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Who victimized dogs? Owner claims dogs sacrificed to politics By Brian Back POSTED: FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Repatration was necessary for treaty settlement and
self-government. It was a long sought-after tribal dream. As an online commenter to the story wrote, “WOW! that
sounds like the Wild Wild West....right out of the movies....” The story left many members of the TFN upset at the
portrayal of their community. As Chief Roxane Ayotte and dog control officer Jamie
Saville both told me, the dogs had nothing to do with the November vote
but had been an issue since summer. At a July 17 community meeting, complaints to Chief
and Council hit a peak over wayward dogs without innoculations.
Behind the ire was a concern over the health and safety of
residents and their dogs. People wanted strict bylaw enforcement. Chief
and Council heard and acted. Bylaw number one, the one and only bylaw the band has
ever had, relied on the honour system. (Ironically, the creation of the
bylaw in the early 1970s marked the birth of self-government at the TFN
when tribal members stood up, for the first time, against its uneven
enforcement and demanded a say.) The part-time dog officer, who worked full-time at
the day care, only donned his dog catcher's hat when there was a complaint. Becker, known locally as Woody, admitted to me that
his dogs had gotten loose before and killed dogs. “That’s what dogs do.” The Nugget story did not mention that Council bent
over backwards to avoid destroying the dogs. Neither Ayotte nor Saville
returned the Nugget’s calls, leaving Becker’s statements unchallenged. The chief sent a letter on July 30 to the community
giving 30 days notice of a veterinarian's inoculation visit to the island on August 30. Failure to get shots, it noted, would result in
dog destruction. The TFN annually organized a clinic for the
convenience and cost-savings to residents, but this time it was moved a
month earlier. Becker did not bring his dogs. After the vet’s visit, a second letter was sent to
those in noncompliance inviting them to talk to Council on September 8.
Becker did not show. There was a community meeting on October 2, a chance
for him to object publicly to the notice of enforcement or try to amend
the bylaw. The Nugget gave the impression Becker’s concerns had been on
the agenda, but Becker had not made any request, the chief said. Becker
did not show. On October 3, a second vaccination clinic was
organized by Council for the few delinquents. Becker did not show. On October 5, Chief and Council sent Becker a second
30-day notice with a new warning to destroy the dogs for noncompliance. On
October 31, he responded by letter, thanking Council for the notice and
informing it that the bylaw had nothing to do with him. Most of the letter
dealt with his political issues, including his claim that community
leaders were foreigners from the United States. Becker had a long history as the nation’s
anarchist-in-chief and relished the role. He was one of the leaders of the
three-family revolt in 1993 that contributed to the tumultuous defeat of
the treaty settlement and the fall from power of long-time chief Gary
Potts. Becker has claimed, since the early 1990s, that most
of the TFN members were Ojibways who came from elsewhere. Elsewhere has
changed over the years: Green Lake, Manitoulin Island, Sudbury, Timmins,
United States. The history of the Teme-Augama Anishnabai was well
documented in court between 1982 and 1991,
but none of this Ojibway immigration came out then, nor has it been openly
documented since. He promised, and has for nearly two decades, that it
will come out eventually. As a descendant of the Whitebear family he called
himself Algonquin. The Whitebears, he said, owned virtually all of
nDakimenan, the traditional territory, before the Ojibways squatted. His
familial trace back to the Whitebears did not follow a paternal or
maternal line, but crossed to his father’s mother. He called the McKenzies, one of the largest families
in the community, an Ojibway family. Yet by doing that he stepped around
the fact that his mother was a McKenzie. Of course, he denied membership in the TFN
because it was an Ojibway organization. Yet he remained active in its
politics, voted in elections, and benefited from community programs. To him the TFN and its members were the real
colonialists. An enemy morphed from the Crown into friends and family. On November 16, after the second notice expired, the
dog control officer acted. The Nugget story pointed to the “destruction of his
lead sled dog and a cherished breeding female.” “If you care about your dogs so much,” Saville said,
“why can’t you have them inoculated? Who’s paying the price here?" |
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