Toronto Star
June 20, 2006
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy first put up barricades in Caledonia over land they believe is theirs on Feb. 28. Two months later, Ontario announced special negotiations to settle the matter peacefully. On June 12, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced after three allegedly violent incidents there that Ontario had "just about" exhausted "our goodwill and our patience." Negotiations with the Confederacy would come to an end. At least one newspaper columnist asked that the army be brought in. The barricades came down, but the Haudenosaunee say they have no intention of ending the occupation. Are we facing an intifada?
The Lubicon Cree have been waiting since 1898 for a reserve. That's not a misprint. 1898. (FoL editorial note: 1899 rather than 1898 is the year that treaty commissioners for the government of Canada missed the Lubicon people.) Almost a century after the Lubicon were inadvertently omitted from a survey of First Nations eligible for a reserve, Judge Davey Fulton was appointed by prime minister Brian Mulroney to investigate and recommend a solution. He passionately reported that a grave injustice had been done that cried out for immediate relief. Jean Chrétien in opposition agreed, but did nothing in power.
On May 23, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights "strongly" recommended -- its most forceful stance -- that Canada hold land-rights talks with the Lubicon prior to the granting of licences for economic development on traditional Lubicon lands. Instead, Alberta auctioned off 50,000 hectares of that land for oil sands development on June 14. Canada has not negotiated with the Lubicon since 2003.
Even after all the fuss, Canada has still not returned the Ipperwash property, expropriated during World War II for military training, to the Stoney Point Anishinabe. There are outstanding matters like that right across Canada. British Columbia might be an exception. There, Premier Gordon Campbell seems to have recognized that letting land-rights issues stagnate is bad for business that requires certainty before investment.
Otherwise, Canada has lost any semblance of respect in these matters. Those who call for the swift application of the law ignore the legal requirement to settle these matters. We are paralyzed by a blindness fed by the systemic denial of the existence of any injustice. Maybe we are afraid to face the truth about aboriginal land rights.
The Haudenosaunee, once the superpower in northeastern America, have had a grievance festering with Canada for a period even longer than the Lubicon Cree. Canada has just let it fester. The Caledonia protest is now in its 112th day. Not much progress has been reported. Local residents are suffering. Violence has broken out. Deplorable, but hardly surprising.
A "border patrol" vehicle, which the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, in a June 11 press release, alleged really belongs to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the United States Department of Justice, a.k.a. the ATF (think Branch Davidian, Waco, Texas), a body not known for its sensitivity in U.S. aboriginal matters, was impounded by the Haudenosaunee for some hours. Extremely sensitive OPP documents were found inside.
What is an official U.S. vehicle with two U.S. agents inside doing on this site, and why is it carrying sensitive OPP documents? This is more of a political dispute than a crime scene. The Haudenosaunee claim bad faith.
McGuinty is rightly outraged at the violence. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy has disowned the incidents, too. The answer is not to halt negotiations but to intensify them. To McGuinty's credit, they are being pursued. Ontario's buying out the developers is a good step.
Then the premier could head straight to Ottawa, the source of the problem, because the British North America Act specifies that aboriginal affairs are a federal responsibility. He could demand that Canada provide a concrete schedule with dates linked to precise objectives showing exactly when and how Ottawa intends to regulate the grievance.
Failing that, the premier could request that a UN body mediate between Canada and the Six Nations toward a just solution. The matter has already been internationalized, and First Nations have long claimed that Canada is in conflict of interest when it tries to regulate their legal rights within its own institutions. Then we may expect the occupation to end permanently.
Barry McGrory is a retired Catholic priest who has been researching aboriginal justice issues for many years.