Barbara Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Dec 4, 2009)
Dana Chatwell teetered between tears of frustration and moral outrage as she testified yesterday about the volatile native standoff at the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia and the overwhelming stress on her family.
"I've had enough of everybody," said Chatwell, her voice growing louder and more forceful. "I'm tired of fighting the government. I'm tired of fighting with the police. I'm tired of fighting the natives. I'm tired of fighting Caledonia. I'm tired of fighting with Caledonia people who say just keep quiet ... I'm not going to keep quiet."
Chatwell, 46, and her husband, David Brown, 42, and son, Dax Chatwell, 18, are suing the Ontario government and the OPP for $5 million, plus $2 million in punitive and aggravated damages.
The family, whose Argyle Street South home backs onto the 28-hectare residential construction site occupied by Six Nations protesters in February 2006, say police adopted a hands-off policy toward the aboriginal land claim and abandoned the plaintiffs to the chaos and lawlessness that ensued.
For nearly four years, she said, they have lived in fear for their lives and the safety of their property without the protection of the law. She said the protesters continue to this day to harass, intimidate and threaten them, knowing the OPP will not enter the property or interfere.
Under questioning by her lawyer, Michael Bordin, Chatwell said she and her husband deserved a medal for remaining non-violent in the face of such extreme provocation. She suggested that someone might be dead by now if other homeowners with more confrontational attitudes had been in their place.
"I'm angry. I'm bitter. I'm sick of everybody thinking that we're racists and we're not ... I just hate it," said Chatwell, who grew up in Caledonia in a blended family of six girls, three of whom are half native.
She said her family has not celebrated Christmas in their traditional fashion since 2005.
She had always been among the first to put up lights and decorate the tree, but the stress of their home life had left husband and wife barely able communicate civilly or cope with their day-to-day routine.
Chatwell said she sold her new patio set because the family could not sit out on their deck or in their yard without being heckled by protesters. She said her husband, who used to enjoy cooking outdoors, gave up in disgust and sold his fancy, high-powered barbecue.
Earlier yesterday, Chatwell described a harrowing incident during the Labour Day weekend in 2008. She received an urgent call from a friend who had a police radio scanner. The friend warned that protesters were setting up another road blockade on Argyle Street and urged Chatwell and her son to get in their car and drive into town.
As she drove toward DCE, Chatwell noticed three men dragging a metal guard rail across the road. She got out of her car and pleaded with a male protester to let her and her son pass through the barricade.
The large man, who was carrying a two-by-four board, told Chatwell she would not be be going into town that day.
Chatwell said she was not afraid at that point because it was daylight and there were two OPP cruisers behind her vehicle approaching the barricade. But then the man with the board suddenly began swinging it at her.
Chatwell looked over her shoulder to see the OPP cruisers had turned and were driving off in the other direction.
Her son, Dax, looked in a panic.
He had climbed into the driver's seat of her car, as if he might try to take a run at the native protester threatening his mom.
"As soon as I saw those two OPPs leaving me, I was scared. And I knew that I was in way over my head," said Chatwell, who ran back to her car, told her son to move over, turned her vehicle around, and sped off south to the Caledonia bypass to reach the north side of town.