Native protesters stay at Ontario site as deadline passes

CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news
Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:53:42 EST

[SISIS note: The following mainstream news article is provided for reference only, as an example of how mainstream media treats indigenous resistance to genocide. Mainstream media often presents biased and distorted information, lacking pertinent facts and/or context. Inclusion of this article on our site should not be considered an endorsement by SISIS.]

A court-imposed deadline has passed without arrests as native protesters continue to occupy a construction site near Caledonia, Ont.

Ontario Provincial Police told reserve officials Tuesday night they didn't plan any arrests on Wednesday, despite a 2 p.m. deadline set by a judge last week for the protesters to leave. The police planned to monitor the situation.

The protesters, from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory reserve near Brantford, have been occupying the area since Feb. 28. They say a new subdivision is being built on land that belongs to them.

"We would like to see a stop put to the development at this point, a moratorium of sorts," Sandra Muse, the editor of a reserve newspaper, told CBC News on Wednesday morning.

"And [we] want meaningful negotiations to begin with the Department of Indian Affairs, who up to this point have pretty much ignored this situation and said that it's simply a local issue."

The developer, Henco Industries, won an injunction ordering the protesters off the Douglas Creek Estates site two weeks ago, but they have ignored it.

Last Thursday, Ontario Superior Court Justice David Marshall gave them until 2 p.m. EST Wednesday to leave the site.

If they ignore the order, the judge said the protesters could be arrested on contempt of court charges and jailed for 30 days.

The protesters are arguing that a 380,000-hectare tract of land along the region's Grand River was granted to the Six Nations in 1784 and was never officially transferred to non-natives.

Six Nations filed a land claims suit in 1999 over the area, known as the Haldimand Tract.