City nixes hall rental for people behind Caledonia march

By Susan Gamble, expositor staff
Brantford Expositor
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 01:00

The city won’t roll out the welcome mat for organizers of a big march in Caledonia protesting the handling of the native occupation of a housing development site in that community.

Gary McHale of Toronto said Tuesday that Brantford officials have cancelled his rental of the Lions Park arena for 7 o'clock Thursday night for an organizational meeting for the Oct. 15 rally. He said he was told city officials don't like his message.

McHale said he has already printed and delivered flyers about Thursday's meeting, and been on the radio announcing the location.

“I’m calling on people to show up anyway and, if need be, I’ll speak on the street corner.”

Mayor Mike Hancock said Tuesday that McHale is free to meet in Brantford but not in a municipal building.

Hancock said he looked at McHale’s web site and met with senior staff, including deputy police chief Jeff Kellner, before making the decision to cancel the Lions Park bookingl.

“I had a lot of discussion with senior staff and we have a real concern for public safety. We have a fragile situation in Brantford and all around us. If we allowed this to go ahead and someone was injured or it contributed to difficulties with our neighbours, well, it’s one of those calls that I think was the right thing to do.”

McHale said he was upfront about what the Brantford meeting was about when he booked Lions Park. He hopes the Caledonia rally will attract 20,000 people.

Besides Brantford, organizing meetings have been scheduled for Kitchener and Cayuga. The Brantford rental was cancelled, however, by a city worker who told McHale the office had received a number of negative phone calls.

“It’s clear I have the wrong message,” said McHale, who also said he is considering suing the city. “It’s ridiculous that politicians seem to think they have a right to limit political expression. The town has caved to the natives.”

Hancock said he doesn’t think any city buildings should be used for political rallies.

McHale said that a mayor shouldn’t be allowed to chose what messages he likes and dislikes.

“He’s violated our rights."

The Brantford meeting isn’t the first roadblock McHale has encountered.

Initially, he planned to march on the Douglas Creek Estates lands currently occupied by the natives but he was encouraged by those worried about violence to move the march to another area.

But Haldimand County won’t issue him a permit for the rally, saying he hasn’t allowed enough time to process it. A memo from a county worker said even a month wouldn’t have been enough time.

McHale notes that an April rally organized by Ken Hewitt, of the Caledonia Citizens Alliance, got a permit in just five days and was given free insurance from the county.

“If they won’t let me use the fairgrounds or the downtown, we’re going to Douglas Creek Estates. (Premier Dalton) McGuinty has publicly said he won’t stop me from using DCE land and, without an injunction, I have a right to be there.”

McHale said he will do further radio interviews today about both the meeting in Brantford and the rally on Oct. 15.

The housing site has been occupied by aboriginal protesters since February.

The standoff has been marred by violent clashes between town residents and aboriginals.

Six Nations protesters say they will stay on the site — bought by the province and being held in trust — until it is returned to them. They say the land was taken illegally from them by the Crown more than 200 years ago.


Excerpts...

Gary McHale, who operates a website called Caledonia Wake-up Call, posted his conversation with Mayor Mike Hancock on the Internet Tuesday at www.marchforfreedom.com,

McHale told the mayor he was upset that his rental at the Lions Park arena had been cancelled because city employees had been harassed.

Hancock assured McHale there had been no harassment but McHale responded that a worker at the hall said the office had been getting lots of phone calls and some of them were “not very nice.”

Here are some excerpts from McHale’s conversation with Hancock.

Hancock: “There is a real concern is this would not be productive to have in our community. We’re working hard at a very tough time to have some kind of harmony between ourselves and our neighbours who we’ve lived with for a long, long time. Right now it’s a very strained time.”

McHale: “The question is, do people in your town have a right to free speech, to gather in a public building that was authorized without any problems on our part, to express their political views and express their need ... to speak up? Do they have a right to that or does the town say only if the other side -- natives -- will not interfere?”

Hancock: “Having that event in our city at this time would not be productive, especially in a city-owned facility. I’ve looked at your web page and I’m very concerned about the approach being taken. I would not want to be supportive of that kind of event in our city ... At the moment in Brantford it’s relatively calm.”

McHale: “So, you’re saying it’s nothing to do with security issues, you just don’t like the message? You think the message ... has to be pre-approved?”

Hancock: “No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s a good idea and I won’t support it.”

McHale: “We rented this out .. We were above board in what it was for. We printed flyers. We did radio interviews on this. We had groups of people go to your town today to hand out flyers. We committed money, we committed time, we committed an effort... We will sue on this issue.”

Hancock: “It has a potential for violence. It is, in my view, considerably dangerous ... I don’t like what it’s liable to do in our community.”