I don't spend a lot of time on Gary McHale's Internet offspring, Caledoniawakeupcall.comor his most recent brainchild, CANACE, but whenever I do, it is always an eyeopener -- and I don't mean that in a good way.
There is a large picture of, of all possible people, Martin Luther King, Jr., starring back from the main page of his very elaborate web-site with the headline, "Reconciliation through equality."
How this ultra right-wing conservative web designer can contort the message of the late human rights champion to fit his peculiar perception that the entire white race is the new downtrodden and racially targeted segment of North American society is so preposterous that it truly boggles the mind. But not preposterous enough, it would seem, for Mayor Mike Hancock and Brantford's city council to give an ear to on Sept. 29 at city hall.
McHale is not from Brantford, does not live in Brantford and has no real reason to address Brantford's council, but is being welcomed with open arms under the guise that he might have the answer to Brantford's growing tensions over unresolved native land issues.
McHale is coming to help? How much help has he been in Caledonia, another Grand River town he has superimposed his image upon? Like clockwork, whenever the situation in Caledonia seems to be settling down, in comes McHale, up go the tensions and in comes the SWAT police. Almost invariably, after any of McHale's "rallies," some kind of conflict immediately ensues. Now, he wants to bring his dog and pony show to Brantford and use city hall as the venue? This present administration's handling of this deep-rooted and historically complex situation is appalling and is getting even more insane by the day.
City hall's hired pit-bull lawyer Neal Smitheman, who is the same guy who pushed to have seven traditional leaders jailed and fined in a dispute over licensing of uranium and diamond mining exploration. Six leaders from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, or Big Trout Lake First Nation, were imprisoned March 17 with a six-month jail sentence for contempt of court. In February, Ardoch Algonquin First Nation leader Bob Lovelace was given the same term for the same offence.
The Ontario Court of Appeal later ruled the six-month sentences were too harsh.
Last Friday, it seems Superior Court Justice Jane Milanetti, also saw Smitheman's injunction action as heavy handed. Is this really the hand Mayor Hancock wants to extend towards Six Nations on behalf of the people of Brantford? Is McHale really the right man to help Brantford reduce tensions between city hall and the people of Six Nations?
Here's one Brantford citizen whom neither McHale, Smitheman, or Hancock represents, and I demand as a citizen of this city, that the city hall injunction be revoked and be replaced with meaningful and respectful dialogue, the obvious option this council has failed to pursue.
Jim Windle Brantford