November 3, 2006
by Joseph Quesnel
First Perspective - Aboriginal National News
A long-standing Aboriginal land claims dispute in Ontario has set off a jurisdictional war between the federal government and the Ontario government, with no clear end in sight.
The Ontario government has asked the federal government to take more of a leadership role in resolving the Caledonia standoff in southern Ontario, as the dispute approaches its first year anniversary.
Aboriginals from the nearby Six Nations reserve have been staging the standoff on the contentious Douglas Estates housing development site. Six Nations spokespeople have argued they never surrendered the land to the government, whereas the government has stated it was transferred to them in the 1840s.
Premier Dalton McGuinty stated at a press conference in Toronto that the issue will not be resolved until Ottawa “steps up to the plate” and takes a lead role in moving negotations forward. As the chief government body responsible for Aboriginal affairs and land claim matters, McGuinty believes the federal government should assume some responsibility for the resolution and the associated costs of the dispute.
Thus far, Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has distanced himself from the dispute and its resolution. Moreover, officials wthin the Indian Affairs beaucracy have recently confirmed that the federal government will not assume any responsibility for the enormous cost of policing the occupation site, which has been used by Six Nations protesters since February.
Indian Affairs spokespeople have reportedly been firm in asserting that issues such as policing, and civil rights are areas of provincial jurisdiction, thus it is Ontario's responsibility to take care of the costs.
At this point, one of the only occurrences where the federal government has assumed a visible role in the dispute resolution was when the government showed its support for a provincial appeal to an Ontario Superior Court judgment that ordered occupiers off the site and negotiations halted until such time as the occupation stopped.
At the end of October, the Ontario government had also announced that is intended to present the federal Indian Affairs minister with a bill for $25 million for the dispute. The dispute has been estimated to be as high as $40 million, which includes overtime pay for Ontario Provincial police officers and salaries for provincial negotiators.
Prentice, however, cancelled the meeting at the last minute and accused David Ramsay, the provincial minister for responsible for Aboriginal affairs of "grandstanding."
Minister Prentice did stress that he is willing to enter into serious discussions with the province about resolving the Caledonia issue, but said he would not be subject to posturing by the province.