DESERONTO, ONT. -- Mohawk protester Shawn Brant has emerged as a lonesome voice of hard-line native militancy, plotting major economic disruption as his way of making Canada sit up and listen.
Whether Friday's national aboriginal day of action will amount to peaceful marches or burning barricades isn't clear. Regardless, Mr. Brant says it's just the beginning.
"We're going to have that expression of strength and solidarity across this country," he said in an interview at the quarry he occupied on disputed land last March near Deseronto, west of Kingston.
"Then we'll step back and say: 'You absorb this.' Because the next time we come out, it's going to be harder, it's going to be longer and it's going to have an impact on this economy that Canada can't imagine at this point.
"We've had enough."
Mr. Brant is alone when it comes to such bravado, which he blames on what he terms a campaign of fear waged by the federal government.
Elected native leaders who rely on billions of dollars in federal funds have taken to heart the message that confrontation means fiscal cuts, he said.
His own chief has distanced himself from that in-your-face approach.
Mr. Brant said that he understands the need to protect already stretched cash for social, housing and education programs. But he took aim at Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and what he called the cheap buy-off of his partner in blockade threats, Chief Terry Nelson of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation in Manitoba.
Chief Nelson backed off plans to block rail lines in his community after Mr. Prentice offered him 30 hectares (75 acres) toward settling a much-larger, long-standing land dispute.
"Seventy-five acres is hardly worth compromising a person's principles," Mr. Brant said.
Any move Friday to block thousands of commuters on Highway 401 or the CN rail line will depend on last-minute circumstances, police presence and safety issues, Mr. Brant said.
OPP Sergeant Kristine Rae hopes the day will be peaceful.
"But if an incident occurs," she said in an interview, "we have contingency plans in place."
Mr. Brant says the safety of women and children is of paramount concern.
Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory told an audience of provincial police chiefs yesterday that aboriginals gearing up for the June 29 national day of action aren't above the law and should be threatened with hefty fines or lawsuits if they set up illegal blockades.
The Opposition Leader said the province should send a strong message that such behaviour is unacceptable, regardless of how legitimate the grievance may be.
"People have to understand that if they take the law into their own hands, there are going to be consequences for that," Mr. Tory said in an interview after his speech to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police in Waterloo, Ont.
Mr. Brant said Mr. Tory's comments are just an attempt by some politicians to "ratchet up the rhetoric."
He and a tight-knit group of supporters within the Bay of Quinte Mohawks are determined to wreak at least some economic havoc.
"June 29th is the day to start this campaign," Mr. Brant said.
"We're the people that continue to bury our kids and have to put them to bed hungry at night. Yeah, we're absolutely sick of it."