Was Kathleen Wynne “Ballsy”?
The small town of Caledonia, Ontario has been host to a lot of trouble in the past. If you’re not familiar with the story, the quick version is that a group of union backed radicals terrorized the town in response to a dodgy land dispute over a plot of land that was to be called Douglas Creek Estates. At the height of the conflict Caledonia residents were being required to carry ‘passes’ if the native protesters were to allow them to go to their homes. One resident was assaulted and now lives with brain damage.
At the end of the ruckus the province paid-off the developer, buying the land at a premium. One house had already been built, it’s reportedly still occupied by protesters. There was also a great big steel electrical tower; torn-down and placed as an unsightly, dangerous and illegal barrier to the road.
In June the Haldimand County Council voted to finally take-down the barrier. Six Nations radicals quickly warned that this action could start all out war. The council has backed-off, but the momentum hasn’t stopped- now, the radicals have announced plans to build a fence.
The Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) is an organization run by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council. The HDI is a controversial organization that’s been accused (by both indigenous and non-indigenous critics) of shaking-down local developers for cash. As an example; when Samsung came to build wind turbines, they were quickly met by a gang of locals and anarchist/union allied protesters who pulled-out the surveyor’s stakes- problems eased-up after Samsung promised to grease the HDI’s palms.
According to a story in the Two Row Times, HDI director Hazel Hill explained on July 9th that they plan to build a “protective chain fence” around the Douglas Creek Estates site. She explained their reason to put up the fence was in response to “recent provocations against Six Nation” by “Gary McHale and a group of his followers”. The construction was to start 7-10 days later, there’s no indication that work has started yet.
The “provocation” Hill was complaining about was the same thing she’d be calling a “protest” if it was conducted by people on her side. McHale and others in his group held a protest at the DCE in early June- as the above video shows, McHale was assaulted by Six Nations protester John Garlow while trying to walk into the subdivision. In a stunning turn of events, Garlow was later arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police (who have generally let mayhem take its course).
Hill next gave a fascinating description about her experience during the original occupation of the DCE- explaining what happened when the HCCC (in a very sulky and entitled manner) refused to enter conversations where the elected band council was present. Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne was Minister of Aboriginal affairs at the time- here’s how Hill describes Wynne’s reaction:
“She was ballsy in setting up a table to talk without condition that the Band Council or Haldimand had to be there, when no other government had done that”
Critics of how the DCE crisis progressed would argue the very opposite- it wasn’t ballsy for Wynne to agree to negotiate on the condition of a ragtag group of union backed radicals, it was caving-in to their thuggery. Regardless of whether one believes in the legitimacy of Indian Act enforced councils, there’s still the inconvenient truth that they have been elected by members of the community- excluding them means excluding the people who voted for them.
That Kathleen Wynne participated in this farce, and is currently our Premier, is an affront to our province’s democracy. People from both communities – Six Nations and Caledonia – are still paying the price for her cowardice.
Jan Longboat Asks Where The Money Went:
Jan Longboat is an interesting part of the equation, a member of the Six Nations community. Her literature describes her as a healer and archivist of native healing techniques, she runs a traditional garden with 200 types of tradional plants. Longboat also appears to be one of the more sensible members of the community.
The above video documents when Longboat came face-to-face with Gary McHale back in 2011. While many from her community were yelling insults and hate, Longboat was open (and intelligent) enough to engage in a conversation. Unlike the radicals, she also acknowledged that violence wasn’t the answer. Later that year, when con-artist Kevin Annett came to wreak havoc on the Six Nations, Longboat was one of the few people who first spoke out.
The TRT reported that Longboat was present at the meeting on June 9th, and responded saying:
“I’m glad to hear that because there’s a lot of people that want to know about the money and where it has gone.”
If there’s one constant in the experience of indigenous people who get entangled with the union affiliate “movement”, it’s that they’ll ultimately find themselves asking what happened to the money. We saw this with Idle No More, where founder Nina Wilson was brave enough to ask the (union affiliated) Defenders of The Land where the money went. Activistocrat Clayton Thomas-Muller supposedly told Wilson to “check” herself and stop asking. It’s also been discovered that it’s union affiliated ‘settler allies’ taking the money for the Unist’ot’en camp, and the Tsleil-Waututh first nation in BC.
Hill responded to Longboat with a bunch of gobbledegook about how decisions were made, but worked her away from having to answer Longboat’s question. It’s the same pattern repeated over, and over, and over again. Some things never change, the quicker first nations activists realize that “the movement” is using them the better…
