Updated Wed. Aug. 9 2006 11:22 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Ontario will appeal a Superior Court judge's order to end negotiations in a five-month long standoff over a land dispute in Caledonia, Ont.
Attorney General Michael Bryant said Wednesday that the province will argue the court has no jurisdiction to end talks aimed at resolving a native land occupation on the Douglas Creek Estates site near Caledonia.
"One of the grounds of the appeal will be that the courts have no jurisdiction to order the parties to cease negotiations, which we will argue (are) in the public interest and the best way to resolve this dispute," Bryant told reporters.
Bryant said both the province and federal governments are in agreement on the appeal, and they believe negotiations are the best way to resolve the outstanding land claim.
He says the appeal could take weeks, but the government will act as "expeditiously as possible."
Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said Ottawa supports the appeal as well as "getting back to the negotiating table."
"And as Ontario moves forward with the stay application, and the appeal, we're anxious to get all our negotiators back to the table so we can get this resolved," Prentice told CTV Newsnet.
Janie Jamieson, spokesman for the protesters, said the appeal is "part of the Canadian" legal process.
Her group plans to continue occupying the site, and will decide on Aug. 23 whether to resume highway barricades that created much of the original tension.
Tensions arose Tuesday as aboriginal protesters continued their occupation of the housing development after Superior Court Justice David Marshall ordered negotiations to end until the rule of law is upheld and protesters left the site.
In spite of the appeal, Bryant said the province will halt negotiations until the Ontario Court of Appeal either overturns the judge's ruling, or orders a stay pending appeal.
"The reasons for judgment do appear to be clear," Bryant said. "We will comply with that order until such time as the order is either stayed, or suspended, or overturned."
Many are blaming Judge Marshall's ruling for increasing tension in the town.
Protesters and hundreds of Caledonia residents faced each other in a tense standoff that police dispersed early Wednesday.
There was no violence, but both groups hurled insults at each other. At one point, First Nations protesters sprayed some residents with water using a fire hose.
The Ontario Provincial Police moved extra police cruisers into the area Wednesday in an effort to keep things calm. They issued a statement Wednesday evening calling for cooler heads to prevail.
"If the occupation continues and those confrontations continue... sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt,'' Ken Hewitt of the Caledonia Citizens' Alliance told The Canadian Press.
"A lot of people are very angry and very frustrated.''
Haldiman County Mayor Marie Trainer said she fears what might happen if the protesters barricade roads again.
Fragile situation
Former Ontario premier David Peterson, who the province appointed to begin negotiations in the dispute, told CTV Toronto the order has upset "a very fragile situation."
"Now we have this new frolic and detour, this new departure from a judge -- who has a particular point of view, but may not be seeing the entire issue -- and has just exacerbated the tensions again."
Peterson is no longer involved in the negotiations. He said he couldn't understand how Marshall could "stop people from talking."
However, provincial Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory sided with the judge, saying all talks should be on hold until the protesters respect the rule of law.
"He should be saying very clearly to people on all sides of the dispute that he will not sit at the negotiating table until some of these activities, these unscheduled community gatherings, stop."
Marshall issued a court order in March for police to evict the protesters and for the barricades on nearby railway tracks to be lifted.
Lawyers for the Ministry of the Attorney General have argued that Marshall's orders have been enforced, pointing out that police laid 53 charges against 28 people.
Marshall took the rare step of calling representatives from the province, police and aboriginals into court to explain their actions.
The Douglas Creek Estates site is at the centre of a battle over land rights that began when Six Nations protesters set up barricades blocking the road into the development in February, saying the land was illegally taken from them 200 years ago.
A court order evicting them has not been enforced.
"It is a difficult dispute and we feel for the residents," said Prentice.
"This dispute is one of the oldest and most protracted land claim issues in Canada. It actually goes back to the days after the American Revolution and the First Nations, the Iroquois and Mohawk, feel very strongly about the promises that were made to them."
In June, the province bought out the developer for $12.3 million, but the land remains held in trust by the province.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Galit Solomon and Janice Golding and files from The Canadian Press