Uphold Canada's laws

(Jun 30, 2007)
Kitchener: The Record

The aboriginal day of action has come and gone in Canada and the country is largely better for it. Across the land, native communities expressed their hopes and fears in actions that were, with a few notable exceptions, entirely lawful. Good for them.

Natives marched, held protests, took out newspaper ads and held information sessions. In some cases, the protests caused inconvenience. Traffic was, for a time, blocked in areas of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver . Yet this was a reasonable price for the public to pay to acknowledge the protesters' right to free speech.

But in eastern Ontario, the action taken was not legal but, instead, a violation of the law of the land and the rights of the general public. A small group of native protesters blockaded Highway 401 as well as Highway 2 and the main Canadian National Railway line between Montreal and Toronto. The leader of the natives, Shawn Brant, warned that they were armed with guns and ready to respond violently if provoked. This action, in marked contrast to the other demonstrations, was totally unacceptable. If not checked, it will threaten the civil peace and order of the nation.

Ontario Provincial Police, it should be stressed, behaved admirably. They avoided confrontations that could have turned violent. They helped bring the barricades down. By the end of the day, they vowed to lay charges. This was appropriate. As the law protects us all -- aboriginal, non-aboriginal alike -- so must the law apply to us all.

“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.”