Effective, Quiet Threats

Canada's federal government is decidedly put out. Roughly a billion dollars' worth. So they've decided it's past time to put a stop to the illegal manufacture and tax-free sale of contraband tobacco. Talk about touchy venues. Anywhere else policing agencies could move in with authority and complete confidence.

On Aboriginal Reserves? Well, that's another story. We're talking about border reserves that love to boast with huge signage that they're sovereign; state or provincial authorities not welcome.

Thirteen factories operate on the Akwesasne-St.Regis Mohawk reserve, and they're busy. They employ a lot of people, gainfully. Churning out millions of contraband cigarettes - on the U.S. side of the border. Which are then loaded into vans by organized criminal gangs and wheeled over to the Canadian side.

All those signs inviting vehicles just passing through to stop and take advantage of cheap, really cheap cartons of cigarettes bedazzle smokers. Smoke shacks proudly peddling 200 cigarettes in clear plastic bags for about $6. Legal cartons of the same product go for $75 to $90 in legal locations. Killing yourself slowly and enjoyably doesn't come cheap.

And smoking addicts aren't too likely to be too impressed with Stockwell Day's appeal to please drive right on through, no stopping, no purchasing, be good law-abiding Canadians. And although only one of the 13 factories has been licensed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the U.S., Michael Chertoff of Homeland Security fame isn't too concerned.

Mind, it's a bit different, Mr. Chertoff's incessant complaints about British Columbia's world-class marijuana grow operations, leaking their golden product into the U.S. But the illicit cigarette operations in the U.S. employs people there, and the U.S. Treasury isn't being cheated of the billions that Canada sees evaporating into nicotine-laden smoke.

And for Canada, this RCMP crack-down to dismantle manufacturers, disrupt supply lines and seize contraband may be high stakes, but not for the U.S.

The RCMP isn't exactly welcomed with open arms at the Akwesasne, Kahnawake and Tyendinaga reserves. Grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, Mike Delisle, warns darkly of the "huge mistake" represented by RCMP plans to increase raids.

The Mohawks of Kahnawake don't feel the manufacture and sale of tobacco products on their land to be illegal. Federal police are definitely not welcome to step on their tulips. Chief Delisle casually mentions the potential for confrontation.

"Our past track records show that we have a problem with invasion, regardless of whether you're talking about 400 years ago or 1990. I think they'd get a negative reaction from the community in general if they took that approach." Time that politicians and federal government agents took their jobs seriously; this is one nation, indissoluble under the Canadian Constitution.

The RCMP is well aware that 90% of the contraband is manufactured on the U.S. side. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day is well aware that he will have to strenuously object to his U.S. counterpart. His opening gambit might be to remind Mr. Chertoff that cigarette and drug smuggling are related, that criminal organizations prize the proceeds from illicit tobacco sales to fund purchases of marijuana in Canada, to smuggle that through to the U.S.

That should help.