|
Shawn Brant's Day in Court
Three counts of mischief: that is what Mohawk spokesperson Shawn Brant earned from the Ontario Justice System for his role in the CN rail line and Highway 401 blockades which took place in April and June, 2007. Brant was ordered to stay on the Tyendinaga reserve for three months and to be on probation for one year. Originally, the Crown had been asking for 12 years in jail for Brant. While Shawn Brant will face no more jail time for the blockades and will not go to trial, there are still 16 people from the Tyendinaga facing criminal charges for defending their community. Shawn Brant's lead attorney, Peter Rosenthal said, "Now that the criminal proceedings against Shawn Brant are over, the more important issues must be dealt with, such as:
The Tyendinaga Support Committee a Toronto-based organization working to support the Mohawks of Tyendinaga, released a statement that read in part, "The critical issues which prompted the Mohawks to take action have yet to be addressed. Most of the community does not have drinkable water. Most households have been unable to drink the water from their own taps for at least the last decade. The reserve school, with 300+ students, ranging in age from 2 to 13, who attend daily, has had its water deemed unfit for human consumption for the past eighteen months. "In addition, the lands which comprise the Culbertson Tract and Simcoe Deed have yet to be returned. This despite all levels of governments' admission that the lands do legitimately belong to the Mohawks of Tyendinaga."
Both Rosenthal and the Tyendinaga Support Committee noted the role Julian Fantino's actions played in the conclusion of the case against Shawn Brant. House arrest for three months is a far cry from the dozen years the Crown had requested should Brant have been convicted on all charges he faced at a future trial. The stunning change of heart came on September 29th, what would have been the start of Brant's pre-trial hearing. The Tyendinaga Support Committee noted, "the dramatic turn-around by government lawyers came after disturbing details of OPP impropriety, abuse of practice and the flaunting of policing guidelines created after the Ipperwash Inquiry were made public in July of this year, following the lifting of a publication ban on Brant's preliminary hearing. Abuses revealed included OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino's threats to Shawn Brant that "your whole world's going to come crashing down", the orders to have snipers and armored personnel carriers on standby, and the presence of an undercover police officer posing as a media cameraman. The preliminary hearing also revealed that the OPP used an obscure section of the Criminal Code to implement an emergency wiretap of Brant and other Mohawks' telephone conversations, on June 28th, 2007, even though the National Day of Action had been publicly planned for months." Brant and his team, among others, fought for over a year to have this information released to the media; it w was under a publication ban. The release of these details prompted calls for the firing of OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino. Pretrial motions, originally set to begin on September 29th, would have seen Commissioner Fantino subpoenaed to answer for his conduct leading up to and during the 2007 Aboriginal Day of Action. The Tyendinaga Support Committee, observed, that "the Mohawks of Tyendinaga remain united and continue to fight for what should already be theirs: land and clean water
|
|
