Land claim negotiator retires

Ontario has successor picked for Coolican

Daniel Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator

(Jul 17, 2008)

The Ontario government will soon announce a new senior negotiator for the Caledonia talks to replace Murray Coolican.

Coolican has left the post he has held for a year to retire to a new home in Nova Scotia.

His departure comes as land claims disputes heat up in Brantford and the talks on trying to resolve Six Nations land claims remain in limbo. Queen's Park, Ottawa and Six Nations are due to return to the table in August, but Queen's Park and Ottawa are waiting for Six Nations negotiators to get back to them on a restart date.

Greg Crone, spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant, said yesterday a replacement has been identified and he will be named before talks resume.

Talks began in May 2006 after natives occupied a Caledonia housing project, claiming the land was never surrendered, and an OPP raid failed to dislodge them.

"We will name that person shortly," Crone said of the new negotiator. "You've got to give the guy time to sign the papers and all that."

He couldn't say what Coolican's departure means to the continuity of the talks, which adjourned last month partly because natives are upset development is proceeding on land they claim in Brantford.

The talks since December have focused on a $26-million offer by Ottawa to settle the 1829 flooding of land Six Nations once controlled in Dunnville along the Grand River by construction of the first Welland Canal.

Coolican, a former deputy minister of Ontario's aboriginal affairs secretariat, took over in May 2007 as Ontario's chief representative from former Brant MP and cabinet minister Jane Stewart. In 1985, he headed a five-person panel that prepared a study for the Brian Mulroney government on land claims. During the Caledonia talks, he tried to expand Six Nations' consultative role on development projects throughout the Haldimand Tract, beyond Haldimand and Brantford, and also proposed a two-year moratorium on development.

Federal negotiator Ron Doering said Coolican will be "dearly missed" and said he played an extremely important role in this past "difficult" year.

"He brought a kind of enthusiasm for the task and that has been important," he said.

Doering was sure Ontario will appoint a person who will be able to pick up where Coolican left off.

Coolican could not be reached for comment.