Video and audio coverage from Stirling St.

  - Sept 15 – Native Elder states Builder and Buddies attacked, Natives ready to fight

 - Sept. 13, 2007 – Stirling Occupation: GENOCIDE

 - Sept. 13, 2007 – Stirling Occupation: It’s about the Money – We don’t pay Taxes

 - Sept 14 – CHML – Mayor Trainer

 - Sept 14 – CHML – Mike Quattrociocchi – Brantford Builder

This and much more at www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/topics/stirling.html

Stay tuned for continuing coverage as events unfold.

Premier shares blame, beaten man’s kin says

Toronto Star
CALEDONIA–A building contractor is undergoing tests in hospital to look for brain damage after he was clubbed on the head by a First Nations protester, the man’s brother said.

“I believe that my brother was one strike away from being killed,” an emotional Joe Gualtieri said yesterday near the building site where Sam Gualtieri was beaten unconscious Thursday.

He wants Premier Dalton McGuinty to shoulder some of the responsibility for a simmering native protest that has hobbled construction in this new community outside Hamilton.

Joe Gualtieri held up photos of his brother’s bloodied face and said, “I would like the premier to look at these pictures and tell me that he’s protecting my family.”

A meeting was planned last night at Six Nations to discuss the incident while local residents said they plan to renew protests over native occupation of housing sites.

Read the full story here

Police stood by as man was beaten, brother says

Globe & Mail

September 15, 2007

Aboriginal protesters left Sam Gualtieri one blow short of death when they ran away after attacking him in the house he was building in Caledonia, Ont., for his daughter and her fiancé, Mr. Gualtieri’s brother Joe said yesterday.

Joe Gualtieri said that his brother survived only because the gang of youths who were hitting his unconscious brother’s head with a piece of wood – possibly an oak rail from the house – ran away when one of Sam’s sons shouted: “He’s dead, he’s dead.”

Mr. Gualtieri was attacked after a Thursday protest stopped construction at the Stirling South building development in Caledonia, southwest of Hamilton. The 90-unit subdivision, on eight hectares, is about one kilometre from the disputed Douglas Creek development, which has been occupied by protesters from the nearby Six Nations reserve since February, 2006.

In an interview shortly after Sam Gualtieri underwent an MRI in a Hamilton hospital yesterday, his brother said Mr. Gualtieri was attacked when he went back to see what was happening at the house.

Joe Gualtieri said Ontario Provincial Police officers on the site “stood there, and they did not intervene” until after the beating, when the attackers had fled.

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Six Nations can’t dictate new laws

Kitchener Record

The rule of Canadian law is breaking down in the Grand River valley. And Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is letting it break piece by piece in a vast region of the province more than 800,000 people call home.

Already, a man is in hospital after being knocked unconscious by aboriginal protesters who claim authority over the Caledonia development he is building on. Already, there are reasons to fear that the tensions, and perhaps the violence, that have shaken Caledonia for more than 18 months could spread throughout the Grand River valley, including Waterloo Region, where a group of Six Nations natives are asserting bold new demands that have no foundation in Ontario law.

Yet, at this critical moment when leadership at the highest level is so urgently required, Premier McGuinty is missing in action on the election campaign trail. Mr. Premier, with respect, your silence, your evasion, your insistence that this is a job for the federal government, are simply not good enough — not for the non-natives of the area, not for the people of the Six Nations either.

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‘Justice will prevail’ :Mohawk chief offers prayers, condemns ‘violent actions of a few’

The Hamilton Spectator
Sept 15, 2007

Caledonia – Six Nations leaders have condemned the beating of a Caledonia home builder during a confrontation at a residential building site Thursday, calling it “an atrocity.”

Sam Gualtieri, 52, suffered serious facial injuries and possible brain damage when he was assaulted with boards or other clubs inside a house he’s building for his daughter at Stirling Woods in Caledonia.

Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton expressed anger and disgust when he was shown a picture of the beaten man yesterday.

“I believe it’s an atrocity, sir,” MacNaughton told Joe Gualtieri, 46, who had taken the pictures of his injured brother at West Haldimand General Hospital earlier in the day.

MacNaughton and Cayuga subchief Leroy Hill had expressed their regrets to the Gualtieri family at a press conference minutes before the younger brother walked up to them and showed the pictures.

“I believe he was a blow away from dying,” Gualtieri said as he laid the pictures on the table in front of them.

Read the full story here

‘A brutal, brutal attack’

The Hamilton Spectator
CALEDONIA (Sep 15, 2007)

It was a fight that had terrible consequences.

Duane Davies says he was with his Uncle Sam Gualtieri when the Caledonia builder was injured in a clash with native protesters Thursday.

In an interview, Davies said he, Gualtieri and two others were checking on the home when they saw a protester standing on the front porch.

“They started to heckle us, saying, ‘If you want a piece of this, come in here,’” said Davies.

The four went into the home and Gualtieri ordered the protesters out. Davies says he didn’t see who threw the first punch, but described Gualtieri struggling with one person while the others squared off.

The 33-year-old said he and a cousin left the house to grab two-by-fours and started back in to discover Gualtieri lying on the floor as he was struck with a piece of wood. Davies said he screamed to natives outside the house for help and the attackers fled.

Native protesters tell a different story. They say the builder and his companions entered the house and attacked them.

They say the protesters were only defending themselves.

Whichever way it went, Gualtieri’s family vows it won’t rest until the people responsible are brought to justice.

Gualtieri, 52, was beaten unconscious inside one of two homes he was building for his daughters in the Stirling South subdivision.

“This was a brutal, brutal attack,” said brother Joe Gualtieri. “Our family will not let this go.”

Sam was transferred to Hamilton General Hospital yesterday afternoon where he remains semi-conscious in serious condition.

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Caledonia assault caught us off-guard: OPP

The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 15, 2007)

Police say they were caught off-guard by a confrontation that seriously injured a homebuilder Thursday afternoon at a disputed Caledonia subdivision.

“Had we seen something taking place, we would have definitely stepped in,” said OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor.

The assault took place at the “exact opposite end” of a construction site where a protest, watched by police, was taking place, he said.

“We had no visual on this house at all, nor was there any reason to believe we needed to,” he said. “We don’t have a crystal ball, we can’t predict where fights are going to break out.” (Edit: They were too busy protecting the criminals from residents to protect Sam Gualtieri from attempted murder)

Read the full story here

Contain the native protest

The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 15, 2007)

If there is anything remotely like good news out of the terrible events in Caledonia over the last couple of days, it is that the aboriginal leaders involved with the ongoing protest have strongly condemned the people and events that left a home builder in hospital suffering from serious head injuries.

We don’t know the details of what happened to Sam Gualtieri when he went into the home he’d built for his daughter, and which had been occupied by native protesters.

But we know he was left bloody and unconscious. A violent, life-threatening assault took place, and needs to be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

We do applaud the Six Nations Confederacy leaders who have come out strongly calling the incident “an atrocity.” They need to go further and assist police in identifying the people involved. And arrest or arrests need to be made, and if there is criminal liability, it needs to be apportioned fairly and evenly.

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Why not stage occupation on ancestor’s lands?

Sept 15, 2007
BrantFord Expositor

Having watched the escalation of native protests in Ontario for several years, I have a few personal observations to share.

Think an ancestor sold the farm too cheap? Organize an illegal family reunion there and refuse to leave. Not only will you be allowed to stay, but you will receive money and an apology from the government and current owner. An added advantage to this is the ability to repeat the process every couple generations to ensure a continuing cash flow for your ever-increasing number of descendents. Land title in Ontario is only valid until a group of people decides to take your property because you won’t pay them protection money. Don’t expect help from Dalton, he got your land transfer tax already and doesn’t know you anymore.

The Lost Tribe of the Confederacy has been found. It’s called the OPP and its chief is Julian Fantino.

Alan Haines

Waterdown

McGuinty blasts feds for aboriginal conflict; PCs, NDP blame Liberal failures

Toronto Sun

TORONTO (CP) – Long-simmering tensions between aboriginal communities and local Ontario residents spilled onto the campaign trail Friday as Dalton McGuinty’s rivals accused the Liberal premier of abdicating his responsibility to uphold the rule of law and deal fairly with First Nations.

Two days after McGuinty was confronted by a developer angry over the province’s handling of a dispute with Six Nations protesters in Caledonia, Ont., near Hamilton, a home builder was recovering from head injuries Friday after being beaten by aboriginal youths a day earlier.

McGuinty has steadfastly blamed Ottawa for the protracted conflict, something he did again during a campaign stop Friday in Sudbury, Ont.

“The conflict to be found with respect to rights here originates in a very old dispute between the First Nations community and the federal government,” McGuinty said.

“The only way we’re going to be able to resolve this with any finality, with any certainty, is to get the two major parties at the table, which is the federal government and the First Nations community.”

But Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton accused the Liberals of going missing in action on the Caledonia file.

“They have asserted no leadership in terms of trying to assert the rule of law and the importance of the rule of the law being maintained at all times by all people, regardless of who they are,” Tory said.

A Conservative government would sue those who create a public disturbance to recoup the “huge public expense” of having police keep order, he said.

“I would use the courts any way that we could to make sure that if people are doing things that are in violation of the law and can have civil actions brought against them in that regard, then we would do that.”

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