Aboriginal demonstrators who staged a blockade of a rail line in eastern Ontario last week over a land claim dumped four containers of what it called "toxic waste" on the front steps of the provincial legislature on Monday.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte claim to have evidence of illegal dumping of asphalt and building materials at a quarry near Deseronto. The group says the quarry site is legally theirs.
They say the provincial government has not lived up to commitments to aboriginals or the environment and must acknowledge their evidence of dumping.
More than four dozen aboriginals demanding a quick resolution joined in on Monday's protest, which began outside the offices of Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources.
They called on the province to revoke a licence granted to Thurlow Aggregates, which has been operating the gravel quarry.
The demonstrators called for an end to companies profiting off disputed aboriginal land.
"What we're here to do is ... bring evidence of the waste that was dumped illegally, and this is happening because there's been no response on the part of the ministry," said protestor Audrey Huntley, a member of the Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty.
Huntley said the garbage includes gas canisters, batteries, oil bins, building materials and chunks of old roads.
Aboriginal demonstrators blocked a CN freight and Via Rail passenger line with a school bus on Friday. Negotiations to end the blockade started almost right away. The demonstrators said from the start that it was intended to be a 48-hour blockade.
Train service was disrupted and more than a dozen passenger trains in the busy Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal triangle were stopped.
At issue was a developer's plan to build condominiums near Deseronto, on land claimed by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. The condominiums are planned for an area known as the Culbertson Land Tract.
The tract is on a parcel of land granted to the Six Nations in 1793 and the Mohawks claim they never surrendered any part of it. A land claim was filed for the property and was accepted as valid in 2003.
Initially, the demonstrators set up daylong barricades at the quarry outside Deseronto in November and again in January.
After 30 hours, the blockade was removed on Saturday and trains were again allowed to move along the tracks.
The federal government has appointed a land-claims negotiator to try to resolve the dispute. But Mohawk leader Shawn Brant has said the discussions are not moving fast enough.
With files from The Canadian Press
