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Canadian disgrace at Ipperwash laid out in detail
Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff WriterOne Dead Indian,
The Premier, The Police and the Ipperwash Crisis
By Peter Edwards
Stoddart Publishing, Toronto
259 pages
$34.95 (hc)The review copy of Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards' One Dead Indian made its way to our newsroom a week later than expected because of the flight ban imposed after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11.
As police officers and fire fighters performed heroically at the site of the World Trade Center while the world watched in horror, it was disquieting to read about the less-than-heroic actions of Ontario Provincial Police officers at Ipperwash Provincial Park six years previously.
In the days immediately before the terrorist attack on the United States, the details of the police shooting of unarmed land claim protester Dudley George had re-emerged as front page news. Pressure was mounting on Ontario Premier Mike Harris to fully account for his actions.
The Globe and Mail, following up on information in Edwards' book, published daily reports throughout the first week of September that pointed to improper action by Harris in directing the police to take an unprecedented, aggressive approach at Ipperwash. When the sixth anniversary of George's death was marked on Sept. 6 with demonstrations and renewed demands that Harris call a public inquiry, the George family's long, difficult, frequently frustrating quest for justice was- at last-gaining momentum.
Then the world changed. The attention of the public and the press was diverted.
But Edwards and his partner, lawyer-turned-journalist Harold Levy, were not distracted. They have doggedly chased the story since the night of the shooting, leading the national press corps most of the way. One Dead Indian was released in early September. It's a detailed examination of what Amnesty International called the "extra-judicial execution" of Dudley George.
In the book, Edwards clearly and meticulously lays out the facts of the case and asks the important unanswered questions so effectively that he convinced other reporters that this was a story they should continue to pursue.
Many Native readers may be surprised by the tough tone the author takes. Edwards leaves no doubt that he feels the police and government members behaved shamefully throughout this affair. His last chapter is a hard-hitting list of all the tough questions that should have been answered a long time ago.
In the book, you will see the confusing array of facts brought into clear focus. You will come to see exactly what happened that night and what unlikely explanations the police and politicians are hoping the public will accept. Claims that seem somewhat believable when phrased in the bloodless bureaucratic language that's designed to confuse and defuse the demands for accountability are seen for what they are when Edwards puts them in context and shows us the whole picture.
You will learn the history of Dudley George's Stoney Point people. You will read that the Stoney Pointers are descended from Tecumseh, a warrior who fought heroically to preserve the very existence of what is now called Canada during the War of 1812. The book shows the reward Native heroes received from the Crown-their homeland was jerked out from underneath them and converted to a military base. An entire community was dispossessed; many government promises were broken.
Edwards shows that the provincial government had documents in its possession that were more than 50 years old that proved the Stoney Pointers had good reason for making a stand on their rights at Ipperwash. He also shows that didn't matter as much as the Harris government's concern about projecting a tough image.
Windspeaker has also followed this story very closely. We have visited the community and talked to the people, gotten to know many of the main figures very well. We're impressed by the quality and depth of Edwards' research. It is a thorough and important book.
The chapter showing the trial of acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane, the highly trained OPP anti-terrorist specialist who shot the unarmed Dudley George and then, determined the judge hearing the case, lied in court and to police investigators in an attempt to escape punishment, shows the readers something that news reports can't. You read the exchanges between the Crown prosecutor and the police witnesses and see how the cover-up was exposed. You see how flimsy the excuses were.
Edwards discussed the book in detail with Windspeaker on Sept. 22. He said he was working the afternoon shift the night of the shooting and began driving from Toronto to the scene of the shooting-a two-and-a-half hour trip-as soon as word spread there'd been an incident.
"Right from the start, you could tell something wasn't right there," he said.
He was asked why he adopted such a tough tone in the book. He said the treatment Stony and Kettle Point band councillor Cecil George received at the hands of the police convinced him, just as much as the death of Dudley George, that the police had clearly crossed the line. They and the people who made the decision to deploy an anti-terrorist unit against unarmed people at 11 p.m. have a lot to answer for, he believes.
"I think it's just . . . how do you describe someone being beaten till his heart stops? When he has 28 blunt force trauma wounds, being dragged by his hair? How do you describe that dispassionately? I mean, when he said he wouldn't even do that to a dog . . . how do you . . . I guess, you know, I grewup by a reserve, really trusting in police and I'd really like that feeling of being able to trust. The idea that you feel safe when you go to people in authority. I was always brought up that way and that's the way I'm trying to bring up my kids," he said. "But at the same time, what really, really burned with me was the one quote at the start where the women phoned and said there's been a shooting at the park and the 911 operator said, 'Call the police,' and she said, 'We can't. They're the ones doing the shooting.'"
Shortly after the shooting, members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) attempted to put up a picket line around the Ontario legislature. OPP officers roughed up a couple of the picketers. Almost immediately, the Opposition demanded that Premier Mike Harris call an inquiry, which he did.
"Yeah, and none of them spent the night in the hospital," Edwards noted.
Yet the George family has been vainly demanding an inquiry into the death of their family member for six years and Harris continues to refuse their demands. That, Edwards believes, is primarily an indication that the Ontario government doesn't want to publicly examine the events that led to the death. But he admits that could only have been tolerated this long because the victims are Native people.
"I found that profoundly embarrassing. The Stoney pointers were in an area where later it was proven they had a right to be there. You could argue that the OPSEU protesters didn't have the right to block MPPs from going to work.
The Stoney pointers weren't trying to block people from going to their cottages; they weren't trying to stop people from camping; they weren't trying to impose their will on anyone else. They were just trying to do what they thought was right and that was basically to honor their ancestors. And so in a way, the Stoney Point protest was extremely, extremely more passive than the OPSEU one. What are the big differences? One was caught on TV cameras, one was by a group that has good access to the media, and one group was Aboriginal. I'm not a guilty, bleeding-heart white but I don't see any other way to read that one," he said.
Edwards and Levy have pushed their investigation right into the premier's office during the last six years. While other mainstream newspapers have let the story slide, the Star has published hundreds of stories about the Ipperwash affair. Although Harris has denied any involvement, Edwards and Levy have written that he was involved and backed it up with government documents. He pointed out that the government would have pounced on any error it spotted in order to cast doubt on his credibility.
Despite the evidence suggesting a cover-up, Harris recently said most of the press coverage of Ipperwash was wrong.
"We did a check of everything we've written in the Star in the last six years. At that point it was a bit over 340 (stories). There were two corrections and they were both requested by Harold and I. One was that we'd got the call letters of Lee Michael's radio station in Sarnia botched up. That was my fault. The other was that a copy editor got solicitor general and attorney general mixed up way down at the bottom of a story. So out of 340 stories, and now it's more like 350 or so, and two errors. And the premier's office has all sorts of bright communications specialists and so far they haven't spotted one error," he said.
Edwards knows, especially with the outpouring of respect and gratitude that police and fire fighters in New York City are receiving these days, that taking shots are police officers isn't going to win him many friends.
"I'm a real believer in the saying, 'If you want a friend, get a dog,'" he joked. "People who are pro police should be outraged that people who are otherwise competent officers should be put in a ridiculous situation. A really, really meticulous peace plan was blown out of the water for political reasons. If you follow [OPP incident commander] John Carson's role, show me where he went wrong. He put together a real good plan; he put in long hours; he wasn't alarmist; he got to know the people. He had a plan for 13 negotiators when there was only 24 demonstrators in the park. The incident commander did his job and I'm convinced he didn't call in the [Tactical Response Unit] team. The old bit about treating police as professionals and keeping them at arm's length, that just wasn't respected here. When Ken Deane's career ends, or if it ends, they shouldn't be blaming the Stoney Pointers, they should be blaming the politicians. Ken Deane, as much as he did something terrible that night, he was improperly briefed that the Stoney Pointers had AK-47s when they didn't. They kept him on for 17 hours that day. When you really, really wire people up and then they screw up, I think you have a bit of responsibility yourself. So I don't see it as a police-bashing book but more as what happens when you ignore people's expertise and you make a policing issue a political issue. Carson told us a year ago that he wants an inquiry. I think that's pretty telling."