Christmas: God’s gift to Haldimand County – by Gary McHale

The article below was published in Caledonia’s Regional News paper as one of Gary McHale’s weekly columns.  Gary’s example and instruction were key to me eventually deciding to become a Christian. More below… (all photos added by VoC)…

Christmas: God’s gift to Haldimand County

by Gary McHale  (Dec 21/11)

I am quite certain that God’s gift to mankind wasn’t a Turkey, stuffing, cranberries and an iPod (or a stone tablet and a chisel). Even the Charley Brown Christmas show tells us that the gift was God’s son being born in a manger. However, it wouldn’t have been much of a gift if Jesus grew up to be a drunken sailor.

God’s gift includes the life Jesus lived and how Jesus was willing to pay a price in order to show the love of God to all mankind. If Christmas was merely about giving then God could have rained down Turkeys and cranberries until everyone was full.

Christmas is about Jesus being willing to sacrifice himself to bring us the truth. As he stated before Pilate, “the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth”. This truth caused riots, crowds called for him to be stoned and he was finally crucified. His death is as much a part of Christmas as his birth is. While Jesus doesn’t walk the earth today, he lives on in the hearts of all Christians who are called to be the salt and light of their communities.

For this reason I have, for the past 30 years, wondered what pastors and Christians who lived in the deep South would say when they stand before God and are asked what they did to help their black neighbours, what they did to end racism or what they did to address the injustice that they saw every day. I envision the Christian saying, “I did pray privately and I didn’t engage in any beatings but I was afraid to speak out, I was afraid of what my neighbours would say, would I lose my job, would my family be targeted for hate so I… well… didn’t do much.”

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 Class Action lawyer announces $500,000,000 suit vs. province & feds over illegal native smokes

Caledonia lawyer John Findlay, author of the Caledonia Class Action lawsuit which was certified for trial earlier this year has now filed, on behalf of tobacco growers, statements of claim against both the federal and provincial governments seeking $500,000,000 in damages due to their collective failure to enforce tobacco laws against illegal native cigarettes.

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Mr. Findlay issued the following news release advising that he will be holding a news conference in the Queen’s Park Media Studio today at 12:15:

——————————————-

FINDLAY McCARTHY LLP
Barristers & Solicitors

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 November 1, 2010

BURLINGTON –  Findlay McCarthy LLP and McDonald/Ross will hold a press conference at the Queen’s Park media room at 12:15 pm to announce that, on October 29, 2010, they commenced a class proceeding in the Federal Court of Canada on behalf of tobacco producers who have suffered financial losses [as] a result of the failure on the part of the Canadian government to enforce the provisions of the Excise Act, 2001 and the Excise Tax Act which regulates the production and taxation of tobacco products.

Superior Court Justice Crane certifies Caledonia Class Action lawsuit

The Caledonia Class Action lawsuit has passed the last major hurdle that ensures it will go to trial. Justice Crane of the Superior Court today certified the action and released the reasons for his ruling.

• Superior Court of Ontario, Feb 08/10: Judges reasons for certification [PDF, 21P]
• Superior Court of Ontario, June 12/06: Statement of Claim
• Class Action website: www.caledoniaclassaction.com.

According to the ruling, notice of the certification must be posted – at the Defendant’s expense – in the Globe and Mail; Hamilton Spectator; Regional News; Grand River Sachem; Simcoe Reformer; and posted on the www.caledoniaclassaction.com website; on the Caledonia Regional Chamber of Commerce website at www.caledonia-ontario.com; Haldimand County website at www.haldimandcounty.ca; on the website of the Ontario Secretariat of Aboriginal Affairs at www.aboriginalaffairs.osaa.gov.on.ca; and – best of all – on the website of the Ontario Provincial Police at www.opp.ca.

The enemy is now encircled

Certification means that the Ontario government and the OPP’s racial policing policies have now been caught in an encircling attack by civil litigation, criminal prosecutions, critical scrutiny by both media and members of the PC Party in the Legislature.