DESERONTO, Ont. - Mohawk demonstrator Shawn Brant says there will be someone to fill his shoes if he ends up in jail after turning himself in to police later this week.
Brant, who led blockades of roads and a railway in eastern Ontario during last week's aboriginal day of action, declined Tuesday to name the man who will help lead the group of Mohawk protesters.
Brant said he plans to turn himself over to Ontario Provincial Police in Napanee, Ont., on Thursday morning and then attend a bail hearing that afternoon. But it's unlikely he'll get out on bail.
Brant, who has previously done jail time for his militant protests, had already been out on bail on previous charges in connection with a 30-hour blockade of the CN rail line near Deseronto, Ont., on April 20.
A warrant has also been issued for Brant's arrest on a charge of mischief, which carries a range of sentence from two to 10 years under the Criminal Code. Brant agreed to surrender to police last week.
But that's the cost of standing up for his convictions, he said.
"In our community, people are as proud and as happy as I've ever seen them in my life," he said.
Last Friday's protest, which shut down Canada's busiest highway for 11 hours and closed rail lines near Deseronto, was a "tremendous success," he added.
"It was something that needed to be done and brought forward to demonstrate our strength and our convictions, and I think our people did it with courage as well as discipline," he said.
"I'm personally proud because it's my job to bring the guys home and bring them home safely, and I was able to do that."
Brant, who has been living since March at a gravel quarry on disputed land near Deseronto, said he'll spend his remaining free time with his children and fellow protesters.
He's also spoken with Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Ontario Provincial Police Chief Julian Fantino.
"I certainly have a lot of respect for the man," Brant said of Fantino. "I do for anyone that's as worthy an adversary, and he's obviously committed, and his convictions are strong.
"I have a greater appreciation for his job than I certainly did before."
Brant's protests began in response to a developer's plan to build condominiums on land called the Culbertson Land Tract, the subject of a land claim accepted by the federal government for negotiation in 2003.
The basis of the Mohawk claim is that no part of the tract was ever given up and that it was illegally taken in 1832.
