Short Hills hunt protest kept peaceful
Protests remained peaceful, despite groups with opposing gathering on either side of the Pelham Road entrance to Short Hills Provincial Park, Saturday.
As the Haudenosaunee hunters wrapped up their first day of hunting at the St. Catharines park, supporters from Indigenous groups sat for the most part quietly, by a fire, while some sang traditional First Nations songs and carried signs saying “Treaty rights are human rights” and “Honour the treaty.”
Meanwhile, demonstrators gathered on the opposite side of the gravel lane, carrying signs that read “End human privilege” and “Park, not a slaughter field.”
Police and Ministry of Natural Resources officers stood between the two groups, keeping the peace as the hunters left the park with their quarry.
“Last year, apparently, there was a problem with racial slurs and that sort of thing,” said OPP Sgt. Derrick Wells. “We don’t want that this year. There are children here.”
Through negotiations with both groups, Wells said he allowed protesters from Short Hills Wildlife Alliance, Animal Alliance of Canada and other organizations to delay each of the trucks leaving the park by five minutes, but warned them that if he heard any racial slurs from the group the time they are permitted to detain the vehicles would be reduced.
“I was trying to use that as a tool to ensure people co-operate.”
Although it was the first time Wells had been assigned to the deer hunt, he has experience dealing with similar circumstances.
“It’s all about talking, and giving and taking and making sure everybody is safe at the end of the day. That’s the goal.”
Animal rights protesters, however, denied that the race of the hunters had anything to do with their presence at the park.
“That’s just not true,” said Liz White, from Animal Alliance of Canada.
“That isn’t to say that everybody gets a little bit heated, but it has nothing to with (race). We’re in a democracy where we can disagree with each other.”
For the most part, the protesters said their concerns lie with the MNR for allowing the hunt in a park they say is too close to their homes.
Norma Sherbok, who was there to support the hunters, recalled some tense moments during last year’s hunt. But even then, she said, there are ways of finding common ground.
“Things got heated a little bit. I thought things were going to escalate,” she said.
“I think when individuals talk and people actually allow that one individual to talk, and we actually listen to one another, people actually hear.”
She recalled walking across the lane to speak to the protesters at last year’s hunt, and “we all ended up shaking hands.”
“There is a lot of common ground,” she said. “We want to protect the land, the water and animals and everything, too. So do they, but there are just some things that are a little different.”
Robin Zavitz from Short Hills Wildlife Alliance said demonstrators arrived at the park entrance at about 4 a.m. Saturday as the hunters arrived, and counted as many as 36 trucks with about 68 hunters aboard.
Sherbok said part of the problem is that Short Hills was made a provincial park, “and when a park becomes involved, people get their backs up.”
Regardless, she said Short Hills is still Indigenous land, and through treaties First Nations people have the right to hunt on that land.
St. Catharines resident Adam Stirr, from a group called At War for Animals Niagara, said in other circumstances he might feel more comfortable joining the Indigenous group.
However, while he said many of his views reflect those of First Nations people, regarding respect for the environment, he can’t condone hunting.
“The only reason I wouldn’t be on that side is because they’re killing them. They’re treating them as either a food source or a resource. I see a deer as my exact equal. My life is no more valuable than a deer or a bear or a mouse, a whale or anything. We’re all the same. We’re trapped in different bodies.”
The deer hunt continued Sunday and also continues Nov. 25 and 26, and Dec. 4 and 5.