Don’t inflame moraine debate - Waterloo is not Caledonia

Waterloo is not Caledonia. It is a different place with a different history and, most significantly for this discussion, no ongoing dispute with any Canadian First Nations community.

So why is David Wellhauser suddenly suggesting that the aboriginal protests that have rocked the town of Caledonia could erupt in the city of Waterloo? Why is Wellhauser, who has until now made reasoned arguments against three Waterloo subdivisions, grasping at a ridiculous, possibly dangerous straw in the campaign to stop the developments from being built? Why, indeed?

This week Wellhauser warned that if the region ignores aboriginal interests in Waterloo’s west side developments, it risks seeing a replay of the tensions that have gripped Caledonia for more than a year. Though Wellhauser didn’t specify what people in this community might have to look forward to, anyone familiar with the Six Nations occupation of a Caledonia subdivision knows it was marred last year by vandalism, violence, assaults, arrests as well as criminal charges, and that the occupation continues to this day. (Edit: Let’s call it like it is here. It’s a threat of a Terrorist attack)

Let’s be perfectly blunt here. The suggestion that these developments are on land claimed by an aboriginal community is without foundation. There is no outstanding aboriginal claim to any land in Waterloo Region, except to the bed and banks of the Grand River itself. And the west-side Waterloo lands are far from the river.

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