Security tight for Brant trial

Sept 28, 2007
Kingston Whig Standard

Stringent security measures were in place as the trial of three men accused of confronting Canadian military personnel during a native protest last year began yesterday.

Shawn Michael Brant and Jerome J. Barnhart are facing several charges of uttering death threats stemming from the Nov. 15 incident east of Deseronto, in which a convoy of military students on a training mission happened upon a group of native protesters blocking Highway 2. Barnhart is facing an additional count of mischief, while Mario Baptiste Jr. is facing two counts of assault and one charge of mischief.

The proceedings are being held before a Brockville-area judge, Charles Anderson of the Ontario Court of Justice.

As with all court appearances involving Brant this year, the Ontario Provincial Police had strict security measures in place at the Dundas Street West courthouse – those entering the public gallery were asked to empty their pockets and were scanned using a metal detector.

While Baptiste and Barnhart sat with friends and family in the public gallery, Brant was seated between lawyers at the defence table during the day, often taking notes and whispering in the ear of his solicitor, Napanee-area lawyer Rob Smart.

During the early morning hours of Nov. 15, a number of Tyendinaga Mohawk demonstrators staged an event on Deseronto Road in protest of a proposed $30-million residential development on property subject to land-claim negotiations.

What had been a quiet, peaceful protest deteriorated rapidly into a confrontation as the group drove to Highway 2 to cover a sign advertising the development around 11:45 a.m. and a convoy of Canadian military vehicles happened upon the scene.

According to Master Cpl. Stephane Dionne, who was in the lead truck, the contingent of 10-ton vehicles and an army pickup truck were driven primarily by military students who were learning how to operate the machines.

As the group stopped in front of the protesters – a pickup truck pulled across Highway 2 – Dionne got out of the vehicle and approached, unaware of what the demonstration was concerning.

“The first sentence I said was, ‘How are you doing’ – we didn’t know the situation or what was going on,” he said during his afternoon testimony yesterday.

The reaction from his simple inquiry shocked the veteran military officer, who was in charge of the military exercise.

“They just started screaming and yelling … I have never seen people that angry before,” he said. “They said, ‘Go home, you don’t deserve to drive on our land’ … and saying, ‘White s–t, we are going to f—ing kill you.’ “

Before the unarmed group had a chance to turn around and back out of the scene, a protester in a minivan raced to the rear of the convoy and blocked in the last vehicle, he said.

Read the full story here

Mine protesters take fight to Ottawa

A group of local natives is canoeing from Ardoch to Ottawa to raise awareness of their campaign against a proposed uranium exploration venture north of Sharbot Lake.

Randy Cota, a chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, which is one of the non-status native bands fighting a company that wants to carry out exploration in the area, said the flotilla will end its journey on Parliament Hill today, where supporters will hold a rally.

At that time, a Mason jar holding water that was filled at Ardoch and symbolizes the threat of pollution, will be poured onto the ground.

“That’s what we really want people to realize, that this isn’t just an aboriginal issue,” he said from the outskirts of Ottawa after finishing paddling for the day.

“If anything goes into the river at Ardoch, it’s in Ottawa’s water four days later.”

Cota said the core group of paddlers consisted of six canoes flying traditional Aboriginal and wampum flags, but they were joined by other canoeists at various times during their week-long journey.

Read the full story here

Politicians steer away from Aboriginal issues

Kingston Whig Standard

Green party candidate Bridget Doherty was the decisive favourite at an Aboriginal affairs debate last night that often strayed off topic from native issues to the broader issues of the campaign.

Doherty received several loud ovations from the small and mostly Aboriginal audience gathered at a lecture hall at Queen’s University for the debate for plain language statements such as: “We need more Aboriginal teachers” and “We need more Aboriginals on the elected school boards.”

Doherty was applauded for pledging to increase the $2.58-million budget for funding the eight Aboriginal post-secondary institutions in the province. She singled out the First Nations’ Technical Institute on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve as being in particular need.

“If all children are equal, why do these schools get less money?” Doherty asked.

But perhaps the loudest ovation she received was after she took the stage and responded to answers given by the other candidates on an Aboriginal housing question that digressed to health care.

“I’m pretty annoyed, and you probably are, too, that your questions aren’t being answered,” she said.

During that series of questions, one man in attendance interrupted the candidates and said, “Are we talking about housing or health care?”

Early on, the candidates fell into a familiar pattern of partisan and political attacks, dodging the questions posed by moderator and Queen’s politics professor Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant to take shots at their opponents.

Read the full story here

Federal parties pass the buck

Brantford Expositor

Listening to the Ontario Conservatives blame the Ontario Liberals for their handling of Caledonia and the Ontario Liberals blame the Ontario Conservatives for their handling of Ipperwash, one clear common denominator becomes evident. Both Ontario parties were, and are, trying to cope with the vacuum of authority left by the federal parties. Add the federal reaction to native protests at Oka in Quebec and this lack of concern for the residents of Ontario becomes even more pronounced.

The Harris Conservatives tried the hard line approach. It resulted in the death of a native protester, the destruction of an OPP officer’s career, the blemishing of the OPP’s reputation and the spectacle of the Ontario Conservatives trying to pass the responsibility onto the shoulders of the OPP. I have often asked myself to what degree today’s reluctance of the OPP to act is the result of the Conservative’s manoeuvre.

During the Ippwerwash crisis, the federal Liberals were invisible in spite of the fact our Constitution makes them responsible for our aboriginal population. During the Oka crisis, the federal Conservatives stepped in between the province and the natives to establish order. At Ipperwash it never happened. As at Caledonia, Ipperwash involves land claims. As at Caledonia, Ipperwash remains unresolved.

The McGuinty Liberals, seeing the disastrous results of the hard line approach, opted for the soft approach with no better results. A main traffic artery was torn up. A rail line was blocked. A power transformer was damaged, eliminating power not only to those whom the protesters were opposed to, but also those whom the protesters claimed to be helping.

Read the full story here

Suspect in Caledonia beating surrenders to police

Hamilton Spectator

One of three suspects wanted in the beating of a Caledonia developer surrendered to Ontario Provincial Police today.

The 15-year-old boy faces charges of assault, break-and-enter and uttering threats. He is to appear in Cayuga court Friday morning for a bail hearing.

He and two others were sought in the Sept. 13 confrontation that sent builder Sam Gualtieri to hospital with head injuries. He was hurt when he and three others confronted a group of natives in a home he was building on the Stirling Woods subdivision in Caledonia.

Native protesters occupied the subdivision to press their land claim for property they say was wrongly taken from them.

The Six Nations Confederacy subsequently said the occupation was unauthorized and police arrested several occupiers who refused to leave the site.

An OPP investigation led to the identification of three persons in connection with the Gualtieri attack and issued three arrest warrants.

Anyone with information about the two remaining suspects is asked to call the Haldimand County OPP at 905-772-3322 or Crime stoppers at 1-800-222-tips (8477).

Native land ownership is the issue, not development

The Hamilton Spectator

(Sep 27, 2007)Re: ‘Are native protesters looking only for new buildings?’ (Letters, Sept. 19)

Unfortunately, the media does not generally report on native matters. The public is usually only informed of these long, ongoing land negotiations when it becomes necessary for us to halt industry, business or development to protect our land rights.

Waiting until the last possible moment is not a method to acquire partially-developed properties, as suggested.

The protests, paperwork, standing in line for a chance to be heard and a chance at negotiations have been going on for years but are seldom reported on, thus you may not be aware of them. We wait until the last minute in faith to be heard fairly and not to have our land under negotiation developed, mined or hauled away without our consultation, consideration and — most often — without even our knowledge.

Only when it becomes apparent that we will not be heard through “legal” channels do we have to resort to reclamation before our land is sold off in chunks.

I don’t believe the Haudenosaunee people are insisting development be stopped forever more.

The issue is the ownership/jurisdiction of the land itself, not the development.

The formation of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute suggests this, and appears to be a practical body to approach for consultation prior to any venture in the Haldimand Tract.

Courtesy of www.CaledoniaWakeupCall.com

Alexco reaches pact with Yukon First Nation

Alexco Resource Corp. and the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation in Mayo, Yukon, have worked out a deal that will see both sides resuming talks on the mining company’s plans.

Alexco vice-president Rob McIntyre told CBC News that the agreement will make the First Nation more of a partner in its mining plans, as well as bring talks on its project in the Elsa area back on track.

“We did pull our chairs up to the table and roll our sleeves up and worked out a great agreement here that will provide a clear path forward and some project certainty for us,” McIntyre said Tuesday.

“So that’s what we have been looking for and that is what the Na-Cho Nyak Dun has been looking for as well.”

On Aug. 17, the Na-Cho Nyak Dun threatened to boycott government talks with Alexco on the reclamation of the United Keno Hill silver mine site, located 330 kilometres north of Whitehorse. The site is on federal land that is part of the First Nation’s traditional territory.

read the full story here

Ignoring Caledonia will not make things right

Well, what do you know? Until this week, it seemed we were going to get through four weeks of intensive political campaigning for the Oct. 10 election and not a single word would cross the lips of the assorted party leaders about an issue which continues to infuriate most Ontarians – the illegal Native occupation at Caledonia.

It would have been a natural for last week’s televised leadership debate. If nothing else, Premier Dalton McGuinty, who has mimicked the head-inthe sand ostrich since the protest began in April 2006, at least would have been forced to say something.

But, alas, no such luck. It didn’t even come up. And neither Conservative Leader John Tory or NDP Leader Howard Hampton mentioned it either. But now, to his credit, Tory has gone to Caledonia and announced that if he becomes premier – a concept not nearly as far-fetched as it was not long ago – protesters engaged in illegal occupations would face daily fines of $2,000 and organizations supporting them would face daily fines of $25,000.

So what’s the Liberal response to this? Well Health Minister George Smitherman, the party’s designated attack dog – who, like McGuinty, to his shame has never even visited Caledonia during all this time – attacked Tory for “fanning the flames” and being “willing to jeopardize a fragile peace for his own personal gain.”

Oh please. These are the same Liberals who shamelessly exploited the tragic 1995 shooting death of protester Dudley George at Ipperwash Provincial Park, even going so far as to personally blaming then premier Mike Harris – contrary to the evidence – of being directly responsible for the Ontario Provincial Police shooting.

Talk about chutzpah! But even beyond that, just what “fragile peace” is Smitherman talking about anyway?

Perhaps if he or McGuinty were responsible enough to actually talk to the innocent victims of this ongoing occupation, they may discover that life has been a living hell for the people of Caledonia and – to their shame – the OPP have allowed it to happen. He should ask married Caledonia couple, David Brown and Dana Chatwell, if their lives have been peaceful while the Liberals and the OPP blithely look the other way, apparently hoping that if they don’t look it’s not really happening.

Read the full story here

Legal hammers, human nails

At Caledonia, Six Nations Mohawks have occupied the site of a planned development for more than 18 months, claiming they never surrendered the lands in dispute. Parts of Caledonia are now blocked off and development in the contested area is frozen.

For the most part, Caledonia townspeople do not support the blockade. They are greatly inconvenienced and may not appreciate the Mohawk frustration at seeing reserved lands repeatedly developed over their objections or understand that the Mohawk claim has been outstanding for more than 100 years.

But as time drags on with no resolution, events have taken an ugly turn. Last week, a developer who tried to go behind the lines to check on his property was beaten viciously by native thugs. Iroquois traditionalists at the blockade say they don’t condone the violence and had nothing to do with it, but have clearly been unable to control extremists on the line.

Just this week, Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell, a couple whose home is trapped between the blockade, sued the OPP and Ontario for more than $70 million in damages, claiming regular harassment by natives who pound on their windows and demand they present native-issued “passports” before entering their own land.

John Tory is now calling on the police to remove the protesters. He also wants changes to the Petty Trespass Act, making it illegal for any organization or third party to support or encourage a blockade.

But consider this. At Sharbot Lake, the Algonquins have blocked access to an area where Frontenac Ventures Company planned to build a uranium mine. Like the Mohawks, the Algonquins have refused to abide by a court injunction, instead demanding negotiations.

Another lawsuit for lost income is pending – Frontenac Ventures has sued the First Nations and Ontario for $77 million. But the tone of the blockade at Sharbot Lake is very different from that at Caledonia – here, the Algonquins have widespread support.

Read the full story here

Band won’t back down

As critics accused the province of failing to enforce the law to end a nearly two-week blockade near Hollow Water First Nation, a cabinet minister confirmed there’s no end in sight for the conflict.

Hollow Water band members erected their first set of barriers on two access roads Sept. 14 to protest cottage development on what they consider traditional reserve lands.

Barricades were added at Rice River Road and Beaver Creek Road on Sept. 21 in and around the community, about 190 km northeast of Winnipeg.

“The barricades are illegal,” said Tory justice critic Gerald Hawranik during question period yesterday. “Is (the minister) prepared to respect an illegal act or will he do his duty as the minister of justice and enforce that law.”

Justice Minister Dave Chomiak said he will leave that decision up to the police.

read the full story here