Blockades and escalating protests won't derail talks in Caledonia: premier

Canadian Press Apr 29 08

 TORONTO — Blockades that cut off highways and vital rail lines won't stop Ontario from negotiating with aboriginal protesters to resolve outstanding land claims and end a two-year occupation, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.

As barricades were dismantled in the southern Ontario town of Caledonia following several days of escalating protests and fears of violence, McGuinty said he would not consider calling off negotiations with the Six Nations protesters unless he's told to by Ontario Provincial Police and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"The principal negotiations, as you well know, take place between the federal government and the Six Nations community," McGuinty said Tuesday.

"If at some point in time, the OPP advise us it was in the interests of public safety that we end these negotiations, and if Prime Minister Harper also agreed that he should end his negotiations, then that's obviously something that we would have to consider."

The Ontario Progressive Conservatives are accusing the Liberals of encouraging lawlessness by tolerating the recent escalation of aboriginal protests.

Six Nations protesters blocked off the Highway 6 bypass over the weekend to show support for fellow aboriginal protesters who were staging a blockade over a land claim in the eastern Ontario town of Deseronto, near Belleville.

Provincial police removed the Deseronto roadblock Monday after the protest escalated on the weekend. Two officers were injured and a cruiser window was smashed after police arrested Mohawk leader Shawn Brant at a traffic stop, prompting his supporters to rush to the scene.

Conservatives are calling on the Liberals to break off talks with Six Nations protesters - aimed at settling their land claims and ending a two-year occupation of a former housing development in Caledonia - until the protests stop.

Even if OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino or Harper recommended such an ultimatum, the province would be reluctant to call off the talks, McGuinty said.

"They'd have to make a pretty compelling argument because the Ipperwash report specifically said, keep talking," McGuinty said. "The only way to make real, lasting and substantive progress is to keep talking."

Police won't shy away from giving McGuinty advice if it is necessary, Fantino said. But he said police had the situation under control.

"It inconvenienced a whole lot of people and things weren't happening as quickly as some people might have wished," Fantino said.

"But at the end of the day, we can't just resort to force when there are other means available to us. The decisions we make are weighed against consequences. Ultimately, we have to be cognizant of the fact that everything we do is under the microscope."

Fantino - who cancelled his vacation to deal with the escalating protests - said he doesn't know if charges will be laid against protesters in Caledonia.

But Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said the Liberals are paving the way for a summer of protests and unrest by showing they will stand idly by while aboriginals break the law.

The Liberals could not only refuse to sit at a negotiating table with lawbreakers but they could also use the courts to enforce the deeds people have to contested land, he said. Instead, McGuinty is passing the buck to Ontario's police commissioner, Tory added.

"What (McGuinty) is doing now is he's letting violations of the law go on across the province, disrespect for the law go on in different ways," he said.

"It's kind of a 'hear no evil, see no evil, do nothing' approach, which I think is a disaster. If he doesn't wake up to reality soon ... we will have unrest all over the province."

Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer said she worries about the coming summer. The barricades were taken down just in time, she said.

"The tension was getting pretty hot and heavy there," Trainer said. "People are getting to the end of their rope. They've had enough."

It's now up to those at the negotiating table to resolve the conflict, she said.

Six Nations recently rejected a $26-million federal offer to settle the flooding of aboriginal land along the Grand River 179 years ago during the building of the Welland Canal. Six Nations negotiators contend they are owed $1 billion.

"I have to have faith that sensible people will come to reality and sit down to do some serious negotiation," Trainer said.

Although the Liberals had vowed to kick-start negotiations in Caledonia a few months ago, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant said people must be patient.

There is little the province can do given the negotiations are primarily between the federal government and Six Nations, he added.

"I believe that the offer that the federal government made was quite a significant and serious one and deserves a serious response," Bryant said.