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Dudley George
Dudley George pleaded
for `rights'
PETER EDWARDS, Toronto Star
STAFF REPORTER, Nov. 9, 2004
FOREST, Ont.-Native activist
Anthony (Dudley) George was shouting at police to respect native
rights just before he was fatally shot, the inquiry into his
death has heard.
"He was saying, `We have
native rights here!'" Mike Cloud, 39, of the Stoney Point
band, testified yesterday.
"He was trying to make
them listen," Cloud told inquiry lawyer Derry Millar.
The inquiry before Mr. Justice
Sidney Linden heard that a breakdown in communications left the
Ontario Provincial Police with no way of knowing whether Stoney
Point natives planned to attack nearby cottages after they occupied
Ipperwash Provincial Park in a protest over burial grounds on
Sept. 6, 1995.
"There would be no way
for someone to know you wouldn't be going to take the cottages
next, since you didn't communicate that with anybody?" OPP
lawyer Mark Sandler yesterday asked Dudley George's cousin, Clayton
(Kocomo Joe) George.
"Yes," Clayton George,
35, replied.
Under questioning by Tony Ross,
a lawyer representing some of the Stoney Pointers, Clayton George
said there was no dialogue between the natives and police the
night of the shooting, other than obscenities.
"Any bullhorns? Any loudspeakers?
Did they have that?" Ross asked.
"No," Clayton George
replied.
Clayton George said he was
standing nearby when an OPP officer fired the sub-machinegun
that killed Dudley George, 38. Seven police officers had opened
fire on the Stoney Point natives.
The inquiry continues today.
- Rock sparked fatal
shooting
- Inquiry explores death
of native protester killed by cop
By CP, November 3, 2004
FOREST, Ont. -- A single rock
thrown in anger was the catalyst for a dramatic escalation in
police activity that ended in the shooting death of native protester
Dudley George, the Ipperwash inquiry heard yesterday. Stoney
Point resident Stewart (Worm) George testified he threw the rock
at a departing car driven by Gerald (Booper) George after the
two exchanged words on Sept. 6, 1995.
George said he was angry at
the Kettle and Stoney Point band councillor, who had referred
to Stoney Point natives occupying Camp Ipperwash as "animals"
in a letter to a local newspaper.
After his car was dented, Booper
George reported the incident to the provincial police, who were
massing in large numbers outside the park and set up roadblocks.
Somehow, George's family lawyer
Jackie Esmonde told the inquiry, that incident grew into a rumour
of a car being pelted with rocks and hit with baseball bats.
Hours later, a provincial police
riot squad marched on the park and in the ensuing clash Dudley
George was killed by a police sniper.
The inquiry, now in its fourth
month, is probing the circumstances surrounding Dudley George's
death and will recommend ways to prevent similar violence in
the future.
Stewart George, 54, was a friend
and first cousin of Dudley's.
They occupied the park believing
it was native land that contained burial sites, including an
uncle's grave lost and likely destroyed by heavy equipment, he
said.
On the night of Sept. 6, he
said, police had marched as a group to the entrance of the park,
where an officer kicked his dog.
"I remember the cop saying,
'Why, what are you going to do about it?' "
The officer opened a steel
baton and hit him on the shoulder. Stewart George said he struck
back with a pickaxe handle, hitting the officer's shield and
helmet.
As the riot squad and natives
fought another band councillor, Cecil Bernard (Slippery) George
approached police to mediate but was surrounded by a group of
officers and beaten.
Ipperwash
occupation just a start
CP, November 2, 2004
FOREST -- The occupation of
Ipperwash Provincial Park that led to the 1995 shooting death
of native protester Dudley George was part of a plan to reclaim
a much larger area, the Ipperwash inquiry heard yesterday. Stoney
Point resident David George said some natives viewed the park's
reoccupation as a step in taking back ancestral lands from Ravenswood
to Pinery Provincial Park, an area covering about 20 kilometres
along Lake Huron.
Under cross-examination, George
said natives were frustrated negotiations to officially return
Camp Ipperwash stalled after they peacefully reoccupied the army
base in 1993.
He said the group felt justified
in moving onto the adjacent provincial park because its original
surrender and sale was arranged by a "shifty" Indian
agent.
Jennifer McAleer, a lawyer
representing former Ontario premier Mike Harris, asked George
what the next step would have been if his cousin hadn't been
killed.
"If you had your way,
would you then continue to take more land?" she asked.
"If I could, yea, I'd
take it all back," George replied.
The inquiry is probing the
death of Dudley George, 38, shot in a violent clash with OPP
officers at the park on Sept. 6, 1995.
The natives had moved into
the park two days earlier, citing the presence of a sacred burial
ground.
Shotgun
mystery unravels
A lawyer says the OPP
used the weapon as a smokescreen at the Ipperwash inquiry.
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
October 20, 3004
FOREST -- The mystery of the
"bastard blaster" sawed-off shotgun unravelled at the
Ipperwash inquiry yesterday in what George family lawyer Andrew
Orkin said showed the Ontario Provincial Police had made a shameful
attempt to create a smokescreen. Native witness David George,
one of the occupiers at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September
1995 when Dudley George was shot by an OPP officer, told the
judicial inquiry the shotgun was his.
Last month in the inquiry,
a lawyer for the Ontario Provincial Police Association introduced
pictures of the firearm, along with photos of a .22 calibre rifle,
triggering a storm of protest from lawyers for aboriginals, who
called the move "inflammatory."
Yesterday, the actual weapons
were obtained by the commission and handed to David George, who
testified the shotgun was definitely his and the rifle was probably
his as well.
He told the inquiry he had
written "bastard blaster" on the side of the gun because
he had seen a reference to one in a comic book.
"I thought it was funny,"
he said, adding he used the gun for goose hunting.
But George said he had stored
the guns at his grandfather's trailer and had never had them
at the Ipperwash Park occupation.
He later learned they had been
stolen and the perpetrator was expelled from the nearby army
base, which the natives had taken back from the military.
Outside the inquiry, Orkin
yesterday said the weapons are "absolutely remote"
from the events that took place in the hours and minutes leading
up to the killing of George by an OPP officer.
"Nine years later, the
OPP have not managed to produce evidence of weapons in the hands
of the demonstrators.
"There is endless evidence
that there were no weapons in the sworn testimony of all of the
people that were there.
"The only people who said
there were weapons there have been judicially found to be liars
and conspirators, namely the police snipers."
Orkin said the OPP introduced
the photos of the guns at the start of the inquiry into the shooting
of Dudley George as a smokescreen to cover their lack of evidence.
"Yes, a man who was at
the demonstration once owned those weapons, but here are the
important facts -- they were found elsewhere, in another community,
in a dumpster, a long period of time after the shooting,"
Orkin said.
"I am suggesting only
a desperate police force would now come up with those so long
after the fact and would only do that in context of First Nations
people. This amounts to a slur," he said.
Earlier yesterday, a police
surveillance tape shot in 1993 was shown that included scenes
of the natives who had occupied the army base, the former Stoney
Point Indian Reserve, which was taken from the natives in 1942
under the War Measures Act.
In one segment, Dudley George
spots the camera and starts waving at it.
Yesterday, the inquiry heard
David George's account of the occupation of the park and its
casual start.
A second cousin of Dudley George,
he testified there were OPP officers sitting on a picnic table
when he and other natives moved in.
"They said, 'How is it
going, nice day.' "
It was a similar reception
from Ministry of Natural Resources staff when he and others were
checking out the maintenance building at the park, he said.
"I just said, 'Hi, how
is it going.' I said we are going to check out this building.
They didn't care. They said, 'Sure, go ahead.' "
But the situation changed in
the evening when his uncle, Roderick George, gave police 10 seconds
to leave the park and started counting down, George said.
When Roderick George got to
three and the police hadn't moved, he smashed the rear window
of a police cruiser with a stick, David George said.
Inquiry told of rocks
tossed at cops
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
October 19, 2004
FOREST -- Pointing to police
being pelted with rocks and a flare, the lawyer for former premier
Mike Harris yesterday challenged native claims they only wanted
"a peaceful little demonstration" when they occupied
Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995. "You were attacking
them with physical force when they weren't attacking you,"
lawyer Peter Downard said to native witness Marlin Simon.
Simon disagreed, saying natives
never threw any rocks until a police cruiser rammed a picnic
table protesters were sitting on. Later, more rocks were thrown
and officers were hit after police used pepper spray on the protesters,
he said.
"It was just in retaliation,"
Simon testified.
The clashes happened Sept.
5, 1995, one day before native protester Dudley George was killed
by an OPP officer at the park.
The provincial judicial inquiry,
under Justice Sidney Linden, is investigating the killing and
what can be done to prevent similar situations in the future.
Yesterday, Downard pressed
Simon on his earlier testimony that the natives only wanted to
draw public attention to their claim to the park.
Downard suggested the park
occupiers' real intention was to take over the park and they
never planned to give it back to the government.
"Not no more," agreed
Simon.
Simon was also asked about
the protesters taking park picnic tables for firewood and using
gasoline from the park's tank after they took over.
He said the picnic tables were
in rough shape and, as for the gasoline, "it was there so
we might as well use it."
Simon, who has been on the
witness stand for five days, was also grilled about a warriors'
society set up in 1993 by the natives who took over the army
base, an area that had been the Stoney Point reserve before it
was seized by the Canadian government in 1942 under the War Measures
Act.
Simon said the warriors, which
included both men and women on the base, were really peacekeepers
and their role was to help with the children and take care of
the elderly, chopping wood for them and other chores.
The warriors were also involved
in fundraising so leaders could attend meetings, he said.
The only military component
of the warriors' society was that they were living on a military
base, he said.
Repeatedly asked for the names
of the men in the warriors' society by the Ontario Provincial
Police Association lawyer, Karen Jones, Simon said he didn't
have their names.
"You lived with these
people a number of years on a very small area on the base. I
suggest you were very close to these people. How is it that you
can't remember their names?" Jones asked.
"I don't know," replied
Simon. "In the winter time, there would be a few of us --
in the summer, more people."
When the park was occupied
by the natives, the group included veterans of other native protests,
including from the violent standoff in the United States at Wounded
Knee, Simon said.
He said none were from Oka,
a confrontation in Quebec five years earlier where a police officer
was killed and the Canadian military was called in to end it.
Simon also testified yesterday
he would have used a gun if there had been one available the
night Dudley George was shot and killed.
"I would have that night,"
Simon said.
But Simon has maintained during
hours of cross-examination that none of the natives had firearms
when police marched on the demonstrators in the dark.
Inquiry
told of beliefs of natives
Experts
describe traditional native practices in a forum.
CP , October 14, 2004
FOREST -- Traditional native
practices were the focus here yesterday at a forum arranged by
the Ipperwash inquiry into the shooting death of native protester
Dudley George. Hosted by aboriginal elders and other experts,
the two-day indigenous knowledge forum is designed to educate
the commission and other participants about the beliefs of aboriginal
people.
The only topic off-limits is
the inquiry itself.
Carole Pelletier is descended
from a long line of medicine people. Born at Stoney Point shortly
before it was expropriated in 1942 by Ottawa, she said the reserve's
woods are rich in wild ginseng, spikenard, golden seal and other
healing plants.
Band councillor Bonnie Bressette
said the residents of Kettle and Stoney Point are still relearning
the old knowledge authorities tried to erase as "all wrong"
by sending native children to residential schools.
But some things couldn't be
stamped out, she said, including a spiritual tie to ancestors
and a deep respect for land.
"To others, land means
money, it's an investment. But with us . . . it means life for
the next seven generations."
The forum opened with drum
songs and prayers for about 100 people seated in a circle in
the ballroom of the Forest Golf and Country Hotel.
The forum was to continue today.
Aboriginal healing forum
wraps up on bitter note
CP, October 15, 2004
FOREST -- An aboriginal forum
convened to build cultural bridges ended on an angry note yesterday
when a native teacher said he doesn't forgive whites for stealing
his land. Bruce Elijah, a spiritual teacher from Oneida of the
Thames, said aboriginal people were systematically pushed aside
by Europeans who brought smallpox, alcohol and a Bible "based
on lies."
"I'm told I need to work
on forgiveness. I've got a ways to go on that one," Elijah
said. "But I will never, ever forget what my people have
sacrificed."
The two-day forum was arranged
by the Ipperwash inquiry as a way to promote understanding and
healing.
The inquiry is examining the
1995 shooting death of native protester Dudley George.
Elijah, the final presenter,
said governments in Canada and the United States broke every
treaty ever signed with First Nations.
For their generosity and trust,
he said, 15 million aboriginal people living east of the Mississippi
at the time of Christopher Columbus were nearly wiped out.
"Your churches . . . your
military did away with our people."
An uneasy silence grew when
Elijah, speaking at the Forest Golf and Country Club, predicted
natives will rise up and take back the land within seven generations.
But it will be done peacefully,
not by arms or a coup, he added.
"If you teach people the
truth, they will take it upon themselves to use it in a good
way."
The Ipperwash inquiry is probing
the circumstances surrounding the shooting of George by an Ontario
Provincial Police officer in 1995 after a group of natives occupied
Ipperwash Provincial Park, citing the presence of a sacred burial
ground.
Ipperwash
tapes to be released when 'relevant'
Canadian Press, Oct 12,
2004
Forest, Ont. - The judge overseeing
an inquiry into the police shooting of a native protester in
1995 says audio evidence native leaders described as "explosive"
will not be made public just yet.
Justice Sidney Linden delivered
the decision Tuesday at the Ipperwash inquiry in this southwestern
Ontario community near the park where Dudley George was shot
and killed by a provincial police officer.
"When it is determined
that the evidence on the audio recordings are sufficiently relevant,
Commission, counsel will enter the recordings as evidence and
they will be made public before this inquiry at that time,"
Judge Linden ruled.
Releasing the tapes now could
"result in a wholesale dumping of documents into the public
realm without a real opportunity to evaluate their significance,"
he noted from a submission opposing the release.
Judge Linden also said releasing
the tapes could result in the evidence's being argued in the
media rather than at the inquiry.
"And that is not a process
that I wish to contribute to."
Mr. George's brother, Sam,
said he was disappointed by the decision.
"We brought it forth trying
to help the truth get out perhaps a little earlier, but we'll
continue to work to make sure it does come out," he said.
Aboriginal leaders have said
the tape explains why the police officer opened fire.
"We've known for a long
time that there are still people that want to delay the truth
from coming out and that's really too bad," Sam George said.
Judge Linden stressed that
the audio tape will be released, but he gave no indication as
to when that might happen.
George family lawyer Andrew
Orkin said he is glad the judge made it clear that the tapes
will be made public.
"This was a debate about
timing," Mr. Orkin said. "We're absolutely determined
to continue the work that was begun more than eight years ago
in making sure that this information reaches the light of day."
The shooting of Dudley George
on Sept. 6, 1995, ended a 48-hour standoff over native rights
to the land, which contains an aboriginal burial ground.
© 2004 Bell Globemedia
Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Judge delays release
of tapes in Ipperwash inquiry
CBC, 12 Oct 2004
FOREST, ONT. - So-called "explosive"
audio tape evidence in the death of Ontario native protester
Dudley George will not be immediately released to the public,
a judge in the Ipperwash inquiry has ruled.
Justice Sidney Linden said
releasing the two audio recordings now could fundamentally alter
the nature of the inquiry process.
He said it would be "premature
and inconsistent ...to disclose it to the public before it has
been introduced in its proper context through the hearing process."
Liden said the tapes would
be introduced at the "appropriate time" and those connected
to the recordings would be called as witnesses.
"The audio recordings
are not secret. They will be introduced in this inquiry and thereby
will be made publicly available," he said.
Chiefs of Ontario had brought
forward a motion for the tapes to be released immediately, calling
the information they contained "explosive," and saying
they would help explain why George was killed during a native
protest in Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995.
An inquiry is looking into
events surrounding his shooting.
OPP officer acting Sgt. Kenneth
Deane was convicted of criminal negligence causing death in the
unarmed native protester's death.
Written by CBC News Online
staff
Copyright ©2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All
Rights Reserved
Inquiry chief nixes tapes'
release
- Justice Sidney Linden
says the Ipperwash recordings will be made public later.
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
October 13, 2004
FOREST -- A bid to immediately
release two "explosive" audiotapes at the judicial
inquiry into the shooting of native protester Dudley George ran
into a brick wall yesterday. Justice Sidney Linden dismissed
all motions calling for the tapes to be made public immediately,
but emphasized the material will be released later at the inquiry.
"The parties to the conversations
on the audio recordings, as well as the parties mentioned in
the discussions, will be called as witnesses," Linden said.
"These witnesses will
be called in a manner and at a time to be determined at the discretion
of commission counsel and consistent with the duty of commission
counsel to present evidence in a balanced, orderly and logical
fashion," he ruled.
Lead commission counsel Derry
Millar said the tapes probably won't be released by the inquiry
until after Christmas.
In calling for early release
of the tapes, Sam George, a brother of Dudley's, had said the
recorded conversation showed why his brother died in September
1995.
Yesterday, George said he will
continue to campaign for the truth to come out despite the ruling.
"We have known for a long
time there are people who want to delay the truth coming out,"
he said.
"But we are OK, we are
still determined and we are still going to move forward. We are
going to work to get the truth out, no matter what it takes."
The tapes reportedly contain
a conversation between a senior Ontario Provincial Police officer
at Ipperwash Provincial Park and a colleague at Queen's Park
on the day Dudley George was killed by an OPP officer during
a confrontation between police and natives.
Linden said releasing the material
immediately could fundamentally alter the nature of public inquiries
and make it more important for participants to argue their cases
in the media rather than at the inquiry.
"That is not a process
I wish to contribute to," he said.
Peter Downard, lawyer for former
Ontario premier Mike Harris, said Linden's decision on the tapes
was "very well reasoned . . . We have to do this matter
one step at a time and not get particular pieces of the story
blown out of proportion."
And Chiefs of Ontario lawyer
Bill Horton, who made the application to release the tapes, said
Linden had ruled against him for "very carefully stated
reasons."
"I think it is a good
exercise of his discretion," Horton said, pointing in particular
to Linden's argument that evidence needed to be heard in context.
"That is certainly something
we are going to want to see with respect to First Nations witnesses
as well," Horton said.
The issue of context erupted
later at the inquiry yesterday when the lawyer for the Ontario
Provincial Police Association tried to cross-examine native Marlin
Simon about a statement given after the shooting by OPP acting
superintendent John Carson.
Objecting to the questioning,
Horton said the statement had nothing to do with Simon and was
an attempt to "cherry-pick" documents the police association
wanted out. Carson's statement should be treated in the same
way as the audiotapes, Horton said.
The police association's cross-examination
of native witnesses at the inquiry was attacked by aboriginal
lawyers at the inquiry last month when a fuzzy photograph of
a man carrying an object was introduced along with photos of
firearms. One lawyer called the photos "bogus."
Justice Linden cautioned OPPA
lawyer Karen Jones to ensure her questioning was fair and didn't
cross the line. Some questioning had, he said.
Yesterday, George family lawyer
Andrew Orkin warned the inquiry he was concerned about a notice
from the police association it intended to delve into the criminal
record of native witnesses. If so, Orkin said he'd have to call
evidence about the systemic criminalization of native people
in Ontario.
Copyright © The London
Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Ipperwash
natives jolted by shooting
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
October 1. 2004
FOREST -- A native who occupied
Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995 never expected police
to open fire on protesters, killing one and wounding others,
a judicial inquiry heard yesterday. "Figured dragged off
to jail would be the worst thing," Marlin Simon, 31, testified.
Part of the original group
of natives to take over the park, Simon said he was returning
there after dark Sept. 6, 1995, when he saw a school bus push
a dumpster aside and enter a gate followed by a car.
Simon said he parked his car,
got out and saw a group of people loading someone into a car.
It was Dudley George, who had been fatally wounded.
The police had retreated from
the area, he said.
Later that night, one of the
natives in the park placed a phone call and told the group: "Everybody,
Dudley has just died, Dudley is dead."
Simon said the news shook him.
"I was pretty confused
and angry," he testified.
Simon described a night of
fear after the shooting as the natives waited for a second police
attack that never came.
"We didn't have any guns
or anything; we couldn't defend ourselves," he said.
Their fears increased when
Bonnie Bressette, a Kettle and Stoney Point band councillor,
arrived to get women and children out of the army camp next to
the park.
"I thought . . . the cops
are coming to do something again," Simon testified.
He said women and kids were
afraid to go with Bressette through police lines, fearing they
would be arrested and jailed
Simon testified he was involved
in burning down a campground store with gas after news of George's
death.
Asked to explain why, Simon
said it seemed to be the only thing of value in the park.
"If we destroyed it, then
the province and the cops wouldn't feel they wanted it so bad,"
he said.
Under cross-examination by
George family lawyer Murray Klippenstein, Simon told the inquiry
he owned his first firearm at 14 and had shot rabbits, squirrels
and other game, including deer at 300 yards.
But when Klippenstein asked
how skilled native hunters would have performed if they chose
to fire at officers in formation, there was a chorus of objections.
Tony Ross, who represents Simon
and some other residents at the former federal army camp, said
it was clear Simon was a good shot.
"He can take down a squirrel,
which is a little smaller than a police officer. Everybody knows
what would happen," said Ross.
Simon was also cross-examined
about the "picnic table confrontation" the day before
the fatal shooting of George.
Simon had testified a group
of natives were sitting on picnic tables in a parking lot outside
the park when an officer drove up and told them to leave. They
refused and the officer jumped back into his cruiser and rammed
the picnic table with people on it, he said.
Simon said when a group of
officers approached after the incident they were carrying telescopic
batons and one taunted the natives, saying, "I just want
to try this one out."
The inquiry adjourned yesterday
until Oct. 12 when Justice Sidney Linden is to release his decision
on when a tape -- called "explosive evidence" -- will
be released.
Ambulances delayed, says
George witness
Two lay wounded
at Ipperwash Woman arrested trying to call 911
PETER EDWARDS, Toronto Star
STAFF REPORTER, Sep. 29, 2004
FOREST-A schoolteacher testified
she was "appalled" that ambulances appeared to be delayed
from treating the wounded after Anthony (Dudley) George was shot
and a teenager was injured in a confrontation with police.
"That's what I was appalled
at," Marcia Simon said of the sight of the ambulances, which
were parked at an OPP roadblock, about a five-minute drive from
Ipperwash Provincial Park.
Simon, 58, a Stoney Point band
member, told a public inquiry that the ambulances appeared to
be barred from treating native people who were hurt during a
late-night confrontation with the OPP at the park the night of
Sept. 6, 1995, when George, her cousin, was shot dead.
Simon, who at the time was
a high school teacher in London, said she saw the ambulances
while she was handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser, after
being arrested while trying to call 911 to get emergency help.
"I had tried to put a
call through requesting help at Stoney Point, knowing that people
had been shot and they were just parked there at that roadblock,"
she said.
She said she was released by
the OPP the following morning but never given a reason for her
arrest.
George, 38, was fatally shot
by an OPP officer outside the park on Lake Huron.
Marcia Simon's son, Marlin
Simon, 31, testified that he owned between eight to 10 rifles,
which he used for hunting.
"Mr. Simon, did you ever
point your gun at a person?," commission counsel Susan Vella
asked.
"No," he replied.
"Or at a vehicle?,"
Vella asked.
"No," Simon continued.
She asked if he had ever seen
Dudley George point a firearm at a police officer or member of
the military between the spring of 1993 and September, 1995.
"No, never," he replied.
An OPP officer was convicted
of criminal negligence causing death in 1997 after a judge found
that officers lied in their reports and in court and that the
native people were unarmed during the confrontation.
- Stoney Point band members,
including Dudley George, had moved into the park in September,
1995, saying they were protecting sacred Indian burial grounds.
-
-
- Ipperwash seizure no surprise: protester
- The Dudley George
inquiry hears that police were forewarned by natives who intended
to peacefully occupy Ipperwash park.
JOHN MINER, Free Press Reporter,
2004-09-29
FOREST -- Native protesters
had warned the Ontario Provincial Police and park staff for months
that they were going to seize the provincial park, the Ipperwash
Inquiry heard yesterday. Marlin Simon, 31, one of the natives
who occupied Ipperwash park in September 1995, said police were
told, during meetings with the group that had already seized
the adjacent army camp, that the park would also be taken over.
"We always told them when
we met with them that 'Yeah, we are going to take the park over,'
" Simon testified yesterday at the judicial inquiry into
the shooting of Dudley George.
George was killed by an OPP
officer during a confrontation between the OPP and natives occupying
the park on Sept. 6, 1995.
Simon said he had been told
by his grandfather about native burials at the park and he wanted
to put a stop to the site being used by campers.
"People were camping and
parking and drinking on that place we considered sacred,"
he said.
The group deliberately waited
until after Labour Day so campers would not be caught in the
occupation, he said.
"It seemed there would
be less of a chance of a violent confrontation happening when
the park was closed and no one was in there."
Simon said the idea of moving
into the park had been discussed by the natives for years, but
the decision to go in was made on Sept. 4, 1995.
"People were sitting around
having coffee at the kitchen one day. People said, 'The park
is closing down. Are we going to go in there or not?' People
said, 'Yeah, sure.' "
The intent was to have a peaceful
demonstration to draw attention to their concerns, Simon testified.
Simon was questioned closely
about the use of guns by the occupiers of the army camp, which
had been the Stoney Point reserve before the Canadian government
seized it in 1942 under the War Measures Act.
In the criminal trial of OPP
officer Ken Deane, who shot George, a judge ruled the natives
occupying the park were unarmed.
Simon testified he owned .22-calibre
rifles, shotguns and high-powered rifles for hunting and had
used them both during the day and at night at the army camp,
but kept them stored at the Kettle Point reserve.
He said Dudley didn't own a
gun, but had hunted with him and was a good shot.
Simon said he never saw Dudley
point a gun at another person.
In earlier testimony at the
inquiry yesterday, Simon's mother Marcia Simon said she saw ambulances
parked at the side of the road a few kilometres from where police
shot natives.
She said she was appalled to
see the ambulances had apparently been kept from going to help
the wounded.
Earlier that night, she testified
she was arrested by police as she tried to place a 911 call for
ambulances from a public pay phone.
The inquiry today is scheduled
to move behind closed doors to discuss whether an audio tape
should be made public.
The tape has been described
as "explosive" and apparently contains a conversation
between a police officer at the Ipperwash park protest and someone
at Queen's Park.
Copyright © The London
Free Press 2001,2002,2003
- OPP had guns on me,
woman tells inquiry
Tried to get apology, teacher testifies
Incident
followed Ipperwash shooting
PETER EDWARDS, Toronto Star
STAFF REPORTER, Sep. 28, 2004
FOREST, Ont.-The Ontario Provincial
Police never apologized for pointing shotguns at a schoolteacher
and an unarmed grandmother the night native activist Anthony
(Dudley) George was shot to death, a public inquiry was told
yesterday.
"I tried to get one,"
schoolteacher Marcia Simon, 58, told lawyer Brian Eyolfson, who
represents Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto.
Simon earlier told the inquiry
the shotguns were levelled on her and her elderly mother shortly
after George, 38, was fatally shot by an OPP officer on the night
of Sept. 6, 1995, at Ipperwash Provincial Park on Lake Huron
near Sarnia.
She and her mother, Melva George,
were at a phone booth near the park, where Simon was pleading
with the operator to send an ambulance, when the confrontation
occurred.
"Even if they offered
(an apology) now, it's too late," Simon continued. Her mother
died four years ago, she said.
Under often-heated questioning
from lawyer Karen Jones, who represents the Ontario Provincial
Police Association, Simon said she didn't see natives brandish
a tire iron, walking stick, fenceposts, baseball bats or crowbars,
or threaten officers by saying they had guns trained upon them
in the days before the shooting.
She also told Jones she didn't
hear automatic gunfire coming from the park on Sept. 5, 1995.
The Stoney Pointers had occupied Ipperwash park, saying they
were protecting sacred burial grounds.
Simon added that if natives
did threaten police by saying that they had guns, they likely
were just trying to scare them.
"I think they were pulling
their legs," she said. "They're playing on their perceptions
of us - that we have been portrayed as terrorists."
Mr. Justice Sidney Linden is
probing the shooting death of Dudley George on Sept. 6, 1995,
when seven OPP officers opened fire on unarmed natives at the
park. That same night, another native man was beaten until his
heart stopped, but he was later revived.
The judge's mandate includes
drafting suggestions for avoiding similar violence in future.
Under questioning by Jones,
Simon dismissed the suggestion she struggled with police when
she was arrested while trying to call 911 immediately after the
shooting of George, her second cousin.
"I remember being knocked
over the hood of the car and then onto the ground and being handcuffed
with plastic handcuffs," Simon said.
She added her mother was terrified
and police wouldn't let her use sacred medicines and pray.
She told Eyolfson the night
of Sept. 6, 1995, preyed upon her mother's nerves for the rest
of her life.
Simon said she fully supported
a move by Stoney Point natives in 1993 to take back their land
adjoining Ipperwash Provincial Park, which had been seized by
the Canadian military in 1942 to make way for a military base.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Jewish
Congress Ontario Region issued a statement yesterday condemning
the "hateful actions" of whoever painted a swastika
near a spot where members of Dudley George's family routinely
park.
- Release all documents,
not just tape: Harris team
- Ipperwash inquiry head
will hear arguments on making the 'explosive' recording public
now.
JOHN MINER, London Free
Press Reporter, September 28, 2004
FOREST -- Former premier Mike Harris's legal team is taking an
all-or-nothing approach to the release of an "explosive"
audio tape at the Ipperwash inquiry into the fatal shooting of
native protester Dudley George. Disclosed this month to lawyers
at the inquiry but kept under wraps from the public, the tape
reportedly contains a conversation between a senior police officer
at Ipperwash Provincial Park and a colleague at Queen's Park
the night in 1995 that George was shot by an officer.
Sam George, a brother of Dudley's,
has said the tape shows why his brother died.
Lawyers for natives at the
inquiry have described the contents as "explosive."
Peter Downard, a Harris lawyer,
said yesterday the former premier isn't opposing release of the
tape now.
But if Justice Sidney Linden,
heading the judicial inquiry, rules the tape should be released,
Downard said he will ask that all documents immediately be made
public.
"In our view, this early
disclosure (of the tape) is being sought so that the case can
frankly be argued in the media," Downard told The Free Press.
"If that is where the case is going to be argued, we have
to have a reasonable opportunity to refer to all evidence to
respond to that and show what we think is the reasonable view
of what really happened here."
In preparation for the public
hearings, commission staff have obtained more than 5,000 hours
of audio tape and thousands of documents.
Asked if making all documents
available at once would be practical, Downard said: "We
would just have to do our best to manage it."
Lawyers for the Chiefs of Ontario
are spearheading the drive to have the tape released now rather
than later in the inquiry.
Linden has set aside tomorrow
afternoon and Thursday morning to hear submissions behind closed
doors on the request from the 17 parties represented at the inquiry.
In yesterday's cross-examination
of former London high school teacher Marcia Simon, the inquiry
heard starkly different accounts of what happened to her on the
night of Sept. 6, 1995, when Dudley George was killed.
Simon has testified that her
sons were part of the native group in the park when police started
shooting. She said she drove to the nearby hamlet of Northville
to call for ambulances to pick up the wounded.
A tape of her 911 call was
played Friday. Police could be heard shouting in the background,
"Don't make a move lady" and Simon responding, "I'm
just talking on the phone. Get the gun out of here."
Seconds later, police could
be heard ordering her to get on the ground.
In the most emotional testimony
to date, Simon has said she thought police were going to execute
her and her elderly mother.
She said she was thrown to
the ground and handcuffed, her glasses knocked from her face
and the contents of her purse tossed around the parking lot by
police.
Yesterday, the lawyer for the
OPP Association, which represents rank-and-file provincial police
officers, showed Simon a series of statements from police contradicting
her evidence.
Quoting from the statements,
OPPA lawyer Karen Jones suggested that police had warned Simon
repeatedly to hang up the phone, that she was told ambulances
had been called and that she resisted arrest so strenuously,
it took two officers to subdue and handcuff her.
Simon said the statements weren't
true.
She also disputed police statements
that her elderly mother was calm and co-operative during the
arrest.
"I could hear her hysterically
screaming in the background when I was being knocked to the ground,"
Simon said.
Jones also told the inquiry
that police statements stated the teacher was informed she was
being arrested for failing to stop for police and that she was
read her rights twice.
Simon has maintained she was
never told why police were arresting her, and has insisted the
claim that she was read her rights is false.
Copyright © The London
Free Press 2001,2002,2003
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
