Canadian Global Guerillas
I read John Robb’s new book, Brave New War, over the weekend. In it, he details how his Global Guerrillas can use systems disruption to take down large opponents. Most of his examples are from Iraq and other far away places.
Today, I was reading a story showing how the phenomena could soon be applied here in Canada.
An Internet how-to video on sabotaging railway lines in support of Native land claims has drawn the attention of the RCMP and triggered investigations by the country's two main rail companies.
. . .
The video opens by referring to "more than 800" unresolved land claims, recent rail blockades by members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation and the Six Nations reclamation of a 40-hectare residential development in Caledonia.
"The Mohawks have shown the vulnerability of a major trade corridor for people and material. While few other communities could hold off a frontal assault by the OPP, there are other ways to close the rail lines," says the text heavy video as an eerie piano soundtrack plays in the background. "When justice fails, stop the rails."
. . .
Joe Bracken, president of the Canadian Heartland Training Railway in Alberta, said if the tactic is employed on a large scale, it could cause serious damage to the nation's rail industry.
"They go through hundreds of Native territories," he said.
And it appears as though the Canadian Government and military are showing their usual sensitivity to the subject.
Unbowed by federal government threats to cut funding, First Nations across the country continue to make plans for a one-day shut down of the railway system that could spread into weeks.
Relations with the federal government have soured since Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget ignored demands to make First Nations poverty a priority.
Things weren't helped this weekend after it surfaced that the Canadian military labelled the Mohawk Warrior Society and radical native groups as "insurgents" in a draft anti-guerrilla field manual obtained by Sun Media and another news organization.
Welcome to the future.
