A Tyendinaga man faces numerous charges after a lengthy police chase Friday ended with a pickup truck rolling over, spilling contraband cigarettes across Highway 401.
The pursuit ended west of Kingston at the Westbrook Road overpass as the blue and grey Chevrolet hit a guardrail and rolled.
Police said charges against Charles Kloetstra, 39, of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory include flight from police, dangerous driving, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, forcible confinement, possession of illegal tobacco, breach of probation and two counts each of assault with a weapon and assaulting police.
A female passenger in the vehicle was taken to Kingston General Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and released.
Sgt. Kristine Rae said the chase began in Merrickville, east of Smiths Falls, around 11:20 a.m. The man driving the vehicle wouldn't stop for Ontario Provincial Police, Rae said.
As the truck entered Smiths Falls, police called off their pursuit.
But a trail of cigarette debris let them follow the truck's path, Rae said, and they resumed their chase on Highway 15.
Officers deployed a spike belt but the truck kept moving.
Police halted their pursuit as the truck entered Kingston's city limits. Officers again gave chase when the pickup pulled into the westbound lanes of Highway 401.
"As an OPP vehicle came up beside the suspect, the driver veered into the other lane and struck the OPP vehicle," said Rae. "The suspect lost control, struck the guardrail and rolled, causing more contraband cigarettes to scatter across the east and westbound lanes."
The rollover resulted in lane closures Friday between Kingston's Highway 38 exit and Wilton Road in Odessa. Traffic was routed south to Highway 2 as police investigated the scene.
The distance between Merrickville and Kingston using the Highway 15 route is approximately 112 km.
John Boyle of Portland, Ont. travels Highway 15 regularly to shop in Smiths Falls.
He had left his home at 11:30 a.m. Friday and was driving north along Highway 15 when he noticed the debris scattered along the road near Otter Lake, south of Smiths Falls.
"The road was damn-near paved with cigarettes," he said.
"Then coming the other way, heading south, there were about four or five OPP cars, with their lights flashing, one right after the other."
As he returned home, Boyle said, other drivers were clamouring for the illegal goods.
"Every once in a while you'd come to a rather heavy concentration ... rather than just strewn about," he said.
"That's where you'd have cars parked, and both men and women with bags (who) were picking up their freebie cigarettes."
The OPP, aided by the Kingston detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are still investigating.
No further information on the investigation was available by press time Sunday.
Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte Chief R. Donald Maracle said the case has revived the issue of non-band members residing on the territory. Canada's Indian Act requires anyone who isn't a status Indian to obtain a permit to live on a reserve.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte have had 17 different residency bylaws. Maracle said that number is indicative of the amount of controversy involved.
Kloetstra was banned from the reserve several years ago by way of council resolution by the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte. Regardless of the outcome of the cigarette incident, said Maracle, the man is not welcome on the reserve.
"Chuck Kloetstra is not a band member," Maracle said.
The resolution banning Kloetstra from the reserve is due to a previous incident involving the "safety of the community" there, Maracle said. It predated Kloetstra's arrest during a scuffle with police last year at the Skyway Bridge.
Charges from that incident led to his probation order. Maracle said he understood Kloetstra had since won an amendment from the court allowing him to live on the reserve.
"The resolution still stands as far as the band is concerned," said the chief. "The council has not rescinded that motion."
Maracle said the situation is another example of Belleville courts not recognizing the band's authority or consulting band council -- and when the court doesn't recognize council wishes, police won't enforce them.
"The court is not upholding the law," said Maracle. "The council doesn't make these kinds of decisions willy-nilly. It's usually information that's brought to the council table by police.
"There are other cases. The council is going to be asking for a meeting with the court administrator."
He said the reserve's police force has had run-ins with "a significant number of non-band members.
"There's a lot of concern in the community for a residency bylaw because of the types of things that are happening," Maracle said. "There's a lot of prowling by night with intent to cause harm."
If too many non-band members are involved in disturbances, said Maracle, "then I think we have to ask ourselves, 'Are they an asset or a liability here?'
"We don't have the police capacity here to contend with those kinds of disturbances."