'Morning Folks,
Everybody is entitled to an opinion, thats fine. However, I think that some may have overlooked perhaps the most important element in Hartley's article, which read:
"Even further, in a recent case Mitchell Horne was denied a license by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and Horne took up the issue with the Quebec Supreme Court. The court had the option at that time to address whether MIT was operating legally, but instead chose not to even consider it, essentially stating that the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was operating in its best interests as is afforded them under the gaming law. In doing so, the Quebec government indirectly acknowledged the Mohawks sovereign rights with regards to hosting gaming servers on the reserve."
Although the Court's decision makes for far less exciting and thrill-packed discussion than speculations of "fear and conflict", it is ultimately the reality of it all.
I've been known to enjoy a good Spy vs Spy type thriller myself, but I aknowledge that the reality of politics and law is far less exciting in the end.
It is a matter of jurisdictional authority and the ability of the Mohawks of Kahnawake to exercise our inherent rights as outlined and aknowledged within the Canadian Constitution, coupled with the historically recognized systems of governance and economic development within the Mohawk Nation.
Granted, it is a complex issue that requires a significant amount of reading and dialogue to fully understand, but if anybody has the time and patience to do so, I encourage them to explore it fully and to feel free to PM me any questions they might have, and I will do my best to assist.
Yes, the headlines about the scarey Mohawk Boogeymen of the Eastern Woodlands make for a more attractive headline in an increasingly less literate society, I cannot deny that much. However, the conflict being generated in the media, is being generated BY the media, in whose interest it is to sell more copy.
It is cyclic (sp?) in nature, as at least twice a year (typically in late summer and again during mid-winter), during typical "slow" news periods, the editorial staff of the region open up the file cabinet and dust off the boogeyman and old stock photos of the conflict which took place 17 years ago to excite the imagination of the pedestrian reader.
It is something of an "Amber Alert" in our part of the world, which only serves to elevate tension among people who otherwise live peacefully within close proximity of each other.
Old fears, it would appear, die awful hard.
Chuck Barnett  |