Native information centre frustrated by lack of utilities

By John Paul Zronik
Brantford Expositor
Thursday, September 21, 2006

Natives behind a centre to share information about Six Nations land claims say the city is not doing enough to accommodate their request for hydro and telephone services.

“The things we’ve asked for since we’ve been here, they’re not happening,” said Kelly Longboat, who staffs the centre, housed in a trailer off Erie Avenue. “They’re pretty much ignoring it.

“We’d like to put computers in here, get our website going. Without these resources, we can’t do it.”

The Mohawk Information Centre was constructed in August on land registered to the Grand River Conservation Authority.

Longboat said the city has been approached on “several occasions” about providing services to the building, a two-room trailer with an enclosed patio at the front.

“What are we going to do when it comes winter? Burn wood and candles in here?” she said. “In a roundabout manner, they’re not respecting what we’re doing. This is a teaching process. Why can’t we get these resources when we are doing a good thing?”

Mayor Mike Hancock said Wednesday that the city can’t move forward with providing services to the centre in part because the GRCA owns the land and decides how it will be used.

“While these gentlemen strongly believe the land belongs to Six Nations, there’s still the issue. . . that the GRCA are the legal holders of the land,” Hancock said. “It is occupied land from our perspective until this is resolved.”

Hancock said land ownership issues brought forward by information centre organizers would be dealt with best as part of current land claims discussions resulting from the Six Nations protest in Caledonia.

“We would be reluctant to move on anything until there’s some clarity from the GRCA and discussions that are going on at the table,” he said. “At the moment, in my view, there is not clarity.

“It’s a question of watching and waiting to see how it evolves within the other discussions that are going on.”

The GRCA on Wednesday also said that issues of concern to information centre organizers — land claims and their request for services — are best dealt with through current negotiations between native and government officials.

“We’ve been in communication with the city and the city police department since this all happened,” said Dave Schultz, GRCA co-ordinator of communications. “We’ve also talked to the negotiators, Jane Stewart and people on that team.

“With them, we agreed any issues surrounding this land would be addressed at the negotiating table.”

Longboat said the information centre has proven a success, with visitors coming from throughout the Grand River watershed. He also said the centre is helping develop an understanding between the native and non-native community.

“There’s been lots of people here, lots of good, positive attitudes. I think we’re going a long way with this.”

With about six weeks having passed since the information centre opened, Longboat said any fears of a situation like the one in Caledonia developing in the city by now have proven unfounded.

“We don’t want the fighting, the misunderstanding,” Longboat said. “If you have any concerns, come down and talk to us.”

He said people with questions about the information centre can also call the Mohawk Workers Office at 519-445-1200.

Hancock said centre organizers have remained true to their word about what they planned to do: set up a peaceful operation to distribute and share information.

“We are very pleased it’s been peaceful,” Hancock said. “They’ve tried hard to be good to their neighbours and a lot of good things have gone on.”