And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.I.S.I.S.) writes: SUNDANCER WOLVERINE GETS PAROLE Terminal City, January 22-28, 1999 by Ben Mahony "Public pressure persuades BC parole board to free Wolverine," proclaimed supporters of jailed Shuswap sovereigntist William Jones Ignace on January 13th. Their press release announced that Ignace, aka Wolverine, has been granted parole. Wolverine was sentenced to eight and a half years when he was singled out as the leader of the Gustafsen Lake protesters whose occupation of Sundance grounds near 100-Mile House BC in 1995 resulted in an armed standoff with the RCMP. The parole board decision opened "a new chapter in a drama marked by the largest police operation in BC history" according to The Globe and Mail. The report noted that Wolverine is to be released within the month. Spokespersons with the Ts'peten Defense Committee and Free the Wolverine Campaign, attributed the granting of parole to the mounting pressure for the public inquiry and the hope that freeing Wolverine might help to diffuse this pressure. Support for an inquiry into the RCMP performance at Gustafsen Lake has been growing as evidence of RCMP abuse of force has been circulating. Many observers who have followed the investigation into RCMP use of force at the now infamous "Spraypec" incident are calling for a public inquiry into Gustafsen Lake as well. While the troubled RCMP Complaints Commission inquiry into RCMP tactics at the 1997 "Spraypec" incident has been scheduled to resume on March 1st, activists and academics claim that the APEC incident is symbolic of a larger trend towards police violence. They want a commission to look at a larger pattern of what they say are heavy handed police tactics employed at APEC, Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash, Ontario. In a pitch to CBC radio producers to look at the broader scope of RCMP behaviour, University of Lethbridge Native Studies professor Tony Hall urged reporters "to go beyond the constraints of the RCMP Public Complaints Inquiry into Spray-pec, to look more broadly at the wider question of the extent to which both the federal and provincial police forces in Canada are subject to inappropriate police manipulation." "Many of the cast of characters in the keystone cops fiasco of "spraypec", [including Hugh Stewart], are the same as at the standoff two years earlier at Gustafsen Lake. What is very different, however, is the magnitude of the alleged and proven violations of the rule of law." The Gustafsen Lake standoff took place in the summer of 1995 near 100-Mile House BC. A small group of traditional Natives claimed an area they had used for a Sun Dance as sacred Shuswap territory. A tense thirty day standoff with over 400 police ensued. The Sundancers claimed that the area in question is unceded, constitutionally guaranteed Native land. "Democracy Street", a Vancouver based group of APEC protesters, are demanding a public inquiry into alleged police wrong-doing at the 1995 standoffs with Natives at both Gustafsen Lake and the concurrent clash at Ipperwash Ontario. They characterized the Gustafsen Lake standoff as "the largest para-military action in Canadian history and a heinous abuse of force as 77,000 rounds, including hollow-point bullets were fired into a small group of traditional Sundancers." In a letter addressed to Jean Chretien and the premiers of Ontario and BC, Democracy Street stated that "While the state's actions during APEC represent a serious breach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we recognize that the events at Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash were far more severe assaults." In October 1997, a London Free Press article outlined evidence likely to figure in any prospective inquiry into the 1995 Ipperwash clash between Native protesters and Ontario Provincial Police. The report noted that "A judge ruled at the trial of an officer convicted of shooting and killing a protester that the natives were unarmed and officers who said the natives were armed had fabricated the testimony." The call for an inquiry into the affair has been denied by the Harris government in Ontario. Similarly, the BC NDP government has denied the call for an inquiry into allegations of abuse at Gustafsen Lake. NDP MP Svend Robinson, who has received numerous requests to lend his name to the call for an inquiry into RCMP tactics at Gustafsen Lake, has refused. In a letter to those who have pressured him, Robinson replied that, "I am unable to support the call for a public inquiry... a cardinal principle of respect for the rights of first nations peoples in Canada must surely be recognition of the rights of those who are in positions of local leadership in a community. At Gustafsen Lake, both the hereditary and the elected first nations leadership in that area condemned the use of arms by protesters." Supporters of an inquiry say that Robinson's refusal to support the inquiry is inconsistent with statements made by Federal NDP leader Alexa McDonaugh who has issued public support for inquiries into Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash. Moreover, tribal council leaders who were initially skeptical about the Gustafsen Lake protesters, came out in support of an inquiry because of the evidence of RCMP [and governmental] wrong-doing. At the AFN convention in Vancouver, in July 1997, the AFN passed a resolution which alleged that "governments are attempting to prevent the public from hearing the truth about these incidents" and that "the Confederacy of Nations supports the demands for a full and comprehensive public inquiry into all aspects of the Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash matters." Assembly of First Nations spokesperson, Jean LaRose stated that "There was some resistance initially to look into the [Gustafsen] affair because many Chiefs do not support the use of violence to try and push our issues forward. However, there is much concern about the use of excessive state-imposed force on First Nations. That has always been an issue and First Nations, rightfully, feels that the state always uses force in a measure that is disproportionate to the situation whenever First Nations are involved in a dispute or confrontation with governments in Canada." Commentators on the APEC controversy have pointed to Gustafsen Lake as a model of good police behaviour. The RCMP claim that they took proper action and were dealing with terrorists. RCMP media liaison officer Peter Montague, was quoted in a May 21st, 1997 Vancouver Province article as stating that the RCMP "would do substantially the same thing given another standoff." But the Mounties were confounded by video evidence which included an excerpt where Sergeant Montague stated that "smear campaigns are our specialty." In a January, 1999 phone interview, Montague claimed that the comment was a facetious remark uttered after a strategy session had officially ended. He did acknowledge that part of the RCMP plan was to release criminal records of those in the camp. He also acknowledged that he mis-spoke when referring to the camp members as "murderers". He said that he meant to say "capable of murder." The May 21, 1997 Vancouver Province article outlined other damning disclosures: "the court heard that RCMP: had plans to use up to 4,000 officers to "neutralize" the native camp... The RCMP had submachine guns, night vision goggles, sniper rifles, trace flares and stun grenades. They fired from an aircraft at a native in an agreed upon safe zone [S.I.S.I.S note: In fact the sniper's shoot to kill attempt on the unarmed camper was from a position on the ground not "from an aircraft".] On April 21st 1997, CBC showed footage of the shooting in the "safe zone", where RCMP snipers track what appears to be an unarmed camp member. The sniper than asks for "authority to make his stay unpleasant". The footage shows that shots are then fired at the man which narrowly miss him. RCMP initially claimed the man was armed which was refuted by this televised report. They later said they would conduct an "administrative review" into the shooting. There have been calls for an inquiry into RCMP actions at Gustafsen Lake from as far away as Guatemala where an Inca Indigenous group [S.I.S.I.S note: in fact it was Defensoria Maya, a Mayan not Incan political organization] met with an assistant of Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Phil Fontaine. Traditional political allies are hard to come by in BC, though because it was an NDP provincial government who carried out the action, especially in BC where the land claims issue is such a hot potato. Bill Lightbown said that he keeps "sending demands for an inquiry to both federal and provincial governments." He received the reply that there "is absolutely no intention of having an inquiry. He sounds the call for an inquiry into "thousands and thousands of internationally banned hollow-point bullets fired at Indian people." For anyone looking for confirmation of Bill's claims, he says "Look at the transcripts from the trial." It seems inevitable that some one will soon. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: DEMAND A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO GUSTAFSEN LAKE! Prime Minister Jean Chretien - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] BC NDP Premier Glen Clark - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/GustLake/support.html http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html Letters to Terminal City - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] "[Gustafsen Lake] shows all the signs of a classic coverup" - Canadian Dimension Magazine
