When Austin Fuller joined the military shortly before the Second World War, he knew what he signed up for. In a Belleville courtroom earlier this month, however, someone signed the 87-year-old veteran and his wife, Catherine, up for a fight neither wanted to be a part of.
According to court documents, the couple are among those who have launched a $3.3 million civil action that levels accusations of nepotism and abuse of power by the Mohawk band council and senior levels of government related to a proposed new police station on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.
The charges made in the statement of claim have not been tested in court.
The couple claim they were never consulted about joining the lawsuit and
only discovered through the media that they are named as plaintiffs in the suit.
"We didn't know a darn thing about it and we never gave anyone permission to use our names in this," said Austin Fuller, who served in the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in Italy.
Fuller said the primary reason their names were added to the case was to bolster the legitimacy of the suit. He is an honoured Canadian military veteran and his wife of more than 50 years is a Mohawk elder. That designation comes with a certain level of respect within Mohawk culture.
"We're both in our 80s and we don't bother anybody," Catherine Fuller said. "We didn't sign anything and didn't talk to anybody about putting our name in there."
The suit accuses the band council of not adequately consulting the Mohawk community about building a new police station to house the seven-officer force on the territory. Further, the statement of claim demands an immediate injunction, restraining the defendants from proceeding with the police station or its site until further community consultation can be arranged.
In the court document, the plaintiffs claim to represent 90% of the Mohawk, members of the Tyendinaga community who are "opposed to the establishment of the police building and services at the proposed location ... and are demanding that meaningful, substantive and comprehensive consultations take place."
Calls to the Ottawa-based lawyer who filed both claims, Stephen Reynolds, and the group's spokeswoman, Nicole Storms, have not been returned.