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JJ Harper
Dudley George
Lawyer calls for release
of 'explosive' Ipperwash tape
Canadian Press, September
3, 2004
Toronto - Explosive new evidence
"fundamentally explains" why police shot and killed
an unarmed aboriginal protester nine years ago and should be
released immediately, a lawyer for the dead man's brother said
Friday.
However, Murray Klippenstein
said he couldn't release the audio tape because it was given
to the public inquiry looking into the killing and he had signed
a confidentiality agreement.
But Mr. Klippenstein said the
evidence was too important to be kept secret, so he intends to
ask the inquiry to allow the material to be made public now.
He said the evidence had been
"concealed from the family, the courts and the public for
nine years" but would provide answers long sought by the
family of the dead man.
"We believe [the material]
is fundamental to understanding the death of Dudley George,"
Mr. Klippenstein said.
Such an understanding is at
the heart of what the inquiry under Justice Sidney Linden is
hoping to achieve.
Ontario provincial police killed
George in September 1995 when they moved in on a group of unarmed
aboriginal protesters occupying Ipperwash provincial park on
Lake Huron.
There were immediate questions
about the circumstances of the killing, which ultimately led
to a criminal conviction against the officer who pulled the trigger.
There were also allegations,
always strenuously denied, that police acted the way they did
under pressure from former Conservative premier Mike Harris and
his government. A tortuous lawsuit against Mr. Harris filed by
some in the dead man's family was dropped last fall when the
new Liberal government called the public inquiry.
Mr. Harris will be a witness
at the hearings, most of which are being held in the town of
Forest in southwestern Ontario.
Sam George, the brother of
the slain protester, said he had heard the tape and found its
contents disturbing.
"The taped evidence that
I heard saddened me. It also frightened me," he said. "What
I have now heard goes a long way to explaining why my brother
Dudley was killed."
Mr. George and his lawyers
say it's now obvious why the tape remained secret for so long
and raised the possibility that criminal proceedings could flow
from its suppression.
The tape was released to all
parties involved in the hearing under the same confidentiality
rules.
Mr. Klippenstein said the contents
would come out at the inquiry, which is now in its early stages.
But he said they were too important to be withheld until then.
Secrecy part of native land deals,
inquiry told
JOHN MINER, London Free
Press Reporter, August 19, 2004
FOREST -- Secrecy, bumbling
and backroom dealing were part of the manoeuvres that ended with
natives giving up prime beach-front property for a fraction of
its market value, the Ipperwash Inquiry heard yesterday. The
1920s transactions, which included the land where native protester
Dudley George was fatally shot by an OPP officer, are important,
said George family lawyer Murray Klippenstein.
"Dudley knew when he was
protesting that they had been incredibly ripped off by an Indian
agent who was implementing the government policy of trying to
get these lands," Klippenstein said in an interview.
The land deals were detailed
at the inquiry by Joan Holmes, an anthropologist hired by the
inquiry commission to examine the history of the Kettle and Stony
Point natives.
In the first land deal, A.
MacKenzie Crawford and Co. of Sarnia, with the backing of the
area MP, proposed to the Indian agent for the reserve that two
lots at Kettle Point be sold for a club house and summer cottages.
The agent, Thomas Paul, immediately
recommended the application, arguing the land with its white
drifting sand was worthless to the Indians. The natives were
offered $85 an acre for the 83 acres.
But before the land was legally
surrendered by the natives, part of it was resold at $300 an
acre. And when a competing offer was made, the bidder was made
a partner with the original buyer.
Holmes testified there was
immediate opposition within the native community, with accusations
of fraud and bribery when a majority of men on the reserve voted
to sell. Some natives hired a lawyer and tried to have the deal
stopped, but the federal government approved it anyway.
A second prime stretch of beach
property on the Stony Point reserve was bought two years later
with a similar blessing from the Indian agent. But in that case,
the 377 acres were sold to Sarnia real estate agent W. J. Scott
for even less -- $35 an acre.
"Dudley died because the
federal government was knowingly ripping off the First Nations
for the land which the federal government had said we are guaranteeing
to you in perpetuity."
When natives opposed to the
deal at the time asked to see an actual copy of the surrender,
the federal government refused to give them a copy.
Holmes said that was typical
treatment of natives by the government.
The Kettle Point and Stony
Point First Nation tried to have the land deal overturned in
1992, but lost in the Supreme Court of Canada.
The federal Land Claims Commission
agreed, however, that the federal government failed to live up
to its obligations to protect the financial interests of the
band and recommended they negotiate a settlement. But the government
has made no move, Holmes said.
In its decision, the commission
said the deal went ahead only because of "bumbling and backroom
dealing."
Copyright © The London
Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Chrétien
warned in '72 of Ipperwash struggle
Former PM knew of Chippewa burial grounds
Tories argued there was
no evidence of them
PETER EDWARDS AND HAROLD
LEVY, STAFF REPORTERS, Toronto Star, Aug. 18, 2004
FOREST, Ont.-Former prime minister
Jean Chrétien warned the federal government more than
two decades before the 1995 Ipperwash crisis that officials had
to start respecting Chippewa burial grounds around Ipperwash
Provincial Park on Lake Huron, or face native protests.
The comments came in a formerly
confidential federal memo presented by expert witness Joan Holmes
yesterday in the public inquiry into the Sept. 6, 1995 shooting
of native protester Anthony (Dudley) George by an Ontario Provincial
Police officer.
George was shot dead during
a protest by natives who occupied the park at the end of tourist
season, saying they were protecting sacred burial lands.
Seven police officers opened
fire in the late-night confrontation. A judge later ruled that
all of the protesters were unarmed.
The provincial government of
then premier Mike Harris has always denied the existence of burial
grounds in the park.
However, Holmes, an anthropologist
hired by the Ipperwash inquiry, said the existence of native
burial grounds at Ipperwash was no secret.
She said Chrétien became
interested in the dispute in 1970, when he was Indian affairs
minister, and that he warned the defence minister in a 1972 confidential
memo:
"It seems to me that the
Indian people involved have a legitimate grievance. They did
not agree to surrender the land in the first place, but it was
appropriated in the national interest prevailing in 1942.
"It is now 1972, and they
have not got it back. Yet they desperately need to improve the
band's social and economic position. In addition, there is their
deeply rooted reverence for land and their tribal attachment
to it.
"They have waited patiently
for action," Chrétien continued.
"There are signs, however,
that they will soon run out of patience," Chrétien
wrote. "There is bound to be adverse publicity about our
seeming apathy and reluctance to make a just settlement. They
may well resort to the same tactics as those employed by the
St. Regis Indians at Loon and Stanley Islands in 1970 - to occupy
the lands they consider to be theirs...."
Holmes also quoted from several
documents sent to the provincial government regarding native
concerns about the burial grounds at the park.
Her references included an
excerpt from a letter from the federal Indian affairs branch
to the Ontario deputy minister of lands and forests, W.C. Cain,
dated Aug. 17, 1937.
That memo read, "On the
13th of this month, the Council of the Kettle and Stony Point
Bands passed a resolution requesting this Department to bring
the matter to your attention with a view to having this old Indian
burial ground preserved intact and properly fenced.
"The request will, I am
sure, appear to you as entirely reasonable and I should be glad
if you would see that the necessary action is taken with a view
to meeting of wishes of these Indians," T.R. MacInnes continued.
As late as November, 2002,
the Harris government said it didn't accept government papers
provided by the Indian affairs department that stated natives
were protecting a sacred burial ground the night of the fatal
shooting on Sept. 6, 1995.
That argument came in a court
brief filed for a hearing on the wrongful death suit by the George
family against Harris, former attorney-general Charles Harnick,
former natural resources minister Chris Hodgson, former OPP commissioner
Thomas O'Grady and others.
The lawsuit was dropped when
the current provincial Liberal government called an inquiry into
the shooting.
George and other Stoney Point
natives entered the park Sept. 4, 1995. Their position that it
contained sacred burial grounds was supported by then Indian
affairs minister Ron Irwin, who produced correspondence between
the Ontario and federal governments that referred to burial grounds.
Documents obtained by the Star
in 2000 under the Freedom of Information Act suggested that former
provincial minister of natural resources John Snobelen ignored
warnings from within his own department when he told the Legislature
a study had unearthed no evidence of a native burial ground at
Ipperwash.
Under questioning in the Legislature
on June 2, 1998, Snobelen referred to a 1972 provincial government
report to argue there was no burial ground.
"(We) have an archeological
survey of Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1972," Snobelen told
the Legislature. "That report indicated that there were
no finds made and recommended that no further archaeological
work of any kind be carried out there."
However, documents obtained
by the Star under the Freedom of Information Act include a warning
from a Ministry of Natural Resources officer, dated Sept. 12,
1995, which was attached to the three-page 1972 report.
"A few comments concerning
the value of this report: The methodology used at the time (1972)
does not agree with current archeological survey standards,"
the memo states.
Political,
police boundaries ill defined
Issues explored prior to Ipperwash inquiry
Police independence called
a tricky issue
HAROLD LEVY, STAFF REPORTER,
Toronto Star, Jun. 30, 2004
Political interference in the
policing of protests is fraught with dangers, the commission
of inquiry into the police shooting of native protester Dudley
George has been warned.
"The danger here is that
the politicians may be tougher on protest than the police,"
University of Toronto law Professor Kent Roach told a symposium
yesterday on police independence co-sponsored by the inquiry
and the Osgoode Hall Law School. "There is also a danger
that it may be impossible for the government to divorce partisan
from public-interest concerns."
"For example, governments
to the right of centre may conclude that it is in the public
interest to be tough on labour, anti-globalization and aboriginal
protest, while governments to the left of centre may conclude
that it is in the public interest to be tough on anti-abortion,
anti-gun-control, and anti-gay-rights protest," Roach said.
The commission was set up by
Premier Dalton McGuinty to look into the circumstances of George's
death on Sept. 6, 1995, while he and others were protesting the
desecration of ancestral burial grounds in Ipperwash Provincial
Park.
It's hoped that it will make
recommendations that would avoid violence in similar circumstances.
Linden will begin hearing evidence
July 13.
Roach and five other academics
had been asked to provide the inquiry, headed by Ontario Court
Justice Sidney B. Linden, with theoretical papers that would
help clarify the degree to which police are required to be free
from political control in Canada.
The authors were prohibited
from speculating on what actually happened at Ipperwash.
A common thread in all of the
papers is that, despite the importance of the issue of police
independence, it has not been clearly defined in Canadian law
- and that a balance must be found between preserving police
independence and providing public accountability.
Also yesterday, during a panel
discussion, Tonita Murray, director general of the Canadian Police
College, said police are coming under increasing pressure from
civilians who do not understand the responsibilities of police
officers - to the extent that "lack of independence"
threatens to become the norm rather than the exception in Canadian
policing.
Murray also said the situation
had disintegrated to the extent that police governance "may
well be in crisis," that "some police suspicion of
governance is not always misplaced," and that police are
unduly suspicious "of even legitimate political direction."
Another police viewpoint was
provided by former RCMP commissioner Robert Simmonds, who said
police have to stand up to politicians who attempt to interfere
in tactical matters.
"It's up to the police,
not the politicians," Simmonds said. "If there is any
attempt to interfere, they (the politicians) should step aside."
Simmonds said it was important
to clarify the boundaries of police independence now, as the
inquiry is attempting to do, instead of waiting until the next
incident where things go wrong.
On the way toward truth
PETER EDWARDS AND HAROLD
LEVY, STAFF REPORTERS, Toronto Star, Jul. 10, 2004
WASHAGAMIS BAY FIRST NATION-There's
no sign announcing the importance of the one-room cabin among
the spruce and cedar trees, which looks like any other on this
tiny (population 188) northwestern Ontario reserve near Kenora.
The squat building has no electricity,
no running water, and could easily pass for a shack to an outsider.
However, it's a special place to native people from across Ontario
and the northern United States, and some as far south as Florida.
It's used for traditional Ojibwe
sweat-lodge healing ceremonies and is considered so sacred that
elder Thomas White, 57, doesn't want it photographed, or any
pictures taken of sacred objects inside, such as a stag's skull,
rattle or an eagle's wing.
"I don't want to kill
the meaning of the ceremony," White says gently. "It's
not for show. It's for healing."
White, 57, won't call himself
a healer or a spiritualist or an elder, but plenty of others
do. Among those who have travelled north for White's ceremonies
are Maynard "Sam" George, 51, older brother of slain
native activist Anthony "Dudley" George.
White is one of dozens of native
and non-native faith leaders who have quietly supported George
in his push for a public inquiry into the death of his brother,
who was shot dead by the Ontario Provincial Police on Sept. 6,
1995, at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
The public inquiry into the
Ipperwash violence begins hearing witnesses in Forest, near Ipperwash,
next Saturday.
Sam George has also worked
for a scholarship fund in the name of his brother, with the aid
of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto union.
This year's winner, announced
June 21 - on National Aboriginal Day - is the elementary school
in the community of Kettle and Stoney Point, where George works
as a youth counsellor.
White says he immediately realized
something was very wrong the first time he saw Sam George at
a healing ceremony in Northern Ontario a couple of years after
the shooting death.
"It was like he was an
empty shell," White says. "He didn't have that sense
of humour that he has. Spiritually, he was empty. Something wasn't
there."
Since that first meeting, George
has made several trips 1,800 kilometres north from his home in
Kettle Point.
As White sees it, he doesn't
heal anyone. Spirits use him to transfer strength to others.
"Whoever is alive has
a spirit," White says.
"A lot of people will
think the spirits can't help them because they can't see them.
They need something physical. ... We're taught to believe that
we all have helpers - spirit helpers. The outside ones call them
guardian angels."
Those spirits helped save Sam
George, White says. "I don't think he would have survived
if he didn't seek spiritual health."
Dozens of faith groups, from
traditional Ojibwe like White to Quakers, Mennonites, Catholics,
Anglicans, Unitarians, the United Church, Jews and Muslims, have
also quietly supported Sam George for years in his call for an
inquiry into Dudley's death.
None prayed longer or harder
than Rick Bauman, of Mennonite Central Committee in Kitchener.
Like White, he has also chosen to stay mostly in the background.
In 1993, two years before the
shooting, Bauman heard how Stoney Point natives had been forcibly
removed from the Ipperwash area on Lake Huron back in 1942, during
the height of World War II. They were told that their land was
needed for a military base, and that they'd get their homes back
as soon as the war was over.
By 1993, those promises still
hadn't been honoured, and Dudley George and some of his friends
felt they had waited long enough. They moved back on to the military
base, camping alongside soldiers in training.
The base remained Dudley George's
home until his death. When Bauman heard the story of the Stoney
Pointe natives, it reminded him of the persecuted roots of his
own denomination.
Natives were also upset that
burial grounds in Ipperwash Provincial Park, which adjoins the
military base, were not fenced off, and that there were horseshoe
pits on one gravesite.
"Mennonites have been
very conscious of land and access to land and freedom to be on
land," Bauman says at his Kitchener office.
Bauman and others in the peace
and development organization frequently visited Stoney Point,
and one of the Mennonites helped George's sister, Carolyn Cully,
plant a potato patch.
Bauman has fond memories of
Dudley George.
"I had corn soup in his
trailer," he recalls. While he remembers Dudley as "kind
of a clownish character," he was also clearly part of something
bigger.
Dudley George wasn't a leader
and he didn't make eloquent speeches, but he was clearly connected
to the community and the land, Bauman says. "What was important
about Dudley was his being part of this community of people that
was bigger than its own individual interests."
Bauman remembers crying when
he heard on the radio that Dudley George had been shot the night
dozens of officers marched on the park. At first, the police
said George had fired on them, but a court later found that he
and the two-dozen other Stoney Pointers present were unarmed
when seven officers opened fire that night.
Bauman still gets emotional
when he remembers hearing the news on the radio.
"I thought, `It has come
to this now.' ... We wanted to believe that there was a way through
this. That it was negotiable and somehow it had all come down
to this crucible where an issue that was by then 50 years old
was going to get working out in a matter of 10 seconds in the
sand. And there was no reason for it."
Bauman and others connected
with Mennonite Central Committee were among the thousands of
mourners who attended George's funeral. Later, when he watched
news footage of the event, Bauman noticed that the Mennonites
were the only white faces in sight.
"After the funeral, we
realized that we had been walking on pretty sacred ground,"
Bauman recalls. "A gift was given to us that we were allowed
inside."
Bauman refers to the Bible
when asked why the push for the inquiry led by Sam George was
able to last so many years.
"It's a biblical image,"
Bauman says. "`Let justice roll like a mighty river.' You
can't stop it."
George says it gave him comfort
to know others were praying for him.
"When you run into people
like Rick Bauman, it gives you that reassurance to know you're
on the right track," George says. "It's good to know
you're not alone."
Thomas White and Sam George
consider each other good friends now, even though the 18-hour
drive between their communities limits how often they can meet
face-to-face. George jokingly calls White "Akiwenwenzi Kiawatin
no" or "Old Man from the North," while White calls
George, "Akiwenwenzi Shawanoo," or "Old Man from
the South."
White gave George the "Thunderbird
Drum" that he often brings with him in his car trunk. The
drum is used to summon what natives consider the heartbeat of
Mother Earth and positive spirits in healing ceremonies, and
George is respected in native communities around the province
as a drum carrier.
It's believed that storms follow
when the thunderbird flies overhead from the west, but that those
storms are also accompanied by healing, cleansing rain.
Often, White and George speak
on the phone about George's sometimes dark, puzzling dreams involving
his brother's death.
Other times, they tease each
other with Viagra jokes.
"Sometimes I can feel
pretty down - and he'll phone," Sam George says.
"He just senses it and
he phones. Or we don't talk to each other for a while. One or
the other will phone to see what's happening ... and we end up
talking - we might talk for two hours on the telephone."
White can take a dream "and
put that into perspective so we can move along with it positively,"
George says. "He says, `You never deal with the negative
parts of it - or you run into negativity. Always find something
good out of bad. Turn it into something positive and you move
forward with it.'"
George says the public inquiry
is needed to explain why the officers were sent to the park and
to prevent similar tragedies. He hopes it will answer questions
about whether the former Progressive Conservative government
pressured police to get tough with the Stoney Pointers.
It has nothing to do with anger,
he says.
"This happened to us,
but it could also very well happen to you, so let's try to prevent
that from happening to anybody, whether they're native or not
native. And so we build. That's a positive move."
There were several times after
Dudley's death when Sam felt badly in need of spiritual support.
He gave literally hundreds of speeches in union halls, schools
and church basements on the need for an inquiry, and had to deal
with the stress of time away from his family. The stress rose
when a government lawyer called him a terrorist, despite the
court's finding that the natives were unarmed.
There was also constant worry
that years of pro-bono work by his lawyer, Murray Klippenstein,
might drive Klippenstein bankrupt.
Those were times when he sorely
needed to fill himself up with White's positive message.
"I believe that when something
is taken away it leaves an empty spot," George says. "So
you have to find something to fill that up - so that emptiness
isn't always there. ... I said, `We're going to find out the
truth because that truth will fill in that empty spot. ... We
have a reason for being here - and we have to look for that.'"
Soon after the shooting, Sam
George launched a wrongful-death lawsuit against former premier
Mike Harris and several members of the government and police.
He said he'd drop it if a public inquiry was promised.
In fall, 2002, Harris became
the first sitting premier in Ontario history to testify in a
civil case against himself, when he was questioned by Klippenstein
in an examination for discovery.
When Harris walked into the
boardroom of a downtown Toronto law office, it was the first
time Sam George had seen him in person. George's first reaction
was to stand up and extend his hand to the premier.
George says he felt he had
to do that. It was the type of positive move White stresses.
"Part of our belief is that you never wish or ask for harm
on anybody," Sam George says.
"It was a hard thing to
do, but it was a point that had to be made. ... I just tried
to show, `We're not who you say we are. So I'm totally opposite.
You don't know me, really. You think you know me, but you don't.
You know me only as this guy that supposedly is coming to nail
your hide to the wall, when really I'm not.'"
The inquiry was finally called
when the Liberals were voted into power last fall.
George says the long-awaited
probe isn't about smearing Harris, but rather an attempt to build
something positive from that horrible night when he had to identify
his brother's body in the hospital, then break the news to others.
"My conscience will bother
me if I don't do the right thing," Sam George says. "And
that's to find out the truth. To make sure he didn't die for
no reason at all."
There's just one room inside
the windowless cabin at Washagamis First Nation, with eight walls
in an octagonal shape, painted red, white, green and yellow,
with a blue roof. The colours refer to the Earth and the races
of mankind.
White says the interior is
built in that shape to give the feeling of a circle, which is
important in his culture. Among other things, circles represent
the seasons of the year and the stages of life.
"We don't have any squares
when we do our ceremonies," White says.
In the middle is a canvas wigwam,
used as a sauna for the sweats. The 1.3-metre-high structure
holds about 20 people, seated around a pit that holds hot stones.
Directly over the pit hangs an eagle feather, an Ojibwe symbol
of strength and truth.
The eagle is sacred in Ojibwe
culture because it is believed to fly closest to the Creator
and communicates directly with the Creator.
There's no time limit on sweat
ceremonies, which often run two to four hours. There's also an
understanding that whatever is said in the sweat lodge stays
there.
"That's where you gain
that trust and that support from the people," George says.
"When you go through that type of ceremony you know that
trust is there."
White, who has studied and
taught the Ojibwe language, says it's hard to explain native
ceremonies in English. It's also hard to explain why an inquiry
on Ipperwash is so important to George and others.
White notes that the Ojibwe
word "Debwewin" means the truth, but that it's a truth
based in the heart, not in harshness. "Debwewin, in my language,
means positive words, positive ways of thinking," he says.
"Debwewin is soft - a soft, honest way."
"That's part of healing,"
White says. "In our culture, the spirits tell us, `We'll
help you if you do things in a positive way.' The best advice
they (spirits) gave me was, `Don't use what we've given you in
a negative way or we'll take everything back.'"
As White sees things, the upcoming
inquiry goes far beyond Sam or Dudley George. "Sam never
thought about himself first," White says.
"He was always talking
about other people. If you do that, you make yourself strong
and you make others strong. Now and for others who haven't been
born.
"Sam doesn't know it,
but he's going to make a lot of communities strong. He's going
to make a lot of native communities strong across Canada. ...
It's going to make our communities strong - the truth."
Ipperwash inquiry begins
By ALLISON DUNFIELD,
Globe and Mail,, July 13, 2004
A long-awaited judicial inquiry
began Tuesday to try to find out why aboriginal protester Dudley
George was shot by police in 1995.
Demands for the inquiry have
been consistent in the almost nine years since Mr. George's death.
Former Ontario premier Mike Harris resisted, but the appointment
of an inquiry was one of the new Liberal government's first acts
after coming into power in October.
The inquiry began Tuesday morning
in Forest, Ont., with an opening statement by Justice Sidney
Linden. Forest is close to where Mr. George was killed in an
Ontario park.
"The inquiry was called
to inquire into and report on events surrounding the death of
Dudley George in Ipperwash provincial park in September, 1995,"
Judge Linden said in his statement.
"The commission has also
been asked to make recommendations aimed at avoiding violence
in similar circumstances."
He said there will be two parts
to the inquiry. The first will deal with the events surrounding
Mr. George's death. Part two will deal with policy issues designed
to help make recommendations to prevent violence in similar circumstances
in the future, Judge Linden said.
"Both perspectives are
key to the inquiry's fact-finding mandate."
Judge Linden said his hope
is the inquiry will help public's understanding of why the incident
occurred.
The inquiry is expected to
last until March of next year. But there will only be two more
days of hearings this week before the inquiry reconvenes in September.
A total of 17 parties have
been granted standing for part one of the inquiry, and another
28 for part two. Mr. Harris has been granted standing at both
sections of the inquiry.
Judge Linden said that public
education and understanding are key features of in the inquiry
because "they can contribute to healing and to moving forward
for those whose lives were affected by the events of September,
1995."
Judge Linden said he recognizes
that revisiting the events of the incident may re-open emotional
wounds.
He also explained why he chose
a small, remote location to hold the hearings.
"I determined that Forest
should be the primary location for these hearings based on principle
that an inquiry of this kind should be held in the location where
a substantial part of the events in question occurred.
"In my view, physical
proximity heightens one's awareness of, an appreciation for the
events in question. It also better ensures that the inquiry is
readily accessible to a majority of those who are most affected
by those events. Nonetheless, I intend to continue to evaluate
the matter of location as we proceed," he said.
Testimony began later Tuesday
morning with two experts on aboriginal culture.
Dudley George was unarmed when
he was shot and killed in Sept. 6, 1995, by two bullets police
during a protest at Ipperwash Provincial Park near Sarnia.
Mr. George was 38 when he was
gunned down after Ontario Provincial Police moved in on the group
of unarmed native protesters occupying the park on the shores
of Lake Huron on Sept. 6, 1995.
The parkland, which had earlier
been confiscated from the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point
First Nation and turned into an army camp during the Second World
War, contained a burial ground that natives - Mr. George among
them - considered sacred.
The protest caused consternation
at the Ontario legislature in Toronto, where Mr. Harris's Tories
had only just recently taken office.
During the protest, Mr. George
was shot by Sergeant Ken Deane, who was later convicted for criminal
negligence and resigned from the force.
Mr. George's family has always
insisted Mr. Harris was involved in directing police to raid
the park, but the former premier - who is expected to testify
at hearings in September as part of the inquiry - has always
denied any involvement.
Mr. Harris will have standing
at both sections of the inquiry, as will former attorney-general
Charles Harnick and former solicitor-general Bob Runciman, as
well as the former Conservative MPP for the area, Marcel Beaubien.
Mr. Harris and others are expected to be called to testify about
whether they played a role in the OPP's decision to enter the
park that night with assault weapons.
Mr. George's brother, Sam George,
told reporters heading into the hearing that he was glad it had
finally been called.
He said he's determined to learn what was behind his younger
brother's tragic death.
"I'm very nervous; it's
been a long trail," he told reporters outside the community
hall. He said he hopes to find out "what really happened"
to his brother.
Sam George also said he wants
to hear from former premier Mr. Harris.
" I want to hear from
his former ministers and any of the servants who served under
him as well as anybody who has any information that's relevant
to what happened."
With reports from Canadian
Press and Richard Mackie
- History lesson at Ipperwash
inquiry:
- U of T professor relates
how aboriginals would not surrender their burial grounds
By GLORIA GALLOWAY,
July15, 2004
FOREST, ONT. -- Aboriginals
living near the Great Lakes were persuaded two centuries ago
to give up their lands and the hunting that had sustained them
over the millennia, but they would not abandon their dead, an
inquiry into the slaying of native protester Dudley George heard
yesterday.
"There is a continuing
relationship between the living and the dead," Darlene Johnston,
a legal professor at the University of Toronto who is also an
expert in the ways of her aboriginal ancestors, told the inquiry.
The people the English called
the Chippewas agreed to surrender all but 1 per cent of the vast
swath of land they controlled throughout Southern Ontario in
exchange for presents and promises of protection, Prof. Johnston
said. The area included burial grounds. They also agreed to congregate
in villages rather than roam in search of game.
But when those confined to
a reserve near Sarnia, Ont., were asked to move to a reserve
farther north where they would be out of the way of English settlers,
they stood firm. They believed that the dead had two spirits,
one of which stayed with the body and required feeding and attention.
"It was one thing to give
up their land and their lifestyles," Prof. Johnston said,
"but they couldn't be persuaded to give up the graves of
their ancestors."
When Mr. George was shot dead
nine years ago by acting Sergeant Kenneth Deane of the Ontario
Provincial Police, he and others were occupying Ipperwash Provincial
Park to protest against the expropriation of their land for a
military camp. That land, they said, contained a burial ground.
The inquiry, which is in its
first week, has been getting a history lesson from Prof. Johnston
that is expected to continue today as she is cross-examined by
at least three of the 17 lawyers representing various parties
to the circumstances that led to Mr. George's death.
The aim of the inquest is to
discover how the OPP came to use deadly force and how to prevent
such violence in the future. The police and members of the Ontario
government, including former premier Mike Harris, are not expected
to testify until the fall.
Dudley George's brother, Maynard
(Sam) George, said he believes the historical portion of the
inquiry is one of the most important phases.
"It's going to establish
why he was doing what he was doing," Mr. George said. And,
he added, it will give the public a perspective on early Canada
that has not been taught in history books written by European
descendants.
"Because of his death,
this stuff is all starting to come out now," Mr. George
said. "We're finally able to tell our history from our point
of view."
Yesterday's hearings dwelt
on the lengthy series of land purchases, murky agreements, and
eventual attempts at assimilation that marked the relationship
between the aboriginals and representatives of the British Crown
in the years before 1840. In one case, a map marking territory
purchased from the aboriginals was drawn to be much smaller than
described in the written agreement. None of the aboriginals,
who signed the document with a mark, could read, Prof. Johnston
said.
As payment for their land,
the government offered "presents" -- blankets, cloth
ribbons, pipes, knives and rum -- as well as the promise that
the aboriginals would never live in poverty. But, by the mid-1800s,
she said, "they are trying to make a transition [to agriculture]
and they are having great difficulty; they are impoverished and
they have debts that they can't pay."
Although Prof. Johnston said
the lands were given to the English under "purchase"
agreements, she repeatedly referred to the process as a "surrender,"
sometimes correcting herself.
In the inquiry room, which
has been fashioned from a large recreation room attached to the
arena in this small Southwestern Ontario town, were many members
of the George family. Some, such as Sam George, said the history
lesson has been invaluable.
But Judas George, who still
lives at the camp where his cousin was killed, said he was disturbed
by the fact that Prof. Johnston had to rely on accounts of European
missionaries and settlers for her research because the aboriginals
of the day had no written record.
"It's just European recollections
of our history," he said at the close of yesterday's testimony.
"So is it really the truth?"
© 2004 Bell Globemedia
Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Anger
over land grab boils up at inquiry
By GLORIA GALLOWAY,
Globe and Mail , July16, 2004
Forest, Ont.. - Native protester
Dudley George left a community divided when he was shot to death
by a provincial police officer during the occupation of a provincial
park nine years ago, divisions that are readily apparent at the
inquiry into his death.
But equally visible is the
anger at the federal government that has festered for more than
60 years since Mr. George's ancestors were removed from their
land near this Southwestern Ontario town to make way for a military
base.
That base, which contains an
aboriginal cemetery in which Mr. George's father was interred,
was to have been returned to the people of the Stoney Point Reserve
after the Second World War. Instead, the displaced aboriginals
were squeezed into a neighbouring reserve at Kettle Point and
never legally permitted to return.
Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer who
represents one of Mr. George's brothers, Pierre George, and others
who consider themselves members of the Stoney Point First Nation,
told reporters yesterday that he realizes the inquiry does not
have the mandate to settle the land dispute.
It was established to determine
why the police, and perhaps even members of a former Ontario
Conservative government, would have sanctioned such force against
unarmed protesters.
But, Mr. Rosenthal said, "I
hope the light that this inquiry puts on the horrors of what
the federal government did to these people in 1942 means that
there will be a big enough settlement from the federal government
that everybody will go away happy. And that should happen right
now."
An Indian and Northern Affairs
spokeswoman said Thursday that her department is investigating
the land's value as a prelude to negotiating how to resolve the
matter. She pointed out that elderly people who were part of
the removal can receive compensation immediately.
But the issue of payment will
not be so easily sorted out with the remaining band members.
Many descendants of the displaced
people from Stoney Point believe they are a separate band from
those at Kettle Point, even though the government considers them
one entity. If so, they could be eligible for differing amounts
of compensation.
To that end, Mr. Rosenthal
spent much of Thursday's hearing trying to persuade Darlene Johnston,
a law professor at the University of Toronto who is an aboriginal
and an expert in native history, to agree that the bands started
as distinct entities when the reserves were formed by treaty
in 1827.
Prof. Johnston refused to do
so, saying historical documents indicate that the two reserves
housed people of the same band with common ownership of the land.
But "by the 20th century,"
she said, "I would agree they were two separate communities."
Thursday was the third day
that Prof. Johnston laid out, in her calm, soft-spoken manner,
the history of the aboriginal people of the Great Lakes region.
She had difficulty keeping her emotions in check as she told
the inquiry that the gravestones of her ancestors in Owen Sound,
Ont., had been removed and used as markers on a nearby baseball
diamond, while a brickworks operated on the spot where their
bodies had been buried.
She recounted a series of broken
treaties and lapsed promises that saw the aboriginal people who
once hunted over the whole of Southern Ontario gradually reduced,
by the mid-1800s, to lives of poverty on small reserves.
Andrew Orkin, a lawyer for
Sam George, another of Dudley George's brothers, said Prof. Johnston's
lecture revisited the "constitutional and legal and other
foundations of this country we call Canada."
Representatives of the British
took more than 2 million acres of land from the aboriginals in
the treaty of 1827 and left them with a few thousand acres of
their own by making promises of friendship and compensation that
were not kept, Mr. Orkin said.
"Prof. Johnson pointed
out that, in the case of her reserve, 10 years followed and we
came back for the rest, and in the 20 years that followed we
came back for the rest of the rest," he said.
It is a legacy, he said, that
explains blockades and the response of aboriginals who "draw
lines in the sand and say, 'You are now taking the last piece
of land on which I can stand and sit, me with my family. ...
Where do you want me to be? Under the bridges in your cities?'"
© 2004 Bell Globemedia
Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
