On the eve of the National Day of Action

I hadn't expected that the tensions related to tomorrow's National Day of action would escalate so far, and I'm genuinely concerned that outright violence is going to erupt tomorrow near Deseronto. Between the inflammatory rhetoric that seems to be coming from Shawn Brant about his willingness to resort to guns in self-defence, and the equal unwillingness of the police to back down, it's difficult to say what will happen tomorrow. I fully expect that Highway 401 will be blockaded, but I'm not certain when and if the police will clear it.

Certainly, Brant's followers have already drawn nation-wide notice with their blockade of Highway 2 and Via Rail's decision to cancel trains along the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal corridor tomorrow. I just really hope that we're not reading headlines about a shootout or any deaths in the coming days. I don't think that these actions are having the desired impact on Canadian voters if obtaining sympathy and pressure for government action on land claims is the main objective. They are certainly disrupting Canadian business and tourism, which might well be a secondary goal, given the frustration of the protestors at Tyendinaga.

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