Set Caledonia deadline, Bryant urges Ottawa

It is time to finish this matter -- Michael Bryant is totally correct, a deadline must be set otherwise the occupation will drag on another two years which does no one any good at all.

Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star

A man guides a Bobcat as it pushes cement blocks on the entrance to the disputed land in Caledonia in this file image from August, 2006

Settle land claim rather than point finger at Ontario, minister says

May 15, 2008

Richard Brennan
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA–The federal government is being urged by Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant to put a deadline on land claim negotiations in Caledonia instead of letting them drag on with no resolution in sight.

"We say to the federal government with respect to this 200-year-old dispute, it's time for them to set a deadline and set it now," Bryant told the Legislature yesterday.

Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl seemed taken aback, saying Bryant hadn't communicated this new sense of urgency to him.

"Certainly we have been pretty aggressive in Caledonia to try to do just that. We've tabled a $125 million offer to the First Nations there and expanded the mandate of our negotiator to explore options there," Strahl told reporters on Parliament Hill.

"We are working hard to settle it."

Bryant said tensions are growing among residents in Caledonia, a town southwest of Hamilton. They have, for more than two years, lived with the occupation of a former housing development by members of the Six Nations band protesting unresolved land claims.

"Instead of being content to sit on their hands, and actually literally point fingers at the provincial government ... it's time for the federal government to actually take responsibility for something that is their responsibility," Bryant told reporters later at Queen's Park.

In 2006, native protesters blocked the Caledonia bypass, the town's main road and the rail line after police raided the occupation site. When the bypass was blocked again earlier this month, clashes broke out between Six Nations protesters and Caledonia residents.

Bryant said claims focus on the Haldimand Tract following the Grand River "and the question is what the federal government did exactly and what the compensation is owed by the federal government to Haudenosaunee Six Nations."

Jason Kenney, Minister of Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, caused a stir during a recent trip to Brantford when he blamed the province not reining in Six Nations Confederacy activists who have blocked projects there and demanded cash from developers.

Kenney called the activists' actions "extortion" said "the law should apply equally."

Yesterday, Strahl urged the province "to remain part of these negotiations. It's important that people understand that finding solutions to these complex issues will take time."