Blockade goes back up in Caledonia

Nicolaas Van Rijn - Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
Jun. 5, 2006. 12:20 AM

[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 navigation error by two Ontario Provincial Police cruisers has led to the renewal of a road blockade near the controversial Douglas Creek Estates housing development in Caledonia.

Sources say the two OPP cruisers wandered onto the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford in error just before midnight last night, leading militants to escort the officers back off native land. Moments later, both police and natives erected roadblocks on the Highway 6 bypass and Argyle St. S. that runs through Caledonia.

The town of some 5,000 recently sweated through more than a month of tension as native protestors maintained a roadblock that cut the town in half. Near the end of the dispute May 23, many residents endured several days without power after a transformer station adjacent to the blockade was vandalized; hydro employees were not permitted to repair the damage.

An OPP spokesperson said just before midnight last night that he was en route to the site and had no further details about the blockade.

Just last week, Ontario Superior Court Justice David Marshall called an extraordinary hearing to demand that the OPP and the province explain why they haven't enforced his order to end the native occupation of Douglas Creek Estates and lift the barricades.

After a daylong hearing, Marshall invited the federal Indian affairs minister and the attorney general of Canada to attend another hearing later this month in an effort to resolve the issue.

Natives had been occupying the construction site and a nearby section of railway, both of which are privately owned, for more than a month, effectively cutting the town in half.

They argue the land, part of a treaty award, was never sold, and should be returned to their control. The earlier blockades were the site of several major clashes as OPP officers struggled to keep the native protestors and irate townspeople apart.