McHales do it again: Haldimand Council votes to dismantle Caledonia blockade

UPDATES:

• SUN News Network, June 27/14: Law and disorder in Caledonia (Brian Lilley interview with Gary McHale)
• Hamilton Spectator, June 25/14: Six Nations warns removing blockade will disrupt peace
• SUN News Network, June 25/14: Native band opposes removal of long-controversial Caledonia blockade
• SUN News Network, June 25/14: Blockade to break in Caledonia? (Pat Bolland interview with Gary McHale)
• SUN News Network, June 25/14: Caledonia radicals take the street (Michael Coren interview with Gary McHale)

Last year, Gary McHale shut down the illegal Enbridge Line 9 occupation with a single letter to the Hamilton Police, an accomplishment hailed by SUN TV’s Brian Lilley and recounted in the final chapter of Gary’s book, Victory In The No-Go Zone. Now, he (and his wife) have done it again.

It was a long time coming, but Haldimand Council has announced that it will finally do something to reclaim the Caledonia occupation site–the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision–where so many of us volunteered to be repeatedly arrested for ‘trespassing’ and/or ‘breaching the peace’ simply for trying to walk on the public county-owned roads through the site which have been blocked by native militants since 2006:

CALEDONIA – Haldimand County Council has voted to dismantle a blockage set up by protesters at the entrance of the former Douglas Creek Estates.

Mayor Ken Hewitt said the vote happened in camera Monday night. The county will be hiring a contractor to take apart the barrier – fashioned with metal, concrete and other materials – at Surrey Street in Caledonia.

Read the rest of the article here:

• Hamilton Spectator, June 24/14: Council votes to dismantle Caledonia blockade

HOW DID IT HAPPEN? THE BACKSTORY

For those wondering about Haldimand council’s sudden discovery of spinal strength, it may help to tell the backstory of which the Spectator was unaware:

Gary & Christine McHale, entrance to Douglas Creek Estates, April 21/10

Gary McHale recently sent a notice to Haldimand councillors announcing he intended to organize pickets at their homes to dramatize their ongoing failure to enforce the law, a prospect that enraged at least one councillor.

Meanwhile, his wife Christine sent a letter to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne  advising her of the crimes being committed by the occupiers from provincially-owned land (some is owned by Ontario, some by Haldimand County) and of the safety risks inherent in allowing native occupiers to remain in the one house still standing:

You should be concerned about the issue of safety of both native and non-native people. With Surrey Street totally blocked off, this prevents emergency vehicles vehicles such as fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles from being able to drive down Surrey Street in case of an emergency.” –Christine McHale, June 14/14 letter to Premier Wynne

In truth, the McHales didn’t get council to act because of two letters any more than Gary McHale shut down the Enbridge occupation with one letter: the solutions came as a result of a few letters backed by 8 years of powerful, effective activism by people who say what they mean and mean what they say.

It was just last November that Gary’s book about our struggle–Victory In The No-Go Zone: Winning The Fight Against Two Tier Policing—was released, a book that documents some of the key aspects of his/our activism in opposing the racial policing of the OPP, and the failure to act by others who rightly could have and should have.

It explains how  we applied Ethical Lawfare and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s methods in today’s environment of cowardly governments that would rather violate the rights of the innocent than uphold the rule of law against the guilty.

What happens next?

Will the natives turn violent again? Will the crisis flare up over an attempt to clean the property and open public roads to the public?

Not a chance. A small group of die-hard thugs will try, but there is no appetite among the good people of Six Nations for supporting the ongoing black eye to their community. In fact, if the Ontario government simply told the few hangers-on to get lost it would all be over tomorrow, and the property could be sold back to the original developer.

Sign carried by Mark Vandermaas in 2012 when he was assaulted by a native protester, then arrested to ‘prevent a breach of the peace.’ Sad, but true. Click image for pictures and full story.

When that day comes to pass, there should be a monument erected to the greatest rule of law failure in modern Ontario history, and it should have places for future apologies from Ontario, the OPP and Six Nations for their respective roles in allowing the terrorization of innocents for political purposes.

POSTED BY: Mark Vandermaas, Editor, info@voiceofcanada.ca