Haldimand Mayor Marie Trainer says Ottawa will install highway signs in the county next year outlining the consequences of buying cigarettes from native smoke shops, including that purchases of the illegal smokes fuel organized crime.
The mayor says she was told this when she and Haldimand CAO Don Boyle recently went to Ottawa to discuss the land claims dispute and smoke shop issues with four federal cabinet ministers: Chuck Strahl, Indian Affairs; Jean-Pierre Blackburn, National Revenue; Peter Van Loan, Public Safety; and Haldimand-Norfolk MP Diane Finley.
Ottawa, in co-operation with the province, is already stopping and fining people it catches with illegal cigarettes from native smoke shops, including ones that sprang up this year along Highway 6, between Caledonia and Hagersville.
"We would be a pilot project," Trainer said yesterday. "We got the impression we would be one of the first for the signage. We're ready. We would welcome it. That would be good news that they're going to do more cracking down on the purchasing of cigarettes."
She said the signs would be modelled on signs along highway routes informing motorists about speeding fines. She understood the provinces were on board with the idea, including Ontario: "They're working on it to start putting it up in 2010. They're all ready to do this program."
Meanwhile, two of seven smoke shops along Highway 6 have closed in the last few weeks, including one set up in June at the end of farmer Ernie Palmer's driveway by native activist Stephen (Boots) Powless. The other closure was at a garden shop near Hagersville.
Powless, arrested by the OPP at the shack in July, removed it a week ago. He could not be reached for comment, but told the Turtle Island News he was dismantling it because he is under court order to stay away and he didn't want to give the OPP any reason to charge him with violating the order and place him in jail. He claims Palmer's farm is on unsurrendered Six Nations land.
Palmer had negotiated removal of the shop with Powless back in the summer, but Powless backed off when a group of Caledonia citizens announced they were going to form a militia. The shop was the scene of a confrontation between natives and police when they tried to evict Powless in July, but police eventually moved in and arrested Powless and three others, including two of his sons.
Palmer faced bylaw charges from the county for having an illegal building on his property. He said last night that part of his predicament "is not over yet," but Trainer hoped removal of the shop would "certainly be in his favour with the court case because he has fulfilled the request to have it removed."