By JORGE BARRERA, IN CALEDONIA
March 19, 2007
Black garbage bags tied to resemble ribbons hang from power poles, hang below front porch lights, hang from tree branches in the two-Tim-Hortons-town of Caledonia.
In Thistlemoor Estates, a small subdivision off the main drag, black is all around. Thistlemoor was built to connect with Douglas Creek Estates, the planned 650 home, 40 hectare subdivision that was seized by members from the Six Nations reserve a year ago on Feb. 28. The homes in Thistlemoor that back onto Douglas Creek have borne the brunt of the storm triggered by the native land claim.
Winter has brought an uneasy calm to the area.
There are occasional incursions from Douglas Creek. On Thursday, two native youths were involved in a confrontation with OPP officers in Thistlemoor, but tensions are far from those of last summer when violent clashes erupted between natives, Caledonia residents and police.
DANGER LOOMS
"Danger is coming this summer," says Kevin Clark, a local contractor who lives in Thistlemoor and whose family can trace their roots in Caledonia back 200 years. "There is just too much fear."
Anne Marie VanSickle's home sits on the edge of the no man's land between Thistlemoor and Douglas Creek.
VanSickle, a registered nurse, and her husband Paul who works for the city of Burlington, moved into their new home two days before Six Nations took over Douglas Creek. A dream home on the edge of a nightmare.
Now an OPP cruiser sits across VanSickle's driveway on constant watch.
"I have moved to Lebanon," she says. "We have no place to go. We have talked about going bankrupt and leaving our house."
A vase of tulips sits on the window ledge in the kitchen that overlooks a swing set in the backyard. But her 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son are not allowed to play there. The past summer and spring's upheaval made it too dangerous, she says. While in the backyard last April, she says her daughter was taunted by men involved with the native land seizure.
During the height of the conflict, she would hear the revving of ATV engines behind the wooden fence and native activists began to video- tape and photograph their every movement.
"My children became prisoners in their own home," she says.
This is life in Thistlemoor. This is life in Caledonia.
Not much scares Jack Dancey, 91, who flew Hurricane fighter planes and bombers over Europe during World War II. He was hit once by anti-aircraft fire during a bombing run over Germany. His co-pilot lost a leg. Dancey lives alone in Thistlemoor in a house with a backyard that ends at Douglas Creek.
"Life has been not very good since the occupation," says Dancey. "You are always on an edge, you never know."
He holds up two large stones that were thrown against his house during the tumultuous summer.
He wants to move to North Bay to be closer to family and his house has been on the market for months. He wants $250,000 for it but he doubts anyone would give him more than $150,000.
'I'D SHOW THEM'
He believes there is only one way to end the conflict.
"There is only one way they are going to get them out of there, they got to get in there and put them out," says Dancey. "But they are backing away and backing away. I wish I could get in there. I'd show them." He also fears the coming summer.
Economic hope for Caledonia, a bedroom community of about 10,000 a few kilometres south of Hamilton, came with the Douglas Creek development. The 650 homes promised to bring a healthy influx of new families. It also promised a boom for local contractors. But the act of breaking ground there brought the opposite. Now businesses worry about the future. People from the outside think twice about visiting shops in the community.
"All businesses are suffering. It is just to different degrees," says Frank Stoneman, who grew up here and owns a Telus Mobility franchise. "There is a boycott on shopping by Six Nations in Caledonia and that hurts in different ways."
Stoneman said a pizza place has gone bust and several businesses are looking to relocate.
"It's tough," he says.
Even Tim Hortons is losing thousands of dollars, said Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer.
"The occupation has threatened the future of Caledonia," says Trainer.
"How can anyone come here and feel comfortable."
And hate is starting to bloom in Caledonia, she says.
It didn't used to be this way in Caledonia. But bonds forged between natives and non-natives during Caledonia High School football and hockey games have been broken, says Clark, whose sister married a native man.
"I played hockey with these guys, I played football with these guys, I drank with these guys and drank with these guys. We all bled blue and gold which was the school colours," he says.
WARNINGS
Friends who used to share coffee refuse to speak to each other, families that intermarried are being pulled apart over Douglas Creek, says Trainer.
"Now there is a wedge and that wedge is getting bigger," she says. "The hatred is becoming very strong and it's because of the occupation."
Now residents warn that the community will take the law into their own hands if Douglas Creek isn't emptied soon. They believe the OPP doesn't protect them and their governments don't care. They say no one will put up with another season of chaos.
"If this goes on and on, the town of Caledonia will not give up their town. They will say enough is enough," says Sandy Roza, a local hairdresser. "Caledonia doesn't want to give up the right to live free."
Warnings are also popping up on community Internet chat boards.
"The residents are feeling that this situation is becoming hopeless ... and that they have been abandoned," wrote 'Irish' on the Caledonia Cafe chat board recently. "When this starts to happen, people will start taking things into their own hands -- that's when the trouble will begin."
Summer is coming.