One Law For All — Illegal Peacekeeping Missions on Canadian Soil…And How To End Them

UPDATE: Join the OneLawForAll bus trip to Ottawa on Feb 11/13 where we plan to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights Treaty by Ontario, including the use of illegal peacekeeping missions on Canadian soil to deny Canadian citizens their Charter rights to equal protection under the law:

• News Release, Jan 16/13: [PDF]
• Letter to Prime Minister, Jan 16/13: [PDF]

UPDATES:

• AM1290 Talk Radio, London, ON, Jan 17/13: Andy Oudman interview w/OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis, then Mark Vandermaas, Caledonia Victims Project re Ipperwash Inquiry failures & Ontario’s illegal peacekeeping missions [AUDIO]

ILLEGAL PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS ON CANADIAN SOIL AND HOW TO END THEM  [PDF]

How The Ipperwash Inquiry suppressed evidence
and put Ontario communities on a collision course with anarchy 

Everything you need to know about Ontario’s illegal peacekeeping missions on Canadian soil plus: our recommendations – based on 6 years of full time activism during the Caledonia crisis – on how to end them:  

1. VIDEO - from ’Caledonia: No More Nightmares’ conference, Ottawa, March 22/11:

‘An Illegal Peacekeeping Mission on Canadian Soil’ (Mark Vandermaas, 9:39)

• (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoLvKhK78GQ

• (text w/citations): http://helplessbyblatchford.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/110322-part1-2-mark-vandermaas-victims-issues-w-citations1.pdf

• (conference page): http://helplessbyblatchford.wordpress.com/caledonia-no-more-nightmares/

TorSun founder Worthington hammers ‘journalistic negligence’ & ‘defacto’ suspension of Charter, Police Services Act protection for Caledonia victims

The good news re Caledonia keeps coming. I received a call from a Caledonia resident yesterday who excitedly informed me that Peter Worthington had written a column that mentioned the Caledonia Victims Project, and which included several quotes from my writings (links & emphasis added):

[...] Mark Vandermaas, founder of the Caledonia Victims Project, credits lawyer John Findlay for winning the $20 million settlement. [...]

Vandermaas, protesting the protestors, was arrested for the provocative act of raising the Canadian flag across the street from protestors.

Vandermaas says neither he nor others who agitated for justice (often to media disinterest) don’t share in the award – and “rightly so,” he says. Taking a stand of the basis of principle nearly bankrupt[ed] him. [...]

Were it not for journalist Christie Blatchford’s book about political lawlessness during the Caledonia siege, little of the democratic abomination would have been publicized. The media was largely silent. Christie’s book, Helpless…How the Law Failed All of Us has become something of a classic, and an indictment of the government, the OPP and journalistic negligence that failed to adequately report the standoff.

While Caledonia is now relatively quiet, the $20 million award confirms the view of Vandermaas and others that the McGuinty government “made a decision to allow the Ontario Provincial Police to suspend — defacto — the Charter of Rights and Police Services Act protections of an entire class of citizen in order to appease a small, violent, racial constituency.” [from: LINK]

Thank you note to Senator Bob Runciman: FIRST to denounce Ipperwash Inquiry ‘peacekeeping’ recommendations

SENT VIA EMAIL (some links have been added to body text)…

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July 13, 2011

.

Office of The Honourable Senator Bob Runciman

351 East Block

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A4

.

Dear Senator Runciman:

.

As a former UN peacekeeper and Caledonia activist who has devoted countless hours to denouncing the OPP/McGuinty government’s substitution of ‘peacekeeping’ in lieu of the Charter and Ontario Police Services Act protections the people of Caledonia were entitled to, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for ‘Inquiry needed into Caledonia occupation‘ [PDF] (Toronto Sun, July 12/11).

.

You may recall we had a brief conversation during the 2007 Caledonia Convoy event at Queen’s Park where you mentioned you had been reading our Ipperwash Papers project of which I was the team leader. I am, therefore, profoundly pleased that it was you who now has the honour of being remembered as the first politician in Canada to open the desperately-needed public debate that will allow us to remove the Ipperwash millstone from around our province’s neck once and forever. Bravo!

.

I am optimistic that your words will help us end the shameful, illegal peacekeeping mission on Canadian soil and allow us to move forward via a meaningful and longlasting healing and reconciliation prcess based on truth, justice and apologies, rather than the artifical, short term non-solution of appeasement.

.

Caledonia: what went wrong? Where do we go from here?

No one should assume that Caledonia is all wrapped up with a nice bow because the Caledonia Class Action suit has been settled. Even though the government was forced to write a cheque it can ill afford (politically and financially) the Caledonia story is far from turning its final page.

Even when the last lawsuit has been settled, what do we as a province, as a country, say to a family like the Gualtieris, or the Dudychs on the Sixth Line who, with others, lived without policing for nearly four years? What can we do to make up to them for what was done to them by their government while the vast majority of their fellow citizens were content to let them suffer the agony of abandonment?

Below are excerpts from my presentations at both the 2010 New Directions in Aboriginal Policy forum at Mount Royal University, and the Caledonia: No More Nightmares event held at the National Library and Archives building in Ottawa on March 22/11 which was sponsored by the International Free Press Society and the Free Thinking Film Society.

—————————————

taken from…

‘Caledonia: No More Nightmares‘
Part 1: Caledonia’s Victims
Mark Vandermaas
Ottawa, ON  March 22, 2011

• [VIDEO, 15:05]
• [PDF, 36p (incl. citations)]

Caledonia’s unsung hero: Class Action lawyer John Findlay

UPDATE: Caledonia Victims Project, July 15/11: TorSun Founder Peter Worthington quotes CVP founder as he hammers ‘journalistic negligence’ & ‘defacto’ suspension of Charter, Police Services Act protection for Caledonia victims [LINK]

UPDATED July 09/11 – One of Caledonia’s greatest unsung heroes walked out of court with a victory most never thought would happen.

• National Post (Christie Blatchford), July 08/11: Settlement reached in Caledonia class action suit

But, the real victory is not the $20M payout for the victims of Caledonia; no, John Findlay’s victory is far more spectacular, and far more priceless than mere money.

Lawyer John Findlay went to war on behalf of all Canadians against the full weight of the resources of a provincial government, a lonely, thankless war that took five years — all to defend our precious rule of law during an awful, dangerous time when the Dalton McGuinty Liberal government made a decision to allow the Ontario Provincial Police to suspend – defacto – the Charter rights and Police Services Act protections of an entire class of citizens in order to appease a small, violent, racial constituency.

[UPDATE: bolded text quoted by TorSun founder Peter Worthington, July 13/11: LINK, PDF]

• Superior Court of Ontario, Feb 08/10: Judges reasons for certification [PDF, 21P]
• Superior Court of Ontario, June 12/06: Statement of Claim
• Caledonia Class Action website: www.caledoniaclassaction.com
• HelplessByBlatchford feature: ‘Caledonia: No More Nightmares’ (Ottawa, Mar 22/11)
• HelplessByBlatchford feature: Excerpts (from Christie Blatchford’s Helpless)

Those of us who are intimately familiar with the goings-on in the courthouses forced to deal with the Caledonia crisis know just how hard the Attorney General’s taxpayer-funded lawyers and the Ontario Provincial Police worked to legalize native lawlessness against innocent people.

For a time I wondered if anything would pull us back from the anarchy we were fighting, back from the brink of, yes, civil war. If McGuinty and his lawyers and police had their way that could easily have been the legacy left for our children. People were losing hope that the police would ever protect them again, and some may never lose their fear of being abandoned by the law again.

Thanks to one remarkable lawyer named John Findlay, however, the rule of law in our country is a whole lot safer.

Caledonia milestone: DCE occupiers & OPP respect rights of non-natives during Truth & Reconciliation Rally

“I believe the greatest reason the OPP both acknowledged our Charter Rights and then protected them this past Sunday was because we have maintained a clear message of Equality under the Law for all people, that the Rule of Law demands all people obey the Law and that we have remained peaceful even in difficult situations.” – Gary McHale

Something changed in Caledonia yesterday. In a way never before seen in the history of the Caledonia crisis both the OPP and the occupiers of the Douglas Creek Estates displayed respect for the rights of non-natives at yesterday’s CANACE/Caledonia Victims Project Truth & Reconciliation Rally yesterday, and that respect resulted in us being able to place our symbolic Apology/Reconciliation monument on the paved road-allowance portion of the entrance to DCE while we made some short speeches and answered questions from the media.

The contrast between the conduct of the OPP and the occupiers yesterday compared to our Feb 27th and March 27th attempts to place our monument couldn’t have been more stark. During those attempts the OPP stood by as occupiers bumped, assaulted, and screamed insults at us from inches away, and falsely accused us of assault. During the March rally officers watched as our monument was stolen from us by occupiers, destroyed and then burnt with our Canadian flag.

• VoiceofCanada, March 28/11: OPP watch as natives destroy Reconciliation/Apology monument, then burn Canadian flag

Yesterday’s event, however, was nothing short of remarkable.

Pre-Rally Father’s Day BBQ

We held a BBQ at the farm of Ernie Palmer at the south end of Caledonia with free hotdogs and drinks from 12-2pm. We were joined by members of a Jewish group, some of whom have read Helpless and are concerned about both the existence of racial policing and the involvement of anti-Israel groups in the Caledonia crisis.

MEDIA RELEASE: Father’s Day BBQ and Truth & Reconciliation Rally in Caledonia, Sunday, June 19th

UPDATE: Caledonia milestone: DCE occupiers & OPP respect rights of non-natives during Truth & Reconciliation Rally
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Joint Media Release by CANACE and Caledonia Victims Project – June 9, 2011

Father’s Day BBQ (free food & live entertainment)
- 12 to 2 pm -

and

Truth and Reconciliation Rally in Caledonia on Sunday June 19 at 2 p.m. [PDF]

CANACE, founded by Gary McHale, and the Caledonia Victims Project, founded by Mark Vandermaas, are holding a Truth and Reconciliation Rally in Caledonia as part of their on-going efforts to bring about lasting peace based on truth, justice, mutual respect and restoration of the Rule of Law.

A Father’s Day Barbecue will precede the rally from 12 noon to 2 pm Sunday June 19th where we will be serving free hotdogs and drinks to the public at the farm of Mr. Ernie Palmer [LINK, MAP]. All are welcome to drop in to chat and listen to the music of multi-instrumentalist Stuart Laughton who was an original member of Canadian Brass [LINK] and founder of the roots-rock band Porkbelly Futures [LINK]. He is also Founder & Artistic Director of The Forest Festival [LINK] in Haliburton, Ontario. Stuart will be singing and playing guitar on a selection of favourite songs by Willie P. Bennett, James Taylor, Jim Cuddy, Ron Sexsmith and others.

At 2 p.m. we will go to Douglas Creek Estates to place our Truth and Reconciliation Monument on the road allowance at the entrance to DCE. At both our Feb. 27 and Mar. 27 rallies the OPP refused to uphold the law as non-natives were swarmed, harassed and assaulted. During the Feb. event the OPP refused to remove trespassers on the private property we were using, but later arrested Gary McHale for attempting to remove their leader who had led a large group of pro-occupation activists to swarm him, and refused instructions to leave. That charge has now been withdrawn by the Crown [LINK]. On March 27th the OPP allowed the occupiers to steal, destroy, then burn our original monument along with our Canadian flag [LINK].