Fri Nov 13, 2009
By Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
HAMILTON, Ont. - Aboriginal protesters occupying a former housing development in southern Ontario engaged in some unlawful behaviour that was unrelated to the land claim and for which police did not immediately pursue charges, a court heard Friday.
Six Nations members have been occupying the site in Caledonia, Ont., since February 2006. Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell, whose home borders the property, are suing the province and the police force for $7 million, alleging the police failed to protect them from repeated threats, intimidation and harassment from the protesters.
After a failed raid on the property on April 20, 2006, the protesters erected barricades blockading the town's two main roads.
Court heard excerpts Friday from an interview conducted under oath on Dec. 11, 2008 with provincial police Insp. Brian Haggith, who said the actions surrounding the blockades were "all unlawful."
"It blockaded the road," he said. "They set up a checkpoint... like a customs."
"I know we asked them if they would kindly remove the barricades," Haggith said in the interview. "They said no."
Haggith said the illegal barricades were not considered to be part of any aboriginal land claim protest.
The police raid saw hundreds more supporters arrive and police had to retreat. People were streaming onto the site with "every kind of weapon imaginable" other than firearms from what he could see, Haggith said, including sledgehammers, axes, bats and a chainsaw.
The Crown made its opening statement earlier Friday, stressing the importance of negotiations and a peaceful approach to dealing with land claim issues. Lawyer David Feliciant made numerous references to a report on the events in 1995 at Ipperwash Provincial Park, where native protester Dudley George was shot and killed by a police sniper.
The Crown acknowledges harm has come to Brown and Chatwell as a result of the occupation, but that doesn't mean the province and police force are liable, he said. Feliciant suggested Brown and Chatwell shoulder some of the blame for the ongoing tensions between them and the protesters.
"From time to time Mr. Brown and Ms. Chatwell engaged in behaviour that provoked the protesters on the site and exacerbated an already difficult situation," he said, adding the Crown plans to challenge some of the couple's psychologists' findings. Court heard Thursday the stress has caused them depression, anxiety and that Brown now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The question is not whether Brown and Chatwell suffered harm because of the protesters, but whether the Crown is at fault, Feliciant said.
In his "read-in" evidence, Haggith acknowledged much of the illegal activity Brown and Chatwell allege in their statement of claim, including threats to burn their house down, searches of their vehicle and theft of groceries, trespassing on their property and loud noises through the night.
Haggith also acknowledged that the protesters burned down a wooden bridge on April 20, 2006 and that it wasn't part of the housing development site. In that incident the fire department came, but pulled back and let it burn because the protesters were shouting death threats and the fire chief didn't believe the police could protect his firefighters.
"He just didn't believe that the police would stop it," Haggith said. "He was very skeptical as to how much protection we could offer."
In another incident in May 2006, which also occurred off the housing development site, protesters caused about $1 million in damage by burning down a hydro station, court heard. In normal circumstances arrests would be made following such vandalism, Haggith said, but the hydro station was "off-limits to the police...that particular day."