First Nations protest in Caledonia, Ontario

Destroyer · #1 05-22-2006, 07:47 PM

It's getting so ugly..This morning the First Nations dug a giant hole in the road and put a hydro pole across the road. Now the power's out up there...This protest has been going on for months with no settlement...Last I heard there's a moratorium for the land developers. If it's not settled soon there's going to be a full on race war up there..

What are you thoughts on this?

debaser · #2 05-22-2006, 07:53 PM

i saw this on the news tonight, they need to settle this before it gets uglier.

Left Turn · #3 05-22-2006, 07:55 PM

Can someone supply more info on this?

debaser · #4 05-22-2006, 07:57 PM

It looked like a sure sign of a breakthrough and a peaceful end to a long and divisive struggle.

Just hours after native protestors in Caledonia had agreed to finally take down a barrier blocking the main road into the town, it went right back up again.

What happened?

Townspeople, fed up with the constant bickering over a land claim, created a roadblock of their own and refused to let many of the would-be departing protestors cross.

They were demanding the natives take down all the barriers – not just the main one on what many refer to as Highway 6.

When the Six Nations members apparently refused, the townspeople put up their own barricades and things got tense in a hurry.

Singing a chorus of “O Canada,” the counter demonstrators stood their ground, causing Six Nations members to put their own block back up and thus re-igniting the standoff.

And now things appear to be going from bad to worse, after police moved in to separate the two factions, who engaged in pushing and shoving matches and small fist fights.

“Both sides stormed each other and it was chaos,” reported CityNews’ Kris Reyes, who watched the confrontations. “Clashes between the natives and the residents. Punches being thrown. I saw one guy throw a beer bottle into the crowd. Extra police officers were taken in.”

The natives are said to be using a front end loader to get further entrenched into their position.

Angry residents blame authorities for letting things escalate this far and with both sides numbering more than a hundred each, it could easily spark more trouble.

And as they so often do in these cases, rumours are flying about what’s really going on behind the scenes, ratcheting up tensions even more.

A power outage hit the area just after 2pm, increasing tensions and adding another headache for authorities trying to keep the peace. What caused the outage and when the power will return isn’t known.

The Aboriginals had put the barrier in place a month ago, after a dispute over land claims reached a boiling point.

The province claimed the natives’ ancestors sold the land more than a hundred years ago, while the Aboriginals insisted it was still theirs.

A housing development was being built on the site when it was occupied by the Six Nations, who set up the blockade in the small town and refused to budge.

For weeks, local townspeople, police and the protestors have come close to several violent confrontations, but when Ontario finally agreed to temporarily halt construction on the land, the natives decided to remove their obstruction on Monday morning as a sign of good faith.

“Old Plank Road, formerly Highway 6, is now open to show our goodwill towards a peaceful resolution,” explained Six Nations Confederacy Chief Allen McNaughton.

That goodwill lasted less than half a day when townspeople took action of their own.

"They're instigating, (they're) a bunch of irate radicals," condemns spokeswoman Janie Jamieson. "What they don't realize is if they continuously threaten our safety, that barricade can go right back up again, so it's entirely their decision.”

Locals in the city had complained the shutdown was hurting business and preventing residents from getting to work, creating more hard feelings and more confrontations between two cultures that had existed peacefully side-by-side for years.

Former Premier David Peterson is trying to negotiate an end to the dispute and had earlier called the dismantling a "big step forward". That hope has dissipated, and he says it’s time for all involved to start applying logic.

“The best thing that could happen, is if people went quietly home on both sides and some kind of order is restored before there is an incident,” said Peterson.

“Then we restore the power and we try to get the roads patched up and going…I don’t see any alternative to that.”

Left Turn · #5 05-22-2006, 08:00 PM

I'm still lost, I'm afraid, who is who and what are the demands?

LawyerMcLaw · #6 05-22-2006, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bryan

Singing a chorus of “O Canada,” the counter demonstrators stood their ground, causing Six Nations members to put their own block back up and thus re-igniting the standoff.

There's your trouble.

Cyclona · #7 05-23-2006, 12:54 PM

When Mike Harris was in power provincially in Ontario in the 90's there was another violent stand-off at Oka where a first nations protestor was shot & killed by the provincial police. As conservative governments do, they swept it under the rug and are only now, a decade later, prosecuting the case. Mike Harris the then-premier of Ontario and other OPP officials were overheard on record saying a series of rascist remarks towards the First Nations protestors.

The frist nations people at Calendonia are protesting land claims. The Government has said on paper that these lands belong to them, but it hasn't actually been turned over to them. Good for them for protesting.

Destroyer · #8 05-23-2006, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyclona

When Mike Harris was in power provincially in Ontario in the 90's there was another violent stand-off at Oka where a first nations protestor was shot & killed by the provincial police. As conservative governments do, they swept it under the rug and are only now, a decade later, prosecuting the case. Mike Harris the then-premier of Ontario and other OPP officials were overheard on record saying a series of rascist remarks towards the First Nations protestors.

The frist nations people at Calendonia are protesting land claims. The Government has said on paper that these lands belong to them, but it hasn't actually been turned over to them. Good for them for protesting.

Exactly....Don't get me started on what an asshole Harris is..

Anyways I was watching CityTV today and the latest news is that the Caledonia Citizens alliance and the First Nations representatives are meeting as we speak. Earlier in the morning, the barricade was being slowly dismantled..I guess we'll know how everything will turn out by the end of the day..

LawyerMcLaw · #9 05-23-2006, 03:08 PM

It's quite a quandry. I think the various levels of gov't need to be doing a better job on a lot of fronts with regard to aboriginal issues.

Harper's utter lack of policy on Indian affairs is frightening.

Blade · #10 06-22-2007, 02:30 PM

This has gone on for more than a year. Do you think the natives will actually do anything stupid.

Blade · #11 06-22-2007, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Left Turn

I'm still lost, I'm afraid, who is who and what are the demands?

I think the only way now is violence because I`m gessing that they have tried everything or we could just let it play out.

Blade · #12 06-22-2007, 05:31 PM

Does any one know how I could join the native protesters?

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