BY KELLY PATRICK
National Post
“Any interests from the First Nations community who are purporting at this point in time to be setting themselves up to stay [at the site] in some kind of permanent way, through the winter for example, that is not acceptable to us,” Mr. McGuinty told reporters. “Any occupation of that land, any future use of that land is the subject of negotiations at the table.”
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Haldimand County — which includes
“It’s totally inappropriate,” Marie Trainer said. “There are checks and balances all through [the building process] to make sure you’ve done it to code. So how can they go ahead without doing everything that everyone else has to do?”
Mr. McGuinty and Ms. Trainer were responding to news reports that Six Nations demonstrators have asked for donated supplies to finish as many as 11 partially built homes that developer Henco Industries Inc. was forced to abandon when the native occupation began on Feb. 28.
“Those house are sitting there, at various levels of construction,” Janie Jamieson, a Six Nations spokeswoman, said yesterday. “The alternatives are: let them rot, dismantle them or finish them. If finishing them will appeal to the public eye, that’s what we’ll do.”
Ms. Jamieson and a second Six Nations spokeswoman, Hazel Hill, said the protesters at the site have discussed resuming construction for some time.
Some demonstrators are already using the partially built homes for shelter, Ms. Hill said. The protesters have also been asking native and non-native supporters around the world to send food and money to the occupied site for months. They set up a Bank of Montreal account to accept cash gifts in June, Ms. Hill said.
However, the group’s appeal for donations garnered mainstream media attention this week when it surfaced as a post on an online Six Nations forum at http://reclamationinfo.com.
The post’s author, Kahentinetha Horn, a Mohawk journalist and parttime lecturer at
The message was sent to several native-run
“We need your help so we can continue this work. Send canned and fresh food, money, people with building materials to help us finish the houses,” Ms. Horn’s post reads.
“The Canadian and
Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Caledonia Citizens Alliance, said he was not surprised to hear Six Nations protesters wanted to re-start construction at the former Douglas Creek Estates site.
“They’ve been very clear that their intent is to stay there for the long term,” he said. “We’re really focusing our energy towards the federal government. We feel they need to solve the problems related to the lands claims. Then our issue will solve itself.” The six-month occupation of the 40-hectare tract of land south of
Last Friday, the Ontario Court of Appeal gave the province and Six Nations the green light to resume negotiations, temporarily overturning a lower court’s Aug. 8 recommendation that talks be suspended until the occupation ended. The lower court judge said during his oral reasons that talks should be suspended, but did not include that stipulation in his formal order signed Aug. 18. A one-month stay on the lower-court order expires on Sept. 25, the same day the province is scheduled to ask the Court of Appeal to permanently nix it.
Since the disputed land now belongs to the province, it, not the native protesters, would have to file the proper paperwork for construction on the site, said Steve Miazga, the general manager of planning and economic development for
Failing to do so would leave the province in violation of the Ontario Building Code Act, he added. John Tory, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives, said Mr. McGuinty was not displaying leadership on the