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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Dakota to disregard injunction against smoke shop
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Approximately 100 Dakota travel from The Forks to the Law Courts building on horseback and in traditional dress Wednesday.
THE Dakota will ignore a temporary injunction to shut down a smoke shop that sells cigarettes in defiance of provincial tobacco tax laws, Canupawakpa Chief Frank Brown said late Wednesday.
"It's still going to stay open," he said, "We're very happy the injunction was granted. That's exactly what we wanted. We would like to take this issue to the Supreme Court."
Brown rode to the Law Courts building on horseback with other Dakota chiefs Wednesday to protest the province's right to impose tobacco-tax laws on the smoke shop that operates on Canupawakpa land near Brandon.
The province got its temporary injunction against the Dakota smoke shop late Wednesday after a hearing in the morning. But the ruling is conditional.
The western Manitoba store gets to stay open, at least for another week, until the province satisfies the court with the proper paperwork.
The court wants the province to file a promise to pay damages for loss of business to the Dakota, in the event the province ultimately loses a separate case for a permanent injunction against the shop.
The Dakota Canupawakpa and the Dakota Plains Wahpeton First Nations have seen five RCMP raids of the Mohawk cigarettes they have sold at the Dakota Chundee Smoke Shop since it opened last fall.
Those charges, laid under provincial tobacco-tax laws, are slated to be heard in a Brandon court June 4 and are separate from the court action for an injunction heard in Winnipeg.
Brown, who is the chief spokesman for the smoke shop, said the store is an important symbol of economic independence for his impoverished people. And he's using the shop in a bid to get the province and Ottawa to negotiate a treaty that recognizes the Dakota in Canada.
Queen's Bench Justice Brenda Keyser told a Winnipeg court the province had satisfied her a temporary injunction should be granted, but only with an undertaking as to damages. Under the order, the Dakota will be prevented from selling unlicensed cigarettes in defiance of provincial tobacco tax laws.
Meanwhile, ex-Roseau River Anishinabe chief Terry Nelson said he will work with the Mohawk to flood the city with cheap Mohawk cigarettes in coming weeks in response to the injunction.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 31, 2012 A6
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Updated on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 6:59 AM CDT: Adds video
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