Emergency financial assistance available for residents impacted by native blockade

Deirdre Healey
Hamilton Spectator
Wednesday, June 21, 2006 | Updated at 9:24 AM EDT

[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 residents who can prove they have suffered financially or psychologically from the native occupation will be compensated by the province.

Ministry of Municipal Affairs representatives will meet with Caledonia residents and municipal and provincial officials within the next week to determine how residents have been affected by the land dispute and the amount of funding needed to compensate them.

"The province wants to know about the people who have been impacted and provide them with assistance as soon as possible," said ministry spokesperson Diane McArthur-Rodgers. "This is emergency financial assistance and is meant to help people with immediate needs."

A handful of residents with homes backing onto the Douglas Creek Estates have suffered some damage to their back yards but the largest impact has been psychological.

Mark Gaudreau said he has watched grown men living in his neighbourhood burst into tears.

"They are suffering from uncontrollable stress," Gaudreau remarked. "Everyone should be compensated for the suffering and stress that the government has allowed them to go through."

For the past three months, Gaudreau and his neighbours have endured threats from masked men driving ATVs along the outskirts of their homes and spent many nights struggling to sleep through the loud music and noisy construction happening on the site.

Some residents in the neighbourhood are leaving work early every day so they can pick up their children from school instead of having them walk home. When their children are safe at home, parents are often still afraid to let them play in the back yard.