Native blockades set for Monday, unless HST deal is sealed

Karen Howlett Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail

First nations leaders are ready to roll out blockades across Ontario even as they expect to reach an accord by Friday with Ottawa and the province to award their communities a major break under the new harmonized sales tax. The deal will save residents of native communities between $85-million and $120-million in the first year of the HST, according to a new study done by Fred Lazar, an associate economics professor at York University. However, it will also avert a series of protests just as world leaders descend on Ontario for next week’s G8 and G20 summits. The protests are set to kick off Monday morning with a blockade of the railway in Batchewana First Nation, a community of 2,400 near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Residents of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, a fly-in community 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, are also planning to participate in the blockade. But the HST protest will be called off once first nations leaders ink the tax deal with the federal and Ontario governments. Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse says he anticipates an announcement by Friday.