|
| Background
on Dudly George | Reports
from this inquiry | Previous
from inquiry |
interview
with Peter Edwards on Rabble | Neil
Stonechild Inquiry | Previous reports(Stonechild) | The 1988 shooting of J.J. Harper |
2004: Tasering Randy Fryingpan | 2005:
Shooting Matthew Dumas |
< < < Previous| Reports
February 2005) |
Dudley George
Inquiry 2 (2005)
Ont. gov't mum on Ipperwash
burial ground
By COLIN PERKEL, May 12,
2005
TORONTO (CP) - The Ontario
government decided against mentioning that Ipperwash Provincial
Park was being claimed as a burial ground in applying for a court
injunction to evict natives occupying the land, according to
notes taken by a provincial lawyer on the day Dudley George was
shot dead.
The handwritten notes were
taken by the lawyer with the Attorney General's Ministry as police
and top political figures discussed getting an emergency injunction.
"We will not mention burial
grounds," the lawyer cited an as-yet unidentified speaker
as saying during the meeting on Sept. 6, 1995.
The notes also indicate the
deputy attorney general warned the cabinet of former premier
Mike Harris "about rushing in" with a special injunction.
"But premier and (then-natural
resources minister Chris) Hodgson came out strong," the
notes say.
First filed with the courts
during civil-suit hearings that were later abandoned, the documents
have also been filed with the public inquiry looking into George's
death but have not yet been subject to any examination at the
hearings.
Murray Klippenstein, a lawyer
for the family, said Thursday his clients chose to put the documents
on their new website to add context to testimony given at the
inquiry over the past few days.
"What we're doing is tying
things together," Klippenstein said in an interview.
Deputy commissioner John Carson,
who was the incident commander on the scene at the time, has
testified at the inquiry in Forest, Ont., that police would normally
have required a court order before removing the natives.
The notes indicate that on
the morning of Sept. 6, 1995, a senior government lawyer said
there were no grounds for what is known as an "ex-parte
injunction."
Klippenstein said knowing that
the occupied land was a burial ground would have been an important
piece of information for the court to consider in making a decision
on the injunction.
However, later that afternoon,
after a meeting on Ipperwash at which Harris was present, that
changed.
That same night, even before
they could obtain the injunction, police moved in on the park
and George was killed.
The George family has long
argued police abandoned their usual wait-see approach under direct
political pressure from the premier's office.
Harris has strenuously denied
exerting any pressure on police to evict the natives, and his
lawyers have challenged the accuracy of the notes.
Harris's lawyer, Peter Downard,
was not immediately available to comment Thursday.
The notes also cite Harris's
top aide, Deb Hutton, as saying the premier wanted the natives
out quickly even though police argued there was no rush because
the park was closed.
"Premier feels the longer
they occupy it, the longer more support (the protesters) will
get," the notes read.
"He wants them out in
a day or two."
In response, Ron Fox, then
a police liaison with the Ministry of the Solicitor General,
noted the issue was a land dispute that involved "mischief
- not a 'heavy-duty' charge,' " and urged a more moderate
approach.
"Feels it's imprudent
to rush in," the notes state.
Fox is scheduled to testify
at the inquiry at the end of the month.
In testimony Thursday, Carson
said Ontario Provincial Police officers posed as campers in the
park for more than a month to monitor the actions of native occupiers
in the area.
"We had a couple of officers
who literally camped in Ipperwash for the month of August,"
Carson testified.
"The campsite moved several
times to give the impression of people leaving and people coming,
as campers do."
Commission counsel Derry Miller
asked Carson if he was aware some of the occupiers knew or were
at least suspicious about the presence of undercover police.
"I would question that,"
Carson replied.
Carson is expected to comment
on the shooting of George early next week, which is also when
audio tapes of conversations between Carson and a colleague at
the Ontario legislature are expected to be released.
Originally slated to be released
this week, the tapes have been labelled by some lawyers as "explosive"
and are said to explain why George was killed.
The inquiry resumes Monday.
IPPERWASH MAIN ACTORS
AWAIT OPP COMMANDER'S TESTIMONY
By Timothy Appleby, Thursday,
May 12, 2005
FOREST, ONT. -- When Deputy
OPP Commissioner John Carson returns to the Ipperwash inquiry's
witness chair this morning, the main actors in the long-running
saga will be waiting with acute interest.
None more so than former Ontario
premier Mike Harris.
Mr. Carson commanded the provincial
police unit whose late-night foray into native-occupied Ipperwash
provincial park in 1995 ended in disaster, with one unarmed Indian
shot dead and two wounded.
Since then, unravelling the
tangle of events has become a mini-industry in this corner of
Southwestern Ontario. The OPP sniper who killed Anthony (Dudley)
George was convicted of criminal negligence causing death; assorted
lawsuits have been filed; thousands of news stories and television
clips have been aired; last July, overseen by Mr. Justice Sidney
Linden, the much-awaited inquiry finally got under way.
Yet one ugly question lingers:
Who was ultimately responsible for the heavy-handed, seemingly
hasty police action? Absent any clear signs of an emergency,
why didn't police follow the guidelines of every crisis-management
seminar and simply contain the situation and wait things out?
Tape recordings expected to
be played at the inquiry this morning may provide answers. Conversations
between Mr. Carson and OPP colleague Inspector Ron Fox, who served
at Queen's Park as police-government liaison on aboriginal issues,
could either support or undercut the Dudley George camp's view
that the violence reflected political pressure from the premier's
office. Now retired from politics, Mr. Harris has always strenuously
rejected that charge, insisting the OPP's operation at Ipperwash
had nothing to do with him.
Court documents and exhibits
filed at the inquiry, however, paint a picture of high-level
interest in the events on the shores of Lake Huron almost 10
years ago.
Mr. George was fatally shot
at around 11 p.m. on Sept. 6, 1995. About nine hours earlier,
fresh from cabinet-level meetings, Insp. Fox spoke to Mr. Carson,
also an inspector at the time and commander of the OPP's Forest
detachment.
A partial transcript of that
conversation shows Insp. Fox telling Mr. Carson that Mr. Harris
believed "he could direct the OPP and the actions it would
take in regard to the park occupation."
At another point in the same
conversation, Insp. Fox informed Mr. Carson that the government
was "questioning the actions of the OPP in not preventing
the take-over of the provincial park."
Court records show that on
the same day -- Sept. 6 -- Insp. Fox had another conversation,
this time with Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat lawyer Julie
Jai.
He had just come from a meeting
in Mr. Harris's office, dealing specifically with Ipperwash,
and he apprised Ms. Jai of the government's plan to seek an ex
parte (emergency) court injunction ordering the occupiers
out of the park.
Ms. Jai's notes of that conversation
include this entry: Deputy attorney-general Larry Taman, she
wrote, "cautioned about rushing in with an ex parte injunction,
and can't interfere with police discretion, but Premier [Mike
Harris] and [Minister of Natural Resources Chris] Hodgson came
out strong."
Mr. Taman seemed well aware
of the Premier's views. In a handwritten note the same day, he
wrote: "AG [Attorney-General Charles Harnick] instructed
by P [Premier Harris] that he desires removal within 24 hours."
If Mr. Harris was taking an
uncompromising line, he appears to have adopted it at least a
day earlier, just hours after the occupation began.
At about 11 a.m. on Sept. 5,
the government's Interministerial Committee on Aboriginal Emergencies
convened to discuss the unfurling crisis. On hand, along with
Insp. Fox, was Deb Hutton, Mr. Harris's executive assistant.
Ms. Jai's account of that meeting,
relayed in an e-mail to a colleague, includes the following remark:
"The Premier's views are quite hawkish (Deb's words) and
he would like action taken ASAP to remove the occupiers."
Down at Ipperwash, police were
also apparently under strain.
Notes from a Sept. 5 briefing
session at the OPP's ad hoc command centre record a general discussion
about "Lots of political pressure -- strong in-House comments
by Premier/Solicitor-General."
At the same meeting, the unidentified
OPP note-taker shows Mr. Carson mentioning that police were feeling
"heat from the political side."
OPP official to testify
at Ipperwash inquiry,
CBC, May 10, 2005
FOREST, ONT. - The highest-ranking
police officer at Ipperwash Provincial Park the night unarmed
aboriginal protester Dudley George was shot will begin testifying
at a public inquiry Tuesday.
John Carson, now the deputy
commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, was an acting
superintendent and the incident commander on the scene at the
time of George's 1995 death.
A public inquiry based in the
small Ontario town of Forest, located about 250 kilometres west
of Toronto, has spent 11 months hearing testimony as it tries
to find out why an OPP officer shot George, and whether any political
direction led the police operation to turn violent.
George was among a group of
native protesters who had been occupying the park, claiming the
land was the site of an ancient burial ground.
Ten days before police moved
in on the natives, Carson mapped out a "peace plan"
of how to move them out of the park. In it, he told his officers
to act "gentlemanly" as they dealt with the activists.
Instead, officers moved in
with violence.
George, 38, was the first aboriginal
protester killed by Canadian police in a century.
The officer who shot him, acting
Sgt. Kenneth Deane, was convicted of criminal negligence causing
death and has since resigned from the OPP.
Testimony could
shed light on any political link
The shooting led to allegations
that former Ontario premier Mike Harris had approved the use
of force to clear up a frustrating situation.
Journalist Peter Edwards, who
wrote a book about the Ipperwash affair, said Carson's testimony
will shed light on any connection between politicians and the
police operation.
"We have to know: Why
did they call in the paramilitary group? Why did they call in
people with submachine-guns, with metal-tipped bullets?
"We don't know that yet.
[Carson] should be able to explain it."
Up to 100 witnesses
left to hear from
Much of the testimony at the
public inquiry to date has focused on the pain and anger the
native community has felt in the decade since the Ipperwash incident.
Tuesday marks a turning point
as senior police officers and politicians begin their testimony.
"Our focus is broader
than the particular incident," said Derry Miller, commission
counsel at the inquiry. "It's the circumstances leading
up to it."
The inquiry still has as many
as 100 witnesses to hear from, including Harris.
The former politician, who
has always denied having any involvement in the affair, is expected
to testify in July.
Probe to release 'explosive'
tape
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter
, May 11, 2005
FOREST -- A controversial audiotape
that has been described by lawyers for natives as "explosive
evidence" in the killing of Dudley George is expected to
be released today at the Ipperwash inquiry.
The tape apparently contains
a telephone conversation between John Carson, the OPP officer
in charge during the September 1995 standoff with natives at
Ipperwash Provincial Park, and a colleague at Queen's Park at
the time of Dudley George's shooting.
Lawyers for the Chiefs of Ontario
and George family members attempted last fall to have the tape
released at the judicial inquiry, but the request was rejected
by Justice Sidney Linden.
The natives' lawyers argued
the contents of the tape were so important that it should be
released immediately. Sam George, a brother of Dudley's who heard
the tape, has said it shows why his brother was killed.
Dudley George was shot Sept.
6, 1995, by an OPP officer during a nighttime clash between riot
squad officers and natives occupying the park.
A group of natives took over
the park two days earlier to protect a burial ground.
Release of the tape last fall
was opposed by OPP lawyers, who said it needed to be released
in the proper context.
Lawyers for former premier
Mike Harris argued all evidence should be released if the tape
was made public.
Investigators for the inquiry,
which was appointed by Premier Dalton McGuinty shortly after
he took office, have gathered more than 5,000 hours of audiotape
and thousands of documents.
A recurring allegation has
been that Harris intervened in the police operation at Ipperwash
Provincial Park. Harris and his lawyers have vehemently denied
the suggestion.
Carson, who is now the OPP's
deputy commissioner -- its second-highest-ranking officer --
began his testimony at the inquiry yesterday.
He is slated to testify for
another six days, the longest of any witness.
Before taking his oath, the
lean, greying Carson walked over and shook hands with Sam George
and his lawyer, Andrew Orkin.
Carson's arrival at the inquiry
attracted the interest of national newspapers and television
networks. It also brought out the senior lawyers for many of
the 17 parties represented at the inquiry, including all three
members of Harris's legal team.
With a dozen binders full of
documents and notes beside him on the witness table, Carson was
questioned yesterday about OPP actions in 1993 when natives first
occupied Camp Ipperwash, land that was seized from the natives
under the War Measures Act in 1942.
The position of the military
was that it had legal title to the land and the OPP should enforce
the Trespass Act.
But the advice of the Lambton
Crown attorney was the Trespass Act did not apply to the base,
Carson said.
He said he also studied the
documents from the original appropriation of the land from the
natives during the Second World War.
"There was good reason
to understand how the Stoney Point people would have a strong
belief or expectation that the property would be returned to
them at some point in time," he said yesterday.
Carson also testified yesterday
that he never saw any evidence of racism within the OPP when
he was detachment commander at Forest.
- WhoKilledDudleyGeorge.ca
- Dudley George Estate
and family members launch Website and Live Webcast of Ipperwash
Inquiry
TORONTO, May 10 /CNW/ - WhoKilledDudleyGeorge.ca
is the new Dudley
George/Ipperwash website created by the Estate of Dudley George
and the Sam
George group of family members to advise people of key developments
and
evidence as they arise at the Ipperwash Inquiry in Forest, Ontario.
The website provides a link to a live webcast of the Ipperwash
Inquiry
hearings.
"We hope that aboriginal peoples and others in Canada and
elsewhere will
access and witness the Inquiry hearings via this webcast,"
said Sam George.
"The police evidence is starting today. At long last, the
public will hear the
taped evidence of official conversations in the hours before
our brother was
shot by the OPP. We believe that Canadians will be saddened by
some of the
evidence they hear."
The website will also provide access to important official evidence
as it
becomes available at the Inquiry (starting with key official
evidence from a
senior OPP Office commencing his testimony today), and some analysis
of that
evidence from the George family members' perspective on an updated
basis.
This webcast was requested by the Estate and George family members
and
facilitated by the law firms Klippensteins and Andrew J. Orkin,
who have
represented them since 1996 in their efforts to learn the whole
truth about
"Who killed Dudley George".
Technical services for this webcast are being provided by Interactive
Netcasting Systems Inc of Vancouver, BC. All webcast revenues
will be used to
defray the costs of internet distribution.
For further information: www.WhoKilledDudleyGeorge.ca
(note ".ca");
Murray Klippenstein, (416) 598-0288, cell: (416) 937-8634; Andrew
Orkin,
cell: (514) 941-1621
Family of native
activist shot by police launches webcast of judicial inquiry
Colin Perkel, Canadian Press, Tuesday, May 10, 2005
TORONTO -- Family members of
an aboriginal protester shot dead by Ontario Provincial Police
a decade ago have launched a webcast of the judicial inquiry
into the killing in hopes of reaching more Canadians.
The live webcast, available
only with a paid subscription to defray the costs of the service,
allows Internet users to watch the inquiry into the death of
Dudley George at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995.
Family members worry the judicial
probe being held in Forest in southwestern Ontario is not easily
accessible via normal media channels.
''We hope that aboriginal peoples
and others in Canada and elsewhere will access and witness the
inquiry hearings via this webcast,'' Sam George, brother of the
slain activist, said in a statement.
Police shot Dudley George dead
during an unarmed aboriginal occupation of the provincial park,
the site of a native burial ground.
Members of the dead man's family
called for years for a public inquiry, alleging police only moved
in on the park because of pressure from then-Conservative premier
Mike Harris.
Harris, who has always denied
any political interference and is due to testify this summer,
refused to call an inquiry.
That only happened after the
current Liberal government took office in the fall of 2003.
Justice Sidney Linden, who
is heading the inquiry that has gone on for seven months, opted
to hold the hearings in Forest near where George was shot to
be close to the community most affected.
However, the remote location
has proven ''a bit of a hurdle'' to both interested members of
the public and the media, said Murray Klippenstein, a lawyer
for members of the George family.
''The family believes it would
be ironic if the public inquiry they fought for and eventually
got was itself not very public because it wasn't very accessible,''
Klippenstein said.
''They want to make it easy
for people and for the news providers, who are the eyes and ears
for the public, to have a look at this.''
Webcasting live will allow
viewers to make up their own minds as to what happened, he said.
Peter Rehak, a spokesman for
the inquiry, said the webcast uses a video feed paid for by the
inquiry and is available to any interested TV networks.
''We welcome as much attention
as we can get,'' Rehak said. ''It's a public inquiry.''
He noted there has been strong
regional media coverage of the proceedings, and the Aboriginal
Peoples Television Network regularly carries a synopsis.
The cost to view the webcast,
accessible via a new website at www.whokilleddudleygeorge.ca,
ranges from $1.95 a day for aboriginals and students to $3.95
a day for governments and corporations.
None of the money will go to
the family, but will be used to offset the commercial cost of
the service, Klippenstein said.
''The family had to spend several
thousand dollars in equipment and start-up costs,'' he said.
At the inquiry Tuesday, provincial
police Deputy Commissioner John Carson, who was the on-site commander
at the time of the shooting, began what is expected to be a week
of testimony.
Rehak said the change in the
witnesses has garnered more interest from the national media.
Tensions high before
Ipperwash standoff, officer tells inquiry
By TIMOTHY APPLEBY, May
11, 2005
FOREST, ONT. -- The deadly
1995 confrontation in which native activist Anthony (Dudley)
George was killed was preceded by decades of tension between
local whites and natives, the Ipperwash inquiry was told yesterday
by the police officer who commanded the operation.
The friction was multifold,
said Deputy Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner John Carson,
who took over the OPP's Forest detachment in 1989.
There was entrenched resentment
toward the mostly white provincial police within the nearby Kettle
and Stony Point Indian Band.
Mr. Carson described trying
to build bridges. "But I can't say I was successful."
There also was animosity between
white cottage owners and natives over access to the sandy beaches
of Lake Huron. Ipperwash Provincial Park, where Mr. George was
killed by an OPP sniper, lies on its southeastern shore.
By the early 1990s, "some
of the cottagers were losing faith in our ability to do our job,"
Mr. Carson said.
In 1993, in a prelude to the
Ipperwash park occupation, a group of Kettle and Stony Point
residents took over the nearby Canadian Forces Base, expropriated
by the federal government in 1942 under the War Measures Act.
(The military eventually abandoned the base; dozens of the protesters
are still there, living in the barracks.)
Mr. Carson's testimony, which
continues today, has been awaited with much interest, and not
merely because he is the first OPP officer to testify in the
10-month inquiry.
His evidence also could prove
crucial in explaining the chain of events that culminated in
Mr. George's death.
Lawyers for the George family
hope light will be shed on the role played by the Conservative
government of former premier Mike Harris.
Tape-recorded conversations
are anticipated in which Mr. Carson, who held the rank of inspector
then, discusses the unresolved standoff with another senior OPP
officer, Inspector Ron Fox.
A few hours before Mr. George
was killed, and on the day before his death, Insp. Fox had attended
high-level cabinet meetings where the Ipperwash crisis was discussed.
The content of those taped
conversations could either reinforce or undercut Mr. Harris's
long-stated insistence that he took no role in the OPP's decision
to confront and fire upon the park's occupiers.
Mr. George, 38, was unarmed
when he was slain by an OPP sniper who, in 1997, was convicted
of criminal negligence causing death.
The circumstances leading up
to the shooting, however, have never been clear. For years, Mr.
Harris and the Tory party resisted calls for an independent inquiry
into events.
The decision to hold an inquiry
was one of the first announcements made by Premier Dalton McGuinty
after the Liberals took power.
A range of diverse groups have
been granted standing at the hearing, and more than 20 lawyers,
along with a couple of dozen spectators, crowded into the Forest
hockey arena yesterday where the inquiry is being held.
In earlier testimony, Andrew
McCallum told the inquiry that, in his view, the medical care
that Mr. George received after he was shot and rushed to hospital
was as good as could be expected under the circumstances.
The wound inflicted by the
bullet that tore into Mr. George's upper body was so severe that
even a fully equipped trauma team could probably not have saved
his life, Dr. McCallum said. As regional supervising coroner
for eastern Ontario, he reviewed Mr. George's death two years
ago.
Dr. McCallum gauged that Mr.
George's vital signs likely ceased at least 20 minutes before
he reached hospital in nearby Strathroy.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
