The screwy tale of Judge David Marshall

Those of you who don’t live in Canada probably haven’t yet heard of the stand-off between Iroquoian peoples and developers in Ontario.   The dispute concerns a piece of land called The Haldimand Tract, the jurisdiction of which is under dispute.   The Six Nations people who live nearby, and on whose traditional territory the land lies, moved to stop a housing development there five months ago, with the idea that until ownership over the land is settled, building houses wouldn’t be a good idea.

The dispute has been angry and a little violent, but recently, the provincial government and the traditional government of the Iroquois Confederacy have been in talks to resolve the situation.   The province bought the land in question and has moved to compensate some local businesses as well.   Conversation is the higher form of peace making, so this is all good.

But then yesterday a judge called David Marshall, inexplicably ordered the negotiations to end, and order the police to move in and arrest the indigenous people at the blockade.   This seems completely screwy to me.   Courts in Canada usually have to work hard to get governments to the table, not away from it.   In fact, the move is so unprecedented that the Ontario government has moved to appeal it.   The order has exacerbated the terrible strife between the indigenous and non-indigenous residents of the area.
What would lead a judge to order police to move in before negotiations, which were going well, by all accounts?   Could the fact that he owns land within the tract in question have anything to do with it?

I hope the appeal succeeds and the parties are allowed to negotiate again.   If not, it’s a sad day for Canadian justice, what little of it there is left for indigenous peoples here.