Angry in the Great White North

One day after we heard that there were intentions to finish some of the unfinished homes on the reclamation site in Caledonia, trouble has found its way back to the disputed territory. A fire was set in one of the homes, allegedly by someone who was staying in the home, after they were asked to leave so that the house could be worked on. The person that was staying there said that they had been staying there from the start and that it was their home. They also said that they would set it on fire if they were forced to leave.

Three people from the site had to be treated for smoke inhalation after they attempted to put the blaze out themselves. Minimal damage was done to the building and the person that is alleged to have set the blaze fled the scene.

Police were not allowed on the property so it’s not known whether or not anyone was apprehended. Six Nations firefighters were allowed on the property to extinguish the fire.

Is that irony I smell mixed in with the smell of smoke? I guess when you throw away the rule of law, you had better be prepared to live with the consequences, especially if you are the poor sod tasked to get people to follow new instructions.

Let's assume the report is accurate. If so, I have a message for one of the persons involved.

To the person who asked the firebug to leave, what has happened is that person did not recognize your authority to ask him to do anything. You might work with the Six Nations Confederacy, you might have a napkin bearing the autograph of every Clan Mother, you might wield Hiawatha's very own sandal as a symbol of your authority -- it doesn't matter unless you are willing to force others to listen to you, and the majority of the others recognize that you are the sole agent allowed to use force to compel obedience.

It's called the monopoly on violence.

That person did not recognize your authority, so he burned the house and injured a number of people rather than submit.

You have a situation in which you and your compatriots each believes he is a power unto himself. The Clan Mothers, the Confederacy, the Council, the Chiefs, the Mohawk Warriors, every Tom, Dick, and Harry -- each thinks he is in charge and doesn't have to listen to anyone else. Not to the Ontario government, not to the Council, not the Clan Mothers, not to each other.

And especially not to you.

It's the situation you yourself created.

And if this sort of thing keeps happening, that is if you, whoever you are and whoever you represent, can't manage to do something as simple as asking someone to move from one unfinished house to another without the whole place going up in smoke and people being sent to hospital, no one is going to recognize your claim to that land. The reason is simple -- you have not been able to establish that you are the true governing authority. And while that vacuum exists, this dispute will continue.

Until someone fills in the vacuum, of course. If you are not up to the job and the chaos escalates, don't be surprised if the government steps in. And then you will have lost, ironically because you thought throwing the law out the window was going to help your cause.