“We are not leaving until the land issue is resolved,” Six Nations spokesperson Hazel Hill said after a meeting of hundreds of members of the group on its reserve, the Hamilton Spectator reported. Hill slammed the ruling as “an act of aggression” and “an attempt to criminalize us and declare war against us.”

The determination and militancy of the Native people, and the broad support they have won, has sparked a discussion among Canada’s capitalist rulers on how best to defend their “rule of law.”

In his ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice David Marshall instructed the provincial attorney general to enforce a court order Marshall had issued five months earlier to end the occupation of the vacant housing development, located on land the Six Nations Confederacy claims as its own. On April 20 the Native people beat back the Ontario provincial police after the cops raided the occupation site to enforce the judge’s ruling. Since then the Ontario government has opened talks with Six Nations representatives and purchased the site from the developers.

“Barricades must come down, the rule of law return, and the police begin to enforce the law on the property,” said the judge. “The people of Caledonia, after five months of occupation, have seen security in their town replaced by lawlessness; protesters in battle fatigues, police officers in riot gear and uncertainty of the future.”

Following the judge’s decision, the Ontario Liberal government halted talks over the land. It announced it would appeal the judge’s ruling, arguing that by acting on a federal matter he had overstepped his jurisdiction. Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said that Ottawa was in agreement with the Ontario government’s decision to appeal.

The ruling was supported by Ken Hewitt, a spokesperson for the Caledonia Citizens Alliance. The group has organized provocative demonstrations at the barricades set up by Six Nations members, who have defended themselves against the rightists. As a result of these confrontations 53 charges have been laid against 28 people, and according to Six Nations spokespersons, almost all have been against Natives.

The land claims of the Six Nations Confederacy have national ramifications. Ten years ago the Six Nations asked the Indian Affairs Department for a full accounting of what happened to the 955,000 acres given to them by the British Crown in 1784 for their support to the British side in the American War of Independence. Today, the Six Nations reserve of more than 20,000 people is squeezed onto 5 percent of this land, which is slated for massive urban development. Across the country the backlog of land claims by Native people has doubled in recent years to more than 750, many of them over mineral- and energy-rich land.

“Building support for the Six Nations fight—an example for all working people—is at the center of the Communist League’s Toronto municipal election campaign,” Ward 12 city council candidate Michel Dugré told Six Nations activists August 13 at their occupation site. The Communist League platform for the November 13 election urges: “Support Natives’ right to self-determination, land claims, and preferential access to natural resources and jobs! Support the Six Nations fight for land at Caledonia. Drop all the charges against Natives involved in that struggle.”  
 
 
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