Abide law

It appears—fortunately—that calmer heads will prevail and today’s planned “day of action” by aboriginal protesters won’t include widespread blockades and other disruptions.
Just how events would unfold was a mystery given the belligerent statements by some native leaders in the lead-up to last Friday’s meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Assembly of First Nations’ national chief Shawn Atleo, including threats to bring the economy “to its knees.” But while emotions have cooled somewhat in the days since, there’s still talk of blockades to follow should “peaceful protests” prove fruitless in winning native demands.
That would be the wrong course. There clearly is growing impatience among First Nations with the foot-dragging and plodding pace of change, but dialogue and negotiation remain the only option to resolving aboriginal issues. Confrontation, whether through blockades, “toll booths,” or other disruptions, only serves to heighten tensions and open the door to potential violence.
No one wants another Ipperwash, where a native man was fatally shot by an OPP officer in a bid to evict protesters from a provincial park. Or an Oka, where a member of the Quebec provincial police was killed trying to end the occupation of a golf course.
By that same token, no one wants another Caledonia, either, where a dispute over a housing project was allowed to drag on.
Police obviously want to avoid violence but they also have a duty to enforce the law, which includes carrying out court injunctions. If someone is illegally blocking a road or railway, there has to be consequences for that action, including arrest, regardless of the issue or one’s ethnicity.
Of course, if they choose not to go willingly, the situation rapidly becomes an explosive one.
That’s precisely the danger when the bargaining table is abandoned—and why abiding the law is the only way to move forward.