20 April 2011

Uprising in Canada a “toxic topic”

At New Year 2011, no pundits predicted the Arabian Spring that a few short weeks later began sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East. Here in Canada, meanwhile, the subject of an insurrection by First Nations militants continues to receive official silence, dubbed by one Ottawa insider as “the toxic topic” of the nation’s capital.

Al Jazeera, more plugged in to what is going on, interviewed Douglas Bland last June 26 about “Canada’s brewing insurgency.” Bland, a retired Canadian Forces lieutenant-colonel and widely consulted international expert on insurgency, had just written Uprising, a work of speculative fiction about a near Canadian future, dealing with the fall-out when aboriginal Canadians strike at the country’s energy resources. The Al Jazeera story noted how in recent years “Canada’s indigenous communities have shown the will and the potential to grind the country’s economic lifelines to a halt through strategically placed blockades on the major highways and rail lines that run through native reserves.”

Though nobody in government will talk openly about the possibility, behind the scenes officials responsible for Canada’s security and the country’s energy resources are anxiously aware of just how vulnerable installations are to an orchestrated uprising. Contingency plans are in place, but never see the light of day, another part of the problem.

Bland wrote Uprising as a political novel, rather than a work of non-fiction, hoping to reach a wider audience. “If people do not like how this future scenario turns out,” he says, “they may choose to do something about it now.”

For those who think it far-fetched for a very small number of disciplined, well-armed insurgents, propelled by long-simmering anger and inspired by a charismatic leader, to bring Canada to its knees, Blue Butterfly Books is running “A Newsmakers’ Guide to Uprising” which tracks news from across Canada.