Protection Money
A new era in Canadian politics, a new reality in Ontario economics, certain to gain credibility and to be taken up around the country, a reflection of certain government policy failures. Yet another bureaucracy for a wearied population and economy to deal with. The Six Nations in Ontario has formed the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, and has forwarded letters of explanation to municipalities and developers to inform of the purpose of its presence.
Which is to mimic any governmental body: to collect royalties, approve plans and set environmental standards for any development on what it recognizes and claims to be aboriginal traditional lands. Representing a long swath of prime Southern Ontario real estate, extending from Grey County to the Waterloo Region, bookending Guelph Wellington, Brant and Haldimand counties. Encompassing the towns of Brantford, Kitchener, Caledonia and Dunnville, among others.
There's a lot of agricultural land in there, and a lot of land under development for housing. The Six Nations claim is that in 1784 King George III granted this area to Joseph Brant in appreciation of his loyalty during the American Revolution. The federal government has an obligation to settle this dispute with the aboriginal population claiming ownership of the land, but as with any such disputes nothing appears to be on the near horizon for settlement.
In the meantime, the Six Nations representatives say they're tired of waiting around for their grievance to be settled. They've been waiting since 1975 for government to settle the centuries-old claim of entitled property strung out along the Grand River, and they say they're simply doing what they must to provide for the future of their growing population. They're frustrated and genuinely so.
But resorting to installing themselves as an additional layer of bureaucracy demanding their due, resorting to the tactics of blackmail, extortion and intimidation? They're right; the governments of Canada and Ontario have proven themselves unwilling and incapable of finding solutions to the problem, but this borders on criminal vaudeville; utterly absurd, and dangerous as well.
The HDL, the development institute, has approached developers to negotiate leases and payments for use of the land they claim to be theirs, offering them 999-year leases. One of those developers was invited to a meeting, informed that for a 4% cut of his $1.2-million project, plus a $7,000 application fee and an agreement, he could lease the land and his work site would be "less likely" to be targeted.
He refused and suffered a series of construction interruptions, pushing him months behind schedule, causing him more in lost funding than had he paid the demanded extortion fees. "I'm not paying any fees for development I have a legal right to with my land titles. I really, really resent being used as a pawn in this political game of extortion to get the government to take notice."
The province has announced that the HDI has no authority, and that no one should be paying development fees to them. "We don't recognize development fees being charged by anyone but municipalities. I understand there is a land claim here that predates Confederation, and I think everybody understands there is a fundamental issue of difference here between First Nations communities and the federal government, but I think we also need to understand there is a way to resolve these things, there is a table there."
This from the province's Premier McGuinty, who hasn't the fortitude to uphold the law and charge illegal and dangerous squatters who have made life a misery for real estate developers and home owners, seeing their new communities' prospects wither and collapse. Where violent acts against individuals in Caledonia have gone unresolved, despite the thuggery of native protesters.
This contretemps, this deficient mangling of responsibilities to First Nations peoples on the part of government has led to a situation where communities within the lands claimed by Six Nations are nervously contemplating the future of their small communities. "We're not sure what that means to us in terms of any kinds of development projects, road works or subdivision developments or anything we do."
"We still want to do the right thing for the Six Nations people... We just want to develop the right approach." They're puzzled and confused, placed in an impossible catch-22. Time long overdue for responsible government to step in.
Which is to mimic any governmental body: to collect royalties, approve plans and set environmental standards for any development on what it recognizes and claims to be aboriginal traditional lands. Representing a long swath of prime Southern Ontario real estate, extending from Grey County to the Waterloo Region, bookending Guelph Wellington, Brant and Haldimand counties. Encompassing the towns of Brantford, Kitchener, Caledonia and Dunnville, among others.
There's a lot of agricultural land in there, and a lot of land under development for housing. The Six Nations claim is that in 1784 King George III granted this area to Joseph Brant in appreciation of his loyalty during the American Revolution. The federal government has an obligation to settle this dispute with the aboriginal population claiming ownership of the land, but as with any such disputes nothing appears to be on the near horizon for settlement.
In the meantime, the Six Nations representatives say they're tired of waiting around for their grievance to be settled. They've been waiting since 1975 for government to settle the centuries-old claim of entitled property strung out along the Grand River, and they say they're simply doing what they must to provide for the future of their growing population. They're frustrated and genuinely so.
But resorting to installing themselves as an additional layer of bureaucracy demanding their due, resorting to the tactics of blackmail, extortion and intimidation? They're right; the governments of Canada and Ontario have proven themselves unwilling and incapable of finding solutions to the problem, but this borders on criminal vaudeville; utterly absurd, and dangerous as well.
The HDL, the development institute, has approached developers to negotiate leases and payments for use of the land they claim to be theirs, offering them 999-year leases. One of those developers was invited to a meeting, informed that for a 4% cut of his $1.2-million project, plus a $7,000 application fee and an agreement, he could lease the land and his work site would be "less likely" to be targeted.
He refused and suffered a series of construction interruptions, pushing him months behind schedule, causing him more in lost funding than had he paid the demanded extortion fees. "I'm not paying any fees for development I have a legal right to with my land titles. I really, really resent being used as a pawn in this political game of extortion to get the government to take notice."
The province has announced that the HDI has no authority, and that no one should be paying development fees to them. "We don't recognize development fees being charged by anyone but municipalities. I understand there is a land claim here that predates Confederation, and I think everybody understands there is a fundamental issue of difference here between First Nations communities and the federal government, but I think we also need to understand there is a way to resolve these things, there is a table there."
This from the province's Premier McGuinty, who hasn't the fortitude to uphold the law and charge illegal and dangerous squatters who have made life a misery for real estate developers and home owners, seeing their new communities' prospects wither and collapse. Where violent acts against individuals in Caledonia have gone unresolved, despite the thuggery of native protesters.
This contretemps, this deficient mangling of responsibilities to First Nations peoples on the part of government has led to a situation where communities within the lands claimed by Six Nations are nervously contemplating the future of their small communities. "We're not sure what that means to us in terms of any kinds of development projects, road works or subdivision developments or anything we do."
"We still want to do the right thing for the Six Nations people... We just want to develop the right approach." They're puzzled and confused, placed in an impossible catch-22. Time long overdue for responsible government to step in.
Labels: Canada, Crisis Politics
posted by Pieface | 6:38 PM
4 Comments:
http://rita-rosenfeld.blogspot.com/2008/01/spreading-racial-hatred.html
I am having difficulty understanding how this
and this ...
"illegal and dangerous squatters who have made life a misery for real estate developers and home owners, seeing their new communities' prospects wither and collapse. Where violent acts against individuals in Caledonia have gone unresolved, despite the thuggery of native protesters."
can co-exist in the same persona.
The latter is clearly spreading hatred about Indigenous Peoples.
Your anger is best directed at our own governments who cause this with their mismanagment and illegal behaviour.
What you have written ... illegal dangerous squatters ... thugs ... This is disgusting ... racist.
Their claims are valid.
All Canadians know that.
For someone who purports to defend the defenceless, something that should be done proudly, why are you anonymously named, G?
In response: No argument about the validity of the claims, what I've written supports my views in that arena.
The government of Ontario bought the land in question in Caledonia; there are some among the Native community who feel that their grievance entitles them to the demonstration of lawless activities there. They have assaulted people,and threatened them, not only a police officer but an innocent man whose dream of providing a home for his daughter bought him instead a violent beating. None of these malefactors (the fact that they are aboriginal is no excuse for violently anti-social behaviour) have been brought to account. People of good will on both sides of the dispute have made honest attempts to settle the matter.
All Canadians know that.
No more anonymous than "pieface". ;)
I am accustomed to reading racist rants like this by people who refuse to comprehend the truth of our oppression of Indigenous Peoples. What shocks me is that in other writings you present yourself as anti-racist. That simply cannot be true: What you have written here is stereotype that dismisses, denigrates and denies their rights and your choice of offensive words to describe them is racist.
Your description of events in Caledonia bear little resemblance to the truth. I won't go into details here, but there is another side of all of those stories that has never been told by the media.
You demonstrate your lack of knowledge of Constitutional law in Canada: The province is required by law to "consult and accommodate" Six Nations concerns about ANY development on disputed land - the Haldimand Tract. The province of Ontario has failed to do that. Instead, it has proceeded with issuing permits for development on land that has been under claim for 20 years! This is illegal.
The HDI is doing the province's job, consulting with developers and municipalities up and down the Grand, reviewing proposals for environmental soundness, etc. and approving them or not.
If the province was upholding Canada's Constitutional law, this would not be necessary. If you want to bitch about someone, bitch about your lawless government that fails to respect the laws of our land, for THAT is the problem!
We all know how much good approaching our government does: None. They don't listen. However, just because we cannot get OUR government to act legally DOES NOT MEAN THAT SIX NATIONS IS DOING SOMETHING WRONG! They aren't. Our government will lie and try to convince people that Six Nations are the ones breaking the law, but it simply is not so.
The Six Nations Haudenosaunee people are not inserting themselves as another layer of bureaucracy WITHIN Canada: They are asserting their SOVEREIGN JURISDICTION OVER THEIR OWN TERRITORY, the Haldimand Tract, as is their legal right. But our government will never tell us the truth about that.
If developers want a refund on HDI fees, they should approach the municipality to whom they paid development fees, because these are the fees that were extorted from them fraudulently: The municipalities and the province HAD NO LEGAL RIGHT to issue permits when they had not consulted with Six Nations.
But our governments will lie about that too.
I will address the incident with the builder: Here is rest of the story.
The builders in question were rabidly angry when the youth put a flag on top of their house, AFTER THE POLICE HAD ALREADY ORDERED THE BUILDERS TO LEAVE THE SITE. The builders stayed, in violation of the police order, and they tore down the flag. Later in the day, the builders pretended to leave and went out back to their trucks, where the police could not see them. They armed themselves with clubs (we have this on video) and waited for the youths to return to try to put up the flag again. The youths came back, a fifteen year old entered the house and was attacked by the builder who put him against the wall with a club across his throat, pressing on his windpipe (causes death) hard enough to leave abrasions on the 15 year old's throat. His 18 year old brother came in the house, saw his brother in distress (couldn't breathe) and in danger of being killed, grabbed a club and swung at Sam, knocking him off his brother.
THAT is what happened. Don't expect to ever hear the truth in our media though, or anywhere else. Unless you are there in court to see the video and the evidence, you will never know the truth because our media, police and governments cover it up.
You are a victim of systemic racist propaganda. DON'T believe it.
It is interesting to me that Joe, Sam's brother who was present, has NEVER spoken about what he saw, because what he saw was his 52 year old brother attack a 15 year old and almost kill him.
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