Details on protest at Fantino’s home

York Regional Police – a breath of fresh air! 

Gary and Christine McHale met with York Regional Police yesterday to work out the details for our protest at Julian Fantino’s home scheduled to take place on Sunday.  They brought with them a copy of the 1993 Supreme Court decision in the case of Ramsden v. Peterborough.

According to Gary, the York officers made it clear that they had two objectives in mind: 1)to ensure that no one will be allowed to “interfere with our Charter rights of Free Speech” (their words, not Gary’s) and 2) Keep the peace.  Apparently, they agree 100% that the Supreme Court has ruled on the issue of hanging objects on public utility poles and citizens’ rights to conduct peaceful protests.

Six Nations ex-councillor charged w/theft, fraud, forgery

In, ‘National Post exposes role of corruption, mismanagement, incompetence in reserve misery‘ I commented on the Post’s great expose’ of the true causes of many of the problems on Canada’s native reserves.

Lies, damn lies, and landclaim negotiation lies

A little trip down memory lane…

Negotiators trying to resolve an aboriginal protest in Caledonia, Ont., say the occupation will be over soon. 

“I think they are close to a solution, and I’m very happy with the way things are going,” Mohawk Confederacy Chief Alan McNaughton said Friday.

McNaughton said he expects the blockades set by protesters across the main road through town will be removed within a week.

Former Ontario premier David Peterson, who has been trying to broker a deal between the natives and the province, was also hopeful a peaceful resolution to the standoff is not far away.

“We are making progress,” Peterson said. “Obviously one of the things we are working very hard on to help turn the temperature down is to see if we can clear away some of the roadblocks.”

“We’ve made some real progress and I think everyone is very optimistic now.”

CTV.ca, May 12, 2006: Caledonia land dispute nears end: negotiators

Message for Fantino’s neighbours re Sunday’s protest

UPDATE 1516 EST Feb 29/07: Details on protest at Fantino’s home

UPDATE 1119 EST Feb 28/07: We offer to cancel protest at Fantino’s home if he agrees to meet. See latest press release.

CaledoniaWakeUpCall feature page: Protest at Fantino’s home + other FantinoGate stories
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This is a reprint of a post by CANACE co-founder Jeff Parkinson on the CaledoniaWakeUpCall blog. It was originally published under the title, ‘Caledonia interlopers coming to Woodbridge.’

See below for my message to Fantino’s neighbours regarding Sunday’s planned protest.
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CALEDONIA INTERLOPERS COMING TO WOODBRIDGE
by Jeff Parkinson 

Feb 26, 2008

Julian Fantino will soon get another chance to use his beloved term “interlopers”, only this time it won’t be Gary McHale, Mark Vandermaas, and myself he’s targeting. A convoy of Caledonia residents who have grown tired of being ignored by the Commissioner will be heading to Fantino’s neighborhood this Sunday March 2 to exercise their legal right to peaceful protest.

Conservatives support illegal occupation in Sharbot Lake

In ‘Sharbot Lake occupation falling apart, I provided links to various news items regarding the punishment handed out against those who conducted an illegal occupation that blocked the development of a uranium mine by Frontenac Ventures.

Well, it seems that MPP Randy Hillier, former president of the Lanark Landowners Association, thinks the occupiers got a raw deal. He and federal MP Scott Reid issued a media release saying that Robert Lovelace’s punishment was ‘cruel and unusual.’

NATIONAL POST: Police ignoring native violence, MPP alleges

UPDATED 1035 EST Feb 24/08 

During our excitement over ‘The Barrett Proclamation,’ we somehow overlooked this great story by the National Post that included these quotes from MPP Toby Barrett: 

Toby Barrett said police and government agencies have turned a blind eye to the acts of lawlessness and intimidation by native protesters in the Haldimand County area. In a proclamation presented to Haldimand council on Monday, Mr. Barrett, Conservative MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk, said illegal action “appears to be tolerated, and perhaps condoned, by provincial and federal government policy.”

“I empathize with the officers on the front line,” Mr. Barrett said yesterday. “They seem to be under a senior level policy to ignore certain things depending on the race of the person. There is a race-based policy here.”

National Post, Matthew Coutts/Melissa Leong, Feb 13/08: Police ignoring native violence, MPP alleges

Caledonia whitewash coming? VoC’s letter to David Crombie

UPDATED 1334 EST Feb 24/08

link: http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/328678

Source: Hamilton Spectator
Date: Feb 22, 2008
Title: Native land report ready: Crombie set to make suggestions in Caledonia dispute

Quotes: Crombie, the former Toronto mayor and federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, said yesterday his $1,500-a-day contract is winding down, his report is finished and Strahl will get it “in the next day or two.”

David Crombie: student of ‘Ipperwash Inquiry School for Whitewashes?’

Crombie did say in a Spectator interview shortly after he was appointed he believed a communications system is needed between the federal government and residents “that is trusted and used on a regular basis so people are not in the dark.”

Hamilton Spectator, Feb 22/08: Native land report ready

Unfortunately, if Crombie’s willingness to communicate is any example, Caledonia residents don’t have much to look forward to in his report. On September 25, 2007 I sent an email (see below) to David Crombie offering to meet with him and provide extensive evidence related to Caledonia and the effects of the Ipperwash legacy. (I got his email address from Haldimand County). I never heard back from him.

RCMP/OPP bust tobacco smugglers – but not in Caledonia

link: http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1039586.html

Source: Chronicle Herald (Nova Scotia)
Date: Feb 22, 2008
Title: Smoking out cigarette smugglers

MOUNTIES IN northern Nova Scotia have seized so many illegal cigarettes in recent months, they’re running out of room to store them.

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link: http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=907909&auth=Jordan%20Press%20Whig-Standard%20Staff%20Writer

Source: Kingston Whig-Standard
Date: Feb 20, 2008
Title: RCMP seizes $1M in illegal cigarettes

Weekend bust is largest ever made by Kingston unit, spokesman says

In total, the Customs and Excise Section seized $1.117 million worth of cigarettes, nearly half the total amount of contraband seized in 2007.

Feeding the crocodiles in Deseronto

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
Winston Churchill

Source: Belleville Intelligencer
Date: Feb 22, 2008
Title: No charges yet in police assault [reprint]

On Jan. 30, two plainclothes officers with the OPP’s Major Event Liaison Team arrived at the Thurlow Aggregates quarry on Deseronto Road and asked to speak with protest organizers.

They were told to return to the site after dark – around 8 p.m. – for a meeting with “elders”, according to police.

It is believed the officers were pushed to the ground, pelted with snow and their vehicle was damaged by those at the scene. Neither officer, however, was reported to have been injured.

Feeding the crocodiles in Deseronto

Readers will recall that the Belleville Intelligencer once ran an editorial applauding Deseronto town council and the Royal Canadian Legion for refusing to rent rooms to us so that we and Caledonia citizens could inform people there about the realities of Two Tier Justice, and the steps we were taking to peacefully oppose it.

CANACE REPORT: The Human Costs of Illegal Occupations

Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality (CANACE) has released a draft copy of a 101 page report documenting some of the violence and crime perpetrated against Caledonia residents – both native and non-native – during the occupation of the Douglas Creek Estates by native extremists.

‘The Human Costs of Illegal Occupations’ is based on various documents, letters, media reports, statements from residents, as well as evidence from our Ipperwash Papers project showing how events in Caledonia parallel those in Ipperwash, and how the official Inquiry suppressed evidence of native crimes against residents there.

‘The Human Costs’ is a ‘must-read’ for anyone who wishes to understand the awful price to be paid when lawlessness is tolerated by those tasked with the responsibility to prevent it.

‘Interloper’ John Tory sinks his teeth into ‘gutless’ Premier

UPDATED 1845 EST Feb 23/08 

What a difference a couple of weeks can make:

• Smokeshack thugs attack peaceful non-native protesters and police.
• Fantino taints the investigation by blaming the non-native residents and ‘interlopers’ [his code word for Gary McHale and company] before any investigation is done.
• Detective Murray testifies that the OPP received ‘complaints from stakeholders’ regarding McHale’s protests. Can you spell ‘political interference?’
• Evidence is obtained to prove that at least two native women lied to police in order to try to have McHale charged with crimes he didn’t commit. One has been charged by OPP, the other is in the works via private prosecution.
• The interlopers begin to use private prosecutions to do the OPP’s job for them.
• The National Post takes up the cause of Caledonia with hard-hitting editorials and a series that exposes the good, the bad and the ugly of Canada’s native reserves. 
• McHale subpoenas Fantino to testify in his bail variation hearing.
• Toby Barrett gives his ‘Barrett Proclamation‘ [my term, not his] to Haldimand Council for their discussion and possible action.
• and…John Tory and the Ontario PC’s sink their teeth deep into McGuinty over landclaim lawlessness, and are rewarded with terrific media coverage they could have dearly used before the last provincial election from the National Post, the Spectator and the Toronto Sun. The Sun’s Joe Warmington went way, way beyond merely covering the story – he demanded that McGuinty apologize for “a horrible wrong.”

John Tory and the Ontario PCs sink their teeth into “gutless” Premier

Yesterday, John Tory and MPP Toby Barrett were in Caledonia doing what McGuinty has refused to do: meet with residents, including Sam Gualtieri. Last night Gary McHale got a call from brother Joe Gualtieri to let him know that John Tory had met with his family and their lawyer, John Findlay, who also happens to be our lawyer and author of the Caledonia Class Action lawsuit.

BREAKING NEWS: Fantino served subpoena to appear at McHale bail hearing

Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Winston Churchill, Nov 10/42 following the Allied victory at El Alamein

OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino served subpoena to appear in Cayuga court  

Gary and Christine McHale have advised me that they attended Julian Fantino’s home in Woodbridge this evening where Fantino’s wife agreed to accept a subpoena on behalf of her husband to appear in a Cayuga courtroom to answer Gary’s questions during a bail variation hearing set to take place in March. Fantino was not at home.

[photo from inaugural 'March for Freedom' Oct 15/06]

John Tory: Ipperwash Inquiry not a licence for “OK Corral”

It’s been almost a year since we visited the Queen’s Park Media Studio (March 14/07 to be exact) to release our Ipperwash Papers project that predicted – 2 1/2 months before the release of the Ipperwash Inquiry report – that the Inquiry would never be able to make any credible recommendations for preventing landclaim lawlessness because it deliberately suppressed evidence of native crimes against innocent residents before, during and after the death of Dudley George.

BREAKING NEWS: Sharbot Lake occupation falling apart

Frontenac Ventures’ persistence in opposing illegal blockades and OPP obstructionism in Sharbot Lake are paying off: 

Source: CBC
Date: Feb 15, 2008
Title: Algonquin co-chief to stop her uranium protest to avoid jail

link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/02/15/ot-contempt-080215.html

Quote: Paula Sherman and Robert Lovelace, co-chiefs of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, were sentenced to six months in jail by Justice Douglas Cunningham in a Kingston, Ont., court Friday after being found guilty of contempt of court. Sherman was also fined $15,000 and Lovelace $25,000.

Hamilton Spectator apologizes to Gary McHale

Corrections TheSpec.com – Local – Corrections

The Hamilton Spectator (Feb 13, 2008) Correction published: – 20080213

A Dec. 4 letter to the editor described Gary McHale in a way that was not accurate. The Hamilton Spectator withdraws any suggestion that Mr. McHale has perpetrated violence in his activities at Caledonia. The Hamilton Spectator apologizes for the error.