Bravo, Gordon McGregor

He's sending quite a powerful message, is Gordon McGregor, head of the Quebec First Nations Chiefs of Police Association. "Drugs are not acceptable in our communities, clear and simple. It comes down to us. If we don't stop this, who will?" Exactly so.

Pursuing the courage of his convictions, this man and others like him, are playing a needed but personally dangerous role in attempting to cleanse their societies of aberrant and anti-social elements. Three Mohawk reserves near Montreal were raided by more than 300 officers, in 15 disparate raids, this week.

Netting them twenty-nine arrests and the dismantling of a drug pipeline operating in Ontario and the United States. What they unveiled was barrels of marijuana worth an estimated $1-million, along with cash totalling $2-million. That's big business, highly illicit and explosive in its coverage.

The raid also uncovered four machine guns, three grenade launchers and other weapons. Obviously, those engaged in these activities also meant business. For the time being, at any event, their multi-million-dollar business is in abeyance in the reserves of Kahnawake, Kanesatake and Akwesasne.

Spoils of illicit trade aplenty: luxury vehicles such as high-end SUVs and sport cars. Nice, but nowhere near as worrisome as the AK-47 and M-16 machine guns. An expression of thuggish authority, as the drugs were smuggled in the summer by boat and trucks, turning over to skidoos in the winter.

Dwayne Zacharie, chief of the Peace Keepers in Kahnawake claimed to some degree of nervousness. "We still have to live with the fallout from this. I want to make sure the community is safe for my family and everyone else's family." Resentment from family members of those arrested will make for some unease among community members.

Those arrested face charges of gangsterism, drug exportation, illegal weapons possession, drug possession, drug trafficking, conspiracy to traffic drugs, conspiracy to export drugs and drug manufacturing. That's a whole whack of serious offences.

The thing of it is, the law of the land is meant to protect everyone, to ensure that no one is immune from prosecution for illegal and community-harmful activities.