Protester Gary McHale said he never intended to mount an alternative rally in downtown Brantford on Friday.
McHale said city officials and police had no need to worry about the prospect of a counter-protest by his group to a "peace rally" by natives and non-natives in Victoria Park.
"I had told our group on Monday that I could not possibly go to Brantford because I would be blamed for anything that happened," he said.
McHale acknowledged that one of his associates was at the rally, filming the event, and his wife and a lawyer were in the court house across the street. They were there to follow legal proceedings in which the city is seeking an injunction against native protesters who have shut down construction sites with protests and blockades.
The McHales are preparing for a motion to be heard in Superior Court in Cayuga on Thursday as part of a private prosecution they have filed on behalf of a developer with a project stalled by similar protests.
In the motion, Floyd and Ruby Montour and members of a Confederacy organization called the Haudenosaunee Development Institute who have been leading a Confederacy protest group in actions in Brantford, have been charged with mischief, extortion and intimidation.
"We will be using the Brantford injunction papers in our case," McHale said, adding that "as soon as any builder in Brantford asks us to do so, we will go to Brantford's Superior Court and file similar charges."