LLOYD BROWNJOHN
Windsor Star
Jan 15, 2007
Part of the Christmas holiday was spent near the front lines in Caledonia where an absurdity persists wherein several persons of indeterminate native American origin face off against Canadian taxpayers. The persons of indeterminate native American origin seem to have roots in the United States and are Americans, although some protest that they are “natives” and have no obligation to any contemporary political state. Indeed, some claim to have a “passport” issued by some fictitious native nation.
The Canadians involved live their daily lives, own property, aspire to a future and more or less endeavour to lead a normal existence in the face of blatant racism, vandalism and an assumption that the laws of Ontario and Canada do not apply to those entrenched, and arguing over, partially constructed houses on the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia.
Racism is two-sided, naturally. But it is fascinating how so-called “native” Canadians can allege racism on the part of residents of Caledonia when they, the native occupiers, are as provocative in their racist slurs as even the most ardent of notorious racists in America or Europe.
Vandalism, of course, has characterized the “native” occupation in Caledonia from the fire-bombing of a hydro sub-station, the vandalization of a U.S. border patrol vehicle and, most recently, the home and business of a local Caledonia hairdresser and family whose property incidentally borders the disputed land. And then there are the hydro towers scattered about and the damage to the Grand River bridge from a fire set on the bridge.
Caledonians, I suppose, offered a strong view on their attitude to local natives by re-electing last Nov. 13 the out-spoken mayor who once offered the view that if welfare payments to natives were eliminated, etc.... Her comments were not appropriate, but she was re-elected and that suggests that her views may be widely shared.
The situation in Caledonia is absurd. OPP cars and officers are everywhere and likely to remain. Apparently, their job is to keep the peace and apply the law to non-natives, but not to natives. The provincial government has just allocated another $22 million of taxpayer money for the OPP to police Caledonia.
Original responsibility
The federal government — for whom original responsibility for a land deal now protested — has taken a full backseat role. This has left the McGuinty (widely termed McGutless in Caledonia) government to bear the full weight of public opprobrium over the drawnout Caledonia siege. It is alleged that some sort of negotiations are still taking place, although former premier David Peterson has indicated that he is no longer involved.
Perhaps the lack of faith in Canadian politicians among residents of the streets immediately bordering the front line explains why there are so many American flags displayed in front of homes and so few Canadian flags. Apparently some American agency thought patriotism worthy, while a Canadian government agency did not.
Meanwhile a spokesman for the natives — a fellow from New York state — is calling the jailing of a another American native protester who physically attacked a television reporter a politically motivated arrest.
OPP officers sit in their vehicles — probably bored out of their collective minds — hoping nothing will happen, but ever prepared to keep Canadians at arm’s length from American natives and their misguided friends hurling insults, painting slogans, vandalizing and generally carrying on as if no law whatsoever applied to their collective juvenile behaviour.
The 10-month stand-off at Caledonia is a political issue. It may not be negotiable because the provincial government has been so submissive that it is now in a situation which negotiating theorists term a “zero-sum” situation.
The local natives and their American friends need only sit on the disputed land forever and the province can only concede its failure. The federal government, meanwhile, urges Canadians to support our troops in Afghanistan when — arguably — there is a real front line in Caledonia where troops might serve an equally noble purpose.
For many residents of both Caledonia and the Six Nations Reserve, the confrontation at Douglas Creek Estates is disconcerting. Although that does not seem to have affected local Caledonians from buying cheap smokes from traditional native discount cigarette shops.
For how much longer will Ontario’s taxpayers pay millions for OPP officers to live in motels and snooze in their cars? And, for how much longer must southern Ontarians await completion of the massive Niagara Falls hydro lines?
Never have so many politicians quaked before so many loud- (and foul-) mouthed protesters as they have at Caledonia. Time is not on the politicians’ side. Lloyd Brown-John is professor emeritus in the political science department at the University of Windsor.