Trust. Integrity. Reputation.
July - 2007Ipperwash Inquiry report lauded
By Paul Barnsley
Windspeaker Staff Writer
FOREST, Ont.
Observers spent the last few months worrying that Justice Sidney Linden would avoid the most contentious issues in his final report on the Ipperwash Inquiry into the police shooting of Native land claim protester Dudley George. They were, however, delighted with the chief commissioner when his report was finally released on May 31.
Linden dealt head on with the issues of former premier Mike Harris' role in events leading up to the raid on Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995, as well as his now infamous, offensive comments about the Native people occupying the land there.
Harris era Ontario Natural Resources minister Charles Harnick shocked the inquiry last year when he said he heard the premier say he wanted "the fucking Indians out of the park" during a meeting of cabinet ministers in the premier's private dining room at Queen's Park, the Ontario legislature. Harris denied, during his testimony at the inquiry, that he said those words.
During his remarks as he formally released his report, Linden said "I have found that both the former premier and minister of natural resources made racist comments, in what has become known as 'the dining room meeting,' although both denied making these offensive comments."
The Ontario judge also said "there is no doubt that the premier [Mike Harris] wanted the occupiers out of the park as soon as possible and the occupation ended, but the evidence does not support the claim that he interfered with the OPP's operation," later adding, "the speed at which the premier wished to end the occupation created an atmosphere that unduly narrowed the scope of the government's response to the occupation."
And Linden found that there is no doubt that police racism played a role in the tragedy.
"Cultural insensitivity and racism on the part of some of the OPP officers involved were evident both before and after Dudley George's death and created a barrier to establishing effective communication and to developing a level of trust with the occupiers which, in turn, made a timely, peaceful resolution of the occupation more difficult," he said.
Linden said the OPP response to "offensive coffee mugs and T-shirts containing racist imagery to commemorate the OPP's actions at Ipperwash ... was insufficient."
"Officers were either subject to internal, informal discipline or not disciplined at all," he said. "Several incidents were not discovered or dealt with until years later when they were 'discovered' in the lead up to, or during, this inquiry. These circumstances call into question the disciplinary regime for this kind of conduct and the internal mechanisms for reporting it that were in place at that time."
But he reserved his harshest criticism for the federal government and pointed to federal delays in resolving land claims as the biggest factor in the fatal confrontation.
"Successive federal governments must bear the primary responsibility for the occupation," he said.
Linden made the point that many people shared the blame for the death.
"There is no doubt that OPP Acting Sgt. [Kenneth] Deane shot and killed Mr. George and nothing in this inquiry challenges or undermines this conviction. However, Acting Sgt. Deane should not have been in a position to shoot Mr. George in the first place," he said.
The commissioner made a number of recommendations in his four-volume report, among them the creation of a treaty commission of Ontario and a provincial ministry that deals only with Aboriginal Affairs.
Sam George spent 12 years pushing for the truth about the actions leading to his brother's death.
"After the inquiry was called, [family lawyer] Murray [Klippenstein] said to me, 'You don't seem happy.' I told him, 'Oh yeah, I'm happy, but it's not time to say wow yet.' I told him after the report: 'It's time to say wow.' It felt really good after I heard the report. My family were smiling. We're quite happy with it. The commissioner did a great job," he said.
He was disappointed that former premier Harris didn't acknowledge the role he played in the tragedy.
"The commissioner, he didn't call Harris a liar, but he said he believed Charles Harnick when he said he misled the legislature. He was right. The man got away with nothing," he said. "The report said he clearly did not direct them but I still hold him partially responsible. He needs to apologize to my family. His lawyer said there's no apology needed. He didn't do nothing. At that time he was the most powerful man and he could have pulled together the people needed at that time, when we asked him in the beginning, and we could have gone into a room a talked this out."
George said his family knew all along that Deane, a tactical officer, was not the only guilty party.
Klippenstein told Windspeaker that was a very important point.
"The family has always said that Deane pulled the trigger, but he probably should not have been there in the first place. The riot squad should not have been there that night. In other words, Dudley didn't need to die."
After spending 12 years battling the most powerful people in Ontario, digging out the vital information that would allow his client to get to the truth of that tragic night, the lawyer said one crucial matter is still unresolved.
"Given the commissioner's findings, it probably would be helpful and appropriate for Mr. Harris to say a few words of apology," he said. "I think, as the family thinks back to that night and those days when nobody would tell them what went on and Dudley and his friends were portrayed as gun-toting, police-shooting crazies, now it turns out that Dudley was unarmed and was standing on treaty land when he was shot. He will now be remembered for better things."
For years, before newly elected Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty called the inquiry in 2003, Klippenstein was preparing a wrongful death lawsuit against the police and the government on behalf of Sam George. He worked ceaselessly on the case, even when his client had no money to pay him. After years of long hours and financial hardship, he had a hard time disguising the emotional impact of the case. But he was caught slightly off-guard by a question that had nothing to do with the law.
As a man, not as a lawyer, Windspeaker asked, what will you take away from this chapter in your life? There was a long pause.
"I'm choking up a little, I guess," he said, taking a moment to regain composure. "I look back on a lot of polar opposites. On the one side, there's some terrible injustices where the legal system failed miserably and the legal profession failed miserably and innocent First Nations people were trampled all over. But when I look on the other side where I met some wonderful people like Sam and the family and a lot of the legal community came through and a lot of good-hearted Canadians stepped forward and I see a lot of hope. I feel like this is a case where just about the worst kind of things happened but a bunch of people refused to be overwhelmed, so a lot of really good things came from a lot of bad things."
Sam George said his brother's sacrifice is now a part of history.
"He'll never be forgotten now. Everybody will always remember him on that night of Sept. 6. Now it's up to us to learn how to work together in a good way, to communicate and listen to each other."
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