Blockades crackdown gaining momentum
Critics say moves infringe upon right to protest
Months after a group of Haudenosaunee people set up camp on a construction site near Caledonia, Ont., a provincial court granted Haldimand County an order permanently forbidding people from “interfering” with any public road.
A lawyer for the county argued that the injunction was the “only remedy” to keep roads open in the event of future blockades over disputed land.
“I kind of jokingly — but not jokingly — say, if you get a flat tire and are impeding traffic with that flat tire in any kind of way, you are now breaching that injunction,” Skyler Williams, a spokesman for the 1492 Land Back Lane camp, said in a recent phone interview.
The Haudenosaunee protesters argue the site of the housing development is on unceded land. Williams and more than 30 others who call themselves “land defenders” refused to obey the court order and are now facing charges.
The county's move to effectively ban protest indefinitely is part of a broader trend as governments at various levels crack down on Indigenous-led land protests.
After blockades in solidarity with Wetsu'we'ten hereditary leaders opposing a pipeline through their territory near Smithers, B.C., shut down railways and roads last winter, Alberta's United Conservative Party introduced a bill outlawing disruptions to “critical infrastructure,” broadly defined to include highways, railways and pipelines.
The bill, which became law in June, carries fines up to $25,000 and six months in jail for each day of an alleged violation.
Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government has said it plans to introduce similar legislation next year, with details under wraps until then.
Cara Zwibel with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said laws like Alberta's that target Indigenous protesters show “intolerance for the fact that democracy can be messy,” and stoke divisions between Indigenous communities and non-indigenous neighbours who aren't informed about the history behind the conflicts.
There are ripple effects when governments target one group of people with such legislation, she added.
“If one group doesn't have the right to protest then no one really does,” Zwibel said in an interview.
Zwibel said the non-profit may join a constitutional challenge of Alberta's law filed by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, depending on the outcome of a January hearing on the government's request that the claim be struck.
The statement of claim from the union filed in June argues that the Act “will have a chilling effect on legitimate and peaceful protests, demonstrations, strikes and leafleting, activities essential to a healthy democracy.”
A statement from a spokesman for Alberta's justice minister denied that the infrastructure law targets people by race, and said it does not restrict protected rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
“Albertans understand the difference between legitimate protest and criminal acts designed to shut down the economy,” Blaise Boehmer's statement said.
There is also a court challenge underway appealing the permanent injunction orders against the 1492 Land Back Lane camp in Ontario.
Haldimand County Mayor Ken Hewitt said he doesn't want to take away the right to protest, but he's considering the “rights of those that can't traverse across these streets,” and people waiting to move into the housing development.
“I'd say that everybody has the right to protest, but when that line is crossed, where the protest now infringes on those that are innocent, how far can you go?” Hewitt said in an interview.