As RCMP drop charges on Wet’suwet’en, OPP advance colonial agenda by charging over 20 Mohawks for standing up against genocide

Kanenhariyo was arrested and “tricked” by Napanee OPP who imposed “no protest” conditions; 9-10 more arrests of Mohawk Warriors are anticipated in coming days; the first court date for all the Warriors is in Napanee on August 11, 2020.

TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY – On Thursday July 9th, the OPP arrested Kanenhariyo, a vocal supporter of the Wet’suwet’en and the main Mohawk liaison with the police during the Tyendinaga rail shutdown in February of 2020. Kanenhariyo, like 20 other Mohawk Warriors who have already been charged, is facing three charges: “Mischief 430(3) CCC,”  “Disobey Court Order 127 CCC,” and “Enter Land Where Line Work Situation 26.1” under the Railway Safety Act. 

OPP Detective Karin Richer, who arrested Kanenhariyo, informed him that the OPP was looking to charge another “9 or 10” people that they hadn’t yet reached because of Covid-19. All of those charged are to attend court together at the Ontario Superior Court at 41 Dundas St. West, in Napanee, at 9:30am.

The OPP has imposed conditions on all of those arrested not to communicate with each other and “Not to participate in protests or demonstrations of any kind.” According to Detective Richer, “The condition not to participate in protest or demonstrations is there to prevent what happened throughout the month of February from happening again.” Detective Richer added that the OPP was trying to prevent any actions that would “cause discord” or “that cause mischief in the community.”

According to Kanenhariyo, he was “tricked” by the OPP. His lawyers had negotiated with the OPP and he agreed to come to court, but it wasn’t until he was inside the police station that Detective Richer insisted on applying a “no protest” condition. Had he not agreed to the conditions, which are evidence of more lies on behalf of the corrupt colonial government, Kanenhariyo could have found himself jailed until August 11th or later. 

Regarding the non-association conditions, Kanenhariyo said “in a small community to put 30 people on conditions that they can’t communicate with each other is either a racist oversight on the part of the OPP, or a purposeful attempt to cause all those people to be potentially in a breach situation. Us communicating is not interfering with an investigation because the evidence has been collected, and the event is not continuing on as there’s nobody there at the tracks.”

All charges against the Wet’suwet’en people who were arrested by the RCMP during their raid in February 2020 have since been dropped. As a result of Mohawks in Tyendinaga and Indigenous people and allies standing up for the Wet’suwet’en across Turtle Island, the Federal government and the BC government met and negotiated with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en.