June 28, 2007
Canadian Press
By Sue Bailey
DESERONTO, Ont. (CP) - Mohawk protesters, who said they had guns and wouldn't back down, have begun threatened protest blockades in eastern Ontario.
The protesters parked an old school bus and a pickup truck loaded with wooden pallets late Thursday across secondary Highway 2 near Deseronto and turned back traffic in both directions. The Mohawks had said they would begin with a "soft" target before moving to blockade the main CN line and a key highway near this town west of Kingston, despite widespread calls that an aboriginal day of action be peaceful.
Men, women and children in army-style fatigues, their hair braided back or shaved in traditional Mohawk style, began arriving at a makeshift camp outside Deseronto just after 5 p.m.
There were reports that dozens of provincial police cruisers had amassed in the nearby city of Napanee.
It was a call to action by protest leader Shawn Brant, a 43-year-old militant Mohawk who has done jail time for trashing the offices of politicians. He stands out as the lone voice calling for militancy on what others had hoped would be a day devoted to public education about native issues.
Brant said he intended to lead blockades of one or both of the main traffic and rail corridors between Toronto and Montreal starting at midnight Thursday night, or before. The major traffic artery the protesters made preparations late Thursday to block was Highway 401, the heavily travelled east-west main route across Ontario.
He wouldn't disclose the actual sites, but confirmed that he and others were prepared to "meet force with force" if police got in their way.
"We've made no secret that we have guns within this camp," he told The Canadian Press in an interview.
"It's our intent to go out and ensure a safe day. Unfortunately, previous incidents have shown that aggressive tactics by the police need to be met with equal resistance by the people that they're bringing those against."
Brant referred to the 1995 death of Dudley George when Ontario Provincial Police tried to force native demonstrators from Ipperwash provincial park.
"Most certainly, they shouldn't challenge us or question our resolve."
Brant says the time to educate Canadians through peaceful rallies has passed.
"We want government to know, and the rest of this country, that we're prepared to make commitments and sacrifices to ensure a safe, healthy environment in which our children can live - and a future that they can look forward to. Maybe then, they'll stop committing suicide."
Ontario Police Chief Julian Fantino singled out Brant at a news conference in Toronto on Thursday, saying he would be held accountable for his actions.
"He is, I think a one -off and we will have to deal with that depending on what Mr. Brant does," Fantino said.
"We're prepared to discuss things with Mr. Brant, we have done that before. But at the end of the day, there is accountability for one's actions as well and he will be held accountable."
In the Maritimes, members of the Mi'kmaq Nation threatened a blockade of the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick boundary on Highway 104.
"It is the sovereign right of the independent Mi'kmaq Nation to disrupt or prevent any transportation through the territory," organizers said in a statement.
Fantino said anarchists distract from the legitimacy of native land claims.
"We can't allow the hijacking of that legitimate cause by those who are intent on creating anarchy or who are intent of creating lawlessness in our country," he said.
The threats of blockades were in stark contrast to calls from aboriginal chiefs who called for peaceful protests and a day of reflection.
"We know there is frustration; we feel it, " Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, told a news conference in Ottawa.
"Tomorrow, however, we intend to undertake the educational process, we will be asking all Canadians to learn about our people."
Canada's premiers and territorial leaders also issued a rare joint statement Thursday, acknowledging that aboriginals are understandably disappointed and frustrated with the past, but urged protesters to keep Friday's campaign "peaceful and law-abiding."
In anticipation of the blockade, Via Rail suspended Friday's passenger train service between the highly-travelled Montreal-Toronto and Ottawa-Toronto corridor, on the first day of one of the busiest weekends of the summer.
The southern Ontario town of Caledonia was also on high alert as a 16-month occupation of a former housing development site continued.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he had spoken to the province's aboriginal leaders, and everyone had agreed the day should go ahead "without incident."
Friday is about grievances aboriginal communities have with the federal government, not the province, he said.
"I remain hopeful that this national day of action will proceed in a peaceful and respectful way," McGuinty said, adding it will be up to provincial police to deal with any blockades or illegal activity.
Marie Trainer, mayor of Haldimand County, which includes the town of Caledonia, said residents had been watching apprehensively over the last few days as cars with Quebec and American licence plates drove onto the occupied site.
Trainer said everyone was hoping the day would go by without any of the violent clashes the occupation has sparked in the past.
"I'm sure there will be a couple of spots that are hot, but I'm hoping ours isn't," Trainer said.
Brant and his Mohawks amassed at a quarry about two kilometres south of Highway 401 that Brant occupied last March.
Brant said he would remain there until the Ontario government stops allowing a private company to truck away the land the Mohawks have claimed.
Negotiations with the federal government have dragged over the last four years, Brant says.
Dale Welsh of Deseronto drives by the occupied quarry, with Mohawk flags snapping in the breeze, a few times a week.
"If everybody would just get together and settle things, we wouldn't have a problem," he said.
People in town are worried about property values and bad headlines, said Welsh, 60.
Then again, he can see the Mohawk point of view.
"I'd be mad if somebody came in and infringed on my land."
-With files from Noor Javed in Toronto