Updates from a Six Nations supporter

Six Nations Updates from a supporter

Continued from here ... 

http://rabble.ca/babble/aboriginal-issues-and-culture/injunction-hearing...

I try to keep tabs on Six Nations court activities, so I will post what I find out here, focusing on the legal issues as I understand them.

I speak from my own experience, observations and information gleaned from others. I speak for no one but myself, an (potato-famine Irish)Canadian grandmother with a multicultural network of family and friends, now with time to spend on the things that bother me most about Canada. Need I say more?

Quick review ...

"When rome was at it's height of power The Haudenosaunee land base was three times that of rome"

The beginning

On the morning of February 28 2006 Janie Jamieson and her children walked onto the Douglas Creek Estates construction site in Caledonia, soon joined by others, to protest the building of a massive housing development there, right next to the borders of the Six Nations reserve. Previously Janie and others had informed the Haldimand Council, the developers and handed out fliers to Caledonia residents indicating that there were concerns about the development, since it was on land under claim. The protesters, mostly women and children, were chased by men driving construction machines. They stood their ground, and soon the construction ceased. Supported by the Clan Mothers and traditional Confederacy Council, Six Nations Confederacy people thereafter maintained a peaceful presence on the site.

On Sunday April 16 2006, the Six Nations elected Band Council narrowly voted that the (traditional) Confederacy Council would lead the negotiations with the federal government.

On Tuesday April 18, the federal government (Harper) refused to negotiate with the Confederacy.

On Wednesday April 19, the Henning bros. (Henco Development) threatened strongly and confidently in the local paper that the OPP would be forced to go back to Judge Marshall's court to answer for their actions and decisions if they did not clear the site of Six Nations people. The Mayor strongly and confidently agreed, and so did other politicians. (Note: I think what the Hennings must have meant was that Judge Marshall would order the OPP back to court? Gee ... but it really seemed like they were giving the order. Hm.)

Wednesday evening, an agitated Dalton McGuinty assured Six Nations and the public that the OPP would not attack the people on the site, and sent someone to the site personally to tell them that too.

On Thursday April 20 at about 4:45 in the morning, the OPP attacked the 21 people on the Douglas Creek Estate site.
The 16 Six Nations people on the site were brutally awakened and more brutally arrested by OPP in tactical gear with their rifles pointed. aftermath Five? non-native supporters were run off at gunpoint, not arrested. Dave

Over the next few hours, hundreds of Six Nations men women and youths sped to the site. At least one young man ran the whole 17 k from his home when he heard the news. They managed to get past the armed-to-the-teeth 100+ OPP and onto the site in one or more places.

100+ OPP, some with assault rifles (none fired), tear gas (a few cannisters used), tasers (several men were tasered repeatedly) tried to 'arrest' some of the Six Nations people who were by then swarming onto the site. All Six Nations people thus captured were rescued by many others. Eventually the OPP were all chased off the site, most of them running: When you've just attacked and beaten somebody's wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, son, daughter to the ground, and then been overpowered by husbands, sons, fathers, brothers, etc, some of whom you've tasered repeatedly in the process ... well ... if they are nice enough to just chase you and your weapons away instead of beating the shite out of you ... you RUN! ... RUN OPP RUN!!
(Recognizing that OPP officers did not order themselves to be there and a few refused to participate in the violence against women and youths. However, other officers were brutal.)

You may have seen the only Apr 20 media clip ever shown publicly ... of some of the last cops leaving. They wanted to run away and leave a prisoner transport vehicle and a couple of cruisers behind. They were 'strongly encouraged' to take their !*&%#@! vehicles with them, because .. oops! ... one was already getting damaged. The media never played any of their footage of the attacks on Six Nations men, women, youth and elders, to my knowledge. They only played over and over and over again the clip of someone bashing that last f**king cruiser with a stick. (f**king media!) Last dingbat cop thought he'd 'order him to stop hitting the cruiser. (hahaha not!) That's all Canadians ever saw on TV.

Then ... the distress signal fires, blockades of rail and road and bridges to keep the army out (because they were sure that's who was coming next), the media frenzy, and the Caledonia frenzy.

I arrived about 1 pm. Caledonians were facing off with Six Nations, with OPP in between. As I stood on the sideline and watched, more and more OPP had to turn their backs to the peaceful Six Nations people at their barricade, and face the frenzied townspeople who were shouting ugly epithets and threatening both OPP and Six Nations. I heard one cop refuse the order to face the people of Caledonia. They thought they were there to shoot 'Indians'. (A few days later, the Toronto cops also refused.)

Cops and (some) Canadians all over Canada were stunned and WILDLY disgusted at the OPP for turning their police line away from Six Nations and toward onto the townspeople, but ... from then to now ... that's where the problem was that threatened the peace.  I went around the screaming Caledonia crowd to get a timmies, then came back and walked around the end of the police line (glaring over my reading glasses and daring them to tell me to stop ... they didn't) and on down to the Six Nations barricade and sacred fire, where it was peaceful.

There are so many stories, so much I have learned, so many wonderful people I have met ... but this is a discussion board, not a novel. I can't wait to see the movie. It will be a powerful message for Canadians. Unfortunately, available video is only cautiously shown, because it would, even now, be used by police to id people and lay further charges.

Since that time, the OPP has pretty much 'kept the peace', ie, kept the hot-headed townspeople away from the site, and not interfered with other work stoppages in Haldimand, much to the anger of some members of the Caledonia community. petition

The incident at Stirling Woods in Caledonia, where a builder was seriously injured, is a much longer story and not for here. Suffice it to say that there was also a Six Nations youth injured, much less seriously, but if not interrupted the action that caused his injury could have quickly killed him. two scenarios

The Present: Brantford

About six construction sites in Brantford have now been shut down by Six Nations Confederacy people, the latest one yesterday, since the province did not consult them nor acommodate their rights before approving construction projects.

Many of the people of Brantford have been supportive of Six Nations. Few have harassed them. City Council is in denial and lashing out, however, and the province is hiding.

The City of Brantford filed for an injunction last May. A temporary injunction was granted, but the hearing for the permanent injunction is still in progress.

Meanwhile, the Brantford City Police, after stumbling a bit, have also maintained a 'keep the peace' approach between Six Nations and the developers and construction workers. Six Nations have shut the sites down in spite of the temporary injunction. Yesterday while some were in court, some others did it again, at a site repeatedly warned that silt runoff was destroying a cold water creek and brown trout:Go Vince! Silt runoff, Brantford

No one has to stay on the sites now: The construction companies have pulled out. One of them is now suing the City of Brantford for $10m. (Good!)

Six Nations people have been arrested coming off various sites, etc, and those cases are wending their way through the courts, all linked to whether or not a permanent injunction will be granted. (No injunction, no offense.) Due to the linked nature of all the legal issues, one (Toronto) judge has now been appointed to manage the entire file.

For those who don't know, Ontario's 'Places to Grow' Act put a greenbelt between Hamilton and Caledonia, effectively pushing development onto the Haldimand Tract.

OK ... now we're (sort of) up to the present. The next court date for the injunction hearing is  Feb 20 (to be confirmed). Currently, closed meetings are being held between Six Nations, court officials, City of Brantford, Province of Ontario, and Government of Canada because of this ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal (Ardoch, KI)... 

[48]
Where a requested injunction is intended to create “a protest-free zone” for contentious private activity that affects asserted aboriginal or treaty rights, the court must be very careful to ensure that, in the context of the dispute before it, the Crown has fully and faithfully discharged its duty to consult with the affected First Nations: see Julia E. Lawn, “The John Doe Injunction in Mass Protest Cases” (1998) 56 U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 101. The court must further be satisfied that every effort has been exhausted to obtain a negotiated or legislated solution to the dispute before it. Good faith on both sides is required in this process: Haida Nation, p. 532.

Frontenac Ventures appealed this to the Supreme Court and it was dismissed, so the ruling stands. 'The Crown' - federal or provincial but in this case provincial because they approved  the developments - is trying to convince the court that "the Crown has fully and faithfully discharged its duty to consult". Six Nations Confederacy set up the Haudenosaunee Development Institute for that purpose, but Ontario has refused to meet with them. There is a side table in negotiations called 'Consultation', but it is to plan a process for consultation, not to do it.

Essentially, Ontario is behaving as if the Supreme Court rulings of the past 2-3 years have not happened. They are still trying to get away with just notifying Six Nations of developments, and they are playing divide-and-conquer games between the Confederacy and the Band Council.

The ruling on the injunction, when it comes, will be very significant all across the country:

If there can be no injunctions, there can be no police actions against Indigenous Peoples when they assert their land rights under the Constitution. No more police violence like Caledonia, Ipperwash, Oka, Burnt Church, etc. etc. etc.

I'll be trying to do regular updates from court. Stay tuned ...