OPP & Ontario Government Deny Canadian's their Rights under the Charter

Yesterday in my post on Lux et Veritas  The ongoing disgrace of Caledonia, I outlined the disgraceful behaviour of the Liberal Government of Ontario and the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) in abandoning their duty to uphold the law.

To recap, the OPP under the direction of the Ontario Government and Premier Dalton McGinty abandoned lawful property owners to run the gauntlet of Six Nations insurrectionists who illegally took over development land and terrorised home owners.

I called them insurrectionists, but in fact the epithet thugs is probably more appropriate.

Not only where these tax-paying citizens of Canada abandoned by their democratic government, but the thugs were treated with a hands-off approach by the OPP because they are natives, and it seems clear that the OPP chief (Fantino) was taking his orders from Dalton McGinty.

My language was restrained compared to the editorial from November of last year in the NP (National Post) from which I took my title,  "The ongoing disgrace of Caledonia":

"Nothing symbolizes the pathetic gutlessness of Dalton McGuinty's government, or that of the provincial police force that is nominally sworn to protect the province's residents, than the saga now playing out in a Hamilton courtroom. The fate of a lawless Ontario enclave, it seems, now rests not with the province's politicians or its police, but with a pair of scrappy Caledoni litigants who have the guts to take a stand.

I have no complaint about calling the Premier "gutless" because his actions were gutless, but in fact it is far are worse than gutless.

but in fact it is far are worse than gutless.

By his policies he actively denied people in Caledonia their rights as Canadian Citizens under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It seems clear that McGinty hired Fantino as OPP chief to follow his orders and policies after the previous OPP chief was displaced following an initial OPP action to put an end to the lawless thuggery of the Six Nations 'warriors'.

I don't think that denying someone their rights under the Charter makes Dalton McGinty subject to a charge under the criminal code, but I do know it is a disgrace, and I think he should be held accountable. I would think dereliction of duty would be a start. But it seems that politicians are never held accountable.

The charter is designed so that ALL Canadians of every ethnic heritage, every religion, every skin colour are entitled to equal treatment under the law.

The Charter is designed so that one no one group gets preferential treatment over another group; whether one group is of Chinese descent, Native American descent, European descent, African descent, or whatever - it shouldn't matter under the Charter.

The principle under the Charter is that everyone should get equal justice regardless of 'race, national or ethnic origin.'

Here is my comment on Christie Blatchford excellent article in the Globe and Mail yesterday.

 OPP & Ontario Government Deny Canadian Rights under the Charter

Apart from allowing insurrection and unlawful behaviour by natives, the Ontario Government and the OPP have actively denied the citizens of Caledonia their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically Article 7 and 15.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees every citizen ....

Article 7. “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof ....”

The OPP failed to protect the life, liberty and security of the people involved; the Ontario Liberal Government should have ordered the OPP to do their duty or call for Federal help if the OPP wasn’t up to the task.

Article 15. “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination ... based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour ....

”The native people were given preferential treatment over the non-natives, and allowed to abuse them; that constitutes a clear contravention of Article 15.

The OPP clearly discriminated against non-natives who were not provided with equal treatment under the law on the basis of “race, national or ethnic origin”Non-natives should have been treated equally under the law and were not, therefore the OPP were clearly at fault and were responsible for denying one section of the community equality under the law in preference to another section of the community.

The OPP is required to uphold the law and the Charter not flagrantly ignore it.The master of the OPP is the law. The chief of the OPP is not the water-boy for the ruling Liberal Government. 

It’s not Fantino’s job to carry-out Liberal policies – his job is to see that the laws of Canada and the Province are followed.The Liberal Government of Ontario has a responsibility to ensure the OPP chief does his job. Each is part of the check and balance for the other, however it appears they were working in collusion.

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary

The ongoing disgrace of Caledonia

The disgrace is the failure of the OPP and the Ontario Government to do their duty and uphold the law. Regardless of any merit of the land claims may have by the Six Nations (or lack of merit) the rule of law must be uppermost.

But the rule of law was not upheld in Caledonia, and innocent property owners were victimized.

Caledonia residents Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell, filed a $7-million suit against the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) and the Ontario Government for failing to protect them and their home from the actions of the Six Nation during the native occupation of the Douglas Creek Estates housing project that almost surrounds their property.

Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell suffered greatly under the lawless Six Nations insurrectionists since February 2006, and all the while help was denied by the OPP and the Ontario Government. But Brown and Chatwell had to sue the OPP and Ontario Government to get remedy, while the insurrectionists were rewarded and protected by the OPP.

According to the National Post editorial in November of last years "The ongoing disgrace of Caledonia", The OPP led a demonstration of Six Nations insurrectionists down the high street waving defaced Canadian flags and their own "warrior society" flags; whereas the non-natives where not allowed to march, and not allowed to wave Canadian flags.

"What has become glaringly obvious in their civil suit against the Ontario government and Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is that within that province there are two tiers of justice, a preferential one for aboriginals and another, lower tier for non-natives."

"The disparity was never more obvious than at the trial on Thursday in Hamilton. There, the court was shown two videos, one of a non-native march through the small town last May, and another of a march by the Mohawk Warrior Society and its supporters down the same street a few months later."

Police stopped the first protest cold. When a non-aboriginal marcher attempted to defy officers and stride ahead anyway, he was arrested.

The non-native marchers said they merely wanted to wave the Canadian flag along main street. After three years of a land-claims siege on the town outskirts, they were tired of seeing only the flags of the Six Nations Mohawk reserve or the grandiosely self-styled "Warrior" Society. They merely wanted to fly the Maple Leaf, and thereby disabuse locals of the (not unnatural) conclusion that their area had been turned over de jure to the local native thugs. No matter: The OPP refused to let their demonstration proceed."

"Yet, six weeks later, a dozen or so Warriors marched through town, along the very same street, followed by their supporters driving pickups, all waving only Mohawk flags. There at the head of the procession was an OPP cruiser, lights flashing, clearing the way for the aboriginal protesters."

"The Mohawks were even seen waving Canadian flags with the Maple Leafs cut out of the centre. These flags were then tossed in mud without consequence."

Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell suffered terribly for nearly four years trying to live in a house they had purchased legally, but were victimized by no fault of their own and left to suffer by the OPP and the government of Ontario; but there are others too. Here are some of the details from the Hamilton Spectator from September 2007:

When native protesters first occupied the development on Feb. 28 last year (2007), Brown said police provided around-the-clock protection at the home.

That ended after heavily armed OPP officers raided the site on April 20 and carted off native protesters, touching off a massive standoff. Natives poured onto the site and blockaded major routes around the subdivision, including Argyle Street. The OPP pulled back from the site and suddenly the family was forced to cross police lines and native barricades to get to and from their home.

"The natives made us a 'passport' signed by Mohawk security with our address on it," Brown said yesterday. 

Natives searched their car and sometimes took items out of their trunk, including groceries, he added.

The couple's statement of claim to the court alleges native protesters engaged in extreme lawless conduct and, because the OPP did not stop it, the family was left living in fear for their personal safety.

The lawsuit also claims Brown was falsely thrown in jail after a confrontation between a forklift driver and natives who came onto his property.

It alleges natives forced Brown into their vehicle and took him to the police lines where they told the OPP he had been trespassing and had assaulted them. An OPP officer arrested Brown, and ordered him thrown in jail.

When Brown argued he was the victim, "that officer became angry and stated that Brown had to be imprisoned because of the way Brown spoke to him," the lawsuit alleges.

He spent the night in jail, but was not charged. He was released in the morning.

The stress of the situation impacted on Brown's work performance to the point the company fired him, the lawsuit claims. Brown has since filed a separate wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the firm.

John Evans, the couple's lead litigator, said the family has been denied access to their home in the most outrageous conditions.

"There has been consistent unlawful behaviour causing huge loss to these people, and they are unprotected," Evans said.

"The Police ice will not go on their property to protect them from these activities."

Yesterday, Chatwell said police stopped her at the barricades one night and refused to allow her vehicle through.

"Police made me walk home, which was about a quarter mile away from the barricades, when the town was having a rally," she said.

"They would not walk with me in the dark."

Can you imagine it? A woman is turned out of her car by the police at an insurrectionist barricade and forced to walk home in the dark,  though a hostile area and the police won't accompany her.
I referred to the "The ongoing disgrace of Caledonia" is "disgrace" a strong enough word? Or should I have referred to the "infamy" of the OPP and the Ontario Government?

infamy - extremely bad reputation, public reproach, or strong condemnation as the result of a shameful, criminal, or outrageous act: a time that will live in infamy. (Dictionary.com)

Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell were denied their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by both the OPP and the Liberal Government of Ontario; there is a lot more to say on about the OPP and Dalton McGinty, and I will return to this theme in my next post on Lux et Veritas


Gurth Whitaker
Calgary Alberta