Pubdate: Sat, 8 Sep 2001
Source: Duncan News Leader (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Duncan News Leader
Contact:  http://www.duncannewsleader.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1314
Author: Paul Finch

GUEST COMMENT: LOCKER SNIFFING DOG NO SURPRISE

Your Aug. 22 opinions section carried an piece by one G.D. Chaster in 
regards to saving the Mound. In it, he claims "the Natives" don't care, and 
appeals to the local Liberal MLA to help save the mound. I find it humorous 
that the collective opinion of an entire ethnic and cultural group is so 
thoroughly summed up in the words "don't care". It is obvious that the 
Cowichan Tribes is organized into a class society, just as our society is 
from municipal to federal. To blame the actions or lack of interest 
inherent among a particular minority ruling class in the Tribes government 
for apathy on the part of the entire ethnic group is ridiculous.

Further, you carried a piece regarding the use of police dogs in schools, a 
plan that will surely go ahead whether or not the community supports it. 
The RCMP will go to many lengths to criminalize youth, and would prefer to 
do so rather than attacking the real heart of the problem: the criminal 
organizations that are responsible for the distribution of hardcore drugs 
to street-level dealers. If the RCMP cared at all about the problems posed 
by the proliferation of hardcore drugs, they would confront the problem in 
"ahem" Nanaimo and in Victoria on a larger scale. Busting street dealers, 
among whom any number can be recruited from those desperate to get out of 
poverty, merely criminalizes the poor and ignores the source of the 
problem. More important, however, is the continued RCMP crackdown on public 
dissent. I found it interesting how the letter to the editor regarding 
police dogs in schools mentioned A. Einstein as a figure who opposed state 
interference. Actually, he was a figure who opposed the state - and for it 
was classified in the U.S. by the FBI as a "dangerous anarchist".

In fact, right here in B.C. an anarcho-syndicalist union which still exists 
today, the IWW, was bloodily supressed by the police in the early part of 
the 20th century. (The IWW helped organized large sections of the forest 
industry and several books have been written about its involvement in BC 
labour history.)

The police will always attack those doing the most social good, at the 
behest of the state, in support of the real criminals - those profiting 
from the misery of the majority.

It therefore comes as no surprise the RCMP will criminalize youth in their 
farcical attempt to stop the drug trade. They brutally supressed protests 
in Quebec City and even went as far as kidnapping organizers. What's to 
stop them having their fun here out west?

Paul Finch is a North Cowichan resident.
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