ARTICLE: Native leaders call for more protests

Native leaders call for more protests
TheStar.com – News

`We should have this annually until we’re satisfied,’ New Brunswick chief says of national day of action

July 11, 2007
Alison Auld
Canadian Press

HALIFAX–Several Canadian aboriginal leaders called yesterday for a repeat of the National Day of Action, saying the event that snarled traffic and disrupted rail service helped elevate their concerns across the country.

In Halifax for the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting, native chiefs said the largely peaceful protests made Canadians take notice of issues that have plagued their communities for decades – outstanding land claims, rampant poverty and the often abysmal living conditions on reserves.

“I think we should have this annually until we’re satisfied,” Chief Susan Levi-Peters of New Brunswick’s Elsipogtog First Nation told hundreds of delegates. “If we stop talking now, then everything will stop. We need to keep talking.”

First Nations groups and their supporters, both militant and moderate, marked the national day of action on June 29 with marches, blockades, information sessions and newspaper ads.

A rogue group of Mohawk protesters, led by Shawn Brant, set up barricades near the town of Deseronto in eastern Ontario, prompting major rail and road disruptions, including one on Highway 401, the country’s busiest highway.

Some chiefs in Halifax suggested there could be regular protests that could take on a more aggressive tone if the federal government fails to resolve long-standing grievances that leaders said are leaving their communities in desperation.

Chief Terrance Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation in southern Manitoba said if little is done to restore hope to aboriginal communities, the country could face a barrage of protests.

“What Shawn Brant did is nothing compared to what is going to happen in the future if we can’t give our people hope for the future,” he said.

Nelson said rates of unemployment that climb as high as 90 per cent in some communities, and poverty levels that compare to those in developing countries, could push natives to take more drastic actions.

The key fight, he said, should be to settle land-claim disputes that have left bands tied up in courts or negotiations to acquire territory they say is rightfully theirs.

Assembly Chief Phil Fontaine said leaders will discuss the fallout from the national day of action throughout the three-day meeting and decide whether they should hold more.

Fontaine insisted that more Canadians now support aboriginals in their fights with government, citing a recent poll that suggested 77 per cent of people are on side with First Nations issues.

Fontaine also attributed Ottawa’s recent decision to reform the land-claims process, which came just weeks before the day of action, to pressure linked to the June 29 events.

But since then, he said, there has been no action on several issues, including the UN declaration on indigenous peoples, the Kelowna Accord or a funding cap.

“The situation is urgent. These are crisis situations,” he said.

 

ARTICLE: Residents, natives protest uranium mine; 300 participate in Sharbot Lake

The Whig-Standard
Jordan Press
Monday, July 09, 2007 – 00:00

Local News – A retired minister, John Hudson moved from Kingston to the Sharbot Lake area 15 years ago.

He moved for the scenery, the environment and the quiet, but all that could change and yesterday, he was preaching against a plan that would see uranium mined near his home.

Marching along Highway 7, Hudson said he’s worried about the environmental impacts from the proposed operation.

“I’m right down the river and I see enough crap coming down our river,” said Hudson, 70. “The bottom line is I don’t want a uranium mine at my back door.”

And neither did the estimated 300 people who marched along with Hudson, area residents and Sharbot Lake and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations members.

“We were hoping for 100,” said Doreen Davis, chief of the Sharbot Lake Algonquin First Nation. “I am just honoured and humbled that the people are here to support us.

Davis said everyone wants to see a full moratorium on mining the substance and the demonstration was designed to get the attention of upper levels of government.

“And if not, we’ll do this again,” she said. “We’ll continue until somebody listens.”

Yesterday’s march went from the intersection of highways 7 and 509 west to Highway 38. Along the way, the band of demonstrators grew as more people appeared on the road and joined the march.

Waving flags, chanting, singing, drumming and holding signs, the march had a simple message summed up on many of the homemade signs they carried and the T-shirts they wore: “No uranium mining.”

Provincial police closed off that section of the highway and re-routed traffic through the area for the one-hour march that police described as “extremely peaceful.”

Harold Perry, honorary chief of the Sharbot Lake Algonquin First Nation, said there is an obligation to fight the proposed mining operation.

“We can’t afford to have this kind of stuff going on,” he said. “I don’t want my daughter and the next generations to grow up with a thing like that.”

Mining uranium causes long-term environmental and health effects because of its radioactivity, said Joan Kuyek, national co-ordinator for MiningWatch Canada.

“In this case, the local communities are saying they don’t want it, the Algonquins are saying they want it and we support that,” Kuyek said.

A group of Algonquins have been at the entrance to the proposed mining site. The occupation is now into its second week.

Along with Algonquins have come area residents who oppose the project. Some have brought themselves, others food and supplies.

Frontenac Ventures Corporation has staked 400 claims over about 8,000 hectares in North and Central Frontenac. The land is a mix of private and Crown land, the latter being the subject of negotiations between the Algonquins and provincial government.

Frank Morrison is one of those people who found out the company has a stake on his property. He marched yesterday and said residents needed to back the Algonquins because it was the area’s lone hope.

Under provincial law, the land on native reserves isn’t available for mineral collection.

“The land claim is going to save us and if it wasn’t for that, we might as well pack up and go home,” he said.

Just like the march, the number of people taking up the cause is increasing, Morrison said.

“It’s just growing exponentially,” he said. “That’s what happens when people finally find out what’s going on here.”

“This,” he said looking up and down the mass of marchers, “is more symbolic than anything else.”

Hudson said he was concerned about the way the proposal was being handled with people such as Morrison simply being told the company had a right to mine their property.

“It will be interesting to see what the position of our provincial government will be,” he said.

Any hint of problems from mining uranium could cause damage to the area’s economy, said Norman Guntensperger, a councillor from Central Frontenac. Mining uranium could damage the area’s hope to attract more tourists and needed to be stopped, he said.

“We want to get the word out. I see this as the beginning of a long fight,” he said.

jpress@thewhig.com

 

Article: Ont. Mohawks plan blockade for Friday

Ont. Mohawks plan blockade for Friday

Monday, June 25, 2007

CBC News

Travellers in the Montreal-Toronto-Ottawa corridor may have to adjust their Canada Day weekend plans after a native group said it will go ahead with a road or rail barricade on Friday, likely between Belleville and Kingston.

Spokesman Shawn Brant confirmed Monday that protesters from the Tyendinaga Mohawk reserve near Deseronto, Ont., plan to set up a blockade of either Highway 401 or the national rail line, close to the town on Lake Ontario’s Bay of Quinte, or will block access to Deseronto itself.

‘This is the power we have’
The move will be part of the Assembly of First Nations’ National Day of Action on June 29 to draw attention to aboriginal poverty and unresolved land claims, Brant said.

He added that the day is important for indigenous people.

“We’re gonna be able to say to the government, ‘This is the power that we have,’ ” said Brant, whose group has occupied a quarry near Deseronto since March to protest an unresolved land claim.

Brant is also among those named in a lawsuit launched by Canadian National Railway over a blockade held in April over the same issue.

The Tyendinaga Mohawk band council is negotiating with the federal government over about 400 hectares of privately held land that Mohawks say they never surrendered. Brant’s group says the talks are moving too slowly.

Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has said the National Day of Action is meant to reach out to Canadians, not to cause major disruptions.

Manitoba chief called off blockade
In May, Chief Terrance Nelson of Manitoba’s Roseau River First Nation threatened to block a CN line running through his community on the June day of action. He called off the protest last Tuesday after Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice decided to add 30 hectares of new land to the Roseau River band’s territory.

Brant called the government’s move at Roseau River a last-minute ploy and said he thinks it was done to “destabilize June 29 as a day of action.”

He was also critical of Nelson’s decision to call off his blockade.

“To say that 70 acres was enough to sell out the day and sell out the people is an indignity to everyone who’s been standing in these positions from the beginning,” he said.

 

KMSN event on local news CKWS

Click here to see original site.

NewsWatch Regional News

Tyendenaga [sic.] Picket

May, 24 2007 – 7:50 PM

A STRANGE PROTEST IN DOWNTOWN KINGSTON THIS AFTERNOON.
ABOUT A DOZEN SUPPORTERS OF THE BAY OF QUINTE MOHAWKS ASKED PEOPLE TO SIGN THEIR NAMES IN BLOOD — DEMANDING SWIFT ACTION TO RESOLVE THE ONGOING LAND CLAIM DISPUTE NEAR DESERONTO.
NEWSWATCH’S LIZ COOK REPORTS.
THE LAND CLAIM DISPUTE NEAR DESERONTO SPILLED ONTO THE STREETS OF DOWNTOWN KINGSTON…. AND THAT’S NOT ALL

protester on mic:
“the ontario government wants to solve the dispute on the mohawk tyendinaga territory, buy bring in the opp tactical squad. this is totally unnecessary, peaceful resolution is possible.
by bring in the guns, the government is saying one thing, they want blood so lets give them ours.” A MESSAGE THE “KINGSTON MOHAWK SUPPORT NETWORK” WAS ASKING PEOPLE WALKING ON PRINCESS STREET TO SUPPORT —- BY SIGNING THEIR NAME IN BLOOD.

jeff welsh:
“so what we are doing is symbolically offering ours instead and we are saying if the province wants blood, than take ours, so we are getting people walking by on the street, whoa re interested in settling it peacefully to give a signature and symbolic spot of blood.”

A STRANGE WAY TO COLLECT SIGNATURES — BUT A WAY THIS GROUP HOPES WILL CONVINCE THE PROVINCE TO FIND A “PEACEFUL” RESOLUTION TO THE 2-MONTH =-LONG DESERONTO QUARRY OCCUPATION.

jeff welsh:
“we know there has been an opp tactical team set up in a hotel close by for some time now. which means the province is still considering settling this with violence.”

REGIONAL OPP WON’T COMMENT ON THOSE CLAIMS.
BUT MOHAWK SUPPORTERS SAY THE PROVINCE NEEDS TO MEET NATIVE DEMANDS — AND TAKE AWAY THE QUARRY’S OPERATING LICENSE.

jeff welsh:
“we know for a fact if an opp tactical squad goes into the blockade situation there is very possibility that some will get killed, a civilian protester or an officer, and we don’t want to see that happen.”

protester on mic:
((“help us avert blood shed at tyendinaga. donate just one drop of blood or a smear of red ink beside your name. lets send a message to the provincial government.”))

THIS MAN WAS WALKING PAST THE PROTEST AND STOPPED TO SIGN HIS NAME, WITH HIS BLOOD.

clip….

THE SIGNATURES WERE DELIVERED TO MPP JOHN GERRETSEN’S OFFICE — BUT HE WASN’T THERE TO TAKE THEM.

matt:
“we left them there. i don’t know whether it’s mohawk or police blood they would rather see but on the fields there, but either is necessary.”

LIZ COOK, CKWS NEWSWATCH, KINGSTON.

 

Why Canadians side with militant Indians

News article:
Why Canadians side with militant Indians
by Richard Day, Dept of Sociology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
published in the Toronto Star – Toronto, Ont – ONT Edition
May 20, 2007

It is well known in all quarters that the job of Phil Fontaine, as the head of the Assembly of First Nations, is to moderate

longstanding tensions between the Canadian state and those his organization purports to represent. That’s why it was rather surprising when Fontaine, speaking this week to the harrumphing curmudgeons at the Canadian Club, said that indigenous peoples and agents of the Canadian state are more likely to be meeting at the barricades than in the boardrooms this summer. That’s enough to put any captain of industry off his lunch, to be sure, and it should be of concern to all of us.

No one can deny that there has been a gathering wave of direct action over the past months, from the ongoing Six Nations standoff to the more recent occupation of a quarry by the Tyendinaga Mohawk. Out west, resistance to the Olympics is being spearheaded by the Native Youth Movement, and Harriet Nahanee, a Squamish elder, was

imprisoned for protesting against the expansion of the ironically named Sea to Sky highway (the road to Whistler actually leads to a town-sized shopping mall).

This week, a group calling itself the Railway Ties Collective sent out a news release inviting people to view a video posted on YouTube. The video showed how one might, with a single wire, cause all of the trains on a line to come to a halt. Although no one knows who produced the video, there are indications that it originated from settlers who support indigenous struggles at Tyendinaga and beyond, and that it was aimed at eliciting further support from non-indigenous activists. Transport Canada asked YouTube to pull the video, and they complied. It is very likely, however, that it is circulating on other sites and will make its way through the web to those who want to view it.

What is happening here? Why are so many people, all over the country, apparently giving up on due process and the rule of law? Why are we seeing this resurgence of the ‘Indian problem’, just when we thought we were beyond all of that? And, perhaps more importantly for the Canadian government, why are so many members of the settler society — non-indigenous Canadians — adding their voices and bodies to this tide of militancy?

A simple answer might be: the Canadian state is not itself following the rule of law, nor has it ever done so with regard to indigenous peoples. The double standards are many and obvious, but this does not stop them from being applied. One need only reverse the roles to see the violence and absurdity of the situation. Imagine that someone walked up to your front door with a gun, told you to get out of your house, and took it and everything you own. You go to the police, and they tell you to get in a line, they’ll deal with you soon. You stand there for a day, a month, a year, several decades, while generations of home invaders run your formerly well-kept home into the ground.

This would never happen, of course, to a member of the settler society, but it is, and has been, the norm for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. If it did ever happen to a ‘mainstream’ Canadian, I imagine that most people would understand if they decided, even after only a day or two — rather than several centuries — to simply take the house back.

Railway lines have long been iconic fibres, making geographical and symbolic connections that could be said to constitute Canada as we know it. It is therefore fitting that they now are being used to demand justice for the indigenous peoples of this continent, without whose help we would not be here today. Obviously disrupting a railway line is an imposition on travelers. Probably commerce will be slowed. It is doubtful, however, that Canadian society will be all but destroyed by these kinds of actions, as so many indigenous societies have been. Rather, we can hope that it will be improved, that the Canadian government will take this as a clear message to stand by the rule of law, in every case, for every race.

Given the shameful behaviour of our economic and political leaders, it is not at all surprising that many Canadians are siding with militant indigenous groups. For, by all of the principles that Western civilization holds dear, they are in the right and we are in the wrong.

 

Article: CN Rail sues Mohawks; Company launches suit over rail blockades

CN Rail sues Mohawks; Company launches suit over rail blockades

Brock Harrison

The Kingston Whig-Standard

Local News – Thursday, May 10, 2007

 

CN Rail has taken the unprecedented step of suing the Bay of Quinte Mohawks for disrupting freight delivery and passenger traffic by twice blocking a busy rail line near Deseronto.

The rail company lodged the action, which specifically names Shawn Brant, the main spokesman of the protesting Mohawks, with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice yesterday.

Deseronto is about 40 kilometres west of Kingston.

CN spokesman Mark Hallman would not say how much the rail company is seeking in damages.

He did say about $100 million worth of cargo travels daily on the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal rail line, which Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory protesters blocked on April 21, 2006, and on April 20 of this year. “The blockades certainly interrupted our business,” Hallman said.

The lawsuit is the first time CN has taken legal action against a First Nations group, Hallman says.

Both blockades were launched to protest housing developments on land natives claim was taken from them.

Last year’s blockade, in which about 100 Tyendinaga Mohawks blocked the CN line near Deseronto, was a show of support for a separate native land dispute in Caledonia. It lasted about 23 hours. About 3,500 Via Rail passengers had to find other arrangements because of that blockade.

Last month’s protest, in response to slow-moving negotiations between natives and the federal government over a 380-hectare tract of privately owned land in Deseronto, lasted 30 hours.

Hallman said 25 freight trains and 22 Via Rail passenger trains were cancelled because a school bus was parked over the tracks by protesters.

The protesters maintain the land tract in question was illegally taken from them in 1832.

Further complicating the protest is the Thurlow Aggregates quarry, which falls within the disputed land tract. The Mohawks have been occupying the quarry since March because they don’t want it being used during negotiations.

The action also seeks to ban future blockades on the rail line. CN is asking for the court order served to protesters that ended last month’s blockade to be extended.

Protesters initially ignored the injunctions.

The suit also names Tyendinaga Chief Don Maracle and the band council, but band administrators have maintained that last month’s protest was not sanctioned by the council. Maracle couldn’t be reached for comment.

Brant, who was arrested on May 4 and has been slapped with a number of criminal charges for leading the protests, says the lawsuit is a scare tactic intended to deter other native groups from demonstrating.

“Blocking the rail line is the only historical means to get the government’s ear,” said Brant, who was released on bail after his arrest.

“We see this as warning shot to other First Nations communities; if you have grievances you want to voice, not only will you be targeted criminally, you’ll be targeted financially.”

CN’s financial concerns are legitimate, Brant says, but he warns that the lawsuit isn’t going to stop natives from speaking up.

Brant has enlisted the services of social justice lawyer Peter Rosenthal, who represented the family of slain aboriginal protester Dudley George at the inquiry into the 1995 Ipperwash standoff. bharrison@thewhig.com

 

 

CN Rail sues Ontario Mohawk protesters

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

CBC News

CN Rail has launched a lawsuit against Mohawk protesters who blocked a major Ontario rail corridor for more than a day last month, disrupting freight and passenger traffic.

The land dispute protest near Deseronto that began in the early hours of April 20 disrupted freight between Toronto and Montreal. The disruption blocked the transport of freight worth more than $100 million, said spokesman Mark Hallman.

‘We’ve sort of looked at this as being a warning … that they’re quite willing to make our miserable lives more miserable.’— Protester Shawn Brant

“We have launched an action to recover the costs associated with the blockade,” Hallman confirmed Tuesday. “This represents the first time that CN has served suit for damages arising from a First Nations blockade of its tracks.”

CN estimated that about 22 freight trains travel the Toronto-Montreal route every day, but did not specify how much it is asking for in damages.

CN seeks ban on future blockades
Hallman said that as part of its action, the company is seeking an extension of a court order that ended the blockade. That extension would ban future blockades.

Shawn Brant, the main spokesman for the protesters from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on Lake Ontario’s Bay of Quinte, is named in the CN lawsuit, which also includes a blockade that people from the reserve staged last year on the same rail line.

“We’ve sort of looked at this as being a warning to other First Nations communities across the country as well as ourselves that they’re quite willing to make our miserable lives more miserable,” he said.

Lawsuit names band council
The lawsuit also names the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory band council and several other people from their community.

Chief R. Donald Maracle said the council had nothing to do with the blockade and will ask CN lawyers to remove it from the lawsuit.

The rail blockade disrupted both freight and Via Rail passenger service along the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal rail corridors for about 30 hours.

The protest, which ended when CN served the protesters with a court injunction, was part of an ongoing protest that members have been maintaining for months over privately owned land near Deseronto that the Tyendinaga Mohawks claim is theirs.

Brant faces a number of charges related to the blockade, including mischief. He turned himself in to police on May 3, but has been released on bail.

The band council is in talks with a federally appointed negotiator regarding the land claim, but the protesters say those are proceeding too slowly.

 

Ontario won’t shut quarry at centre of aboriginal protests

Monday, April 23, 2007
CBC News

The Ontario government will not shut down a quarry at the centre of a land dispute, despite Friday’s Mohawk rail blockade and protests Monday by their supporters, says Ontario’s minister responsible for aboriginal affairs.

David Ramsay said the government has no authority to shut down the quarry on land near the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and Deseronto that the Bay of Quinte Mohawks say is theirs.

“An aggregate licence can only be suspended if there is a violation of one of the conditions of the licence, and that hasn’t happened in this case,” he said Monday. “So there’s no validity to authorize me to suspend the licence in this case.”

He added that land claims are under federal, not provincial, jurisdiction and that talks with the federal government over the disputed land continue.

The quarry has not been operating since Mohawk protesters set up a blockade there in March.

Protest at Queen’s Park
About a dozen members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protested in support of the Mohawks outside Ramsay’s office at the Ministry of Natural Resources Monday morning before marching to Queen’s Park. Stephanie Gude said First Nations communities face many of the same issues as poor urban dwellers.

“We’re united in a struggle against the capitalist system,” she said. “We’re united against this provincial government.”

A group of Mohawk protesters blocked Via Rail service near Belleville — disrupting service to Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal — for almost 30 hours starting Friday morning.

Protests over the land claim have been continuing since last November, when a developer was scheduled to begin building a subdivision on privately owned land within the disputed territory.

The protesters said talks with the federal government have been proceeding too slowly and have threatened escalating protests in the near future.

 

Article: Native protester feels stood up

Native protester feels stood up

By Luke Hendry

The Belleville Intelligencer

Thursday, April 05, 2007

DESERONTO — One of the lead protesters at a native encampment here has delivered a warning to the provincial government that its ministerial representatives should keep their appointments.

Shawn Brant told reporters Thursday afternoon a district manager of the Ministry of Natural Resources was expected to visit a quarry here at noon Thursday, on the invitation of protesters, but did not attend.

Brant said the official instead went to the band office for Mohawks Of the Bay of Quinte and told officials there she had concerns about visiting the site.

An official with the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Thursday confirmed the band council had convened “a meeting between the ministry and officials from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte,” but declined to confirm whether the manager in question was among the ministry delegation.

Brant said district manager Jane Ireland had been invited to tour several sites on the disputed land where the Mohawks allege garbage and industrial waste had been dumped and burned illegally. Brant said the protesters camped at the quarry in what is known as the Culbertson Land Tract had assured Ireland there would be no safety issues during her visit.

Brant said the evidence of contamination — sites, he said, where asphalt was dumped and some waste had been burned — was obvious and required no testing by the ministry to ascertain that it was hazardous.

But, because the manager did not honour the invitation of the protesters, Brant declared no other government official will be allowed to enter the area, henceforth.

“We wanted them to see this,” Brant said. “It was today or it was nothing. I think it (the alleged contamination) is clear enough and they should just revoke the licence and f*** off.”

 

Mohawk protesters take over Deseronto quarry

Friday, March 23, 2007

CBC News

Mohawk demonstrators have taken over an eastern Ontario quarry on disputed land.

About 70 people, some dressed in army fatigues and some carrying colourful Mohawk flags, blocked the entrance of the Thurlow Aggregates quarry near Deseronto, Ont., late Thursday afternoon.

The demonstrators’ spokesman Shawn Brant said they plan to stay until the province cancels the quarry’s licence. Since November Mohawk leaders and the federal government have been involved in discussions and negotiations over the land, which the Tyendinaga Mohawks have claimed.

“It’s very difficult to carry out meaningful negotiations at the table while they’re taking out 10,000 truckloads a year of our land,” Brant said, adding that the protest could last several days and possibly expand into the town of Deseronto.

The land claim consists of more than 400 hectares on the Bay of Quinte, east of Belleville, including the sites of many businesses such as the quarry.

Chief Don Maracle said band councillors won’t sanction the protest, but he added, “The Mohawk council certainly understands the frustration young people have in achieving a resolution that’s in the best interest of future generations.”

Deseronto Mayor Norm Clark said he is disappointed that the protest is taking place.

“If they’re going to continue there and set up camp I would hope the police would take care of that situation,” he said.

Mohawk police said they have no plans to stop the demonstration as long as it remains peaceful.

With files from the Canadian Press