Six Nations Public library - Digital Archive

"Grand River Mohawks in Superior Court", p. 2

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• · .·. · · ·. Moh~;:k-~t~ry fr~m pai{i · · · · ··· . : ·,~ -~.;..:~~· .. · .. 4· ~ . ~-P' ... y ... _. ' ~· ~. - ""It. • , f \ •• ,.,.._..,... against the relationship of the Haudenosaunee. It is inconsistent with the Haudenosaunee and the Crown, and inconsistent with the Two Row to pull another into his ship." Bloom explained to the court that any na- tion of the Six Nations are allies to the British Crown, 'not subjects and not subject to rules and regulations of the De- partment of Justice,' and, stated that 'the Depart- ment of Justice cannot extinguish Aboriginal rights.' Bloom argued that treaties are a re- lationship between the sovereign (such as the Mohawk nati_on) and the Crown and that the onus of establishing strict proof of extinguishment of treaty lies strictly upon the Crown, some- thing that the Crown says it has documenta- tion on but continuously fails to provide. Bloom further ar- gued that the province has no jurisdiction over North American Indians and neither does the fed- eral government but that the federal government does have a fiduciary ob- ligation to North Ameri- can Indians. Bloom asked "How is it possible to place a foreign constitution [the British North America Act] on top of a domes- tic constitution that was already in place," said Bloom. The judge was quick to show his author- ity by saying, 'the reason I am up here Mr. Bloom is that I don't have to an- swer questions!' He then suggested Mr. Bloom take his argument to the International Crim- inal Court in The Hague where, 'this should be dealt with.' The point Mr. Bloom clearly made was that it was wrong for Canada to place their own constitu- tion on top of an original constitution, which was also unlawful because Onkwehon:we people have never surrendered their sovereignty. The judge oversee- ing the case has yet to make his decision and whether or not he de- cides in favour of the Mohawk Nation of Grand River does not matter. The whole point of tak- ing this matter before the federal court was to assert that the Five Na- tions and the Tuscarora have their own Consti- tution, and their own law: the Kaianere'k6:wa. Canada has continuous- ly failed to produce any documentation stating that the Five Nations and the Tuscarora surren- dered their sovereignty.

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