(James) PitawanakwatOTTAWA -- A U.S. federal court has refused to surrender a Canadian fugitive involved in the violent armed dispute between natives and the RCMP at Gustafsen Lake, B.C., because "he was part of an uprising by native people with both religious and political overtones."

Canada was seeking the extradition of James Pita-wanakwat, who was arrested in Oregon June 20, after violating his parole for offences stemming from the Gustafsen Lake incident.

"The incident involved an organized group of native people rising up in their homeland against the occupation by the Canadian government of their sacred and unceded tribal land," U.S. Judge Janice Stewart wrote Nov. 15 in her 30-page ruling, which took Canada to task for its handling of aboriginal political movements.

The Gustafsen conflict broke out in the summer of 1995 in the Chilcotin, 400 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, when a group of natives and their supporters claimed a piece of a private ranch that they said encompassed a contested parcel of sacred land.

Thousands of rounds of gunfire were discharged during the two-month standoff between the "Ts'peten Defenders" and about 400 RCMP officers. The conflict cost close to $5.5 million to resolve and at least 17 people were arrested.

During the standoff Pitawanakwat fired a rifle at a police helicopter in the air and rode a vehicle carrying an assault rifle.

He was convicted and sentenced in 1997 to three years for mischief causing danger and one year for possession of a weapon.

After serving nearly a year in jail, Pitawanakwat was released on parole but fled to the U.S. where he was arrested. Canada sought his extradition to serve the 702 days remaining in his sentence.

Pitawanakwat fought extradition in the Portland court on the grounds that "he was part of an uprising by native people with both religious and political overtones," Stewart wrote.

The U.S. court reviewed cases of civil strife in the Middle East, El Salvador, Cuba, and Northern Ireland, and the political, historical and legal context of his claim.

Stewart said that "Canada can hardly be characterized as an unjust or oppressive nation where defendants may be subjected to unfair trials or punishments because of the political opinions." But she added, "the Extradition Treaty does contain the political offence exception and the defendant is entitled to seek its protection."

In her ruling, Stewart said that from Pitawanakwat's point of view, Gustafsen was not only part of a struggle of native people dating back to European colonialism dating back to 1492, "but was also part of a larger uprising in the summer of 1995 in Canada seeking sovereignty by indigenous peoples over their unceded lands.

The judge noted that while the U.S. state department saw no "revolution or rebellion in Canada in 1995," she did not agree with its conclusion.

She found Gustafsen "involved indigenous people rising up in their own land against the government of that land," adding that the "protest by the Ts'peten Defenders was directed largely at the Canadian government . . . and its military forces."