Raise the Hammer

The problem with all Native land claims is that so much has already been built on disputed lands (that should never have been built until the land claim was settled!)that the Fed. & Prov. Gov's would have millions of dollars in compensation owing to people who had bought property in good faith on what may/could be native land, or millions of dollars in compensation to the Bands involved. This is why no one wants to deal with most land claims. Who wants to be caught holding the hot potato? So both levels of government keep putting off negotiating or even addressing them because they Can. (or at least they have been successful until now.)

The recent occupation of lands is the only thing that has gotten the matter into the press or the public eye. Like it or not, it's the only effective method so far that promises to force the issues into real negotiations.

You can charge anyone with trespass, but in order to prove trespass, the claim would need to be looked at in court & it could be appealed all the way to the Supreme Courts of both the province & federal government. So one way or another, this is a way of getting the land claim into court, where it belongs. As much as I'd like to see McGuinty lose this election, I don't think that John Tory could do any better with this, unless the Prov. Gov. wants another Ipperwash. (which still hasn't been settle either, even though the enquiry blamed the Lib. Fed. Gov. for not dealing with the issue, as well as the Prov. Gov, of Mike Harris for over reacting.)

You may not agree with the methods, but how else can a Government ruling be forced on land claims? Nothing else has worked. I hope you do agree that the land claims are legal documents, & have to be dealt with as soon as possible, just as we would expect any other land dispute to be settled promptly.(or within 200 years)