Man vows to re-start Riding Mountain occupation

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This article was published 17/12/2022 (1036 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wesley Bone has vowed to return to Lake Audy after he was evicted from the Riding Mountain National Park site last month, sparking concerns among some area residents.

“The Lake Audy occupation never ended,” Bone told the Brandon Sun three weeks after Parks Canada cleared his tent-cabin hybrid and belongings from Lake Audy. “We’re going back there with 30 to 35 men and women and we’re not leaving.”

Bone claims the Lake Audy site in which he moved onto in 2019 is the tribal land of the Okanese people. Now called Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, the Okanese lived in the area around Wasagaming in the Little Saskatchewan River valley, hunting and fishing. Historically, the band hunted for buffalo southwest of Riding Mountain.

In 1896, the federal government gave land near Clear Lake to Keeseekoowenin. In 1935, the government took the land back to create a national park, forcibly relocating them to a reserve outside the park boundary. In 1994, the land was returned to Keeseekoowenin along with a $4.9-million settlement.

Bone, who said he doesn’t recognize modern treaties or the Indian Act, claims the site is an old village of the Okanese band, who never made any treaty with the Crown.

“We have right of occupancy,” he said.

A Parks Canada spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that items belonging to private citizens were removed from where Bone was staying and “respectfully packaged” and that Parks Canada had contacted him to retrieve the items. Bone, however, claimed park wardens took his belongings.

“They broke into a place where we hold all our ceremonial pipes and rattles,” he said. “We were not there at the time that they went in.”

Bone was arrested by park wardens at the Co-op gas station in Strathclair, 54 km southwest of Riding Mountain, in November.

“Parks wardens acted within their authority when they issued a notice to appear to Wesley Irwin Bone outside a gas station in Strathclair, in connection with some of the items seized as evidence,” Parks Canada said Thursday.

Bone was charged with Criminal Code violations in connection with items that were seized from his dwelling, Parks Canada said, and he was released with conditions. Parks Canada didn’t disclose the charges.

Manitoba RCMP didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Since 2020, two dozen residents of the Lake Audy area have asked Parks Canada to remove Bone.

Darla Krupa, a spokesperson for the residents, told the Sun they are concerned about his possible return.

“He was such a pest that (campers) literally packed up their stuff and left,” Krupa said. “You can’t tell me that doesn’t affect the community.”

Residents have been patient with Bone so far, Krupa said, despite friction. They allege he has threatened them.

She said residents are unhappy Parks Canada didn’t warn them Bone’s belongings were being removed.

“Not one phone call was given to the residents to give them the heads-up,” she said. “We were in jeopardy.”

Bone disputed this claim: “There’s never been any gun violence.”

Krupa’s group has requested increased surveillance in the area.

Bone said he and his supporters will be back in the area, though he said their guns will be used only for hunting.

“We’re going to be there during the holidays and after and forever. Whatever Parks Canada decides to do, to come in there with blazing guns, then it’s going to be another Oka. That’s what’s coming.”

The Oka crisis involved a land dispute and 78-day standoff between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Que., in 1990. A police officer died in the conflict.

— Brandon Sun