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Grand River Mohawks in Superior Court By Jen Mt. Pleasant TORONTO - Tensions were high last week as members of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River (MNGR), formerly known as the Mohawk Work- ers, were at the Superior Court of Justice in Toron- to · asserting their sover- eignty to not ~nly the fed- eral court but the federal government as well. The defendant in this matter was lawyer Mi- chael McCulloch who was representing the Depart- ment of Justice. He urged the court to strike down the motion of the repre- sentative of MNGR, law- yer, Gregory-John Bloom. The Plaintiff, Mr. Bloom, on behalf of the MNGR, referenced the British North America Act of 1867 which was later re-named the Con- stitution Act in 1982 in his argument. He stated, "Without consultation and contrary to placing a foreign constitution on a domestic constitution that was here long before white contact the Great Binding Law, or Kaiane- re'k6:wa ... " The main ar- gument of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River is that Canadian law does not apply to the Mohawk Nation because sover- eignty was never surren- dered. The idea, when settlers firsf arrived and treaties were being made, was that Onkwehon:we people would never give up their sovereignty as a people and would agree to live in peace and har- mony with settler colo- nies so long as one nation does not try and domi- nate and assert authority over the other. This was the underlying principle of the Two Row Wampum or Guswhenta which was enacted with the Europe- ans in 1613. Yet, in 1867 Canada went ahead and asserted and assumed authority over Onkwehon:we peo- ple by creating the British North America Act. Sec- tion 17 of the Act states, "There shall be One Par- liament of Canada, con- sisting of the Queen, an Upper House styled the Senate, and the House of Commons." This Act therefore, goes direct- ly against the Two Row Wampum not to mention the fact that Onkwe- hon:we people never sur- rendered their autonomy and never walked away from the Great Law. This alone, was the main ar- gument in the Superior Court of Justice last week. But like many times before, representatives of Canada shrugged off these claims and made repeated references di- rected at the MNGR law- yer that this claim was 'frivolous and vexatious,' stating that it is a 'waste of this courts time to pro- ceed with this action.' Therefore, Canada con- tinues to lack · acknowl- edgement of the Two Row Wampum, of the Great Law of Peace and of the Mohawk Nation 'and such others' as listed in the Haldimand Proclamation. For, in so acknowl- edging the Two Row Wampum, the Great Law of Peace and the Haldi- mand Proclamation, they (Canada) must then ac- knowledge the trillions of dollars held up in the In- dian Trust Fund that the Onkwehon:we have been fighting the courts to get for many years now. They would have to acknowl- edge as well, the racist government policies in forms such as the Indian Act. They would also have to acknowledge the phys- ical and cultural genocide associated with the res- idential school system that their political an- cestors forced upon Onk- wehon:we nationwide to 'take the Indian out of the child.' So it was no sur- prise that the Defendant, the federal government (aka Canada), shrugged Mr. Bloom's claims off as 'frivolous and vexatious,' and refused to take any responsibility whatsoev- er. Even the judge seemed to get agitated the more Bloom asserted that Canada has no authority over the Mohawk Nation. "The Department of Jus- tice is inconsistent with the Two Row Wampum and the Department of Justice is not a Nation," declared Bloom, "Rely- ing on the decision of the Department of Justice is relying on an assumption .. . CONTINUED ON PAGE 4