Six Nations men stop Hagersville development again

Protesters facing court injunction
Developer fed up with land dispute

February 25, 2009
Rachel De Lazzer
The Hamilton Spectator
HAGERSVILLE (Feb 25, 2009) [Six Nations territory, Ontario]

Pressure was mounting yesterday for natives to leave a housing development site where construction has been delayed for four months.

Developer Voortman & Associates Ltd. is seeking a court injunction to keep natives away from the site and plans to be on site at least four days this week.

The natives have blocked workers from developing the 46-unit condominium site on Main Street North several times.

Company officer John Voortman says he’s at “wit’s end” trying to move things forward on the 2.4-hectare site.

Workers returned to the site Monday for the third time since seeking the injunction last fall, only to be prevented by about 10 members of the men’s fire circle, parking their cars in front of one of the excavators.

Natives arrived at 6:30 a.m. yesterday before the workers, who planned to return today and tomorrow.

“Every day (the contractor) is there and not able to work, I’m sure it’s going to cost a few thousand dollars easy,” Voortman said.

OPP officers told him yesterday that they would read a declaration to the natives every day and ask them to leave.

“They’re going to say that we own the land, we have total rights to the land and we’re able to work on the land and they have no rights to be there,” Voortman added. “They will give them 15 minutes to vacate the site and then after that they could be charged with mischief.”

Voortman says he is still waiting for a court date for the injunction. He says the natives are stalling and previous court dates for the injunction have been postponed twice.

Both sides were in court Feb. 13 when three members of the men’s fire circle asked that the hearing be delayed a few weeks until they could bring someone from their circle with the appropriate authority.

Workers attempted to resume construction in October and again in December.

A member of the men’s fire circle who goes by the name Whoodat, said they would stay on the land until the workers left.

OPP Detective Matt Watson said criminal charges would be laid if any actions meet the criteria.

Police raid and resistance at Six Nations

Raid in Six Nations

By Janie Jamieson
February 5, 2009

For some time now women and men at Six Nations have been slowly re-asserting their sovereignty . This includes exerting the right to provide for their families within their own well defined homeland. (Turtle Island). This includes exerting their right to provide for their families on their OWN LAND and IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR TRADITIONAL LAWS AND GOVERNANCE.

However today the method in which these people provide for their families came under fire. These people operate “smoke shops” on what is traditionally known as Hamilton-Port Dover Plank Road. Today it’s known as Highway 6 south and Upper James Street South and Argyle Street among other things. This parcel was NEVER sold or surrendered by the Mohawks. (The recognition of that parcel being the property of the Mohawks is documented in the Haldimand Deed of 1784). However, Canada laid claim to this parcel despite never providing a “legal” bill of sale. (Don’t you normally keep your receipt of “big box” purchases??? Especially something as important of a piece of land???)

Anyways… Marie Trainor and the rest of Canada has laid claim to this parcel and claims “jurisdiction”. Today for some reason the Six Nations Police (Rocky Smith and Terry Martin were saying they were acting under the direction of Elected Chief Bill Montour and Director of Public Works Dayle Bomberry and also had signed agreements from the above mentioned) moved in and removed all product from one of the smoke shops. They attempted to remove the building itself but they were stopped by our men and women.

The Six Nations Police also claimed the “chiefs” directed them to dismantle the smoke shop, however this has not been verified.

Marked and undercover police were throughout Caledonia and at one point an OPP cruiser was turned back from entering onto Six Nations. This “dry run” was reminiscent of the “dry runs” done at other raids. The police would feign being lost and end up on the reserve. What actually was happening was the OPP were testing to see what our response would be. This helps the police figure out how many and what type of officers will be required and what type of weaponry and media they will need to execute an attack on us.

Some well informed community members and even the Six Nations Police themselves have already stated if the SNP can’t “get the job done” outside authorities will do it.

Six Nations Police had the audacity to call our men “squatters” for building on “band owned land” or “community land” and told one of the men he needed to vacate.This man was also told some of “our people didn’t want him on that land”.

Some of the officers said they took an oath to protect.

Any employee of the crown doesn’t understand birth gives Ogwehowe the responsibility to protect life in all forms. Any crown employee doesn’t understand birth gives Ogwehowe the responsibility to uphold and teach their own law. Birth also gives Ogwehowe the right to provide for their families on their territory in accordance with their own law. Ogwehowe are accountable to their mothers, grandmothers, aunties and sisters. Ogwehowe are accountable to their clanmothers, chiefs, clans and nations.

Crown employees are not allowed to understand our way of life nor are they ever allowed to accept it. Crown employees take an oath to uphold a way of life that is created to destroy Ogwehowe. The Crown has always existed to undermine and tear apart the Ogwehowe. It was proven again today at Six Nations.

It’s obvious the SNP and Six Nations Band Council have a lot of lost men and women on their “force”. Hell even Merle Haggard got it… wasn’t it him who put it so simply and straight forward…”They love their milk and honey but they preach about some other way of living… When your running down my country hoss you’re walking on the fighting side of me…”

Anyways, things are slow at the negotiating table. Despite the recession booming and the housing market coming to a crashing halt, illegal development continues.

Despite the recession booming, some Ogwehowe women and men are still able to provide for their families without Canada or Band Council’s assistance. So it seems like an attempt to spice things up was made today.

Despite the corporation of Canada being the largest employer on Six Nations, some just won’t buy into that and will continue to feed, clothe and shelter their families under traditional law. It just doesn’t matter how big the “gun” or pay check is on the other side…

Boy charged in arson that gutted B.C. lieutenant-governor’s home

Boy charged in arson that gutted B.C. lieutenant-governor’s home

Thursday, February 5, 2009
CBC News [British Columbia]

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with arson, breaking and entering, and theft following a fire last weekend at the private home of B.C. Lt.-Gov. Steven Point, police said Thursday.

The RCMP arrested the boy, from a First Nations community in Chilliwack, B.C., on Wednesday evening, Cpl. Peter Thiessen said.

The arrest was made after members of the community assisted police in their investigation, Thiessen said.

Police are still investigating the motive for the arson but said it’s not political.

“There is no political component to this.… There are some other possible motives that come into play, but at this point, it would be premature to comment on that,” Thiessen told CBC News in a telephone interview.

Point and his family were not at their home on the Sto:lo First Nation reserve near Chilliwack when the arson took place Sunday morning.

No one was injured in the fire.

The RCMP have since increased security for Point and his family.

The fire caused considerable heat and smoke damage in the home and little was salvageable, although the structure was intact, police said at the time.

Point, a lawyer, former provincial court judge and former grand chief of the Sto:lo Tribal Council, was appointed British Columbia’s first aboriginal lieutenant-governor in September 2007.

Before his appointment, Point was head of the B.C. Treaty Commission.

Point has four children and 11 grandchildren.

Saskatchewan: Native teen escapes cop car, freezes to death

Beauval mayor criticizes RCMP handling of teen’s escape
Calls Mounties’ reaction ‘on the edge of incompetence’

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
CBC News [Saskatchewan]

The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] should have notified people sooner about the escape of teenager in custody who was later found frozen to death, the mayor of a northern Saskatchewan town says.

“I would call it on the edge of incompetence,” Beauval Mayor Alex Maurice said.

The 19-year-old from the Canoe Lake First Nation in the province’s northwest was arrested early Saturday morning after RCMP received a complaint of an intoxicated person.

According to police, the man was taken to the detachment in Beauval and when the arresting officer left the man alone for a minute in the back of the car, the man ran off.

Temperatures were well below freezing at the time.

The RCMP said they immediately searched for more than an hour. They then switched gears and started knocking on doors, but there was no sign of the man.

Members of the Canoe Lake First Nation formed a search party the next day and found the body of the man — an apparent victim of the cold — on a snowmobile trail seven kilometres from town.

The man’s name hasn’t been released.

An autopsy has been ordered. It’s not believed there was foul play, police said.

Maurice said RCMP should have notified locals sooner. The man’s family didn’t find out he had been missing for over 12 hours, he said.

If people had known, a search party could have been organized sooner, he said.

“I don’t think he was a dangerous offender or anything, and in the middle of winter, common sense should have prevailed on the part of the RCMP,” Maurice said.

Maurice accused the RCMP of ignoring local trackers who believed the man had walked out of town.

“Within an hour and a half, these Canoe Lake elders and the people who did the search party, within an hour and a half of starting the search party, they found him frozen to death,” he said.

An outside police force will be brought in to oversee the investigation.

Beauval is about 450 kilometres north of Saskatoon.

Manitoba prison trashed in riot

Gangs clash in Manitoba prison riot

Jan 12, 2009
THE CANADIAN PRESS

WINNIPEG – Long-simmering tensions between two criminal gangs were behind a riot at a federal medium-security prison in Manitoba, says the Winnipeg Free Press.

The melee Saturday night seriously injured four inmates and damaged a living unit that houses 100 prisoners at Stony Mountain Institute.

The Free Press reports that inmates – some wearing masks – set fires, stabbed their fellows and threw garbage cans at corrections officers, who battled back with pepper spray and displayed their shotguns.

It took almost six hours to bring the rioting inmates under control.

The Free Press quotes sources as saying the mood at Stony Mountain had been tense since New Year’s Eve when corrections officers seized 36 prison-made knives. The penitentiary was locked down for two days at that time.

The sources say the main prison rivalry is between the Manitoba Warriors and the Native Syndicate.

On Saturday, a penitentiary intelligence officer received word something was planned for the prison’s recreational hall, so extra officers were sent in as a precaution, a prison source told the Free Press.

But the planned confrontation was only partly averted. One group of inmates managed to seize control of a kiosk that regulates access to all the cells on one of the living units. That led to a battle with corrections officers who attempted to regain control of the situation.

“Staff had to withdraw. The unit was overrun by inmates,” the source said. “Staff had to use a huge amount of pepper spray. There were fires going and some of the inmates had their faces covered (with balaclavas). They were throwing garbage cans.”

Prison officials have declined to discuss many details of what happened.

But Stony Mountain spokesman Guy Langlois did say Sunday that after gaining control of the living unit, the inmates barricaded themselves inside and blocked off the main entry as well as the emergency exit.

The institution then called in its emergency response team, a unit specially trained to control riots and other disturbances, he said.

The prison, about 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg, is expected to remain in lockdown for at least a few days.

No staff members were hurt. Langlois said the prisoners in hospital appeared to have been stabbed or beaten.

“They’re trying to call this an incident, but it’s a riot,” a penitentiary source said. “The place is trashed.”

5 Arrested in Cayuga Blocking Police Escort of Garbage onto Native Land

5 Arrested in Cayuga Blocking Police Escort of Garbage onto Native Land

OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) determined to escort garbage into the Edwards Street Landfill, but even after arrest of 4 supporters, Six Nations activists refuse to remove blockade. OPP violently arrest Six Nations man leaving the site.

December 11, 2008

CAYUGA, ONTARIO, CANADA – For almost five years, community members from the small town of Cayuga have been fighting to close down and to clean up the Edward Street Landfill. Haldimand Against Landfill Transfers (HALT) was formed in 2004 to prevent one of Ontario’s worst contaminated sites, from becoming an active landfill again. After having spent four years in and out of courts, petitioning and dealing with government bureaucracy, HALT approached the Six Nations’ Haudenosaunee Men’s Council to work together on this issue. Cayuga is adjacent to the Six Nations reservation and is located on Haudenosaunee land. It was last November that representatives from Six Nations and HALT turned around dump trucks, resulting in the closure of the site for the winter. This past Monday, despite flagrant noncompliance with Ministry of Environment (MOE) regulations, the dump’s operating owners tried to bring garbage into the dump for the first time in twelve months.

Monday morning, thirty activists—with groups coming from London, Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), Guelph, and Hamilton—converged at the corner of Brooks Road and Highway 3 in Cayuga, to stand with representatives from HALT and Six Nations.

“The reason there are young people here from communities across the region is because we have a responsibility to prevent the provincial government, the courts, and their enforcement – the OPP, from enabling the destruction of communities’ land and trampling on their right to protect it,” said Alex Hundert from the KW activist group AW@L.

Once the blockade had ended, a vehicle leaving the site, carrying three people from Six Nations, was pulled over by a large string of police cruisers, and one man was violently arrested. At bail-court the next morning, the Crown prosecutor admitted that the accused man from Six Nations only “passively resisted,” but still, more than a dozen officers were involved in the assault. He was ripped from the car, thrown to the ground then kicked and tasered repeatedly. He was arrested for “failure to appear” charges stemming from an incident at the Douglas Creek Reclamation site in 2006—the original charges have already been dropped. All five arrested men were released on bail Tuesday morning.

Jody Orr, a HALT representative, said that she was “distressed by what happened on Monday. We have a situation where there is evidence that the receiver is still not in compliance,” however “we have the MOE giving the receiver a week to bring in garbage while he is still in violation of the COA, and it puts the OPP in a position where they have to enforce an injunction against protesters who are protesting the illegal dumping of garbage.” Orr said she was also “really concerned in terms of what i heard about the level of force that was used.”

According to HALT’s website, on October 16 of this year, “the same day that Minister of the Environment, John Gerretsen, posted the Zero Waste Policy paper on the Environmental Bill of Rights website, HALT and others involved in the Edwards Landfill issue in Cayuga received an email that waste would be coming to the Edwards Landfill site.” HALT has shown that the Landfill does not comply with the MOE’s Certificate of Approval (COA). Still, garbage is being allowed into the site. As a result, HALT, Six Nations and supporters decided to be ready with the blockade.

On Monday after the arrests, once it became obvious that representatives from Six Nations were not going to stop preventing the garbage truck from passing (all other vehicles were permitted to travel freely), the truck company owner ordered the truck to leave the site and return home. Earlier in the morning, the driver had expressed interest in leaving the scene, however OPP ordered him to stay. Police said that they were intent in seeing that the injunction against the blockade would be enforced. Even after arresting four supporters, the OPP were not able to remove the Six Nations activists blocking the road.

Over the past year and more, HALT has been involved in complicated legal proceedings with the site’s operators and the MOE. Since 2004, those efforts have cost over $100,000. For more information about those proceedings, ongoing developments, and the environmental impact at the site, visit HALT’s website, www.haltthedump.ca.
###

Contacts:
Cayuga – Jody Orr, HALT, info[at]halthtedump.ca, www.haltthedump.ca,
Kitchener-Waterloo – Alex Hundert, alex[at]peaceculture.org, www.peaceculture.org

Barriere Lake Algonquin a ‘Political Prisoner’

Blockade leader says he’s a ‘political prisoner’

JOE FRIESEN
Globe and Mail, December 15, 2008

Speaking from a jail cell, deposed native leader Benjamin Nottaway says he is a political prisoner, targeted for his outspoken opposition to the governments of Canada and Quebec.

He is the latest casualty of a power struggle that has included allegations of a political coup, fire bombings and several interventions by riot police.

It reads like a tale ripped from the headlines of a war-torn dictatorship. Instead, it’s the story of the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a Quebec community of 450 people three hours north of Ottawa.

Mr. Nottaway, imprisoned for 45 days for leading a highway blockade, says that although he misses his children, he is being treated with respect in jail, where fellow inmates refer to him deferentially as the “chief.” But the question of who actually is the chief of Barriere Lake is far from clear.

Mr. Nottaway alleges that he was deposed by an ambitious group of plotters led by Casey Ratt, who launched what Nottaway supporters call an “administrative coup d’état” this year and installed themselves as the band government.

He calls Mr. Ratt a “puppet” and a “government agent,” propped up by officials in Ottawa and Quebec City who see him as a soft touch when it comes to defending aboriginal land title and resource rights.

Mr. Ratt laughs at these suggestions, and says there is no leadership crisis in Barriere Lake, save for the grumblings of those who have lost their grip on power and have enlisted non-native activists to push their case in the news media.

He says he came to power in January after a three-month leadership review, which he launched because he was upset that Mr. Nottaway’s group had closed the band school, a move he perceived as motivated by their own political aims.

“It’s no good for our kids to use them as political pawns,” Mr. Ratt says. “A lot of people didn’t agree with those tactics.”

After Mr. Ratt was declared chief, his opponents said he had hijacked the traditional selection process and tried to push him off the reserve. His house burned down in suspicious circumstances, he says, as did the band office.

“But I’m still in the community,” he says. “It’s a steady struggle.”

Barriere Lake does not elect leaders according to the one-member, one-vote system set out in the Indian Act, but instead uses a selection system led by a council of elders. The federal government says it has no role in adjudicating that system, but has acknowledged the election of Mr. Ratt’s group and says it will conduct business with his council.

After several escalating protests against Mr. Ratt’s government, the Nottaway group blockaded Highway 117 twice in recent months. In October, riot police were sent in by the provincial police force and were accused of using violent tactics to disperse the protesters. In November, Mr. Nottaway and four other prominent political opponents of Mr. Ratt were arrested by riot police for staging another highway blockade, which they called a tactic of last resort. They were asking the federal government to appoint an independent observer to oversee a new leadership selection.

“When I was in court my lawyer told me, ‘The Crown wants you to suffer, they want you to feel the pain.’ They asked for 12 months, but I got 45 days,” Mr. Nottaway says. “I’m a political prisoner, and they know that. It’s all politically motivated.”

The people of Barriere Lake have never signed a treaty with Canada, and they say they have never received a fair share, or had a say, in the resource revenue extracted from their traditional territory, which they estimate at $100-million a year. For its part, the community suffers crippling unemployment and is not connected to the power grid, so it runs on diesel generators.

Mr. Ratt says he wants to put the power struggle behind him and work toward finding both short- and long-term solutions for his community.

Mr. Nottaway says he can’t allow the band to be led by a chief he considers illegitimate. His goal is to see a 1991 trilateral agreement on resource management honoured by the province and the federal government.

“The government imposed a minority faction on our community,” he says. “That’s not what we want and we’re never going to accept it. Even though I’m in here, we’re not going to stop fighting.”

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http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com

Six Nations warrior pleads guilty to assault on news cameraman

Protester admits to assault on CH worker

November 08, 2008
Barbara Brown
The Hamilton Spectator

A Six Nations protester has admitted roughing up a CHCH news cameraman during a scuffle in a Canadian Tire parking lot over the contentious Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia.

Ronald Erwin Gibson, 38, pleaded guilty yesterday to assault causing bodily harm to Nick Garbutt and possessing a stolen videotape belonging to another cameraman, Ken MacKay.

The charges stem from an incident on the morning of June 9, 2006 when Gibson and a group of men approached MacKay as he was shooting video of native protesters who had surrounded a van in the parking lot, located on Argyle Street not far from the 40-hectare parcel of land at the centre of the dispute.

On Feb. 28 that year, native protesters reclaimed the land being developed by Henco Industries Ltd. for a residential development known as Douglas Creek Estates.

The protesters erected blockades and claimed the land belonged to the aboriginal people of Six Nations. The reclamation resulted in an OPP raid on April 20, 2006, in which 20 people were arrested.

Within hours, the site was occupied in even greater numbers and the blockades expanded. The site is now called Kanonhstaton and remains occupied by Six Nations.

Crown prosecutor Mitchell Hoffman told Ontario Court Justice Kathryn Hawke the group with Gibson was intent on preventing the cameramen from filming the incident involving the van.

“At that time, Ron Gibson was observed by police officers and civilians punching Nick Garbutt in the head. Gibson and others kicked and punched Garbutt several times in the face and head as Garbutt lay on the ground,” said Hoffman.

He said a camera and tripod were forcibly taken from MacKay by one of the men with Gibson. The TV station eventually got the equipment back but not the videotape.

“Gibson advised police that he ended up burning the CH tape,” said Hoffman.

Garbutt was taken to hospital and required two staples to close a gash to his head.

Defence lawyer Stephen Ford requested a special background report that is tailored to rehabilitation programs for aboriginal people be prepared before sentencing on March 31, 2009.

30 Tyendinaga Mohawks face arrest for blocking new police station

STATEMENT FROM TYENDINAGA MOHAWK TERRITORY:
WARRANTS ISSUED: 30 MOHAWKS FACING ARREST
Tyendinaga Police ‘Respond’ to Community Concerns

It appears that Tyendinaga Police Chief Ron Maracle is making good on his promise of charging people involved in demonstrations at the intended site for a second police station, as well as a contested second quarry operation on the Territory (different location than the original and on-going reclamation of the Thurlow Aggregate quarry site).

It is believed that Tyendinaga Mohawk Police have issued warrants for 30 community members.

The people targeted for arrest are Longhouse people who maintain scrutiny over Band Council operations and spending. This amounts to an unprecedented attempt to criminalize and jail any effective opposition that exists in the community. This is an attack on our families, our children, our culture and the way we think. This has moved beyond a simple community dispute. The federal government is making a final push to eradicate those people who believe in the strength and power of the Mohawk Nation and who will stand in its defence.

Despite community concern over widespread exposure to water that has been declared unfit for human consumption throughout reserve homes and schools, the Government continues to prioritize the second station over these needs.

Concern over the second quarry operation stems from alarm at the tremendous speed with which this particular quarry has been established and grown in size. Community members are aware of the extremely rigorous environmental study and assessment practices that are required before quarries and aggregates can be established elsewhere in the province. Such laws do not apply on reserves and concern as to whether environmental and safety assessments have been properly conducted and meet recognized professional standards.

These fears have increased in recent weeks as households in the direct vicinity of quarry operations have experienced water problems and collapsed wells for the first time ever.

The quarry is operated by Build-All Contractors, a company owned by Police Chief Maracle’s brother. The site preparation and overseeing of the building construction at the site of the new police station was also awarded to Build-All, the Police Chief’s brother, in an untendered contract.

All of this is taking place because we oppose a decision made by the Band Council.

With army helicopters and fighter jets circulating the Territory today, the Federal Government of Canada is making it clear that it intends to exercise what it views as its interest in community affairs.

- Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

New First Nations police station draws protest

By Brian St. Denis

http://www.thepioneer.com/?q=node/2983

Friday, October 31st, 2008

A protest against the installation of a new Tyendinaga police building ended early Wednesday night when activists delayed its delivery for a second time.

Native protesters braved the frigid weather for several days to protest the installation of the York Road station on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, west of Deseronto.

The building, which was assembled off-site, was trucked in Oct. 29 but was not successfully installed on the site.

“The trucking company had to leave because their permits were only good for the daylight hours, so it when it started getting dark they had to get out of there,” said Brant Bardy, a spokesperson for the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory band office.

The original delivery date was Sept. 23, making this the second delay in just over a month. Bardy said the protest has not deterred plans to bring the building in.

“The building is bought and paid for, and every delay is pushing up costs,” said Bardy. “That’s an injustice to the community coffers.”

The issue of the heart of the protest was clean drinking water. According to the protesters, approximately 80 per cent of the community’s wells are contaminated. The Quinte Mohawk School, just seconds down the road, has to provide bottled water for students because the tap water is unsafe.

“They need to address the issues,” said Dan Doreen, spokesperson for the protesters. “They have bags over the fountains at the school.”

He said that they don’t object to the new building, but to the community having to match the government funding of $980,000. They believe this money should go to solving the drinking water problem first.

“Kids are number one,” said another protester.

York Road was blocked off by the Mohawk Fire Department and several police officers for the duration of the protest. The protesters had a pick-up truck parked on the cement pad where the new building was to be placed.

The protesters also used a small tractor to dig on the property, claiming it was for a new youth centre, but Bardy said it was just a red herring.

Police announced early Wednesday morning that the protest had become a matter of public safety and blocked the public, including media, out of the area. Bardy said that a police investigation is underway, but Tyendinaga Police Chief Ron Maracle could not be reached for comment.

Charges dropped against four Six Nations people

Charges dropped against four native protesters

October 16, 2008
Paul Legall
The Hamilton Spectator
CAYUGA

The Crown has dropped criminal charges against four native protesters arrested by a heavily armed OPP tactical squad at the controversial Stirling Woods survey in Caledonia last year.

The operation involved about 50 officers in riot gear, including shields and batons, who marched into the partially constructed residential subdivision in September 2007 to remove a small pocket of native activists occupying the site.

The massive sweep came about a week after 52-year-old Sam Gualtieri was attacked and beaten by intruders inside a house he was building as a wedding gift for his daughter. He suffered severe head and facial injuries and has since launched a suit against the Ontario Provincial Police, alleging they didn’t protect him against the protesters.

In a surprise move yesterday, assistant Crown attorney Mitchell Hoffman announced he wouldn’t be proceeding against Skyler Williams, 25, who was charged with mischief and resisting arrest, or against Stephen Powless, 43, June Jamieson-Maracle, 42, and Francine Doxtator, 48, who were all charged with mischief.

Hoffman also told Ontario Justice Joe Nadel he wouldn’t be prosecuting an 18-year-old woman, who was also charged with mischief and will appear in Cayuga court Oct. 23.

He said he will be proceeding with charges against the four remaining Stirling Woods defendants, however, when the trial starts late this year or early next.

They include: Ronald Cook, 31,of Akwasasne, N.Y., for mischief and possession of a prohibited weapon; Gregory Powless, 19, of Ohsweken for mischief; and Sheranne MacNaughton, 25, of Hagersville and Teresa Jamieson, 42, of Ohsweken, who both face charges of mischief and assaulting police to resist arrest.

The defendants are all out on bail awaiting their trial.

Defence lawyer Sarah Dover, who at one time represented all nine Stirling Woods defendants, said her clients are anxious to have the matter heard in court as quickly as possible.

She told Nadel she intends to bring a pre-trial application to have the charges dropped against her two remaining clients, Powless and MacNaughton, on the basis that the OPP used “excessive force” in arresting them and the mischief charges couldn’t be proven. She also indicated she may argue charges should be thrown out because of the undue delay in bringing the case to trial.

Nadel adjourned the case until Nov. 5 when the lawyers and judge will try to come up with a suitable date for the trial, which is expected to last about four weeks.

Last month, Hoffman also withdrew charges against 19-year-old Byron Powless. He was one of three people charged in connection with the attack on Sam Gualtieri, his nephew Dominic and another man during the confrontation at Gualtieri’s partially built house Sept. 13, 2007.

After hearing the evidence of a key Crown witness at the preliminary hearing, Hoffman told the judge he was dropping the charges against Powless because there was no reasonable prospect of convicting him.