Illegal cigarettes confiscated

Tuesday's seizure of illegal cigarettes from the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop finally opens the door for a legal challenge by the Dakota First Nations to be officially recognized by the provincial and federal governments.
"I think the point is that we have to have our recognition as Dakota people in Manitoba," Dakota Plains Chief Orville Smoke said shortly after 89,550 contraband cigarettes were seized by the Manitoba Finance special investigations unit with support from the RCMP.
"We have to have our turn at sitting down and negotiating our existence within the confines of a reserve in Manitoba."
The seizure came as no surprise to anyone as the province could no longer turn a blind eye to the open cigarette sales, which started last week in a makeshift store near Pipestone. Charges are pending.
But despite Tuesday's raid, organizers of the rogue smoke shop will open again today, vowed Craig Blacksmith, a Dakota Plains councillor and Great Buffalo Nation Dakota spokesman.
"It's business as usual. Full-scale operation tomorrow again," he said in an email interview on Tuesday.
While officials seized cigarettes Tuesday, Blacksmith said they have further supplies of Rainbow Tobacco hidden away.
"We're not crazy enough to keep all the inventory on site," he said.
The cigarettes seized are federally stamped under the Excise Act but are not marked or stamped for legal sale in Manitoba, provincial spokesman Mike McDonald said.
"If you go to any retail outlet in Winnipeg and look at cigarettes, you'll see the Manitoba tear-tape on them," McDonald said, adding the seized cigarettes did not have that, meaning the province was not collecting its share of taxes. "The search went without incident."
Dakota Chundee, run by Smoke and Chief Frank Brown of Canupawakpa, was selling tobacco products supplied by Mohawk distributors in Quebec for about $40 a carton.
Cartons of 200 cigarettes normally sell for about $98 in Manitoba.
Only one employee was in the store at the time of the raid.
The chiefs of the Dakota First Nations claim their status in Canada is recognized by a British treaty to protect Canadian borders from American incursions in the War of 1812.
The Canadian government rejected the claim in court and insists the Dakota don't have the same treaty rights as other First Nations in Canada.
Both Canupawakpa and Dakota Plains have lawyers lined up to fight their case to be officially recognized by government.
"I think our lawyers are in place and this should be quite the awakening for some people, including the province and the federal government," Smoke said.
In addition to selling cheap cigarettes, they have said they plan to develop a VLT gaming centre at the location.
Elizabeth Stephenson, director of communications for the Manitoba Gaming Control Commission, said the commission is monitoring the site but is not aware of any VLTs operating.
The Quebec company that supplied the cheap smokes is at the centre of a war over aboriginal sovereignty where the weapon is cigarettes.
Kahnawake First Nation-based Rainbow Tobacco manufactures and distributes six separate brands of cigarettes, including one dubbed Savage, for the American and European markets, according to its website.
In addition to court challenges in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan over the sale of its cigarettes, the company stands out as being one of two major distributors that hold federal licences.
While a federal licence allows the sale of tobacco on First Nations, authorities consider the cigarettes to be contraband if they are sold outside a certain geographical area.
Mohawk Council of Kahnawake tobacco portfolio chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer said the issue over cigarette taxes boils down to who gets the tax revenue.
"The term contraband is used by the outside governments because they are not benefiting from any tax dollars levied on our products," she said in an email.
"We have always deemed our industry as legal because we believe our people have the right to our economy."