Vincent J. Curtis
13 Sept 22
RE: No reason to keep developers from disputed site, court hears. By J.P. Antonacci. Published in the Hamilton Spectator 13 Sept 22.
“Why would any community want to initiate a colonial court process to prove the land is theirs, when we’ve been here forever?” So huffed Courtney Skye, a policy analyst with the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous think tank.
Well, Courtney, actually, the British were here before you’re people were. The Haldimand Tract is so named because a British governor of the Province of Quebec decreed the land to be for the Six Nations.
As for the “colonial” method of adjudication, the Indian method of adjudication is a tad harsh by today’s standards. In 1649, the Iroquois massacred the Huron Nation, with the final massacre occurring at St. Ignace, near present day Midland. The “land between the lakes” being depopulated of Hurons, the Mississauga of the Credit were free to take possession of it and imagine they’d held it from “time immemorial.”
So, which do you prefer: a “colonial” court proceeding, or an old fashioned Indian massacre as a means of settling disputes over land possession?
The comments of Ms. Skye is an object lesion
in the quality of scholarship at the Yellowhead Institute.
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For the uninitiated, this story concerns the Foxgate Development property in Caledonia, ON. The home development site was occupied starting in July 2020, by a renegade group of aboriginals, who named the site "1492 Landback Lane." They have used violence and threats of violence to keep workman from the site. The developer is seeking a permanent injunction against the occupiers.so that it can complete the property development.
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