Shawn Brant speaks from jail

Posted by admin on Aug 9th, 2009

By MARK BONOKOSKI, Toronto Sun, 9th August 2009

LINDSAY — Mohawk activist Shawn Brant, his customary camouflage fatigues replaced by an orange prison jumpsuit, looks weary — and is weary. Weary of it all. “This one, this stint in prison, has been the hardest on me, and the hardest on my family,” he admits, speaking over a telephone intercom, and sitting behind protective glass at the provincial superjail here. Brant has been behind bars since June 10 — ironically the first anniversary of National Day of Reconciliation for Canada’s First Nations, and the federal government’s apology for the Indian residential schools — when approximately 100 OPP and First Nations police stormed in at dawn to end the Mohawk blockage of the Skyway Bridge near Deseronto.

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Police arrest Tynedinaga blockaders; Ontario bridge reopens

Posted by admin on Jun 12th, 2009

By Jorge Barrera, Canwest News Service June 12, 2009

The Skyway Bridge near Deseronto, Ont. reopened late Friday afternoon after a morning of “hand-to-hand” clashes between about 40 Ontario Provincial Police officers and protesters who had blocked the bridge, about 200 km east of Toronto. “These are some of the ripple effects we are feeling as a result of the federal government’s lack of action in entering into proper and adequate dialogue with the Mohawks of Akwesasne,” said Aboriginal Affairs Minister Brad Duguid, who added the province had urged the federal government to “enter into meaningful dialogue” to resolve the dispute.

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Tyendinaga protesters block Ontario bridge in solidarity with Akwesasne opposing arming of border guards

Posted by admin on Jun 8th, 2009

Monday, June 8, 2009 | 6:23 PM ET. CBC News

About 40 Mohawk protesters blocked a bridge in eastern Ontario Sunday evening in support of a nearby First Nations community engaged in a standoff with the federal government over the arming of border guards. Protesters blocked either side of the Skyway bridge, which spans the Bay of Quinte near Belleville, Ont., and links the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and Prince Edward County.

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List of native conflicts grows as six protesters arrested at Pembroke gravel quarry

Posted by admin on May 22nd, 2009

By Brendan Kennedy, The Ottawa Citizen; with files from The Montreal Gazette. May 22, 2009
 
The arrest Wednesday of six First Nations protesters near Pembroke could be a part of what is shaping up to be a summer of discontent among Ontario natives frustrated over a growing list of outstanding issues. The protesters, led by Grant Tysick, chief of the Kinounchepirini Algonquin, were arrested in the early morning after a 34-hour blockade of a gravel quarry west of Pembroke. The blockade at Eastway Developments on Henan Road was broken up by Upper Ottawa Valley OPP officers and members of the OPP’s Emergency Response Team around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday. The men were arrested without incident and there were no physical confrontations of any kind, police said.

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Campaign: CN: Drop your racist lawsuit! Support the Mohawks of Tyendinaga

Posted by admin on Apr 2nd, 2009

CN: Drop your racist lawsuit! Support the Mohawks of Tyendinaga
Call out for a month-long phone and fax campaign

Canadian National Railway is suing Shawn Brant, Jason Maracle, and Tara Green as well as their families and community (Jane and John Doe, also named in the suit).  CN’s lawsuit is a response to a blockade on CN tracks during April 2007, and another lawsuit against Shawn Brant for a blockade on June 29, 2007. CN has not yet specified the amount in damages they are seeking.

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