Thursday, September 06, 2007 - 07:00
Brantford Expositor
Editorial - Developer Mike Quattrociocchi felt all alone Tuesday as he defended his right to continue building his housing project on Grand River Avenue.
Quattrociocchi called it "disgraceful" that he was left to fend for himself as a lone developer without help from the municipal, provincial or federal governments against a Six Nations protest by half a dozen people who halted work at the project.
But Quattrociocchi is not alone. If a small developer such as himself can be targeted, is any development a potential protest site?
Are home renos still OK in Brantford, or do we have to ask permission?
For the first time in memory, a Six Nations protest halted construction work in the city. And the singling out of a small contractor sends an unmistakable message - any site is now fair game.
When you think of how many construction sites dot the Brantford landscape, that thought is truly ominous, especially given Quattrociocchi's efforts to communicate with the Six Nations Confederacy.
How many out there haven't made this effort? Did Quattrociocchi merely call attention to his project by communicating his intentions?
Brantford residents are no longer passive observers of a small band of nervy natives rising up against a faceless corporation at the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia.
Now it's happening right in our city and the developer seems like the little guy struggling to finish his project while arguing that he's not responsible for 200 years of injustice to the Six Nations people.
We can no longer sit back and smugly judge the Ontario Provincial Police for being ineffective in Caledonia. Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer has mused about contracting a different police force, perhaps Brantford's municipal force, to take the place of the OPP in Caledonia.
She and everyone else got their first glimpse Tuesday of how Brantford police would approach an occupation similar to Caledonia. There's no telling what might have happened had the protesters not agreed to leave peacefully, but we may soon find out.
And the co-operative relationship developed by Brantford city council with Six Nations appears to be disintegrating.
As for who should be negotiating with native protesters instead of individual developers like Quattrociocchi, the problem appears to be that no one wants the job.
Federally, the Conservatives are in a minority situation and have just swapped Chuck Strahl for Jim Prentice as Indian Affairs minister.
Provincially, the Dalton McGuinty Liberals head into an election campaign Monday - a fact undoubtedly not lost on those who staged the protest.
With relative quiet on the Caledonia front so far this year, the last thing McGuinty and the Liberals want is another similar protest to flare up just as they head to the polls.
Luckily for them, neither the Tories nor the New Democrats seem bursting with practical solutions.
But solving Six Nations issues and addressing protests such as Tuesday's have been planted firmly among the issues in the election for local candidates.
Tuesday's protest and the expected fallout from it have changed the rules for the election, just as they have changed the rules for developers in the city.
It may not provide much solace for Quattrociocchi, but he is definitely no longer alone.