Caledonia good news catch-up

I had no idea of just how time-consuming the Blue Beret vigil would be when I started it. Not an exaggeration to say that I’ve been going on 3-4 hours sleep per night trying to keep up with all the writing and behind the scenes developments that I can’t talk about, all the while monitoring and reporting on the stunning developments in the Caledonia crisis. Normally I like to cross-post material from the Caledonia Victims Project here on VoC, but while I was covering it in my daily updates to the Blue Beret vigil, I just didn’t have time to re-post.

That was why I was sending out updates on the vigil to my ‘Caledonia list’ and if you were following them you might have gotten a sense of just how related the issues were as the vigil progressed. If not, go back and have a re-read. Or, you can catch up here.  

• Caledonia Victims Project, July 15/11: TorSun founder Worthington hammers ‘journalistic negligence’ & ‘defacto’ suspension of Charter, Police Services Act protection for Caledonia victims
• Caledonia Victims Project, July 14/11: Thank you note to Senator Bob Runciman: FIRST to denounce Ipperwash Inquiry ‘peacekeeping’ recommendations
• National Post, July 13/11: National Post editorial board: The shame of Caledonia continues
• National Post, July 13/11: National Post: The Caledonia farce continues
• Toronto Sun, July 12/11: Inquiry needed into Caledonia occupation (Senator Bob Runciman becomes 1st politician in Canada to denounce the Ipperwash Inquiry and its ‘peacekeeping’ recommendations — 4 years after we first released the Ipperwash Papers on March 14/07.)
• Joint CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project media release: Caledonia — what went wrong? What next? Longtime volunteers stand ready with answers & help (time to end the illegal peacekeeping mission on Canadian soil; includes key references to help journalists, politicians and researchers what went wrong & how to fix things.)
• Caledonia Victims Project, July 09/11: Caledonia: what went wrong? Where do we go from here?
• Caledonia Victims Project, July 09/11: Caledonia’s unsung hero: Class Action lawyer John Findlay (Ont. gov’t settles Caledonia Class Action lawsuit for $20M)
• Caledonia Victims Project, June 19/11: Caledonia milestone: DCE occupiers & OPP respect rights of non-natives during Truth & Reconciliation Rally

Caledonia: Was the Conservative Party of Canada friend or foe to victims?

Excerpt from
‘Caledonia: An Illegal Peacekeeping Mission on Canadian Soil’
[PDF, 11p]; PowerPoint presentation [PPT, 22.5MB]
presented by Mark Vandermaas,
Delhi Belgian Club, April 14/11

[...] I would like to preface my final set of remarks by saying that I have voted for the Conservative Party all my adult life. In fact, the only party I have ever been a member of was the Reform Party under Preston Manning.

As someone who has volunteered four and a half years of my life to working towards ending race-based policing in Ontario and as someone who holds conservative values I am compelled to ask a question during this election:

What were Diane Finley and the Harper government doing while the Ontario government was undermining Canada’s Charter of Rights and our precious rule of law during the past 5 years?

SLIDE: HAS ANYONE SEEN DIANE FINLEY?

This picture from Gary McHale’s 2006 March for Freedom shows a resident carrying a sign that was posted around Caledonia to convey the sentiments about their MP’s lack of interest. It says, “Has anyone seen Diane Finley?”

Diane Finley has brushed off Doug Fleming’s attempts to meet with her to discuss the blight of illegal smokeshacks in his community. She has so far rejected our attempts to set up a meeting to talk about Caledonia issues.