TYENDINAGA -- Two tiny caskets buried on a rural cemetery does not excuse Shawn Brant for his alleged criminal activity in blocking Hwy. 401 or CN train lines last year.
But the two unmarked graves in the All Saints Anglican Cemetery here may go a long way to understanding the radical native rights crusader.
"Faye and Deanna were their names," the 44-year-old Mohawk said yesterday. "They were only a few hours old when they died."
But it's how they died that shaped a lifetime of anger.
It was 1989 and his first wife, Sandra, then pregnant and who still lives on the reserve, had an accident. "We had no drinking water so we used a well," said Brant. "When she was lifting up the bucket with the rope, she slipped and was hurt."
She went into labour.
"The twin girls died," said an emotional Brant. "It was awful. We named them after their grandmothers."
What happened that day, he said, changed his life. "After that I was a freak," he said. "I was angry. I wanted to hurt, because I was hurt."
He became an activist for everything from running water to preventing poverty. Brant has been at some of the more famous protests, including the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty rally at Queen's Park that ended in violence.
The occupation of the Revenue Canada building in downtown
Both were long before the blockades of train corridors and Hwy. 401 were in the news. It was in those years he met his second wife, Sue Collis, whom he describes as a fellow OCAP activist, and who has three of his four children.
His eldest, Matthew, 21, is a university student. He also has three others named Teyohate, 8, Kahnonsase, 6, and Otsirakatste, 4 months.
He is a cabinet maker by trade, but a pain to the OPP, and even elected native politicians. But, he argues, he does have "a mandate" from people on the reserve.
"It's the Long House," he said. "We are a traditional people and I am told to speak on behalf of the community."
Brant faces charges of mischief. And this week, he's taken on OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino for conversations between the two on
I came to this reserve near Deseronto yesterday not to talk about that. Brant already knows how I feel.
You block a major passageway or get into a battle with someone like Fantino, you are not only alone but will get little sympathy. It's just wrong.
I came to talk about water.
This is one of the issues he's been trying to draw attention to since his personal tragedy in 1989, and if people are suffering here, let's talk about it.
He says nothing has changed. Even this spring, the 1,100 people not on town water were given a warning to boil their water "and even that might not work."
No one, said Brant, seems able to get this problem settled. Not the federal government, not the provincial government and not his band council.
"The reality is we live in a community where we don't have safe drinking water," he said. "I can tell you there are kids here with boils on their skin because 50% of this reserve does not have safe water for drinking or washing. It's just not right because they should not have to live like that."
Brant toured a reserve park where there are public showers and a special pump that provides clean water.
"People have to line up to get this water," he said. "I think taking a shower like this is an indignity. It's okay taking a shower here in the summer but try taking your family here in the winter."
Ironically, it's too bad he's in such a row with Fantino since as Emergency Management Commissioner and as OPP Commissioner, he has taken a keen interest in the water issue.
No matter what happens to Brant in the court system, can someone from some level of government come here and do an immediate and appropriate assessment of the water situation and deal with it immediately? No studies, no promises. Just action.
If the water problem can be fixed, fix it.