Hard to believe that until February 2005, the small town of Caledonia was small town proud of taking over--per capita--the coveted number one spot on the Growing Towns of Canada List.
With its population of 10,000 souls and storybook small town lifestyle, Caledonia, is the kind of place where people come to escape the big city. Picturesque in gazebos, rose trellises, and white picket fences, until last winter there were few better places than Caledonia in which to raise a family.
But that was all before Six Nation protesters took over a construction site at the Douglas Creek Estates.
It was to be a takeover that never found an end, and one that in its earliest days sent the government and a good deal of the mainstream media ducking for cover in times where merely identifying `protesters' as `Indians' can bring a full fledged Ontario Human Right's charge of racism against you.
In the summer of 2006, Caledonia is a tragedy waiting to happen.
In this town where commuters return at evening, for Caledonia, it's as if the clock has been turned back to the days of the Wild West.
But for the townspeople, held hostage by protesters, who have proven themselves willing to engage in violent acts, and by the Dalton McGuinty government, which seems to have already caved in to an increasingly volatile situation, there is no Cavalry coming to the rescue.
all 22 police officers taxed with the duty of maintaining the public safety of Caledonia, about 90 kilometers southwest of Toronto, have resigned en masse.
While terrorized townspeople hold out for better, their government decided that a buyout from the developer of the occupied land in dispute formed a Solomon like solution. But the buyout, as far as many Caledonians are concerned, is a sellout of the townsfolk. Not lost on them is a political strategy whereby the government now only has to deal with one entity, Henco Industries, the developer of the subdivision taken over by the protesters.
In the bargain, the reigning government, which bought out the developer for what some say is $45-million, left the townsfolk--with no respite--to the mercy of their tormentors.
The McGuinty government also announced with fanfare an offer of $1-million--in addition to an already promised $700,000--to compensate Caledonia area businesses hurt by road blockades set up by Six Nation protesters.
Government money for the worry and fear of Caledonia residents is a matter of speculation, with residents predicting it would be in the 10-cents-on-the-dollar range.
Caledonians, living with hope of better days, are demanding safety and not taxpayers' money from their provincial government. .
Both the government and the majority of the mainstream media call the radicals, who took over the Douglas Creek Estates, "aboriginals" and "protesters". Fearful of being labeled racists, Liberal politicians are even more afraid of being caught up in the crossfire should the Caledonia crisis become another Ipperwash, where Dudley George, an unarmed Chippewa native was shot and killed by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) sniper during the 1995 occupation of Ipperwash Park.
Caledonia townsfolk are average Canadians, not racists. They know that the majority of their neighbours on the Six Nations Reserve, who have tried to speak out against the protesters, are decent and law-abiding.
Those from the Six Nations who are willing to speak out against the protesters, have been threatened to have their houses burnt down.
Some Caledonia residents call the protesters "warriors". Others dare to call them the "red al Qaeda".
"I don't know what else to call one to two hundred. 20 to 30-year-old men thrusting rifles in our faces," one resident told Canada Free Press last night.
With IDs protected by bandana covered faces, the night marurading warriors have been emboldened by a government that seems totally inadequate to deal with them, the self-styled occupiers of Caledonia are waging a campaign of fear and terror.
To date, occupying forces have damaged and destroyed roadways, interrupted hydro service for an entire region, and endangered public safety with all but impunity.
The anguish of a single mother of two children aged 12 and 6 is typical of life in post-Six Nations takeover Caledonia.
The single mother, who does not want her name revealed for obvious reasons, works as a Registered Nurse and Nurse Manager and is a part time Ryerson University student.
"My home borders Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia. The occupiers drive around my home and neighbourhood, with bats, clubs, tasers, machetes and guns that they defiantly wave in plain sight, while they scream obscenities and threats of bodily harm at me, my family and my neighbours, all while law enforcement turns its back."
Small town life has turned small town nightmare for the nurse whose children attend a school whose schoolyard backs onto the Douglas Creek Estates.
"aTVs race around my home all hours of the night, some with their mufflers removed, as the drivers yell and scream. Heavy equipment vehicles move large materials throughout the night while construction takes place all hours of darkness behind Braemar. The sounds of hammering, banging and gunshots can always be heard.
"My phone line has been cut, I have had occupiers run into my backyard and have had bottles of gasoline left behind my fences.
Not even grade school children are exempt from the terrorizing of the town, nor are the children of Caledonia, who are subject to lockdowns at school, any longer entitled to an education in a non-threatening environment.
While the government puts its best spin on a situation it says is now under their control, residents say gun-toting warriors are building bunkers. The two houses they originally took over, effectively preventing access to their rightful owners, include slits for rifle butts.
"There's going to be bloodshed in Caledonia before summer's end and that's all but guaranteed with the way the situation has been left," says a town resident.
In a protest, touting a fight over land rights, there are some who say Caledonia is looking more and more like a revolution on Canadian soil to establish a precedent-setting sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the once peaceful Caledonia is a town caught up in a politically correct, going nowhere zone, a town where no one but those who have to be there, want to be. Caledonia that not long ago held such promise has become the latter day subject of the song, Town Without Pity.
Late at night, residents try to block out the worrisome sound of gunfire by turning to the Internet site, www.CitizensOfCaledonia.ca. The website and the determined hope of replacing the Dalton McGuinty government are what build their morale.
But the story of Caledonia is a story whose end has yet to be written. and before the end is written, there is no doubt that Caledonia is a tragedy waiting to happen.
More to come.
(Residents of Caledonia can be kept up to date by logging on to www.CitizensOfCaledonia.ca).
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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