Native standoff for feds

By IAN ROBERTSON
Fri, November 17, 2006
Toronto Sun

Continuing friction between natives, residents and cops at Caledonia won't be solved by the OPP, its new commissioner said yesterday.

"I just wish this would go away and we could redeploy our efforts elsewhere," Julian Fantino said after a ceremonial parade ushering him in as commissioner.

"Police are not the solution here; neither are we the problem," he said in an interview.

Earlier this week, Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters the OPP may have to stay at the site "indefinitely."

The land claim standoff since the occupation Feb. 28, has cost taxpayers $40 million, but can only be solved by the Six Nations people and federal officials, he has said.

The OPP has come under public pressure for not marching in and making mass arrests after sometimes violent confrontations between natives and non-natives.