Six Nations man posts trespassing notices near wind turbine sites 

Six Nations resident Bill Monture said he is resorting to using Ontario’s law in an attempt to stop Industrial Wind Turbines from coming into the Haldimand and Six Nations area.

“All we’re doing is standing up for what’s rightfully ours,” said Monture. “The Mother Earth is our mother. She’s our life giver. She’s our sustenance. Yet, what are we doing? We’re destroying her.”

Monture along with Six Nations resident Lester Green had noted in the past during the turbine appeal process that if the appeals didn’t follow through, native residents would put up trespassing signs on the land.

Monture said the trespassing notices should hold up in court, as he said the sites of the proposed wind turbine projects in the county fall in the Haldimand Proclamation Nanfan Treaty area.

He said that land is their traditional hunting area, and he believes that since trespassing is a law of Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police should enforce it.

“My argument is that it’s a valid thing,” said Monture, citing incidents when he said trespassing notices have been put up on disputed land against non-natives and the charges stood in court. “Now, we’re putting up the same thing in here within our traditional hunting areas.”

Cayuga Detachment Commander Inspector Phil Carter said the OPP would investigate every call that comes to them.

“We have to go and establish the details of the alleged offense to see if there are any laws broken and to keep the peace. Public safety is our number one priority so certainly we will go,” said Carter. “Under the Trespass to Property Act, they have to prove ownership.”

He said if the OPP were called in this case, they would investigate the alleged trespassing offense, but he also made note that certain treaties grant ownership while others grant privileges.

“There are treaties that grant people of the First Nations certain hunting and fishing rights, but it doesn’t determine ownership of the land,” said Carter. “The Ontario Provincial Police can’t decide treaties so that would have to be the federal government.”

Monture said he feels there are grounds for the OPP to charge companies that trespass on that land.

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t because it’s in their law. They’re the ones that create it. All I’m doing is just using their law against themselves. That’s all I’m doing,” he said.

Monture said the notices are posted around the NextEra, Samsung and Capital Power proposed Industrial Wind Turbine sites, and are directed to the proponents.

“We want to push the issue because there’s a lot of non-natives who don’t want these wind turbines either, and the provincial government are ramming it down these guys’s throats,” said Monture, adding that he believes the wind turbine companies are trespassing right now, and plans to call the OPP in the future to have the companies charged.

“You can’t have a foreign company come into Ontario and do business with the provincial government,” said Monture. “First of all, we have to decide who owns the land. It sure isn’t the province.”