|
The
inquiry | > > > Most
recent reports | JJ Harper
| Fred Hampton |
Dudley George
Ipperwash to be site
of portion of inquiry
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
January 9, 2004
Part of the judicial inquiry
into the police shooting of native protester Dudley George will
be held in the area where George was killed eight years ago.
Staff of the inquiry are scouting out possible hearing locations
in the Ipperwash region, said Peter Rehak, who is handling communications
for the inquiry.
"There will definitely
be hearings in Toronto and there will be hearings out in the
area. There are some consultations going on with people involved
to see what a good location might be," he said yesterday.
Lawyers for the inquiry are
currently evaluating more than 200,000 documents relating to
the killing of George at Ipperwash Provincial Park, including
trial transcripts and government documents, he said.
The inquiry, headed by Justice
Sidney Linden, was called by the newly elected Liberal government
Nov. 12 to inquire and report on the events surrounding the death
of George, who was shot Sept. 6, 1995, as police moved in on
a native protest at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
A simmering controversy since
the killing has been the role played by then-premier Mike Harris
in the police action.
Harris is expected to testify
at the hearings.
The next step for the inquiry
will be hearings into who will have "standing."
"Standing" allows
individuals and organizations to cross-examine witnesses and
present arguments.
Rehak said it will probably
be late summer before the actual hearings start.
The judicial inquiry will have
offices set up in Toronto by the end of the month.
The inquiry will also have
its own website that will provide daily transcripts of the hearings.
Copyright © The London
Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Justice
finally on Georges' side
JIM COYLE, Toronto Star,
January 3, 2004
My second-born son landed in
Johannesburg yesterday, making the trip of his 13-year-old lifetime
along with his grandmother to visit cousins, his aunt and uncle
who live in South Africa.
Doubtless, much will be learned
over the next few weeks in the school of the wider world. Doubtless,
an uncle born and raised in Soweto will be able to show the young
Canadian visitor views of life beyond his imagining at home.
In the excited weeks leading
up to his departure, books were read and movies watched in an
attempt to bone up on South African history. One that made an
impression was the film Cry Freedom , the story of the
friendship between white newspaper editor Donald Woods and the
black leader Steve Biko, and of Woods' determination to get the
story of apartheid and its crimes to the world after Biko was
killed in 1977 in police custody. At one point in the movie,
Woods (Kevin Kline) tells a threatening cop that, whatever the
short term brings in punishment from the apartheid regime, he
will fight on, because history will one day record that he had
justice on his side.
The same, it occurred to me,
might be said closer to home as the new year dawns.
For surely one of the best
stories of 2004, whatever unhappy evidence it turns up, will
be the long-sought, hard-won judicial inquiry into the 1995 shooting
death of Indian demonstrator Dudley George at Ipperwash provincial
park.
Whatever else the new Liberal
government does or doesn't do, it has served the cause of justice
by appointing Mr. Justice Sidney Linden to head an inquiry into
an event that disgraced the province.
Among other things, the recent
Ontario election ended an eight-year campaign of stonewalling
that discredited the former Conservative government, and by extension
all in the province who accepted the proposition that important
questions - which surely would have been screamed from the rooftops
had the dead man been a member of the white middle classes -
could comfortably go unanswered in the police killing of a native
man.
How did it come to be that
a few dozen natives armed with no more than sticks and stones,
occupying a park after it had closed for the season, doing so
to make demands based on credible historical claims that it was
an ancestral burial site, were fired on by police armed to extraordinary
levels?
Why was it police departed
from established practices of restraint in dealing with such
demonstrations?
How did it happen that for
the first time in a century in Canada a native was killed by
police over what amounted - at worst - to little more than a
case of trespass?
What purpose other than the
political was possibly being served in forcibly removing from
a closed park a smallish band of unarmed protesters whose demonstration
would likely have generated limited media mention and even less
public concern?
How could it be that as evidence
of political involvement continued to mount - memo by memo and
court document by court document - the premier of the day, Mike
Harris, and his successor could continue to dismiss the demand
for a public inquiry?
The record had made plain the
former premier's impatience with natives and their land claims.
And it has been alleged that, as a freshly installed government,
he wanted in the fall of 1995 to establish himself as a law-and-order
leader with little time for what he deemed "special interests."
Probably no book recently published
in this province deserves to be read more than One Dead Indian
, the account of the Dudley George killing written in 2001
by my Star colleague Peter Edwards.
As he recounts it, the violence
and terror visited on the Stony Point band on the night of Sept.
6, 1995, is something rarely associated with everyday life in
Canada.
His chronicle of the callousness
shown Dudley George's family in the aftermath - even as organizations
from Amnesty International to the United Nations joined the demand
for an inquiry into his killing - is something that should shame
us all.
The Georges were left to fight
for justice through a civil suit for wrongful death against the
government, their puny resources pitted against the weight of
the state.
All the while, they offered
to drop their suit if an inquiry were ordered.
For eight long years, under
the former government, their pleas were rejected.
When Mr. Justice Linden convenes
his inquiry later this year, it will have been a long time coming.
Already almost seven years
have passed since I sat in the back of a Sarnia courtroom at
the trial of a police officer convicted in the shooting, watching
Dudley's brother Pierre as he sat there, too, his T-shirt bearing
a crest to his slain 38-year-old brother, an eagle feather in
his hand.
Its treatment of that family,
and its cynical evasion of public review, hardly seems to square
with the former government's claim that it had nothing to do
with the police response that night, that all normal procedures
were followed.
Thanks to the forthcoming work
of Mr. Justice Linden, we will this year finally know the truth
of those claims.
That's all the George family
ever asked for.
And the very least they deserve.
Dudley George's brother
hopes inquiry brings answers
CANADIAN PRESS, Oct. 8,
2003
The family of an aboriginal
protester who was killed by police eight years ago hopes a public
inquiry promised by Ontario's new Liberal government will finally
reveal the truth about the shooting.
"We're hoping to see and
find out why my brother was shot that night," Sam George
said today at a news conference.
"We're hoping to find
out why things changed so dramatically within a few hours. We
need to know why there were so many heavily armed officers there."
Dudley George was shot by a
provincial police officer at Ipperwash Provincial Park near Sarnia
on Sept. 6, 1995.
The officer who fired the fatal
shot was convicted of criminal negligence for knowingly shooting
an unarmed man, but his trial failed to answer important questions
about the circumstances leading up to the incident.
Last week, on the day of the
provincial election, a civil suit against former premier Mike
Harris - who was in office at the time of the shooting - was
dropped after provincial police reached a settlement with the
George family.
The day after the Liberals
won the election, premier-designate Dalton McGuinty promised
an inquiry into George's death.
That exercise will come as
a relief after eight years of waiting, Sam George said today.
"We never did want to
go down the route of civil litigation; we kind of got forced
down that path," he said.
"For my family, it means
. . . we are looking at the truth coming out."
On Friday, a benefit concert
sponsored by the Elementary Teachers of Toronto is to be held
at Massey Hall, featuring singer Buffy Sainte-Marie.
The proceeds will be used to
launch an aboriginal education fund.
"It will be a victory
celebration not only for family, but it is also going to be a
victory celebration for the life of my brother," said George.
McGuinty is to be sworn in
on Oct. 23 alongside his cabinet.
After that, George expects
to meet with the new attorney general.
He's hopeful the inquiry can
begin in the next four to eight months.
Harris ordered removal
of natives, memo says Book on Ipperwash probes George death
Richard
Mackie,
Globe and Mail, Sep. 3, 2001
The police assault on natives
occupying Ipperwash
Provincial Park six years ago
followed direct orders from the office of Ontario Premier Mike
Harris to end the occupation, according to government documents.
Dudley George, an unarmed native
protester, was shot and killed by an Ontario Provincial Police
officer carrying a high-powered automatic rifle during the late-night
assault.
Details of the government documents
are contained in a new book on the fatal confrontation, One
Dead Indian, which is to be published Sept. 15 (2001) by
Stoddart. Sections of the book, written by veteran Toronto Star
reporter Peter Edwards, have been obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The book is expected to renew
the controversy over Mr. Harris's refusal to allow a judicial
inquiry into the shooting, and into his role and that of his
office in ordering the police to force the two dozen protesters
out of the otherwise vacant park.
In the absence of a judicial
inquiry, the family of Mr. George has been pursuing a civil case
against Mr. Harris and other senior government officials for
the wrongful death of Mr. George. The government has acknowledged
it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees for
lawyers to defend Mr. Harris and the other officials.
The government also has repeatedly
attempted to have the case thrown out of court. Last Thursday,
Madam Justice Gloria Epstein of the Ontario Superior Court ruled
it is in the public interest to allow the lawsuit to continue.
The events leading to the shooting
on the night of Sept. 6, 1995, and the explanations offered by
the OPP and by the government, are examined in extensive detail
in the 265-page book.
Among other things, the book
says:
The government and the OPP
lied in saying they believed the native protesters, who included
women and children, were armed with automatic weapons. The two
dozen members of the OPP crowd-control unit would not have been
ordered to march up the road into the park in the dark if there
had been a danger they would be shot at, the book argues.
Police mistook sparks from
their own bullets hitting a school bus in the park for flashes
from the muzzles of guns within the bus and assumed they were
being fired on. No guns were found and the natives, most of whom
were expert hunters, likely would not have missed their targets.
The government and the OPP
intentionally portrayed an incident in which a single stone was
thrown at a car as proof that roving bands of club-wielding natives
were threatening civilians in the Ipperwash area, which is northeast
of Sarnia on Lake Huron.
The government repeatedly denied
the existence of a native burial ground in the park although
its own files clearly stated that the burial ground existed and
an earlier government had promised to erect a fence around it.
Unexplained failures of technology
resulted in there being no recording of radio communications
among officers involved in the raid on the park and no photographic
or video evidence of their activities.
A similar unexplained failure
of technology led to the disappearance of the computer notes
of a key participant in the meetings where political officials
were warned by government bureaucrats about the dangers of trying
to force the natives out of the park.
Deb Hutton, a senior adviser
to Mr. Harris, repeatedly told meetings of politicians and bureaucrats
discussing the occupation that the Premier had rejected the OPP's
standard procedure of avoiding a confrontation. Instead, he wanted
the natives evicted from the park as soon as possible, so that
there would be no time for them to win public support.
The book cites a memo from
government lawyer Julie Jai, who was chair of the government
committee on the Ipperwash crisis. The e-mail memo was sent to
Yan Lazor, the director of legal services for the Ontario Native
Affairs Secretariat, on the afternoon of Sept. 5, after an emergency
meeting of the committee attended by Ms. Hutton.
"Deb Hutton had already
spoken to the Premier and MNR [Ministry of Natural Resources]
had already spoken to their minister. The Premier's views are
quite hawkish on this and he would like action to be taken asap
to remove the occupiers."
This memo has been entered
as evidence in the civil case launched by the George family against
Mr. Harris and several members of the government who participated
in the decisions that led to the death of Mr. George.
Ms. Jai's notes from Sept.
5 also stress that the Ministry of Natural Resources was not
calling for drastic action. Peter Allen, executive assistant
to Ron Vrancart, the deputy minister at Natural Resources, is
quoted as saying, "They're just occupying an empty park."
A Sept. 6 memo, also entered
as evidence in the continuing civil case, refers to a meeting
involving cabinet ministers, including Mr. Harris and natural
resources minister Chris Hodgson. At the meeting, bureaucrats
urged caution.
The memo adds: "but Prem
+ Hodgson came out strong," indicating that hours before
the fatal confrontation Mr. Harris and Mr. Hodgson urged the
OPP to take action.
In a criminal case arising
out of the shooting, acting Sergeant Kenneth Deane was convicted
of criminal negligence causing death for firing the shot from
his automatic rifle that entered Mr. George's chest and killed
him.
Ipperwash file
The document, by an unidentified
bureaucrat, is cited in One Dead Indian by Peter Edwards,
a new book about the shooting death of Dudley George at Ipperwash
Provinial Park six years ago.
Contents of
memo:
Sept. 6/95
Ron Fox
-- Tim has asked for s.o. fr
OPP to give vive voce evidence before J today in Sarnia.
-- now OPP commissioner is
involved -- decisions will be made at his level.
-- he was called into Cabinet
-- Larry Taman was also there + was eloquent -- he -- cautioned
abt rushing in with ex part inj -- + can't interfere w
police disc.
-- but Prem. + Hodgson came
out strong
-- Larry, Elaine Todres were
at Cabinet.
Ron ws there for part of discussion,
decision to go ex part appeared to have already been made.
The book deciphers the memo
as having the following meaning:
Sept. 6, 1995
-- I just talked with Ron Fox,
the liaison between the OPP and the Solicitor-General's office.
-- Tim McCabe, a lawyer with
the Attorney-General's Office, has asked for someone from the
OPP to give verbal supporting evidence before a judge today in
Sarnia.
-- Now OPP Commissioner Thomas
O'Grady is involved and decisions will be made at his level.
-- Larry Taman, the deputy
minister in the Ministry of the Attorney-General, was there and
was eloquent. Taman cautioned about rushing in with an ex
parte injunction, which would exclude the natives from having
legal representation or even attending the court proceeding regarding
their occupation of the park and said the government can't interfere
with police discretion.
-- But Premier Mike Harris
and then-minister of natural resources Chris Hodgson came out
strong.
-- Larry Taman and deputy solicitor-general
Elaine Todres were at cabinet.
-- Ron Fox was there for part
of the discussion. The decision to go ex parte without
the input of native lawyers appeared to have already been made.
Harris offers to settle
libel suit with newspaper Ipperwash comment: Premier wants Globe
and Mail to apologize, but paper will not
Robert Benzie, National
Post, April 5, 2002
TORONTO - Mike Harris, the
departing Ontario Premier, has offered to settle his libel action
against The Globe and Mail, which he alleged portrayed him as
an accessory to murder in the 1995 police shooting of a native
protester at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
Eleven days before he steps
down as Premier and is succeeded by Ernie Eves, Mr. Harris said
he is willing to drop the taxpayer-funded suit against the newspaper
in exchange for an apology and legal costs.
His lawyer, Peter Downard,
insisted yesterday that Mr. Harris is not backing down from his
battle with the Globe as he prepares to leave politics for what
is expected to be a lucrative corporate career.
"The Premier is very confident
about this case. The failure of the defence to apologize has,
in his view, increased the harm caused in this matter,"
Mr. Downard said in an interview.
"In order to bring this
matter to a prompt and proper conclusion, he is giving the defence
this time-limited opportunity to resolve this matter on a reasonable
basis," he said.
To that end, Mr. Downard sent
the Globe lawyers a letter offering to resolve the matter if
an apology is printed in the newspaper and posted on its Web
site.
The daily would also have to
cover Mr. Harris's legal tab, which is believed to be between
$10,000 and $50,000. The offer expires Thursday.
But a spokesman for the newspaper
said it filed documents with the court yesterday in preparation
for defending itself in the libel suit.
"The Globe's position
remains the same as it has been throughout this matter: The article
at issue is not defamatory and reports on a matter of public
interest," said Michael Doody, general counsel for the parent
company, Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.
"For that reason, The
Globe and Mail will not apologize."
Mr. Harris's suit stems from
a Dec. 14, 2001, analysis piece that appeared under the headline
Harris true blue to the end.
Published the morning after
his final day in the Ontario legislature, the article contained
five sentences that Mr. Harris alleges are "false and defamatory
of him."
"Mr. Harris has two additional
political burdens likely to plague him over the next two months,"
the Globe reported, according court documents.
"Both gave him added reason
to step down and both are linked more to him than to the Tory
government. His orders have been clearly linked to the decision
by the Ontario Provincial Police to march on Ipperwash Provincial
Park in September of 1995 in a bid to end a native protest,"
the newspaper continued.
"One unarmed protester,
Dudley George, was shot and killed by the OPP. Mr. George's family
have been in court for almost six years trying to get Mr. Harris
to admit his involvement in the death," the Globe concluded.
In documents filed with the
Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Mr. Harris, who is himself
being sued by Mr. George's family, contends the newspaper's "malicious,
high-handed and arrogant conduct" and its allegations maligned
his reputation.
The lawsuit also claimed the
Globe's publishing of the story "imputed conduct to Michael
Harris tantamount to participation in homicide."
Mr. Harris's allegations have
not been proven in court.
After the suit was launched,
Opposition critics accused Mr. Harris of initiating a capricious
action at the public expense.
OPP Acting Sergeant Kenneth
Deane was convicted in 1997 of criminal negligence in Mr. George's
death on Sept. 6, 1995.
rbenzie@nationalpost.com
Dudley George : Ontario
ombudsman calls for Ipperwash inquiry
Jun 16, 1999 Newsworld
TORONTO - Ontario's ombudsman is calling for
an inquiry into the shooting death of a native protester at Ipperwash
Provincial Park in 1995.
In her annual report, Roberta
Jamieson says that in her view the most appropriate forum to
investigate the shooting is a public inquiry.
Dudley George was shot and
killed by an Ontario Provincial Police officer while demonstrating
in the park. Native groups had occupied the area claiming it
was a sacred burial ground.
George's family has launched
a wrongful death civil suit. It names Premier Mike Harris, former
cabinet ministers, provincial police officers and both the federal
and provincial governments.
Documents Reveal Extent
of Department of National Defense Involvement in Ipperwash Case
[TheRedRoadNewsletter] Ipperwash
Press Release, May 7, 2001
The Coalition for a Public
Inquiry into Ipperwash has obtained documents through "Access
to Information" legislation that show clearly the federal
government's knowledge of and response to the occupation of Ipperwash
Provincial Park by members of the Stoney Point First Nation in
September of 1995.
- Among the 158 pages of documents
is evidence that:
- -the OPP requested Department
of National Defense support, which included both intelligence
and equipment
- -troops were patrolling the
occupied area prior to September 5. Members of the Stoney Point
First Nation involved in the occupation have always maintained
they saw military personnel in the woods.
- -both the OPP and the military
were fully aware that the Natives occupying the Park numbered
no more than 30 to 40 on September 6, as they were closely monitoring
their activities -the OPP stressed reports of firearm use in
the Park both prior to the shooting of Dudley George on September
6, 1995, and following the incident. No evidence of firearms
used by Natives was ever recovered from the Park. In finding
Sergeant Kenneth Deane guilty of criminal negligence causing
death in connection with the shooting, Judge Hugh Fraser ruled
that Deane
knew George was unarmed when he shot him. -the OPP circulated information about Dudley
George's criminal record to the military after his death
- -the Department of National
Defense was collecting media information that linked the Stoney
Point occupation to other Native "standoffs" in which
firearms were used -OPP requested to borrow two military bisons,
"which were to be painted and decaled in OPP colours"
on September 6, the day George was shot -following the shooting,
the Department of National Defense planned with the OPP for the
possible escalation of the conflict over a period of many months,
outlining a plan for four levels of possible involvement -the
military had a detailed "Public Affairs Approach" designed
to minimize their involvement and emphasize that the "OPP
are in charge of operations at Ipperwash." Military personnel
working with the OPP were to wear "civilian dress."
On the basis of this evidence, the Coalition for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash
is renewing its call for a federal inquiry, and will be requesting
further documents from the Department of Indian and Northern
Affairs under the Access to Information Act.
- For more information: Robin
Buyers: 416-658-7485 All My Relations Dan Smoke-Asayenes &
Mary Lou Smoke-Asayenes Kwe Smoke Signals First Nations Radio,
CHRW, 94.7 FM Canada's #1 Campus Radio Station for 2001 Saturdays
l:00 - 3:00 p.m., www.chrwradio.com 519 659-4682 fax: 519 453-3676
Material appearing here
is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those who have
expressed an interest in receiving the material for research
and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17
U. S. C. section 107.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
