RED HILL VALLEY - FALL 2003 - MEDIA

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CONTENTS:

City won't give bill to protesters (Hamilton Spectator, December 18, 2003)

OP ED in Spectator re: Albany Treaty 1701 (Hamilton Spectator, December 13, 2003)

Rennie Cleanup a Major Task: It could take 100 trucks working 12-hour days six months to move toxic waste (Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, December 2, 2003)

No-toll exemption for natives on expressway (Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, December 2, 2003)

Solitary lawsuit against the flow (Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, December 2, 2003)

Di Ianni accused of bluster over expressway: Lawyer says Crown-native treaty can't be ignored (Hamilton Spectator, December 1, 2003)

Red Hill lawsuit seeks $100 million: Mohawk wants money set aside in trust fund 'for use by descendants' if expressway is not halted (Hamilton Spectator, November 28, 2003)

Red Hill treaty challenge: Six Nations 'Fire Keeper' launches $100m suit to stop the expressway (Hamilton Spectator, November 27, 2003)

SAVING RED HILL: THIS IS ONE PROMISE WE WANT LIBERALS TO BREAK NOW Magazine (Toronto), Thursday, November 27, 2003

Protesters want province to kill Hamilton expressway Toronto Star (on-line), November 25, 2003

Valley protesters just voices in the wilderness: Free speech welcomed at Queen's Park anytime but McGuinty's Liberals no different than Harris PCs (Hamilton Spectator, November 25, 2003

Red Hill opponents hope for change in attitude:City project manager says work resumes today (Hamilton Spectator, November 10, 2003)

4 protesters out of jail; could face civil counts char: Group of school kids rallies at City Hall, leaves note for Mayor Wade saying he's hurting future (Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 8, 2003

Anti-Red Hill faction catches minister's ear (Hamilton Spectator, November 7, 2003)

Red Hill Valley Facts (Hamilton Spectator, November 7, 2003)

4 Jailed During Red Hill Sweep: Police remove 14 valley protesters while workers dismantle longhouse (Hamilton Spectator, November 7, 2003)

Red Hill battle not in 'key briefings': Law group urging minister to protect valley, protesters serving pancakes (Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, November 6, 2003)

He Led Them to the Valley: Anglican priest is arrested as he leads protesters to stop tree cutting and save the Red Hill from highway (Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 5, 2003)

Mac profs have civil solution: Engineers say raised 'flyover' on Centennial Parkway is a cheaper option (Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, November 6, 2003)

Smoke, spirits stand fast in valley fight: Native encampment, sacred fire could close as early as today as police issue another warning (Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 5, 2003)

Down to Wire for Mayor's Chair: Frontrunners in mayoral race offer distinct choices for voters (Hamilton Speculator, November 4, 2003)

Police charge man over Red Hill slingshot attack: Natives say person was acting on his own and they're switching to a court fight (Hamilton Spectator, Monday, November 3, 2003)

New vote won't stop fight over valley: Expressway opponents issue warning to Christopherson (Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 1, 2003)

Protesters hope for support of chiefs: Expressway foes camped out in lower valley expect police to arrive soon (Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 1, 2003)

Great Divide: Anti-expressway vote could have disproportionate impact at polls (Hamilton Speculator, November 1, 2003)

Will tree-cutting swing any votes? (Spectator Editorial, November 1, 2003)

DiIanni backtracks on expense promise (Hamilton Spectator, October 31, 2003) PDF

Shredded ticket for trespassing fuels fire of resistance (Hamilton Spectator, October 31, 2003)

Police Clear Red Hill Protest: Cops arrest four and disperse dozens of others as sheriff enforces injunction and clears the way for loggers (Hamilton Spectator, October 31, 2003)

Unkindest cuts of all (Hamilton Spectator, October 31, 2003)

Sheriff cleared to oust valley protesters: 'She'll do what she has to do,' says mayor after council OKs enforcement of injunction

Natives 'remove' court order (Hamilton Spectator, October 30, 2003)

Red Hill critics say halt work until vote (Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003)

Protesters Digging In: Red Hill Valley Expressway opponents brace for a confrontation with the city (Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003)

Stoking the sacred fire for the valley:Supporters supply wood, food and supplies to the Fire Keepers of Red Hill (Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003)

Add it up, and anti-expressway candidates have a chance (Hamilton Spectator (Column) October 29, 2003)

Christopherson will bow to Red Hill vote: If elected mayor, expressway opponent says he'll accept will of council (Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003) (Column, Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003)

Crunch Time in Valley Fight: Protesters thwart attempts to begin expressway tree cutting (Hamilton Spectator, October 28, 2003)

Activists chain selves to trees: Construction again delayed, police warnings issued (Hamilton Spectator, October 28, 2003)

Murray, Di Ianni resolve 'split vote' dispute (Hamilton Spectator, October 28, 2003)

Red Hill Expressway: HEALTH ISSUES: Public kept in the dark about the true impact of building the expressway (Hamilton Spectator OP-ED, October 26, 2003)

Citizens Protest Pro-Expressway Meeting (Hamilton IMC, Saturday, October 25, 2003.)

Di Ianni draws heat for being pro-Red Hill: Mayoral hopeful also refuses to reveal who's funding his campaign (The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, October 24, 2003)

City OKs uprooting Red Hill protesters:Council approves enforcing injunction if negotiations break down (Hamilton Spectator, October 22, 2003)

Red Hill trees get the axe: Expressway foes suggest cutting date moved up, ahead of election (Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, October 21, 2003)

On the citizens' side (Hamilton Spectator op ed October 14, 2003)

Radio interview with Don McLean, Friends of Red Hill Valley on CKLN 88.1 fm

Peace activist praises Red Hill protest (Hamilton Spectator, October 6, 2003)

Native dispute may hurt Red Hill talks (Hamilton Spectator, September 29, 2003)

Billing protesters not the best response: Expressway injunction: Legitimate protest (Hamilton Spectator Editorial, September 26, 2003)

City seeks court costs from protesters: Red Hill expressway opponents call move to recover $123,000 from group of six vindictive (Hamilton Spectator, September 24, 2003)

Red Hill fight 'frivolous':Merulla wants city to recover legal costs of challenge (Hamilton Spectator, September 23, 2003)

Native mothers are quiet power behind protesters (Hamilton Spectator, September 23, 2003)

Impatience grows on Red Hill protest (Hamilton Spectator Column, September 22, 2003)

City won't give bill to protesters
By Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, December 18, 2003
Hamilton's new council will not try to collect $123,000 in court costs from six Red Hill Creek Expressway protesters who unsuccessfully challenged the city's request for an injunction to stop pickets from blocking construction crews.
New Ward 1 Councillor Brian McHattie, who opposes the $200-million expressway project, praised yesterday's decision. "It's a great gesture from the City of Hamilton."
McHattie said the former council should never have gone after the private citizens, "and I am pleased the city has seen fit to reverse that decision."
Gord Pullar, one of the six protesters, said the decision is "a way for the city to save face. They've kind of given themselves a bad rep by seeking these court costs."
The original decision to seek court costs was unjustified, he said. "It was intimidation to scare (people) from protecting the Red Hill Valley." Pullar had not decided last night whether he will agree to the deal.
Under terms of the agreement, the temporary injunction will become permanent.
The former council voted last September to try to recover part of the $235,000 that officials said they spent pursuing the injunction. The six citizens, who volunteered to replace protesters originally singled out by the city, said they spent only $500.
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Rennie Cleanup a Major Task

It could take 100 trucks working 12-hour days six months to move toxic waste
By Chris Sorensen, The Hamilton Spectator,
It will take as many as 100 dump trucks operating 12 hours a day, five days a week, for up to six months to clear waste from the toxic Rennie Street dump and make way for the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
A total of 70,000 cubic metres of waste material, including everything from crushed concrete to oil drums to decades-old household garbage, will have to be moved to another landfill as the $10-million project proceeds, say city documents about the proposed project.
Of that, an estimated 1,200 cubic metres of waste (roughly 2 per cent) is laced with PCBs, and therefore considered a health hazard.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a mixture of individual chemicals found in the environment. Health effects that have been associated with exposure to PCBs include acne-like skin conditions in adults and neurobehavioural and immunological changes in children. PCBs are known to cause cancer in animals.
The likely destination for the contaminated material will be a hazardous waste disposal operation near Sarnia, says Red Hill project leader Chris Murray.
He said yesterday that the plan calls for waste to be trucked out of the Rennie Street dump to Bancroft Street and then down Centennial Parkway and onto the Queen Elizabeth Way.
"We're keeping it in the industrial areas and away from neighbourhoods," Murray said.
"When you're doing something like this, health and safety is paramount."
In order to build the expressway through the lower end of the valley, the city must dig up a corner of the old dump where it has just installed a costly system to collect toxic leachate seeping from the waste.
The collector was installed as part of a multimillion-dollar cleanup the city agreed to when it was convicted of letting pesticides and PCBs from the dump pollute Red Hill Creek.
The city is waiting for the Environment Ministry's approval before it can go ahead with the excavation.
Lynda Lukasik, co-chair of a community liaison committee that oversees the dump's remediation, is concerned about potentially hazardous dust that will be released into the air once the bulldozers go to work.
She noted that the city originally ruled out excavating the entire site as part of the remediation because it was deemed undesirable.
"Now the city is saying that, for the purposes of the expressway, we are going to have to slice into the most hazardous portion of the landfill? We are struggling with that."
Under the proposal, the city will rely on licensed contractors to haul the waste safely. Much of it will be trucked to regular landfills, which will be determined by the contractors according to best available price.
The city also plans to reduce the impact on nearby residents by cleaning vehicles before they leave the site, sweeping the streets along the route, controlling traffic lights to reduce congestion and using covered trucks. To keep the odour to a minimum, the city proposes to dig during the winter months beginning in November 2004 when people tend to spend more time indoors and the overall air quality is better.
Lukasik said that particular caveat also gave her cause for concern.
"If you suddenly rip open the site and are going to have odour problems ... what's actually causing that smell?"
She said the committee will consider hiring an air quality consultant to evaluate the plan. The committee has already hired a local hydrogeologist to look at the project.
Wilf Ruland, who presented a critical preliminary report to waste management officials last week, found the city's diagrams of a relocated leachate collection system riddled with conceptual flaws and lacking in important details. Ruland is recommending the committee request the province halt its review of the city's application to go ahead with the project.
Residents, who live near the dump, have also expressed misgivings.
Zen Matwiyiw, whose property abuts the landfill, says the plan is "wishy-washy" on the possibility of creating new environmental problems by digging up a contained landfill full of toxic material.
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No-toll exemption for natives on expressway
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Natives will not have to pay tolls if they are imposed on the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
The no-toll guarantee is one of the deals being worked out by negotiators for the city and the hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy. The negotiators are trying to resolve issues arising from the clash between construction of the $220 million expressway and historic native treaty rights in the Red Hill Valley.
Highway tolls to pay for expressway construction have been proposed in the past but both city and provincial politicians ruled they are unacceptable.
Talks continue despite a $100-million lawsuit launched last week on behalf of a Mohawk to try to stop construction.
The city and Confederacy negotiators have scoured model agreements on aboriginal rights from New Zealand, Hawaii and other parts of Canada as part of their talks.
Paul Williams, a lawyer acting for the Confederacy chiefs, says the core of the negotiators' approach is a joint city-aboriginal agreement of basic terms and principles and a valley stewardship board.
"If we agree on what should happen in there (Red Hill Valley), we don't have to argue about who owns it or who has what form or rights or title," Williams said.
Williams and native Brian Doolittle have been meeting for months with city staffers Guy Paparella and Chris Murray, who heads up the city's expressway project. They have reached a number of sub-agreements on issues such as tolls, burial grounds and archeological sites, economic partnerships, hunting, fishing and gathering rights, medicinal plants and protection and education of the human heritage of the valley. The economic partnerships deal with native involvement in a tree nursery, creek restoration work and employment by expressway contractors.
The agreements are expected to be brought to city council and to the Confederacy Council at Ohsweken in early 2004. They are not binding until ratified by both councils.
Murray says the agreements are such a "tremendous step forward" that he's confident they will win approval of the the Confederacy and city councils.
But hereditary Chief Arnold General has been critical of the negotiations, and has been the inspirational leader of the small group of native protesters cleared out by police.
It was his understanding that construction would not proceed until after ratification but the city went ahead with "bullish" force in tree cutting and other work, he said.
And General doesn't believe a valley stewardship approach will work.
"Look what's happened to the fruit belt area. Ontario only looks at the dollar signs and people are willing to destroy ecological systems of wildlife and plant life.
"I see only more car emissions and more sickness and no consideration for the health of the people in the future."
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Solitary lawsuit against the flow
By Lee Prokaska, The Hamilton Spectator, EDITORIAL
It's clear that when it comes to the Red Hill Valley and the expressway being built through it, the city of Hamilton takes native concerns very seriously.
There is no scorched-earth mentality at work in the city's approach to the valley -- yes, trees will come down, but new ones will be planted. Yes, the creek will be diverted, but it will be diverted to its original course. And no, native rights will not be stomped upon.
Negotiations have been ongoing for months on issues such as burial grounds, economic partnerships and hunting, fishing and trapping rights. It's encouraging to hear that negotiators for the city and for the chiefs of the Six Nations Confederacy have reached six agreements, with three others still under discussion.
The fact that these negotiations have continued while on-site work is being done to prepare for the construction of the $220-million Red Hill Creek Expressway tells us that building the highway and resolving native issues in a respectful manner are not mutually exclusive.
The city also demonstrated considerable sensitivity in dealing with protesters, many of them native, who held up construction in the valley earlier in the fall. The protesters, who had built a longhouse and lit a sacred fire to block road construction, were removed from the valley last month by police. But the city moved slowly in giving the police the go-ahead to clear the protesters.
The police also approached the situation in a restrained and respectful manner, using good judgment in clearing the way for construction workers who had been delayed since the summer by protests. The situation was handled in a low-key manner that diffused any potential volatility, despite rumblings that natives from other parts of Canada and the U.S. might be coming to add to the protest.
Given the city's performance thus far on issues of native concern in the valley, it's somewhat surprising that a lawsuit has been launched by a single member of the Mohawk nation. Larry Green is seeking a court injunction to halt construction of the expressway, alleging it violates a 300-year-old treaty on hunting and fishing rights in Ontario.
Mayor Larry Di Ianni has said the city will defend the lawsuit vigorously. At the same time, negotiations continue with representatives of the Confederacy, as does work in the valley. And that is as it should be.
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Di Ianni accused of bluster over expressway

Lawyer says Crown-native treaty can't be ignored
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, December 1, 2003
A lawyer who launched a $100-million lawsuit to stop the Red Hill Creek Expressway says city negotiations can't easily set aside a Crown-native treaty.
Lawyer Andrew Orkin says mayor-elect Larry Di Ianni is indulging in "bluster" and the city has been using duress and force to wipe out the rights of natives.
But negotiators for both the city and the hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy say the lawsuit announced Thursday won't disrupt the pace of talks now under way to settle native issues.
And Di Ianni -- the politician championing the $220-million road -- stresses that six of nine agreements dealing with a joint native-city stewardship of the valley have already been reached.
Orkin, one of two lawyers representing Mohawk native Larry Green, challenges the city's right to override the historic provisions of the 1701 Nanfan Treaty between natives and the British Crown.
Orkin says if Di Ianni "acknowledges he needs their agreement, why is he negotiating with bulldozers to their heads?"
Orkin, who along with lawyer Murray Klippenstein launched the suit, says the mayor repeatedly keeps promising an agreement with the Confederacy chiefs is "just around the corner" but the lawyer says the city can't ignore the rights in the treaty.
It's likely that only an agreement recognized by the leadership of the Six Nations and involving a community ratification process and referenda could set aside or update a treaty, he says.
"Mayor Di Ianni may come up with a piece of paper signed by a few chiefs or a committee appointed by chiefs and say, 'We have done it' but I don't think that will hold weight," said Orkin.
Professor Gordon Christie, an expert on native rights at Osgoode Hall Law School, said Orkin makes a good point when he says Hamilton has no right to negate treaty rights.
"It would be wise to at least bring in the province," said Christie, director of the program in Aboriginal lands, resources and governments at York University.
It would appear a negotiated settlement was the best course but the Nanfan was a strong and recognized treaty with recent decisions attached to it, he said.
"Whether it would have the power to stop the construction of an expressway is not known," Christie said.
Orkin said Green and his lawyers want the city to stop work and await an expedited court decision.
A group of dissident natives and their non-native supporters camped out at the valley for several months until cleared out by police Nov.6.
The protesters have now built a new roundhouse camp on private property at the edge of the valley.
Chris Murray says negotiators are now working on the seventh of nine agreements dealing with principles and joint stewardship policies for the valley.
Several months ago the Six Nations Confederacy Council instructed four negotiators to discuss valley issues with the city.
Two of the negotiators dropped out of talks. Paul Williams, one of the two remaining negotiators, said the agreements would be brought before the chiefs for ratification when completed.
Murray, the city's negotiator and head of the expressway project, said the agreements would likely be brought before city council and the Confederacy chiefs for approval early next year.
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Red Hill lawsuit seeks $100 million

Mohawk wants money set aside in trust fund 'for use by descendants' if expressway is not halted
By Dan Nolan and Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, November 28, 2003
A member of the Mohawk nation is seeking a court injunction to halt construction of the Red Hill Creek Expressway which he alleges violates a 300-year-old treaty on hunting and fishing rights in Ontario.
Larry Green, 59, alleges the $220-million project -- the subject already of a court injunction by the city to clear the valley of protesters this fall -- violates the 1701 Albany Treaty (Nanfan Treaty) between the British Crown and the then-five nation Iroquois Confederacy.
Green says in a lawsuit filed in Toronto that no money can compensate for "destruction" of the valley, but adds if a court declines to grant the injunction, he wants $100 million in damages to be set aside in a trust fund "for use by his descendants (born and yet unborn)."
The lawsuit was publicly launched yesterday at a press conference attended by about 40 people at the Ontario Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. Sitting at a table in a small room on the second floor, Green was bracketed by his lawyers, Murray Klippenstein of Toronto and Andrew Orkin of Hamilton.
"I am taking this action to insist that the Crown prevent its people from building the expressway, to protect my rights and the rights of my future generations to enjoy this part of our country free from any threat," said Green.
The lawsuit is the latest attempt to derail construction of the expressway -- including protests and a march on Queen's Park -- but it didn't faze Mayor-elect Larry Di Ianni, who says his election was partly due to his pro-expressway stand.
Both of Green's lawyers have long native rights experience. Klippenstein is best known as one of the lawyers for the family of Dudley George, the native man killed by police during a standoff at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995. Orkin has worked with the Quebec Cree.
At issue, the lawyers say, is a treaty clause which says, "We (the five nations) are to have free hunting for us and the heirs and descendants from the Five Nations forever and that free of all disturbances expecting to be protected therein by the Crown of England." They showed the room an old map, which they said had been recently found in England, that indicated Ontario was open to native hunting under the 1701 treaty.
The lawyers asked the city to hold off construction until the courts have dealt with the matter, which they hoped was only weeks away.
Di Ianni said the city would carry on and fight any lawsuit.
"We will be vigorous in that," he said. "An individual acting on his own or in concert with a few people is not going to deter us from doing what is best for the community."
He stressed the city was progressing in its talks with negotiators for the chiefs of the Six Nations Confederacy and had reached six out of nine agreements dealing with such issues as burial grounds, economic partnerships and hunting, fishing and trapping rights. Di Ianni said although Green -- who said he was a farmer -- was represented by the two high-profile lawyers, he noted he appeared to be acting only for himself and not speaking for the chiefs or the elected band council at Ohsweken.
Paul Williams, a lawyer who along with Brian Dolittle has been appointed a Confederacy negotiator, termed the lawsuit "unfortunate."
"We think we can get better and more practical respect for treaty and aboriginal rights through negotiations than through confrontation and litigation," he said.
Green admitted he had not talked his lawsuit over with Confederacy chiefs. The lawyers said they would look at any agreement between the city and Confederacy and consult with their client, but Klippenstein said, "I doubt that the Confederacy has fully considered the type of lawsuit that presently has commenced. They might not be aware of all of the options."
The lawyers said they were relying on resources of their law firms to help mount the lawsuit. Orkin added, "The city should make no assumption this is a quick stunt or that our client or his legal counsel are planning to go away early and easily."
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Red Hill treaty challenge

Six Nations 'Fire Keeper' launches $100m suit to stop the expressway
By Natalie Alcoba, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, November 27, 2003
A Six Nations man is filing a $100-million lawsuit against the City of Hamilton to stop construction of the Red Hill Expressway.
The man is one of the Iroquois Fire Keepers who lit a sacred fire in the valley in August. He has told his lawyers, Murray Klippenstein of Toronto, and Andrew Orkin of Hamilton, not to talk about the case until an announcement today at the Worker's Arts Heritage Centre.
A press release said the expressway "will violate and destroy Iroquois rights pursuant to a major treaty between the Five Iroquois Nations and the British Crown of 1701."
During two months of protests that delayed construction, natives argued that as part of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701, they must protect what is left of their hunting lands.
Six Nations elected chief Roberta Jamieson explained in a letter in August that the then-Five Nations "placed their hunting grounds in present-day Ontario under English protection by virtue of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 to maintain continued and unimpeded access to vital hunting grounds and prevent encroachment by Europeans."
The natives, who had built a longhouse and lit a sacred fire to block road construction, were forced by police to leave the valley early this month and the longhouse was destroyed as tree cutting began.
Mayor-elect Larry Di Ianni was not aware of the lawsuit, but said "nothing in this project surprises me." He said the city plans to stay on course with construction.
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SAVING RED HILL

THIS IS ONE PROMISE WE WANT LIBERALS TO BREAK
BY JOHN BACHER, NOW Magazine
Hamilton – my sole-blazing trek begins in the washroom at the local bus terminal, where I notice an urgent "Save Red Hill Valley" etched in the wall near the toilet paper. Then I'm off to the valley itself, where I get a warm hug from a prophet-like figure with a flowing beard and storm-tossed hair. His name is David Field and he reminds me of God in Michelangelo's Last Judgement. Field was the first of 14 people arrested on charges of trespass and mischief for such high crimes as clinging to trees before they were bulldozed into oblivion. His association with piety doesn't just come from his appearance. He's the guy who pounded a nail through the webbing of his left hand to attach himself to a tree.
This little crew of 20 is set to put foot to pavement to tell Queen's Park it's time for a new environmental assessment. After all, the original approval for the expressway was made back in 1985 before there was a plan to smash an 80-metre-wide hole in the escarpment. The new Liberal government, which claims it has no money, has declared itself ready to fund this environmental monstrosity to the tune of $120 million.
The walk's first happy moments are suddenly marred by the ridge's muddy slopes and the sight of cutting. Here, a mass of dirt and dead trees have replaced what until a few weeks ago was a magnificent, century-old forest of sugar maples. It was one of the most beautiful sights in Ontario's Carolinian zone.
The cutting we have seen so far, however, is only a small part of what may soon begin. Right now the only thing that will halt it in time is an injunction to stop construction on behalf of the Iroquois Confederacy near Brantford, who believe the roadway violates their treaty rights.
As we pass the clear-cut, activist Don McClean evokes the satisfying moment when Cannon Phillip Duran bravely defied the police by walking out into the banned cutting zone. He was soon released when 200 valley defenders encircled the officers' cars.
McClean, an astonishingly fit person for a man who has recovered from a triple-bypass heart operation, leads us at a brisk pace through spectacular groves of intact forest to a new First Nation encampment. It's replaced the protest longhouse police destroyed as a prelude to construction on Greenhill Avenue a few weeks back.
Here archaeologists have dug a few feet down to reveal the outlines of ancient longhouses. Many artifacts have been excavated, but the city of Hamilton denies the claims of Iroquois elders that their ancestors are buried below and will be disturbed by the construction.
We meet the guardian of the new sacred fire, which we are told will be relit later today from the embers of the fire at the former protest site.
Seven kilometres along, at Woodword Avenue, we get our last glance of the valley before Red Hill Creek empties into Burlington Bay. As if to reward us, we are greeted not only be a soaring red tail hawk, but by the glimpse of a rare peregrine falcon and a flock of bufflehead ducks newly arrived from the Canadian Arctic to winter near our warmer waters.
On the second day we breakfast at the Appleby United Church in Burlington. The city council here is the province's opposing efforts to blast another hole in the escarpment for a different expressway, the mid-peninsula corridor. Later, we pilgrims are warmly greeted by the faithful of the Burlington Baptist Church, who provides a solidarity dinner.
One of the organizers is a well tailored septuagenarian and a former Burlington mayor, NDPer Walter Mulkewich. We are accompanied for a while by a local man who explains how Mulkewich got his support. "People in Burlington understood that he would stand up to developers. They didn't want our community to become afflicted by the ugliness of big-box stores like in Mississauga.''
We cross the municipal line from Burlington to Oakville, and stories from eco-activists there aren't as happy. We pass through a subdivision called Lakeside Woods as a local tells me that the site was once a forest. "Until 1997, it was used by Shell to buffer its oil refinery. They sold it to developers. They destroyed habitat for the rare and beautiful red-headed woodpecker." A few minutes later, we pass a well-manicured landscape called Shell Park.
After seeing a blue heron on the marshy shores of Bronte Creek near its Lake Ontario mouth, we stop for a lunch near historical signs that tell us the town was a fishing village until 1950, when the fish died out from over-consumption and pollution.
As we continue along Lakeshore, we pass a cemetery dedicated to the patron saint of lost causes, St. Jude, said to be responsible for reversing situations on the brink of doom. A good omen.
On day four, we depart from the Port Credit Unitarian Church on the south side of the QEW at 9:15 am. Finally, my muscles ragged and my feet shouting, we arrive at in Toronto at 6 pm.
The next day we rally at Queen's Park, where NDP environment critic Marilyn Churley tells the cheering crowd: "Dalton McGuinty promised the Red Hill Expressway. It's one promise we want him to break."
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Valley protesters just voices in the wilderness

Free speech welcomed at Queen's Park anytime but McGuinty's Liberals no different than Harris PCs
By Bill Dunphy, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, November 25, 2003
What a difference a regime makes. Or does it?
Eight years ago, on the first day of the opening session of the Common Sense Revolutionary Congress, (a.k.a. the Mike Harris government), an angry mob of protesters stormed the barricades at Queen's Park, provoking a brutal response from the armoured police units standing guard. The result was a riot that shocked this city.
Premier Harris never broke stride; within a matter of weeks, much of the legislation the protesters had been protesting had become law.
In the days, weeks, months, and years that followed, a whole generation of dissidents grew up on the front lawns at Queen's Park; Harris and his successors simply ignored them.
But the Tories have been chased out of the joint like so many Georgians, and yesterday, as the Dalton McGuinty Liberals finally sat down to their first day of governing, a band of marchers and a couple of busloads of Hamiltonians fetched up on the stone steps of the legislature to sing and beat drums and protest the paving of a goodly portion of the Red Hill Valley.
They didn't actually fetch up against the steps; these days, whenever noisy visitors are expected, removable steel barricades are bolted into the asphalt a dozen metres in front of those storied sandstone steps. But you get the idea.
The group, some 30 to 40 of whom had marched all the way from the top of the valley itself, carried a mock $120- million cheque made out to McGuinty -- the provincial share of the controversial expressway's construction costs.
"Save your money ... Save the valley!" they chanted.
They were not the very first demonstrators to call on the Liberals -- a smaller group dropped by on Saturday -- but their arrival on the first working day of the new session was novel enough to lure the local TV, radio and press out into the gathering gloom to grab some tape.
But after an hour or so, they moved on to their lunches and other stories. The crowd remained outside, calling for McGuinty as the wind picked up and the rain began to fall.
Would the new leader do things differently? Come out and defend his decision to support the highway, perhaps point to Mayor Larry Di Ianni's convincing civic victory as proof of public support?
Would he send out an underling, to listen politely, and promise nothing?
No.
McGuinty, like Harris before him, followed the unwritten rules of the rulers, and snubbed them.
So did every other local Liberal member of the legislature.
The only MPPs who stepped out of the building to greet the gathering were the opposition environment critics -- Halidmand/Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett, a Tory, and Toronto NDPer Marilyn Churley.
Churley waded right into the crowd and delighted them when she reminded them of McGuinty's broken vow to kick developers off the environmentally-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine. McGuinty supports the expressway.
"Our message to Dalton McGuinty is to break that promise like all the other promises he's broken!" she said, and the crowd cheered.
Barrett, whose party breathed new life into the moribund expressway by restoring its funding, addressed the crowd from behind the relative safety of the steel barriers. Old habits die hard, one presumes.
Still, Barrett assured them that he would demand a new environmental assessment for the project.
He even took their giant cheque. Old habits, etc.
The ruling party didn't entirely snub the protesters. They were offered the option of choosing three of their number to hike five kilometres uptown to the offices of the parliamentary assistant to the environment minister, some fellow named Dominic Agostino.
The offer was turned down.
"We didn't walk all the way from Hamilton just to talk to Dominic," expressway opponent Don McLean said to approving laughter from the crowd.
"We'll wait here for the premier or someone from his office."
The crowd -- unbowed by rain or rulers -- cheered and continued their chants and drumming.
But after two-and-a-half hours of wind and rain, the rented buses returned and the protest dispersed.
Walking away, I kept hearing in my head the voice of the Clerk of the Legislature, Claude DesRosiers, testifying last week in a trespassing trial of five other protesters.
This is what DesRosiers said, with conviction and obvious sincerity:
"I absolutely do believe in free speech. Demonstrations happen on the lawns of Queen's Park every day. People come, they voice their opinion, they go home."
A new regime. An old story.
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Red Hill opponents hope for change in attitude

City project manager says work resumes today
Spectator Staff, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, November 10, 2003
Workmen will be on the job today at various expressway construction sites and opponents and supporters of the Red Hill Creek project will be working to get voters out.
Chris Murray, the city's project manager for the controversial project, said security guards protected work sites this weekend that were cleared of protesters last week.
There was some cleanup tree cutting along the escarpment Saturday and work would resume at other sites today.
There were no renewed protests at the $220-million expressway site.
Don McLean, chair of the Friends of Red Hill Valley, said expressway opponents will put their efforts into today's election.
The clearing of protesters in the past week was "brutal" and created "deep wounds" for the city, he added.
"Whoever wins is going to win a divided city. They will have to make some moves to reconcile things."
That situation would apply even if the election brought in a council opposed to road construction, he said.
The winner-take-all approach was destructive for Hamilton.
"Hopefully, we will see some change in council and its attitude," he said.
"Hopefully, we can find consensus decisions instead of 50 per cent, plus one."
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4 protesters out of jail; could face civil counts char

Group of school kids rallies at City Hall, leaves note for Mayor Wade saying he's hurting future
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 8, 2003
Four Red Hill Creek Expressway protesters -- including a 17-year-old woman -- were back on the street yesterday after spending the night in jail.
David Kobel, Kevin Hamilton and Nathan Clark were released unconditionally when they appeared before Justice of the Peace Paul Welsh at the John Sopinka Courthouse.
But they were warned they could still be liable for contempt of court for breaching a city injunction prohibiting them from interfering with construction of the $220-million road.
It will be up to the city to decide whether to raise the matter in civil court.
The young woman, twice arrested at the Red Hill protests, was released into the custody of her mother and ordered to keep away from the construction site as part of her bail.
She cannot be named.
The four were among 14 people arrested for trespassing and contempt of court Thursday when police swept in and cleared a protesters' camp off Greenhill Avenue.
Construction workers then moved in with heavy equipment and began clearing the land.
By the end of the day, they had demolished a long house built by protesters in defiance of the court order.
On the orders of police, a ceremonial flame lit in August was allowed to burn down and flickered out early yesterday.
In contrast to previous weeks, when visitors and protesters moved freely around the camp, the site has now been marked off with an orange fence and is patrolled around the clock by private security guards.
A powerful spotlight mounted on a metal pole where the long house stood is used to scan the area for after-dark intruders.
Following the release of the jailed protesters, their supporters walked to city hall and joined a demonstration there.
Several dozen students chanted "Save the Valley" and with coloured chalk, wrote slogans on the plaza and sidewalks in front of city hall.
Emily Arndt and Keisha Quinn, both 13, led a group of students into city hall to find Mayor Bob Wade.
But the best they could do was leave a handwritten note asking why the city was clearing trees from the Red Hill Valley just before Monday's election.
"Did he not realize he was endangering the future of his kids and grandkids?" Arndt said.
They said they were upset by news reporting the clearing of trees and protesters from the valley and called fellow students at Dalewood Elementary and other schools as well as some adults to organize a protest.
Thea Rockwell, 12, said she called Reverend Cannon Patrick Doran of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Westdale. He and others adults met up with the students at city hill at noon.
He was dressed in a black cassock and carried a shepherd's staff with which he led a protest march through the valley last Tuesday before being detained briefly by police.
The youngsters lined up along Main Street and held up their placards for motorists.
They were watched by Hamilton Wentworth District School Board chair Judith Bishop, who expressed alarm the youngsters were getting too close to traffic.
Her school board office is across the street.
When asked why she was there, she replied, "What better place could I be; some of these kids are from my neighbourhood."
And besides, she is opposed to the expressway, she said.
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Anti-Red Hill faction catches minister's ear
Bill Dunphy, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, November 7, 2003
Even as police were sweeping protesters out of the Red Hill Valley yesterday morning, activists were opening an eastern front in the battle.
Environmentalists marched right into Queen's Park in a last-ditch effort to drag the province into the fray.
The activists called on newly minted (and by now perhaps even newly briefed) Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky to immediately order a review of the 18-year-old environmental approvals for the controversial Red Hill Creek Expressway -- in light of the city's convictions for environmental "crimes."
Lake Ontario Waterkeeper -- a local branch of an international environmental-law movement -- made the call at the Queen's Park's media studio, hoping for maximum media exposure and thereby maximize pressure on Dombrowsky. Alas for them, the studio was nearly deserted and the only questions asked came from your obedient servant, which suggests activists may need a longer lever if they hope to pry the Liberals off their support of the expressway. Dombrowsky is feeling so unpressured by the Red Hill issue, the day before she wasn't even sure where the valley was.
Still, the call for a review on legal -- not political -- grounds does hang a hook out there for whatever anti-expressway sympathizers there might be in the cabinet or caucus, giving them something they -- or even the minister -- can latch on to.
The Waterkeepers cited a never-before used section of the Environmental Assessment Act which allows the minister to review previously approved projects in the face of new information or circumstances. In this case the new information was the three-year-old conviction of the city for breaches of the Federal Fisheries Act and pending charges under Ontario's Water Resources Act.
"Their actions show they can not be trusted as responsible stewards of the valley," said Waterkeeper Mark Mattson. "If criminal (sic) convictions aren't grounds for a reassessment, I don't know what is."
Under questioning, Mattson admitted the convictions, while breaches of law, were not violations of the Criminal Code.
The convictions were for the city's repeated failure to stop poisons leaching into the creek from the old Rennie Street dump -- despite specific orders to do so. It was fined $450,000 and ordered to embark on a multimillion-dollar cleanup.
Not crimes per se, but the activists argue it's proof the city can't be trusted to safeguard the valley during and after construction.
"They've lost their credibility," Mattson said. "They've lost that right (to manage a project in the valley) by committing an illegal activity."
Mattson is well aware the Liberals support the expressway -- indeed Premier Dalton McGuinty said as much this week -- but he insists the decision here revolves around legal policy, not politics.
And even though the 1985 assessment was reaffirmed, "declared" in 1996, the convictions -- and a wealth of data on rare plant and animal species and the health effects of air pollution -- came after.
"She (Dombrowsky) is the only one that can step into this and ensure the law is upheld. There's a very important question here: Does illegal activity constitute grounds for a reassessment?"
Whatever you think of the rhetoric, Mattson -- who was accompanied to Queen's Park by Hamilton activist Don McLean -- raises a novel point, and one that, surprisingly, seems to have caught the new minister's ear.
Although Dombrowsky was unavailable (locked away in cabinet committee meetings), ministry spokesman John Steele said she'd make a decision in a matter of a week or so.
"We've agreed that we'll review it. I think it's important that we allow our technical people to review this new information and the minister will announce her decision by the middle of the month."
Yesterday, as the press conference wound down, a technician stepped in to say the TV was reporting that police had moved into the valley, arresting at least two protesters.
A hush fell on the room and Mattson murmured to McLean that he was sorry.
As it turned out, the sweep netted more than a dozen activists, allowed the city crews to demolish the symbolic longhouse and cleared the way for some serious clearing of the way, i.e. with chainsaws, 'dozers and dynamite.
But, with the fuse burning in Queen's Park on the possibility of a new environmental assessment of the whole expressway, it's still not clear yet just who outflanked whom.
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Red Hill Valley Facts

The expressway runs from the east end of the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway through the Red Hill Creek Valley to the QEW, near Centennial Parkway.
About 25 per cent of the 285 hectares of the valley would be affected.
The expressway is:
A shortcut between the QEW and Highway 403, to be completed by 2007.
A four-lane highway, 7.5 kilometres long, with a 90 km/h speed limit.
To be built with provincial and city funds at a cost of $220 million, with the city's portion at about $73 million.
Those in favour:
Say the roadway is needed for continued development in upper Stoney Creek, for the success of the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, and for relieving traffic congestion.
Those opposed:
They say the valley's natural area and the wildlife it shelters should be preserved, noise and air pollution would worsen and the road would become a shortcut for American truckers going between Detroit and Buffalo.
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4 Jailed During Red Hill Sweep

Police remove 14 valley protesters while workers dismantle longhouse
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, November 7, 2003
Expressway opponents suffered a devastating blow yesterday when police swept into their makeshift camp in the Red Hill Valley and carted away 14 protesters for trespassing and criminal contempt of court.
Four of them spent the night in jail and are to appear for a bail hearing today, including a native woman who was a kind of den mother in the camp.
A 58-year-old protester -- known as Cowboy Dave Kobel -- spent the night in hospital after he complained of chest pains while police arrested him.
Police also enraged native protesters by not allowing them on the site to protect a sacred fire that has been burning since Aug. 11.
About an hour after the occupants were removed, construction workers moved into the area and started clearing the bush around the camp near Greenhill Avenue to make way for the $220 million expressway.
They began dismantling the longhouse in late afternoon.
Close to 50 police, private security guards and members of the police emergency response unit -- who normally handle gun calls and dangerous emergencies -- participated.
They sealed off every road and trail to the site near the north end of the valley. Plainclothes officers hid in the bushes when the main group entered shortly after 10 a.m. They also warned reporters they'd be charged if they entered the area.
Inspector Ken Leendertse, who oversaw the operation, said he feared the presence of journalists would encourage the protesters to put on "a good show for the media" and increase the possibility for violence.
Residents of the camp, who have been living in tents and the longhouse for two months, had just finished an outdoor pancake breakfast when somebody blew a loud whistle warning police had arrived.
"We didn't have a chance in hell," said 20-year-old Mohawk College student Aubrey Sorensen. "As long as I live, I'll never forget those policemen coming out of the woods.
"We walked up to the officers and offered them food (as they had to everybody who visited the camp during breakfast). I walked into the longhouse and told everybody they were there," she recalled shortly after the incident.
Sorensen said most of the camp residents -- ranging from teens to people in their 60s -- scattered into the bushes. Others left the camp on their own after being warned they would be arrested for trespassing and contempt of court for obstructing expressway construction.
Sorensen said about 15 people went into the longhouse and tried to chain themselves to the centre pole. Police stepped in and stopped most, but three managed to fasten themselves to the pole and had to be cut free by police.
About two hours after the initial sweep, a large group of protesters and supporters congregated on the grass near a condo complex on Albright Avenue. They taunted police and exchanged angry words with residents of the complex, who wanted police to remove them.
The crunch came when a young woman in her 20s, who had been living in the longhouse, pulled off her top and bared her breasts. She had the words "stop the tree cutting" written with a black marker on her chest.
She was not arrested.
But another woman, in her 50s, was arrested for trespassing because she refused to leave.
The most contentious issue, however, was the fate of the sacred fire which has served as a kind of rallying point for the anti-expressway movement. It was lit in a special native ceremony in August and natives expected they would be allowed to stay on the site and put it out themselves.
After complaining to Leendertse, Clive Garlow and Brenda Maracle-Hill -- both members of the Six Nations Reserve -- were allowed to go back to the camp and burn tobacco in the fire as a tribute to the ancestors. Garlow was still angry that no natives would be around when it burned itself out.
Dave Heatley, who helped build the longhouse in September, said he assumed it would be bulldozed by the construction equipment that had just moved into the area. The longhouse was built in defiance of the court injunction in September and had been a home to about a dozen people. It also served as a meeting hall for the protesters.
Sorensen said it will take more than the destruction of a building to extinguish the expressway protest.
"It doesn't house our hearts and our spirits. They're still here and will always be with us," she said.
"Our spirits are dampened. The fight isn't over."
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Red Hill battle not in 'key briefings'

Law group urging minister to protect valley, protesters serving pancakes
Paul Legall and Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, November 5, 2003
Liberal Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky couldn't tell reporters yesterday where the Red Hill Valley is.
But she and her government know enough to say they aren't coming to the aid of groups fighting to stop the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Asked where the battle to halt the $220-million highway was taking place, she replied, "In Hamilton?"
Dombrowsky is from eastern Ontario, but Hamilton East MPP Dominic Agostino, whose riding borders the valley, was appointed her parliamentary assistant by Premier Dalton McGuinty about two weeks ago.
Dombrowsky could not be reached by The Spectator yesterday but her acting executive assistant, Joanne Lewis, said the minister knows about the expressway issue and was confirming it was in Hamilton with her question.
Lewis said the only reason Dombrowsky told reporters she had not been briefed on the issue was because it was not awaiting any critical provincial decisions and hadn't been part of "key briefings" since her appointments.
This morning, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, an environmental law group, will hold a press conference in Toronto calling for Dombrowsky to protect the Red Hill Valley.
McGuinty told reporters at Queen's Park yesterday, however, that the expressway had cleared two environmental assessments and should proceed.
Expressway opponents are banking on the homey appeal of fresh pancakes to buy them more time in the Red Hill Valley.
They will be offering hot cakes this morning to anybody who visits their camp off Greenhill Avenue, where about a dozen people have been camped in defiance of a court injunction ordering them to leave the valley.
They're hoping the communal breakfast will attract new supporters to help them stave off a kind of eviction notice they got from the police this week. On Monday, Police Superintendent Ken Leendertse told residents they should start packing their belongings because the camp would probably be dismantled by the end of the week.
Donna Powless, a Six Nations native, has been living on the site since the beginning and will help serve the pancakes. She isn't planning on going anywhere soon. She believes the valley belongs to her native ancestors and the city is trespassing on sacred land by building the expressway.
McGuinty and his Liberal government had more pressing issues than the expressway to deal with yesterday. They made an election promise to stop new-home construction on the Oak Ridges Moraine north of Toronto. They've imposed a temporary freeze on development.
But McGuinty admitted yesterday the government will be forced to negotiate with home builders because the Tory government got locked into a bad deal.
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He Led Them to the Valley

Anglican priest is arrested as he leads protesters to stop tree cutting and save the Red Hill from highway
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 5, 2003
An Anglican priest became the latest hero of the anti-expressway movement when he led a protest march through the Red Hill Valley and was arrested on the escarpment face.
With about 150 protesters singing Amazing Grace in the background, Canon Patrick Doran defied private security guards, stepped over an orange plastic snow fence and walked into a construction area where workers felled more than 300 trees last week.
Dressed in a hooded black cassock and carrying a hooked shepherd staff, he gave up peacefully when three security guards detained him and escorted him to the top of the escarpment where several Hamilton police cruisers were waiting on a trail.
By walking into the construction area, he could have been charged with trespassing on private property and contempt of a court order that prohibits anybody from interfering with the $220 million expressway project.
Hamilton police weren't about to create any instant martyrs. Doran was held briefly and then released after dozens of protesters linked arms and refused to let the police van out of the valley.
They sang We Shall Overcome and He Has the Whole World In his Hands, as police pondered their next move.
After a 15-minutes standoff, Doran stepped out the vehicle and announced to the throngs of cheering supporters: "I've been released unconditionally."
Superintendent Ken Leendertse said police did not continue the arrest of Doran because of the crowd of people blocking the police van.
"In the interest of officer and public safety, I made the decision to release him unconditionally," said Leendertse.
Doran's march apparently had the blessing of the Anglican diocese of Niagara.
He was blessed at the beginning of the walk by former Niagara Anglican Bishop John Bothwell.
And the priest said he spoke with current Bishop Ralph Spence Saturday and Monday and received his verbal support of the expressway protest.
Spence was out of town last night and could not be reached for comment. Nor could Boswell
Doran said an outreach committee for the Niagara diocese recently passed a motion to oppose the construction of the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
The priest's triumphant release was one of the few victories for expressway opponents, who have been trying to stop work on the escarpment face for more than a week. Last Thursday, police charged eight protesters with trespassing and contempt of court and ordered them to remove a make-shift camp they had been using as a rallying point on the Bruce Trail.
Workers have since cut down more than 300 trees on a section of the escarpment face protestors had been trying to protect. To see the first tree falling was a demoralizing blow for many expressway opponents, who had hoped the tree cutting wouldn't start until after the municipal elections.
But the mood was generally upbeat yesterday morning when more than 100 people of all ages gathered around Doran at the Rosedale arena and prepared for the three-kilometre hike to the top of the escarpment. The participants included young mothers with baby strollers, housewives, retired steel workers, native activists, an army veteran with a chest full of medals, a McMaster science professor and a retired psychiatrist. Some were old and frail and had difficulty walking.
As the group snaked through the valley trails, they stopped periodically to pray, sing hymns or read psalms.
Doran -- who is pastor of St. Paul's Anglican Church in Westdale -- compared the procession through the picturesque valley to a religious pilgrimage to a sacred place.
An avid hiker, he used his shepherd's staff as a walking stick. It was a gift from a parishioner who had it made especially for him by a Mennonite tradesman. "It's a shepherd's staff so I can shepherd my flock," he laughed.
The procession ended at the base of an embankment where the trees were felled last week and a group of private security guards were waiting. A guard warned Doran he would be arrested if he stepped over the small fence. Doran replied he understood and walked in.
Minutes later, several others took his lead, stepped over the barrier and defiantly sat down on the felled trees. They were repeatedly told to leave the area but weren't charged. After he was released from custody, Doran picked up a loud hailer and told his followers: "We have demonstrated we are people of peace."
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Mac profs have civil solution

Engineers say raised 'flyover' on Centennial Parkway is a cheaper option
Carol Phillips, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Two McMaster University civil engineering professors are proposing a "flyover" down Centennial Parkway -- similar to the Burlington Street overpass -- as a last-minute compromise to the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Professors Robert Korol and Brian Baetz say the alternative would cost only $60 million (compared to $197m for Red Hill), and have no impact on the escarpment or any native archeological sites. The men made the presentation at a news conference held by Transportation for Liveable Communities (TLC), a working group of McMaster's Ontario Public Interest Research Group.
In the plan, there are two four-lane flyovers -- one over the King Street intersection at the bottom of the hill, and a longer one beginning at Neil Avenue (just before Queenston) and continuing just past Barton Street at the north end. Local traffic would stay on the lower, existing road, to access all east-west streets and Eastgate Square. Centennial Parkway would have to be widened at King to accommodate the support structure. This would be avoided around Eastgate Square by reconfiguring the lower road using a portion of its east parking lot.
"We've only taken a first cut at this," Korol said. "It's up to the city and their consultants to take this as a concept and work it out."
It was enough to make longtime Centennial Parkway resident Barbara Blake shake with rage.
"What you want to do is just decimate (our neighbourhood) from King Street to Queenston," she told the news conference. "I really resent you saying Highway 20 isn't pretty. It isn't pretty because of all the damage that's been done and it isn't pretty because of the traffic delays."
Korol said "to his knowledge" this option has never been studied.
Stoney Creek councillor and mayoral candidate Larry Di Ianni, who has not seen the report, said last night that it is one of many alternative solutions since the 1970s that have been studied and dismissed as too expensive. He said a neighbourhood with a shopping area and historical park does not need a concrete overpass running through it and he dismissed the option as another last-minute attempt to confuse the issue.
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Smoke, spirits stand fast in valley fight

Native encampment, sacred fire could close as early as today as police issue another warning
Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Defiant native protesters who are ignoring a police ultimatum to leave the Red Hill Valley hope that enough supporters come out today to stop police from clearing their encampment.
The small group of natives and their non-native supporters expect police could come as early as today to where they have built a longhouse, complete with a sacred ceremonial fire, and blocked work on the Red Hill Creek Expressway for more than two months.
David Heatley, an activist with the protesters, says the natives will probably have to "be arrested and dragged away" because some are adamant about protecting native burial ground and treaty rights.
"We are standing fast and not going anywhere," he said.
Hamilton police Superintendent Ken Leendertse told them on Monday to leave or face removal.
"It's sooner rather than later," Leendertse told the natives. He warned them they would be given only limited time for necessary ceremonies to remove the fire and clear their belongings.
Heatley says no arrangements were made yesterday, however, to deal with the fire and to put the native "ancestors" called up "back to rest."
He said supporters attending a Tivoli Theatre benefit concert last night for the anti-expressway fight would be asked to show up this morning to discourage police from acting.
He said the large number of people who showed up for a valley protest march yesterday where loggers had cut trees discouraged police from making full-scale arrests there.
Leendertse said he is not about to reveal "the timeline" for police to enforce a court injunction clearing protesters from the encampment near Greenhill Avenue.
Police want to be respectful of any needed native ceremonies involving the sacred fire, he said.
"They know it's time to get ready to move the fire," said Leendertse. "Police have a job to do and they know that."
Heatley says he has been warned that police guards will be posted to ensure the fire is no longer fed and dies down naturally if it is not removed by natives.
Carol Bomberry, one of the native protesters who has stayed in the valley, says she is not willing to be "carted off to jail" but wants the expressway stopped. She says she anticipates police will be respectful of the sacred fire in the camp. Any decision about closing it down will have to be made by the natives who built it.
The natives in the valley have said they do not recognize the court injunction obtained by Hamilton to clear protesters and that their historic treaty rights in the valley are being violated by expressway construction.
The natives have also been attempting to gather donations, find legal help and means of protecting their property and charging the city and police with trespassing.
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Down to Wire for Mayor's Chair

Frontrunners in mayoral race offer distinct choices for voters

The Red Hill Expressway and city finances dominated one of the municipal election campaign's last all-candidates meetings last night -- fuelling some of the more personal barbs of the campaign.
Former MPP Dave Christopherson, criticized by other candidates about his NDP background, rhymed off a list of his accomplishments during 23 years in politics.
"While I was a cabinet minister, I was responsible for a budget of $1.2 billion a year and 15,000 employees. The city of Hamilton has a budget of $1 billion and about 8,500 employees," Christopherson told the audience of about 300.
"I realize that my friend Mr. Di Ianni likes to take that down but I tell you, he'd give his political right arm to be able to list that kind of experience going into an election like this."
Di Ianni, who is backed by business and has frequently referred to the "baggage" he says Christopherson carries as a New Democrat, did not comment directly. But the debate was viewed by the seven men running as a chance to point up opponents' weaknesses as the end of the race nears.
Michael Peters, a financial controller, said a city with such serious fiscal problems doesn't need a mayor with the type of "cap-in-hand" mentality that Christopherson displays.
Tom Murray, a former councillor, took Di Ianni apart as a member of a council that Murray says has done nothing in the last three years but raise taxes, allow services to deteriorate and react in panic to crisis after crisis.
Deamalgamation candidate Dick Wildeman said council members like Di Ianni abandoned responsibility to residents of the suburban areas which became part of Hamilton: "They want their towns and councils back ... a binding referendum and restoration of their democracy."
Wildeman also warned of the rising cost of servicing the city's debt, which stands now at $453 and is expected to peak at $678 million by 2007. It costs $59 million a year to pay debt charges.
But it was debate on the Red Hill Expressway that reflected the community's greatest difference of opinion, and one of its hottest election issues.
Hamilton police yesterday ordered protesters occupying land near Greenhill Road to pack up and move out.
Superintendent Ken Leendertse informed the group -- which has occupied the site since August -- that they must leave. He gave them time to dismantle their sacred fire and clear away their belongings.
They're to be out by week's end.
One non-native protester vowed the group will have to be "arrested and dragged away" from the valley.
Di Ianni says his No. 1 priority is getting the $220-million roadway built, supported by Peters, Murray and many candidates for city council. They say the road has been studied for years, and needs to be built for economic reasons, as well as to relieve local roadways.
Matt Jelly, a 21-year-old who says he is running "not to win," but to speak out, took repeated jabs at Di Ianni and other Red Hill supporters, saying that "there are no conceivable benefits to tearing down 44,000 trees. The public has never been asked what it thinks."
Michael Baldasaro, a pro-marijuana activist and environmentalist, said building an expressway through the valley will trap pollutants and harm health.
Christopherson said the proper thing to focus on for Hamilton's future is not the new roadway but a thriving economy.
Candidates pro and con agree that many voters will make up their minds Nov. 10 based on where candidates stand on Red Hill -- potentially turning the election into a Red Hill referendum
A chamber of commerce poll suggests support for the expressway is strong enough in the community to boost Di Ianni's chances, but only if enough expressway backers get out to vote. Released last week, it showed that 59.3 per cent of Hamiltonians surveyed support the roadway, with 20.8 per cent opposed, 13.8 per cent undecided and 6.3 per cent indifferent
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Police charge man over Red Hill slingshot attack

Natives say person was acting on his own and they're switching to a court fight
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, November 3, 2003
Expressway opponents were quick to condemn a man charged criminally for taking potshots with a slingshot at workers and security guards in the Red Hill Valley.
A spokesman for natives who have occupied the valley since early August said the shooter was acting on his own Saturday and contrary to their non-violent protest. Dave Heatley warned, however, that tensions have been rising since seven protesters were arrested last week and violence could occur in some circles "if push comes to shove."
He added his group is still committed to non-violence and plans to fight the $220 million expressway project in court.
Heatley said protesters have changed their tactics since last week's arrests. They plan to argue in court that the valley is native land and the city has no right to build a highway on it.
"There are only two things these people (the city) understand. Paper war and violence," he said. "We would like to see a paper war (in court) rather than violence."
Police said a 39-year-old man crawled through underbrush with a slingshot Saturday to shoot at guards and construction workers off Mount Albion Road about 1:30 p.m.
Police said he hit three security guards with small pellets and threatened to shoot two construction workers. Nobody was seriously injured.
The sneak attack occurred on the top of the escarpment where protesters massed earlier in the week and four people were charged with trespassing and contempt of court for interfering with construction workers. It's also the area where the first 360 maples they were trying to save were cut down Thursday.
Police wouldn't identify the shooter but described him as an expressway opponent. He appeared in bail court yesterday facing five counts of assault with a weapon.
He is the first person charged criminally since the expressway protest started almost three months ago.
Protester Heatley said he wasn't aware of the slingshot sniper until he heard about the attack on the news.
"We phoned the police and asked what it was about. The police guaranteed he wasn't part of us. We asked who he was but they wouldn't tell us his name," said Heatley, a non-native who acted as a spokesperson for a group of natives who built a longhouse and have been occupying the lower valley since August.
"We're peace keepers. Violence and verbal abuse isn't something we like to see. It puts a bad name on everyone. This can be settled properly with words, not violence," he said during an interview in the long- house where dozens of native and non-native protesters had gathered yesterday afternoon.
Heatley is part of a group of primarily native protesters who have set up shop in the lower valley. They do not represent either the elected government of the Six Nations Reserve or the traditional Six Nations Confederacy chiefs.
Lawyer Paul Williams said the Confederacy Chiefs discussed the Red Hill Valley Expressway during a weekend meeting and authorized a team of negotiators, of which he's a member, to continue talks with the city.
Williams said the team doesn't like the expressway and would be happy if it was never built.
"We have concerns about the entire valley. Can these concerns be addressed if there is an expressway? Our intention is to mitigate the damage that will be done (if the expressway is built)," Williams said.
But Heatley said the Confederacy has compromised its position by going into negotiations with a "white flag."
"Why should you settle for the crumbs when you already own the cake? When you go into negotiations with a white flag flying, where have you got to go?" he asked.
A group of Brock University students were pounding a large circular drum in the longhouse yesterday.
Heatley said the traditional native drumbeat was meant to buoy the spirits of the native and non-native protesters who were still demoralized from the arrests and seeing the first maples fall.
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New vote won't stop fight over valley

Expressway opponents issue warning to Christopherson
Dan Nolan, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 1, 2003
Opponents of the Red Hill Creek Expressway are warning mayoral candidate David Christopherson his plan to put the expressway question to a new council vote if he wins won't halt their fight.
Christopherson, who is also anti-expressway, said earlier this week he would call a vote on the issue at his first meeting and, if the majority voted in favour of proceeding, he would live by its decision.
It seems likely the makeup of the new council would still consist of a majority of members supportive of the $220-million expressway, though there are anti-expressway candidates running in nearly all of the wards.
"It's difficult for me to foretell, but my take on this is I don't see how it can end there (with a yes vote)," said McMaster University professor George Sorger, who has been speaking out against the expressway for years and is a member of Friends of the Red Hill Valley and the Coalition on Niagara Escarpment.
"It's not just they won the game and now they can destroy our city."
Sorger said a yes vote would still not deal with questions surrounding whether taxpayers -- both city and provincial -- can afford the highway nor would it settle the native issues surrounding the valley.
Protesters, including some members of the Six Nations, have been camped out in the valley since August and holding up construction of the highway. Some claim the valley is Six Nations land, while others say natives have fishing and hunting rights in the valley.
"If the vote doesn't consider all of these things, they would be making a terrible mistake," Sorger added. "Nothing in politics is that cut and dried."
Scott McNie, co-ordinator of The Red Hill Schoolhouse, which stages weekly anti-expressway rallies around the city, said he's been very impressed with Christopherson's leadership on opposing the highway. But he maintained there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the expressway, such as its impact on the air quality of Hamilton.
"As far as this coming to an end after the election, that's not the end of the issue," said McNie. "Our group will continue to point out the public health impacts and the financial toll that any proposed expressway will have on the city."
Brian McHattie, a member of the Hamilton Naturalists Club who is running in Ward 1, echoed his colleagues' sentiments.
"There's lots of angles to this beyond a simple vote at council," said McHattie, who also expressed fear over the cost to the city and concern Hamilton does not have all necessary government permits to proceed.
Christopherson's main challenger, Larry Di Ianni, dismissed the idea of a new council vote on the expressway and accused Christopherson of "waffling" on his anti-expressway position. The Ward 10 councillor said the vote didn't make sense because, taking into account the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway across Hamilton Mountain, the link between the QEW and Highway 403 is already 66 per cent complete.
"It's like building a house and voting whether to put a roof on it," said Di Ianni.
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Protesters hope for support of chiefs

Expressway foes camped out in lower valley expect police to arrive soon
Josh Brown and Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 1, 2003
Defiant native protesters camped out in the Red Hill Valley anticipate police will try to clear them out next week.
And they are hoping a meeting today of the hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy brings support for their two-month-long stand for native rights in the valley.
"It will be yes or no," said Donna Powless who was arrested by police Thursday afternoon along with other protesters for ignoring a court injunction barring trespassers at construction sites.
She was arrested along with native clan mother Gail Douglas of the Bear Clan of the Mohawks and activist David Heatley near the Mount Albion Road site where trees are being cleared for the $220-million Red Hill Creek Expressway.
The hereditary chiefs meeting in Ohsweken today traditionally make decisions by consensus and are apparently divided on their support for the protesters.
The native protesters and their non-native supporters have built a longhouse and sacred fire in a roundhouse and blocked work at a Greenhill Avenue site since August.
And the native protesters have ignored suggestions from the chiefs in past weeks that the sacred fire be moved to the Six Nations and that protesters leave the valley while negotiations continued with the city.
Heatley said it is doubtful the chiefs will reach any consensus today and "I hope it doesn't get too crazy" when police come.
Police were courteous and respectful on Thursday and allowed protesters to take down and remove a teepee and native flag near Mount Albion Road on Thursday.
Heatley said the native protesters are disappointed that so few supporters came to their aid as workers began cutting trees and police began enforcing the court injunction issued in September.
"I think people didn't realize they were only going to get a trespassing fine," he said. "They probably had visions of being taken off to jail for three months."
If there is a genuine consensus at today's meeting and the chiefs call for an end to the protest, the natives will likely leave the valley, he said.
The city, meanwhile is pinning its hopes for an end to the stalemate on the efforts of the two volunteer negotiators, Paul Williams and Brian Dolittle, who are trying to work out a broad range of agreements on joint native-city valley stewardship that would be acceptable to the hereditary chiefs.
The two negotiators are expected to update the chiefs on their progress today.
But Clan Mother Douglas said the tree cutting and the expressway violates native rights set out in treaties and the negotiations are a "sellout."
Chris Murray, the city project manager for the eight-kilometre expressway, said he is not anticipating any dramatic decision from today's meeting of the chiefs.
"There will be discussions but I've come to understand that the way they might approach it and we might approach it can be two different things," Murray said.
The city, however, is preparing to resume construction work at the Greenhill Avenue site where the natives are camped out.
The city wants to begin work for a bridge across the valley and noise and safety barriers before the winter sets in.
"We've lost a few months," Murray said. "The more we don't complete now gets pushed into next year."
The native sacred fire continues to burn in the lower valley but few supporters have responded to the call for help put out to Six Nations residents by protesters earlier in the week.
"I'm surprised and disappointed," said protester Carol Bomberry over the lack of interest at Six Nations. "It seems like a remote place to them."
But Bomberry also hopes that will change when the hereditary chiefs at Six Nations meet this morning.
And if that doesn't work she said there are still a "number of irons in the fire" but wouldn't elaborate. "We're trying to use peaceful means and hope it doesn't turn into other means."
Meanwhile, construction crews continued to clear mature maple trees on the face of the Niagara Escarpment yesterday after the last protester was forced out of the area west of Mount Albion Road.
The masked man, who spent the last three days living on a platform in a tree about 12 metres above the ground, came down at 5:30 a.m. after his supply of food and water was cut off. Police charged him with trespassing, making him the tenth person arrested in the last two days.
Most anti-expressway supporters retreated to the longhouse but a few remained behind to picket along Mount Albion Road. The mood was pretty sombre, especially as several huge trees fell to the ground, but protesters vowed to carry on the fight.
"You won't stop us that easily," said Guy Mersereau. "We have to keep the faith."
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Great Divide

Anti-expressway vote could have disproportionate impact at polls
Joan Walters, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, November 1, 2003
A new poll on the Red Hill Creek Expressway shows the majority of Hamiltonians support the roadway, but that anti-expressway forces are poised to influence the Nov. 10 municipal vote.
The survey for the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and expressway supporters says 59.3 per cent of residents polled this month support the road.
The interviews with 400 residents of the new city of Hamilton found 20.8 per cent opposed to the expressway, 13.8 per cent undecided and 6.3 per cent indifferent to the massive project.
But the three-to-one margin of public support for the roadway may be skewed at the polls on election day, officials behind the survey fear.
The poll shows 74 per cent of people against the expressway plan to translate their passion into votes Nov. 10. Only 54.4 per cent of people in favour of the roadway intend to make it part of which candidate they support.
Chamber president Ed Fothergill says that means anti-expressway forces, although in the minority, could have a disproportionate influence on who gets elected to council and as mayor.
"The group that's opposed, if they can muster more turnout at the polls, all of a sudden their influence is much greater than what the broader community feels," Fothergill said yesterday.
To Bill Cottrell, a Ward 7 council candidate who opposes Red Hill, "that's just the way democracy works.
"The person with the most votes wins," he said. "I'm hopeful there's enough passion out there for saving the valley to motivate people to vote."
But groups behind the $6,400 poll -- including the Get Hamilton Moving Task Force -- are worried that pro-expressway supporters won't even vote.
Mayoralty candidate Larry Di Ianni shares the concern, saying it would obviously be easy for anti-expressway voters to find candidates for both council and mayor. Mayoralty candidate Dave Christopherson is against the roadway, and there are anti-expressway candidates in virtually every ward.
Christopherson said yesterday he is not sure the poll reflects completely the current politics of Hamilton, saying his take is that more issues than the expressway are influencing votes.
"It's no surprise we're a divided community on this issue," Christopherson says. "But my own experience tells me the overwhelming majority of people are not making the expressway their only determinant on who to vote for."
But Di Ianni, who has been campaigning on the right to say "No" to "noisy special interests," says people who support the roadway should vote.
"The anti forces, even though they're in the vast minority in this community, are determined to stop it," he said. "I'm calling on the pro forces to help reflect the democratic will of this community, because the road is in danger if the wrong people get in."
The poll was done between Oct. 9 and 21 by Hendershot Research Consultants, with a margin of error of five percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The survey is based on telephone interviews with 285 randomly selected residents of the old city of Hamilton and 115 from suburban Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, Flamborough and Glanbrook.
Fothergill said the chamber and pro-expressway task force commissioned the survey because "the opposition has been basing too much of what they're saying on emotion instead of fact."
"We wanted people to understand that Hamiltonians do support this."
A poll is a snapshot of how a limited number of people thought about an issue at a particular moment in time. Pollster John Wright of Ipsos-Reid said it is usually difficult to say at this point whether an issue like Red Hill has become the pivotal issue in a campaign.
"The Chamber is correct that strong feelings in the opposition are going to motivate them to vote," he said.
"But one has to also think that if taxpayers, property owners, people who drive cars and others believe this is the right thing, that is an incentive too."
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Will tree-cutting swing any votes?
Lee Prokaska, The Hamilton Spectator, Editorial, Saturday, November 1, 2003
We commend the officers of Hamilton's police service for their behaviour in the Red Hill Valley.
Those officers are dealing with a potentially volatile situation in a circumspect and restrained manner. They were called upon -- finally -- this week to begin enforcing the Sept. 12 injunction order which prohibits anyone from interfering with construction along the eight-kilometre route of the $220-million Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Twice this week, protesters chained themselves to trees and swarmed around workers, stopping them from cutting the first of about 40,000 trees that will come down to make way for the expressway through the valley. The city's construction plan includes planting five trees for each one cut in the valley.
That the protesters have been removed and the tree-cutting started without major conflict is a tribute to the way in which our police officers have carried out their duties. A group of protesters remains in the lower part of the valley where natives built a long house two months ago.
We are disturbed, though, by the rhetoric coming from some protesters, including the idea that there is a "red alert" at Six Nations and that natives from across Canada and the United States are poised to come and block the expressway. We strongly believe this approach is counter-productive to ongoing negotiations between the city and hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Some expressway opponents see the tree-cutting as a pivotal pre-election event, one that will galvanize voters to oppose the expressway. We certainly view the expressway as a key election issue, but we're not convinced the tree-cutting will increase opposition.
A poll released yesterday indicates majority support for the expressway among Hamilton residents. The poll, commissioned by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and conducted by Hendershot Research Associates, found 59.3 per cent of those polled favour the expressway, while 20.8 per cent of those polled oppose it.
One can't predict with certainty how that will impact the Nov. 10 vote. As a newspaper we support the expressway, so we're hoping those who favour it will get out and vote for pro-expressway candidates.
Regardless, we see the poll results as an affirmation of the city's decision to get moving on the road through the valley.
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Shredded ticket for trespassing fuels fire of resistance
James Elliott, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, October 31, 2003
Trevor's dark eyes water. Whether it's the smoke from the greenwood fire or the trauma of his arrest a few hours earlier, it's hard to say.
He's not supposed to be here in the Red Hill Valley. When he was released by police, he was told to stay away from the posted areas. But he's come back to the tarp town in the valley because he believes the police haven't the authority to keep him out.
He's small and round, 5-foot-2 and 170 pounds, a Mohawk from the Grand River. He's 35 and keeping his second name to himself.
He's sitting in the smoky plastic roundhouse where the sacred fire has been burning since the occupation began in mid-August to protest the expressway. Trevor recalls what he can of the blur of events that unfolded yesterday morning, when he and other protesters encountered the logging crew.
"There was no yelling. We told them the land did not belong to them, that it's Six Nations land."
He says he was confronted by a man in street clothes who flashed a badge.
"I told him his badge had no jurisdiction on Indian land. 'What you're doing is illegal.'"
The loggers then retreated and uniformed police moved in. Trevor says he was asked, "Are you going to leave?"
"We don't have to leave. This land still belongs to the Six Nations."
"You are trespassing, you're under arrest." A struggle ensued -- "I wasn't going to stand there and let them handcuff me, we're not doing anything wrong" -- and Trevor found himself face down on the ground under two cops, one of them saying not to resist arrest.
A quick trip to the police vans and processing at the police station and he's back in the valley with the trespassing ticket he was issued torn into several pieces in his hand. Will he heed the police warning to avoid the valley on pain of jail?
"I ain't saying. I might leave, I might stay. I don't see why I have to leave." And with that, he's off to the longhouse to feed the remains of his trespassing ticket to the wood stove.
Outside, Glen Atwell, the Dofasco crane operator who has become an unofficial go-between for media and the native protesters, says yesterday's police action to clear protesters is going to give the city a black eye.
"Halifax lost 20,000 trees (to a hurricane) and they call it a disaster. In Hamilton they're going to cut 40,000 trees and they call it progress. This (arresting protesters) is going to tear this community apart."
He said if the current protesters -- "kids and old ladies" -- are driven off, the people that replace them "won't be nice ... they'll be people with pasts."
People like the Warrior's Society?
"I can't say that."
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Police Clear Red Hill Protest

Cops arrest four and disperse dozens of others as sheriff enforces injunction and clears the way for loggers
By Paul Legall The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, October 31, 2003
Two men were dragged away kicking and screaming yesterday as police cleared the scene of a Red Hill Creek Expressway protest.
And a middle-aged man was stopped as he attempted to nail his hand to a tree marked for cutting.
Three men and a woman were charged with trespassing and breaching an injunction that prohibits anybody from interfering with the $220 million project.
Construction workers also began the task of cutting down mature maple trees.
The escarpment-face tree cutting is a significant blow to a sensitive section of the Red Hill Valley.
It's also a tangible sign highway construction is under way.
By the end of the day, police had cleared dozens of protesters from the construction corridor.
They also ordered the removal of a tepee and small camp that had been a rallying point for expressway opponents.
Superintendent Ken Leendertse said police will return today to remove those who trespass on the escarpment face.
But he said there are no plans to remove protesters from the lower part of the valley where natives built a longhouse two months ago.
The protesters twice stopped workers from cutting by chaining themselves to trees and swarming around them.
The only person left behind yesterday was a masked man on a platform in a tree about 12 metres above the ground.
Although technically breaching the injunction, police said it was unsafe to try to bring him down. Police hope he'll leave when he runs out of food and water.
Other protesters had kept him supplied but there is nobody left to tend his life-line.
Despite yesterday's defeat, some opponents like Donna Powless vowed to keep on fighting.
"All of our people are on red alert at Six Nations," Powless said as she argued with police and an officer from the sheriff's office who had just read the injunction to almost two dozen protesters milling about the valley.
She suggested white authorities were trespassing on native land and her right to be there was protected by Crown treaties.
"The court order does not apply to Six Nations people. We have treaties," she said.
She warned that natives from several Indian nations in Canada and the United States would come to defend the land and block the expressway.
The expressway opponents hurled taunts and invective at about a dozen uniformed police who remained silent until they waded in and made the first arrest at about 9 a.m.
The first person they took away -- a 35-year-old native called Trevor -- screamed and protested as they handcuffed him and put him in a van parked along the valley. An 18-year-old native offered no resistance when taken away minutes later.
But a 58-year-old non-native man -- who had been taunting police for several minutes -- protested vehemently when officers pushed him face down to the ground and handcuffed his hands behind his back.
"Get off of me, you traitors, you traitors ..." he shouted at the top of his lungs.
A few metres away, police found a bearded man, also in his 50s, holding his hand against a tree and trying to drive a nail through his hand with a rock. He drew a trickle of blood but was stopped by police before he could do himself further harm.
He then left peacefully with the rest of the protesters.
A 49-year-old woman was arrested and charged because she refused to leave after the teepee and camp had been dismantled.
All were released after being issued provincial offence notices. None have been named.
John Bacher, 48, a writer and environmental activist from St. Catharines, came to the valley prepared to be arrested. He was carrying a rosary consisting of a braided red cord with knots for beads and a small wooden cross, when a group of officers surrounded him and escorted him out of the valley. He said the religious artifact gave him the courage to face the authorities. He wasn't charged.
Bacher was still clutching the rosary -- which had a medal of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes -- shortly before 10 a.m. when the chainsaws started buzzing and the first maple came down with a resounding crash. He chanted a mournful native song as the trees started toppling like bowling pins.
"It's a sacred chant to have the people more connected to the earth, the basis of native spirituality," the mild-mannered protester said.
Mary Bohaychuk said she was saddened and "deeply wounded" to see the old trees being destroyed.
"Shame on you," she shouted from a clearing on the edge of the valley. "Does your mother know what you're doing? At least ask for permission from the tree."
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Unkindest cuts of all

Red Hill Valley trees continue to come down -- despite protests
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, October 31, 2003
The chainsaws roar again today in the stand of mature maple, oak and black walnut trees treasured most by those who love the Red Hill Valley.
And police are set to continue enforcing the court injunction barring the protesters who are trying to stop the tree-cutting and $220 million expressway slicing through the valley.
Some see the tide of events of this week as a turning point in the decades-old battle to stop the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
"It signals that the time for the fight is over," says Ed Fothergill.
"It's time to move on," says the president of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, which is championing the building of the north-south link to the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway.
"Some people may think the city is acting like thugs but it has shown remarkable patience and restraint for those flouting the law," he said.
Others don't see it that way.
Don McLean, head of the Friends of Red Hill Valley, says the tide can turn one of two ways. The election of anti-expressway candidates in the Nov. 10 municipal election could still change the "outrageous" actions of the current council.
"Or we have to give up because the trees have been cut down," he says.
The cutting of about 40,000 trees has only just started and he and others are focussed on electing those anti-expressway candidates.
"The cutting is a serious assault on the valley and the escarpment face but (it is) only a small portion of what they are planning," he says.
"It will be a scar but will grow back if the project is stopped Nov. 10."
McLean says he worries most that the city could blunder into a serious conflict with natives when it attempts to clear First Nations protesters at a Greenhill Avenue construction site lower in the valley.
Traditional Chief Arnold General, of the Iroquois Confederacy, has been the inspirational voice for those native protesters camped out in the valley.
He's "saddened by the deranged political minds" intent on ignoring native rights in the valley and destroying the ecological habitat of animals and the forest of trees that purify Hamilton's air.
"We're all going to die but I guess we want it to be sooner rather than later," he says.
All is not lost for the valley, however, because native spirits will come to its aid, he says.
The traditional burning of tobacco to call those spirits was carried out Tuesday.
And a native seer has told him "there will be problems in the valley," he warned.
Chris Murray, the city's expressway project manager, says workers will continue clearing the 350 trees (mostly maple and greater than 5 centimetres) now marked for cutting near Mount Albion Road.
Trees marked for cutting will be removed all the way to Barton Street as soon as two contracts for additional cutting are finalized.
Blasting of the escarpment face for expressway construction will likely not start until the new year.
Work at the Greenhill Avenue site where the native camp has blocked bridge construction is to be restarted.
Discussions on the timing are now under way.
Officials from the provincial sheriff's office and police will decide how and when the site is cleared of protesters, Murray said.
Weekly meetings with two negotiators for the hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy are continuing with "positive prospects."
And it is hoped that native protesters will be convinced to leave the valley.
The city and negotiators are working on a co-operative stewardship agreement for the valley that should see centuries-old native rights placed in a modern-day context, Murray said.
McLean says the current cutting is an "act of desperation" before the municipal election by pro-expressway politicians.
Jason Thorne, executive director of the watchdog Coalition of the Niagara Escarpment, says the area now being cut is "critical" because of its mature trees and wildlife corridor.
"But until there is pavement on the ground, there's hope," he said.
"Trees can grow back if it is stopped in time."
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Sheriff cleared to oust valley protesters

'She'll do what she has to do,' says mayor after council OKs enforcement of injunction
Cheryl Stepan, The Hamilton Spectator, Oct. 30
The city has taken the final step needed to start clearing anti-expressway protesters out of the Red Hill Valley to begin road construction -- a move the mayor is anxiously awaiting.
Yesterday, city officials gave the sheriff the authority to enforce a court injunction against protesters who have been camped out in the valley for months in an effort to stop construction of the $220-million expressway project.
Mayor Bob Wade said the decision on when to crack down on protesters now lies with the sheriff, a provincial official charged with enforcing the court order. He couldn't say when authorities would act.
"It's (the sheriff's) call in terms of when that happens... she'll do what she has to do to ensure that people are moved out of the valley," Wade said yesterday. "The sooner the better. We've got a road to build. The clock is ticking. I'm anxious to get on with it."
Brendan Crawley, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General which oversees the sheriff's office, said he would not comment on the injunction or when it would be enforced. "We never comment on actual enforcement actions."
Some of the protesters on the site have said they have no intention of moving, no matter what happens with the injunction that bars them from the valley. Among the protesters is a group of natives who say their rights to the land are enshrined in a 300-year-old treaty.
Chief Arnold General said he was worried about what would happen if the sheriff moved in.
"I'd hate to see a confrontation," he said. "When you start pushing people around, they start pushing back. I don't fully know what (the protesters) are going to do. They're trying to preserve that area."
The injunction prohibits anyone from interfering with construction along the eight-kilometre expressway route and specifically bans trespassing at the Greenhill site, where a group of native and non-native protesters are camped out in a wooden longhouse, tending a sacred fire. A judge issued the injunction in September, but city officials have been slow to enforce it as they work through negotiations with some of the protesters. Wade said they are still involved in discussions with negotiators for hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy over land claims in the valley.
"They have been going very well," he said of the talks.
City manager Bob Robertson said the discussions could have an impact on the sheriff's decision to enforce the injunction. But he said they can't wait forever to get going on the project.
Robertson added the negotiations focus on what will happen after the highway is built, such as who will be in charge of planting indigenous trees and protocol surrounding the excavation of ancestral burial sites.
Construction crews spent yesterday clearing trees for the detour from Mud Street to Mount Albion Road. Weather permitting, they will begin cutting trees on the face of the escarpment today -- a move that is seen as significant because the trees are mature and valuable.
On Tuesday, three people were charged with trespassing for trying to put a stop to tree clearing -- a police decision unconnected to the injunction. Hamilton police Superintendent Ken Leendertse said police were not called to help resolve any problems yesterday. He said police have had discussions with the sheriff, and are prepared to move in and help her office enforce the injunction when she gives the word. "It's the sheriff's call when the sheriff actually enforces that," he said.
Wade said he's not concerned the situation in the valley will escalate if the sheriff moves in.
"They have no right to be there," Wade said. "I'm hoping these are responsible and reasonable people and there will be no need for things to escalate. The road will be built -- that's my very strong opinion -- and we'll find a way to do it."
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Natives 'remove' court order
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, October 30, 2003
Expressway opponents remained upbeat and defiant yesterday as Mayor Bob Wade asked that an injunction barring protesters from the valley be enforced.
Two members of the Six Nations Reserve showed their contempt for the court order by cutting down a large plywood board where the city had posted a copy of the court order on the Bruce Trail off Mount Albion Road.
"They didn't have our permission to put it on our land. That's the bottom line," said Clive Darlow, who helped a fellow native "Hadocsay" to cut down the board with a small Swede saw.
With television cameras rolling, they threw the sign down at the side of the highway where it remained face down for the rest of the day.
A former long distance truck driver, Darlow said he came to deliver a message from Six Nations Confederacy Chief Arnold General, who was too sick to be there himself.
"Stand fast, keep the faith, you are doing the right thing. He wishes he could be here himself," he told a large group of native and non-native expressway opponents gathered beside a teepee at the edge of the Red Hill Valley.
Darlow said General -- who is one of seven hereditary chiefs -- won't negotiate with the municipal or provincial government and would only discuss the fate of the Red Hill Valley with Ottawa. General believes the land still belongs to the Confederacy because it was never surrendered to the Crown in any treaty.
From the Bruce Trail, Darlow had a clear view of the valley where protesters twice stopped workers from cutting mature maple trees this week.
Construction crews have since cleared one of those sites.
During his speech, Darlow pulled out a pair of handcuffs as he decried the destruction of the forest. He said he would cuff himself to a tree and go to jail if necessary.
Darlow considers all forms of life in the valley to be sacred and imbued with the spirit of his ancestors, whom he called "the old ones."
Darlow told protesters he felt an urgency in delivering General's message because of the injunction. The order gives the authorities the right to remove protesters interfering with the construction of the $220-million expressway.
"Today is crunch day," he told valley activists.
Red Hill project manager Chris Murray had stated he was sending workers back to the face of the escarpment yesterday morning.
Dozens of protesters gathered around a teepee on the site. As it turned out, however, the sheriff or the woodcutters didn't show up and the expected confrontation never materialized.
Dozens of people of all ages congregated around a nearby teepee that has served as a staging area for protesters.
But the workers never showed up, returning instead to the route of the Mount Albion Road detour to finish work there.
Until yesterday, there was a Mohawk Warriors Society flag flying near the teepee. But it was taken down and replaced by a native "friendship flag."
Some natives said they considered the Warriors flag too confrontational because it conjured images of war and violence.
Nobody was chained to trees yesterday. But one bold man -- who covered his face and called himself "the tree sitter" -- spent the day on a small platform on a large maple at least 12 metres above the ground. He said he plans to stay up there until Hamilton city council holds a referendum on the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
As form of protest, he believes tree sitting is more effective than chaining yourself to the base of a tree.
"It takes a cop two minutes to cut you from a tree and throw you in the clink," he said from his perch.
"I don't think they (police) want to risk the danger of climbing 100 feet up," he added.
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Red Hill critics say halt work until vote
Chinta Puxley, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Opponents of the Red Hill Creek Expressway say the city's decision to start construction two weeks before voters go to the polls undermines the municipal election.
Whether the city proceeds with the construction of the contentious highway is a key election issue.
Anti-expressway candidates are running in virtually every city ward and the two main mayoral candidates are on opposite sides of the issue. Many observers say the election is an informal referendum on the expressway.
That's why Don McLean, chair of Friends of the Red Hill Valley, said the city should have waited at least until after the election before it started cutting down trees. "It threatens the integrity of the election."
Protesters chained themselves to trees Monday to stop construction. Councillors have given the mayor and senior staff the go-ahead to enforce a court injunction barring trespassers.
A decision to do that had not been made last night.
Opponents of the expressway say the city's decision has pushed the issue to the fore. Bill Cottrell, the only anti-expressway candidate in Ward 7, said many people he's talked to at the doors are hinging their vote on the highway.
"It's the number one issue," he said. "It has polarized the community. This election will decide the fate of the valley. It's the valley's last stand."
Cottrell said if people elect another pro-expressway council, so be it. "They should let democracy speak."
Brian McHattie, the lone anti-expressway candidate in Ward 1, said he expects the city's action will motivate voters on either side of the issue.
Even though Ward 1 is on the opposite side of the city, McHattie said people feel strongly about its construction. Some say the expressway is not the number one election issue -- people are more concerned with high property taxes and quality of life.
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Protesters Digging In

Red Hill Valley Expressway opponents brace for a confrontation with the city
Paul Legall, The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton Spectator, October 29, 2003
Both sides in the battle over the Red Hill Valley braced for a confrontation this morning as protesters vowed to stand their ground against workers ordered to complete tree-cutting on the face of the escarpment.
"I think (today) is going to be a pretty critical day," said Dave Heatley last night, standing at the top of the valley next to a teepee that was erected in anticipation of a long blockade.
Heatley, who has joined a group of mostly native opponents, expects the city to enforce a court order that prohibits anyone from interfering with construction of the highway. If that happens, he will not budge.
"I won't climb a tree, I won't run. (The city) knows we're in the right, so why should I run?"
Three protesters from a non-native group -- two of them men -- were charged with trespassing yesterday for trying to stop tree cutting in a section of the expressway project.
The woman was charged and then arrested for breach of probation on another matter.
Hamilton police Superintendent Ken Leendertse said police moved in because protesters were interfering with workers who were clearing trees for the detour from Mud Street to Mount Albion Road.
"They (two male protesters) were dodging in and out of chainsaws. They put themselves at risk and they put the workers at risk," Leendertse said.
Two others left when asked by police.
Police declined to name those arrested. They face a $70 fine under the Trespass to Property Act.
But another group of activists at the top of the valley -- including a man perched in a tree -- silenced the chainsaws for the second day on the escarpment face where workmen attempted to clear ground for the route.
The city will send the crews back into the valley today to try to finish the job. It is an area where large numbers of expressway opponents have been congregating.
"We want to clear out the escarpment face," said the city's Red Hill expressway project manager Chris Murray.
Leendertse said workers with W. A. Laflamme Ltd. decided to leave without cutting any trees after they were surrounded by 18 protesters at about 1 p.m. Unlike Monday, none of the protesters chained themselves to trees. But an agile young man climbed to a branch about 12 metres above the ground when police arrived. Nobody attempted to get him down.
"The workers decided it wasn't safe to continue," said Leendertse.
He said police watched the confrontation at the escarpment face but didn't charge any of the protesters.
He said the trespassing charges have nothing to do with the enforcement of a court injunction the city of Hamilton obtained in September. The order makes it illegal for the protesters to be on the site and interfere with construction of the $220 million project.
He said police have no authority to enforce the injunction on their own. But they will assist if the city instructs the sheriff's department to enforce the order.
Don McLean, chair of Friends of Red Hill Valley, said it will be a key development if the city begins cutting down trees today on the face of the Niagara Escarpment.
"It's a prime section of forest in the valley," he said. "It's a small portion of the valley and it may be a small number of trees ... but I think it's a significant step." McLean said it also signals more work to come, which will bring more damage to the escarpment.
Murray said workers from Dufferin Construction completed the tree cutting on the detour right-of-way yesterday.
He said the W.A. Laflamme workers will be back on the escarpment face again today and attempt to fell the maple trees, which have been marked with large orange X's.
Murray said the mayor and other city officials were to meet yesterday to decide whether the injunction should be used to remove the protesters.
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Stoking the sacred fire for the valley

Supporters supply wood, food and supplies to the Fire Keepers of Red Hill
Susan Clairmont, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
They call themselves the Fire Keepers.
For more than two months they have kept the sacred fire burning. They tend it. Protect it. Sleep by it.
It, and the trees that surround it, have become their life.
One Fire Keeper is a thin man wearing a dirty green sweater, brown trousers and bright orange shoes. He is quiet. Careful. He doesn't want to give his name because "they'll know me," he says cryptically.
The other is Michael Hampson. He is steering his electric wheelchair through the mud of the Red Hill Valley. His small brown dog, ironically named Freeway, is close behind.
Hampson is neither quiet, nor careful. He describes himself as a "born again, dead head, Christian peaceful warrior."
Neither man is native. But both have been given the great honour of keeping the fire that burns at the base of the controversial valley. They are among the vocal, dedicated, earnest group of protesters or protectors -- depending who you ask -- who want the construction of the Red Hill Expressway to stop.
Since Aug. 11, members of the Six Nations and dozens of non-native supporters have camped here in the valley. They believe the land belongs to natives. People come and go, leaving to care for their families, do their jobs, have a shower. But someone is always here, in this small encampment on the forest floor.
It's midday. Not too cold. The air is thick with the earthy smell of fallen leaves. A few hours ago, police ticketed protesters for trespassing at the top of the valley. The mood here now at the fire is subdued. Tense.
The fire crackles inside a "round house" about 15 feet in diameter across its dirt floor. It is a sturdy but unattractive collection of posts, tarps and tree branches. At the edges of the smokey house are lawnchairs. Lots of blankets. At the centre are four wooden posts. That is an important number in the native culture. It represents the four seasons, four directions, four races.
Supporters bring firewood to the valley regularly to keep the sacred fire burning.
The explanation of the fire comes from a most unlikely source. Up a short path that leads to the camp tramps Superintendent Ken Leendertse of the Hamilton police. He is wearing jeans. Sturdy shoes. A sweater emblazoned with the police crest.
He comes here at least once a week. Has for months. Has had meetings in the makeshift longhouse that has been erected. Greets everyone -- even Freeway -- by name.
Red Hill is in Leendertse's division. He has had to learn a great deal about native culture, politics and the law as it applies to civil disobedience.
When and if he has to, he will enforce the law.
"It's been a journey for us too," he says. "There's been a lot of learning and a lot of teaching going on."
Leendertse has been a keen student. Eloquently and accurately he explains the flames flickering in the valley.
"It's a sacred fire that's burned to calm the spirits of the forefathers and helps resolve conflict. It burns until the conflict is resolved."
The Fire Keepers nod their approval.
Leendertse has even gone so far as to make tentative plans for the day when the sacred fire will have to be "closed." Only the eight natives who built the fire last summer can put it out.
Michael wheels himself into the longhouse. It is 800 square feet and made of plywood, plastic sheeting and canvas tarps.
Inside, a wood stove provides warmth. Old rose-coloured rugs cover the wooden slat floor. A white cat is curled up on a green couch. Sprawled beside her is a young boy, listening to his Discman.
There's a crude wooden bunk in a corner. A table loaded with food: margarine, a 50 pound bag of carrots, jugs of water, homemade jam. At Thanksgiving, 150 people ate here.
Sitting near the stove, holding a feather, is Glen Atwell. He provides some of the leadership here. He operates a crane at Dofasco. Has a child in university, another in college. He is part Mohegan, a tribe that lives in Connecticut. And he is fed up with a lot of things.
He's fed up with the media's coverage of Red Hill. He's fed up with city council. He's fed up being David to the political Goliath.
"We've got little bingo dabber ladies chained to trees," he says.
As he speaks, a young man named John Buffalo Shield silently smudges the longhouse with sweet grass. A Jewish man wears a yarmulke and paces across the rugs. He too is part of this unlikely group of protectors.
At that moment a man rushes into the longhouse. He is sweaty. Out of breath. They've started cutting again," he gasps.
The protectors spring into action.
Add it up, and anti-expressway candidates have a chance
Andrew Dreschel, (Columnist)The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, October 29, 2003
They're chaining themselves to trees. They're being dragged off by cops.
Yep, the adolescent shenanigans to get in the way of finishing the freeway are in full swing. But let's get serious about what it's really going to take to stop the Red Hill Valley Expressway from being completed.
To elevate the argument from the theatrical to the practical, expressway opponents need to elect some new city councillors on Nov. 10. A whole mess of new councillors.
There are only four anti-expressway votes among the 16 members who make up the current council -- Andrea Horwath, Margaret McCarthy, Dave Braden and Russ Powers.
Let's assume those flesh pressers are re-elected or are replaced by like-minded newcomers. That's the core of resistance that needs to be expanded on. Exactly how many more votes are needed to make more than a symbolic difference?
City clerk Kevin Christenson has looked into the rules and procedures governing council and has come up with a key interpretation -- a simple majority wins.
That's important because it means the incoming council is not bound by the same rules that govern the sitting council when it wants to reconsider a decision.
If those rules did apply, the new council would not only require a two-thirds majority to overturn the expressway decision -- that's 11 votes - but the motion would have to be moved and seconded by two councillors who voted with the majority when the plans first won council's approval.
That latter bar would be hard to jump since the expressway was first approved by the city and former regional government in 1979. Not even incumbents Tom Jackson or Bernie Morelli have been around that long.
No, Christenson will advise the chair that a motion calling for an end to the Red Hill project will require a simple democratic majority to be passed. Since a motion is lost on a tie, expressway opponents need to muster nine votes to stop construction.
Nine votes.
What are the chances of lining them up? Well, let's play the numbers game.
Let's assume that the core four opponents are returned. Now they need five more votes.
Let's assume anti-expressway mayoral candidate David Christopherson is elected. If so, he's promised to call a special council meeting to deal with it, to vote against it himself, and to try to convince other councillors to vote against it.
That's five votes. Four more to go.
Now Let's assume anti-expressway challenger Brian McHattie knocks off pro-road Ward 1 incumbent Marvin Caplan in the west-end. Caplan's in a tough fight. McHattie is coming on strong. Caplan could go down.
That's six. Three more to go.
Out in Ancaster's Ward 12, deamalgamation candidate Bryan Kerman is banging incumbent Murray Ferguson around pretty good. Kerman wants to stop the highway. Ferguson wants to build it.
Is there an upset in the making? For the sake of discussion, let's call it seven.
Two more to go.
There's no shortage of anti-expressway candidates to choose from across the wards. But flying the banner doesn't necessarily mean you're electable. For instance, Andrew Schroeder may be able to knock Ward 5 pro-road incumbent Chad Collins back on his heels in debate, but there's no way the spunky expressway foe will bring the popular Collins and his well-oiled political machine down at the polls.
But how about environmentalist Lynda Lukasik, who's facing off against incumbent Sam Merulla in east Hamilton's Ward 4? Her signs are everywhere and she's got a hard-working team behind her. Could she be No. 8?
If so, save the valley folks just need one more vote to realize their dream. Is someone else electable? Could Mayor Dave Christopherson, in full oratorical flight, convince a pro-road councillor to change his or her vote? I wouldn't bet against it. How about you?
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Christopherson will bow to Red Hill vote

If elected mayor, expressway opponent says he'll accept will of council
Eric McGuinness, Th