Doug Fleming (top), Peter Kamerman (middle), Merlyn Kinrade (bottom, w/blue beret), July 12/09. Photo by Jim Smith.
UPDATED JULY 16/09: 1. CANACE Video of Mark Vandermaas & Merlyn Kinrade explaining to OPP Sgts. Michaud & Bradmore that non-natives will not seek permission from DCE occupiers to raise Canadian flag. (9:57)
2. Great CANACE video summarizing flag raising protests, includes images of arrests of Bo Chausse, Gary McHale, Mark Vandermaas and Randy Fleming. (2:44)
UPDATE: ‘The day the world didn’t end,’ by Jeff Parkinson, July 12/09.
UPDATED 1620 EST JULY 13/09
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“The Germans have received back again that measure of fire and steel which they have so often meted out to others. 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 at Lord Mayor’s Luncheon, Mansion House following the victory at El Alamein in North Africa, London, 10 November 1942.
The two and a half year battle to force the OPP to respect the rights of non-natives to walk down a public road and place a Canadian flag on a public utility pole across the street from the Douglas Creek Estates is over!
Thirty-one months after the first Canadian – Bo Chausse – was arrested in Caledonia on Dec 02/06, a group of approximately 25 people carrying numerous Canadian flags walked down Argyle Street led by Merlyn Kinrade to a pole across from the land occupied since Feb 2006 where Doug Fleming, brother of Randy Fleming – arrested May 24/09 for walking down the same road with a Canadian flag – affixed a large flag with help from Peter Kamerman and Merlyn.
We do not negotiate our rights!
I explained that we do not expect them to ask our permission to exercise their lawful rights, they should not expect us to ask their permission to do the same.
- CANACE video, Lions Park, Caledonia, July 12/09: Merlyn Kinrade & Mark Vandermaas speak to Sgts. Michaud & Bradmore (9:57)
We were grateful to see that there was no interference from the occupiers, and I asked Sgt Michaud to pass on my thanks to them for respecting our rights despite the fact that we disagreed on whether we had an obligation to seek their permission to raise our flag. In fact, there were no occupiers visible on the Douglas Creek Estates.
CANACE flag raising marches are finished
We have given our word to the OPP (to Sgt. Michaud, photo R by Jim Smith) that we will not organize any further flag raising events unless they make new arrests of people with Canadian flags in the future.
Today, it was complete vindication for all four Canadians who have been arrested for wanting to exercise their right to raise a flag, and for all those whose right to do so was violated by the OPP.
Today was especially satisfying for me and for Gary McHale, who was kept informed by phone throughout the day since he is not allowed to enter Caledonia due to bail restrictions for his charge of ‘Counselling Mischief Not Committed.’ Both of us were arrested on Dec 16/06 during a protest we organized to support Bo Chausse. Gary was held overnight even though the OPP knew they weren’t going to charge him with a crime, while I was released after a few hours.
L to R: Gary McHale, Mark Vandermaas, Christine McHale, Jeff Parkinson, on steps of McHale home in Binbrook following successful flagraising in Caledonia, July 12/09.
We both have outstanding lawsuits and Human Rights complaints arising out of our arrests and violation of our rights.
It was also a proud day for Merlyn Kinrade who served, as did I, on a UN peacekeeping mission with the Canadian military in defence of the values represented by the Canadian flag. He has worked tirelessly to bring about this day, and he deserves so much credit for making it happen.
- CANACE video, July 12/09, Jeff Parkinson: History of flag raising protests (includes photos of arrests of Chausse, McHale, Vandermaas, & Fleming, 2:44)
Negotiations, Healing and Reconciliation
With the notable exceptions of Mayor Trainer and MPP Toby Barrett, fearful politicians with little sense of civil rights history and even less respect for the hundreds of years of Canadian/English jurisprudence and the magnificent document that is the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms, have criticized us and our flag protests as being ‘unhelpful’ to the ongoing negotiations with Six Nations.
I believe, with all my heart, that fruitful negotiations, reconciliation and true healing can only be successful in an environment of mutual respect for the rights of all citizens, and not – as police and government have led us to believe - in one where one side dominates the other with contempt for the law and unrealistic expectations of control over the rights of other human beings.
Today’s victory sends a strong message that non-natives are stakeholders in land claim disputes whose rights to live in peace under the rule of law in accordance with the Charter cannot be ignored, and that message – if well received - can only serve to bring us closer to that wonderful day when the the OPP, the Ontario government and Six Nations apologize to the people of Haldimand for the crimes committed against them. On THAT day, the healing will truly begin.
- CANACE presentation to Branford Council: Reconciliation: the CANACE Path
The end of the beginning!
We still have many thousands of steps, and years of struggle ahead of us but, given the combination of CANACE’s stunning legal wins in Superior Court regarding the right of citizens to bring private prosecutions against government officials – Parkinson v. R. and McHale v. R. - and today’s acknowledgement that the rights of Canadian citizens are not subject to the whims of police or pressure groups, I felt it appropriate to declare that we have reached the ‘end of the beginning’ of the struggle against racial policing in Ontario. But, just to make sure, I called Gary McHale to get his opinion since he is not given to over-optimism.
He agreed.
Thank you!
Thank you to all Canadians – in and outside Caledonia – who helped make today’s victory possible! I don’t know all of your names, but you know who you are. You stood and marched while others made excuses, and I am so proud of you!
Thank you to Sgt Michaud, the OPP and to the occupiers of DCE. I hope you will all come to understand that respecting the rights of non-natives does not diminish those of native people in any way – it enhances them. Today was a good day for all citizens of Canada – native and non-native.
No mushroom cloud over Caledonia!
This is a great day. Best of all it was accomplished peacefully, legally and democratically by following in the footsteps of one of the greatest civil rights leaders in history. Thanks to him, and those who trusted in his wisdom, Caledonia did not disappear in a mushroom cloud because non-natives were allowed to exercise their rights. There were no race riots. No blood running in the streets. The sky did not fall in.
Caledonia is still alive and well, and democracy is a tiny bit stronger.
See below for more photos.
Mark Vandermaas, Editor
VoiceofCanada
info@voiceofcanada.ca
Other CANACE photos:
Other photos by Jim Smith:
2 responses so far ↓
Tax Serf // July 13, 2009 at 7:57 am |
I congratulate you on a small but vital victory. I also note the new local OPP boss is making trespass and smoke shack arrests.
No doubt it was pressure from CANACE that has turned the tide.
VoC REPLY: You said it very well: “a small but vital victory.” We always knew the importance for Canada of helping the OPP and native extremists to understand that the rights of other people must be respected, but who knew it would be so hard! Still, I have to temper my joy with the realization that this is, after all, at best, only the end of the beginning.
The core beliefs and attitudes that made racial possible against non-natives possible in the first place have not changed. We have not changed ‘hearts and minds’ – the ‘only’ thing we have changed is that we have convinced them that there will be too much pain by continuing to ignore those rights.
As for the arrests, you probably know that Gary McHale sent a fax to McGuinty, Fantino, Bartolucci and the new Haldimand OPP Commander John Periversoff the day before advising them of our position that police discretion cannot be used as an excuse to tolerate threats to public safety. Perhaps that fax, coupled with our recent court wins in the area of private prosecutions, did have some impact on their decision to enforce the law.
Thanks for writing, Serf. Regards, Mark
Larry Dicy // July 14, 2009 at 8:14 am |
Way to go everyone!! Sorry I couldn’t be there this time in person to witness the event. This struggle seems to be like teaching an infant to walk Mark, baby steps,baby steps. You have all done us proud once again. Thank you.
VoC REPLY: Larry, you hit it right on the nose. It absolutely bewilders me that some ordinary schlubs like us have to teach police, politicians and lawyers about the Charter of Rights, etc. as if it just arrived special delivery on a spaceship from Mars yesterday. Baby steps, indeed! We’ll continue to teach them but man, this kid is a slow learner! Thanks for the support. Sorry you couldn’t be there for the big day, but hey, stuff happens. I certainly have seen your face at enough events. Thanks for writing, Mark P.S. Don’t miss Gary’s column in the Regional News tomorrow, you’re going to love it.