With tensions rising after an aboriginal protester was arrested on Monday, it's time for Six Nations representatives to get back to the negotiating table. Six Nations suspended land claim talks arising from the two-year-old occupation of a housing development in Caledonia on June 7, saying they would resume in late July or early August.
A few days earlier, Brantford city council was granted an injunction banning protests at specific construction sites that had been targeted.
"Everything is connected," Mohawk Chief Allen Mac- Naughton, who is also a negotiator, said at the time. "The issue of an injunction against our people, charges being laid against our people does make it hard to negotiate."
Hard to negotiate? When have these talks ever been easy?
It's obvious to even a casual observer that talks to settle a 200-year-old dispute are both difficult and slow, but they are also essential.
And given the potential for trouble at protest sites in Brantford they also need to be approached with a renewed sense of urgency. Temperatures are rising -- and we don't just mean the weather.
We have stressed many times the need for the current federal government in particular to make resolving these claims a priority -- and we reiterate it again.
The federal government needs to view itself as a partner with the province in ending this impasse instead of repeatedly pointing out where the dividing lines of responsibility are drawn.
Now, however, it's time for Six Nations to show some good faith by ending the break in negotiations and heading back earlier than planned.
It would be tough to deny that circumstances have changed in the month and a half since Six Nations decided a breather from negotiations was needed.
The departure of provincial negotiator Murray Coolican -- who proposed a two-year moratorium on development in the Haldimand Tract -- should not be used as an excuse to delay talks.
Canadian and Six Nations citizens need reassurance at this juncture that everyone -- the federal government, the province and Six Nations -- are serious about settling land claims in the Haldimand Tract.
Federal negotiator Ron Doering has urged Six Nations to return to the table.
It's time for their representatives to heed his call.
While it's a positive sign that community members are proposing ways to turn down the heat on land claim protests in Brantford, there's only one prospect for long-term resolution.
That resolution can only happen if everyone is at the table and committed to negotiate.
There's no better time for Six Nations leaders to send a message that they feel the urgency to settle this dispute. These talks have become as much about peace as they are about land.
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