Background Documents #12
Gustafsen Lake Standoff-Archive (Oct. 9-now)
Gustafsen Support Information
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH DR. BRUCE CLARK CBC RADIO-EARLY EDITION WITH HAL WAKES Oct. 19, 1995 Canada in Crises - Indigenous Termination Agenda Accelerates Oct. 23/95 RCMP USE INTIMIDATION TACTICS ON TS'PETEN (GUSTAFSEN LAKE) DEFENDERS 10/24/95 TO ALL SUPPORTERS OF TS' PETEN DEFENDERS Oct. 24/95
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH DR. BRUCE CLARK CBC RADIO-EARLY EDITION WITH HAL WAKES October 19, 1995. It's now sixteen minutes after seven o'clock. This is the Early Edition on CBC radio, 690 on the South Coast. My name is Hal Wakes. Native rights lawyer Bruce Clark failed to appear in a Williams Lake Court yesterday to face charges of Contempt of Court and assualting a police officer. The charges resulted from a scuffle in a Williams Lake courtroom last month. Clark is perhaps best know for representing the Gustafsen Lake rebels during their standoff with the RCMP last month. We've reached Bruce Clark in Amsterdam where he says he is living in exile. HW: Good Morning. BC: Good Morning. HW: Why didn't you appear in court yesterday in Williams Lake? BC: Well, first in your introduction you said the charges resulted from a scuffle, that's incorrect. The charges did not result from a scuffle. The charges against me resulted from the fact that I accused the judge of misprison of treason, fraud and complicity in genocide, which is a charge I can substantiate in terms of hard law. In response to that charge, the judge became hysterical and had the police officers assualt me at the counsel table in court. I defended myself. Now, having sort of clarified the factual basis for the charges, the reason I'm in exile is because in order to cover up the crimes in which our Canadian judiciary are engaged, this one judge has cited me for contempt of court. That is basically he is insisting that I recant the truth, apologize and if not the threat is I will be kept in jail until I do that. This is absolutely an outrageous overturning of every principle on which the rule of law is based. I don't propose to sacrifice the interests of my clients in pursuing justice by allowing the criminal court, and that is the judges who are behaving in a criminal fashion, to essentially silence the messanger by keeping me in jail indefinitely. That's why I'm in exile. HW: Why did you choose Amsterdam? BC: I chose Amsterdam because it was the cheapest flight available. HW: Why kind of extradition treaty does Canada have with the Netherlands? BC: I do not know. HW: Had nothing to do with the decision to go to the Netherlands. BC: No. HW: You as a lawyer, I guess you might be able to help me with this, I think you are an officer of the court, are you not? BC: That's right and it is precisely because I'm an officer of the court that I am under a duty to inform the court when it is engaged in criminally unconstitutional behaviour. When I can carry out that duty to the court because the judges are hurt by the truth, embarrassed by the truth, they become hysterical and cite me for contempt. I am carrying out my duty as an officer of the court which is the reason the charges are against me. HW: What are you going to do in the Netherlands? Presumably this is the end of your legal carreer. BC: It is the end of my legal carreer only in so far as its ended for practical purposes in Canada until such time as the Canadian judiciary starts to behave in accordance with the rule of law. Now this isn't an unusual situation in the world. Almost every country goes through growing pains and various stages where high officials in it form the impression they are above the law. That has happened in fact with our judiciary at the present time. Where that happens and where their pretence has genocidal consequences, traditionally, what right thinking people do who are under a duty is flee the country and attempt to make their plea to the international community of nations and the to the international legal community. That's what I'm doing, In a legal capacity, I'm representing my clients interests by explaining to the international community the travesty of justice of genocidal consequence that is being played out in British Columbia Courts today. HW: We have a system of law that provides for all kinds of checks and balances and rights of appeal and courts of appeal and different individuals involved at all of those levels. What you're suggesting is a kind of grand conspiracy throughout the whole legal system to somehow stamp out your right to express your point of view when in fact many people would see you simply as a law breaker who is refusing to face the issue in court. BC: Well whether or not I'm a law breaker depends upon the law at which you are looking. My point is that in order to address the law you have to look at the whole law, the same as when you look at the facts, you have to look at the whole truth. Now the whole law in this case consists of the constitutional law and the criminal law. The constitutional law upon which this country was founded since the 18th century says that where judges assume jurisdiction in unsurrendered Indian territory by definition they are guilty of misprison of treason and fraud. The fact is that occured in British Columbia, notably in 1864, Judge Bigbie had hung a group of Chilcoltin Indians. In hard constitutional law, that was an act of murder by the judge. Now when you say we must look at the law and we must follow these judicial processes that is exactly my point. The difficulty is that when I go into our courts and ask the courts to address this constitutional law, the words of which are absolutely clear and plain, they read those words but they won't address them publically because they know what the truth is. They become hysterical. In their hysteria they cite inferior law, that is law of the criminal code which is a law inferior in status to the Constitution. That is they willfully blind themselves to the Constitution in order to silence the messanger and the criminal weapons that they use in this process is the criminal law process. HW: You could be making the argument in court rather than ...although I know you have...rather than.....Thank you...... BC: But that't the point. When I made the argument in court, I was cited for contempt. HW: Thank you for taking our call. BC: Thank you for cutting me off. HW: Bye bye. BC: Bye bye. HW: Bruce Clark is a native rights lawyer who has gone into exile in Holland. Submitted for ASSC Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 URGENT ACTION: Canada in Crises - Indigenous Termination Agenda Accelerates. CALL FOR IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION In less than two weeks the people of the province of Quebec will vote on whether to remain in the Canadian federation or opt for a new sovereign state. A study done by the University of Ottawa and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington suggests that this will lead to Canada being dismantled. 'The resulting economic chaos could lead the United States to force its own solution' it adds (Globe and Mail, October 10, 1995 - The United States would gain clout, the study says). Meanwhile the unextinguished original title holders - the Mohawks, Crees and other colonized indigenous nations continue to be systematically suppressed. In a recently released 500 page study Sovereign Injustice, the James Bay Cree write "there appear to be significant indications that the use of force and acts of violence are likely to be a by product of a unilateral declaration of independence by Quebec." Quebec's ruling Parti Quebecois native claims negotiator David Cliche has warned of native separation movements across North and South America. (Cree Chief Says No - Globe and Mail Oct. 13, 1995) In Canada's westernmost province of British Columbia the largest and costliest RCMP operation in Canadian history ruthlessly suppressed the Defenders of the Shuswap Nation's stand for sovereignty and jurisdiction on sacred unceded Sundance Grounds at Gustafsen Lake. They are now being fed into the sausage machine of a tyrannical colonial court system that is demonstrably guilty of genocide in usurping jurisdiction over unceded Indian lands. On Wednesday, October 18, 1995, Judge Nicholas Friesen issued a Canada wide warrant for the arrest of Dr. Bruce Clark on charges of contempt of court and resisting arrest. Dr. Clark, an international and constitutional law expert acting as counsel for the beleaguered defenders has along with his clients been subjected to a vicious demonization campaign by the Canadian establishment for his impregnable legal challenge to the colonial status quo. The resulting persecution masquerading as prosecution has forced him and his family to flee to Europe. Meanwhile his clients are facing the full wrath of the notoriously corrupt B.C. Courts without benefit of the only counsel able, ready and willing to present the statutes and precedents confirming Indigenous Sovereignty over unceded territory. The NDP B.C. government is reeling from a developing scandal involving the Nanaimo Commonwealth Holding Society. The Society, run by members of the New Democratic Party, was supposed to be a non-profit group that raised money for charity but "a commercial crime investigation last year found the organization had actually been ripping off charities by skimming bingo money that was supposed to go to groups for the mentally handicapped, boys' and girls' clubs and cultural groups. A forensic audit has revealed the NDP worked with the society in diverting charity money for political purposes" (Vancouver Sun, Oct. 18, 1995). This is the cynical, corrupt and duplicitous group who announced Wednesday, Oct. 18, 1995 its bogus and fraudulent B.C. Treaty Commission will transfer about 5 billion in cash and 5 billion in land to puppet Indian Act bands over 20 years. This extinguishment and termination device would reduce sovereign nations to municipal style governments dependent upon co- management agreements with the monster resource extractors which dominate the province. The province's Indian elite The First Nations Summit met recently and reported increasing unrest in their communities. The government sponsored chiefs termed traditionalists opposition to their collaborationist agenda as 'extremists'. "The parallel I would like to draw is what is taking place in the Middle East", said chief Joe Mathias a spokesman for the B.C. First Nations Summit. "You have extremists trying to destroy the peace process" (Victoria Times Colonist, Sept. 23, 1995). Some chiefs expressed concern about the level of discontent on their reserves. And they admitted they didn't know how to deal with questions raised by the Gustafsen Lake rebels and others about the legitimacy of elected chiefs. Some aboriginal people are beginning to challenge elected chiefs saying only leaders chosen by custom are legitimate. "We are left with the legacy of Gustafsen Lake" said Shuswap Chief (tribal council) Nathan Mathews. "There are serious challenges about who are the legitimate representative of first nations people." (Vancouver Sun, Oct. 5, 1995). The silver haired traditionalist grandfather who acted as spokesperson and war-chief during the recent siege Wolverine (also known as William Ignace) had his $10,000 bail revoked after political statements and pressure from B.C. politicians including B.C. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh who rejected a widespread international call for independent international adjudication of the colonialist criminal suppression of indigenous rights. "There shall be no alien intervention in the affairs of the state in this country and this province." (Vancouver Sun, Sept. 15, 1995). International outrage from ex U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to European parliamentarians and traditional sovereigntist activists across the Americas have condemned the excesses of Canada's anti-Indian program. The Shuswap traditionalists, their counsel and their non-native allies criminalized with them are desperately in need of your support and solidarity. The largest repository of unceded territory in North America is at risk. The traditional hereditary leadership is calling for a great outpouring of indigenous and popular resistance to halt the onslaught against them and their threatened home lands. IN SOLIDARITY AND RESISTANCE AND HONOUR Healing our nations united in resistance. CONTACTS: Defenders of Gustafsen Lake - Defense Group spokespersons: Thow Hagwelth (Lavina White), Haida Hereditary Elder Bill Lightbown, Kootenai Nation Ph. (604) 251-4949 Fax: (604) 251-6401 Vancouver Splitting the Sky, Mohawk Nation Ph. (403) 865-1784 SUPPORT GROUPS: Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with Native Peoples CASNP ATTN: Kahntinenta Horn Ph. (416) 972-1573 Fax: (416) 972-6232 Toronto Aboriginal Sovereignty Support Committee ASSC Hotline: (604) 251-1167 Fax: (604) 251-6401 gauvreau@unixg.ubc.ca Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty S.I.S.I.S. P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, B.C. V8X 3S2 uc389@freenet.victoria.bc.ca For previous archived posts: http://www2.helix.net/~bearwtch/sov/sis.html Express your outrage and protests: (please fax copies to: SISIS at (604) 721-7111 or ASSC at (604) 251-6401. Governor General of Canada His Excellency the Right Honorable Romeo Le Blanc Rideau Hall, 1 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Canada K1A 0A1 Ph. (613) 993-9530 Fax: (613) 990-7636 Prime Minister Jean Chretien Parliament Buildings Ottawa, Canada Ph. (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900 B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt - Legislative Assembly, Victoria B.C. Ph. (604) 387-1715 Fax: (604) 387-0087 B.C Attorney General, Ujjal Dosanjh Ph. (604) 387-1866 Fax: (604) 387-6411 nlane@galaxy.gov.bc.ca Letters of solidarity, appreciation for the Shuswap Defenders to: Wolverine - aka William Ignace Political Prisoner c/o Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre P.O. Box 820 Kamloops, B.C. Canada V2C 5M9 KRCC Warden: John Spruce Ph. (604) 372-7202 Fax: (604) 374-9237 Media: Newspapers: The Globe and Mail letters@globeandmail.ca The Vancouver Sun pgraham@wimsey.com Fax: (604) 732-2323 Victoria Times-Colonist timesc@interlink.bc.ca Fax: (604) 380-5353 CBC National News Fax: (604) 662-6896
Ts' peten Defenders Contact: Splitting the Sky (403) 865-1784 OCTOBER 24, 1995 RCMP USE INTIMIDATION TACTICS ON TS'PETEN (GUSTAFSEN LAKE) DEFENDERS KAMLOOPS, B.C. - Over the last several weeks since the standoff ended, the RCMP continue to try and break the enduring position of the Ts'peten Defenders. When Suniva Bronson went to retrieve her driver's license from Police Headquarters in Kamloops earlier this month (October 5), she and her mother were taken into a closed office and interrogated without the presence of a lawyer. Corporal Murray Smith tried to discuss the standoff with them, naming people he assumed to be involved in certain incidents. Suniva refused to comment and eventually Smith forced them both to watch a video that the police had recorded of the infamous red truck being blown up by the land mine. Afterwards, he claimed that the only thing not recorded on video was Suniva being shot. He told her it was an RCMP .223 bullet taken out of her arm, but assured her that it would be impossible to find out who fired the shot because there were more than 60 officers in the field that day. he also threatened that there would be more charges laid of greater consequences, including the possibility of life sentences. Following this confrontation, other Defenders have been harassed by police with questions and similar threats at their homes, always without the presence of their lawyer. One couple was even stopped in their truck on a public street and interrogated right there. Two plain clothes officers were also spotted bugging a car owned by a Defender's family. The most recent coercive measure was the solitary confinement of Joseph Adam Ignace ("JoJo"), on October 20, 1995 shortly after the denial of his release on bail. There had been numerous indications of his emotional deterioration since being imprisoned on September 17, 1995. Although the supervisor at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre (KRCC) recognized that the confinement was the reason for Joseph's emotional instability, he was moved into 23-hour lockdown cell adjacent to Defender James Pitawanakwat (O.J.) who was in a 20-hour lockdown for no other apparent reason than prison overflow. Lawyer Robin Smith from Williams Lake suspects that Joseph and James are placed together in the hope that they would exchange information which could be recorded and used against them in court. (Indeed, Joseph has apparently already made incriminating statements against himself after hours of police interrogations without the presence of a lawyer.) James reported that, as the days passed, Joseph was becoming increasingly stressed until, on October 22nd, Joseph endangered his life for fear of his father William's health. William ("Wolverine") asked the supervisor if he would be allowed to see Joseph as this would reassure him and calm him down, but he was refused this simple request on grounds unknown. Joseph is now under 24-hour observation along with 21 other inmates. He has only recently been informed of his canteen privileges. Additionally, since he can't write and no on offered him any assistance, he has not been able to fill out request forms or visitors lists. His mother sent in a visitors list for him over a week ago, but it still isn't in the KRCC computer.The extraordinary and deplorable methods used by the RCMP and their political yellow bellies are nothing but tactics of intimidation, humiliation and genocide that seem to be an integral part of the ongoing criminal investigation of the Ts'peten Defenders. Please make calls of complaints to the Warden of the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, John Spruce at (604) 372 - 7202; fax (604) 374 - 9247 and to the Ombudsman of B.C. at (604) 387 - 5855. Also, any letters of support to the Defenders still being held as political prisoners of war are much appreciated and enjoyed. Their address is: Jones William Ignace (Jonesy) Joseph Adam Ignace (JoJo) James Allen Scott Pitawanakwat (O.J.) KRCC Box 820 Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5M9 Also, please be informed that David Pena, who was arrested on August 11, 1995 on weapons charges, will be on trial in the Williams Lake courthouse on November 6, 1995. David was the first political prisoner, still in maximum security in Prince George. His own mother is not allowed to visit him, since she is one of the people charged at Gustafsen Lake. The prison food is not sufficient for his special diabetic needs and his health is deteriorating. Please send letters of solidarity to him at: David Pene Box 4300 PGRCC Prince George, B.C. V2L 4J9 "O.J." will have his bail hearing on November 10, 1995 in 100 Mile House. That is also the court date for the Defenders, at which time further charges may be laid and the prosecution will determine who will be tried together and on what dates. There may also be pleas entered into court that day and consideration of a preliminary trial. Again, please show your support any way you can. For further communications, contact. Splitting the Sky (403) 865-1784
Ts' peten Defenders Contact: Splitting the Sky (403) 865-1784 TO ALL SUPPORTERS OF TS' PETEN DEFENDERS OCTOBER 24, 1995 We would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the world community for their unconditional support throughout the entire thirty days we were besieged by the RCMP on our unceded land. We wish to thank all the support groups and all the individuals throughout Turtle Island and the globe who worked non-stop organizing vigils, fasts, ceremonies, demonstrations, rallies, and communications of support on our behalf. We also wish to thank all the native and non-native families an