Dudley George Inquiry

[bcholmes]

The Dudley George Inquiry began today.

In September, 1995, a group of Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point held a protest by occupying (and barricading part of) Ipperwash Provincial Park near my birthplace of Sarnia. The park had been confiscated from the Chippewas decades earlier, but it contained burial grounds that the protesters considered sacred.

That night, the police raided the protest, fired on several people, and one protester, Dudley George, was killed. There are some government papers that suggest that Mike Harris instructed the police not to attempt any peaceful negotiation, but to remove the protesters forcefully. Some believe that a similar event, the Oka protest lead to public dissatisfaction with the Quebec premier, who lost the next election. Harris, it has been argued, wanted to appear "strong" with respect to the Ipperwash protest. None of the protesters were armed.

The George family raised a civil lawsuit against the premier, and demanded on an investigation. Harris replied that he couldn't possibly start an investigation while a civil suit was in progress. The George family replied that they'd happily drop the suit if an investigation was called. Things were at a stand-still until the government changed. Shortly after the Liberals were elected in the last provincial election, an investigation was called, and the George family settled their suit out-of-court with Mike Harris.

In 1997, Sgt. Kenneth Deane, the policeman who shot Dudley George, was convicted of criminal negligence.