Content of E-Mails and a Phone Call Sent to Federal, Provincial, County Authorities and the OPP about the Blockade of Surrey Street

A few months ago I contacted various officials, explaining my frustration with situations such as the difficulties being experienced by the owner of Grand Island BBQ in selling his property in Dunn Township, Haldimand County.  Here, although there was irrefutable evidence that the Six Nations Chiefs in Council had surrendered the property in 1834, they were pushing forward with claims here - the impetus being millions of dollars available from Samsung by the simple act of declaring the lands "contested".  It worked, and Samsung, for absolutely no valid reason, granted $65 million over 20 years to Six Nations - convinced that they held some sort of "rights and entitlements" to the land where Samsung wanted to erect industrial wind turbines.  They bought into the lie, perhaps because it was simply easier to work with Six Nations than risk their ire - irrespective of the validity of their claims.  Since I had ample evidence that Six Nations had no historical or legal rights in this matter, all that having been given up 180 years ago, I had run out of patience. 

The situation at Grand Island was just rubbing more salt into the wound that was still an open sore - Caledonia 2006.  For the past 8 years Six Nations activists had been illegally occupying Douglas Creek Estates, which they renamed Kanonhstaton.  Recently they have had the effrontery to claim that the Provincially owned land belongs to them, and that they have the right to erect a perimeter fence around the entire 40 acres, and turn the land into, in the words of the Director of the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), enforcement arm of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC), a "gated community".  That threat was "made good" when, under the authority of the HCCC, Surrey Street, a public entrance to Provincially owned land, was blockaded with the stolen and vandalized Hydro One tower (once flanking the entrance, but now the two parts have been dragged across the road and "fortified" by positioning huge concrete blocks across Surrey Street).  My previous blog posting of 20 June 2014 provides details and pictures of this, the latest slap in the face of those of us who reside in Caledonia.

Frustration led to action once again, in the form of two e-mails and a phone call. 

A)  The e-mails below were sent to the following individuals:

1)  Bernard Valcourt, (Federal) Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.
2)  David Zimmer, (Provincial) Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.
3)  Diane Finley, M.P.P. for Haldimand - Norfolk.
4)  Toby Barrett, M.P. for Haldimand - Norfolk.
5)  Ken Hewitt, Mayor, Haldimand County.

------- Date of  first e-mail: Saturday, 21 June, 5:15 p.m.

Greetings to all,

I am writing to each of you, and tomorrow I will be phoning the Ontario Provincial Police to lodge a formal complaint.

 

The situation will be familiar to all of you, although the recent particulars perhaps not.  The Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) through their enforcement wing the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) is once again committing illegal acts.  Their actions come on the heels of the verdict of the Ontario Superior Court in Brantford, slapping their Director and Legal Council with a heavy fine for violating the Court injunction against disrupting various projects within the City of Brantford.  In this instance, despite the fact that the former Douglas Creek Estates (DCE) land belongs to the Province of Ontario, they have continued to illegally occupy it as if it were their own.  At present, as per articles in the Turtle Island News and Two Row Times, they plan to place a perimeter fence around the entire property and turn it into a "gated community".  Surely all would agree that this is a blatantly illegal act which cannot be permitted to proceed.  If allowed to do as they please, those who permit this are in effect enablers and will be responsible for the initiation of more blatant acts of defiance in the efforts of Six Nations to deny the land surrenders between 1834 and 1848.

 

The attitude of "we can do as we please" is reflected in the most recent actions at DCE where the HCCC radicals, who are, based on their threats, the HDI, have taken it upon themselves to completely block the main public access road to DCE off Argyll Street in Caledonia.  Pictures and more details can be found here:  http://deyoyonwatheh.blogspot.ca/ in the lead article of 20 June 2014.

 

It is time, in my opinion, for the Federal Government researchers to state in the clearest possible terms that the land was surrendered in 1844-45 (as noted in the above article), and that the land is on title in the Ontario Land Registration system.  It does not belong to Six Nations and has not belonged to them for the past 170 years.  It is a travesty that Six Nations have not formally been informed of historical and legal realities, and as a consequence the people of Caledonia continue to suffer, and will do so for the foreseeable future as the emboldened Six Nations expand their horizons to illegally acquire more land.  We have suffered for 8 years, surely none can expect that we are going to be able to patiently wait another 8 years while Six Nations consolidates their hold - "possession is 9/10 of the law".  The late Justice Marshall's injunction of 2006 needs to be honoured, and the occupiers sent packing, perhaps after being given copies of the surrenders of 1845 signed by up to 67 Chiefs in Council.

 

In the strongest terms, I suggest that the documents pertaining to the specific surrenders be spread on the table before the representatives of both the HCCC and the Elected Band Council.  If they wish to initiate legal action that would be a blessing since, as Justice Harrison Arrell of the Ontario Superior Court in Brantford has said in a preliminary report, the Six Nations have the weakest possible case in relation to present land claims.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

------- Date of second e-mail: Monday, 23 June, 2:22 p.m.

 

Hello again,

 

My contact has informed me that they will publish the response given by each government agency to the request, as written in my previous e-mail, that the law be served in this matter.  I called the Cayuga Detachment of the OPP yesterday to report this event (blockading Surrey Street) as a crime. 

 

After 8 years of dilly dallying, it is time to take action and tell Six Nations that they have no valid claim to the Douglas Creek Estates property, and that the Injunction of Justice Marshall of 2006 will be enforced and all illegal occupiers removed.

 

We anxiously await your response in this matter.

 

Respectfully,

B)  A phone call was made to the Ontario Provincial Police to report a crime.

At 9:15 a.m., on Sunday 22 June 2014 I contacted the Cayuga Detachment and provided information by phone about the blockade of Surrey Street, including the names of those I suspected of having perpetrated the crime, and requested that the matter be investigated.

What is next?

We wait.  I will report on what responses are received from each of the individuals noted above.

DeYo.