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?

The Tiresome Mr. McHale – by ‘PUBLIUS’

RE: VoiceofCanada, Feb 28/12: Dear Ontario PC Party: blood from future victims on YOUR hands, not ours

‘The Tiresome Mr. McHale

by ‘Publius (photos added by VoC)

[…] “More of Gary’s same ol’ s— — at least it keeps him busy!!” Willett’s e-mail says. McHale said he believes the e-mail was in reply to the invitation he had extended to PC Leader Tim Hudak to join him in Caledonia.

[…] The Hudak Tories have been as silent as the tomb on Caledonia. John Tory, whilst party leader, at least attempted to show concern. Being a very cautious and unimaginative pol, Tim Hudak has stayed away from the issue. In fairness to Toby Barrett, he’s stuck his neck out a bit over Caledonia. That’s one of the tragedies of Caledonia. Simple decency is now a brave thing.

Why Caledonia still matters, even six years after the Douglas Creek Estates were occupied, is not what happened that day or in the months that followed. It’s more than the beating of Sam Gualtieri, or the destruction of a hydro transformer. No it’s the response of the authorities, or more correctly the lack thereof. Crime happens, that’s an unavoidable part of life. That’s why we have a justice system. When basic laws are not enforced there is a crime greater than the mere offence in question.

Queen’s Park news conference – NGO’s stand with Caledonia activists for release of Caledonia Act recommendations to end racial policing

‘Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act.’

That was the title of an historic news conference took place in the Queen’s Park Media Studio this past Friday, Feb 09/12 where CANACE and the Caledonia Victims Project presented our Caledonia Act recommendations for resolving the Caledonia crisis and preventing future breakdowns in the rule of law due to police/government refusal to protect innocent civilians during future landclaim lawlessness.  

• CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project recommendations: ‘The Caledonia Act’ [PDF, 4p]

The Media Studio was made available to us by Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett.

SPEAKERS (in order of appearance)

Note: there were technical difficulties with the video recording made of the conference. We are hoping to resolve them so we can post video but, for now, we can offer audio for three of the speakers in addition to their notes.

1. Gary McHale of CANACE (Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality) explained that the conference was called in response to the arrests of the Caledonia Eight on Dec 03/11 while walking on a county road through the occupied Douglas Creek Estates, and the subsequent arrest of Gary McHale on Jan 27/12 after he and Caledonia resident Randy Fleming erected a sign at the occupation site which said, ‘NO JEWS ALLOWED BY ORDER OF MCGUINTY’ to draw attention to the reality that the exclusion of non-Natives from the site applies to all races. 

He also condemned the racially-biased Ipperwash Inquiry, nearly five years after we held our first press conference in the same room to release our Ipperwash Papers project [ALSO]:

 McGuinty created the Ipperwash Inquiry, not to look into ending the violence but to ensure no Aboriginal is ever harmed regardless of violent crimes Aboriginals commit during so-called land claim occupations. In McGuinty’s Ipperwash Inquiry not one non-Aboriginal resident of Ipperwash was permitted to testify – in McGuinty’s Ontario the views of non-Aboriginals have no bearing on government policies. This is why the result of the Ipperwash Inquiry has been used to twist OPP policies to ensure laws are not enforced, Charter Rights of non-Aboriginals are not upheld, that public safety is defined only by ensuring no Aboriginal is harmed, and law enforcement has been replaced by an illegal peacekeeping mission.

• Gary McHale, Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE)
  [PDF] [AUDIO] [VIDEO – to come] 

2. Stuart Laughton of the Never Again Group, in an inspiring, eloquent and reasoned speech, endorsed the ‘NO JEWS ALLOWED BY ORDER OF MCGUINTY’ sign erected at the occupation site and called on the McGuinty government to end racial policing by arguing for equality and protection of the ultimate minority group – the individual. 

Miroslav Marinov, a Toronto blogger who has made several trips to Caledonia to see racial policing in action with his own eyes, described Stuart’s presentation thus in an email to me: “Stuart Laughton’s short speech is one of the best analyses of legal and social consequences of Ontario government’s policies in Caledonia.”