‘Leonard Peltier Is NOT A Political Prisoner’

The push is on for Obama to pardon Leonard Peltier before the U.S. President’s term ends. With that in mind, we offer this backgrounder: 

“Before there was ‘Idle No More’, before the Supreme Court and the overturning of land title, before Caledonia, Ipperwash and Oka, and even before ‘Section 35’, the early 1970s provided the first modern ‘hero’ of the aboriginal rights movement. Leonard Peltier obtained celebrity status worldwide as representative of the injustice and suffering of North American Indians.

There was only one problem with this picture: Leonard Peltier was in reality a thug enforcer for the ‘American Indian Movement’ (A.I.M.) — and a murderer, to boot. Grab a coffee and settle in for the made-for-tv saga: The fabricating of an Indian ‘legend’… 

‘The Lachine Massacre’

The Canadian people, and most certainly Canadian children, are almost continually subjected to Aboriginal Industry propaganda, a pillar of which is the historical narrative whereby murderous, thieving Europeans impose ‘genocide’ and violence on the innocent, saintly and otherwise virtuous aboriginal inhabitants. While not wishing to belabour the point, we still feel compelled to occasionally present some historical balance: 

“In the evening of August 4, 1689, the night of the Lachine massacre, a violent rainstorm hovered above the Saint Lawrence and the Island of Montréal. Lightning flashed repeatedly across the sky and deafening thunder resounded above the seventy-seven houses of the community of Lachine.

“As the Canadiens slept in their isolated farms, fifteen hundred Iroquois stepped ashore, undetected by the sentries who had sought shelter against the fierce storm. Hidden by the night, warriors fanned out in small bands and readied themselves to attack isolated farmhouses.

“They lurked on the edges of the woods, away from the dogs who might have given warning. These men dressed only in loincloths, their faces painted in grotesque shapes meant to frighten their victims, waited for the light of dawn to pillage the community. 

‘Finally, The Truth…’

“Across Canada, in nearly one-third of all homicide cases in 2014, the accused person was of aboriginal descent, although indigenous people only make up five per cent of the Canadian population, the report shows. The likelihood aboriginal people will be accused of homicide is 10 times greater than for the non-aboriginal population.”“For the first time, police-reported data includes whether victims and people accused of homicide were aboriginal.  

“Of the 431 people accused of homicide in Canada, 32% were aboriginal — 10 times higher than the rate for non-aboriginals. 

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/151125/dq151125a-eng.htm