PING!
Posted on 06/12/2006 11:48:50 AM PDT by GMMAC
Doing nothing while natives run riot
Lorne Gunter
National Post
Monday, June 12, 2006
Whatever the merits of the native land claims in Caledonia, Ont., all negotiations and government concessions must now end until native protesters agree to dismantle their barricades and end their illegal occupation of a housing development they claim is on aboriginal land.
The protesters' lawlessness has been allowed to go on too long. More importantly, their behaviour is getting worse, not better. Rewarding it with further deference -- with promises that their grievances will be heard before their violence and illegality have ended -- will only provoke more such criminal behaviour in Caledonia and elsewhere.
In addition to the underlying four-month-old occupation of the $45-million Douglas Creek Estates subdivision -- which continues despite three court injunctions ordering its end -- protesters have blocked a rail line, two of Caledonia's main streets and a bridge. The bridge was later burned, a van set ablaze and burning tires dumped on a busy highway. A backhoe was used to dig up one of the main streets and a blackout was caused by fires set in the town's electrical system. An Ontario Provincial Police officer has been hit in the head with a bag of rocks.
And all of that was before things got ugly.
On Friday, protesters swarmed an SUV full of U.S. police officers who were in Caledonia to observe OPP procedures in the standoff. Three of its occupants were dragged out and assaulted.
One of the swarmers then stole the vehicle and attempted to run down an OPP officer with it. The officer was only injured, but could easily have been killed had a fellow officer not pulled him out of the speeding SUV's path.
Two television cameramen were then attacked. One lost a camera briefly while protesters took the videotape from it. During the scuffle, he was struck on the head and dealt a gash that required several stitches to close.
Protesters also swarmed an OPP cruiser that inadvertently turned into a portion of the occupation site natives insist is off-limits to the police. Fortunately, the officer driving was able to back out before he, too, was assaulted.
There were also unconfirmed reported that seniors walking near the barricades -- which are on town streets -- were harassed.
But while police have issued more than two dozen warrants for protesters' alleged transgressions -- attempted murder, assault, arson, forcible confinement, auto theft, robbery -- the only arrests on Friday were of three Caledonian townspeople from among 400 who came down to police lines to complain about the one-sidedness of police action. The attacked journalists, for instance, claim riot police stood around nearby while they were beaten and their equipment taken.
Admittedly, not all Caledonia residents have been saints. There have been incidents of violence and racism sparked by people from town, too. But police in helmets, face shields, flak jackets and batons seem only ever to appear facing Caledonians. Indeed, the Ontario Provincial Police Association has complained its members' safety and lives are being put at risk for the sake of public relations. They have been ordered not to wear riot gear when approaching natives and are frequently sent to the site without adequate back-up.
All of this smacks of political interference with a police operation. All of it has the waft of a provincial government so afraid of another Ipperwash -- the 1995 aboriginal standoff in which protester Dudley George was killed --that it has hamstrung police. Apparently, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty is so afraid of the current standoff leading to violence against natives that his government is prepared to risk violence against police and non-natives.
There may well be merit to the aboriginal claim to the land on which the subdivision is being erected, but a just settlement of this two-centuries-old dispute can now no longer be part of the equation, not until the law-breaking has ended.
As for Mr. McGuinty, he should remember that the safety and well-being of Ontarians take precedence over this government's PR needs. If someone gets serioulsy injured --or, God forbid, killed --in coming days, much of the blame will be traced to his current paralysis.
lgunter@shaw.ca
© National Post 2006
When people taking photographs are assaulted by native protesters, and their equipment stolen, and visitors from the United States are assaulted, that's bad. But it's even worse when the police are standing right there, observing and doing nothing because they have been muzzled by the politicians.
It's time for a last kick at the can for negotiating an end to this. If this fails, I see no alternative but to send the military and police in to clear the barricades and arrest anyone who resists.
Premier Dalton McGuinty, you will be held accountable for your ineptitude in handling this situation.
Michael Kingsley, Concord, Ont. (Source)
PING!
This sounds like a quagmire, where is the exit strategy?
All animals are equal, some are more equal than others.
I think the time is well past for going in with riot gear, rubber bullets, tear gas, stun grenades and, if necessary, lethal force to bring an end to this. The rule of law needs to be reestablished and this bunch of yahoos brought to heel. Their land claim may have merit (although I doubt it, personally, since even their elected band council doesn't back them on this), but there's no way we should be negotiating with them while they're still pulling this crap. If it keeps going like this someone's going to get killed. And then someone on the other side, and so on.
The Harris government was faced with a similar blockade and Harris ordered a robust response. An aboriginal died and the left has been hammering Harris ever since.
Now it's McGuinty's turn. He cannot do anything that has the slightest chance of harming a hair on the head of an aboriginal.
Whether non-aboriginals get harmed as a result of police inaction, is nothing to the point.
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