Military must learn more about Aboriginals: organizer

HALIFAX — An organizer of the Aboriginal ceremony in Halifax disrupted by off-duty members of the Armed Forces on Canada Day says she is glad the military has apologized but she also wants a public acknowledgment that much of the East Coast is unceded Mi’kmaq territory.

“More than an apology, I need that education out there,” Rebecca Moore, a member of Nova Scotia’s Pictou Landing First Nation, said Wednesday.

“That needs to be well known. That needs to be broadcast loud and clear by the Canadian Armed Forces. They need to make sure that their employees are well aware of that to avoid future conflicts like this.”

Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defence staff, said late Tuesday that the Forces’ members involved will be removed from training and duties while the military conducts an investigation.

He added that the members’ future with the Forces “is certainly in doubt.”

On Saturday, five young Forces members dressed in black polo shirts, carrying the old Red Ensign flag, and singing “God Save the Queen” approached the ceremony, where a crowd had gathered to mourn the loss of life associated with European colonization. The ceremony was being held at the foot of a statue of British military man Edward Cornwallis, a former governor of Nova Scotia and the founder of Halifax in 1749.

A tense but non-violent confrontation lasted for about 10 minutes, as the men took issue with assertions from organizers that they were interrupting a sacred rite on Mi’kmaq territory.

The men said they were members of the Proud Boys, a self-declared group of “Western Chauvinists” who say they are tired of apologizing “for creating the modern world.”