Wade Hemsworth
The Hamilton Spectator
(Dec 5, 2009)
Dana Chatwell says she had no choice but to stay.
The Caledonia woman, whose family home fell into the middle of a nasty, prolonged conflict over the native occupation of a disputed development site, said that if she left the house she was sure it would be occupied or burned down.
Instead, she testified, she and her husband and their son have remained through years of threats, harassment, property damage, blockades and rumours of worse to come, all the while feeling as if the Ontario Provincial Police were watching but not stepping in to protect them.
Even today -- nearly four years after Six Nations members moved to take over the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision -- Dana Chatwell told the civil trial hearing her family's $7-million lawsuit against the province and the OPP that the problems continue.
She testified that in the last several days, she has experienced a tire fire burning just beyond her back yard, a racial sign appearing in the middle of the night, and the mayor telling her about a gun incident.
"Every day I wake up and I still fear for my life," she testified.
Describing herself as as a "proud Canadian" and "true Caledonian," Chatwell, 46, said she asked a lot of questions as it became clear the dispute would not be resolved any time soon, but did not get satisfactory answers from public authorities.
Under cross-examination from the province's lawyer David Feliciant, she detailed a heavy toll on her marriage, her business, her sobriety, her property value and her peace of mind, laying the blame over and over again on the problems at Douglas Creek Estates and what she saw as unwillingness by the police to intervene.
Chatwell told court there had been so many incidents over so many months that she had trouble distinguishing one problem from another, or remembering the names of individual police officers she had spoken to, or what happened in the many meetings she and her husband David Brown had with an ever-changing roster of negotiators repeating what she called "the same old bullcrap."
"They moved so many people in and out of there, you'd get messed up," she said.
Meanwhile, she told court, her family had tried unsuccessfully to sell their home on Argyle Street, just up the hill from the entrance to the subdivision.
She said she set up many appointments to show the house, only to have no one show up.
The trial has been adjourned until Jan. 4, and is expected to continue through the entire month.