Canada: Indigenous Residents and 'Settler Population'

"[This blockade and encampment represents a protest] to protect and save the land for our future generations who will have nowhere to live and prosper if the settler population continues to unlawfully encroach upon our lands."                   "The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council is opposed to this development and as the holder of collective rights for the Haudenosaunee people has not granted any type of consent which would allow this development to proceed."         "The Council holds rights collectively on behalf of the Haudenosaunee." Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council

"We are exposed to acts of domestic terrorism at least twice a year. Does anyone outside our rural county care?"                                                                         "Where else in Ontario do citizens endure almost constant blockades of their roads and the railways, and have tire fires lit across their main thoroughfare as well as the bypass to the town?"                                                                               Resident, Caledonia housing development, Ontario

"[I] encourage all sides and each and every person involved to carefully consider the actions they take and the impacts those actions will have on the situation." Mark Hill, elected chief, Six Nations

OPP closed the road as a group of protesters lit tires on Highway 6 near Argyle Street in Caledonia, Ont. Lisa Polewski / 900 CHML

"The OPP took a measured, professional and safe approach while assisting with enforcement of the court injunction."                                                                      "As a result of demonstrators that then went onto Argyle Street North in Caledonia, OPP have closed Argyle Street North between Highway 6 and Braemar Avenue for public safety and to assist in maintaining traffic flow in the area. The Highway 6 by-pass between Argyle Street North and Greens Road is also closed."                     OPP Constable Rodney LeClair

Caledonia, about 10 km distant from Hamilton, Ontario, is once again in the news. An old standoff that took place earlier when a land dispute between Indigenous people in southwestern Ontario and a land developer, led to blockades, encampments, and violent protests, finally settled when the province bought out the developer and handed the land in question to the tribal authorities. Bad feelings tend not to evaporate when people living in a suburban development are threatened, face violence and intimidation as was the case with the original Caledonia protest.

Caledonia is now on repeat. A new encampment named 1492 Land Back Lane in place since mid-July, established on McKenzie Meadows -- a site where a developer has plans to build 218 homes on 25 acres, where home buyers had expectations of moving into their new homes come the fall, is the focus of the occupation of parcels of land on the acreage, leading to a halt in construction, despite a court-ordered injunction that construction could proceed.

The 2006 standoff between earlier developers and the Six Nations of the Grand River ignited protests, saw tire-burning and residents forced to run a daily blockade to leave and get back to their homes. There were incidents of violence resulting to injuries. Indigenous 'warriors' were adamant they had no intention of leaving, and the 'settlers' had better get used to it. Neither the government of the day nor the Ontario Provincial Police had any wish to apply the law, remove the threats along with the warriors and rescue residents from the dilemma they were facing.

Until the province agreed to abort the subdivision project, leaving the disputed land in the hands of the Indigenous community. A new developer, Foxgate Developments more latterly purchased a new tract of land at McKenzie Meadows through consultations with the Six Nations elected council. The elected leadership of Six Nations had agreed to support the development project according to documents filed in court. The issue now is that elected chiefs are in full agreement of the land being developed for residential purposes, while the hereditary chiefs oppose it leaving the developer to struggle between both.

Foxgate Developments' entirely legal purchase of the land in question from the democratically elected chiefs acting on behalf of the people they represent is now in limbo; a replay of the earlier drama that had degenerated into intimidation, threats and violence, where the province refused to step in and authorize the OPP to protect the lawful activity of a developer and those who had purchased homes and had every expectation of living in them without constant harassment.

Rocks could be heard hitting police vehicles as Ontario Provincial Police officers are slowly pushed back by a large group of indigenous protesters gather in Caledonia over the noon hour on Wednesday August 5, 2020. Earlier in the morning, a large contingent of police removed protesters occupying a nearby residential construction site, prompting supporters from the nearby Six Nations of the Grand River Territory to arrive. (Brian Thompson/Postmedia Network)

Earlier in the month the blockade had been cleared, arrests taking place when Ontario Provincial Police took steps to enforce a court-ordered injunction at the site permitting development of areas of the site to continue and the locked roads to be cleared. The parcels of land that had been illegally occupied were cleared to enable development to proceed. Locals had been frustrated by the lack of action by the OPP, and even at the present time, portions of area highways have been closed.

Over the summer, the cleared camp has been gradually re-occupied; the OPP dismantling overturned. These recurring, dangerous face-offs lead back to various levels of government not having concluded good-faith bargaining with the Indigenous populations, finally settling grievances and land rights after hundreds of years. The site, part of the Haldimand Tract, was given to members of the Haudenosaunee nation in 1784 in acknowledgement of their having fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War.

The courts are still struggling with details of land ownership in that tract, remaining under dispute reflecting 29 separate claims focusing on land loss and assets over the years. Little wonder Indigenous peoples are frustrated and angry, when it's long past time that any questions revolving around land claims should have reached an agreeable compromise between governments and the Indian nations.

About 10 tents dotted the site on August 12, along with the frame of a structure demonstrators have said will be used as a kitchen. (Dan Taekema/CBC)