[IPSM] CBC: Mohawk protester Brant gets light penalty for blockades

[stef at tao.ca]

Mohawk protester Brant gets light penalty for blockades
Last Updated: Monday, September 29, 2008 | 1:54 PM ET
www.cbc.ca

Facing numerous defence motions that would have laid bare police actions,
the Crown dropped most charges Monday against an aboriginal protester who
helped organize a blockade last summer of an Ontario highway and rail
line, and agreed to a slap-on-the-wrist-penalty for the remaining ones.

Shawn Brant, a Mohawk from the Tyendinaga Territory near Desoronto, Ont.,
was facing nine counts of mischief and breach of bail conditions for his
role in two demonstrations: the June 29, 2007, national day of action for
aboriginal peoples and an earlier event in April 2007.

Both protests saw the temporary closing of the CN Rail line that carries
Via Rail trains from Toronto to Ottawa and Montreal. The day of action
also resulted in the shutdown, for several hours, of Highway 401 and
Highway 2.

On Monday, as part of a deal with the defence, the Crown dropped all but
three of the mischief charges, on which Brant was found guilty. Even
though the Crown had previously announced it would seek a jail sentence of
12 years, it agreed to have Brant receive a sentence of time already
served in pretrial detention, plus a 90-day conditional sentence to be
spent on his reserve.

Brant said outside court he accepted the deal for the sake of his family.
It means the Ontario Provincial Police's "illegal actions" in handling the
protests will remain secret, he said, though it will mean OPP Commissioner
Julian Fantino will have to face questions about his conduct.

"Commissioner Fantino has always said he couldn't comment because it's
before the courts. Well, now it's settled, and it's time the public hears
from Mr. Fantino," Brant said.

OPP's 'broken promises'

Brant's lawyer Peter Rosenthal was preparing to argue in court in Napanee,
Ont., on Monday that, in the case of the April 2007 demonstration, the OPP
had agreed not to charge Brant if the blockade was lifted peacefully and
promptly — which he says it was.

But police broke their promise, Rosenthal's defence motion said, at
Fantino's insistence because of his "personal and political attitude
towards Brant."

(In a wiretapped phone conversation, Fantino would later threaten Brant
that "your whole world's going to come crashing down" because the OPP
chief would "do everything I can within your community and everywhere to
destroy your reputation.")

The motion to have the resulting charges dismissed argued that "the
breaking of the OPP promise of immunity must be considered in the context
of the long history of broken promises made by Canadian governments to
First Nations peoples in Canada."

The defence also would have challenged the constitutionality of the
Criminal Code's emergency wiretap provisions, which the OPP used during
the national day of action for aboriginal peoples to bug the phones of
Brant and his fellow organizers.

Section 184.4 of the Criminal Code authorizes wiretaps without a judicial
warrant in "exceptional circumstances" – namely when the situation is too
urgent to get a judge's permission and there is a threat of a crime
causing serious harm to any person or to property.

But the OPP knew days ahead of time about the planned day of action
protests, meaning there was no reason not to get a judge's approval
beforehand for the phone surveillance, another defence motion said.

Land dispute
Tyendinaga Mohawk leaders are in talks with a federally appointed land
claims negotiator to try to resolve their dispute over more than 400
hectares of land on the Bay of Quinte in Ontario – about 25 kilometres
east of Belleville – including the site of a quarry and other businesses.

The Mohawk community has been negotiating with the federal government
since 2003. Protesters are angry that gravel continues to be hauled off
parts of the land while negotiations are ongoing. The protesters, who say
talks are progressing too slowly, began an occupation of the quarry in
March 2007.

Before Monday, Brant had been free on $100,000 bail, amid tight
conditions, since Aug. 31
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