Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Ramsay is threatening to pull Ontario from the negotiating table to resolve the Caledonia standoff if native leaders cannot rein in natives from staging more protests and land occupations like the one in Hagersville last week.
“That’s my inclination,” Ramsay said last night, indicating it might even involve a meeting tomorrow in which Ottawa is to make a “big offer” to settle the Caledonia dispute by trying to make good on two land claims in the Dunnville area.
“I don’t see the point of going back to the table. It doesn’t make sense. This lawlessness breaking out is not acceptable. Quite frankly, it will not be tolerated.”
The minister made his comments after the Hagersville developer announced through his lawyer he was abandoning the multimillion dollar project because Six Nations Confederacy representatives told him they would not let it proceed without a fight.
“He (Valentini) has never been faced with this situation before,” “It’s a small company. It’s he and his wife. This will bankrupt him.”
Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer is calling on the Ontario government to get tough with native “radicals” and send the police into Hagersville to protect the development of a 90-unit townhouse development.
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