Justice Prevails: HCCC and ANTIFA Activists in Court - Work Resumes on the Hydro One NRL - September Update

The author has repeatedly spoken about the unconscionable actions of the Hereditary Chiefs Confederacy Council (HCCC) in relation to Hydro One's Niagara Reinforcement Line (NRL) which would connect power from Niagara Falls to the grid.

The project came to a complete halt in 2006 during the take over of the Douglas Creek Estates housing development project south of Caledonia.  The towers were completed, and ran just south of the Douglas Creek property, it only remained to string the lines.  During the anarchy that followed, one of the towers was cut down and, until 2018, used as a barricade that every so often would be dragged out across Argyle Street South to stop all traffic.  This "severed tower", and Hydro One's unwillingness to act in order to recover (or replace) its property, brought the NRL project to a complete halt.

As noted in the posting here and previous ones, Hydro One came to an agreement with the Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC), which is the sole legal governing body at Six Nations, and with promises of sums of money and a 45% stake in the revenue from the completed NRL project and jobs for Six Nations people (AECON 6 Nations - A6N) - the stringing of lines commenced in the fall of 2018, but was soon brought to a halt by HCCC and their enforcers the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI) who blocked the work site and threatened to bring throngs of people streaming down from the Rez (as happened in 2006).  A hollow threat perhaps, but none the less effective.  The bottom line was the the HDI and their White advisers, including ANTIFA members known from 2006 and subsequent events, demanded a quarter of a million dollars and be cut in on the action.  Of course this is nothing more than extortion, which has been used more times by HDI than the present author can count in local land development and green energy projects.  The HDI and HCCC have never opened the books, and while claiming to be the sole representatives of the people, refuse to let anyone see where this blood money has gone (lining the pockets of key players is of course one suspicion).

Hydro One is used to capitulating (it has for 13 years on this one project, and on illegal smoke shacks being set up on their property), but since they were now partnered with the elected officials at Six Nations, who were none too happy with this action which deprived the community of much needed resources, they eventually did what they should have done many years ago.  They applied for a Court Injunction (which worked splendidly in 2009 with the ruling of Justice Arrell in Brantford Supreme Court in a land development work stoppage).

Both the Brantford Expositor (BE) of 11 July 2019 in an article entitled Hydro One gets temporary injunction (see here); and the Two Row Times (TRT1) of 10 July 2019 in an article entitled, HCCC & HDI and 16 others being sued for injunction on Niagara Reinforcement Project (see here); and TRT2 11 July 2019  in and article entitled Judge approves injunction for completion of Niagara Reinforcement Project (see here) have addressed this matter.

As indicated in the latter article, the HCCC, NDI and 16 named individuals were brought to Court to answer claims by Hydro One about work stoppages and threats, including that of the "New Mohawk benchwarmer" who had demanded $40 million in "compensation" paid to HCCC in order to allow the A6N workers to resume their work.  It was the mysterious A.D. who once again represented the HCCC in these proceedings but only as a "Senior Advisor" not lawyer (which begs the question, "has he been disbarred?").  15 of the 16 named individuals were Six Nations members, the 16th was a very well known White activist (ANTIFA, Marxist, anarchist) who was at one time a graduate student from York University, and involved as a "supporter" of Six Nations since 2006.

Hydro One was seeking an order barring the above named or others from using any means to deter work at the site or intimidating anyone involved in the project.  Hydro One was also seeking damages, costs or any other relief deemed appropriate by the Court for "irreparable harm".  Some parties denied being served a summons, despite evidence to the contrary.  None wished to participate - leaving it to A.D. to act on their behalf.  One party did speak, calling the fact that Hydro One seeking an injunction, "an outrage, and a sneaky disgusting move". (BE)  Hydro One added that they had on numerous occasions attempted to get HCCC to participate in discussions, but to no avail - except the assertion that any talks would be on condition that Hydro One pay HCCC $250,000.  The HCCC, in its statement, said that is has always been committed to partnering with Indigenous leaders and provincial entities, including Hydro One. (BE)  Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the HCCC could easily assess the accuracy of that statement.  To dig in even deeper into the depths of what are lies and what is the truth, the statement by the HCCC representative that, "Hydro One is proceeding in a manner that is condescending, colonist and patriarchal” speaks volumes.

The Judge concluded that this was all about the money, and "who's going to take a cut".  The disruptive "history" of the defendants was then read (e.g., causing public disruption).  It also emerged that HCCC wanted Hydro One to cancel their agreement with Six Nations and Mississaugas of New Credit, "and instead sign an exclusive agreement with HDI, its own development corporation".  Furthermore HCCC threatened to bring in members of other Bands across Ontario (for muscle), and also that, "they may not be able to control their behaviour and there is a risk of towers coming down".  Clearly these tactics of threats, intimidation, and extortion are borrowed straight from the Mafia and other criminal organizations.  So therefore, ...............

Hydro One maintained that it needs to be operational by 1 September based on Provincial mandate.

The above all happened on Monday.  On Tuesday evening the Judge granted the injunction.  On Wednesday parties arrived at the site and attempted to disrupt work and were handed a copy of the injunction by the Ontario Provincial Police.  On the same day Hydro One issued a statement relative to the injunction, including, "if this project is not completed, another solution, and further investment, would be needed to ensure that need is met. These additional and unnecessary costs are likely to result in higher electricity charges for the people of Ontario." (TRT2)  In fact this whole process since 2006 has likely cost the Ontario taxpayer billions of dollars and resulted in higher costs already.  Who is going to pony up for these "damages"?

Update:  The stringing of the wires of the NRL has now been completed - with no fanfare.  All that this author can say is that at some point between 17 July 2019 (when the permanent injunction was issued) and 11 September 2019 when an article in Turtle Island News stated that the line was finished, and that the "Six Nations community" may be on the hook for $200,000 in legal costs.  Good luck in finding more information in any media or other source.  Guessing that Hydro One, the Provincial Government, and the Six Nations Elected Council wanted to keep a low profile on the end of this whole debacle which has cost Ontario and Canadian taxpayers many millions if not billions of dollars for no other reason than fear of Six Nations militancy.  

DY.