Caledonia protesters may have had guns, court told

          On Tuesday, a Caledonia man who is suing the Ontario government and Ontario Provincial Police told court that he spied on native protesters as they unloaded wooden crates that police later speculated could have contained assault rifles. David Brown and his wife, Dana Chatwell, have filed a seven million dollar lawsuit against the Ontario Provincial Police for abuse of power and neglect of duty over a standoff at Douglas Creek Estates. The small portion of land located twenty kilometres southwest of Hamilton is claimed by natives to have been stolen from them two hundred years ago. It has been the site of conflict since 2006 between the town, police, and native protestors. The police bought the land from the developer later for around twelve million dollars. David admitted that he crept into occupied land after concerns were raised by neighbours due the excessive amount of unusual activity and trucks in the area in 2006. Due to his curious nature, he took a peek for himself by crawling about 50 metres onto the occupied property, keeping low to the ground and hiding in the grass. He said that he saw men unloading wooden crates from a white Jeep and carrying them to a couple of tents. He claimed the crates to be one metre long, thirty centimetres deep and thirty centimetres wide. He noted that the crates appeared to be marked with fluorescent pink and green "funky" letters, which David noticed were similar to the Cyrillic writing from his time spent working in a lumber yard, which he saw on shipments of Baltic birch from Russia. After seeing this, David decided to call OPP Inspector Brian Haggith, the detachment commander, and to meet with him and another officer to pass along the information. Over the past two days, Brown has testified in Superior Court about living under siege after the OPP's unsuccessful raid on Douglas Creek Estates in the early morning of April 20, 2006. Almost 200 police officers were repelled by native protestors, who held bats, bars, and two-by-fours. For six weeks, David and his family were trapped inside the native barricades until the Ontario government negotiated an agreement which allowed them to be taken down. After that, David's family claims that their home was trespassed, as well as being subjected to constant threats from the natives. The stress and fatigue wore David and his family down, but when David's wife collapsed at work and was taken to a hospital in July 2008 of a suspected heart attack, David contacted a lawyer and eventually ended up in counseling.

          I believe that David is right in saying that the government has not done their part in this situation. He definitely has the right to sue the government. After all, this situation caused so much stress and fatigue on David's family that it almost killed his wife. Part of the problem here is the government in the first place in their ability to mediate and come to an agreement. The natives feel that the Hamilton land was stolen from them two hundred years ago and is rightfully theirs. This has caused anger in the hearts of all the natives in the areas, and they have done almost anything to protect it. This is the major conflict. The government needs to come to an agreement with the natives because if they don't, then the land will continue to be the site of conflict in the area. The natives are fighting for what is theirs, and they have no problem in repelling the police using baseball bats and wooden sticks. That brings in another part of the situation- police. I feel that David is wrong in suing the Ontario Provincial Police. The police don't want to start fights, their job is to resolve conflict and save people who are in danger. They had a very little influence on the situation. I mean they could have fought and killed the natives to resolve the situation, but that wouldn't go over well with the natives in the other parts country. The police did the best they could, and David should recognize their efforts and thank them for trying to help the situation.