My first reaction to these kinds of stories is anger at the natives who sell these cigarettes illegally and who in turn make threats when threatened with enforcement of laws that they should be adhering to. But really can you blame them? This has been going on for 25 years according to the article and although there has been some attempts at enforcing the law for the most part the natives are ignored.
The only way to stop this is to go after the people who buy these cigarettes in the first place. I used to smoke and I know just how hard it is too quit so have some empathy with smokers who drive for hours to buy smokes but the root of this problem lies with the smokers who continue to buy the cigarettes that the natives sell.
Rather than start a war with the natives start a war with smokers. Stop cars leaving reserves search them and if they are not natives confiscate there illegal smokes and fine the for having contraband. Sit back and watch how fast the smokes shops on reserves close up shop with no customers.

Of course searching cars coming out of reserves might be against the constitution but that’s already been thrown out with Bill 203 anyway so who cares?

As an added bonus if native tobacco sellers try to take their trade off the reserve well that would be a great time to arrest them as well.

Problem Solved!

James Edgar,.. that is called diversion of the law. It's called two tier justice when policing selectively only enforces the consequences of a law on one race while allowing another race of people the right to break the law. It is also called discrimination which is clearly prohibited in our Canadian charter of rights and freedoms.

The rule of law does not seem to be at play in some parts of Ontario any more. Democracy has flown out the window in parts of Ontario already and your own neighbourhood may be next.

As far as if these native tobacco sellers try to take their trade off the reserve, well guess again, they've been doing that already for the past couple of years at 4 locations within the Ontario municipality of Haldimand County and still the law enforcers selectively choose to do nothing.

That would be equivilent to enforcing gun laws and drug laws on blacks and lot applying the same laws to whites.

I've lived in Brantford all my life. Played Lacross and bought my sticks from the indians.I'm a mason and have sat in lodge with some of the finest people I've ever know. Most if not all of these Gentalmen are gone now and the people that have taken there place are a disgrace to their memory. I'm not saying that there not real problems,quite the opposite. The government needs to get off their ass and sort this out.The 110 million dollar law suite filed by the city of Brantford against the Indians to stop the unlawful protestes and get development going is not a fix. This should never have gone this far.The British made the mess and should be made to clean it up. When we became a country in 1867 Did we assume assets and liabilities.