First Nations = political threat?

A columnist reacts to the news that the Mounties have spied on Canada's First Nations.

CSIS and me: What First Nation activities are NOT considered a potential threat to Canada?

By Pamela PalmaterThe First Nations Strategic Bulletin (FNSB) which came out in Dec. 2011 explained how after the Conservatives came to power, the RCMP created the Aboriginal Joint Intelligence Group (JIG), partnering with the ENERGY and PRIVATE SECTOR to spy on First Nations. First Nations like Six Nations, Tyendinaga and others were all targeted. The JIG was run by RCMP Criminal Intelligence Branch and the RCMP National Security Criminal Investigations (NSCI) which deal with: "threats to national security and criminal extremism or terrorism."

Most shockingly was that FNSB also reported that the RCMP shared their surveillance reports with private businesses and that private businesses shared information with the RCMP about First Nations.

The irony of the situation is so outrageous. It was Canada and its Indian agents that were hostile and subversive to our peoples--not the other way around. It is we who have premature deaths, worse health, less education, less employment and less access to land and resources. It is we who continue to suffer the inter-generational effects of their colonial laws and policies which STILL exist today.

Can you get any more hostile that the over-apprehension of our children from our communities at three times the rate of residential schools? Or that some of federal prisons are populated100 per cent by Indigenous inmates or that the Indian Act still provides for our legislative extinction dates?Comment:  For more on the Mounties' activities, see Mounties Investigate Cowichan Protesters. For more on the problem in the US, see United Police State of America.