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CONTENTS:
- Consensus, not majority: Six Nations Mothers' objection to Red Hill deal shows Iroquois democracy at work (Forum Page, Hamilton Spectator, March 6, 2004)
- Artist's Red Hill photo elicits passionate response (Hamilton Spectator, March 3, 2004)
- Red Hill activist arrested after climbing debris pile (Hamilton Spectator, March 2, 2004)
- Will band council OK Red Hill deal? (Hamilton Spectator, February 27, 2004)
- Clan Mothers, Women, Veto City’s Negotiation Efforts on Red Hill (Hamilton IMC February 24, 2004)
- 'Sellout' Red Hill pact not valid, says native leader (Hamilton Spectator, February 24, 2004)
- Red Hill Deal for Natives: Untendered contract, spinoffs worth $6m in expressway pact (Hamilton Spectator, February 23, 2004)
- Red Hill arson causes damage over $250,000 (Hamilton Spectator, February 20, 2004)
- Timing of Red Hill project questioned: Councillors point to money crunch (Hamilton Spectator, January 31, 2004)
- Red Hill 'protester' really a cop: Activists say 'plant' tried to stir up trouble (Hamilton Spectator, January 29, 2004)
- Red Hill mounds not burial sites (Hamilton Spectator, January 29, 2004)
- Natives spearhead probe of mounds (Hamilton Spectator, January 14, 2004)
- Red Hill workers told to avoid mounds that may be native burial sites (Hamilton Spectator, January 8, 2004)
- A little levity at the levee as year starts: Mayor Di Ianni and citizens rub elbows and, for the most part, exchange good wishes (Hamilton Spectator, Monday, January 5, 2004)
- Are mounds in Red Hill sacred? Natives believe four large mounds in path of the proposed highway are ossuaries (Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, January 3, 2004)
- Cutting trees may also trim Red Hill wildlife: But city says a viaduct will help animals cross highway
- Red Hill Valley protesters hold Christmas vigil: 'Spirit still alive.' Optimistic to the end, they enjoy peaceful stroll under stars (Hamilton Spectator, Monday, December 22, 2003
Consensus, not majority
Six Nations Mothers' objection to Red Hill deal shows Iroquois democracy at work
By T'hohahoken, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, March 6, 2004, ForumMost of the Canadian and U.S. students who I teach generally have little awareness of indigenous peoples. To these students, the lengthy practice of treaties and colonization seems like science fiction episodes from Star Trek. Therefore, I oblige them with appropriate examples.
To demonstrate colonization, I use Star Trek's Borg credo. "We shall add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own," say the Borg, a creature that is part machine and part human. "Your culture will be made to serve our culture ... resistance is futile."
Colonizers do that to the colonized, as we the colonized know all too well.
To describe treaties, I offer the fictional United Federation of Planets' "prime directive" of non-interference. The "prime directive" copies international mutual aid-mutual defence treaty principles, such as those found in the Two Row Wampum Treaty: "You stay in your boat. We'll stay in our canoe."
My students generally get the metaphor, although I have been dismayed by the lack of enthusiasm to learn what went on in the Americas. Unfortunately, explaining how Iroquois people govern their affairs has no easy metaphor. The Star Trek world accepts top-down leadership, from higher ranks to the lower ranks. Diversity is stratified.
I wasn't surprised by the bewilderment of one of my Law and Security students early in the semester regarding the Red Hill Creek Expressway debate.
"Why can't your people agree on anything?" she asked. "You either want the deal or don't want the deal. What's the problem?"
As usual, I said to my student "That's a good question ... what did you have in mind?"
The answer from this young woman, so steeped in democracy based on majority rule, was plain enough. "Why don't you just vote on it or something?"
Like my vexed student, Hamilton's politicians used the Red Hill Creek Expressway project to engage in a dialogue Iroquois democracy by immersing themselves in Six Nations' politics.
One Hamilton councillor described Six Nations' politics "as internal to their process." This seemingly small point made during Hamilton's Feb. 24 city council meeting recognizes the underwater volcano of Iroquois democracy.
The media reported the City of Hamilton and the Iroquois people had 10 agreements that cleared the way for the Red Hill Creek Expressway. The agreements contain compromises that give give the city the right to build the expressway in exchange for supply and service contracts for Six Nations agencies.
Both non-native architects of the deal, lawyer Paul Williams and expressway project director Chris Murray, were adamant the deal was not a treaty. However, both agents represented the deal as one which "resolved issues" pertaining to burial grounds, culturally sensitive sites, environmental protection, cultural education and hunting and fishing rights.
One critical issue they carefully failed to mention was that the agreements could be used in court as evidence the c ity consulted the Iroquois. The "consultation," they hope, helps the city "justify" its gross infringement of the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 in the Crown's courts.
Murray and Williams negotiated a field-of-dreams agreement between one faction from Six Nations and the city. As has happened many times before in Canada's dealings with "Indians", Crown change agents would coerce, threaten, and swarm the colonized -- offering seductive promises while using rushed and exclusive processes. Once approved, the deal would be done.
When city council was told that four agreeable Six Nations people approved the agreements in January 2004, it seemed any future resistance would be futile.
However during the Feb. 24 meeting, Six Nations' Mothers issued a cease and desist order that stops any agreement between the city and the Six Nations.
The effect of the Mothers' intervention should not be lost on careful observers of indigenous process. In areas of authority, indigenous mothers have, (among others things) pre-emptive rights concerning land. In this case, the Mothers agree with the peoples' objections to the expressway, an objection that followed the August 2003 claim to the valley by Six Nations' delegates to the Red Hill dispute.
Now, add the Six Nations band council to the disagreement after they backed up the Iroquois People last August. Everyone knows Canada overthrew the Iroquois government in 1924 and replaced it with the band council. Currently, band council monitors the municipality's negotiations with the local native people, a customary role for Canada's Indian Agents. Strangely, this means that the city is negotiating with a group Canada itself deemed illegal in 1924.
The careless observer sees Six Nations' disagreement as confusion and discord. In reality, the dramatic intervention by the Mothers in agreement with the People demonstrates that Iroquois democracy is working.
Thus, the Red Hill agreements have not been ratified by the three necessary areas of consent-- the chiefs, the Mothers, and the People. Fortunately, what seems to be disagreement and discord actually demonstrates the health and vitality of the Iroquois nation.
Iroquois democracy, based on consensus building and not majority rule, demonstrates this vital principle that liberal democracies should find useful -- democracy at work is a process, not an end.
T'hohahoken lives in Ohsweken. He teaches indigenous studies at Mohwk College and elsewhere in in Canada and the U.S. and has a Ph.D. from Cornell University. His views are his own.
Artist's Red Hill photo elicits passionate response
By Elaine Hujer, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Cees Van Gemerden This photograph of a clearcut in the Red Hill Valley serves as a signpost of concern for conservationists.
Cees van Gemerden: Down in the Valley, You Me Gallery, 330 James St. N., 905-523-7754 Until Mar. 21
It's an arresting image -- and one that almost got the photographer arrested. Cees van Gemerden's huge, 7 by 6 foot, back-lit photograph of a clearcut in the Red Hill Valley stands in the window of the You Me Gallery where it serves both as a signpost for the show inside and as a totemic signifier for an artist who has been an environmental activist since the 1960s.
A native of the Netherlands, van Gemerden moved to Canada in 1966, "looking for space." The well-known member of Hamilton's artistic community makes his living documenting artists' work. Since the early 1990s, he has been involved with the Friends of the Red Hill Valley, a group opposed to the construction of the Red Hill Creek Expressway.
Van Gemerden's photograph forms part of Down in the Valley, a memorial and documentary record of the Red Hill Valley, which also includes work by more than 15 local artists. The photograph was taken in November, 2003, near Mud Street at the top of the valley, just prior to the arrest of Rev. Paddy Doran, an Anglican priest who was protesting the cutting of the trees prior to the civic election.
The finely focused, documentary style of the image with its meticulous attention to detail and clarity in terms of light, colour and space suggest the straightforward objectivity of the neutral, press photograph.
There is no overt, "agit-prop" persuasion. But the unembellished view of purposeful devastation cannot help but elicit a passionate emotional response.
The artist says, "I don't want to seem entirely negative. I live in the North End and there are wonderful things going on in Hamilton. I just want to repeat: If we stopped construction of the expressway right now, it would only take 10 to 20 years to bring the valley back to the way it was."
Red Hill activist arrested after climbing debris pile
A 62-year-old anti-expressway activist was arrested in the Red Hill Valley yesterday when he climbed atop a large pile of wood chips at a tree grinding machine.
David Field was charged with trespassing and will appear for a bail hearing this morning. A police spokesman says bail will be opposed.
Word spread among expressway opponents on the weekend that Field was planning some form of deliberate protest to highlight the continued opposition to expressway work.
Field, known as "Santa Dave" among protesters, has been active at various anti-expressway protests and demonstrations in past months.
He was charged with trespassing twice last fall when activists tried to block tree cutting and when police cleared a longhouse built in the valley.
Field reportedly tried to nail his hand to a tree at one of the earlier protests.
In past weeks, he has complained to the media that authorities are downplaying protests against the expressway by laying only trespassing charges and then withdrawing those charges against some demonstrators.
The city used the heavy hand of a court injunction to scare away most protesters but avoids laying the more serious charges of contempt of the court injunction to head off publicity about protests, he said.
Yesterday Field climbed onto the pile of wood debris being fed by a conveyor arm linked to a tree grinder. A construction site supervisor called police.
The police spokesman also said detectives now have a sense anti-expressway protesters were not involved in the Feb. 19 arson which destroyed a tree grinder worth more than $250,000 in the valley.
Lloyd Ferguson, general manager of Oakville-based Dufferin construction, said security has been increased at valley construction sites since the middle-of-the-night arson and cutting of fuel lines on another wood grinder.
The equipment belongs to a sub-contractor whose business future is now in jeopardy, he said,
Insurance does not cover the damage because the companies involved are self-insured and equipment damage "comes right off our profit."
Will band council OK Red Hill deal?
Hamilton's in an 'awkward' mess if the Six Nations elected council rejects agreements, says law professor
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, February 27, 2004The City of Hamilton may have ventured out of the woods but headed towards a swamp with the Red Hill Valley deal it negotiated with the traditional Confederacy Chiefs at Six Nations.
A lot hangs on whether the agreements will be accepted by elected Chief Roberta Jamieson and the 12-member Six Nation band council, recognized by Canada's Indian Act.
Law professor Michael Coyle, who stickhandled the months of negotiations between two Hamilton and two representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy, hopes the elected band council will approve it.
"It's in everybody's best interests if both of the major political leaderships at Six Nations support any agreement," says Coyle, an expert on aboriginal rights at the University of Western Ontario.
The city has banked on the agreements clearing away First Nations opposition to the Red Hill Creek Expressway being built through the valley where the Iroquois Confederacy, the traditional leadership of the Six Nations, claims treaty rights.
A law professor and authority on aboriginal affairs, however, says Hamilton will find itself in an "awkward" mess if the elected band council opposes or rejects the agreements.
Professor Brad Morse at the University of Ottawa says the value of the agreements will certainly be affected if the band council doesn't sign on.
But the agreements between Hamilton and Confederacy of the Six Nations also raise issues and questions about whether the traditional chiefs by themselves have the legal status or authority to reach any deal.
It's Jamieson's elected band council that has the recognized statutory authority to act for Six Nations and bind its community to agreements.
The traditional Confederacy longhouse government at Six Nations was forcibly deposed by the federal government 80 years ago, Morse points out.
That raises the question of whether the 10 agreements mean nothing more, legally, than a deal that Hamilton might reach with a neighbourhood residential association.
And if the Confederacy is a government, as it has claimed in arguments to international courts and in attempts to be recognized by the UN, what is it doing signing a deal with a municipal government that is just a creature of the province?
Or are there now two Six Nations governments that have the authority to make deals for, and binding on, its community?
Morse says although it's being made clear that the agreements are not treaties and not admissible in court, the political framework agreements can have a "profound impact" if honoured by the parties.
Morse, who has in the past acted for the Canadian government and for First Nations organizations, suspects that Jamieson and the band council may be reluctant to get involved in some of the thorny issues raised.
Hamilton council has not yet approved the agreements and they will come before the public works committee next month.
According to a spokesperson, Jamieson is ill with pneumonia and not available for comment.
Elected councillor Dave General, who oversees land and resources issues at Six Nations, has said it is unclear whether the agreements need band approval.
Jamieson is viewed as being in a tricky spot because the Confederacy government has a strong power base at Six Nations while the band council usually has to overcome voter apathy for support.
The Six Nations community is divided on the agreements and one Confederacy chief, Arnold General, has voiced his opposition, saying they undermine and infringe on historic treaty rights.
Chris Murray, the city's expressway project manager, says the question of whether the elected band council needs to validate or approve the agreements negotiated with the Confederacy is an issue that needs to be resolved by the elected band and the traditional chiefs.
Spokespersons at the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs and the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat say they view the agreements as a matter between Hamilton and Six Nations and they are not involved in the question of the validity of the deal.
Coyle, who facilitated the deal, says the agreements give Hamilton and the Six Nations means to consult on valley development and share in its economic opportunities.
'Sellout' Red Hill pact not valid, says native leader
Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday, February 24, 2004Aboriginal opponents of the Red Hill Creek Expressway deal reached between the traditional chiefs of the Six Nations and the city of Hamilton say it's a "sellout" and invalid.
The agreement, which includes a stewardship body of three native and three city representatives to make some decisions about the Red Hill Valley, is being brought before a city council committee this morning. Hamilton council will deal with it at a later date.
"It stinks," says traditional chief Arnie General of the Iroquois Confederacy Council.
Referring to the two negotiators, he added, "Two people can't sell the reserve."
General is the main aboriginal leader opposed to the expressway and says the agreements reached with some of the chiefs is not valid because it is unsigned, was drawn up by only two Six Nations negotiators and ignores the traditional consensus ways of decision-making.
General was absent from a meeting of chiefs in January where the agreement is said to have been ratified by six or seven chiefs.
The agreements have also raised questions among some city politicians about the economic partnership provisions of the deal, which give first call to some jobs and contracts to native contractors.
The elected Six Nations band council, headed by Chief Roberta Jamieson, has not taken a stand on the agreements.
But elected council member Dave General says the band has asked for clarification on some parts of the deal reached with the traditional chiefs.
He said the band council originally began the negotiations with the city but stepped back from the table when the Confederacy Chiefs became involved.
And it's not clear at this point whether the deal only becomes valid with elected band approval, he said.
"The first thing our council is going to ask for is a legal, financial and administrative vetting of the agreement," Councillor General said. "If we are not comfortable, there will be an official position on it."
Lawyer Paul Williams, who was one of the two negotiators for the traditional chiefs, says it's clear the chiefs authorized the negotiations and ratified the deal in January despite what opponents may say.
"When there is a signing ceremony, there will be proper people appointed to sign," Williams said.
Traditional Chief General and other opponents say the agreement attempts to infringe on historic treaty rights the natives claim in the valley. He hopes the deal will be repudiated, he said.
Some people are "seeing dollar signs" for jobs and other benefits and allowing that to decide the issue, the chief said.
Red Hill Deal for Natives
Untendered contract, spinoffs worth $6m in expressway pact
By Paul Morse, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, February 23, 2004Native businesses will get an untendered contract and other large-scale economic spinoffs worth $6 million as part of a tentative Red Hill expressway agreement between the city and Six Nations Haudenosaunee council.
"It could be more, it could be less," said Chris Murray, Red Hill project director for the city and one of the negotiators.
Murray said the deal -- which has yet to be approved by city council -- is not a treaty.
It commits the city and Confederacy to the agreement, but both sides agree it cannot be introduced in any legal battle over treaty rights.
"You'll notice that none of this is admissible in a court of law," said Murray.
"This is a set of documents that spell out how we are going to respect each other's traditions and work together ... dealing with what is obviously a difficult project."
Furthermore, while the deal draws heavily on native principles of environmental stewardship, it cannot be used to stop any future expansion of the expressway.
The city received approval to widen the currently planned four-lane highway to six lanes in the 1980s and the agreement "is not a veto," Murray said.
The untendered contract is part of a negotiated settlement between the city and the Haudenosaunee council of hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy, who claim to hold treaty rights to the Red Hill Valley.
Caledonia lawyer Paul Williams, who helped negotiate the agreement on behalf of the confederacy, said the chiefs have already approved the deal. He said it has been referred to the Six Nations elected council for review.
Elected Chief Roberta Jamieson could not be reached for comment last night.
Six Nations' elected band council, created by the Crown in the 1920s, does not hold any jurisdiction over the valley.
The deal, which was leaked on the Internet late last week, goes before the city's Expressway Implementation Committee tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. It will be presented to the public works committee soon.
Rather than fight over who has title to the valley, a ratified deal would create a joint city-native stewardship board to manage the Red Hill Valley, with three appointees from each side, headquartered at Six Nations' Grand River Territory offices.
The city will fund the board.
The joint board's first task will be to create a master plan, based in part on all existing plans, policies and laws that affect the valley. But the agreement states that Hamilton will hold specific authority and responsibility for the expressway and city streets in the valley.
The deal promises economic opportunities to natives in three areas: the replanting of the valley, cultural heritage and in work to realign the creek.
"Sure, it's giving a community an opportunity to help us with this project, but also to generate some opportunities for themselves that extend beyond this project," Murray said.
Natives will get an untendered contract worth around $1 million to work on the upper two kilometres of the Red Hill Creek as part of a $220-million expressway through the valley.
According to the deal, the sole-sourced contract will involve only the upper two kilometres which will not require dramatic realignment work with heavy equipment and significant capital outlays as will be required for the realignment of the lower seven kilometres of creek.
"I'm not happy ... this is indicative of back-room deals," said Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla over the weekend.
"I have some serious concerns about this," he said.
"It seems they've circumvented protocol in order to appease a group who claim to oppose (the expressway), who now seem to be benefitting from the contract."
The deal says the plants "will be acquired, grown, planted, monitored and maintained through a series of contracts between Hamilton and Haudenosaunee contractors."
Replanting and plant maintenance in the valley is expected to cost $12.6 million.
But the deal also says contracts for that work is up to the Transportation Ministry, and that the city and natives will "seek to have that ministry apply the partnership principles ... to those contracts."
Another part of the agreement stipulates municipally-owned King's Forest Golf Course must remain a golf course or some sort of green space. It does not preclude the city selling it to a private golf course operator.
Don McLean, of the Friends of the Red Hill Valley, questioned what real authority would be transferred to natives or a joint board if this deal is ratified.
"This is quite different from what we've heard from the city all along, which is that there aren't any aboriginal rights here."
McLean said the deal contains language that recognizes rights of the aboriginal people over the valley.
"But powers are given in general that almost always disappear at the specific level ... but at the end of the day, city council makes the final decision," he said.
If the deal gives real authority to natives, it tramples the rights of the city and citizens of Hamilton, McLean said.
On the other hand, if the deal proves little more than window dressing, then, "I can see someone looking at this from an aboriginal perspective saying this is beads and trinkets and there is nothing here of substance."
Councillor Andrea Horwath, Ward 2, said, on the face of it, she was comfortable with the negotiated agreement.
"I don't have a problem with partnering with the Haudenosaunee or anyone else for that matter in a joint stewardship project for the reforestation of the valley."
The city technically owns the land, so the deal is similar to working with neighbourhood groups to make parks thrive.
The other thing to keep in mind is that this is a great opportunity for Hamilton and Six Nations to learn how to build partnerships.
"We've been involved in environmental planning for some time, and they've been experiencing it," Murray said.
"Certainly the Mid-Peninsula (highway) is of interest to them and this is an opportunity to build some capacity to better understand road projects."
Red Hill arson causes damage over $250,000
The hunt is on for arsonists who torched and destroyed a $250,000 wood shredder and damaged other equipment being used to clear trees for the controversial Red Hill Creek Expressway.
A loud explosion was heard after 2 a.m. Wednesday and firefighters found the shredder engulfed in flames in the valley near King Street.
The damaged equipment was spray-painted with peace and tree symbols.
Fuel lines on a second shredder near Queenston Road were cut, causing $4,000 damage.
A burning flare thrown into a storage area damaged an excavator, causing $6,000 damage.
There have been a number of protests in the valley by expressway opponents and claims that construction will disturb possible native burial sites.
Detective-Sergeant Tom Andrew said Hamilton police believe the arsons are linked to expressway construction but that it would be unfair to point the finger at the regular, organized protesters who have kept watch on construction in the valley.
"It may be somebody who is not happy about the construction but I wouldn't want to attribute it to anybody," he said.
The protests may have been a nuisance, but were generally peaceful and police had a good relationship with organized demonstrators in the valley.
The tube grinder shredder at work in the valley north of King Street was a writeoff, said Marco Oddi, the city's senior project manager for the expressway.
Anti-expressway activist Dave Heatley said he visits the valley daily and others camp out there.
They'd heard about the damage and were reconciled to the fact they would probably be blamed.
"But I can guarantee you we didn't have anything to do with it," he said.
Police are asking anyone, including members of protest groups, with information about the arsons to call Crime Stoppers at 905-522-TIPS or detective Mike Cunliffe at 905-546-2933.
Timing of Red Hill project questioned
Councillors point to money crunch
By Eric McGuinness, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, January 31, 2004Councillors Brian McHattie and Dave Braden say looming job losses at Stelco, Slater Steel, Camco and other industries may so squeeze city finances that Hamilton should hold off or cancel plans to spend almost $90 million on the Red Hill Creek Expressway this year.
City manager Bob Robertson concedes that's one way council could ease its $83-million budget shortfall, but finance officials say it would have little immediate impact because the expressway money will be borrowed and paid back over time. Debt charges this year amount to only $1.7 million.
Nevertheless, the two expressway opponents say the darkening employment picture and uncertain prospects for industrial growth on the Mountain call into question the rationale for the road, which will take $139 million more to complete -- $75.6 million from city taxpayers and $63.5 million from the province.
At a public works budget presentation yesterday, McHattie said he was "quite shaken over the last month or so by revelations of industries in trouble in the city."
Braden warned the city is going the way of Stelco -- which sought bankruptcy protection Thursday -- by spending more than it takes in.
The Flamborough councillor said city staff are "privately and confidentially telling us we can't afford the expressway, or for that matter any capital projects at all."
Councillor Tom Jackson called that untrue, but would say no more on the issue when questioned.
Robertson said Braden's assertion was "probably challengeable," then quickly went on to say: "We have a significant financial problem. At some level we have to reduce operations, capital or both. Sixty-five million is the issue ($83 million less service cuts and fee increases proposed by staff). How to peel the onion apart is up to council. I don't think anything has been said about any one project."
When Councillor Dave Mitchell asked why contract costs for services such as garbage collection and recycling were up more than 10 per cent, general manager Peter Crockett said the growth of homes and expansion of roads push costs up at a rate greater than inflation. He reminded councillors residential growth doesn't pay for itself.
McHattie said the city has to rethink its economic development prospects in light of present circumstances, and ask whether it can afford further sprawl onto unserviced land. He also said the expressway is "not a philosophical discussion any more, it's very much a budget discussion."
Red Hill 'protester' really a cop
Activists say 'plant' tried to stir up trouble
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, January 29, 2004A belligerent Red Hill Creek Expressway demonstrator who swore at police and was arrested at a tree-cutting protest was actually an undercover police officer.
And anti-expressway activists want an investigation of what they charge were efforts by police to plant an 'agent provocateur' to instigate trouble at demonstrations.
"He was trying to get some reaction from people and start something," says activist David Heatley. "Then police could come in with a really heavy hand."
Deputy Police Chief Ken Leendertse refuses to confirm or deny that he put undercover police among demonstrators who spent months at a longhouse built in the Red Hill Valley.
Leendertse makes a point, however, of saying undercover police are extensively trained in "role-playing" to fit in and are bound by rules and standards of behaviour.
Heatley says the demonstrator revealed himself to be an undercover officer when he took part in arrests and a Nov. 6 police raid that cleared the longhouse of protesters.
And protesters say they identified him as Staff Sergeant Ted Davis after he was recently interviewed on CH TV about undercover infiltration of gangs.
Davis is the head of the Hamilton police intelligence squad. He refused to comment when contacted by The Spectator.
Leendertse said complaints of attempted incitement are being made in hindsight by people who may feel now that they were duped.
"The litmus test is, during any of those incidents, was anyone hurt; was anyone charged criminally or did anyone step outside the boundaries to incite criminal activity or behaviour," he said. "That never happened."
The apparent demonstrator showed up at various times in the valley and it was his antics at an Oct. 28 tree-cutting protest that prompted complaints he was there to provoke problems.
Davis was among three protesters arrested and was the first to return to the valley after being led away. Heatley said he returned flashing his trespassing ticket and tried to befriend other demonstrators.
He said Davis used obscenities against police, but failed to win support among protesters.
"We didn't bite and told people to stay away from him," said Heatley. "That's not what we are about; we are peaceful and don't act like that."
Heatley said the supposed demonstrator came nosing around at times asking questions at the longhouse -- built by natives and non-native supporters -- and many activists voiced suspicions about him.
Word got out that he had been seen relaxing and smoking a cigarette in the backseat of a cruiser after his arrest, had returned to the valley in an unmarked police car, would walk about 15 metres away from others to make cellphone calls and the amount on his trespassing ticket was different than the $70 on other tickets.
"We felt something was wrong," Heatley said.
Recently-promoted Deputy-Chief Leendertse, who was praised for his handling of protests, says police use as many investigative tools as possible-- negotiations and intelligence -- in potentially dangerous situations.
Police do not comment on undercover operations, he said.
The was a lot of "sabre-rattling" during expressway protests and "we wanted to resolve it the best way possible without anyone getting hurt, including officers and protesters."
There were rumours that guns had been hidden in the valley, "and that caused me grave concern," he said.
Anti-expressway activists have highlighted Davis's undercover activities on websites and in View, the Hamilton alternative press weekly.
Heatley says he is not going to make a formal complaint to the police service board in Hamilton but he and others may take their complaints to provincial authorities.
Protester Dave Field, who was arrested just before Davis on Oct. 28, says he confronted him about his undercover role during the police raid and arrests at the longhouse Nov. 6.
"I told him so it's true about you; he answered, 'Just doing my job Dave,'" said Field.
Police laid a number of trespassing charges during demonstrations and the raid on the longhouse. Most charges were later dropped, although about half a dozen are still scheduled for trial.
Demonstrators were not charged with more serious offences such as contempt of court for breaching the court injunction obtained by the city to keep demonstrators out of the valley.
Red Hill mounds not burial sites
By Natalie Alcoba, The Hamilton Spectator, Friday, January 29, 2004The City of Hamilton and the Six Nations Confederacy Council say five mounds in the Red Hill Valley are not native burial sites.
Expressway opponents said earlier this month that five hillocks on the valley floor could be grave sites -- something that would have threatened highway construction.
But an archeological report released yesterday rejected that possibility, saying instead that the mounds are probably construction debris.
Four are likely the result of sewer construction in the 1960s, and a fifth is what is left of an eroding bank in the creek, the report said.
"There were allegations, we took them seriously, we checked them out and we're satisfied," said Paul Williams, negotiator for the hereditary chiefs of the Iroquois Confederacy at Six Nations.
But native activists who made the allegations public are not convinced.
David Heatley and David Redwolf maintain the mounds could be burial pits dating back to the 1600s and created by Neutrals who lived in the area at the time.
Archeological Services Inc., the firm that has surveyed the valley for the city, examined information for five sites, three located south of Queenston Road, and two next to the pedestrian trail that is either on or adjacent to the trunk sewer line.
It reviewed soil tests from the 1990s that indicated the soil composition of two Queenston mounds was mid-20th century.
Aerial photographs dating back to the 1940s were also examined.
"What we found was that the mounds didn't appear prior to the 1960s and then appeared after," said Red Hill Expressway project manager Chris Murray.
The report concludes that the construction of the trunk sewer line in 1964 likely caused four mounds. A hydro-geologist identified the other Queenston mound as an eroding bank.
But Heatley and Redwolf are not satisfied.
Redwolf, a Seneca native who works with a committee that investigates and preserves native burial sites, could barely contain his laughter at what he called a "totally ludicrous" conclusion.
He said the smooth surface of the mounds and the surrounding area makes it hard for him to believe that the soil was the result of construction.
Professor Gary Warrick, an archeologist at Wilfrid Laurier University who has provided archeological advice to the Six Nations before, attended a tour of the suspected mounds earlier. He found the larger mounds near Queenston Road are too big to be burial grounds. The smaller sites were located within the sewer construction zone, making them a likely byproduct. "I did communicate, both to members of the Band Council and the Confederacy, that they were not burials."
Natives spearhead probe of mounds
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday, January 14, 2004Amid swirling snow, native activists led archeological and land form specialists on a tour of mounds in the Red Hill Valley, mounds they say may be aboriginal burial ossuaries.
And the activists hope native leaders coming from Michigan and Quebec will be able to convince the city to stop work on its controversial $220 million north-south expressway.
"Ancestors deserve to rest in peace," said David Redwolf. Redwolf is a member of Iaionteh Shonte'n, a group that works to preserve indigenous sites and which drew attention to the mounds in recent weeks.
The city believes the mounds are not native burial sites but are natural features or the the result of past work or farming in the valley.
Chris Murray, the city's manager for the expressway project, says he expects a report soon from Archaeological Services, the archeological consulting firm that has surveyed the valley for the city in past years.
Ron Williamson, the firm's chief archeologist, and several of his staff, including soil and land form specialists, trekked through the valley yesterday as part of the group of about two dozen conservationists, city staff and native activists, including hereditary Six Nations Confederacy Chief Arnold General.
Williamson says he is familiar with the mounds that have been posted with signs by the activist from his years of previous archeological work and digs in the valley.
"Never have any aboriginal burial sites been found in the valley," he said.
Williamson says he hopes to report to the city on the claims of the possible burial ossuaries by the end of the week.
Professor Gary Warrick, an archeologist at Wilfrid Laurier University who was along yesterday, says he has his doubts the seven mounds looked at are burial ossuaries but the city should do more work in the spring to be sure.
"If I were the archeologist for the city, I think it would be politically astute to do some minor testing around them," he said. "That would be my advice, to play it cautious."
Warrick, who has acted as a consultant for the Six Nations elected band, says the mounds are more likely the result of erosion or sewer work or other activity in the valley.
A chief from the Wyandot tribe of the Anderdon Nation near Detroit, Michigan, will visit Hamilton today and Redwolf hopes he will also get to meet with city officials.
The natives expected from Michigan and also Quebec are members of the Huron Wendat Confederacy and are the lineal descendants of the natives likely buried in the valley, he said.
Expressway project manager Murray says since the city has been negotiating archeological and possible burial site issues with the Iroquois Confederacy at the Six Nations, the city would expect the Wendat natives to deal with the Six Nations.
"The Six Nations should be contacted by them to make clear to Six Nations what their concerns are," said Murray.
The mounds would be left undisturbed with no tree cutting activity while the city awaits the report from its archeological consultants, he says.
Red Hill workers told to avoid mounds that may be native burial sites
By Peter Van Harten, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday, January 8, 2004The city is telling expressway contractors to stay clear of any mounds in the Red Hill Valley that may be aboriginal burial sites.
Native activists say they called police yesterday afternoon and tried to block tree clearing after a construction claw-digger drove over a mound and knocked part of it into the creek.
The activists have posted a number of mounds they say may be ancient burial ossuaries with yellow Six Nations signs in past days and have been watching over construction work.
Chris Murray, the city project manager for the controversial expressway, says an archeologist and geomorphologist -- a landform specialist-- will likely be examining the mounds for the city next week.
Murray says the native activists became concerned when the construction equipment moved across the mound yesterday but they agreed to leave when worked stopped.
David Heatley, an activist who has camped out on private property in the valley along with supporters, says more possible ossuaries are now being posted with native warning signs.
The mound, near Queenston Road, that was damaged had not been posted by natives but was not thought to be threatened by workers because it had been marked off with yellow tape by contractors, he said.
The natives hope tests with remote scanning equipment will be able to verify whether the mounds are ossuaries.
The city believes the mounds are the remains of construction and farming activity in recent decades "but that's not to say we aren't treating this very seriously," says Murray. He say if the mounds are proven to be burial mounds and in the way of the expressway and creek realignment work, the city will seek "design answers" to avoid them.
If that is impossible, it may be necessary to relocate remains.
Professor Gary Warrick, an archeologist at Wilfrid Laurier University, says archeological digs may be necessary.
A little levity at the levee as year starts
Mayor Di Ianni and citizens rub elbows and, for the most part, exchange good wishes
By Chris Sorensen, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, January 5, 2004It was mostly smiles, handshakes and words of congratulations for Mayor Larry Di Ianni at a New Year's levee at City Hall yesterday.
Flanked by his family, Di Ianni stood over a giant white cake in the lobby of City Hall and thanked more than 100 people for coming to meet him.
"The work we do here is to benefit all of us," he told the crowd, which included a handful of city councillors and newly-minted federal Transport Minister Tony Valeri.
"If we succeed, we all succeed."
After securing the mayor's spot in November's election, beating rival candidate David Christopherson, Di Ianni had publicly expressed a desire to be a leader who is both "accessible" and "visible" to members of the community.
It was a relatively easy job yesterday, considering several of the people at City Hall were either friends or people who had voted for Di Ianni.
Some, like Stoney Creek's Darshan Dhillon, had even worked on Di Ianni's campaign.
"We just came to congratulate him," said Dhillon.
"We are very pleased."
But Di Ianni was also forced to face about a half dozen Red Hill Creek Expressway protesters, who stood in line patiently to air their grievances about the controversial roadway that Di Ianni supported during his election campaign.
Murray Lumley, a retired school teacher, carried a large red card containing a photocopy of the 1701 Albany Treaty (Nanfan Treaty) between the British Crown and the then-Five Nation Iroquois Confederacy.
A lawsuit based on the treaty, which seeks a court injunction to stop expressway construction because of alleged violations, has already been launched by a member of the Mohawk nation.
"We would like the mayor to recognize the treaty and halt all construction in the valley until this is heard by the courts," Lumley said.
Di Ianni was diplomatic.
"I want to respect all the processes," he said. "But, you know, I'm committed to the roadway."
Di Ianni's wife Janet was also busy shaking hands at the event, and said that she is looking forward to playing an active role in her husband's mayoral career. "I'm very supportive and encouraging," she said. "I also give him advice."
Janet says she currently has her hands full at home and as a high school drama teacher, but is eager to do volunteer work in the community.
Are mounds in Red Hill sacred?
Natives believe four large mounds in path of the proposed highway are ossuaries
By Daniel Nolan, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday, January 3, 2004Four large mounds of earth in the heart of the Red Hill Valley could present another hurdle for Hamilton in its bid to build the controversial expressway through the valley.
Natives say the mounds appear to be huge burial pits that could have been built by Neutrals when they lived in what is now east Hamilton during the 1600s.
Three of the mounds appear to lie in the path of the city's plan to rechannel the Red Hill Creek and the fourth appears to lie in, or near, the path of the $220-million highway as it approaches the Canadian Pacific Railway bridge over the creek.
Mayor Larry Di Ianni and expressway project manager Chris Murray say that 20 years of archaeological digging done for the city did not find any native burial sites in the valley.
"If there's any information that changes all this, we'd obviously be interested in that," said Di Ianni. "We will treat it very seriously."
Murray said the city will send an archaeologist to the valley Monday to investigate the mounds.
If the mounds are burial sites, or burial ossuaries, they would not appear to threaten the highway project, but could create delays and force a reworking of the plan. The city hopes to have the highway built in three years and is aiming to release the majority of contracts this spring. On Monday, workers are to resume cutting trees.
Murray said the city will redesign the road if a burial site is confirmed, based on a protocol reached with the Six Nations Confederacy, the traditional native government. He, however, added, "It's understood as well if we find ourselves in a circumstance where the road can't be redesigned, we will have to address it in another way."
Di Ianni said the Cemeteries Act allows for removal and reburial in a "respective way" of native remains, providing native representatives agree.
The mounds were first noticed years ago by native activist Norm Jacobs, who died last year, and expressway opponent David Heatley, a Quebec native who has been working with Six Nations natives on Red Hill issues. They kept the discoveries to themselves because they did not want the sites disturbed.
Heatley revealed them this week because he's worried work in the valley will disturb them. He called in David Redwolf, a Seneca native activist who works with a committee called Iaionteh Shonte'n (In our Ancestors Ways) that investigates and preserves native burial sites in Ontario. Redwolf came to the valley on Boxing Day and visited the mound south of Queenston Road. Yesterday, he and a few others visited and planted a Confederacy flag. Among them was Michelle Bedard from Barrie, a member of the committee who claims Wendat nation heritage. The Wendat were a Huron tribe once based around the Penetang peninsula. Bedard and Redwolf claim the Wendats had links to the Neutrals.
"I knew right away what it was when I saw it, but without evidence, I truthfully can't say what it is," said Redwolf.
Redwolf, who also claims Wendat heritage, would like to sweep the mounds with a sonar device. That would enable him to see 30 metres below ground and see bone fragments and artifacts that might have been buried with the deceased.
While Murray said the city will look into the mounds, he noted the valley has seen farming and had a trail and utilities built through it such as a sewer line. He noted the expressway has been hotly opposed by some who "are still interested in frustrating the process."
Redwolf denied this. "Let us investigate," he said. "A fact is a fact."
Redwolf said the mounds are similar to other ossuaries he's seen. They appear to be 20 metres wide and seven metres high, but are anywhere from 70 metres to 250 metres long.
The Neutrals lived in southwestern Ontario until about 1550, and after that concentrated in what is now the Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand area. Some historians say they were attacked and taken over by the then Five Nations Confederacy in the late 1600s, but others say they were decimated by European diseases.
There is a Neutral burial pit in Centennial Park in Grimsby, discovered in 1976, that holds bones of 373 people.
Cutting trees may also trim Red Hill wildlife
But city says a viaduct will help animals cross highway
By Natalie Alcoba, The Hamilton Spectator, December 27, 2003Trees are falling to make way for the Red Hill Creek Expressway, prompting concern over how the changing habitat will affect Red Hill Valley wildlife.
Wildlife experts say breaking up land where animals roam freely will likely change the number and kinds of species that call it home.
Building roadways through natural corridors fragments the land, says Bruce Ranta, forest biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources.
"Some species live and thrive in fragmented environments better than others. Species that rely on larger patches (of land) disappear."
Don McLean, with Friends of Red Hill Valley, says there have been reports of deer running loose in residential neighbourhoods in the middle of the day.
"I would assume the deer are moving out because they don't know where to go," says McLean.
But Hamilton animal control officers say they have not fielded more deer sighting calls than usual.
The city says it has not forgotten the animals in its planning.
Builders will construct a 220-metre viaduct beneath the expressway to allow for animals and humans to move from one side to the other.
"It's our intention to have a continuation of a natural area underneath the expressway and we hope that will allow the animals to continue on their path," says Michael Marini, community relations officer for the project.
"You can't predict to an absolute certainty the movement of animals every single day," he says, but the idea is to keep the animals in the area.
Marini says he knows of one loose deer report.
If deer are found near residences, animal control workers will attempt to coax the animals back into a more natural setting.
The city is also trying to schedule its tree-cutting schedule around animal patterns.
Cutting began following bird migration and will not disturb hibernation patterns of animals such as the flying squirrel, says Marini.
He says animals are resilient and can adapt but adaptation has its limits.
"Most animals can tolerate some changes in their environment but at some point change becomes too great, and they are no longer able to adapt to that change."
For example, Woodland caribou used to graze from northwestern Ontario to Minnesota.
But urban development forced the animals to change, making their most southern extension 300 kilometres north of where it used to be historically.
The size of a natural patch also changes its diversity, says McLean.
Smaller species, such as rabbits or raccoons, may be able to survive, but their predators may not, creating a population imbalance.
Ranta says the mortality rate of some animals could increase if they are forced to cross roadways to get to food, or can't get enough of it.
Other animals may be physically displaced.
He says that deer adapt well to habitat change but do reach a point where they find it difficult to live in a human-altered area.
Red Hill Valley protesters hold Christmas vigil
'Spirit still alive.' Optimistic to the end, they enjoy peaceful stroll under stars
By Josh Brown, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, December 22, 2003Gone was the long house that served as a base for Red Hill Valley Expressway protesters.
Trees that once lined the Greenhill section of the route have long been cleared away.
Yet the Christmas spirit among anti-expressway opponents lived on.
About 20 children and adults marched into the valley holding candles and singing Silent Night during a Christmas vigil last night.
"We still believe in saving the valley, it's still not that late to turn back," said organizer Wilamina McGrimmond. "We're not going away."
It could be the last time protesters get to walk through the valley uninterrupted during the holiday season. By this time next year construction on the expressway will be far along.
"It's not going to look too good next year, it doesn't look too good right now," said Dana Hoage, an area resident who still hopes the valley can be saved. "I look at my landscape every morning and just wait for the pine trees to disappear."
With construction equipment cleared away for the weekend, valley supporters got to enjoy a peaceful stroll under the stars. One by one they made their way through the Greenhill portion to the new roundhouse camp on private property at the east end of Dumbarton Avenue.
The group huddled around a roaring fire to roast marshmallows and cook hot dogs, while some exchanged stories from days gone by in the valley.
"The spirit is still very much alive," said McGrimmond. "Just because we're not in there doesn't mean we don't care."