OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino met with Six Nations representatives on the weekend and told them not to confront residents and outsiders protesting against their occupation of the former Douglas Creek Estates housing development.
And he made it clear, his officers will deal firmly with those protesters to prevent trouble.
He said officers have been pushed around and demeaned for too long while trying to keep the peace in the dispute that began 11 months ago.
"We're not going to take any nonsense." Since the start of the occupation, 32 OPP officers have been injured, he said.
The OPP had anticipated trouble this weekend because of a plan by Richmond Hill's Gary McHale to get up to 50 people arrested, Fantino said.
McHale has organized several rallies and alleges the police are ignoring native contraventions, while cracking down on protesters.
Fantino denied it. "There's not two-tiered justice here. Our people are using (their) discretion."
He also said it's hard to keep up with people who are coming into town and are basically there "to do nothing but create problems and mischief."
At a community meeting last week, McHale asked for people to volunteer to be arrested at the event. Saturday's event mostly created tensions and shouting matches.
OPP riot officers stood at a distance at one point.
Several standoffs near the occupied lands were contained without violence or arrests. And late in the day, McHale briefly succeeded in planting a Canadian flag across the street from the former housing development.
Earlier, about 100 natives gathered in a corner of the occupied lands in the bitter cold to hurl insults at McHale and supporters who took pictures and quietly waved Canadian flags from across a small gully on private land.
Riot police stayed on the sidelines, and after the anger died, retreated.
The natives dispersed but returned late in the day when both sides shouted angry exchanges.
Residents said they were there to protect the private homeowners from native harassment. OPP officers formed a thick line to separate the two sides and restored calm.
There were other sparse, but intense temper flare-ups earlier between McHale supporters and police, and between Caledonia residents and native occupiers.
At a similar protest in December, both McHale and Mark Vandermaas, of London, Ont. were arrested, held overnight for breach of the peace and then released without being charged.
In Saturday's protest, the two men spent most of the day giving outdoor speeches mainly for the benefit of the media.
Critics say McHale is an outsider stirring up more unrest and ill-will over the occupied lands, but residents say he's the only one trying to help them.
McHale, gathered near a bonfire with his supporters afterwards, said he intended to take February off from Caledonia protests, but promised more action the following month.
"I think the things in March will be more dramatic," McHale said, but did not elaborate when asked how.
After retrieving his flag from the OPP however, McHale said he might reconsider and do something sooner.
Janie Jamieson, spokesperson for Six Nations, said had McHale just stayed in Richmond Hill, everything would be fine.
She said the OPP, McHale and Six Nations all have an obligation to promote peace, one which McHale was not upholding.