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05-24-2006, 08:15 AM
Natives lift blockade of Caledonia roadway
CTV.ca News Staff
Native protesters removed a blockade from the road running through Caledonia, Ont., Tuesday, signaling a positive turn in the standoff that turned ugly only a day before.
The move was designed to ease tensions between protesters and frustrated community residents who clashed in fistfights Monday night despite a heavy police presence.
"We're moving the barricades and showing that goodwill once again, and we'll see what happens," aboriginal spokesperson Hazel Hill told The Canadian Press Tuesday.
The main obstruction, a piece of a hydro tower, now blocks the entrance to the construction site at the centre of the dispute. The protesters have been barricading the road to prevent housing construction on land they claim as their own.
"Safety is the biggest concern for our people because of the anger and racism that was shown yesterday," Hill said.
Construction crews set to work clearing away debris once the blockade was removed. They also began to repair damage to the roadway.
Traffic began to move along the road around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Goodwill
Early Monday, protesters briefly dismantled the barricade as a sign of goodwill after the province pledged to indefinitely halt construction on the site.
It had been hoped the move would mark the beginning of the end of the standoff, but the blockade was taken down for only a short time before the situation degenerated into a series of violent fistfights with non-natives and the barricade was put back up.
It turned even uglier at around noon Monday, when an SUV driven by a Six Nations protester tried to force its way through the line of locals that had been barring protesters from accessing the site.
Police intervened in several clashes, but tempers got out of hand when vandals damaged a power transformer and cut off electricity to the area, which is around 14 kilometres southwest of Hamilton, Ont.
The blackout, along with the standoff, lead municipal officials to declare a state of emergency late Monday.
Hydro One spokeswoman Laura Cooke told CTV News that the cause of the outage was clearly vandalism to the local power transformer and it will likely be days before service is fully restored.
The power outage forced school boards serving Caledonia, Simcoe and Waterford to close 17 schools.
Talks
Talks to end the bitter dispute have been continuing under former Ontario premier David Peterson, but it remains unclear when those talks were likely to resume.
Meanwhile, a local councillor said earlier Tuesday that efforts to bring an end to the dispute needed to be stepped up, even if it meant bringing in the military,
"They need to bring in the necessary authorities to end this dispute immediately," Haldimand County councillor Buck Sloat told CTV Newsnet.
"Whether that be the provincial OPP or whether that be the army, I'm not sure at what level it needs to be brought in but this needs to be ended immediately."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty called for "calm and goodwill" to end the standoff.
"It's not the kind of thing that's going to be resolved overnight," McGuinty told reporters.
"It's going to continue to take some time, and I would ask all parties involved to allow cooler heads to prevail."
Land dispute
Aboriginal demonstrators began blockading the road on April 20, when police attempted to forcibly remove protesters who had been occupying a 40-hectare piece of land since Feb. 28.
Protestors argue that the site of the Douglas Creek Estates housing project was part of a large land grant back in 1784, but the provincial and federal governments insist the land was surrendered in 1841 to help build a major highway.
With files from the Canadian Press
Video and more articles click Here
CTV.ca News Staff
Native protesters removed a blockade from the road running through Caledonia, Ont., Tuesday, signaling a positive turn in the standoff that turned ugly only a day before.
The move was designed to ease tensions between protesters and frustrated community residents who clashed in fistfights Monday night despite a heavy police presence.
"We're moving the barricades and showing that goodwill once again, and we'll see what happens," aboriginal spokesperson Hazel Hill told The Canadian Press Tuesday.
The main obstruction, a piece of a hydro tower, now blocks the entrance to the construction site at the centre of the dispute. The protesters have been barricading the road to prevent housing construction on land they claim as their own.
"Safety is the biggest concern for our people because of the anger and racism that was shown yesterday," Hill said.
Construction crews set to work clearing away debris once the blockade was removed. They also began to repair damage to the roadway.
Traffic began to move along the road around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Goodwill
Early Monday, protesters briefly dismantled the barricade as a sign of goodwill after the province pledged to indefinitely halt construction on the site.
It had been hoped the move would mark the beginning of the end of the standoff, but the blockade was taken down for only a short time before the situation degenerated into a series of violent fistfights with non-natives and the barricade was put back up.
It turned even uglier at around noon Monday, when an SUV driven by a Six Nations protester tried to force its way through the line of locals that had been barring protesters from accessing the site.
Police intervened in several clashes, but tempers got out of hand when vandals damaged a power transformer and cut off electricity to the area, which is around 14 kilometres southwest of Hamilton, Ont.
The blackout, along with the standoff, lead municipal officials to declare a state of emergency late Monday.
Hydro One spokeswoman Laura Cooke told CTV News that the cause of the outage was clearly vandalism to the local power transformer and it will likely be days before service is fully restored.
The power outage forced school boards serving Caledonia, Simcoe and Waterford to close 17 schools.
Talks
Talks to end the bitter dispute have been continuing under former Ontario premier David Peterson, but it remains unclear when those talks were likely to resume.
Meanwhile, a local councillor said earlier Tuesday that efforts to bring an end to the dispute needed to be stepped up, even if it meant bringing in the military,
"They need to bring in the necessary authorities to end this dispute immediately," Haldimand County councillor Buck Sloat told CTV Newsnet.
"Whether that be the provincial OPP or whether that be the army, I'm not sure at what level it needs to be brought in but this needs to be ended immediately."
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty called for "calm and goodwill" to end the standoff.
"It's not the kind of thing that's going to be resolved overnight," McGuinty told reporters.
"It's going to continue to take some time, and I would ask all parties involved to allow cooler heads to prevail."
Land dispute
Aboriginal demonstrators began blockading the road on April 20, when police attempted to forcibly remove protesters who had been occupying a 40-hectare piece of land since Feb. 28.
Protestors argue that the site of the Douglas Creek Estates housing project was part of a large land grant back in 1784, but the provincial and federal governments insist the land was surrendered in 1841 to help build a major highway.
With files from the Canadian Press
Video and more articles click Here
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