Occupation Force Challenged

FTLComm - Tisdale - March 16, 2001

This is not the first time this topic has come up, from the time of Rupert's Land there was a realisation that British North America need not be all one entity. The convention of Saskatchewan's Rural Municipalities voted overwhelmingly Thursday for a resolution to end the use of RCMP for Saskatchewan police work. Some delegates cited the federal gun legislation, others pointed to the extremely high cost of the federal police and the increases they are asking municipal government to continue with their services. Up until now, talk of independence and Western alienation, has been just talk. This is different. It is really important to understand the symbolic and underlying significance of the decision by SARM and it can not be dismissed lightly. Few delegates voted against the resolution, delegates come from every part of the province. With Saskatchewan's rural population aging it is fair to say that those people who voted are middle aged responsible individuals elected to represent the day to day business of local government throughout the province. That old face on the new Canadian ten dollar bill is almost entirely responsible for producing the political and economic entity we know of as Canada. Sir John A. MacDonald is a hero in Ontario and a few other parts of the country, but in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta, he is remembered for his hostility and mean streak that resulted in an armed rebellion out here that he put down with military force and is considered by most historians for making certain that the leader of that rebellion be executed. The Great Central Plains of North America was an endless, easy to navigate place, and American traders and adventurers looked at the plain and saw it as inevitable that the manifest destiny of the republic, simply absorb that land. Realising this, a military force was sent West to occupy the plains after the massacre in the Cypress Hills. That army of occupation was given the name of the NorthWest Mounted Police. They were and are a military police force constituted to serve the federal government then and under the name they were later given, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police still are. The RCMP has served not only as the police force but participated in the Russian Revolution on behalf of the White Russian Tsarist forces, World War I, World War II, Korea, peace keeping in Bosnia and are recognised world wide as a symbol of what is Canada, even though they are marketed in the commercial world by Walt Disney corporation. The fact that municipal governments in the three Prairie provinces have all decided to end their association with this force of occupation is extremely important especially because of the timing. Since the early nineties the Federal government became aware that though the Mulroney Tories gave substantial support to the West, the Western people did not pay them off with votes and political support. The federal government decided to concentrate all of its financial support and services in those parts of Canada who did vote for them.. Since then, money has flowed from the whole country into Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes almost exclusively ignoring the rest of the territory. Services like weather reporting, aviation, support for railroads, highways and western agriculture have been nonexistent, while at the same time taxes have been collected until the government has a surplus and additional costs have been levied for those services the government still continues to provide. The post office, all forms of transportation and the RCMP have raised their price consistently while providing less and less service. It is no wonder that municipal government has said "enough already." Monday night (March 19) in Nipawin there is a meeting at 7:30 in the Legion Hall to talk of Western Independence.