I was intrigued by Jim Windle's rebuttal of Tim Philp's column regarding native activists ("Black hole of info regarding land claims," Nov. 18). I am hoping he can shed some light for me.
1. Is it not true that the land claims in question relate back to the granting of the Haldimand Tract of 1784? If so, is it not also true that the claimants are in some cases up to nine generations removed (assuming 25 years between generations) from the original group to whom the land was granted?
2. Would it not also be true that many local natives have descended from ancestors who immigrated into this area since 1784, and are therefore of no relation whatsoever to the group to whom the original tract was granted?
3. Is it not true that if and when settlements are reached, the burden of compensation will fall directly on the taxpayers of Ontario and/or Canada? Why should this be the case when our country was more than 100 years away from conception when the land was granted, and especially since the vast majority of Canada's taxpayers and government representatives are descendants of immigrants who arrived long after questionable land acquisitions took place?
4. I assume many of the land acquisitions in question were perpetrated for the benefit of individuals or small groups of people. Should these not then constitute a set of civil suits against the individuals involved? If so, then again I ask, why will the governments (taxpayers) of Ontario and/or Canada ultimately be responsible for the compensation of these actions?
5. Is it not true that the land in question was originally controlled, or "owned," if you will, by the Huron and Neutral nations who were slaughtered and had it stolen from them by the same native group who now cries foul for similar, yet much less brutal transgressions against them? How do the natives reconcile this inconsistency?
6. Isn't it true that much, if not most, of the real estate on earth has been fought for, stolen, or illegally or fraudulently acquired multiple times over during the history of the world? This is not to say that I believe fraudulent, illegal, and immoral land acquisition is right, or good, or even at all acceptable, but it is something that has been perpetrated throughout history by small squatters and massive empire builders alike, and the natives of southern Ontario are not the only people in the world to have been affected by it.
Richard Knuckle Brantford