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Dudley George
Inquiry
History of offensive
message revealed at Ipperwash probe
By CP, March 8, 2005
FOREST, Ont. -- Links in the
chain connecting former premier Mike Harris to a demand to clear
native occupiers from a provincial park were revealed yesterday
at the Ipperwash inquiry. Four people repeated the message "get
those f---ing Indians out of the park even if you have to draw
guns to do it," before it came to Kettle and Stony Point
Chief Tom Bressette on Sept. 6, 1995, just before native occupier
Dudley George was killed by a provincial police sniper, the inquiry
heard yesterday.
Robert Watts, a former assistant
deputy minister with the federal government, said he was told
it came from Harris and was presented at a high-level meeting
by his aide Deb Hutton.
That meeting was attended by
government employee Julie Jai, who told another employee, Leslie
Currie, before it came to him, Watts said.
Jai and Currie were employed
by the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat.
Currie had called Watts as
a friend and told him of the demand, Watts testified.
He "almost immediately"
telephoned the information to Bressette although it had his stomach
churning, Watts said.
Harris's lawyer Peter Downard
had demanded Watts name the person who called him, saying the
"absolutely false allegation" has been used in personal
and political attacks against Harris for over a decade.
Currie had been called "Witness
X" in testimony yesterday before Watts was ordered to name
her.
Bressette told the inquiry
last week that after Watts called him he had contacted a Sarnia,
Ont., radio reporter and the chief then went on the air to warn
the protesters to get out of the park and begin negotiations.
Watts had promised not to reveal
Currie's name. Shortly after the comment became public knowledge
there was a "witch hunt" within the government for
the person who passed on the comment, said Watts.
Justice Sidney Linden, who
is presiding over the inquiry, asked Watts for his source's name.
"We need to track this
down," said Linden.
James McDonald, a lawyer acting
for Currie, had requested her identity not be revealed.
Chief given warning
before George shot
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
March 3, 2005
FOREST -- Kettle Point chief
Tom Bressette testified yesterday he was warned just hours before
Dudley George was shot that premier Mike Harris had told a meeting:
"Get those effing Indians out of the park even if you have
to draw guns to do it." The warning was made to Bressette
in a telephone call from Bob Watts, a former provincial employee,
on Sept. 6, 1995, just hours before OPP officers marched on Ipperwash
Provincial Park.
Bressette said Watts told him
Harris had made the comment in "some kind of cabinet meeting."
When asked for the exact quote,
Bressette declined, saying he didn't want to use swear words
in relating what he was told the premier said.
The reported telephone conversation
is the closest Harris has been tied at the judicial inquiry into
the violent clash between natives occupying the park and the
police.
Dudley George, one of the native
occupiers, died after he was fired upon by an OPP officer.
Harris has always maintained
he had nothing to do with the police action at the park.
Yesterday, Harris's lawyer,
Peter Downard, said Harris will testify at the inquiry that he
never gave such an order.
"It is not true, not for
one second," Downard said outside the hearing.
He called the evidence of Harris's
alleged instructions "very low-grade quality information
that would ordinarily never see the light of day in a legal proceeding."
"I can tell you when the
premier testifies that he is going to say very clearly that he
did not say what is attributed to him," Downard said.
Bressette testified that Watts
had learned about the premier's comments from someone inside
the meeting.
He had told Watts he would
keep his identity confidential, but Watts released him from the
commitment a few months ago, he said.
Watts has been contacted by
the inquiry and will be testifying about the comments, chief
inquiry counsel Derry Millar said yesterday.
Watts is expected to be called
to the inquiry next week. Before 1995, he had worked in the Ontario
Native Affairs Secretariat.
Bressette was so concerned
when he heard the warning from Watts that he immediately called
a Sarnia radio station and went on the air to tell natives occupying
the park they should get out of there.
After the shooting of Dudley
George, Bressette was part of a group of native leaders, including
national chief Ovide Mercredi, who drove to Toronto to confront
Harris.
When they arrived at his office,
they were told the premier wouldn't meet with them, but they
refused to leave, Bressette testified.
When Harris finally did walk
into the room with Attorney General Charles Harnick, Bressette
said it was strange.
"The first thing he said
was 'Let me be very clear, I didn't tell anybody to kill anybody.'
That was the first thing that came out of his mouth."
Bressette said Harris was leaning
with his hands on a table and when he lifted his hands you could
see the imprints on the table.
"That's how perspiring
his hands were . . . he really looked nervous."
Harris just kept repeating
he had nothing to do with the events at Ipperwash and it was
a police matter, Bressette said.
In other developments at the
inquiry yesterday, tapes of phone conversations between Bressette
and the police commander during the Ipperwash occupation were
played.
In one conversation the day
before the shooting, Bressette is told by Acting Supt. John Carson
that police wanted to avoid people jumping to the conclusion
they were going to be "heavy handed."
"We're going to try and
control the access to the park in the short term and they're
going to have the opportunity to leave, but they are going to
be dealt with as trespassers," Carson said.
In another call shortly after
George was killed, Bressette asks why the police operation was
done in the dark.
"Why isn't this being
done in the daylight, John?" Bressette asks.
"Tom, I don't think this
is the time to debate this," Carson replied.
After the shooting, Bressette
said he had to keep world war three from breaking out in the
community with elders afraid the police were going to attack.
He said there is still fear
of the OPP today.
- Harris plans to deny
reports
Allegations about Ipperwash raised
`Fourth-hand'
gun order questioned
HAROLD LEVY, Toronto Star
STAFF REPORTER, Mar. 3, 2005
Forest, ONT.-Former pemier
Michael Harris will "absolutely" deny allegations that
he told a high-level meeting at Queen's Park 12 hours before
native protestor Dudley George was killed to "get those
f------ Indians out of the park even if you have to draw your
guns to do it," his lawyer says.
Lawyer Peter Downard was responding
to evidence given to the Ipperwash inquiry yesterday by Kettle
and Stony Point Chief Tom Bressette. Bressette said that around
11 a.m. on Sept. 6, 1995, he received a call from a contact at
Queen's Park, who reported that he had learned about the alleged
statements from another person who was at the meeting.
The inquiry is looking into
the circumstances surrounding the death of Dudley George during
a lethal confrontation between Ontario Provincial Police officers
and about three dozen demonstrators who occupied the park after
the close of the tourist season to protest the desecration of
ancestral burial grounds in the park. Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane
was later convicted of criminal negligence causing George's death.
Bressette told Commissioner
Sidney B. Linden that after receiving that call he contacted
a local radio station and went on the air to warn the demonstrators
to get out of the park.
Bressette identified the contact
as Bob Watts, a former employee of the Ontario Native Affairs
Secretariat. Inquiry counsel Derry Millar said Watts has confirmed
he made the call to Bressette. Watts is expected to testify.
Downard told reporters outside
the inquiry that Harris had been tarnished with "very low-grade
quality information that ordinarily would never have seen the
light of day in a legal proceeding."
"All of the facts that
we are aware of so far are at least fourth-hand," he said.
"And I can tell you that when the premier testifies he is
going to say very clearly that he absolutely did not say what
was attributed to him."
The inquiry resumes this morning.
Harris to deny contentious
comments
Broadcast News, March 03,
2005
FOREST -- A lawyer for Mike
Harris says the former premier will deny comments he's alleged
to have made before a fatal 1995 confrontation between police
and native protesters in Ipperwash park.
Lawyer Peter Downard was responding
to evidence given to the Ipperwash inquiry yesterday by Kettle
and Stony Point chief Tom Bressette.
Harris allegedly used an obscenity
and said he wanted native protesters out of the park near Sarnia
-- quote: ``even if you have to draw your guns to do it.''
Bressette said a contact from
the legislature reported in September 1995 that he had learned
about the alleged statements from another person who was at the
meeting.
Harris is alleged to have made
the comments at a high-level meeting at the legislature 12 hours
before a native protester was killed.
The inquiry is looking into
events surrounding the death of Dudley George, who was killed
by an O-P-P officer in the confrontation.
- Politics cited in
native death
- Chief says OPP said
they were under pressure to get natives out of Ipperwash.
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
February 25, 2005
FOREST -- High-ranking provincial
police officers said at a meeting two days after protester Dudley
George was slain that they were under political pressure to get
native occupiers out of Ipperwash Provincial Park, an inquiry
heard yesterday. Miles Bressette, chief of the Kettle Point native
police force at the time, testified yesterday he attended a debriefing
meeting Sept. 8, 1995, in Grand Bend after the fatal clash between
OPP and natives.
The OPP at the meeting said
there had been pressure from cottagers, people who camped in
the area and "levels of government" to remove the protesters,
Bressette said.
A group of natives moved into
the park Sept. 4, 1995, to safeguard what they said was an ancestral
burial ground.
Dudley George was killed by
a police officer on Sept. 6, 1995, when OPP riot officers and
members of the tactical team marched on the provincial park in
the night.
In calling for the judicial
inquiry into the killing, members of the George family have alleged
the Ontario government ordered the police to remove the natives,
a charge that was vehemently denied by former premier Mike Harris.
Bressette testified that OPP
Chief Supt. Chris Coles, who has since retired, was at the Grand
Bend meeting and may have been the one who mentioned the government
pressure.
Although Ontario Provincial
Police officers disclosed there was political pressure, they
did not specify which levels of government were involved, Bressette
said.
Under cross-examination by
OPP lawyer Andrea Tuck-Jackson, Bressette agreed he didn't know
if the police decision to march on the park was actually triggered
by the government pressure.
Bressette said the OPP officers
at the meeting were well aware there was potential for "extreme
violence" after the killing of Dudley George and wanted
to reassure natives they had no intention of trying to force
them out of the nearby army camp.
Even after the shooting, cottagers
and local politicians were pressuring the OPP to force the natives
out of the park, Bressette said.
"There was still pressure,
but the OPP were not going to respond to that," he said.
Bressette told the inquiry
there had been tensions between the native police at Kettle Point
and the Ontario Provincial Police.
He said in one incident after
Kettle Point police ticketed non-natives for speeding, the local
OPP commander warned him: "If your people are going to charge
my people, I will send my people down to charge your people."
On another occasion, Bressette
said he attended a meeting of police sergeants in Chatham where
an OPP inspector, who was a native, was speaking.
Bressette said several sergeants
said if their education had been paid for like his, they would
be up there speaking instead.
Copyright © The London
Free Press
Native police ignored
PETER EDWARDS, Toronto Star,
STAFF REPORTER, Feb. 25, 2005
FOREST, Ont.-Local native police
officers should have been consulted to help resolve a 1995 standoff
between Ontario Provincial Police and native protestors before
activist Anthony (Dudley) George was shot dead, an inquiry heard
yesterday.
But Miles Bressette, former
police chief of the Kettle and Stony Point band, told an inquiry
into George's death that native officers weren't consulted when
the OPP drafted their plan for dealing with the protest.
"I think I probably would
have been able to help out," Bressette told Katherine Hensel,
a lawyer for the public inquiry.
Bressette and Wallace Kaczanowski,
an officer in the Kettle and Stony Point band police force, both
testified yesterday that officers in their seven-member band
police force knew the protestors, and might have been able to
communicate with them. "I would think that would be a very
good source of communications and a negotiating tool and that
was overlooked," Kaczanowski testified.
Bressette also told the inquiry
yesterday that at a de-briefing of police at Grand Bend on Sept.
8, 1995, senior OPP officers said there was political pressure
to remove the protestors from the park after George was shot.
He didn't say which government
or officials wanted the protestors removed or exactly when that
pressure was applied.
However, he agreed with OPP
lawyer Andrea Tuck-Jackson that there was no indication at the
Sept. 8 meeting that police marched on the park late at night
on Sept. 6 because of government pressure.
- The inquiry continues before
Mr. Justice Sidney Linden.
-
- Politics cited in native
death
- Chief says OPP said
they were under pressure to get natives out of Ipperwash.
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter
February 25, 2005
FOREST -- High-ranking provincial
police officers said at a meeting two days after protester Dudley
George was slain that they were under political pressure to get
native occupiers out of Ipperwash Provincial Park, an inquiry
heard yesterday. Miles Bressette, chief of the Kettle Point native
police force at the time, testified yesterday he attended a debriefing
meeting Sept. 8, 1995, in Grand Bend after the fatal clash between
OPP and natives.
The OPP at the meeting said
there had been pressure from cottagers, people who camped in
the area and "levels of government" to remove the protesters,
Bressette said.
A group of natives moved into
the park Sept. 4, 1995, to safeguard what they said was an ancestral
burial ground.
Dudley George was killed by
a police officer on Sept. 6, 1995, when OPP riot officers and
members of the tactical team marched on the provincial park in
the night.
In calling for the judicial
inquiry into the killing, members of the George family have alleged
the Ontario government ordered the police to remove the natives,
a charge that was vehemently denied by former premier Mike Harris.
Bressette testified that OPP
Chief Supt. Chris Coles, who has since retired, was at the Grand
Bend meeting and may have been the one who mentioned the government
pressure.
Although Ontario Provincial
Police officers disclosed there was political pressure, they
did not specify which levels of government were involved, Bressette
said.
Under cross-examination by
OPP lawyer Andrea Tuck-Jackson, Bressette agreed he didn't know
if the police decision to march on the park was actually triggered
by the government pressure.
Bressette said the OPP officers
at the meeting were well aware there was potential for "extreme
violence" after the killing of Dudley George and wanted
to reassure natives they had no intention of trying to force
them out of the nearby army camp.
Even after the shooting, cottagers
and local politicians were pressuring the OPP to force the natives
out of the park, Bressette said.
"There was still pressure,
but the OPP were not going to respond to that," he said.
Bressette told the inquiry
there had been tensions between the native police at Kettle Point
and the Ontario Provincial Police.
He said in one incident after
Kettle Point police ticketed non-natives for speeding, the local
OPP commander warned him: "If your people are going to charge
my people, I will send my people down to charge your people."
On another occasion, Bressette
said he attended a meeting of police sergeants in Chatham where
an OPP inspector, who was a native, was speaking.
Bressette said several sergeants
said if their education had been paid for like his, they would
be up there speaking instead.
Local reaction to Ipperwash
hearings focuses on police relations in Kenora
By Mike Aiken, Miner and
News, February 24, 2005
Ontario Regional Chief Charles
Fox called for improved relations between First Nations and police
during Ipperwash Inquiry hearings Thursday in Kenora.
Fox referred to the beating
death of Max Kakegamic four years ago in the city as part of
a list of high profile cases across Canada that have contributed
to strained relations between aboriginal communities and law
enforcement.
"Why is that particular
issue there. How do we deal with that issue," asked Fox,
as Kakegamic's parents looked on.
Ipperwash commissioners are
investigating the shooting death of Dudley George in 1995, during
a protest over land claims at a provincial park in southern Ontario.
The Kakegamic family continues
to call for a public inquiry, in hopes that their son's killer
can be found. While Kenora police arrested a suspect, the charges
were stayed in court by the judge who cited misconduct by investigating
officers.
"In Kenora, the First
Nations people have every right to feel unsafe knowing the person
responsible remains free to this day," said Treaty 3 Grand
Chief Arnold Gardner.
Treaty 9 Grand Chief Stan Beardy
noted everyone involved had a responsibility to ensure residents
feel safe in Ontario, adding the Kakegamic family doesn't feel
enough is being done to catch their son's killer.
Adding insult to injury, his
mother, Margaret Kakegamic, said she recently received an invoice
from the province demanding her late son pay an overdue fine.
The bureaucrat refused to believe her son was deceased, which
only made the situation worse, she added.
Mary Alice Smith, spokesman
for the Anishinabe Peace and Justice Coalition in Kenora, said
Kakegamic's killer would have been found by now if the victim
had been the son of a prominent politician or business leader.
She added she wasn't optimistic another public inquiry would
help, saying another report wasn't likely to change things.
Treaty 3 recently embarked
on a three-year research project, which is meant to lay the foundation
for its own judicial system and reduce allegations of systemic
racism in Kenora District.
Wabaseemoong First Nation Chief
Ron Roy McDonald said he was very dissatisfied with police service
provided to band members. The community of 800 is 90 minutes
northwest of Kenora, but McDonald said he had received complaints
of assaults by police against his members relating to all three
area police services, the OPP, Treaty 3 Police Service and Kenora
Police Service.
The chief called for direct
action after he listed a number of other complaints. They included
a lack of support by law enforcement agents in his campaign against
solvent smugglers, the unsolved deaths of band members and a
perception of conflict of interest relating to the province's
Special Investigations Unit, which recently investigated the
shooting death of a teenaged boy on nearby Grassy Narrows First
Nation.
Treaty 3 Police Deputy Chief
Wally McLeod said they had tried to arrange meetings with McDonald
to discuss his concerns, but without success to date.
Kenora OPP detachment commander,
Staff Sgt. Don Denver, also said it was the first he'd heard
of these allegations by the chief against any of his officers,
adding he hoped to arrange a meeting in the near future to address
McDonald's concerns.
Treaty 3 Police Service is
still in the process of taking over responsibilities from the
OPP, as it moves to provide full aboriginal law enforcement to
First Nations in Northwestern Ontario.
The police service, as well
as the NeChee Street Patrol, were created in response to longstanding
concerns in Kenora.
- Sam George asks to testify
in Toronto Ipperwash probe gets little press
- Brother asks for
temporary shift
PETER EDWARDS, STAFF REPORTER,
Feb. 24, 2005
FOREST, Ont.-The inquiry into
the death of native activist Anthony (Dudley) George has been
asked to shift public hearings briefly from this tiny town to
Toronto, out of respect for George's older brother, Maynard (Sam)
George.
Justice Sidney Linden said
he'll decide by early next week on the request by Sam George
to testify in Toronto, where his words might get a better hearing
from government officials, the media and the general public.
Lead commission counsel Derry
Millar yesterday said he supported George's request, in large
part because of his respect for him. George fought for more than
eight years for the inquiry to be held.
All the hearings to date have
been held in the hockey rink in Forest, a 15-minute drive from
Ipperwash Provincial Park on Lake Huron, where Dudley George
was shot to death by Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane of the Ontario
Provincial Police on Sept. 6, 1995.
Elder Clifford George, 84,
told the inquiry yesterday that he opposed the temporary move,
saying many in the community would not be able to go for health
or financial reasons.
"We don't have the money
to travel here and there," said Clifford George, a second
cousin and former neighbour of Dudley George.
Douglas Sulman, lawyer for
former local Tory MPP Marcel Beaubien, objected strongly to moving
the inquiry because of Sam George's request, saying this would
lead to chaos while catering to Toronto-based media. The Toronto
Star and Sarnia Observer have been the only media
outlets to attend the majority of the daily hearings.
"If the CBC can broadcast
from remote areas like Baghdad and Afghanistan, they certainly
can broadcast from less remote areas like Forest and Walkerton,"
Sulman argued.
The inquiry continues.
Promises frustrated Ipperwash
natives
CP , February 22, 2005
FOREST -- Government promises
only delivered frustration to First Nations people trying to
regain lost territory during the mid-1990s, the Ipperwash inquiry
heard yesterday. "Frustration was always there," said
Carl Tolsma, a Kettle and Stony Point native who devised a plan
to occupy the former Ipperwash army camp in the spring of 1993.
The camp and the adjacent provincial
park were regarded as native land unjustly taken by the federal
government.
A 1980 federal government payment
of $2.5 million "wasn't a settlement of everything. It was
back rent," he said.
Copyright © The London
Free Press
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
