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The racist statements made by police officers, captured on tape and shown to the Canadian public on Jan. 20 on CBC's The National, may not be the worst of the material under the control of police authorities or the Ontario government in regards to a fatal shooting at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995.
The tape, referred to as Tape 6, was the subject of an access to information request and was released to the CBC after a long and complex fight against Ontario government officials who attempted to block its release.
On it, two Ontario Provincial Police officers posing as television reporters at a Native land claim protest recorded the following exchange:
"Is there still a lot of press down there," one OPP officer asked.
"No, there's no one down there. Just a great big, fat f**k Indian," replied the other.
"The camera's rolling, eh?"
"We had this planned, you know. We thought if we could get five or six cases of Labatt's 50, we could bait them."
"Yeah."
"Then we'd have this big net at a pit."
"Creative thinking."
"Works in the South with watermelon."
The recording was made just hours before OPP Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane pulled the trigger and fired shots that mortally wounded 38-year-old Stoney Point activist Dudley George who was at the park Sept. 6, 1995 to draw attention to a Native burial ground on the site.
If that tape wasn't disturbing enough, there are others that have yet to be disclosed, some of which contain gaps that have been called into question by Ontario Assistant Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) Tom Mitchinson.
Mitchinson has been refereeing a three-year battle between Lynette Fortune, a freedom of information specialist with the CBC investigative magazine show fifth estate, and OPP and government officials.
Fortune has waged a tireless campaign to overcome the government's attempts to block release of the photos and videos taken by the OPP during the occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park.
On Dec. 23, 2003, Mitchinson directed the OPP and the Ontario ministry of the solicitor general (now called the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services) to explain gaps in several tapes and other problems with disclosure of evidence.
Mitchinson mentioned four videotapes, all recorded by an OPP camera located at a maintenance shed at the park.
A total of 45 seconds of Maintenance Tape 8 and 40 seconds from Maintenance Tape 9 are missing, he wrote.
Mitchinson also ordered OPP Superintendent Dunn to explain "why some maintenance tapes contain both audio and video footage, . . . while others have only video."
He also demanded to know "why, even when the tapes contain audio, the audio footage is not constant (e.g., there is no audio on Maintenance Tape 8 from the beginning to 12:39:53, and on Maintenance Tape 10 from 2:05:43 to the end.)"
He also demanded that Dunn explain "why, although the various videotapes were described as original copies, Maintenance Tape 9 begins with footage that is time-coded as 23:03:54 (the start time for Maintenance Tape 10), only to be interrupted and re-started at the correct time of 16:56:43" and "why Maintenance Tape 7 ends with the time-code at 10:38:42 and Maintenance Tape 8 begins with the time-code at 10:46:33, and why footage for the time period 10:38:43 to 10:46:32 is not contained on either of these videotapes."
That last observation means that a period of almost eight minutes could be missing from the tapes.
Windspeaker e-mailed a list of questions to the IPC with the intent of clarifying whether the information commissioner had a specific reason to be concerned that evidence had been destroyed or whether he was simply carrying out a routine inquiry.
"We don't speak to appeals that are still before us," said Bob Spence, the communications co-ordinator for the IPC.
Fortune filed a request under Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requesting acces to all video and photographic evidence recoded by the OPP at Ipperwash Provincial Park from Sept. 5 to 7, 1995.
In response to that request the ministry identified a number of videotapes and photographs that fell into that category, and denied access to all of them. Fortune and lawyers for the CBC appealed. One set of videos and photos, called Category 4 evidence by the IPC, consists of police surveillance video. Originally the government claimed the videos were protected from disclosure by a criminal code warrant. Later, that was found to be untrue.
Mitchinson ordered the material released. The province fought back.
"The ministry brought an application for judicial review of my decision. The appellant also brought an application for judicial review, seeking the immediate disclosure of the Category 4 records," he wrote in his Dec. 23 order. "Both of these judicial review applications were subsequently abandoned. In the case of the ministry's application, the reason for abandoning was that there are no warrants to support the criminal code arguments."
Mitchinson then cracked the whip. He demanded and received a number of sworn statements (affidavits) from the ministry to ensure that all the evidence requested was being turned over and to explain the government's behavior.
Mitchinson demanded answers on what he called the government's "non-compliance with certain provisions" of an order he had issued.
"Why [had] I been provided with inaccurate information throughout my inquiries," he asked. He questioned "why additional records were identified at this late stage" as well as "the adequacy of the ministry's search for all responsive records."
One specific area of questioning stands out.
"On Maintenance Tape 9, there is a section of approximately 20 seconds (18:32:20 to 18:32:40) where the audio portion of the tape is not audible. What is the explanation for this?" the assistant information commissioner asked the OPP and ministry.
The ministy's initial response was: "This is a technical problem and th OPP are attempting to get the audio enhanced."
Mitchinson reported that the ministry later provided a floppy disk that contained "the enhanced version of the portion of the video."
"I reviewed the 'enhanced version' provided by the ministry, but the 20 second portion is still inaudible," he reported. "I gave the ministry an opportunity to provide any additional explanation . . . but have received no further correspondence from the ministry on this issue."
Mitchinson went on to say: "In my view, the answer provided by the ministry . . . does not adequately explain the absence of audio for 20 seconds in the middle of a taped telephone conversation. Accordingly, I will include a provision in this interim order requiring the ministry to provide me with an affidavit explaining this audio gap in detail," he wrote on Dec. 23.
Mitchinson said he viewed and/or listened to the original video and audiotapes to make sure the missing audio wasn't caused by the loss of quality that comes when originals are copied. While doing so, he said, he found the gaps in the other three tapes and the inconsistent time codes on others.
"In my view, these issues need to be addressed by the ministry in order to satisfy me that I have been provided with access to all of the various responsive records identified to this point by the ministry. Accordingly, I will include a provision in this interim order requiring the ministry to provide me with affidavit evidence explaining these apparent discrepancies," he wrote.
Pierre George drove his brother Dudley to the hospital the night he was shot. He and his sister were arrested at the hospital and charged with attempted murder, charges that were later dropped.
He said the CBC television report proved what he had been claiming all along, that OPP officers behaved in a racist manner at Ipperwash.
"I've been stressing this all along, eh? The racist comments and all," he old Windspeaker.
Pierre assisted Fortune with the task of finding all the ccupiers who were captured on the released OPP video so they could waive their privacy rights to allow the videotapes to be released to the media.
He rejected the apologies that were issued by the OPP and the OPP officer's association after the video was aired.
"This needs more than an apology. These people need to be brought out into the open because of their behavior," he said.
George said there have been too many questionable incidents involving police and First Nations people. He believes, as National Chief Phil Fontaine has argued, that a systemic review of police/Aboriginal relations needs to be conducted.
"When you look at what's going on in Saskatoon and other communities, it's time for things to change," he said.
Lawyer Murray Klippenstein represents Pierre's brother Sam George. Sam George has led the family's fight for a public inquiry into the death of their brother. They dropped their wrongful death lawsuit against the police and government when newly elected Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty called an inquiry, which is expected to begin in September.
Klippenstein and Sam George both told the media that the OPP apology sounded hollow.
"The police tapes with the really poisonous racist comments have only come out eight years after the shooting, after eight years of them being buried with the police and previous government fighting with lots of lawyers and lots of money to prevent their exposure," said Klippenstein. "So, although the OPP immediately apologized once these comments hit the news, it's a bit dubious when the apology comes after all the cover-up attempts."
He was asked if he now suspected there was a racial motivation for the shooting of Dudley George.
"When you look at the comments that were made and try and understand where they could have come from, you see talk of baiting Indians and trapping them with pits and nets. It's almost like talkin
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