Mohawk activist cleared on charges in 2006 protest
Last Updated: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 | 1:29 AM ET
CBC News
Mohawk protester Shawn Brant was found not guilty on Monday on three charges of uttering threats at soldiers during a 2006 altercation at a demonstration.
A justice in Napanee, Ont., also cleared his co-accused Jerome Barnhart on two charges of uttering threats and one charge of mischief. A third man, Mario Baptiste Jr., was convicted of two counts of assault soldiers and one count of mischief for attacking a vehicle.
The three men were part of a group of several dozen Mohawks from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory that were part of a demonstration at land slated for a housing development near the eastern Ontario town of Deseronto.
Brant at the time said the demonstrators wanted to communicate to the government and the community their claim to the property, saying they never officially surrendered the property to the federal government.
The group says they were handing out pamphlets to motorists on a highway near Deseronto when a military convoy from Canadian Forces Base Borden tried to pass through.
Brant, 43, was the main organizer of a high-profile blockade of a highway and rail line in eastern Ontario last June 29 as part of a nationwide Aboriginal day of protest. He faces charges in connection with that blockade.
He said he believes the 2006 charges had an effect on his treatment when charged in that blockade and other protests.
"I know it weighed heavy on the judges when I was denied bail on two different occasions," he said.
Brant led a dissident group of Mohawk activists to set up barricades on Highway 2 and across a CN Rail line near Deseronto in eastern Ontario on June 29.
Threats of barricades also caused police to shut down a stretch of Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, before protesters had a chance to block it.
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