There
were three groups involved at the Oka crisis. These were the Mohawk
Warriors, the police forces, and the Canadian Armed Forces.
The
Mohawk Warrior Society is a paramilitary/enforcement arm of the longhouse
faction of the Mohawks. The longhouse is a traditional leadership
faction and is distinct from tribal councils, the leadership recognized by
the Canadian governments. Warrior societies exist on many reserves,
including the Kanasetake, Kahnawake, and Akwesasne reserves. Each
society consists of a disorganized collection of highly dedicated men of
varying military skills. Some are ex-military and even have Vietnam
experience while others are teenagers. Their main small arms include
civilian rifles and shotguns, and a very large amount of semi-automatic
military-type rifles from 5.56 to 12.7mm calibres. Support equipment
consisted of dynamite, boobytraps, and petrol bombs (molotov cocktails).
Canadian Armed Forces videotapes suggested that the Warriors also had
possession of illegal automatic weapons and military-type antitank weapons
such as M72 LAWs and RPG-7s. The key defensive assets of the Warriors
during the crisis were a series of dirt, log, and vehicle barricades
designed to slow or stop armour and infantry assaults.
The
police forces were involved during the early part of the crisis and were
relieved by Canadian Armed Forces personnel on August 17. The first
police force on the scene was the ”Surete du Quebec” or Quebec
Provincial Police. The SQ is primarily a rural police force
equivalent in function to American State Troopers. It regularly
contracts with small communities to provide police services for them. As
such, it is inexperienced in the sort of civil unrest as it encountered at
Oka. The SQ was supported by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a
national police force with a broader range of experience than the SQ. Both
police forces manned barricades of their own outside of the reserves and
contended with rioters in Chateauguay. The police forces' equipment
includes AR-15s, M-16s, M-870 shotguns, and HK-MP5A2 and MP5K
submachineguns, along with an assortment of sidearms and concussion and
tear-gas grenades. The automatic weapons are usually issued to
SWAT-type units, while regular police officers carry shotguns and possibly
AR-15s.
Finally,
the Canadian Armed Forces are a small but highly professional and very
well-trained military force. They were brought in at the request of
Premier Bourassa and nominally placed under his command. It should be
noted that the Canadian Armed Forces handled themselves with a great deal
of professionalism and discipline during the crisis, and this
professionalism was what kept the crisis from degenerating into a civil
war.
Assigned
were the 3300 person 5th Mechanized Brigade, the 430th Tactical Helicopter
Squadron, and the CSV Acadian--a 50 foot navigation training vessel. A
fighter aircraft squadron was also used for photo reconnaissance.
Canadian
Forces are armed with M-16A2 rifles (C7s), M-203 grenade launchers, and
M-249 Minimi SAWs (C8s). They also normally carry M72A2 LAWs and can
carry 84mm Carl Gustav Recoilless Launchers. Vehicles at the time of
the confrontation included M113 APCs (and M150 TOW and M125
81mm Mortar carrier variants), Grizzly APCs, Cougar Fire Support Vehicles,
M113 1/2 Lynx Reconnaissance vehicles, M109A2 105mm self-propelled
howitzers, and 3 Leopard 1A4 MBTs fitted with bulldozer blades (no
ammunition was issued for the main guns of the MBTs during the crisis).
Aircraft
included the Bell UH-1N Huey and the Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopters.
