January 11, 2011
By Jeff Parkinson
Starting 2011 on a happy note, the illegal “broken promises” shack on highway 6 south of Caledonia was smashed to the ground today in a combined effort by the Six Nations Band Council, the Six Nations Police, and the OPP.
For those who may have missed it, here is some very satisfying, wholesome, heart warming, fun for the whole family footage from CHCH news that I have taken the liberty of slowing down so that those of us who don’t support selling bags of insect eggs & human feces riddled contraband tobacco that was probably scraped off the floor of a factory in China to children, may watch it repeatedly.
There is for the moment no audio in this clip because Youtube didn’t like my choice of Tiny Tim singing Tip toe through the tulips as a soundtrack.
To watch it directly on Youtube, Click Here
While that’s certainly a joyful way to start the New Year, there are many shacks remaining and the Police have now proven that they can handle the owners with ease. There was no fight, no backlash, no arrests, and there are no more excuses.
The only thing missing is the political will to enforce the law, and while McGuinty plays hide and seek in preparation for a Provincial election that he’s almost certain to lose, Six Nations government got behind the closure of this shack.
Who would ever have thought it would be Six Nations having smoke shacks demolished while Ontario refuses to budge from it’s rotten to the core hands off policy?
Here for those who missed it is the full CHCH news report at 6pm on January 10 2011.
And finally, I’d like to share the one positive memory of “broken promises” that I have. It was October of 2007 and I had the pleasure of watching as an OPP officer attempted to speak to an employee who jumped in his $50,000 truck and ran for his life.
JeffParkinson.ca 
it does not matter what anyone does to try and take away an addictive substance…the addicts will find a way to get it. Native people have been robbed of so much, selling cigarettes has helped their economy. If the “government” has such a problem with it then they would reduce the cost of local cigarettes. Obviously, this incident was more of a publicity stunt and does nothing but encourage smokers to purchace contraband tobacco.
As a smoker I agree we’ll find a way to get cigarettes. I for example will go to the local store and purchase a package of legal cigarettes on which taxes have been paid because I do not live on a Native reserve and am not entitled to tax expemption.
This is not about the people on Six Nations who own, run, or work in the many smoke shops on Six Nations selling cigarettes. It’s about the very few who decided to set up set up shacks off of the reserve to sell contraband cigarettes to people who are not entitled to purchase them. There are hundreds of cigarette related businesses on the reserve that nobody is complaining about, and approximately 5 on non Native land on Highway 6 designed to antagonize the residents of Caledonia, and the police who have been ordered not to touch them.