"SN Farmers Continue to Refuse to Sign Confederacy Lease"

Come harvest time this fall, the Six Nations Farmers Association and Haudenosaunee Development Institute may find themselves at odds again over the controversial Burtch lands.

Aaron Detlor, a lawyer and board member for the HDI, says farmers need to heed the direction of the Confederacy to work the lands or they won't be allowed back on the site in the fall.

Last Monday, May 13, farmers planted the last of their crops on the Burtch property. That came just as a bitter feud between band council, the HDI and farmers reached a climax with a fiery meeting last Monday at band council that included calls for the HDI to be ousted from the community.

Six Nations farmers are continuing the farm the lands charging they will not sign an agreement with the Confederacy Chief's planning department and have planted a new crop on the lands.

During the contraversy, a Six Nations company and Infrastructure Ontario (who is holding the lands in trust) were temporarily suspended from clean-up work at the site at the direction of the HDI. All remediation work stopped on May 6 and resumed last Wednesday, May 15. Farmers were not asked to leave.

Environmental monitors and clean-up crews have since gone back to work on remediating the contaminated soil at the site. Both Detlor and Six Nations Elected Chief Bill Montour said they spoke with I.O. to resolve the work stoppage.

"We permitted the workers to go back," said Detlor. "The safety concerns were addressed and we've been assured the farmers won't be on the field without the permission of the Confederacy and Infrastructure Ontario.

They will need a lease to go onto the land. The lease is going to cover insurance provisions, as well, so we can assure that any liability is covered."

I.O. said no safety issues were reported to them.

"I.O. has subsequently had conversations with many interested parties, including HDI, to facilitate the return of I.O.'s service provider and consultant to the site," said Caroline Knight, communications advisor for I.O. "Work to remediate the property has now resumed. No health and safety concerns have been reported to I.O. or its service providers to date."

Art Porter, vice-president of the SNFA, also says there were no safety issues at the site.

"There was no chance of any danger," he said. "They have a perimeter blockage around the job site and you don't go beyond that."

Detlor said last week that work was stopped because farmers were discing too close to tree planters at the site, saying that if a disc flew off a tractor and hit someone, they would be seriously injured.

Porter claims that wasn't the case. "I can't believe there's a piece of equipment up there that would hurt anybody," he said. "They're so safety-minded. That is such a false statement."

Porter claims that wasn't the case. "I can't believe there's a piece of equipment up there that would hurt anybody," he said. "They're so safety-minded. That is such a false statement."

Porter said he believed the statement was a smear tactic against the SNFA because they have refused to sign a lease with the Confederacy through the HDI.

"The only thing I can see why the HDI said what they did was to try to make the farmers look bad or not welcomed on the property," said Porter. "They're looking for a reason to shut the job down... to show their authority. That's my take on it."

The SNFA says it won't sign the lease because it doesn't recognize the HDI as a "legal entity."

But it hasn't signed a lease with the band council either.

The Burtch lands were successfully negotiated to be returned to the Confederacy by Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton in exchange for barricades coming down during the 2006 land reclamation.

Band Council and the HDI have since engaged in a verbal sparring match over which party the lands will be returned to when clean-up at the site is complete this September.

That will also be when the SNFA goes back to harvest their crops, said Porter. However, Detlor said the HDI is busy working out a lease arrangement with another group of Six Nations farmers who might actually take over harvesting the SNFA crops if the lease negotiations are successful.

"They would farm what's already there," Detlor said. Porter said he hopes the disagreements over Burtch will be solved by then, when the lands are slated to be returned to Six Nations.