No coroner's inquest for Dudley George

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The regional supervising coroner for southwestern Ontario has decided not to call a coroner's inquest into the death of Dudley George.

George was killed by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer, Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane, during a protest Sept. 6, 1995 at Ipperwash Provincial Park.

Coroner Thomas Wilson informed Pierre George, Dudley's brother, of his decision in a letter dated May 5. Pierre George provided a copy of that letter to Windspeaker.

George disagreed with some of the findings Wilson used to come to his decision.

OPP detective Mark Armstrong conducted an investigation for the coroner's office after hearing Pierre George's concerns about how things were handled that September night after he had arrived at the hospital with his injured brother.

In his letter, Wilson reminded George that the detective had come to the conclusion that medical care for the mortally injured Dudley George was delayed only "three to five minutes between when you arrived at the hospital and when Dudley was taken inside the hospital for assessment and treatment."

George had complained that police prevented the hospital staff from providing immediate care. OPP were more concerned, he said, to arrest George, his sister Carolyn and J.T. Cousins, another passenger. The three drove Dudley to the hospital in the back of a car that was riding on three tires and a rim, while police vehicles tracked its progress and did not offer assistance. All three were initially charged with attempted murder. Those charges were subsequently dropped.

Pierre George doesn't agree with the three-to-five-minute timeline.

"I'd say it was more like 10 to 15 minutes," he said. "You can't do three arrests in three to five minutes."

In his letter, Wilson said that the purpose of a coroner's inquiry is to serve the public interest.

"Public interest in this context is generally taken to mean whether the expenditure of time and resources would likely provide the anticipated benefits of the public scrutiny of the events around the death and whether the process would be successful in addressing the public safety mandate, which is the underlying purpose of any inquest," he wrote. "I believe the investigation completed by Detective Armstrong has succeeded in providing the facts for parts of the events of 6-7 Sept. 1995 that have never before been intensely investigated. I do not think an inquest merely to bring to light these additional facts would serve the public interest."

He promised to ask the province's chief coroner to recommend to the commissioner of the OPP that a review of policies and procedures be conducted so that interference by police with emergency care workers in similar situations can be reduced. Wilson said he did not believe that an inquest was required in order to make that recommendation.

The coroner also noted that other members of the George family are pushing for a full public inquiry as a "more appropriate process to fully inform the public."

George pointed out that the most powerful people in Ontario, including the people who appoint the province's chief coroner, have been successfully stonewalling a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Dudley's death for almost eight years. He said he was bothered that the coroner would use something that might not happen as an excuse not to call an inquest.

Wilson also provided a copy of a report by Dr. Andy McCallum, who was retained to review the medical care provided to Dudley George. McCallum concluded that no ambulance responded to assist Dudley when he was shot, but this was not a factor in his death.

"[T]he transportation was as rapid as it could have been, in that the route taken was actually faster than the route which is used by ambulances in this part of the province (based on police tests)," the physician wrote.

Pierre George questions any decisions that are based on information provided by police in this case. He points out that Deane, who was convicted of criminalnegligence causing death for shooting Dudley, and other OPP officers were found by the trial judge to have lied. Judge Hugh Fraser concluded the officers "concocted" a false version of the events after the fact so they could avoid being found responsible in Dudley's death.