TORONTO -- The OPP may have to hire more officers as the Caledonia standoff reaches one year with no end in sight, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino says.
"We just can't sustain this on-going. . . . There's got to be a resolution," Fantino said. "When you think about some 5,000 police officers rotating through (Caledonia) over the last year -- 480,000 hours of police officer work that should have gone elsewhere -- and all that time there's this negotiation stuff that appears, to me at least, to be going nowhere."
Fantino said he has yet to be contacted by any representative of the Stephen Harper Conservative government, although it is responsible for negotiating the Douglas Creek land claim with the Six Nations community.
"I've had no opportunities to provide briefings about some of the significant potential threats that we're facing with regards to how this is a very explosive situation, one that can erupt at any given time," Fantino said.
The federal government has not inquired as to whether the OPP needs any assistance either, he said.
The OPP has had to draw in officers from all over the province and lean on other police forces to cope with the significant demands of the Caledonia situation, Fantino said.
It has been one year since members of the Six Nations community moved onto a new housing construction site in Caledonia, claiming the land as their own.
Police officers trying to keep the peace have become the "lightning rod" for agitators on both sides of the issue, Fantino said.
Yesterday, Premier Dalton McGuinty called on the Harper government to pick up the pace to find a solution to this crisis.
"We will continue to assume our responsibility, keep the peace, do what we can to mitigate consequences, provide financial assistance from the people of Ontario to Caledonia where it makes sense for us to do so, but the only body that is in a position to bring the discussions to fruition is the federal government," McGuinty said.
PC Leader John Tory said McGuinty has not visited Caledonia over the past year and appears to have left its residents to cope on their own.
"I think the so-what attitude of Mr. McGuinty's government extends to maybe saying you would just write Caledonia off. . . . I don't accept that attitude," Tory said. "I think that you've got to go back and restitch together the fabric of Caledonia and that starts with getting this resolved."
Three dozen protesters held a demonstration at Queen's Park yesterday to note the one-year anniversary of the Caledonia.
Doreen Silversmith, a member of the Cayuga Nation and Six Nations Confederacy, who has been on security detail on the disputed land, said the government has attempted to thwart their land reclamation efforts.
"But, dammit, we are still here in your face and we continue to survive in spite of you," Silversmith said while standing in front of the main legislature building. "They have messed with the wrong people."