“One of most disliked men in Canada” to receive Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Caledonia leadership…congrats to Gary McHale!

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.

Mark Vandermaas interviewed by CBC re Tom Keefer march in Caledonia

Not long ago I finished a short, but great radio interview w/CBC radio (French) out of Toronto who wanted my perspective on today’s march through Caledonia as the founder of the Caledonia Victims Project.

 

They were given material by the organizers of today’s takeover of the streets of Caledonia by Tom Keefer and his anti-capitalist allies that left the impression today’s march was about ‘commemmorating’ the occupation, but I talked about the flyer delivered to Haldimand homes in which they make it clear that the purpose was not about commemoration, but because Gary McHale & company (of which I am proud to be one) decided to walk down a county road through DCE, and how they are using the circumstances of a mentally disturbed person who tried to commit suicide by driving his car into the house on DCE.

 

I told him that it doesn’t matter whether they’re commemorating the beginning of a reign of terror against innocent people or reacting to non-native people who dared to walk down a county road, their goal is to legitimize the use of violence against innocent people as a political tool, by denying the humanity of their victims by pretending they don’t exist, by blaming the victims for the violence against them, and by attacking those who speak out for them. I said this was the essence of a supremacist ideology and, as the son of parents who lived under Nazi occupation, I found it disgusting and despicable.

 

I made clear that the victims also include native people; I mentioned the two rapes of native women on DCE, and that as a former soldier/peacekeeper I have a duty to speak for them too.

 

Vandermaas email to OPP officer re April 21 DCE rally before two ‘breach of peace’ arrests

On April 18/12 an officer from the plain-clothed OPP ‘Provincial Liaison Team’ sent me an email politely inquiring as to what day we would be holding our planned march onto the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia. Gary McHale had refused to disclose the information, and she was hoping I would. I wrote back to her on April 19 explaining why I would not do so. The email is below. But, before we get there…

Mark Vandermaas – arrested for being the victim of an assault by a native radical

Keep in mind while reading my message to her that just two days later, on April 21/12, she and her OPP partner (wearing blue/black jackets in photo below) would watch a native occupier (red hat, sunglasses, dark coat) chase after me and assault me by blocking my path and chest-butting me as I carried a sign saying ‘HEALING BEGINS WITH APOLOGIES.’

ANNOUNCING: 2012 Israel Truth Week Conference – ‘ISRAEL: THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE,’ London ON, March 21st.

Many of you followed my 26-day ‘Blue Beret’ vigil during last summer’s ‘Boat to Gaza’ flotilla fiasco.

 

After reading about the recent intimidation of Jewish students at Western University here in London (Jewish Tribune, Feb 09/12, ‘UWO Students Disrupt Jewish Event’) I – with help from other friends of Israel – have organized a direct response to this outrage via the first ‘Israel Truth Week Conference’ to be held in London on March 21st. to show Jewish students and families that they are not alone, that non-Jews are prepared to stand with them against the incitement and vilification directed towards them, particularly during the so-called ‘Israel Apartheid Week.’

 

The theme of the conference is…

 

‘ISRAEL: THE CASE FOR THE DEFENCE.’

 

A colour e-brochure and a B&W version for printing can be downloaded at the IsraelTruthWeek.org website.

 

In additon to a field of great presenters, including Rabbi Jonathan Hausman; Dr. Salim Mansur (author of ‘Delectable Lie: A liberal repudiation of multiculturalism); and Rev. Joe Campbell I will be discussing the evidence showing the involvement of anti-Israel groups in supporting the lawlessness during the Caledonia crisis in the context of explaining how our work there led me to begin this project.

 

David Strutt photos: Caledonia 8 make history on Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia

Professional photographer and graphic artist David Strutt drove from his home north of Toronto to be with members of the ‘Caledonia 8’ and our supporters on Feb 18/12 when we became the first non-natives since Feb 28/06 to walk onto the Douglas Creek Estates with United Nations and Canadian flags without asking permission from the native occupiers who terrorized Caledonia while the province’s police and Liberal government ran interference for them, and bought the site so they could remain after a judge ordered their eviction. 

• VoiceofCanada, Feb 19/12: McHale arrested in Caledonia because Native man assaults 77 year old former Navy vet/UN peacekeeper & OPP officers

Strutt is also the gifted cartoonist/artist who has created the editorial cartoons found recently here on VoiceofCanada, and was a Freedom Party candidate in the last provincial election.

Read an interpretation of Davids photos below…

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David captured the deflated faces of the occupiers, etched with the dawning realization that somehow, everything had changed for them in one day. ‘One day’ that took five years for a patient, determined McHale to bring about.

McHale arrested in Caledonia because Native man assaults 77 yr old former Navy vet/UN peacekeeper & OPP officers

LAST UPDATED Feb 28/12

• ** JUST RELEASED** – CANACEhd video, Feb 18/12: CANACE attacked on DCE Feb 18 2012
• VoiceofCanada, Feb 22/12: David Strutt photos capture Caledonia 8 history on Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia
• CFRB Newstalk 1010, Jerry Agar, Feb 21/12: Gary McHale & Christie Blatchford re Caledonia racism [CFRB LINK, scroll down] (A ‘MUST-LISTEN INTERVIEW.’ See also: LINK)
• OPP News Release, Feb 19/12: Assault With A Weapon (Teresa Jamieson re attack on Gary McHale)
• BlogWrath.com, Feb 19/12: Caledonia — pipe-wielding native detained (And Gary McHale wrongfully arrested again) (Miroslav was there on Saturday with us, and he shares some great pictures and a unique chronological narrative in some detail)
• CFRB 1010 has now posted video from yesterday’s Caledonia 8 protest on the Douglas Creek Estates taken by CANACE videographer Jeff Parkinson, a member of the C8. Video links below.
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Only in Caledonia.

Only in Caledonia do the police let the native thugs who attack their officers and peaceful non-native people (one of whom happens to be an elderly, cancer-ridden veteran of the Canadian Navy and a UN peacekeeping mission) go free, and arrest the peaceful leader of the non-natives for standing quietly on a county road. You just can’t make this stuff up.

Today seven of the Caledonia Eight, along with a number of Caledonia residents, supporters and spouses, did what no one has done since Feb 28/06 when the occupation there began. We walked through the gates of the Douglas Creek Estates, down the county road that runs through it, to within 100 feet or so of the only house on the site.

The visit was a surprise for the occupiers and police, who were warned shortly before we left the Lions Hall in Caledonia to drive to the site.

Although history was made today by both the visit itself into Dalton McGuinty’s forbidden no-go zone via the county road that runs through the site; and by the first-ever arrest of a native person during the commission of a crime (an assault on Gary McHale), we clearly demonstrated once again that racial policing is very much alive.

The OPP arrested Gary McHale for the sixth time because a native man assaulted OPP officers and 77 year old Navy war veteran & UN peacekeeper Merlyn Kinrade who was wearing his blue beret and holding a UN flag.

Sadly, he also happens to be suffering from cancer. It happened right beside me. The police let the attacker go, and then arrested the non-native — Gary McHale — because he refused to leave because he wasn’t doing anything illegal. Why the arrest then? Because, according to the police, it was Gary McHale – one of the peaceful non-native victims of an earlier assault – who was inciting a breach of the peace.

One observer who has never attended one of our protests sent me this comment:

“I’m still trying to get it through my head that Gary was arrested in order to stop the natives from continuing to break the law. This is just ludicrous.”

Gary McHale on SUN TV’s Michael Coren show tonight

UPDATED: Gary McHale will be talking with Michael Coren tonight on SUN TV’s ‘The Arena’ about his multiple arrests at the hands of the OPP during the past five years of fighting against race-based policing in Caledonia. 

The Arena airs from 7-8 pm EST. Other show timings can be found here:

• UPDATE — SUN News, Feb 05/12: ‘Outrageous Arrest – Gary McHale w/Michael Coren [VIDEO]
• UPDATE — SUN News, Feb 05/12: ‘Caledonia Confusion – Brian Lilley & Christina Blizzard
• SUN News show info: The Arena, w/Michael Coren

Charges dropped against Caledonia Eight, but OPP undeterred

On Friday (Feb 03/12) all charges against the Caledonia Eight – arrested Dec 03/11 for ‘trespassing’ on a county road running through the occupied Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia – were dropped by the specially-chosen prosecutor brought in to handle the cases.

The McGuinty government had threatened to arrest non-native protesters who attempted to enter the natives-only ‘no go zone’ which even the OPP cannot enter without permission from the occupiers. Eight of us lined up, one-by-one, to be arrested for refusing to obey the OPP’s order to leave the road known as Syrie Street.