Dene Chief Upset Over Canadian Defence Report
By SHAWN BELL, SRJ Reporter 21.JUL.09
Bill Erasmus Dene National Chief
The Dene Nation has denounced a new report that claims Treaty 8 First Nations pose a threat of violence to oilsands and other resource development in Western Canada.
The report, prepared for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute by Tom Flanagan, states that incidences of violence and protests over resource development will continue as Aboriginal rights and environmentalist movements grow.
“The rapid expansion of natural resource industries in northern Alberta…raises issues of possible extralegal and even violent resistance to industrial development,” Flanagan wrote in the report, released July 13. “Incidents of obstruction and violence will probably continue as they have in the past, i.e., in a sporadic and isolated way tied to local grievances, and not as part of a coordinated movement with the ability to block resource development on a large scale.”
Flanagan, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary and advisor to Prime Minister Stephan Harper, identifies five groups as potential threats: individual saboteurs, eco-terrorists, mainstream environmentalists, First Nations, and Métis people.
Treaty 8 First Nations and individual saboteurs are considered the highest risk of the five groups.
The Dene Nation chief expressed deep concern over Flanagan’s comments.
“We can’t take this lightly,” said Bill Erasmus from a press conference in Ottawa. “Is (Flanagan) stirring Canadians up to be afraid of us? We need to question what he was doing. Who did he talk to? Did he talk to First Nation people at all?”
Erasmus worries that by including First Nation people on a list with eco-terrorists, Flanagan may be setting up the government to use anti-terrorism laws against First Nation people.
“If he’s painting us with the same brush, it is a slippery slope,” Erasmus said. “In 1976 we were considered the greatest risk to Canadian society. The Dene Nation offices were bugged, our phones were bugged. Is that going to happen again?”
The Dene Nation chief was joined at the press conference by Sergeant Tom Eagle, a First Nation veteran representing the NWT. Eagle compared the rhetoric used in Flanagan’s report to the federal government’s response to the Indian National Brotherhood in the 1960s and 1970s and the Mohawks at Oka in 1990.
“I can tell you, (Flanagan) is a very dangerous person,” Eagle said. “There is no foundation to these remarks. For him to say Treaty 8 people, I don’t know where he is getting his information from.”
Eagle emphasized that no talk of violent opposition to development has come up at Dene Nation meetings.
“What we normally try to do is come up with resolutions about education, or looking for support to deal with issues,” Eagle said. “But never have I ever heard any mention of violence, blockades, sabotaging the oilsands or anything like it.”
Flanagan’s report also claims it is very unlikely that First Nations, Metis and environmentalists will work together to oppose development, due to the differing objectives and political goals of the groups.
But Erasmus said that is just another indication of Flanagan’s distance from the Canadian reality.
“He doesn’t know what is on the ground,” Erasmus said. “There is a whole network of First Nations and Metis working with environmentalists across the country.”
Erasmus added he will invite Flanagan and a top Canadian general to the upcoming Assembly of First Nations annual meeting in Calgary to present the report and discuss the findings.
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