Canadian Troops Move In After 2 Mohawks Are Hurt

Troops backed by armored vehicles and helicopters on Saturday swept into a Mohawk community at the hub of a 53-day protest.

Gen. Armand Roy, commander of the Canadian Forces 5th Brigade, said he decided to send in his troops after two Mohawk men were wounded in the factional fighting behind Indian barricades set up in a land dispute with government officials.

“I decided to move my troops so as to guarantee the security of civilians and my soldiers,” Roy said.

Quebec provincial police identified the wounded Mohawks as Chief Francis Jacob and his son, Corey. The two were beaten with baseball bats by members of the Warrior’s Society early Saturday, police said. Francis Jacob, who had two black eyes, was later released from hospital. His son’s condition was not released.

Police also said the Mohawk settlement’s ambulance was damaged after it was fired upon.

The cause of the fighting was unclear. But the militant Warrior’s Society has been vying with elected native officials for authority within the Mohawk community.

The military action came after efforts to reach a negotiated settlement in the 53-day dispute failed. The Mohawks have been trying to block a golf course extension on land they claim is theirs, but they also have raised other grievances.

One shot was fired into the air by a Mohawk after the troops moved in, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported, but there were no reports of casualties.

About seven armored personnel carriers were halted by a Mohawk warrior who parked his golf cart in front of a barricade. As the military vehicles stopped, a front-end loader with a dozen Mohawks in its bucket arrived and the Indians fanned out into the nearby forest.

The troops moved into an area where the army had estimated that at least 50 armed members of the Warrior’s Society took up positions in a pine forest and behind barricades across a highway.

On Friday, Mohawks from the Kanewake reserve south of Montreal allowed troops to remove the main barricades they had set up on routes leading to the Mercier bridge. Quebec Transport Department officials said it would take several days before the bridge can be reopened to traffic.