Algonquin Negotiators Caught "Suckling"

by Kahentinetha Horn 

Eight Mohawks from four communities were invited by Robert “Too Much Mercy” Lovelace, the negotiator for the Ardoc Lake Algonquins, to attend a public meeting in Kingston Ontario.

 

 

 

“See you there”, he said. The meeting was to start on Sunday, January 6, from 7:00 to 11:00 pm. at the Holiday Inn.

 

 

 

MNN.  Jan. 7, 2008 - When we arrived in Kingston at 5:30 pm we phoned Randy Cota, Ontario Provincial Police “chief” of the Ardoc
Algonquins to get directions.  He phoned their ambulance chaser [lawyer], Chris “The Calf” Reid, who was already at the hotel.  Reid said he would be waiting for us there at 6:45.   

Kingston Ontario is on Mohawk land.  The Algonquins have been our allies for a long time.  In July 2007 they sent us a wampum requesting our assistance.  According to the Two Row Wampum protocol, we must remain a part of this issue until it is resolved.  

 

We were more than “observers” to this parlay.  We had questions to ask the “mediators” about the uranium mine on the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River valleys and water sheds.  They go right by four of our Mohawk communities – Tyendinaga, Akwesasne, Kanehsatake and Kahnawake.  

Frontenac “Henco INCarnate” Ventures Corporation had a permit from Ontario to mine for uranium on Algonquin land.  According to Frontenac Ventures power point presentation, their 2007 exploration program is finished.  They need permission to continue.  Frontenac is threatening to start drilling in 20 days.   

What we did not know is that it looks like a deal had already been made.   This consultation or mediation or whatever you want to call it was a farce.   It was just a “big show” to make it look like these “sparring partners” were going to fight out an agreement.  It was far from that.
 
The “Montello” Room in the Holiday Inn was set up by Chris Reid, the Ardoc ambulance chaser.    He set up 12 chairs around a set of tables in a tiny room on the sixth floor.  At 6:00 PM two people working on a documentary showed up with their cameras.  


We waited for the mediators to come in and mediate with each other.  One by one they peeked in and took off for the restaurant down the hall.  They broke into three camps - the government “Trainers” sat next to the bar to keep an eye on the two sparring partners who sat next to the buffet.  

Big Chief Doreen “Wishbone” Davis for Sharbot sat not far from Robert “Too Much Mercy” Lovelace, the chief negotiator for Ardoc.  They whispered, sent notes to each other and spoke constantly to their “handlers” on their cell phones.  While the Indigenous people remained quiet, the government trainers were getting louder.

At 7:30 one of us did the “ohenton kariwatwen”, the traditional opening of the meeting, as it was taking place on Mohawk land.  

Three Mohawk scouts decided to go and find out what the encampments in the restaurant were complaining about.  The government clique said, “We don’t want cameras in the room”, meaning, “We don’t want Mohawks in the room”.  


Chris Reid asked us to move from the table, except for Rarakwiseres, a big man who was sporting a gustowa head dress.  Where will we go?  On the floor? The photographers went out and found a few chairs for the silent observers who were quietly sliding into the room.  About 15 non-natives had come in carrying chairs and sat against the wall like ghosts.  


A chair was brought in for Robert Lovelace to sit at the corner of the table on Chris Reid’s left, looking like a bad little boy.  There were no smiles or friendly greetings for us.  Lovelace then asked Rarakwiseres to speak.  Since the Mohawk elder had already opened the meeting, he stared straight ahead and said nothing.  Is this sounding kind of strange?  What ‘til you hear what followed.  

One of our women went to the restaurant and scolded the government people about their rudeness.  She ordered them to come in to the meeting.  Ten minutes later they reluctantly sauntered in, threw their briefcases on the table like a bunch of bratty kids.  [What is “This-is-Our-Table-Not-Yours” stuff?  

Our meetings are in a circle where everyone is equal and has a voice.]  When we refused to sit on the floor or leave the room,
they picked up their briefcases and stomped out in a huff, followed by their ambulance chasers.  Chris Reid accused us of
“hijacking and sabotaging his meeting” [inferring we’re terrorists?]   They all disappeared into their fourth floor executive
suites [i.e. 427].    

The “meat eaters” [or mediators] were Cam “the Grim Reaper”
Clark, former deputy minister of Natural Resources department  who works for Ontario as a negotiator, particularly on mining disputes; Ron “Napalm” Ferguson and Andrew “Agent Orange”
McDonald, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines; Richard “Who-Will-Mediate-Anything-So-Long-As-It-Pays” Moore of Ottawa, a lawyer, who likes to say no side owns the land.  The
other ambulance chaser, Stevie “No Wonder” Reynolds, sat against the wall.  
 
Robert Lovelace came back and tried to smooth things out.  With
a straight face, he said, “Ontario must save face.  That’s the kind
of people we are!”  He promised to look at the concerns our Women Title Holders had presented and to talk with us the next
morning.  

We showed up the next morning.  We got off the 6th floor elevator.  Someone was waiting in the shadows for us.  He might have been a hotel employee.  He whispered that the meeting had secretly been moved to the exclusive “River Mill Restaurant” in the Kingston Whig Standard newspaper building a few blocks away from the Holiday Inn.  He quickly got on the elevator and disappeared.  That’s truly what happened!

We jumped into our van and drove over to the River Mill Restaurant.  We found the gang had broken up into two teams and were meeting in two rooms.  One was the “Voracious Sell-Out Sharks” and the other was the “Frontenac Ventures & Government  Parasites”.  Each team had an Indian mascot, Doreen Davis and Robert Lovelace.

It was hard to tell who the Ontario government, Ministry of Natural Resources, Frontenac Ventures, the Indians or the cops were.  

The ambulance chasers were running back and forth between the two rooms.  There was a score keeper.  When they saw us, “Oh!  S--t!  They found us.  Let’s get the h—l out of here away from these Injuns”.  They snapped their bags shut, jumped up, grabbed their coats and almost stampeded us in their rush to get out the door.  

We followed them like groupies, taking pictures and cheering. They huffed and puffed through their gritted teeth.  “Hey, don’t
run away and have secret meetings behind closed doors”, we chanted.  “We are the Mohawks and you are on our land”.   They
all bounded into taxis and headed back to the safety of their executive suites at the Holiday Inn. 

 

We returned to the Holiday Inn, got off the sixth floor elevator and found two Ontario Provincial Police officers prancing outside the Montello room.  We posted a sign on the door and then left:

• “Notice:  Treason and conspiracy prohibited against our Algonquin allies in Kingston which is on Mohawk land, as per the Two Row Wampum Treaty”.

Later the CBC called asking what happened.  The reporter said that the “gang” had gone back into the Montello Room “behind
closed doors”.  The plan for the Algonquins could be one of three
possibilities.  

To begin with, Robert Lovelace gave us the impression that Ontario plans to pull the permit, give Frontenac, the lawyers and
mediators some money and then drop the project?  

We don’t think so.  The Ministry of Natural Resources will put the
unsurrendered Algonquin land into a park-like regime [like Ipperwash].  This will be “co-managed” by Ontario and the Algonquins for a “cut” of any development.  Chris Reid was heard saying to Robert Lovelace, “Next time, we should meet alone with George White of Frontenac Ventures” without a lawyer to make a deal.  Whichever “Algonquins” are going to carry out this deal need some kind of “accreditation” recognized by Ontario.  

That must be why Robert Lovelace [a U.S. draft dodger] and Doreen Davis were so disrespectful to us in front of their “handlers”.  Were they scared of having any Mohawks or true Algonquins around who would surely have interfered with their greedy plans for enriching themselves?        

The third scenario is called “Suckling Off the Cash Cow”.  This is how it works.  The government gives one of their friends a permit to drill, dam up, dig, mine, blow up, cut down or build houses on unsurrendered Indigenous land.  The Indigenous people resist and set up barricades.  Negotiations start.  The developer sues the Indigenous people for millions.   The government and developer start to negotiate with the compliant members of the Indigenous peoples. 

 

Bingo!  It’s settled.  The developer gets a big gift of tax payers’ dollars from the government, the development is stopped and the Indigenous people are left alone, as poor as mice in an abandoned church.      

Whichever way you look at it, none is legal.  They’re all scams of
one kind or another on the Algonquins, the Canadian public and
the future generations.  

The government “negotiators/mediators”, the developers and the
lawyers representing the Indians move on and keep on suckling. Tax payers are told that millions of dollars are being spent on the
Indigenous peoples and there is not enough money left for health
care, schools, roads or infrastructures.  Outsiders like the Mohawks who ask too many questions are painted as dangerous. Terrorists even!  The government toadies and corporate elite grow fat.  This “blood sucking” scam has got to be stopped.
 

 

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News

 

 

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