EJB said:
The 6 Nations reserve is very poor, no one would listen to their cliams so it seems they started blocades and now every one is mad and everyone and we have a crises on our hands.
Eric, not to nitpick, but I think you'd be surprised how much money there is on the 6 Nations.
Anyway, for mancow's benefit, here's the precis version of why there's a big stink in Caledonia.
The Iroquois Confederacy (and bear in mind the Confederacy is an extra-national organization that includes aboriginals from Canada and the US) have always claimed the lands along the Grand River--I believe it is six miles either side of the Grand River--belongs to them as part of a 200 year old treaty, called the Haldimand Grant. For those of you who aren't familiar with the area, start with a map of the north shore of Lake Erie and find Dunnville. Trace the length of the Grand River through Caledonia and K-W/Cambridge all the way up to the Wellington-Dufferin-Grey area. That's a lot of land.
The Confederacy claims the Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) are part of the Haldimand Grant. They are quite close to the Six Nations. If you look at a map of the south of Caledonia, everything to the north of the 6th Line of Oneida and west of Argyle Street is in dispute.
The protestors are frustrated with the speed of the land claims process which generally takes decades to resolve. In the meantime, developers (who may or may not have known about the land claim issue on the land they purchased) were allowed to continue to build on the land. This lead to the occupation of the land itself by aboriginals back in late January or early February.
Despite some hysteria by the townspeople the occupation of the land was peaceful and the protestors were open and welcoming of the media at that point. However, Henco (the developers) took the Ontario Provincial Police to court and obtained an injunction from a judge ordering the OPP to remove the protestors from the site. The OPP 'raided' the site early one morning but were faced with an increased presence from the protestors. The OPP then withdrew and the protestors barricaded Argyle Street just north of the DCE property. Further barricades went up later on Hwy 6 to the west.
At this point, rhetoric from both sides was amped up significantly. Townspeople who were concerned but generally understanding of the protest before were now angry at having the street blocked. (This is the main north-south artery in the area leading from/to Caledonia.) Tire bonfires on the street unnerved some. Somewhat racial statements from both sides also caused problems...and when the OPP were unable to keep the two sides separated during a series of scuffles, the townspeople began to organize and threaten lawsuits.
Last Friday, the situation came to a head. The protestors had been acting increasingly boldly after finally opening up Argyle Street to traffic. They were detaining vehicles that stopped in the vicinity of DCE and demanding to see the licenses of the drivers, claiming they had authority from the OPP. An elderly couple faced this type of incident last Friday and two of our shooters, both of whom had been threatened in the past, were attacked by protestors while the OPP stood idly by and did nothing. A camera was taken, the tape removed, and later returned. Our guy needed two staples to close a wound in his head.
The fallout from this lead to increased violence. Again, the OPP seemed unwilling to do anything but arrest Caledonia townspeople while the protestors assaulted a group of observers from the US ATF, stole their vehicle and attempted to run down an OPP constable.
As a result, 7 arrest warrants have been issued for protestors involved in last Friday's events. The 7 accused have left the DCE site for Six Nations, where the OPP (who have pledged not to set foot on Six Nations land to execute the warrants) have been negotiating their surrender. As of yesterday, the barricades are down in Caledonia and life is beginning to return to normal.
Whew.
