SUE BAILEY AND CHINTA PUXLEY2 hours, 3 minutes ago
DESERONTO, Ont. (CP) - Canada's busiest highway was shut down for 11 hours Friday and rail lines were closed to passengers and freight for even longer as a rogue Mohawk protester ignored calls for a peaceful day of action by aboriginals and set out to disrupt the country's economy.
The blockades, which inconvenienced tens of thousands of travellers and parked $100 million in cargo, stole the spotlight as Mohawks on a usually hectic stretch of Highway 401 near this eastern Ontario town lit bonfires and warned they were armed with shotguns and ready to resist any police intervention.
Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, appealed to Canadians to look beyond the extreme measures of one man, saying that the long-planned day of action with its many peaceful demonstrations was intended to raise awareness of aboriginal issues from poverty to suicide to land-claim disputes.
"We are looking for the basic necessities of life that come with being Canadian - clean drinking water, decent housing, education and health care," Fontaine told a news conference in Ottawa.
"We are looking for equality of opportunity so we can get good jobs and support ourselves and our families. We are looking to control our own destinies. Improving our lives won't only be good for us, First Nations people, it will be good for Canada."
Aboriginals across the country came out Friday, mostly in small numbers, to say prayers at sunrise, march through the streets, hand out leaflets and talk to Canadians about land claims that are languishing in the courts.
"Until now, we have worked very hard to reach agreements in a peaceful and honourable way and we will continue to do so," said Fontaine, whose words were the mirror opposite of Shawn Brant, a rogue Mohawk who has previously done jail time for his militant protests.
"This is the first time ever we've shut down the 401, and I don't believe it's going to be the last," said a defiant Brant, a wiry 43-year-old father of three who wears his hair long under an ever-present battle-fatigue cap.
"It was certainly a good test run for us."
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice called Brant's protest illegal and said his government had taken decisive action to clean up land claims and the "mess" it inherited from previous governments.
There is a backlog of more than 800 aboriginal land claims in Canada.
"With the exception of what we experienced with illegal blockades in eastern Ontario, I think it has been a good day," Prentice said. "It's been a good day for democracy and for the articulation of a peaceful point of view by First Nation Canadians."
Brant is out on bail on previous charges of mischief, disobeying a court order and breach of recognizance in connection with a 30-hour blockade of the nearby CN rail line on April 20. He says militant protests are the only way to get the attention of the public and the politicians he says are keeping his people in poverty.
Brant's Tyendinaga Mohawks set up camp on the 401, used jumper cables to activate crossing barriers to close CN Rail's main line between Toronto and Ottawa and Montreal, and parked an old school bus across a secondary roadway, Highway 2.
In negotiations with Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino through the night, Brant had agreed to vacate the 401 by Friday morning, giving the green light again to commuters needing the heavily used artery on the first long weekend of the summer.
"We don't want people to see this as stepping back; we don't feel that it is," Brant said as he announced the deal had been struck.
Brant said he did not want to aggravate travellers more than necessary and that he hoped his gesture of goodwill would be reciprocated by Canadians in their attitude toward natives.
Fantino said blockades and barricades are not what the call of action was about for many, but that such measures "arise from very complex situations that the police have no authority to resolve."
The commissioner said he realized many people had been inconvenienced by the police decision to shut Highway 401, but added: "Were there alternatives? I don't think so."
A warrant had been issued for Brant's arrest on a charge of mischief, and Fantino said he would have no choice but to face police.
"There's an arrest warrant," Fantino said. "I can't make it go away. He knows the procedure. I'm sure he'll seek legal advice on the matter, but he'll have to come before the system and be dealt with by the system."
Mischief charges under the Criminal Code carry a range of sentence from two to 10 years.
Brant said he wouldn't turn himself in when the barricades come down at midnight because "you don't go to jail on the long weekend," but that he would surrender to police in the middle of next week.
CN Rail's decision to halt traffic on its busiest Toronto-Montreal line meant a daily average of 25 freight trains and 22 Via Rail trains were blocked.
Via Rail was forced to cancel 24 trains for about 5,000 passengers between Montreal and Toronto, and Ottawa and Toronto.
Gene Guillian, 38, had planned to catch a train to Toronto on the way to a Buddhist retreat, but Friday's disruptions forced him to take a bus instead.
"A three-hour bus ride turned into a six-hour bus ride," he said. "There was a big traffic jam because everybody was going around (Highway 401) to avoid that blockage. My butt hurt really bad afterwards, sitting for six hours."
Being a Buddhist, Guillian said he took the inconvenience in stride, even if it was frustrating.
"We're not supposed to be overly angry and we're supposed to try to find constructive ways to facilitate dialogue, so I sure hope the Canadian government and these native peoples can find a way to talk with each other," he said.
Although Via Rail said it expected normal service to resume Saturday, CN said the rail line would remain closed until the company got assurances from police that protesters had left the tracks for good.
CN expressed frustration that the railway was losing business because of native disputes. Officials suggested police should do more to stop the disruptions to its business.
"First Nations protesters are again blocking CN's rail corridor and the OPP continues to refuse to intervene," officials said in a statement early Friday.
Several smaller county roads in Ontario were barricaded for several hours, but did not cause disruption on the scale of the 401 blockade.
Brant's protests began in response to a developer's plan to build condominiums on land called the Culbertson Land Tract, the subject of a land claim accepted by the federal government for negotiation in 2003.
The basis of the Mohawk claim is that no part of the Culbertson Tract was ever given up and that it was illegally taken in 1832.
The protesters have been occupying a gravel quarry on the land since late March.