MPP Toby Barrett praises McHale, CANACE for Caledonia ideas, media attention

Just days after our Queen’s Park news conference -’Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act,’ – where we were joined by speakers from the pro-Israel Never Again Group and the International Free Press Society, MPP Toby Barrett has issued a call for strong action re the Caledonia occupation, and praised our efforts and ideas for reaching a resolution…

“Barrett credits Gary Mchale and CANACE for keeping the issue alive in the media and in the limelight, suggesting a lot of McHale’s ideas have been ‘pretty good’.” They include having more oversight from the Ontario Ombudsman with respect to the OPP and more protection for whistleblowers in the Police service.

• CD98.9 Radio FM, Feb 14/12: Toby Barrett says native occupation of former DCE lands must end

It was Toby Barrett who made the Queen’s Park Media Studio available for our news conference, as he has done in the past. He also spoke in Gary McHale’s inaugural March for Freedom on Oct 15/06. (photos, R and top)

 You can read the Caledonia Act recommendations here:

• CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project recommendations: ‘The Caledonia Act’ [PDF, 4p]

Barrett also has a strongly worded article about the Douglas Creek Estates occupation and the violence in Caledonia on his website… 

‘Occupy Caledonia will be six years February 28′

By MPP Toby Barrett

On February 28, 2006, Dawn Smith and Janie Jamieson blocked the entrance to Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia. Six years later, the scars of the resulting mayhem remain, continuing to seed division in the community and to block home building, commercial and industrial development.

Mary Lou Ambrogio, International Free Press Society ‘connects the dots’ w/speech at Queen’s Park Caledonia Act news conference

Mary Lou Ambrogio, VP of the International Free Press Society, was the first NGO leader to recognize the links between their experience in having police refuse to protect their right to free speech from leftist extremists at the University of Ottawa, and the willingness of police in Caledonia to appease violent native extremists at the expense of the law-abiding victims. 

On Feb 10/12, at the CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project ‘Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act’ news conference in the Queen’s Park Media Studio she gave what she calls her ‘Connecting The Dots’ speech…

QUEEN’S PARK NEWS CONFERENCE:
‘Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act’
Queen’s Park Media Studio, Feb 10/12

Mary Lou Ambrogio, Vice President
International Free Press Society (www.IFPSCanada.com)
[PDF] [VIDEO - to come]

 Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Mary Lou Ambrogio and I am VP of the Canadian chapter of the International Free Press Society, a group dedicated to preserving Free speech. Our parent organization, the Danish Free Press Society, was born out of the Danish Cartoon controversy of 2005. Rioting and deadly violence erupted when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Mohammed in an effort to test Denmark’s tolerance for free speech. Denmark experienced a major fail but don’t believe that something is only rotten in the state of Denmark. We now have several Free Press chapters around the world and Canada does not provide an exception to the need.

In March 2010, IFPS brought Ann Coulter to Canada. The cancelled Ottawa event made international headlines when bullies chose to silence an opinion they disagreed with. They formed violent mobs to shut down Coulter’s appearance. But where were the security forces to protect her right to speak, our right to have her speak and the rights of those who wanted to hear her speak? They were observing neutrality between the lawless and the lawful, as George Jonas said at the time.

This experience found us taking a closer look at Caledonia. We realized that what happened to us was borne out of the same thinking being applied by authorities in Caledonia, where if one group wants to inhibit the rights of others, the authorities will appease the potentially violent group and simply ignore the rights of the law abiding.

Stuart Laughton, Never Again Group speech at Caledonia Act news conference: Individuals are the ultimate minorities

“Stuart Laughton’s short speech is one of the best analyses of legal and social consequences of Ontario government’s policies in Caledonia.”
– Email to VoC by Miroslav Marinov, BlogWrath.com 

The feedback for the speech given by Stuart Laughton of the Hamilton-based Never Again Group at the CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project Feb 10/12 Queen’s Park news conference — ‘Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act’ – was so positive that VoiceofCanada has decided to print Stuart’s entire speech… 

QUEEN’S PARK NEWS CONFERENCE:
‘Ending Race-Based Policing: The Caledonia Act’
Queen’s Park Media Studio, Feb 10/12

Stuart Laughton, Never Again Group  
[PDF] [AUDIO] [VIDEO - to come] 

Hello,

My name is Stuart Laughton and I am here on behalf of the Never Again Group, an organization that supports Gary McHale in his group’s fight against racially biased policing in Caledonia, just as he has supported us elsewhere.

The Never Again Group is based in Hamilton—which is very close to Caledonia—and our membership is about 1/2 Jewish. We defend the state of Israel from baseless accusations and we fight anti-Semitism in its various guises. The Never Again Group does not believe that the Ontario government’s directives to police in Caledonia began with ill intentions—and we don’t know anyone who believes that Premier McGuinty is specifically targeting Jews there—but these directives were nevertheless profoundly wrong and dangerous in ways Canadians are only now beginning to appreciate. I want to stress that my group has made no opposition to Natives who make land claims: we only protest the violent manner in which the claims to the Caledonia property are made and the racially skewed responses of the Ontario government.