Six Nations talks continue, barricade remains

CanWest News Service
Published: Monday, April 24, 2006

[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.]

CALEDONIA, Ont. - Talks between the federal and Ontario governments and leaders of the natives occupying a subdivision project since Feb. 28 continued Monday with no end in sight.

A blockade across Caledonia, Ont.’s busiest road - built in response to the Ontario Provincial Police’s Thursday raid of the site - remained in place.

“We maintain that we did not put the roadblocks up, the OPP did when they attacked our people,” said Janie Jamieson, a Six Nations spokeswoman.

Local residents were planning a rally Monday night to vent their anger over the dispute which has disrupted their community.

Sixteen men were arrested Thursday after a police raid attempted to remove the protesters from the site.

OPP deputy commissioner Maurice Pilon said police have no plans to attack, but the occupiers’ mistrust of officers has kept them committed to keeping the barricade in place.

An agreement to draft a plan that will provide a peaceful resolution to the land-claim dispute was signed by each party over the weekend, and a spokesman from the federal department of Indian Affairs said progress was being made in negotiations.

Six Nations natives say the land was unlawfully taken from them in 1924 by the federal government, and that they never received the compensation they were promised.

Henco Industries, a local developer planning to build at least 72 homes on the disputed land ranging in price from $230,000 to $350,000, says it is on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to the delays in the parties reaching a deal.

The Six Nations reserve is the largest in Canada, and is home to 20,000 natives.