Natives win more through negotiations

Blocking railway tracks gets aboriginal protesters noticed. Talking quietly at a table gets aboriginal negotiators results. You decide which strategy makes the most sense today.
The latest victory for one of Canada’s First Nations came Monday when leaders of northern Quebec’s 16,500 Cree announced a $1।4 billion deal with Ottawa that will eventually give this aboriginal community a form of self-government. The deal was a long time coming — 32 years to be exact. But the important thing now is that it came. As for the Cree, they deserve praise for patience, perseverance and relying on negotiations instead of resorting to illegal protests or even violence, as have some native groups.

At the end of June, Mohawk protesters were responsible for closing a main rail line and Highway 401 in eastern Ontario।

Their confrontational tactics — which included the threat that they were armed with rifles and would use them in self-defence — got international attention. However, aside from landing a native leader in jail and creating a lot of ill-will in the general public, the confrontations gained the natives nothing. (EDIT: Nothing? Race based immunity to any crime they wish to commit is far from nothing)

Likewise, the occupation of a subdivision in Caledonia has not delivered to a group of Six Nations protesters the land that they wanted, even though it has dragged on for nearly 1 1/2 years and been marred by physical assaults, vandalism and a tension between the local aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities that has not abated।