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Ipperwash Inquiry: A Journalistic Inquiry
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On Thursday the findings of the Government of Ontario's official Inquiry into the events of the native occupation at Ipperwash
Provincial Park during 1995 were released.
Ipperwash
Provincial Park is located in southwestern
Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron just south of the community of Grand Bend,
Ontario. Back in the summer of 1995 tensions were brewing between the Stoney
Point Natives and the federal government over a military base. The federal
government had been promising to return the military base to native control
once the Second World War had ended. However, around fifty years later the
Stoney Point Natives were getting antsy. A group of the natives moved into the
military base and occupied it. The military, sensing tensions were growing, had
smartly moved out of the base smartly beforehand. However, the natives grew
even more restless and began eying the next door Ipperwash Provincial Park.
Labour Day weekend saw the natives move into and occupy the provincial park
claiming there were native buriel grounds.
Friday
morning the Toronto media published both the usual stories reporting on the
inquiry's findings as well as presenting analysis by their columnists. The Toronto Star's Queen's Park Columnist, Ian Urquhart, blames the Ipperwash Affair
almost entirely on then Ontario Premier Mike Harris. Urquhart's main thesis that: "...[the] pressure from Harris to resolve
the matter quickly contributed to the eventual outcome" of the Ipperwash
clash. Urquhart goes onto point at that the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), because of Harris' pressure to resolve the native
occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park quickly, were thus forced to storm the
park and remove the occupying group of natives. This prevented the police from
negotiating with the native occupiers like the current provincial Liberal
government is doing with the native occupation of Caledonia Ontario.
Ian Urquhart
even points out that the Ipperwash Inquiry's main stinging criticism of Mike
Harris by writing: "For good measure, Linden also chooses not to believe
Harris's denial that he ever said, "I want the f---ing Indians out of the
park." Good Measure? Seems Urquhart only adds this little tidbit of
information just to throw in some more anti-Mike Harris rhetoric to his column.
Basically Urquhart uses this column to rail against the Conservative "law
and order approach
On Friday
the Toronto Star's Friday
Editorial is not as scathing as their own columnist Ian
Urquhart. The Star's editorial attempts to answer the question of 'what went
wrong at Ipperwash? The editorial points to the three things as being the
reason the whole Ipperwash Provincial Park occupation ended up in a very
negative affair:
"...the impatience of former Ontario premier
Mike Harris, cultural insensitivity in the Ontario Provincial Police and
federal foot-dragging on aboriginal land issues."
The
editorial goes onto outline how each played its part and how the inquiry's
findings can lead to better actions by government in response to similar
occupations like the Ipperwash affair. Why is the Star editorial correct?
Usually in explosive situations like the native occupation of Ipperwash
Provincial Park there are several factors that lead to confrontation and not
just one, as the Editorial outlines.
The first
factor was that the newly elected Conservative government of Mike Harris wanted
to solve the situation quickly. So the OPP felt the pressure from the
provincial government to solve problem.
However, the
pressure posed another problem, the commanders at the Ontario Provincial Police
didn't have experience or knowledge of the history and cultural background of
the native protestors. This pressure meant the police were being called upon to
act quickly and, thus, were unable to bring in native historians and other
experts to do some background research in order to establish how to best handle
the situation. The OPP forced by haste were unable to even negotiate with the
native occupiers of the provincial park and really had no other option but to
storm the park. Add into the mix rumours of possible firearm possession by the
native occupiers, a perfect storm had begun to brew.
But how did
the whole situation become so bad? As the the Toronto Star notes the slowness of the federal
government in resolving native land claims is the main problem. Had the federal
government set up a process of negotiating the land claims of this particular
area of the province, perhaps the natives would have seen some form of progress
and an occupation would have been unneccessary. Had the federal government kept
their word and vacated the military base voluntarily, perhaps the provincial
park may never have been occupied. However, because the federal government
failed to both set up land claim negotiations and failed to vacate the military
base in a timely fasion, the natives of this area of the province became
wrestless.
Over at the Toronto Sun, Queen's Park Columnist Christina
Blizzard believes the OPP are more to blame. Right off
the top of her
column she points out the Ipperwash Inquiry dismisses
any involvement of the Mike Harris government in ending the dispute. Blizzard
believes the lack of communication by the OPP and the cultural insenstivity of
the whole Ontario Provincial Police were the main reasons for the Ipperwash
occupation ending the way it did.
Is Blizzard
right? Perhaps there was no pressure from the Harris government felt by those
within the OPP who were in charge of the situation at Ipperwash. Perhaps the
Commissioner of the OPP felt the pressure and didn't let the political pressure
filter down to those in charge of policing the occupation at Ipperwash
Provincial Park. On this basis the real factor in the Ipperwash situation were
the officers in charge of the policing situation rushed to solve the problem at
Ipperwash. The rush to solve the problem meant they decided to solve the
problem instead of taking their time to investigate options into how best solve
the situation. This ultimately meant the idea of negotiation was never
considered.
The
hypothesis that the Conservative government didn't interfere in the Ipperwash
fiasco is the basis of the Toronto
Sun's Friday
Editorial/Point of View. The editorial
tries to ensure the all reasons the Ipperwash Inquiry found for the provincial
Conservative government under Mike Harris was not blame are laid out. The
attempt to show Mike Harris was not pressuring the OPP in the Ipperswash
situation by the editorial is in quite the contrast to the Toronto Star's Ian
Urquhart column mentioned above. Urquhart basically only quotes a very minute
section of the report on the involvement of Mike Harris. This is in contrast to
the Toronto Sun Editorial that provides a whole paragraph excerpt from the
inquiry's report:
"Although
Premier Harris was critical of the police, I do not find he interfered with or
gave inappropriate directions to the police at Ipperwash ... the premier did
not inappropriately direct the OPP on its operations ... or enter the law
enforcement domain of the police. Although one may disagree with his view, it
was legitimate for the Premier to take the position that the First Nations
people were illegally occupying the park, and that he wanted them out of
Ipperwash as soon as possible. He did not give direction on the manner in which
the OPP should enforce the law; how, when and what arrests should be made;
tactical decisions; or other actions the police should take to end the
occupation ... it was not inappropriate for the Premier to direct the Ontario
government to seek an injunction (against the occupation) as soon as
possible."
With all these conflicting points of view from journalists and editorialists of
two Toronto dailies, who is right?
The real answer lies with which source do you believe is correct. Personally,
the Ipperwash Incident unravelled in a chronological sequence of events:
1. The federal government, who under the
Canadian Constitution, looks after native issues failed in pecefully
negotiating a land claim swap with the Stoney Point natives for this area of the
province since the early 1900s. Lands seem to change hands between both public
and private interests quite a bit in this area without input from the natives
of the area
2. The federal government failed to close the Ipperwash Military base and
return to the land to the Stoney Point natives following the Second World War.
The natives were quite patient for over fifty years. However, near the end of
the fifty years the native grew restless and saw no end in sight to the
military occupying the military base.
3. The natives moved into occupy the military base. The Canadian military,
hearing rumours of a possible confrontation over the military base, smartly
moved out of the military base weeks before the occupation.
4. A group of the natives occupying the military base started eying the
adjacent Ipperwash Provincial Park as another piece of land ripe for a native
occupation. After all the Ipperwash Provincial Park had always been considered
a site of a former native burial ground. With the occupation of the military
base next door, the natives could occupy both the military base and provincial
park all at once.
5. The OPP wanted to ensure the situation was quickly brought under control.
When the natives had moved into the military base it was one thing. But now the
natives had moved into Ipperwash Provincial Park, the optics of the situation
showed that the provincial police had lost control of the situation. So the OPP
wanted to swiftly move into and at least remove the natives from the provincial
park portion of the occupation and leave the federal government to deal with
the occupation of the military base.
6. There was some pressure felt from the provincial Conservative government.
However, this pressure only came in the form of, as the Toronto Sun Editorial quoted
from the Inquiry's report,"...it was legitimate for the Premier to take
the position that the First Nations people were illegally occupying the park,
and that he wanted them out of Ipperwash as soon as possible." Thus, the
OPP knew the provincial government was moving towards having the occupation
declared illegal anyway and action would need to be taken sooner rather than
later. Was the pressure coming from the Premier's Office ordering the OPP to
move in right away? No, the Premier, as the inquiry and Sun columnist Christina
Blizzard point out, no direct order was given. But there appears to be some
indirect pressure from the provincial government for the OPP to solve the
situation.
7. The OPP moved in quickly to quell the situation at the Ipperwash Provincial
Park. Rumours of the native occupiers with guns meant that heavily armed OPP
officers were used. As the OPP moved into Ipperwash Provincial Park one night,
a firearm was thought to be observed. This led to the killing of Stoney Point
native Dudley George.
8. The Conservative government denied any responsibility in the killing of
Dudley George.
9. The Liberal government is elected in 2003 and starts an official public
inquiry into the shooting of Dudley George and the occupation at Ipperwash
Provincial Park.
This chain of events seems to meet both the Toronto
Star's editorial beliefs of more than one factor leading to the
situation blowing up at Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ian Urquhart's belief that
then Premier Mike Harris had some involvement, the Toronto Sun's Editorial of
little involvement of Mike Harris and Christina Blizzard's belief that the OPP
were the main bunglers of the whole situation. I have used the two Toronto
dailies' analysis of the situation to inform my own opinion on what happenned
in the fiasco at Ipperwash Provincial Park that ultimately lead to the death of
Dudley George.
If one were to only read one publication and not the other, the reader would
not see the conflicting analysis of the other publication as to what might have
happenned. So, sometimes, it pays to read the analysis of one major daily. This
is especially the case on major political issues like the Ipperwash Inquiry
where partisan sides tend to come out.
The governments of the future need to learn as much from the situation that
erupted at Ipperwash, that future land claim disputes aren't handled this way.
Then possibly the if a situations like the ones that presented themselves at
the Ipperwash are not repeated. This would also prevent another report having
to be issued that is very similar to the one issued on Thursday.
Footnote: For a complete chronology of the Ipperwash Provincial Park affair visit
this Canoe.ca's coverage here.
Works Cited
Blizzard, Christine. “Can’t we just get along?” Toronto Sun. June 1, 2007. Online. Internet. June
2007. Available: http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Blizzard_Christina/2007/06/01/4225095-sun.html.
Goldstein, Lorrie. “Harris didn’t interfere at Ipperwash.”
Toronto Sun. June 1, 2007. Online.
Internet. June 2007. Available: http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2007/06/01/4225074-sun.html.
“Ipperwash report shines harsh light.” Toronto Star. June 1,
2007. Online. Internet. June 2007. Available:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/220160.
Urquhart, Ian. “Exhonoration of Mike Harris? Not in the
least.” Toronto Star. June 1, 2007. Online. Internet. June 2007. Available:
http://www.thestar.com/article/220326.
Links
Government of Ontario – www.gov.on.ca
Ontario Provincial Police – www.opp.ca
The Ipperwash Inquiry – www.ipperwashinquiry.ca
Toronto Star – www.thestar.com
Toronto Sun – www.torontosun.com
