City hall's attempt to thwart Six Nations Confederacy activists is being shrugged off by one of the protest leaders.
"We're a nation," Floyd Montour said in an interview Tuesday. "We can make our own laws and we're stepping up to the plate to do that. "If they can't understand that, I don't know why. That's what we have to do."
Montour and his wife, Ruby, have been at the forefront of actions aimed at stopping development in the city and elsewhere along the Grand River. They say the land belongs to Six Nations.
On Monday, city council approved bylaws giving the municipality power under the Municipal Act to prohibit interference at three development projects that have been targeted by protesters. It also authorizes police or bylaw enforcement officers to stop activity deemed illegal, including the removal of protesters and equipment.
A second bylaw seeks to prohibit attempts to legitimize the status of a Confederacy organization called the Haudenoshaunee Development Institute, set up to oversee development in land claim areas in the Haldimand Tract with powers to demand applications and charge fees. What city police will do with the bylaws is unknown. Chief Derek McElveny said senior officers and legal advisers will review the bylaws.
Floyd Montour said his group will continue to monitor targeted sites in Brantford and, if necessary, is prepared to move in.
Mayor Mike Hancock said Tuesday that the city decided to act because its authority is being undermined by a deliberate attempt to set up a rival system of law. The city is further compromised by an apparent unwillingness by the federal and provincial governments to use their power to curb the illegal actions.
In an interview, Hancock said those concerns led council to hire the legal firm, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, to help write the bylaws. "We realize we're very much on our own on this. We're not getting the help we need," Hancock said.
He said he and councillors are dismayed that federal and provincial negotiators are occupied with such matters as settling a claim over land flooded for the Welland Canal in the early 1820s, rather than the broader question of claims all along the Haldimand Tract and the legal challenge to the authority of municipalities.
Those claims, he said, are at the heart of actions by the Six Nations protesters, who are creating havoc with important developments in the city.
"There is a disconnect between what they are talking about and what is affecting us," he said. "As an evolving situation, this is becoming untenable."
The bylaw prohibiting actions undertaken under the auspices of the the HDI says the activities "are tantamount to the creation of a parallel, unauthorized and uncontrolled system" with the power to charge fees and set conditions of development in areas that are in Brantford's delegated authority.
Similarly, the bylaw prohibiting interference at construction sites specifically charges that members, representatives and supporters of the HDI "are causing or will cause significant adverse effects and irreparable harm to the city by causing . . . a decline in investment and the operation of public services."
Hancock said he has made his concerns known to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant and negotiators involved in land claims talks.
At a glance
A new bylaw gives the city the power under the Municipal Act to prohibit interference at the sites of three development projects that have been repeatedly struck by native activists. They are:
- An area bounded by Fen Ridge Court and Oak Park Road which contains the stalled Hampton Inn Hotel project and the Kingspan site which is just getting underway;
- A $40-million power centre at Wayne Gretzky Parkway and Henry Street;
- And a 99-house subdivision at Erie Avenue and Birkett Lane.