From No One Is Illegal-Montreal Radio (February 2007) Part of CKUT’s Open Conspiracy for Social Change – 90.3FM in Montreal.
This interview is with Katienies, who was recently described as “lawless” by an official of the Canadian Border Services Agency. She is a member of the Akwesasne Community, part of the Mohawk Nation, and is currently wanted on an arrest warrant, from the Superior Court of Justice in Cornwall, Ontario, for refusing to appear on customs and border violations.
Katienies refuses to recognize the authority of the Canadian courts, or any colonial courts and border officials, until they have clearly established their jurisdiction, if any, over the Mohawk peoples.
She and her family — including her daughter and two grandchildren — have been harassed by border officials, in various incidents, since 2003. To visit her daughter, Katienies needs to make a simple 2-minute drive, but that drive takes her through two provinces, one state, and two countries. As recently as November 2006, she was accused of running the border. She was ordered to court this past January 18, 2007, but didn’t appear. Instead, she earlier served the courts with her own Motion to Dismiss, demanding that the courts and border officials address the jurisdiction question; ie. does Canada, or the US, have any juridiction whatsoever over the Mohawk people.
In this exclusive interview, Katienies discusses her current challenge to border officials, her refusal to recognize the colonial courts, her reflections on the re-establishment of the Confederacy House at Six Nations, attempts to introduce biometric “smart cards” into Mohawk communities, as well as her jurisidictional challenge to the Canadian authorities, and the precedents she cites within the Mohawk Great Law and the Two-Row Wampum.
Katienies was interviewed this past weekend, from an undisclosed location somewhere on Turtle Island. Download