Re: 'The Myths of Caledonia' (Opinion, Feb. 24)
Writer John Hagopian states that, basically, there is no legal basis to the Six Nations land claim and that all they (Six Nations) had was an occupancy permit.
For the information of your readers, I must point out that, during that time, the British Crown did not possess an occupancy permit, either -- never mind crown land or ownership -- legal or otherwise.
That said, herein lies a brief response to some of the propaganda conjured up by the mindset of the writer to undermine all calls for historical redress, by way of European colonial law. The current impasse in Caledonia between the Six Nations and non-natives concerning rights to certain lands is very poorly understood by the public and the media alike.
The ownership history of Six Nations lands in Ontario has been ignored, as has the legal basis claim to those lands. It's time for the truth to be told. In short, the Six Nations do have legal rights to the lands in question; the lands have been Iroquoian homelands long before the founding of our confederacy.
They have all the rights to land in Ontario by virtue of aboriginal title. In fact, all land belongs to the indigenous peoples, contrary to the "doctrine of discovery," i.e. the Papal Bulls of January 8, 1455.
Based on this licence to steal, our learned white brother takes the Canadian soap box and carefully regurgitates the position of colonial and assimilative Canada and its provinces that these lands were "Terra Nullius" and inhabited by "soulless creatures." This made the lands ready for the taking by any immigrant colonial thief. That, of course, makes it all legal in the writer's eyes.