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]
