Posted By Michael-Allan Marion
May 15, 2008
Brantford Expositor
A challenge to
"I commend the fact that the minister is trying to speed things up," Hancock said Wednesday after Bryant issued his surprise challenge to the federal government during question period in the legislature, and later in a media scrum.
"He seems to have picked up on our concern in a telephone conversation we had that the negotiations aren't really addressing claims in our area where the protests are occurring," Hancock continued.
The mayor hoped Bryant's challenge is not just another episode in an unending round of fingerpointing between the federal, provincial and municipal governments over the past two years since a first occupation of a development site in
"He hasn't really addressed the protests that are hurting us," Hancock said, "but I'm pleased to see our concerns are getting the attention they deserve."
Bryant first issued his challenge during a question period exchange with Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett, who was taking the government to task over its failure to end recurring blockades of a construction site in Cayuga by Six Nations Confederacy activists led by Floyd and Ruby Montour, who also lead similar actions in
'great frustration'
"I spoke to the mayor of Brantford (on Tuesday) to discuss that municipal council's great frustration, the community's great frustration and the great frustration of developers with respect to what is taking place," Bryant said.
"The mayor said to me at the heart of this is the unresolved claims that are really primary along the Haldimand Tract, and both the mayor and I agreed that it really is time for the federal government to set a deadline and say, 'we're going to put all of our resources into resolving these claims.' So, I certainly want to add my voice when we say ... it's time for them to set a deadline and set it now."
Bryant amplified his remarks later in a scrum outside the legislature.
"We are in the midst of a 200-year-old dispute and the frustration in the communities is escalating," he told reporters.
"The focus of the claims is along the Haldimand Tract and the question is what the federal government did exactly and what compensation is owed by the federal government to Haudenoshaunee Six Nations.
"The Haudenoshaunee Six Nations have indicated at various points a desire either to look at mediation or to look at arbitration or to look at acceleration of the claims."
He said
"Our policy in
Meanwhile in
"Native protests in
"My community is now directly soliciting the Prime Minister's intervention, looking to him for leadership. What does he intend to do?"
Strahl did not directly answer the question.
"We continue to make offers in the tract," he said, "including some very specific ones, to put forward solutions. If there are justice or policing issues, those best be directed to the provincial government of Mr. McGuinty."
In his Tuesday telephone conversation with Bryant, Hancock said he and city council are frustrated by a negotiations process that is centred on compensation for a claim over land flooded for the
Those claims are at the root of protests which are bedeviling construction in
The mayor also explained that the worsening situation led council to approve two bylaws this week.
One prohibits attempts by an organization called the Haudenoshaunee Development Institute to become a legal authority over building projects in the Haldimand Tract.
The other prohibiting activities that interfere with construction at three sites: a hotel and a Kingspan insulation plant and head office at Fen Ridge Court and Oak Park Road; a power centre still to be built by First Gulf at Wayne Gretzky Parkway and Henry Street; and a housing subdivision at Erie Avenue and Birkett Lane.
Floyd and Ruby Montour have said the bylaws won't deter them from activities at those sites, but they and their confederates directed their activities elsewhere Wednesday.
They paid visits to a housing subdivision in the