Protest held in Ottawa over aboriginal land claims

 CTV.ca News Staff

About two-dozen protesters rallied in front of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's Ottawa office Sunday to fight for faster action on aboriginal land claims.

The group say Ontario's politicians are not doing enough to resolve the tense situations surrounded disputed land.

"We're here to show solidarity as Canadian citizens with the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and to let Dalton McGuinty know that we're watching their every step and to date we've been disgraced and embarrassed by our government officials," one protester told the crowd.

The rally comes as protesters near Deseronto, just east of Napanee, dug a trench across a road after taking down a barricade near Highway 2 and Lower Slash Road.

The trench spans the entire road and cut off three homes entirely.

This comes a day after the Ontario Provincial Police said tensions between police and native protesters in eastern Ontario have eased.

"It's become peaceful again and we hope that it will stay. We encourage people to maintain a peaceful conduct because it's not helpful to anyone to escalate the situation," said OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino late Saturday.

Angry aboriginal protesters clashed with police Friday near Deseronto, Ont. after one of their fellow land claims demonstrators was arrested during a traffic stop. The confrontation left two officers slightly hurt and a police car damaged.

The protesters had set up a blockade about a week ago near Deseronto, about 220 as part of a land dispute. The scuffle with police broke out after protester Shawn Brant was taken into custody during a traffic stop. Several Mohawk demonstrators, including Brant, were arrested following the clash with police.

Five of those arrested appeared in court on Saturday and are facing variety of charges, including assaulting a police officer and mischief. They will remain in custody until Monday. Two others who were also arrested following the mayhem were released without conditions.

The Deseronto clash led to a second blockade, which was set up on Highway 6 in Caledonia on Friday night. Similarly to the Deseronto region, that community, southwest of Hamilton, has also been part of an ongoing land claim dispute. Police say both blockades are now down.

"There are no real blockages, except for the ones we put up,'' Fantino said. "It's all peaceful now.''

On Saturday evening, Fantino called a news conference to respond to claims circulating on Internet blogs that police had responded with unnecessary force to the blockade at Deseronto. There were claims that officers beat those arrested, broke the arms of some protesters, and pointed guns at women and children.

Calling the claims "outrageous lies," Fantino said, "I think it's inflaming what is already a very tenuous, very difficult situation.''

One native leader told CTV News this weekend that community leaders did not give the go-ahead for the blockades.

"The council did not sanction nor support Monday's blockage, or any blockage of the roads, to Highway 2 and Deseronto Road, nor do they condone violence,'' said Donald Maracle, chief of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte.

He added, "Our people have had a long history of being peaceful and diplomatic, and the recent events are not representative of our community."