during Tyendinaga Mohawk protests on June 28 and 29, 2007 included placing a sniper unit
on stand-by and preparations to deploy overwhelming force against the protestors, even
as a negotiated end to the protest was proceeding. Concerns were also raised in court over
the fact that Commissioner Fantino interfered with the work of trained OPP negotiators by
contacting protestor Shawn Brant directly and that during his conversations with Mr. Brant he made aggressive and inappropriate comments including a threat that "your whole world's going to come crashing down" and that Mr. Brant would suffer "grave consequences" if he did not order an end to the blockade.

Although the June 28-29th protest ended peacefully, it was followed by other incidents from
April 21-28, 2008 during which there was again a massive deployment of OPP officers and
equipment, including the Public Order Unit and the Tactics and Rescue Unit. In interviews with members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk community, including protesters and bystanders, Amnesty International has heard consistent and credible reports of police actions during the April 21-28 incidents that clearly require investigation, including reports that OPP officers pointed firearms at unarmed protesters and members of their families.

Given the seriousness of these concerns, Amnesty International considers that your
government's only public response to date – a statement by Premier McGuinty that he has "full confidence" in Commissioner Fantino and that the Commissioner's response to the Tyendinaga Mohawk protests showed "tremendous discipline" – is utterly inappropriate and inadequate.

In August 2008, Amnesty International wrote to you urging the Government of Ontario to:

• Publicly confirm that it supports the Ontario Provincial Police Framework for Police
Preparedness for Aboriginal Critical Incidents and will ensure that officers are held to
account for its breach.

• Work with Indigenous peoples' organizations to establish a timetable and process for
independent evaluation of the OPP Framework and appropriate codification of the
Framework in provincial laws and policies.

We were disappointed by your reply. In your September 12 letter, you inaccurately refer to our concerns as being about remarks "allegedly" made by Commissioner Fantino. In fact, there is no doubt about what the Commissioner stated as his remarks are a matter of public court record. Your letter makes no further comment on the Commissioner's remarks, offers no clarification of the province's position on police accountability for upholding the Framework, and does not address the specific recommendations we presented to you.

Your letter states only that: "The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services is
undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the recommendations from the Ipperwash report, one of which is an evaluation of the OPP Framework for Police Preparedness for Aboriginal Critical Incidents."

In the 2007 final report of the Ipperwash Inquiry, Commissioner Justice Linden called for the province to adopt, "as soon as it is practical to do so," a provincial peacekeeping
policy based largely on the OPP Framework, in order to "codify the lessons learned at Ipperwash and reassure both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Ontarians that peacekeeping is the goal of both police and government in this province, that treaty and Aboriginal rights will be respected, that negotiations will be attempted at every reasonable opportunity, and
that the use of force must be the last resort." Such a policy, the report stated, "will compel provincial or police officials who wished to pursue a more aggressive policing response in the future to explain publicly why peacekeeping is inappropriate. It will also be considerably more
difficult for a provincial official to demand that protesters leave a site within a limited time
period or to downplay the importance of negotiations. Police leaders, incident commanders, and individual officers will also have additional assurance that peacekeeping is the appropriate and justified strategy, irrespective of any real or perceived governmental pressure otherwise.'

Commissioner Justice Linden also called for an independent evaluation of the implementation
of the Framework with "significant and meaningful participation by Aboriginal representatives in the design, oversight and analysis of the evaluation."

Minister Bartolucci, we are concerned by the fact that 1 1 2 years later your Ministry is still at the stage of merely reviewing the Inquiry's recommendations and has not yet moved with
appropriate urgency to implement measures deemed vital to upholding rights and saving lives. Accordingly, we are reiterating our call for your government to immediately:

• Issue a public confirmation that your government supports the OPP Framework and will
ensure that officers are held accountable for any breaches of the Framework.

• Work with Indigenous peoples' organizations to establish a timetable and process for an
independent evaluation of the OPP Framework and appropriate codification of the
Framework in provincial laws and policies.

Concerns over OPP actions in June of 2007 and April of 2008 are extremely serious. Therefore, Amnesty International is also urging you to establish an independent, impartial probe into OPP actions on June 28 and 29, 2007 and April 21-28, 2008 with respect to
Mohawk protests and occupations near Tyendinaga and to make the findings of such an
investigation public.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Neve
Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada

Apology...

Canada’s apology

Yesterday truly was historical. To watch all of the party leaders show their remorse while they apologized for the genocide we have been dealing with for generations. All of the leaders stated that there is a need for reconciliation and a desire for a new beginning. The first step in the healing is admittance of the wrong.

In the United Nations 1021 “Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide article 1. Says “ the contracting parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish” Canada was a signatory to this convention in 1948. The first step of admittance has now been undertaken by the guilty party. Article 2 says “ genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a)killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about it’s physical destruction in whole or in part (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births in the group (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Canada has admitted to all of the descriptions of genocide in their apology yesterday.

Article 4. Says “persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article 3, shall be punished , whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.
The political parties represent the puppet government of Canada as the real rulers have always remained behind the curtain. The secret government of Canada is the old colonial families who still rule this country through the economy , the fiat currency they control, and the senate. The senators owe their appointments to this old rotting institution.

As UN 1021 states in it’s title “prevention and punishment” It was very emotional to watch the spectacle at parliament hill, much of the public heard the truth of residential schools for the first time yesterday. The real perpetrators of the continuing genocide are still behind the curtain pulling the strings. They are the guilty and Canada needs to decolonize now and try these families for the greatest crime ever perpetrated on this soil. These families also control the UN so it is up to the people of Canada to follow the rule of law and start the healing process. The corporate state that Canada has been since it’s inception is the cause of the genocide. The corporate state of Germany was tried at Nuremburg for this same crime, so there is already precedent.

The policy of assimilation continues in the police state of Canada through the illegal persecution of our men and women through the court system imposed upon us. Now the world will watch to see what Canada does after admitting the genocidal policies that created it’s wealth and power hierarchy.

The senate should be turned into the council of women, the commons into the council of men as laid out in the kayanerakowa, the true law of this land. Because Canada has duped it’s citizens into believing they are free, by being a citizen of the corporate state, maritime admiralty law, or law of the sea applies to them. Your status goes from freedom to bondage and you can be fined or imprisoned at the whim of the state for any length. This is just another way to avoid applying the law of the land. Horrendous crimes against humanity can and will be inflicted upon anyone who goes against the corporation.

Let us start the healing process by addressing the root of the problem.

Unity, Strength, Peace,
thahoketoteh of kanekota

Sop the SPP...

I forward Peter Julian's report on the "globalist" SPP meeting in New Orleans. Note on the video, Mr. Harper's body language and his hand over George Bush's head. The "eugenicist" Bill C51 goes for vote later this week. We are sure the people of Canada will hold their representatives accountable and all will see where their MPs true loyalty lies. We will especially watch the leader's position.

Thanks to Peter for this accurate update.
Peace,
thahoketoteh of kanekota




Dear Fellow Activist,



Attached please find an interesting video link on the real story in New Orleans and our facebook link – please sign up as a supporter to show your opposition to the SPP.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnA-NLR49nA



http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-Julian-MP/7586973623



I wanted to get back to you after the events in New Orleans around the SPP. It is clear to me after the Leaders’ press conference that concluded the summit that the SPP agenda is on the defensive. and it was interesting to note that Bush Harper and Calderon spent their entire press conference trying to defend NAFTA and the US-Colombia free trade agreement, rather than announcing any new initiative on the SPP. It shows me that the work of the NDP, the labour movement and civil society groups in opposition to the SPP is having an impact.



I was very happy to work in New Orleans with the Council of Canadians, members of Common Frontiers, and labour unions like CUPE, CEP, COPE and the Steelworkers.



Attached you will find an op-ed that I wrote coming back from New Orleans on the appalling neglect of poorer residents of New Orleans. A video link is attached to a terrific short documentary done by James Flack, who was in New Orleans. You will also find the op-ed that I co-authored with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky (Vice President of the Mexican Senate), going into the New Orleans summit. The three of us are the co-chairs of the Taskforce on NAFTA Renegotiation, which was announced in March in Washington to push for NAFTA renegotiation.



I’d like to welcome many new members to this STOPSPP group. I encourage all of you to log onto our facebook site http://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-Julian-MP/7586973623 so that you can get up to the minute updates of the NDP's STOPSPP tour. We’ve hit 24 cities in eight provinces so far, and many of the crowds have been standing room only: 200, 300, 400 people. Please encourage other Canadians who wish to stop the SPP to sign on as a supporter on our face book site. We have posted here many videos of our STOPSPP tour done by activists. Get those who oppose the SPP to join as supporters and be part of a broader STOPSPP movement.



Finally, our website at www.peterjulian.ca has copies of the STOPSPP petition. The NDP has presented in the House of Commons the names of thousands of Canadians opposed to the SPP since we have been circulating the petition since last summer.



Together, we can stop the SPP!


Peter Julian, MP (Burnaby-New Westminster)
NDP International Trade Critic

Tel: (613) 992-4214 Fax: (613) 947-9500
TTY: (613) 992-4249

Windmills and the OMB process

The following video was shot at my appearance before the Ontario Municipal Board this past July. I went there to try and work within the system set up by the corpogov of Ontario. Under the decision/order no. 2230 dated August 9, Mr. Jackson states that "Thahoketoteh has come to the wrong forum to advance a land claim. The Board has authority under the Ontario Municipal Board Act to decide questions of law when they are related to planning matters."

As you will see in the video I never mentioned land claims at all but I did mention the Haldimand contract and Canadian Hydro Developers(CHD) breach of it. The Ontario government and Canadian government have shown us they never had any intention of ever following any law that concerns indigenous people.

I asked the prime minister to show me in the constitution where is the provision for UNTS 1021 and I quote, "The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3." I never even got a reply on that email.

Instead I was informed that to fight this order, that is contrary to international and constitutional law, I could only seek refuge in the Canadian legal system and that would cost roughly $80,000.00 In the meantime CHD rushed to put up another 69 windmills ignoring their responsibility to us the true landowners. Backed by Ontario and Canada's inaction.

I'll let everyone judge the legality of this action for themselves. Watch the video
to the right on this page.

When will the rest of the people learn that they are next to have their rights trampled by the corporatocracy.

Unity, Strength, Peace
Thahoketoteh of Kanekota

Check www.thahoketoteh.ws and get a copy of Power and the Peace

Awake

Mr. Harper is a supporter and promoter of the SPP, the second step in the one world government that has been sought by the ruling elite for millennia. When looked at closely, this deal is for the security and prosperity of a few families at the expense of everyone else. That the whole thing has been shrouded in secrecy and closed door meetings is on the public record. The mainstream media has been silent on this issue until true patriots bring it to the spotlight and then they do the “conspiracy theory” spin on it, as the media is owned by these same families.

These families have been ruling the U.S. and Canada through the economy, from the start. Their first step toward realizing this goal, was the genocide of the “Indian” nations. They were not able to murder all of us so the next goal was assimilation. The “reservation” system was set up and forcefully put into place to give these families a favorable PR face, so the rest of the immigrants and the international community would not hold them accountable for mass murder and ecocide. But we are still here and still trying to teach the way of peace and brotherhood. Many of the immigrants are waking up to this truth of American history and to our ancestral teachings.

The U.S. is now the “fourth Reich” with the same families who created the third one running it. That bonesman Bush’s grandfather made his fortune working with the Nazi bank in America, is on the public record. Lincoln, McKinley and Kennedy were all assassinated in their office of the presidency, for suggesting they would eliminate the control of these money changing families. If you keep going back in history you will see the same families when Jesus entered the temple of Solomon and described it as den of thieves. The estimated wealth of the Rothschild family is 600 billion dollars. So in this new world we live in it matters not what race, religion or creed you belong, only if you are rich or poor. There are only a very few that are rich, the rest of us are poor and expendable.

Collectively we can defeat this evil, it is the only way our grandchildren will be able to continue our DNA memory into the future. These families have been inbreeding for so long it is no wonder they have corrupted DNA and are truly the worst type of madmen in earth history.

The true power lies in the human mind as we are all unique aspects of creation and have the ability to communicate directly with it. Open your mind, it is you that you are waiting for.

I recommend Alex Jones new movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upo5PpWx8qU

With unity of mind through the natural law, comes great strength.

Thahoketoteh of Kanekota

Police Reform

The recent inquiries into the RCMP by the Commons Committee is bringing to the surface problems all of us will face in an authoritarian police state. The indigenous people of Canada have been the first victims of this mistake as the record will clearly show. The tip of the iceberg is now being touched and the whole judiciary will have to be examined and rebuilt based on true principles of democracy.

I think the parliamentarians and the judiciary must read “Returning to the Teachings” and “Dancing with a Ghost” by Rupert Ross. He has studied the aboriginal form of justice while working for the Ontario Crown Attorney’s office in Northwestern Ontario. His work on this topic is paramount to finding solutions that will be everlasting for the different peoples now inhabiting Turtle Island.

The other police forces, such as the SQ in Quebec and the OPP in Ontario are rampant with corruption to their core. We wonder when they will be scrutinized. I give one example of the OPP that I have personal knowledge of. Many people will remember the efforts by them to stop the influx of cheaper American booze coming through Mohawk territory in the 90’s. I spoke with an eyewitness to one of their busts as he was the only person to escape detection. He was able to view and hear the officers splitting the booty between themselves. He heard them laughing and only entering half of the cases of booze into evidence while splitting the rest amongst themselves. When the police become the criminals that they are apparently apprehending, we have a huge problem.

The recent release of Paris Hilton in the States after 3 days in jail shows how the American (and Canadian) forms of justice depend on how much money you have. We also can assume that Conrad Black (Bilderberger) will not be put in jail, as he is above the law that the rest of us are subject to. My own experience with my drivers license is worth mentioning, I was told by a lawyer that if I paid 10Gs all this trouble would go away. I didn’t have the money at the time and so still have no license to drive a car in my own homeland.

The Masonic (white serpent) influence within the police is total according to an officer I know personally. The oaths of secrecy they make to their brethren through this association negates any oaths they make to uphold the law.

We have a lot of work ahead of us to collectively clean this mess that the hierarchy has created.

Unity, Strength, Peace,
Thahoketoteh of the hills of the Haldimand tract (Kanekota)