Michael Oliveira
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Kingston Whig Standard
Supporters of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte protested on the front steps of the Ontario legislature yesterday in an attempt to raise support for their land claim fight, but the band council said it was worried last week's 30-hour railway blockade and promises of "escalated disruptions" could derail talks.
The people who spoke up for the Mohawks in Toronto weren't endorsed by council, nor do they speak for its leaders, said council spokesman Brant Bardy, and added that more protests might cause more harm than good.
"We seriously hope that any action taken doesn't jeopardize the negotiation that's underway and that is a concern that the council has," Bardy said. "It just seems pointless to take action that may jeopardize the diplomatic process that's ongoing."
Protesters began a 30-hour railway blockade on Friday that caused major disruptions by halting freight and passenger service from Toronto eastward to Ottawa and Montreal.
Yesterday, more than four dozen protesters from groups including the Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty dropped four containers of garbage in front of Queen's Park, claiming it had been illegally dumped on a gravel quarry site on Mohawk land.
While protests first began in response to a developer's plan to build condominiums using material from the quarry, demonstrators also said Thurlow Aggregates was allegedly dumping toxic waste in the quarry.
"What we're here to do is ... bring evidence of the waste that was dumped illegally, and this is happening because there's been no response on the part of the [government]," said Audrey Huntley, one of the protesters and a member of the Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty.
She said evidence of the garbage - including batteries, gas canisters, oil bins, building materials and chunks of old roads - has been ignored for a month by the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is profiting off all the gravel being taken off aboriginal land.