Under the Mountie’s Hat
IT’S A SIGHT THAT IS SHOCKING IN ITS FEROCITY and violence. Federal Canadian ships are seen deliberately ramming into small boats driven by Mi’kmaq fishers. The ships, operating as part of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), slam the hapless vessels, pitching all the Mi’kmaq men onboard into the water. One of the fishers struggles to reach the surface and needs help but the DFO officers do nothing; a Mi’kmaq dives further into the Miramichi River and saves him. Onshore, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) do nothing to stop the terrifying event they’re seeing.
Viewing it today, the footage is as disturbing as it was nearly 20 years ago, when it was first screened in Canadian and international festivals. The film in which it appears bears a title that resonates with any group that has dared to defy the Canadian establishment by its very presence: Is the Crown at War with Us? (Alanis Obomsawin, 2002). With the RCMP arresting Wet’suwet’en land defenders to force through a pipeline in February, Black Lives Matter protests taking place across the country over the summer, and a new wave of white violence against Mi’kmaq fishers this fall, many have been prompted to join in asking this question.
The Mountie State
Canada is, of course, a classic settler country, which inherited the attitudes of the imperial power, the British Empire, that allowed it to become a confederation. This has meant that, while proclaiming an egalitarian mandate, Canada, from John A. Macdonald on, set out to marginalize Quebec, suppress the French presence out west, push Indigenous people into reserves, pursue racist immigration policies, and
