Boy, if I’ve ever had to be cautious about blogging it is today.  I totally understand that what I am about to write about it a delicate matter but I feel that something has to be said here.

As some of you know, Highway Church was placed strategically between two towns. Hagersville (yes… the Hagersville Tire Fire) and the other town has been in the news a little lately… Caledonia. When Kerry and I moved here we bought a house around 300m from the disputed land claim site and within months were thrown into a whirlwind of police, natives, residents, power outages, helicopters, roadblocks, violence precipitated by anger, rage, bitterness, arrogance, racism, and ignorance - on both sides. We have subsequently moved; not due to the land claims issue - we actually live closer to the Grand River than we did before, we just found another house we liked.

These past 2+ years have been extremely eye-opening for me and I have been very surprised as to how people act… and react to what they perceive and perhaps do not know. I have seen people during the height of the stand-off bent on ‘taking the law into their own hands’. I have also seen our provincial police officers do the best that they can with the mandates that they have been given.

I guess the reason why I am writing is because of the latest article I saw on the CBC website see link where our Aboriginal Affairs minister noted that “peace is being restored in the southern Ontario community of Caledonia.” I don’t know much about the power and authority that Michael Bryant has but I can tell you that in the years that I have been here, I have yet to see someone (or someones) who have the ability to control the chaos that is going on here… on the streets, on the highways… and most of all in the hearts of BOTH communities thrown in the middle of the ring here… native AND residents.

I think that most Canadians would agree that unfortunately, for whatever reason, our government has made agreements that they have not fulfilled with some native land claims. This is unfortunate and really, our government needs to fulfill their obligations. It’s the right thing to do.

I do however find it hard to send my kids to school where on every wall and on every piece of literature sent home we see ‘anti-bullying’ paraphernalia yet it seems to me like that is exactly what our government is tolerating - and just like bullying, nothing changes until SOMETHING changes.

In my humble opinion, I feel that Mr. Bryant’s words would be better translated “we’re taking down this  barricade and we will see some semblance of peace until such time that persons (from either side) will react to something again and start the whole process all over again.”

If you are going to ‘bring peace’ then both parties need to ensure that there are qualified, and mandated peace-’keepers’ as well as if the conditions warrant them, peace-’makers’.

Through it all, I believe in the power of prayer. I have learned in life that many of the things that concern me are also things that cannot be changed by me. So, I have turned to the One who can change not only circumstances, but how ‘I’ react to those circumstances.

It is unfortunate that I disagree with Mr. Bryant. I do not believe that the removal of these barricades will bring peace.  So, instead of putting my faith in him, or others, I choose to put my faith in Christ. Last time I checked, they referred to Him as the ‘Prince of Peace’.

At least, that’s how I see it.

Craig