The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

|The South Marysburgh Mirror 7 CLASS ACTION “T hope this doesn’t continue” said a friend to Valerie the oth- er day. “I have to take the train to Montreal and the First Na- tions’ People in Tyendinaga have blocked the Via Rail line.” Fortunately, the blockade was lifted and our friend was able to take the journey. I’m not about to launch into a criticism of the tactics used in this case or those carried out by other protestors from time to time. Rather let’s look at the basic reason behind the protest and see if we can sympathize or, better still, profit from the lessons presented by these tactics. We have a land claim. Lands previously considered the prop- erty of First Nations people somehow slipped out of their control into the hands of the ‘conquerors ‘of North America. This leads one to think of similar situations over the millennia of earth’s known history. I decided to first start at the begin- ning (so called) of time in accordance with biblical mytholo- gy outlined in Genesis. Were Adam and Eve founders of our human race made so by God’s hand? In which case all hu- mans are directly descended from them. Quickly I had to take anew tack. Even in the Bible (Genesis Chptr.4) Cain, driven out for the murder of his brother, went to the land of Nod and married so the “creation” of humans took place elsewhere as well. That notwithstanding, what about wars and conquerors and the displacement of peoples by invaders? Better stuff available here on the internet and from our memories of his- tory taken from our school years. There is historical evidence of wars of the world dating from 13,000 B.C. along Egypt’s Nile River to modern days with uprisings in various areas in Africa, Russia, etc. In fact, the website had data that states the world has had only 187 years of peace in the last 3600 years! This provides ideal grounds for all of us to look about and see who has violated our ‘ownership’ of lands or other chattels. What about the Persians/Creek era when Persia (560 B.C.) tuled Greece until the successful assertion of authority by the Athenians in 479 B.C. Surely there are some ancient land rights on either side still to be resolved. France was occupied by the Romans centuries before the birth of Christ. Roman influence moulded France in its lan- guage, legal and other civic institutions, arts, and is the basis for French Law even today under the Napoleonic Code used in many countries including our own Province of Quebec. France remained longer under Roman rule than Britain or Germany and thus the impact is greater and more pervasive. Surely the French could take action against the Romans on a number of issues. Since Romans no longer exist per se then the Italians might have to be the target. My parents considered themselves Irish but were, in fact, de- scendants of Scots who were shipped to Northem Ireland by the British to run the North in a manner sympathetic to Brit- ish Rule. This is complicated by the fact that the Scots, Welsh & Irish are all Celts who were originally displaced to the comers of Britain by the Romans. We, of course, know that there is active protesting in Ireland regarding the artifi- cial division into North and South and after years and years of violence and demonstrations it looks as though some measure of peace and sanity might occur. My Father used to say that a favourite expression by the Irish is ‘who are we neutral against today”! I watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel of the rise of the Aztecs in South America and the total destruction of their cities, people and way of life by the Spanish. Those who weren’t killed in battle subsequently died from disease imported by the Spanish. Surely there are numerous grounds for dissent and lawsuits hovering around the whole of South America! What about the County? The original land grants were award- ed by the British to the Hessians, who were the majority of the troops in the British Army in the War of Independence in the U.S.A. The next large group of settlers were the U-E. loyalists who were driven from their lands or left on their own after the defeat of the British. What can be done? Apparently the various levels of govern- ment have been seized with the problem for sometime with little success at appropriate resolution. It seems to me, if we could find an expert lawyer we could. mount an enormous series of class actions. Most of us are im- pacted by this since, if you trace your family back over the centuries, somewhere one of your ancestors has been de- prived of land or rights by some invader. I’m sure a case could be made for the Celts forced to move from Scotland and Wales to Northem Ireland, let alone from Europe and surely the courts would love to deal with the U.E. Continued on page 10 OBJECTIVE OPTICAL BINOCULARS MICROSCOPES TELESCOPES Repairs to all makes lew and used sold Excellent cere to D parts & accessories all mi 355 years experience RR. 2, Milford, ON ‘hil Mathewson KOK Fax (613) 476- ey p: PI Phone (613) 476-2418