Why Can't We All Just Get Along ?
Ottawa, Pay Up Or ElseCanoe reports that Dalton McGuinty was in Niagara Falls the other day and he's balking about Ottawa not paying for police protection his Ontario Provincial Police are providing.From where I sit, I don't see the OPP providing police protection at all. There is continued unrest at Caledonia and after each and every scuffle only white people seem to be getting arrested. What's up with that?
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. (CP) - An ongoing aboriginal occupation in southwestern Ontario has worn out the patience of the province's taxpayers, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday as he urged Ottawa to pick up its fair share of the cost and settle the eight-month dispute with Six Nations protesters.
Although McGuinty has consistently called for patience in the aboriginal standoff in Caledonia, Ont., south of Hamilton, his own appeared at an end as he reminded the Conservatives in Ottawa that aboriginal land claims are a federal responsibility.
"It is costing the people of Ontario a lot of money," McGuinty said after a speech in Niagara Falls, Ont.
"We intend to claim for compensation from the federal government and we would encourage the federal government to fully assume its proper responsibility and begin to bring some real vigour to the negotiations and to bring them to some conclusion."
A federal representative is involved in the negotiations to settle the dispute, which began in February, but has not taken a lead role, those close to the talks say.
The mood of the occupation has swung more than once from uneasy truce to outright violence, including angry clashes with town residents and defiant road blockades that cut the town in half.
The town narrowly escaped a violent confrontation last weekend when protesters rallied outside the site to highlight what they called special treatment of aboriginals by police.
The province has so far spent at least $25 million on the occupation, including compensation for businesses, the cost of a provincial negotiator and the purchase price of the land, a now-moribund housing development which the Liberal government is currently holding in escrow.
The province has never revealed how much it is spending on police overtime, but some estimates have put that cost in the millions. Rank-and-file officers, meanwhile, have complained they're powerless to do anything about the situation.
The association representing provincial police officers went so far as to commission a poll which suggests the majority of residents want the RCMP to intervene in the dispute.
Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer said the province should give the federal government credit for being at the negotiating table in the first place, but she welcomed McGuinty's "stronger stand."
"It's about time," she said.
Residents in the area are frustrated and want the occupation ended, she added. Diane Finley, the area's MP and Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, was expected to get a taste of that frustration at a citizens' meeting Friday night.
"People are getting impatient," Trainer said. "They have been through hell and back quite a few times."
Bill Rodgers, spokesperson for Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, said McGuinty's request came as a surprise to the minister, who was travelling Friday and couldn't respond immediately.
Up until now, the government has claimed that costs related to the occupation were the cost of peace and most were being covered in existing budgets. McGuinty wouldn't say exactly how much he'll be asking for from the federal government but said it will be "considerable" - enough to give some compensation to homeowners as well.
"I want to put the feds on notice," McGuinty said. "We've been caught up in this for a long time. More importantly, the people of Caledonia have been caught up in this for a long time. Now it's costing Ontario taxpayers all kinds of money."
Janie Jamieson, spokesperson for the Six Nations occupiers, welcomed McGuinty's demands, saying they were long overdue.
The RCMP should be policing the area, Jamieson said, which would place responsibility for the dispute with the federal government where it belongs. The Crown took the land illegally, and should be the one to negotiate its return, she added.
"The province has no business being involved in what's going on," she said. "If Dalton McGuinty is all of a sudden becoming aware of the reality . . . then I'm happy for him."
Others call it hypocrisy. Conservative Leader John Tory said McGuinty is simply blaming others for the quagmire the Caledonia occupation has become.
It's unreasonable for the province to expect compensation when Ottawa likely had little input into the purchase of the disputed land, Tory said.
"What we need from Mr. McGuinty is . . . for him to step up and take some serious responsibility for the situation in Caledonia where the rule of law has not been respected by his government or by him, and where the situation has been allowed to go on for far too long," Tory said. "It's embarrassing."
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