Solidarity with Six Nations: Activists plan Major Protest against Anti-Native "Caledonia Militia"

PRESS RELEASE, June 22:

On Tuesday, June 23rd at 6pm non-natives who support the people of Six Nations will be holding a peaceful rally outside of the Lion’s Club in Cayuga, Ontario to protest the founding meeting of the “Caledonia Militia” – a vigilante group aimed at carrying out citizen’s arrests of protesting natives. Buses will be transporting over 100 activists from Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph, and other supporters from around the Brantford area and across Haldimand-Norfolk will be arriving to the rally by car.

According to Tom Keefer, an organizer of the protest, “we are coming to stand in solidarity with the people of Six Nations, to oppose the escalation represented in the formation of this ‘militia’ and to expose the presence of far-right neo-nazi groups in supporting anti-native actions in Caledonia.”

The protest has been initiated by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group.

Please contact 3903fnswg@gmail.com or call Tom at 416-526-4255 for moreinformation, to endorse the protest, or to reserve a space on the buses.
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callout. June 19.

A call for a peaceful protest against the formation of an anti-native “militia” in Caledonia – Tuesday, June 23rd at 6pm Outside the Lion’s Club in Cayuga, Ontario.

-from CUPE3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group

Dear Friends,

As you may have heard in the mainstream media already, things are escalating again in Caledonia. Doug Fleming (an associate of anti-native sovereignty activist Gary McHale) who was recently arrested for attempting to instigate a conflict with people at Six Nations by running onto the former Douglas Creek Estates waving a Canadian flag, has announced that he is now forming a "militia" to directly confront "native lawlessness" in Caledonia. According to Fleming, the militia would patrol areas in Caledonia by car and by foot wearing uniforms and communicating with radio equipment. If alerted to an instance of "native lawlessness" the militia would then use "reasonable force" to effect a citizen’s arrest and would hold the native person until such time as the OPP arrived to take the "prisoner" to jail.

Needless to say, this represents a major escalation in regard to the conflict at Six Nations. In addition to the OPP having already laid over 120 charges against Six Nations activists, the formation of this militia -- with a primary target of removing “illegal” native "smoke shacks” near Caledonia -- points directly to the increasing of the possibility of violent conflict between natives and non-natives. Fleming has called for a public meeting for founding of the militia to happen on June 23, at 7 p.m., at the Lion's Hall in Cayuga. The announcement of the formation of the militia has received widespread publicity in the mainstream media. (Links to the coverage can be found below).

Although Gary McHale and his supporters have avoided making public racist comments towards natives, there is no doubt that the formation of the militia will draw explicitly racist individuals who have long wanted to physically confront native protesters into activity. Neo-Nazi groups have long participated in McHale’s various protests since at least the fall of 2006, and there is every likelihood that they will be drawn to this meeting if they are not already involved in organizing it.

Put simply, this meeting cannot be allowed to happen unopposed. As non-natives who have long supported indigenous struggles in general and the Six Nations struggle in particular, we are issuing a call for all who are opposed to escalation and violence inherent in Flemming’s call for a “Caledonia Militia” to peacefully protest the holding of this meeting.

Transportation to the protest will be organized by activists in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph. Please contact 3903fnswg@gmail.com for more information, to endorse the protest, or to reserve a space on the buses. Buses will be leaving from Toronto at 4:30pm sharp and should return by 10pm that night at the latest. [From Kitchener, busses will be leaving city hall at 3pm, and stopping in Guelph at 4pm. email alex@peaceculture.org] You must contact us over email to reserve a space on the bus. Please reserve a spot immediately so we can get a sense of how many people require transport. There is a suggested donation to help cover the cost of transport is $10 although no-one will be turned away for lack of funds.

In solidarity,

The CUPE 3903 First Nations Solidarity Working Group.

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Sources on the formation of the "Caledonia militia"

http://www.marchforfreedom.com/smf/index.php?topic=466.0
This is a discussion board run by Gary McHale where the event was
first announced.

http://www.westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2009/06/caledonia-militia-looking-for-a-few-good-men.html
This right-wing magazine ran a story on the issue. The comments
section is quite informative.

http://voiceofcanada.wordpress.com
This is the website of Mark Vandermas an associate of McHale's.

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/652121
This is a Toronto Star article on the issue. If you look at the
comments, you'll see that almost 90 of the 100 are strongly in support
of the forming of the militia.

http://caledoniawakeupcall.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/caledonia-militia-draws-criticism-from-cowards/
This is another blog by the McHale supporter in Caledonia.

http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=604501
This is the world's most popular English-language neo-Nazi website.
Here is a discussion thread that is discussing McHale’s various
activities and protests in Caledonia and provides some information
about neo-Nazi participation in them.

http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/election/ElectionResults.pdf
And in case you thought that McHale was simply an irrelevant
right-wing agitator, here is a link to the federal election results
from last year when he ran as an independent candidate in Haldimand
Norfolk. As the results indicate, he polled 10% of the riding’s votes, nearly getting 5000 votes (neck and neck with the NDP, and double the Green party votes). He won most of the polls in the non-native communities near to Six Nations, indicating that he has a significant base of anti-native support there.