Blue Like You

Archive for the ‘Ontario - As lawless as it gets’ Category

Please listen to John Tory live on the Jeff Allan show this morning for all three hours.

Right now he is addressing the economy, as well as the (lack of) the rule of law in Ontario. Listen live here and please try to call in.

Now’s your chance to air your grievances, all you malcontents.

Moebius, that means you!

I don’t know how this one got by me yesterday.

Christie Blatchford, who recently returned from Afghanistan, has filed a report from another lawless and explosive situation - Caledonia, Ontario.

In her Saturday Globe column (Their Caledonia House is No Longer a Home), Christie gives us her own unique perspective on the unbelievable nightmare that Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell have been forced to endure. The events leading up to the couple’s decision to sue the provincial government and the Ontario Provincial Police for $10 million are well documented:

…Life in their isolation has meant having to present a “passport” to natives when leaving or returning to their house, having their car searched by masked men at barricades, being refused access to their property, having no mail or garbage removal and enduring threats, noise and their house being ransacked.

All the while, police refused to intervene, including ignored 911 calls, they said…

In fact, 911 told them, “Don’t call again. We can’t help you“.

In Caledonia. In Ontario, Canada.

I am not making this up.

Christie goes on:

Finally, early on the morning of April 20 last year, the OPP raided the property to enforce the order, but were ultimately overrun and forced to leave Douglas Creek Estates.

That was the day Mr. Brown, watching from his house, realized that he and his family were on their own, that, as he says, “When the sun goes down behind my home, I don’t live in Canada, I live in Beirut.”

Please read the whole column very carefully. Read about the terrifying night that Mr. Brown, after having missed the native-imposed “curfew”, was desperately concerned for the safety of his wife and so drove towards his home anyway. Read how he ended up in a cell overnight with his wife left alone.

Read how he discovered a video camera hidden in their kitchen and aimed at the table.

Read how their house was trashed and obscenities scrawled on the walls.

Read how the natives set fire to bales of hay near their home and threatened to burn it down, while an OPP officer (allegedly) watched and did nothing.

Christie notes that Dave Brown feels this whole situation has been mismanaged from the start:

…lawlessness has beget lawlessness. Each victory – routing the OPP, the government buying the land and allowing the natives to continue to occupy it, the state’s failure to proceed with contempt orders etc. – has emboldened the natives who are his neighbour.

Meanwhile, the Leadership debate organizers felt that the question of Caledonia was considered inappropriate for a debate forum.

Cowards.

Please don’t shrug off this story. If it happened here in Caledonia, it could happen anywhere in Ontario.

It could even happen to you.

Is this Canada or Mexico?

The National Post has an even more chilling description of the unbelievable nightmare that Caledonia residents David Brown and Dana Chatwell have had to endure.

The couple has now launched a $10-million lawsuit against the provincial government and the Ontario Provincial Police.

There are a few articles in yesterday’s Hamilton Spectator that provide some insight into the brutal beating of builder Sam Gualtieri, and provoke more questions.

In “A brutal, brutal attack“, reporter Paul Morse has done an excellent job attempting to get versions from both sides:

In an interview, Davies said he, Gualtieri and two others were checking on the home when they saw a protester standing on the front porch.

“They started to heckle us, saying, ‘If you want a piece of this, come in here,’” said Davies.

The four went into the home and Gualtieri ordered the protesters out. Davies says he didn’t see who threw the first punch, but described Gualtieri struggling with one person while the others squared off.

The 33-year-old said he and a cousin left the house to grab two-by-fours and started back in to discover Gualtieri lying on the floor as he was struck with a piece of wood. Davies said he screamed to natives outside the house for help and the attackers fled.

The native version:

They say the builder and his companions entered the house and attacked them.

They say the protesters were only defending themselves.

Police say they are still investigating the incident.

O.K. If that’s true, there should be some native youth out there with bruises or some kind of injuries. That should be easy enough to investigate; especially after Gualtieri was able to I.D. one of them.

Now the OPP is saying that they were ‘caught off-guard‘ and didn’t witness the assault:

“Had we seen something taking place, we would have definitely stepped in,” said OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor.

The assault took place at the “exact opposite end” of a construction site where a protest, watched by police, was taking place, he said.

The clash appeared to take place at about 4 p.m. Thursday.

Media standing at a yellow tape barricade at the top of Stirling Street saw natives running diagonally across the subdivision to the home on Kyler Court. They arrived at the house within a minute or two.

At the time, police were stationed at the barricade, with some just inside the top of the subdivision.

Other OPP officers were manning a post a block down Stirling Street where they turned away cars trying to approach the development.

So it would seem that the media noticed something unusual, but not the OPP who were busy trying to keep the non-natives away, or so it would appear.

Plainclothes police and one of the developers arrived at the home in time to see a group of youths emerge from behind the house and walk along a berm on the boundary of the site.

No one appeared to stop them.

Why didn’t anyone try to stop them?

Rektor said police’s main priority was saving the life of the victim and making sure the person got the medical attention needed.

They all had to attend to the victim? They couldn’t afford to have anyone go after those who were fleeing the scene???

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino’s office was contacted by The Spectator to speak to the events. A spokesperson said Fantino is on vacation outside the country and is unavailable for comment.

But Rektor said police have been instructed by Fantino to not tolerate criminal acts at protests.

What? Were the rank-and-file previously instructed to tolerate ‘criminal acts at protests’???

Joe Gualtieri’s story contradicts that of the OPP:

Joe Gualtieri said Ontario Provincial Police officers on the site “stood there, and they did not intervene” until after the beating, when the attackers had fled.

Someone appears to be stretching the truth, don’t you agree?

Meanwhile, Caledonia Mayor Marie Trainer warns that “if native land disputes drag on until the end of the year, Haldimand County’s economy will take a hit of about $40 million this year.”

Further up the Grand River in Cambridge, Mayor Doug Craig is preparing for similar problems.

“Mike (Hancock, Mayor of Brantford) warned us that it’s coming our way, and he’s quite correct, we know that,” said Craig.

Next time you hear Dalton makes another fiscal promise on the campaign trail, ask him if that assumes that the native conflicts will be resolved.

Or will we be hearing about another ‘hardest decision of my life’?

The Record is reporting that former Toronto mayor David Crombie will be the liaison between federal negotiators and the non-aboriginal community.

At least someone is listening.

Meanwhile, Sam Gualtieri is now able to speak and says that he knows who his attacker is.

Joe said his brother recalled telling the protesters that they were on his property and to get out. “They said, ‘not anymore it’s our property now,’” a tearful Gualtieri told his brother. Gualtieri’s nephews, who were with him at the time, said he was attacked after trying to chase a group of natives off the property and hit from behind with a piece of wood. But several natives gave a different version, saying the protesters were defending themselves against Gualtieri who attacked them first. OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor said no arrests had yet been made in the assault but that investigators were working “diligently”.

Check out this CHML link:

Click on Caledonia - Will it ever end?

Scott hones in on the real issue at the heart of the native file - their own discord regarding leadership.

Not to let McGuinty off the hook here. He’s responsible for keeping the peace - and doing a pathetic job of it.

SDA links to this Globe article with the following chilling statement:

Joe Gualtieri said Ontario Provincial Police officers on the site “stood there, and they did not intervene” until after the beating, when the attackers had fled.

Enter Ontario at your own risk.

This quote from the same Globe link underlines the lack of control within the native community:

Six Nations hereditary chief Allen MacNaughton said in an interview that the confederacy council, which is trying to negotiate an understanding with Ventures Homes Ltd., the company that owns Stirling South, was surprised by the protesters.

“The confederacy was not aware of the movement,” Mr. MacNaughton said.

He said that the chiefs tried yesterday to talk the protesters into leaving the site, but “the people there are not listening to us at this time.”