Bound to Backfire

With the joint announcement last month by the Assembly of First Nations and the National Congress of American Indians to support each other in gaining control of indigenous lands and resources, the Canadian government must have gone into overdrive on its surveillance of First Nations leaders and activists. Already coordinated in this effort for the last five years, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada reports weekly to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service on how to divide and conquer the indigenous peoples movement.

With activists and allies mounting challenges to Canada and the United States to comply with international humanitarian law, part of the divide and conquer policy involves mobilizing public opinion behind the government–a policy that The Dominion notes is bound to backfire.