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, http://www.haltthedump.ca.
###

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

Algonquins Block Highway, Hospitalized After Police Attack

Algonquins Hospitalized After Police Attack

Barriere Lake Solidarity Collective, October 7, 2008

UPDATE: An Algonquin man is hospitalized the morning after Quebec police shot him in the chest with a tear-gas cannister. A disabled teenage girl was also treated with oxygen in the local Health Clinic. Twenty two children under eight and two babies were caught in the tear gas shot by the police.

To view photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31135244@N07/sets/72157607795831835

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, October, 7, 2008

Canada and Quebec use riot police, tear gas, and “pain compliance” on peaceful Algonquin families to avoid negotiations: ‘pain compliance’ perfect description of Conservative’s aboriginal policy, say community spokespeople

Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / – Yesterday afternoon, the Conservative government and Quebec used riot police, tear gas, and “pain compliance” techniques to end a peaceful blockade erected by Algonquin families from Barriere Lake, rather than negotiate, as requested by the community. The blockade on Highway 117 in Northern Quebec began at 6:00am Monday, with nearly a hundred community members of all ages and their supporters promising to remain until Canada’s Conservative government and Quebec honoured signed agreements and Barriere Lake’s leadership customs. Around 4pm, nearly sixty Quebec officers and riot police encircled families after a meal and without warning launched tear gas canisters, one of which hit a child in the chest.

“Our demands are reasonable,” said Norman Matchewan, a spokesperson who was racially slurred by Minister Lawrence Cannon’s assistant earlier in the election. “We’re only asking for the government to uphold the agreements they’ve signed and to stop illegally interfering in our customary governance. The message we’ve received today is that Stephen Harper and Jean Charest are unwilling to even play by their rules.”

“We will not tolerate these brutal violations of our rights,” added Matchewan. “Forestry operations will not be allowed on our Trilateral agreement territory, and we will be doing more non-violent direct action.”

Nine people, including an elderly women, a pregnant woman, and two minors, were roughly arrested. While a line of police obscured the view of human rights observers from Christian Peacemaker Teams, officers used severe “pain compliance” techniques on protestors who had secured themselves to concrete-filled barrels, twisting arms, dislocating jaws, leaving them with bruised faces and trouble swallowing.

“In this election alone, the Conservatives have labelled us alcoholics and vilified our community’s majority as “dissidents,” said Michel Thusky, another community spokesperson, referring to an op-ed published by Minister Lawrence Cannon in regional newspapers. “Now they and Quebec have chosen violence over meeting their most basic obligations to our community. ‘Pain compliance’ is the perfect description of the Conservative government’s aboriginal policies.”

Barriere Lake community members had promised to maintain the blockade until the Government of Canada honoured the 1991 Trilateral agreement, a landmark sustainable development and resource co-management agreement praised by the United Nations and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. To end federal interference in their leadership customs, they wanted the Government of Canada to appoint observers to witness a leadership reselection according to their codified customary selection code, respect its outcome, and then cease interfering in their internal governance.

– 30 –

Media Contacts:

Michel Thusky, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 – 435 – 2171

Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson : 514 – 831 – 6902

Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson : 819 – 435 – 2171

Collectif de Solidarité Lac Barrière
*******************************************
www.solidaritelacbarriere.blogspot.com

Tyendinaga Mohawks stop installation of police facility

Native protesters stop building
Installation of police facility delayed ‘until further notice’

Posted By STEPHEN PETRICK, THE BELLEVILLE INTELLIGENCER
Posted Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A group of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory women set up this blockade at the site where a new police building was to arrive this week. Intelligencer photo by Stephen Petrick

The installation of a new police building here has been delayed “until further notice,” after a group of band members set up a blockade Tuesday to protest its arrival.

Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte officials were preparing to have a 4,635-square-foot building shipped from a Hamilton-area manufacturer this week and put together on a gravel pit on York Road, just west of Quinte Mohawk School.

But a group of about 50 people were at the site Tuesday afternoon, vowing to block officials from placing a prefab building they feel the community was not consulted about.

“Our people never sanctified it, ratified it or condoned it,” Bryan Isaacs told The Intelligencer from just outside the protest site. “There’s no one in favour in our group because we were never consulted.”

Inside the site, several women were sitting in lawn chairs. They said they were upset the band council made plans for a roughly $1.9-million facility when the money could have been spent to address the lack of safe water in the territory and poor housing conditions.

“You have kids in the school out there without water,” said Evelyn Turcotte, pointing to Quinte Mohawk School. “There are housing issues and mold issues.”

Another woman, who did not give her name, said, “I’ve been buying water for 30 years.”

The group, which identified themselves as the Kanyen’kehaka women of Tyendinaga, also issued a press release calling on Prince Edward-Hastings incumbent Daryl Kramp as well as Minister of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to listen to their needs.

“Canadians overwhelmingly support clean water efforts, funding for education and safe housing for Native people, and yet, while all of those concerns remain ignored, this multi-million dollar investment proves only to ‘fix’ an otherwise unwarranted problem.”

The comments came as the Mohawk band council gathered for a special meeting to discuss what to do with the facility.

The building has already been put together by NRB, a modular building company in Grimsby, Ont.

The band was expecting it to arrive Monday, but found out Tuesday the trip had been delayed as the company still needed to obtain some Ministry of Transportation permits to make the drive.

Armed with that knowledge, the band requested the company to hold onto the building until the conflict is resolved.

“The council made a decision that it would remain there in storage until further notice,” Maracle said, moments after the meeting.

He also scoffed at comments that band leaders are not making clean water a priority or holding enough consultation on the building.

Had the building arrived Monday, he said, a “community ratification process” would have taken place to determine whether the building meets the approval of band members. It would have sat on the site “unhooked” until at least Oct. 31, Maracle said.

That ratification process, he added, would have followed a series of public meetings on the issue earlier this year.

He also said he agrees with protesters that water quality on the territory needs to improve.

“That’s why I started a water study many years ago — to document the condition of the water so we could make a case to the government for some funding for water,” he said.

He added that Indian Affairs has committed money for a new water treatment plant and project workers are now deciding what technology needs to be used before construction can begin.

The new police building is intended to allow Tyendinaga Mohawk Police Services to expand from eight to 11 officers.

The band is contributing close to $980,000 toward its costs, with the final $900,000 coming from the provincial and federal government.

Despite the commitment, the department will be operated solely by Mohawk people, Maracle said.

Charges dropped against Six Nations teen

Charges dropped against teen accused in Caledonia beating

September 24, 2008
Paul Legall
The Hamilton Spectator

The Crown has dropped the case against a Six Nations teenager who was charged last year after a violent confrontation that landed Caledonia house builder Sam Gualtieri in hospital with severe injuries.

Assistant Crown attorney Mitchell Hoffman withdrew charges of assault and break and entry against Byron Powless, 19, at the conclusion of Powless’s preliminary hearing in Hamilton yesterday.

After hearing the evidence of a key prosecution witness, Hoffman said the case wasn’t strong enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the teenager was involved in the incident.

“There no longer is a reasonable prospect of a conviction,” he told Ontario Justice Norman Bennett, who endorsed dropping the charges.

Powless was charged with attacking Dominic Gualtieri during an altercation at his uncle Sam’s partially-built house. He was one of three teens charged in connection with the September 2007 incident while police were trying remove Six Nations protesters from the Stirling Woods subdivision in Caledonia.

The turn of events has frustrated and angered the family of Sam Gualtieri, 53, who was allegedly attacked with a large club by another teenager. He suffered facial injuries, a fractured shoulder blade and two skull fractures. He is suing the OPP for failing to protect him against protesters occupying the site.

“It hurts us that justice wasn’t served,” Sam’s younger brother, Joe Gualtieri, said yesterday.

Gualtieri family members were in court Monday and yesterday when construction worker Duane Davies testified for the Crown. He was in the house during the altercation and was considered a key witness in identifying Powless as the man who attacked Domenic Gualtieri.

“He’s fighting individuals … he couldn’t say 100 per cent,” Joe Gualtieri said, adding that identification is complicated by the fact that Powless has a twin brother.

He suggested there were three other witnesses inside the house who could have strengthened the Crown’s case.

Outside the courtroom, Powless said he was elated by the decision. He still faces other charges, laid Monday, of mischief and disguise with intent in relation to a highway blockade in Caledonia in April. He is out of custody and was ordered to return to court in Cayuga.

Richard Smoke, 19, still faces charges of break and entry and aggravated assault in connection with the attack on Sam Gualtieri. Smoke is to return to Cayuga court Oct. 15.

A 16-year-old also faces charges in connection with the incident.

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Big day today in Court for Byron Powless. He was accused of breaking and entering into a home on stirling street last September 13, 2007 as well as assaulting a 6ft 300 lb man.

Today in a Hamilton Court House, ALL CHARGES WERE WITHDRAWN. There was insufficient evidence to proceed with a trial.  (He wasn’t even in the house when our two young men were attacked.) Needless to say his accuser couldn’t even identify him!

Also, last Friday the OPP stormed Kanonhstaton to arrest one of our men. In the midst of this attack officers pointed their loaded guns at the heads of two of our women.

On Sunday during a ceremony at Kanonhstaton, a non-Native male climbed a fence onto Kanonhstaton and brandished a knife and physically and verbally threatened the life of 10 yr old boy who was partaking in the ceremony.

On Monday at Kanonhstaton a non-Native Male who resides in a house in front of Kanonhstaton was drunk, erratically driving an ATV onto the site. He then began threatening our women. He was calling them derogatory names and told one of the women, ” I know your husband is in jail, but I’ll finish the job for him…” Basically sexually threatening an Indigenous woman. As far as I know, as of yet, there have been no charges laid.

This man also was witnessed grabbing a gas can and trying to set his own house on fire.

All in all, a very eventful weekend to say the least…

janie jamieson

September 23, 2008

Six Nations people say man’s arrest breaks deal

Natives say man’s arrest breaks deal

September 20, 2008
John Burman and Rachel De Lazzer
The Hamilton Spectator
CALEDONIA

OPP officers have arrested a native man on Douglas Creek Estates, the first arrest on the site since an ill-fated raid more than two years ago fuelled a protracted land claims dispute.

Reading from a prepared statement yesterday at the site, native spokesperson Dawn Smith said the OPP broke an agreement made on April 20, 2006 not to enter the property.

That was the day dozens of OPP officers entered in a pre-dawn raid, arresting 16 protesters at the Argyle Street South subdivision they had by then occupied for eight weeks. It sparked native blockades and violent clashes.

Smith compared yesterday’s arrest of Kenneth Greene with the police tactics in Ipperwash that led to the death of native activist Dudley George in 1995.

“Today rings of Ipperwash all over again,” said Smith, surrounded by native supporters. “In our eyes, it was a direct act of aggression and hostility against all Haudenosaunee. The OPP were ready to shoot.”

Haldimand OPP Constable Paula Wright could not confirm that police pointed guns at anyone.

Greene, 43, of no fixed address, is charged with disguise with intent, four counts of assault with a weapon, three charges of uttering death or bodily harm threats, two counts of intimidation and four counts of mischief.

The charges are in connection with events on Labour Day, when the arrest of a prominent Six Nations spokesperson and two others in Brantford triggered a chain reaction that led to parts of Caledonia being barricaded.

The arrest follows a separate incident on Thursday when Dana Chatwell, who lives in a home at the edge of the property, alleged Greene threatened her husband Dave Brown with a gun.