Caught on tape: McGuinty cabinet minister insults Deseronto resident

Liberal MPP Leona Dombrowsky, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

UPDATED 1539 EST JULY 03/09

It’s my privilege to serve you, my neighbours, in Prince Edward-Hastings as your voice in the provincial Legislature. In order for me to continue to be effective it’s important to keep me apprised of your opinions on the issues that face our province. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

I continue to enjoy meeting with active members in our community, witnessing their achievements and listening to their concerns. And in turn, I look forward to attending events where we are able to get together and meet our neighbours.

Liberal MPP Leona Dombrowsky: ‘Welcome to my New Website‘ (as of July 03/09)

Dombrowsky’s nasty words for constituent Cindy Welsh & CANACE

In my post about CANACE’s visit to Deseronto-Picton I mentioned that the area’s MPP Leona Dombrowsky (Prince Edward-Hastings) – McGuinty’s Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs – unintentionally left a nasty message for Cindy Welsh who had invited CANACE and residents to speak about our suggestions for coping with Race-Based Policing in her community, but was being stonewalled by the OPP, Deseronto and the Elks who reneged on their room rental agreement.

Cindy had tried to reach out to Dombrowsky for help and understanding, but this is what she says her MPP left on her answering machine by accident:

Leona s phone message Thursday the 25th started by saying she would call me back and giving her #. Then, when she was finished her conversation (she thought) the phone recorded a very nasty vindictive demeanor:

” She doesn’t call back – too bad”.

An office staffer’s barely intelligible comments, ” ___ over there tonight and you know all their good intentions they could just—

Leona cuts her off: “There are no good intentions over there tonight in my view. It’s the Caledonia militia group stuff that’s going on. The police aren’t doing their job! There are two sets of laws here.”

If I were a Liberal MPP I wouldn’t want CANACE involved in Deseronto either

Now, I’ve never spoken to Dombrowsky. Gary’s never spoken to Dombrowsky. And I’m betting that she’s never even visited the CANACE website, but somehow she just ‘knows’ that our ‘intentions’ are not good. I wonder where she heard that? From the OPP? From her colleagues in the Liberal Party? Since we’re talking about ‘intentions’ here, let’s see how her government’s actions stack up:

Dombrowsky is a member of a government that:

1. Allowed racial policing to be instituted and enforced by Fantino and the OPP for over three years (now confirmed by police officers and the Mayor of Haldimand under oath).

2. Created an Inquiry that did not examine the issue of violence against innocent third parties during land claim disputes and refused to allow a single Ipperwash resident to testify about their suffering at the hands of native extremists.

3. Used the 100 Ipperwash Inquiry recommendations (not one of which specifically addresses the issue of preventing violence against innocents) to justify their illegal, hands-off approach to native extremists even though they knew the Inquiry never even considered the issue of land claim lawlessness let alone study it in making its recommendations.

4. Purchased the stolen Douglas Creek Estates from the developers, land the government has allowed native extremists to use as a lawless ‘homefree zone’ from which to launch attacks and intimidation against Caledonians; where rapes, assaults, and drug use have occurred, and threats of gun violence have been made against police, residents and native people; where the neighbours live in fear and stress that has resulted in at least one mother’s suicide attempt, and children having to take medication and counselling to cope after being traumatized by masked men with guns demanding passes to allow them home. Just to make sure the children and their parents got the message, the heartless thugs killed a deer and hung its carcass on a pole by the side of the road so the kids could see it as they drove by.

5. Allowed illegal smokeshacks to flourish on public and private land and sell cigarettes to Caledonia’s children.

6. Stood by while the Legal Services Branch and Crown Attorneys went along with racial policing practices – persecuting non-natives while dropping charge after charge against natives.

7. Refused to investigate serious allegations of misconduct against Fantino for over two years.

8. Insulted Gary McHale and I for having the audacity to submit complaints to the Ontario Human Rights Commission regarding our arrests for trying to put up a Canadian flag.

9. Made derogatory remarks against non-natives who peacefully and legally insist on exercising their Charter rights or organize in an attempt to restore the rule of law to their community.

10. Refused to fire Julian Fantino after he threatened Haldimand Council to stick to their deal not to make positive comments about Gary McHale.

11. Forced non-natives to resort to preserving the peace through private prosecutions and the formation of an unarmed citizen’s group to step in when the OPP refuses to enforce the law against native extremists.

12. Refused to order Fantino and the OPP to respect the Charter right of non-natives to raise Canadian flags on Argyle Street in Caledonia.

CANACE reference page: Race-Based Policing

Yes, I can certainly understand why Dombrowsky and McGuinty wouldn’t want CANACE working with Deseronto residents, especially given our success in the Court as of late with respect to the private prosecution of native protesters, OPP officers and government officials:

VoC, July 02/09: McHale v. R., 2009: Gary McHale & CANACE make legal history!

Dombrowsky should be ashamed of herself

It is bad enough that Deseronto residents have to cope with the extreme lawlessness that her government has encouraged and even fomented with its racial policing, ‘peacekeeping’ policies, and insults against non-natives who dared to speak out for Caledonia, but to show such contempt for one of the victims in her own riding who is merely exercising her Charter right to hold a meeting where she and Caledonia activists can share their knowledge is beyond the pale.

Dan Doreen, one of the leading native protesters involved in the Skyway Bridge blockade takes over Cindy Welsh/CANACE presentation in Picton's Delhi Park after Gary McHale is shouted down, June 23/09.

I have spent hours with Cindy Welsh on the phone and in person, and she strikes me as a good-hearted, honest woman with good judgement who cares about her community. Her conduct was nothing short of exemplary in the park despite the outrageous provocations and lack of respect shown towards her and her invited guests by those who have victimized Deseronto and Pickton.

Aside from the issue of her lack of respect for Cindy or CANACE’s Charter rights to Freedom of Expression, it seems to me that it was mean-spirited of Dombrowsky to impugn Cindy or her judgement in inviting us. If she was that concerned she could have accepted Cindy’s offer to speak to one of us while we were in her home (waiting for the OPP MELT officers to arrive), or she could have attended to see for herself or – better still – she could have rolled up her sleeves and made some calls to defend Cindy’s right to hold a meeting without interference from the OPP.

If anyone needs to read the magnificent words of Judge Marshall of the Superior Court in McHale v. R., 2009 about the importance to democracy of the issues that CANACE have raised, it is Leona Dombrowsky:

[46] Indeed, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist Papers at page 78: “Considerate men…ought to prize whatever will tend to…fortify that temper in the courts (independence); as no one can be sure that he may not be tomorrow the victim of a spirit of injustice, by which he may be a gainer today.”

Superior Court of Ontario, July 02/09: McHale v. R., 2009 PDF

One thing I’m fairly certain of is that Leona Dombrowsky will never live to see the day that her name is mentioned in an historic legal ruling along with one of the founding fathers of the United States Constitution because she took a principled stand to defend the very foundation of democracy against all the odds.

Why is it that people like Gary McHale and Cindy Welsh have to pay such a heavy price to protect democracy despite the worst efforts from the likes of you and your government who collect pay cheques to do it for us?

So much for “meeting with active members in our community, witnessing their achievements and listening to their concerns” and “attending events where we are able to get together and meet our neighbours.”

I think you need to rewrite your welcome message, Leona.

Great article about our visit to Deseronto you should read Leona…

Even though the Elks; Deseronto and the OPP (supposedly concerned for public safety!) forced us into a remote park without police protection, there was no violence because we refused to react to it even though we were severely provoked:

Napanee Beaver, July 02/09: Raucus meeting defuses with talk VoC download
VoC, June 27/09: OPP helps CANACE & Deseronto residents expose Race-Based Policing

Imagine that, Leona, we were able to keep our dignity and not cause a riot despite some of the worst provocations by those who were clearly looking for trouble, and the overwhelmingly obvious lack of police presence.

Leona says she really wants you to keep her “apprised of your opinions,’ so do it!

I think Dombrowsky owes Cindy Welsh an apology, don’t you?

ldombrowsky.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

Offer to Leona Dombrowsky

I will publish in full any response/apology you wish to make to this post and/or to Cindy Welsh. Send it to my email address below. This is only a suggestion, but you may want to see the CANACE reference links about us and our work beforehand.

Mark Vandermaas, Editor
VoiceofCanada
info@voiceofcanada.ca
Co-founder, Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality
www.canace.ca

References