Caledonia class-action lawsuit can go forward: Judge

More than 400 businesses and contractors and as many residents have been identified as potentially joining the lawsuit to complain how authorities handled the protest. Attorney John Findlay, said claims could reach tens of millions of dollars.

The shutting down of a major street and highway during the crisis for more than five weeks "had tremendous effect on the businesses," Findlay said.

"The continual occupation had nuisance affects on the residents who live around the site and the failure to clear the occupiers from the site also affected the contractors supplier services."

Native protesters claiming ownership over land being developed into a subdivision, known as the Douglas Creek Estates, occupied the site in February, 2006.

The following April, OPP officers raided the site and ejected the protesters only to be driven back when several hundred natives from the nearby Six Nations reserve arrived.

The natives then erected barricades which cut off a number of homes from the rest of the community.

"It is readily apparent that at the core issue of this lawsuit is whether there was failure of the OPP to provide statutorily and contractually required policing services to the residents of Caledonia in each of the identified circumstances," wrote Justice David S. Crane Monday in a decision which names a former OPP commissioner, an OPP inspector and the province.

"Did the defendants allow a state of lawlessness to exist? Did the defendants respond reasonably to circumstances that required a balances approach?"

"It is my view that the goal of access to justice could not be served by individual actions in the circumstances of this case."

The crisis in Caledonia, about 110 kilometres southwest of Toronto, led to a flurry of court cases and lawsuits.

Last week charges were dropped against OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino in relation to a complaint by a private citizen over his handling of aboriginal protests in Caledonia.

In December the Ontario government and provincial police reached an out-of-court settlement with a couple who claimed their family was terrorized during the aboriginal occupation.

Lawyers will next meet, at a yet-to-be-determined date, to work out a litigation plan and common issues with Crown attorneys.