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Shawn Brant is a Native activist who lives on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario, Canada. He has been involved in direct action struggles for Native land rights, in conflict with Ontario provincial authorities. [1]
In the 1990s, Brant participated in protests at Oka and Ipperwash. [2] In November 2006, the Mohawk community of Tyendinaga reclaimed a gravel quarry that was licensed to remove over 100,000 tonnes of gravel per year despite ongoing land claims negotiations. The Mohawks claimed that their land was being stolen from them by the Canadian government that was at the same time ostensibly engaged in land claims negotiations. Although the Canadian government formally recognized the quarry as Mohawk land in 2003, private development has continued ever since. [3] In January 2007, Brant was arrested for uttering death threats to members of the Canadian military who had been present at the November protest. On April 14, 2008, Brant was acquitted of all charges. [4]
In April 2007, he organized a 30-hour blockade of a CN rail line in eastern Ontario. [5] [6] After this time the Ontario police guaranteed immunity to the protestors in exchange for ending the protest. [7] The offer was accepted, and the protest ended without arrest or injury. On April 25, Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino issued a warrant for Brant’s arrest.[ citation needed ]
In June 2007, the Mohawks of Tyendinaga blockaded CN lines and highways running through Mohawk land near Deseronto, Ontario. [8] Brant participated as a Mohawk spokesperson as part of the National Aboriginal Day of Action on June 29, 2007. [9] Brant was charged with nine counts of mischief and breach of bail conditions. He turned himself in on July 5 and was denied bail. [10] Denied bail again on August 10, Brant was finally released on August 30 with a $50,000 bond and a $50,000 surety. The courts have consistently denied Brant the right to associate with Tyendinaga protests.
On April 25, 2008, Brant was again arrested and detained for assault and weapons charges in relation to a confrontation between two men from Deseronto – James Lalonde and Mike Lalonde – and several aboriginal protesters. [11] Brant’s wife, Sue Collis, issued a public statement declaring that Shawn’s weapon was a fishing spear. [12] To date, Brant has been the only person charged.
On May 27, 2008, Brant was put on lockdown for 23 hours a day for 12 days for misconduct and breaking the prison rules. He was illegally burning sage in his cell as part of a Mohawk religious ceremony.[ citation needed ]
In 2008, Brant was found to have sold land that didn't belong to him but belonged to the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. [13]
On June 7, 2009, Brant helped organize a blockade of the Skyway bridge which connects Tyendinaga with Prince Edward County. [14] He was imprisoned for almost three years. [15]
On November 1, 2013, Brant announced he was running for elected chief of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. [16] He was unsuccessful in his attempt, coming in second to Donald Maracle. [17]
As of 2020, Brant is a Tyendinaga pot shop owner. [18]
The Bay of Quinte is a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter "Z" on the northern shore of Lake Ontario in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is just west of the head of the Saint Lawrence River that drains the Great Lakes into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It is located about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Toronto and 350 kilometres (220 mi) west of Montreal.
The Oka Crisis, also known as the Kanehsatà:ke Resistance ,, or Mohawk Crisis, was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 days until September 26, with two fatalities. The dispute was the first well-publicized violent conflict between First Nations and provincial governments in the late 20th century.
Six Nations is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape live in the territory as well.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) are a Mohawk community within Hastings County, Ontario. They control the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, which is a 7,362.5 ha (18,193-acre) Mohawk Indian reserve on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern Ontario, Canada, east of Belleville and immediately to the west of Deseronto. They also share Glebe Farm 40B and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserves with other First Nations.
The Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne is a Mohawk Nation (Kanienʼkehá:ka) territory that straddles the intersection of international borders and provincial boundaries on both banks of the St. Lawrence River. Although divided by an international border, the residents consider themselves to be one community. They maintain separate police forces due to jurisdictional issues and national laws.
Christ Church, His Majesty's Chapel Royal of the Mohawk is located on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory near Deseronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation and is associated with the Anglican Parish of Tyendinaga, Diocese of Ontario. It was designated as a National Historic Site in 1995 and is one of only three Chapels Royal in Canada, elevated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.
Indigenous police services in Canada are police forces under the control of a First Nation or Inuit government.
Deseronto is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, in Hastings County, located at the mouth of the Napanee River on the shore of the Bay of Quinte, on the northern side of Lake Ontario.
Tyendinaga is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Hastings County. The community takes its name from a variant spelling of Mohawk leader Joseph Brant's traditional Mohawk name, Thayendanegea.
The Grand River land dispute, also known as the Caledonia land dispute, is an ongoing dispute between the Six Nations of the Grand River and the Government of Canada. It is focused on land along the length of the Grand River in Ontario known as the Haldimand Tract, a 385,000-hectare (950,000-acre) tract that was granted to Indigenous allies of the British Crown in 1784 to make up for territorial losses suffered as a result of the American Revolutionary War and the Treaty of Paris (1783). The Six Nations were granted the land in perpetuity and allege that lands were improperly sold, leased or given away by various Canadian governments, leaving only 5 per cent of the original lands under Six Nations control. The Six Nations also allege that monies owed to the Six Nations from leases and loans on much of the tract have not been paid or were redirected into government coffers.
The Burnt Church Crisis was a conflict in Canada between the Mi'kmaq people of the Burnt Church First Nations (Esgenoôpetitj) and non-Aboriginal fisheries in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia between 1999 and 2002.
The Aboriginal Day of Action was a day of organized protest and demonstration by Canadian First Nations groups on June 29, 2007. Events were held at sites across the country.
Captain John Deserontyon, U.E.L was a Mohawk war chief allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War. He led his people to Upper Canada after the war, settling on land granted by the Crown at the Bay of Quinte in present-day Ontario. This reserve, initially settled primarily by Mohawk loyalists from the Lower Castle, is known as Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ontario. Deseronto, Ontario is named for him.
Gary McHale is a right-wing Canadian political activist, noted for involvement in the Grand River land dispute.
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Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is the main First Nation reserve of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. The territory is located in Ontario east of Belleville on the Bay of Quinte. Tyendinaga is located near the site of the former Mohawk village of Ganneious.:10
The Culbertson Tract Land Claim, located in the Canadian Province of Ontario in Hastings County, is a specific land claim originally submitted by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte in 1995. It covers 923 acres surrounding the Tyendinaga area and the majority of the Deseronto township. This claim is based on the loss of over 800 acres of land during the continued loyalist settlement during 1820-1843 which proved to be the loss of the majority of the land from the Simcoe Treaty.
The Coastal GasLink pipeline is a TC Energy natural gas pipeline under construction in British Columbia, Canada. Starting in Dawson Creek, the pipeline's route crosses through the Canadian Rockies and other mountain ranges to Kitimat, where the gas will be exported to Asian customers. Its route passes through several First Nations peoples' traditional lands, including some that are unceded. Controversy around the project has highlighted divisions within the leadership structure of impacted First Nations: elected band councils support the project, but traditional hereditary chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people oppose the project on ecological grounds and organized blockades to obstruct construction on their traditional land. Wetʼsuwetʼen people opposed to the pipeline argue that they have a relationship with the land that the Coastal GasLink pipeline construction threatens.
The following is a timeline of the 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests which originated with the opposition by the hereditary chiefs of the Wetʼsuwetʼen people in British Columbia (BC), Canada to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project.
From January to March 2020, a series of civil disobedience protests were held in Canada over the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through 190 kilometres (120 mi) of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were Indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.
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