Tolerance for illegal protests must have limits
THE SPECTATOR’S VIEW
There is some comfort in knowing that Six Nations citizens played a significant role in solving the most recent Indigenous protest blockade in Caledonia.
As reported in yesterday’s Spectator, Haldimand County Coun. Craig Grice said it took a major effort to bring the barricades down, and he praised all involved. “I think people are happy the barricades are down. I know a lot of people recognize that a lot of effort went into it, not only from the Caledonia side, but from the Six Nations side as well,” Grice said.
But what took so long? Prior to the weekend, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy protesters blocked Argyle Street in the beleaguered town for nearly a month. They moved the blockade to the Highway 6 bypass on the weekend. It’s not clear whether that move was the last straw that caused the OPP to move in Monday night, dismantling the blockade. Certainly blocking the bypass instead of Argyle would seem to increase the safety risk thanks to the resulting jam of traffic being forced through town.
The fact that Six Nations citizens worked to remove the blockade is further evidence that the problem in this case and others like it is not average residents. It’s a small group within the larger community. This dispute in particular wasn’t about long-standing, and often legitimate, grievances with the provincial and federal governments. It was about a piece of property known as the Burtch lands. As per an earlier agreement the province planned to transfer the land to the elected band council, but that met with objections and ultimately the blockade by the Haudenosaunee, who argue they, not the elected council, are the real leadership at Six Nations.
In other words, it was an internal dispute that has nothing to do with average citizens of the area trying to go about their day-to-day lives. There is no legitimate reason for those lives to be disrupted in a case like this. There is no justification for the economic damage and inconvenience they suffered due to a matter they have no stake in and no influence over.
And yet it happened. And there is no reason to believe it won’t happen again. When it does, it will be another losing situation all ’round. No one wins — not the hereditary leadership protesters, not the legitimately elected band council, not the OPP and not the province or feds. And certainly not average citizens.
The OPP’s strategy of protest tolerance in situations like this is a legacy of Ipperwash, when a more strongarmed response led to the death of protester Dudley George.
No one wants a repeat of that. But neither should indefinite tolerance toward illegal protests be acceptable. Next time, the OPP should act carefully and responsibly, but within a reasonable time, not weeks as was the case here.