Commissioner rules on 'explosive' tape

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The decision has been made to keep an audiotape described as "explosive" from the public just a little while longer.

That was the result of a long, closed session involving Chief Commissioner Sidney Linden and about two dozen lawyers who represent various parties with standing at the Ipperwash inquiry into the death of Anthony (Dudley) George. Lawyers cannot discuss details because of the inquiry's confidentiality rules.

Some media outlets have reported the tape is of a conversation between two senior Ontario Provincial Police officers, recorded just before the fatal police shooting of George on Sept. 6, 1995. Upon hearing the tape, the victim's brother, Sam George, concluded that racism and politics played a role in the death. The family had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against former Ontario premier Mike Harris, several members of his cabinet and senior police officials, but dropped the lawsuit when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty called the inquiry earlier this year.

Two parties-the Chiefs of Ontario and the George family group-made motions to the chief commissioner asking him to immediately release the tapes. A decision on the motion was released on Oct. 12.

"The parties to the conversation on the audio recordings, as well as the parties mentioned in the discussions, will be called as witnesses," Linden wrote in his decision. "These witnesses will be called in a manner and at a time to be determined at the discretion of the commission counsel, and consistent with the duty of commission counsel to present evidence in a balanced, orderly and logical fashion."

He added later in the six-page decision that he was concerned that a "wholesale dumping" of evidence into the public realm before the evidence is dealt with during the inquiry hearings could lead to lawyers arguing their cases "in the media rather than in the inquiry." No date has been set for the release of the tapes.