Mohawks briefly blockade Hwy. 2

Frank Armstrong
Kingston Whig Standard
November 16, 2006

Call it the case of the acciden-tal blockade.

A land-claim protest by Tyendinaga Mohawks at the site of a proposed housing development near Deseronto flared into a confrontation and impromptu roadblock when a group of Canadian Forces transport vehicles on a training exercise rumbled past.

"As the military convoy arrived at that location, the immediate reaction from the group there was it was there to confront them," said Larry Hay, chief of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Police.

The town is the site of a planned 140-home subdivision, but the Tyendinaga Mohawks say the land is theirs. The land claim is before the federal government, and Tyendinaga Territory Chief Don Maracle met last week with federal government officials to discuss the issue.

The claim is similar to one in Caledonia, which touched off a controversial land occupation that has divided the community.

Yesterday, two vans blocked bothlanes of Highway 2 at Deseronto Road while other vehicles shut them in from behind.

When the word spread erroneously that the military had arrived to break up the protest, about 40 other supporters raced to the scene, Hay said.

"It became an unfortunate chain reaction," he said.

The 15-soldier convoy was travelling from CFB Borden near Barrie through several military bases as part of a three-day training exercise, said spokesman Cpt. Fraser Clark.

"The sergeant had to call the OPP to help them, escort them through that particular part of Highway 2," Clark said.

"It's a planned route ... they've been through there before and they've never had any previous incidents," Clark said.

The confrontation, which started around noon, was defused after a few minutes when the protesters learned the trucks were just passing through, said Hay, who had four of his officers at the scene directing traffic. The OPP were also there.

Activist Shawn Brant said the emotion came from the belief the military traffic was not a coincidence.

"We didn't expect it to happen like this," he said. "I don't necessarily agree with the notion that they just happened to be passing through."

Brant said the natives have no plans to occupy the land full time, but had gathered yesterday because it was the date given by Kingston-based developer Intergroup Financing AG to break ground on the $30-million development.

Gord Stringer was walking his dog yesterday morning along a popular footpath that goes through the disputed land. Vehicles roared past him to park on the land, and he stopped and told their occupants to take it easy.

"If you want to protest, then protest, but don't interfere with other people's lives," he said.

Brant said more protests are possible if the aboriginals feel development is moving forward at the site.

"People know what we have available, he said. "We have the 401, tracks, bridges, highways and a lot of infrastructure to manipulate if negotiations get stalled."

In April, between 50 and 100 protesters from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory blocked the tracks at the north end of the territory. The move disrupted CN freight traffic moving across the country. As many as 3,500 VIA Rail passengers were forced to take other forms of transportation in the Toronto-Montreal corridor.

The Mohawks said that blockade was to show support for the natives in Caledonia.

Brant Bardy, a spokesman for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, said yesterday's protest was not endorsed by the band council.

- with files from The Canadian Press, Belleville Intelligencer