Can Victims Of Extortion Ever Be Adequately Compensated

I don't think so but the provincial government has a different perspective when it comes to dealing with homegrown terrorists.......

Caledonia households get $430K in aid
Residents, critics call province's compensation `pathetic'
March 20, 2007
Rob Ferguson
Queen's Park Bureau

More than a year after their lives were thrown into turmoil by the native occupation of a housing development, 135 households in Caledonia will split $430,000 in aid from the province.

Municipal Affairs Minister John Gerretsen made the announcement yesterday, but the money falls short of the $2 million Haldimand County Mayor Marie Trainer has been seeking.

Homeowners closest to the troubles at the Douglas Creek estates will get between $2,000 and $6,000 each for enduring everything from road blockades to nighttime disruptions and a heavy provincial police presence that has cost taxpayers about $40 million.

"It's for the distress and the anxiety and the pain and suffering that these families have gone through," Gerretsen said in an interview, calling the offer "fair compensation."

But opposition critics and at least one resident were not impressed with the cash, which follows a promise of compensation made last spring.

"That's the best they can come up with?" Christine Neill, who runs the Home `N Hearth shop on Argyle St. in Caledonia, told Canadian Press.

"Just the amount of emotional (suffering), the value of their homes ... it's just everything that people have been through here. That is almost like spitting into their face."

Gerretsen said "that certainly wasn't the intent."

The money is "pathetic," said Progressive Conservative leader John Tory, who has visited Caledonia several times. "It nowhere comes close to recognizing the diminished property values these people have seen. It nowhere comes close to recognizing ... the suffering they've gone through, the disruption to their lives."

Trainer said she was "disappointed" with the settlements.

Owners of the 20 homes closest to the troubled area will get $6,000 each, with another 80 nearby houses receiving $3,000 and $2,000 for the owners of another 35 homes.

Gerretsen called on the federal government, which has the lead responsibility for negotiating the land claim with the occupiers from the Six Nations, to join the province in offering compensation. The province is not planning to boost its offer.

"We feel that that's it for now," Gerretsen said, acknowledging that a residents' group it consulted in setting the compensation was not in agreement with the total being handed out.

Since the crisis began more than a year ago, the province has given area businesses $1.4 million in financial assistance to make up for revenues lost when roads were blocked.

Haldimand County has also received $210,000 to help with marketing efforts and $100,000 for counselling of residents.