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By Haldimand Press Staff
CALEDONIA—The Haudenosaunee and their allies invited the surrounding Caledonia community to join them on Saturday, November 7, 2020 to “start a healing process” and to “build a common ground and start to reunite the communities.” Their invitation continued, “It’s time for us to understand each other without interference from the government.”
The event included performances from local musicians, including Logan Staats, and a screening of a documentary.
The event took place at Argyle Street South and Sixth Line, the edge of the former Douglas Creek Estates site known as 6×6, which is just beyond where one of the barricades is set up on Argyle Street.
The self-titled land defenders have held various events previously at McKenzie Meadows, which they renamed 1492 Land Back Lane. This event was held at the new location since “there is no injunction on this land,” said land defender Skyler Williams. The injunctions on the McKenzie site have criminalized visiting the lands without permission from Foxgate Developments. Over 30 people who visited the site have been arrested to date, including singer/songwriter Rob Lamothe, who attended and performed at the November 7 event.
“I’m here because I believe in the sovereignty of First Nations,” said Lamothe. “This (event) is an opportunity for people to engage with each other and communicate in peace.”
OPP also arrested Indigenous journalist Karl Dockstader previously after he attended the McKenzie site to cover the land dispute.
“I was shocked. I was really disappointed that they (the OPP) let it get this far,” said Dockstader of One Dish One Mic, who attended Saturday’s event to gather Haldimand residents’ thoughts on the land dispute for a story with Canadaland media. “The overwhelming thing that I’ve been hearing is: ‘Where is the federal government in this?’”
Before Staats took the stage, his spokesperson Jason Maclennan said a few words on the situation.
“We will support this sovereign nation and do what we need to do to support you in your endeavor to get this right; get our government on the right side to where they should be,” said Maclennan. “We call on our leaders Justin Trudeau, Erin O’Toole, and Jagmeet Singh. Where are you standing on this fight? You are supposed to be standing on the side of the people…. It is time to stop the cycle of racism in this country and respect our sovereign First Nations … so get off your ass and do it right, because we respect this sovereign First Nation.”
Representatives came out from several organizations to show their support for the cause, including the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), the labour councils from Brantford and Guelph areas, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) from Brock University, and the United Steelworkers of Hamilton and Brantford.
“This has been going on for too many years,” said Darren Green of the United Steelworkers of Hamilton. “We’re here at Day 112 and we didn’t have to be here. This could have been resolved with discussion with the federal government. They took the roadblocks down once in the summer in good faith and in hopes that the federal government would talk to them and they haven’t. The frustration is getting overwhelming and I support the position they are taking. The government has to start taking Indigenous issues seriously.”
Don Guest, the President of the Brantford and District Labour Council, added: “We know what it’s like to have injunctions placed on us. It happens all the time.”
“The OFL came out right away in support of land defenders; we’ve been on this issue right from Wet’suwet’en. Most definitely we are in support,” said Janice Folk-Dawson, Executive Vice-President of OFL. “Quite clearly, labour understands the misuse of injunctions and broken contracts. Their fight is our fight.”
“I think it is very important for us to be out here and show that labour is behind this Land Back action,” continued Folk-Dawson. “Many of our workers are First Nations, Metis, or Inuit, and so we have a responsibility to make sure their rights are being respected…. Many of our members are also white settlers who don’t understand what the issue is and have bought into the propaganda being fed by governments and the police force and it’s partly our responsibility to be out here … making sure that we have the education to take back to our members so they understand what’s happening here and why it’s so important to defend this land.”
Williams reiterated that he and the others have no intention to stop fighting for the land in this dispute.
“I will continue to make this stand for as long as I can breathe. As long as I’m free and not in jail, I will be out here on this land,” he said. “My grandkids and great-grandkids, their right to this land is more important to me and them than anything those cops and courts can do to us. There’s nothing they can do to us as a people that hasn’t been done already. We are the survivors of smallpox, residential schools, the genocide that was created by this government to wipe our people out. We’re the survivors of that, so trust me when I say we aren’t going anywhere.”
