Protest

(picture from earlier protest)

Aboriginal protesters set up information booth beside highway in southern Ontario

Published Friday August 3rd, 2007

BRANTFORD, Ont. (CP) - A group of aboriginal protesters set up an information booth alongside a highway in southern Ontario Friday in an effort to raise awareness about their land claims in Brantford, Ont.

Aboriginal spokeswoman Janie Jamieson said the group held an "educational awareness campaign" to bring attention to the rapid rate at which development is happening on land considered by aboriginals to be contentious.

"The government is issuing permits like crazy, putting land up for sale that is not theirs and not telling the buyers that there may be a land issue," said Jamieson, who speaks on behalf of Six Nations protesters involved in a land dispute in the nearby town of Caledonia.

The protesters were at the intersection of Highway 2, a secondary provincial highway, which serves as a gateway to Highway 403, the region's major expressway.

But Jamieson said the protest was over by 3 p.m. and had no effect on traffic.

The occupation in Caledonia, which began in February 2006, has been the site of numerous confrontations, some violent, between the protesters and non-aboriginals.