March for Freedom surprisingly quiet

By Michael-Allan Marion
October 16, 2006
Brantford Expositor

The March For Freedom in Caledonia against "two-tiered justice" that favours natives turned out to be a surprisingly quiet protest Sunday.

What politicians and police feared could become an out-of-control rampage by thousands on a Caledonia building site occupied by natives turned out to be a peaceful standoff attracting about 500 people.

The only tense moment came early when a convoy of about a dozen vehicles filled with natives bearing Mohawk unity flags drove onto the rallying site for the march outside Lions Hall. They shouted chants, honked horns and the lead vehicle smashed down a barricade. Then they all headed off.

The protest, organized by Richmond HIll's Gary McHale, began with angry speeches from four people outside Lions Hall that brought out frustrations and fears over intimidation that Caledonia residents say they’ve suffered during the eight-month-old occupation of the unfinished Douglas Creek Estates subdivision.

Then McHale led between 400 and 500 people carrying Canadian flags and protest signs toward the Douglas Creek site, a route which had been approved earlier by the OPP.

The procession stopped in the yard behind Notre Dame Catholic School bordering the site. After a few more comments, McHale implored everyone to leave in an orderly fashion and head back together to Lions Hall, rather than disperse and cause trouble.

“We’ve made our point and you’ve got the attention of the government,” he said.

“Yeah, your point is that you came here and stirred the pot and now you’re leaving,” a disappointed Caledonia man shouted at him.

“Our point is that the problems are still here and won’t go away soon.”

Most of the crowd drifted away in several directions, while a few hundred converged on Highway 6 north of the building site.

But a large contingent of OPP officers held them at bay.

The standoff ended with the arrest of three men who tried to cross a police line, and two women for intoxication.

The crowd slowly dispersed with the road being cleared of protesters and police by the supper hour.

Lingering residents who feared for the worst were left wondering what all the fuss was about. Some felt exploited by an outsider they believed took advantage of their difficult situation.

“It makes me believe we were playing a part in someone else’s charade,” resident Bonnie McNeill said as the sun was setting behind OPP officers blocking every conceivable entrance to the Douglas Creek Estates from an ever-dwindling crowd.

“I don’t know if it was worth coming out because I don’t think anything has changed.”

Meanwhile, at the disputed site, about 300 natives were enjoying a potluck meal to the sounds of banging drums and native chants.

“We were ready, but there really wasn’t very much to be concerned about,” said native spokeswoman Janie Jamieson.

The natives call their occupation of the property last February a “land reclamation” to recover territory they say was taken wrongfully in the early 1800s, and won’t leave while negotiations continue between the province, the federal government and Confederacy negotiators.

Police and local and provincial leaders had readied themselves for the worst. They tried several times to dissuade organizers from holding the rally, and issued numerous public warnings during the past week to stay away.

The speeches, delivered from a hilltop podium by Haldimand-Norfolk-Brant MPP Toby Barrett and others at the rallying site, conveyed widespread frustration and fear over alleged lawlessness, intimidation and acts of vandalism without fear of reprisal that have bedeviled the area around the Douglas Creek Estates.

The speakers blamed the OPP for not enforcing the law. They criticized Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley for hiding from her constituents. They also condemned “spineless” politicians in the Dalton McGuinty government who negotiate from a position of weakness, and the Stephen Harper government that won’t find a solution to the land claims debacle.

“Dalton McGuinty has allowed criminal activity to be used as a bargaining chip,” said Barrett, a Tory. “We are witnessing a failure.”

AnneMarie VanSickle, who lives on Braemar Avenue near the occupied site, described sounds of hammering, gun shots and the frequent contravention of the no-go zone by occupiers wearing bandanas.

All this harassment, 24 hours a day, has terrorized her kids and caused sleep deprivation that hamper her performance as a nurse, she said.

“Mr. McGuinty, you, sir, are a medical anomaly. The fact that you can stand when you don’t have a spine will be a wonder for generations to come,” VanSickle said to widespread laughter.

The crowd roared its approval when VanSickle demanded that newly appointed OPP commissioner Julian Fantino remove officers from the Caledonia area and that the government replace them with a force that will uphold the law.

Mary Lou La Pratte, who lives at Ipperwash Beach, compared the Caledonia situation to what people in her area suffer from government inaction.

The OPP won’t clamp down on lawless natives, she said, because it practises “selective policing based on race,” and the land claim issue over who owns the Ipperwash Park remains unsettled 11 years after the slaying of Dudley George by a police sniper.

The concerns of citizens in Ipperwash and Caledonia are too small to matter to big governments, she said.

“We are not considered a threat to the political agenda. This is not right, this is not fair, this is not just.”

In the end, many, including police and residents, made clear their displeasure over McHale’s holding of the march.

“We’re left to clean up the mess that he started,” said Jim Erwin, 25.

“It was a tense day,” said OPP Sgt. Dave Rektor.

“It’s just sad when someone has a personal agenda with no regard for anyone else.”