By Judi McLeod
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Something changed in the Province of Ontario on Saturday. and that something changed Ontario forever.
a motley crew who turned out to protest at the aboriginal-occupied Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia was determined to peacefully place Canadian flags at the same site where aboriginal flags proudly fly.
Three protesters--including protest leader Gary McHale--were arrested as they made their way to a government and police declared "no-go" zone at the site.
Flag bearer Mark Vandermass was wrestled to the ground by officers of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The Canadian flag he so proudly carried was ripped from his hands as he was crossing into the designated buffer zone. Ending in the dirt, the flag was rent in two during the scuffle.
Within hours two of the protesters were set free. McHale--who has not been officially charged--was kept in jail overnight.
The OPP, long admired and looked up to by a majority of Ontarians, seems to have been caught up in the political quagmire left by the Premier Dalton McGuinty-led provincial government, which has demonstrated it knows not what to do about the ongoing occupation in Caledonia.
Can there really be any doubt that McHale sat in jail without the tacit knowledge of former Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino, appointed as OPP head by the McGuinty Government?
McGuinty and his ministers wanted organizers to change the site of the protest to Queen's Park, basing the change in venue on avoiding potential violence.
But notice the taunting nature of David Ramsay, Ontario's minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, as quoted in the liberal Toronto Star. "I've twice now offered Mr. McHale the opportunity to protest at Queen's Park. In fact, I said I would sponsor his rally and set up a platform and a microphone, a Pa system for him."
Shamefully, Progressive Conservative leader John Tory had offered the same thing.
It's coming up to election year in Ontario, and for the little folk, things couldn't be any worse.
While most folk are busy in the Christmas rush, the same kind of police state mentality flourishes out in rural Ontario, where a few days before the McHale arrest, farmers Craig and Shawn Carmichael were detained for over three hours--then subsequently charged. Shawn was charged with "dangerous operation of a motor vehicle" (a combine) and Craig was charged with "obstruction of justice."
Ontario Landowners association members from all associations in Ontario sent farm equipment to a December 13 rally, claiming that these were "bogus charges that amount to nothing more than abuse of authority and harassment."
Indeed, it appears that these ongoing events in Ontario border on the encroachment of a police state.
The mainstream media make issue with the residency of people like McHale and Vandermass, repeating in their news coverage that they do not hail from Caledonia, but from Richmond Hill and London, Ontario respectively. Richmond Hill and London are not part of the Province of Ontario?
No one–especially not the mainstream media--is joining the dots in Dalton McGuinty's Ontario.
David Ramsay who taunted McHale and Company about helping him stage a protest at Queen's Park is the same Ramsay, the late night visitor to the farm home of a 78-year-old war veteran.
"accompanied by armed OPP constables, Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) raided the home of the veteran and his 80-year-old wife on Oct. 20, 2004." (Canada Free Press, Nov. 9, 2004). "The heavy hand of the MNR came down on the war vet all because he is alleged to have killed a goose on March 30, 2004.
That's some nine months after the alleged goose-killing event.
Nor was the purported goose killer the only elderly victim of the self-important MNR and its traveling OPP sideshow.
another local farmer and member of the Lanark Land association (LLa) was charged on Sept. 28, 2004 with the heinous crime of shooting a ground hog.
In the prelude to Remembrance Day 2004, the ground hog, which burrowed field holes posing an ever-present risk of broken legs for grazing livestock, was put on an MNR pedestal.
Or, as LLa President Randy Hillier so aptly puts it: "The ground hog is worth more than any and all farmers through corrupt MNR laws.
"The ground hog is complacent, passive and not critical of the overly sensitive MNR, therefore must be protected."
In Ontario on Saturday, three men were arrested and one had a Canadian flag torn asunder by officers sworn to uphold the law of the land.
This is all happening in a Canada where public outrage and not government intervention of any kind forced Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe to reverse his stance of refusing to allow his MPs to distribute Maple Leaf flags to veterans for Remembrance Day services.
That's the same Duceppe not threatening to force an election this February over Canadian troops in afghanistan.
Meanwhile, why are Dalton McGuinty and overzealous ministers like David Ramsay using highhanded tactics against their own citizens?
Because they've politically co-opted the once proud OPP and can get away with it.
It's sad day for Ontario citizens not only are they getting away with it, but they continue to increase their harassment well outside of public view.
Welcome to Ontario--yours to discover.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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