COMMUNIQUE
NATIVE WARRIOR SOCIETY
Native Warriors claim responsibility for taking Olympic flag
March 7, 2007
Coast Salish Territory [Vancouver, Canada]
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 6, 2007, we removed the Olympic
flag from its flag-pole at Vancouver City Hall. We pried open the access
panel on the pole with a crowbar and, using a bolt-cutter, cut the metal
cable/halyard inside, causing the flag to fall to the ground.
We claim this action in honor of Harriet Nahanee, our elder-warrior, who
was given a death sentence by the BC courts for her courageous stand in
defending Mother Earth.
We stand in solidarity with all those fighting against the destruction
caused by the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!
Native Warrior Society
Masked trio claims to have flag
Vancouver Sun, March 9, 2007
By Darah Hansen
Three masked men, all members of a group calling itself the Native Warrior
Society, have claimed responsibility for stealing the City of Vancouver's
Olympic flag. The flag disappeared early Tuesday morning from outside city
hall.
On Thursday afternoon, Vancouver police received a photo and letter signed
by the Native Warrior Society. The letter states the flag was stolen to
honour Harriet Nahanee, a Squamish Nation elder who died Feb. 24 of
previously undiagnosed lung cancer after serving nine days in a provincial
jail for breaching an injunction that prohibited protesters from interfering
with a Sea to Sky Highway route through Eagleridge Bluffs in West Vancouver.
The letter details how thieves used a crowbar to pry open the access panel
on the flagpole and bolt cutters to slice through the metal cable used to
hoist the flag. The attached photo shows three masked men standing, fists
raised, in front of what appears to be the stolen flag.
"We stand in solidarity with all those fighting the destruction caused by
the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. No Olympics on stolen native land!"
Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said police are working to determine
whether the flag in the photo is real or a digitally altered image. Fanning
said police are aware of the Native Warrior Society, but he could provide no
information Thursday evening as to its members or what they represent.
Meanwhile, Rene Fasel, who chairs the IOC Vancouver coordination
commission, dismissed any IOC concern over the theft of the flag, saying
people have a right to protest.
"Canada is a free country. You cannot expect 100 per cent of people
supporting the Olympics,"h e said. "For sure, stealing a flag is not legal,
and we are sad and disappointed that it happened. It is a lack of respect."
Tewanee Joseph, executive director and CEO of the Four Host First Nations,
a group working with Vancouver 2010 organizers on behalf of the Lil'wat,
Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, first nations, noted "There are many
views and there are many challenges."

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