RSSCaledonia land claim issue
Aug 09
The problems in Caledonia, Ontario have flared up again recently. As a brief summary: a group of Six Nations (aboriginal) protestors are blocking construction on a new subdivision on claims the land is rightfully theirs.
This issue is very confusing. Yesterday I thought it was cut-and-dry against the protestors but today I’m not so sure. Check this out: INDEPTH: CALEDONIA LAND CLAIM: Historical timeline. Part of this history seems very bad for the protestors:
The land where the current development, Douglas Creek Estates, now sits is sold to George Marlot Ryckman for 57 pounds and 10 shillings and a Crown deed is issued to him.
Other parts, however, make it much more confusing. Apparently the original agreement, back in 1784, was for the Six Nations to take 385k hectares. 8 years later the Lt. Gov. apparently “reduces the land grant” to 111k hectares. It looks like there have been a lot of other adjustments to the “land grant” over the years by both parties.
Who is correct in this case? My (un-legally-educated) guess, based on the timeline above, is the protestors have no legal claim to that land. However, that isn’t to say they don’t have a political claim to make. They were obviously screwed in this, and most other, land-related issues throughout history.
Aug 09, 2006 @ 07:37:33
I wonder if there is any chance of the natives receiving a fair hearing. It seems as if all the authorities, judges, lieutenant governor, etc, have a conflict of interest. They serve the interests of Canadians, which seem to exclude natives. They treat the natives as second class citizens, and give any white person the benefit of the doubt. It’s compounded by the “oh well” syndrome, which goes something like this:
You stole our land!
Yes, terribly sorry about that.
Give it back!
No, terribly sorry, we’ve already built towns and golf courses on that land. We can’t hand it back to you NOW!
No, wait, I’m way off. I got this confused with the Israel occupation of Gaza thing. This is nothing like that…
Aug 11, 2006 @ 09:24:57
You’ve got a point about the similarities with Israel/Palestine. What’s the ideal solution here? If we could change history maybe the ideal would be to consider all the already settled lands off-limits when the Europeans arrived. But, given that’s not realistically possible anymore since lots of that land has already been taken, what should we do? Would getting some final agreement on the land holdings satisfy all parties for good?
Aug 19, 2006 @ 05:11:30
I think it is important to get a final agreement on the lands, and I think that is what will happen,