Brutality Canada

Background Information and Analysis:

On the Fatal Shooting of Dudley George and the case against OPP Sargent Kenneth Deane

Deane was convicted in 1997 of criminal negligence in the fatal shooting of unarmed Aboriginal Rights protestor, Dudley George (from the Stoney Point or Aazhoodena territory), at Ipperwash Park on September 6, 1995. He was sentenced to serve 180 hours of voluntary community service, and received no loss of pay or position for the crime of killing an unarmed man who was asserting his recognized Aboriginal rights in a public park that had closed for the season. Deane has appealed both the conviction and his sentence, and all appeals to lower courts by Deane have been rejected.

Deane deserves no release or reprise from his conviction. Not only did he admit shooting Dudley George, but he tried to lie about it and say he was shot at first. (The trial judge condemned Deane's lies, saying they were invented after the fact, in his decision.) These falsehoods were a terrible display of disrespect to those engaged in just, honourable and peaceable political actions at Ipperwash Park beginning on September 4, 1995. Clearly, Deane is both guilty and unremorseful for his crime. Yet more is called for than simply upholding Deane's conviction. And, this further action must come from the Ontario Provincial, or failing that the Federal, government. Family members and indigenous and other human rights activists across Canada want political accountability.

Less than thirty Aboriginal men, women, children and elders began occupying the Park on September 4, 1995 - as it was closing for the season - in order to assert their Aboriginal land, treaty and cultural rights. (In fact, members of Dudley George's home community of Stoney Point, adjacent to Ipperwash Park, continue to demand a satisfactory resolution of the underlying issues, which remain unsettled - seventy-four years after the problems began and more than five years after George's death.)

The police assault on the night of September 6, 1995, which involved 250 or more highly-trained, elite squad riot police, was an unprecedented and totally unexpected departure from the Ontario policing strategies of recent decades. Furthermore, confidential documents leaked to, and printed in, the media as well as material released under freedom-to-information legislation reveal that Ontario Premier Mike Harris and fellow Conservative Cabinet members played a role in orchestrating the aggressive nature and level of police response.

Countless individuals and hundreds of organizations across Canada, as well as two United Nations Committees, Amnesty International and the Ontario Ombudsman, have called for a Public Inquiry into Ipperwash. Such an Inquiry would uncover the truth about how these events occurred. It would set out recommendations designed to prevent a re-occurrence of this tragedy, as Aboriginal Inherent Rights continue to be hotly contested in many parts of Canada.

Premier Harris has continually maintained that he could not call such an Inquiry because it might prejudice existing cases before the courts. The conclusion of Deane's appeal will represent an important turning point in the history of this long-protracted effort to get a Public Inquiry into Dudley George's death and other related human rights violations. Regardless of its conclusion, when the Deane SCC hearing concludes, Premier Harris will lose his last excuse for calling a Public Inquiry. The only remaining matter before the courts will be the Civil Suit for the Wrongful Death of Dudley George, in which Harris and fellow Cabinet Ministers, among others, are named as defendants.

Will the Premier be able to say that he won't call an Inquiry because it would prejudice the Civil Court Case against himself? Would he not have a monumental conflict of interest in so saying? Could he continue to talk about the money issue, asserting that inquiries are too expensive and cumbersome, after how the Ontario government has drawn out and dragged down the entire process of the Civil Case through the courts, and has now hired one of the nation's most expensive litigators to represent the Premier?

In these circumstances, with the Deane appeal complete, will the Premier be able to explain why White Canadians in Walkerton (on the water issue) or in Toronto (police violence at the OPSEU protest in 1996) get Inquiries but Aboriginal Peoples (injured, killed and terrorized during a peaceful political protest) do not get an Inquiry?

In Alberta, where he enjoys so much public support, Stockwell Day is being made to answer for using public office as a shield to avoid accountability for his abuse of power and violation of the basic rights of another human being. The huge network of the Coalition for a Public Inquiry and all other people who have pressed for justice on Ipperwash have so far come up empty-handed in getting Harris and his colleagues to account for the baises or faulty judgement they brought to the decisions that were made about Ipperwash.

Some argue that Harris' powerful supporters, who help design his political strategy and legal tactics, want this precedent of taking a "no nonsense" (fatal) approach to indigenous people to stand as an example to other Aboriginal Rights activists. It is known that the Harris government's supporters include all the multinational-global corporations who want unrestricted access to timber, minerals and other resources that are often inconveniently located in or on First People's territories. Regardless of how the SCC deals with the Deane appeal, it is time for Premie Harris to finally give in and call an Inquiry into Ipperwash... before he costs us any more deaths.

If Ontario continues to stonewall, Prime Minister Chretien must do the right thing and call a federal Public Inquiry. This is an issue of concern to people, Peoples and groups across Canada and around the world. With tensions and racist backlash rising across the country, it is all too likely that leaving Ipperwash un-addressed creates a sense of impunity for officials responding to similar incidents elsewhere in Canada. With the Deane appeal settled it is time to act.

Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law.

See also Supreme Court of Canada 
 
Assembly of First Nations

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This page created January 19, 2001