"They will always be the colonists and they will always have to negotiate with us. And if they don't negotiate in good faith, there will always be trouble."
Cayuga court, Friday, June 16th. Right after the court opened, Judge Marshall adjourned it so the lawyers could have a meeting with each other and discuss when they could have another meeting. "A lot has happened since we last met. The blockades have come down, the roads and railroad are open". They really don't have anything to cry and scream about. So how can they keep this thing going? It takes the tinge out of their complaints about us.
The provincial government gave the Caledonians $1.78 million to keep their businesses going. They got a $560,000 grant and the nod from the OPP to purchase guns. It's obvious they haven't let go of their fantasies about "Little Big Horn".
The province now has an agreement with Henco Industries [the developers who were illegally building a housing project on Six Nations Land] to "buy" the property which we own. Development will not proceed because it's ours and we do not want it. They said they want to balance everybody's interests, especially their bank accounts. Talks will continue between the Six Nations and the province. 250 acres have been made available of the Bertsch Lands, where their huge jail use to be. The Six Nations have planted crops. Judge Marshall wants something to be "fair and reasonable", but not lawful.
The OPP lawyer said, "We don't know where the OPP stand. There have been 23 violent incidents. He forgot to mention that the OPP had arranged them all. Warrants have been issued against those Indians who got in the way of the Caledonia rioters' baseball bats, pepper spray, cars, fists, racist taunts, flying garbage , bread, cheese and beer bottles and other unidentified flying objects. They're trying to find some criminal charges to put on the Indigenous people they've selected. Since we are unarmed and peaceful they're having a very hard time. Yes, the OPP have not charged any of the vicious violent non-native rioters. They even brought in the ATF from the United States to help them incriminate the Indians, but that failed because the Indians smoked them out. The Indians circled their wagon. The OPP thought the ATF knew how to get innocent people in jail better than them. They found out the US tactic is to kill everybody, no questions asked. Are the OPP in the process of getting permission to do that? At least, this is what we thought we heard in the courtroom.
Yes, we're afraid the rule of law has been suspended [by the OPP]. The inflammatory comments of the Ontario Police Association doesn't help! Mr. McCarthy said, "Rule of law with regard to title, the relationship between the Crown and the patents and the change of title are important issues of law. The statements having been made the concerned discern no additional useful contributions in these present changed circumstances". In other words, they don't want to deal with the land and title issue!
Someone from the prestigious law firm of Gordon Ladner of Toronto said, "This is a very difficult case. It's not a "peaches and cream" case. It has a nasty side". Right! You guys are a bunch of nasty colonists, just like your ancestors!
After the break, there was a discussion about this return of land to the Six Nations and how it places all other developments into jeopardy. Right on! The lands are all Six Nations lands. They never asked us if they could put in a $40 million strip mall in Brantford. Jane Stewart, who's representing Ontario at the talks with us, didn't ask us if she could build 23,500 houses in Paris, Ontario. The Henning brothers are planning to put up 1,500 houses in Cayuga, not far from the courthouse. Caledonia Mayor Marie Trainor didn't ask us about her ten-year growth plan on our land.
The Hennings want their initial $6 million investment plus the $40 to $60 million they might have earned. If they don't get this, are they planning to keep our land? It's still ours. Six Nations has a right to compensation from Henco for the irreparable damage they've done to our land.
Their calculations are all wrong. According to the Supreme Court of Canada in Musqueam v. Glass, the Hennings can only be compensated for the fair market value of their land. In Vancouver prime reserve land goes for half the market value. On the Haldimand Tract it might be even less, particularly since we never consented. Ontario taxpayers will probably be forced to give them an inflated price because the news is being kept out of the corporate media. Will Jane Stewart want to be paid off too? Ontario is giving them a settlement, not the land! Now we hear Ontario or someone is going to put the land into trust. Another scam! We never asked them to do that! So far they've been totally untrustworthy from the beginning of our association.
The judge said that all these people will be called back "when it's useful" [to who?].
The precedent being set is that Ontario has been hit with the truth about their theft of our land. They're trying to bury this issue.
They did not mention what was behind their quiet subdued demeanor. The Supreme Court of Canada has set new trends in dealing with Indigenous people. In the Haida Nation and Mikkisew Cree Nation cases, there can be no development on Indigenous land without consulting us. Anyone going against these Supreme Court of Canada decisions is in contempt of court.
Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin said in Haida, "Knowledge of a credible but unproven claim is enough to trigger a duty to consult. The Crown can no longer delay settling a native claim. Canada needs a credible reason not to settle with us. We can't be ignored anymore. They'll come up with some reason not to deal with us, like saying they can't deal with terrorists. In the past they made an excuse that they could not deal with us because of their policy that we were "non-persons". Today Canada has had to admit we are persons under both domestic and international laws. The time has come for all of us to repossess all our land.
In Mikkisew Justice Binney of the Supreme Court wrote that it was illegal for government officials to be indifferent. Ignoring us in now illegal. But they still need our permission to look at us.
The duty to consult is grounded in the honor of the Crown. The Crown has to keep its word. They have to look at Indigenous matters from our perspective. Do they realize they are ignoring us? Are they scared to deal with us?
Aboriginal rights is based on the principle fact that "we were here first". In the case law, Section 35.1 reconciles this principle against the aspersion that the Crown has sovereignty. This principle doesn't exist and never did. It was all a hoax that the colonists enforced with guns. It's like a stick up! Our position is supported internationally. The court has to see things our way. The question we have to keep asking is, "What are you doing here?"
In Mikkisew Treaty 8, Canada thought that a treaty is once and for all. They told themselves that once they took our possessions with their phony treaties, then everything belongs to them. They thought they could push us around and do whatever they wanted. No so. In Mikkisew the relationship with the Crown requires continuous negotiation. The signing of treaty 8 was not the end. It was just the beginning of a long journey that is not likely to end soon. It may never end because we are never going to end and disappear. We will always be the original people here. They will always be the colonists and they will always have to negotiate with us. And if they don't negotiate in good faith, there will always be trouble. Or they can go home. They will always have to explain to us what they're doing here because we're going to keep asking. Get it, Canada?
Canada has to understand the relationship as an ongoing treaty of alliance rather than as a one shot deal. As Binney pointed out in Mikkisew the Crown has an obligation to take our representations seriously. Our legal concept of living together is not based on dominance and submission. It's based on negotiation and mutual respect. They must now do that.
They have a duty to consult the People, not their own illegal Indian Act band councils. They have to take what we want into account. They have to respect our boundaries.
All in all, the court was awfully quiet. Maybe they have come to realize that this situation is serious. They just can't push us around the way they thought they could.
Kahentinetha Horn
kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
