Gary McHale speaks at first Israel Truth Week Conference, London ON, March 21/12 after being introduced as “one of the most disliked men in Canada…” CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO
UPDATE, Feb 05/13: Gary McHale was awarded his Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at a ceremony in Toronto on Feb 01/13 by Federal/Ontario Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Afterwards he recorded an interview with Michael Coren which aired that night.
130201 Gary McHale is presented the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal by Gregory Thomas, Federal/Ontario Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation. CLICK TO ENLARGE. Photo by David Strutt.
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After nearly seven years of fighting against incredible odds to confront the Ontario government’s illegal ‘peacekeeping‘ mission in Caledonia alongside Gary McHale, I am so very pleased that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation will award Gary the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in honour of his dedication to that struggle:
- CANACE News Release, Jan 26/13: Taxpayers Federation Honours Gary McHale with Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal [PDF]
- Simcoe Reformer, Jan 28/13: McHale to receive Jubilee medal
- CD98.9 FM, Jan 28/13: Leader of CANACE is getting the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
- BlogWrath.com, Feb 02/13: Gary McHale, Her Majesty’s Jubilee Medal, And The Raging Lefties (more great photos + detailed account of how anti-equality activists tried to stop the awarding of the medal and ended up with egg on their faces by a blogger who has come to Caledonia numerous times to witness the injustices with his own eyes.)
- Hamilton Spectator, Feb 02/13: McHale letter — We work to ensure all have the same rights
- Hamilton Spectator, Feb 02/13: Magnificent McHale endures insults
- BlogWrath.com, Feb 03/13: Gary McHale writes to the Governor General
Said Troy Lanigan, President of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation about honouring McHale with the medal:
“The more we thought about it, the more we saw that people who should be recognized wouldn’t be recognized,” he said. “These are the kind of people we wanted to recognize. They’ve challenged the status quo. Gary McHale fits the bill. He has fought, in our view, for the equal application of the law and the execution of court orders. He’s taken some risks and some beatings over this, both literally and figuratively.”
- Simcoe Reformer, Jan 28/13: McHale to receive Jubilee medal
McHale to speak at 2013 Israel Truth Week Conference, Hamilton
I am also pleased to announce that Gary will be speaking at the upcoming Israel Truth Week Conference at Victory International Church in Hamilton, March 5-6. You can watch his mesmerizing speech from last year’s conference here after he is introduced by emcee Stuart Laughton as ‘one of the most disliked men in Canada’:
‘Dr. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’: A Blueprint for Victory Over Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism’ [VIDEO, 39.42; NOTES, 15p]
My 6+ years with Gary McHale…
THE END OF THE BEGINNING! After 4 arrests & a 31 month campaign Canadians force OPP to respect their right to raise a Canadian flag in Caledonia.
In early 2007 after we were arrested together on Dec 16/06 while trying to raise a Canadian flag opposite the occupation site; during a time when former OPP Commissioner and the OPPA and the media were printing the most vile accusations against him and his followers; and knowing that York Regional Police had been in his home to respond to threats against Gary and his wife Christine from occupation militants; and knowing just how politically-incorrect our mission to end race-based policing was, I said to Gary:
“If, when this struggle is over, we’re still alive and not in jail, everything else will be a bonus, but no one is going to be pinning any medals on us.”
I’m so glad I was wrong — about the medal. Six Nations militants did try to kill Gary on Dec 02/07 when occupation ringleader Clyde Powless jumped on his back and other cowards joined in, kicking him and screaming obscenitie while he lay on the ground. Fortunately, a quick thinking Doug Fleming tackled Powless and some badly outnumbered OPP officers hustled Gary out of the area. Despite being viciously assaulted Gary never once raised an angry voice or fist in retaliation.
For more six years I have had the honour (and, yes, the frustration sometimes), of working beside a stubborn, determined man who refused – and refuses – to give up until this province and its police force end racial policing and, once again, respect the rule of law.
A man who endured death threats, multiple arrests, character assassination, and financial disaster because he, as a Christian sitting in his comfortable condo in Richmond Hill with a new business ready to launch that would have made him rich, decided God wanted him to travel to Caledonia to speak out for people he didn’t know, but who needed a voice because their leaders – political, police, religious, business, media – had failed them.
Many welcomed him, and many hated him. I asked Gary once if he ever felt like abandoning the struggle because of those who hated him. He said, ‘I would have gone to Caledonia even if not a single person supported me because it was the right thing to do.’
As recounted in Christie Blatchford’s 2010 national bestselling book, Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare Of Fear And Anarchy, And How The Law Failed All Of Us, Gary McHale was inspired by Jesus and by a Baptist minister named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. whose teachings he/we took to heart. Dr. King’s April 16/63 Letter From Birmingham Jail became our ‘manifesto’ because it, written by Dr. King while in jail for ‘parading without a permit,’ is a magnificent document for rebutting those who would prefer ‘order to justice’ who resent the ‘outsiders’ who ‘provoke violence’ by confronting the evil in their community:
I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea.” […]
Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” […]
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.
Not only did Dr. King’s letter help us answer our critics and provide a bedrock of principle on which to stand, Gary’s application of his methods worked! In 2011 some of those most active in supporting the lawlessness in Caledonia, posted a video on Youtube (since made private) made at an ‘Anti-Colonial Anarchism & Indigenous Resistance’ conference during which a topic of discussion was our creation of relationships with “pro-Israel groups” and the importance of countering our application of Dr. King’s teachings because we were making them look like the racists. Our worst enemies admitted, in effect, that we had defanged them with the non-violent teachings of a Baptist minister.
Gary McHale made that happen.
Gary, with no legal training, no legal representation, and no money, also went up against the best lawyers your tax money could buy to make legal history in the field of private prosecutions under Canada’s Criminal Code, prosecutions that would lead to court-ordered charges against native militants and OPP officers. including former Commissioner Julian Fantino and two OPP officers CANACE filmed assisting native occupiers with the building of a fence to keep the lawful owner out of his property.
He also defended himself against a charge of Counselling Mischief Not Committed that would eventually be withdrawn after he convinced a judge to issue charges of Obstructing Justice against former Deputy-Commissioner Chris Lewis and Superintendent Ron Gentle in connection with his case.
In one of his earlier rulings Justice Marshall, now deceased, dramatized the importance of Gary’s case in McHale v. R., 2009 by calling the right of a citizen to bring private charges against government officials “a bulwark of democarcy” and quoted from Alexander Hamilton, one of the fathers of the US Constitution:
[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.”
You can read more about Gary and some of his many contributions to Caledonia, to Ontario and, ultimately, to Canada here:
- Gary McHale municipal election site: Pictures of Leadership
I think you’ll agree that if you care about truth, justice, equality and the rule of law in our country no one deserves this medal more than Gary McHale, and no one deserves to share it with him more than his steadfast wife Christine who endured the threats, the arrests, the defamation and financial deprivation to support him every step of the way through six-plus years of this struggle — which is not yet over. Thank you Christine and Gary.
There are many others who will ‘receive’ this medal with Gary, too many to name. From the CANACE news release, Gary says this about them:
“My work is made possible through the support of the many others who have stood with me, often at great personal sacrifice to themselves. This medal, and the nomination by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that made it possible, is for them, too. It shows that good people throughout Ontario and Canada have seen the injustice in Caledonia and are willing to stand with us as we expose – and oppose – the racist policies that have caused enormous human and economic losses on innocent Canadian taxpayers. This medal sends a strong message that the OPP and all political parties should take note: citizens will not surrender their rights and freedoms on the altar of political correctness.”
On a more personal note I eventually became a Christian, in large measure, because of Gary’s example and counselling, as have others who came to help us, and I learned several key lessons from the Bible: 1. Christians will be persecuted for doing what is right; 2. Do not live in fear.
I can assure you of two indisputable facts: Gary McHale does not live in fear and he has indeed been viciously persecuted.
I do hope you won’t miss his presentation on Day 2 of the Israel Truth Week Conference on March 6: ‘Dr. King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail: A Handbook For Effective, Principled Activism.’ In the meantime I recommend that you watch his mesmerizing afternoon keynote speech from the 2012 conference in London:
- 2012 Israel Truth Week Conference, London, ON, Canada, Gary McHale : ‘Dr. King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’: A Blueprint for Victory Over Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism’ [VIDEO, 39.42; NOTES, 15p]
To the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The words ‘thank you’ seem far too inadequate to express what I feel in gratitude to you for having such courage to recognize someone like Gary McHale. In recognizing him, you recognize those of us who stood with him: who went to jail with him; who went to the hospital with him; who put our careers and income on hold as he did; who endured the disgusting smears of ‘Racist! White Supremacist! Neo-Nazi’ in order to stand up for the belief that all human beings are equal, and that no one has the right to use violence against innocent people as a political tool.
When former OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino intimidated Haldimand Council into not making positive statements about Gary McHale and his followers via an April 7/07 email, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation issued a news release just five days later calling on Fantino to apologize or be fired:
- Canadian Taxpayers Federation, April 12/07: Fantino Should Apologize or McGuinty Should Fire Him
We can never forget that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was the only organization that stood with the victims of Caledonia’s lawlessness during our ‘Remember Us’ March in Caledonia which we held shortly before the 2007 provincial election. Not one politician, not one other organization, not one other community leader would do so, even though the rally was held shortly after the brutal attack on Sam Gualtieri which left him with permanent brain damage.
- Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Oct 07/12: Caledonia March Statement
The CTF have stood up for the people of Caledonia, and I encourage readers to see the evidence for themselves:
- Canadian Taxpayers Federation: ‘Caledonia’
Shortly after Gary McHale received his medal, I sent Gregory Thomas a note saying, in part:
As someone who gave up my career as a real estate broker to stand with Gary McHale for over six years, I cannot begin to tell you what your recognition of his work means to me. This medal is for all of those who paid a price to defend freedom, equality, and the rule of law, and I thank you for it from the bottom of my heart. […] It is difficult to explain how much your courage means to me, to us.
POSTED BY:
Mark Vandermaas
Editor, VoiceofCanada.ca
Founder, CaledoniaVictimsProject.ca
Founder, IsraelTruthWeek.org
www.VoiceofCanada.ca 
