Protest forces polling station off Six Nations
Voters had to travel to Oakland Community Centre — about a 25-minute drive from the original site
A polling station at Six Nations of the Grand River was moved off reserve by Elections Canada following protests Monday morning.
In videos posted to social media by Turtle Island News, protesters were seen blocking access to the Gathering Place by the Grand polling station on Chiefswood Road in the Brantford-Brant riding.
A few hours later, a sign posted in the window said the polling station had been moved to Oakland Community Centre — about a 25-minute drive from the original site. According to a tweet from Six Nations of the Grand River, Elections Canada moved the site.
Elections Canada spokesperson Nathalie de Montigny said this is the only polling location that has been relocated on election day due to protest.
These events follow a release issued by the chiefs and clan mothers of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council last week that called for “polling stations on Haudenosaunee territory to be removed,” stating it’s a “violation of not only treaty rights, but our human rights to exist as distinct people.”
The Confederacy said Haudenosaunee peoples voting in Canadian elections violates treaties and commitments made by their ancestors, specifically the Two Row Wampum agreement that states to “never interfere in one another’s government, laws, and ways.”
Katie Montour, a spokesperson for the Six Nations Elected Council, a legislative body separate from the Confederacy council, told The Spectator last week that having polling locations in the community respects the right of community members to exercise their right to vote if they choose to do so.
Local candidates expressed their concern for the protest outside the polling site online. In a tweet, Cole Squire, People’s Party of Canada candidate for Brantford-Brant, called the protests an act of “voter suppression.”
De Montigny said all claims of voter suppression are to be investigated by the Commissioner of Elections Canada following a formal complaint, but it isn’t unusual for polling locations to be moved under other circumstances.