Democracy Caledonia Style - Who Will Speak Up?

I would have thought that by now that Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty would have figured out that his race-based policing tactics in besieged Caledonia is nothing but a cesspool that is sucking both his government and his disgraceful Ontario Political Police force into an inescapable pit.

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The last time I penned a column about this issue I thought that perhaps, just perhaps, men and women of integrity within the OPP, government and communities would rise to the occasion and put a stop to this unbelievable escapade of anti-democratic behaviour in our midst. An outpouring of letters to me and Canada Free Press were unanimous in their condemnation of the antics of both McGuinty and the OPP. Clearly, many people in Ontario do not blame the Six Nations for this trouble or the people of Caledonia or the groups involved in exposing the injustice of the situation. They blame the government and their toadies in uniform. The last report I had out of Caledonia was that a peace rally had to be stopped when gangs of Indians accompanied by some white supporters stomped toward the opposing rally forcing it to turn back or face violence. Much to my surprise not a cop was in sight. Imagine that. I can only think they had not finished up their donuts at Tim Horton’s. And so the injustice that has been heaped upon the heads of all Caledonians continues. While all this continues to swirl about, I still see most of the old media avoiding Caledonia like the plague. If the situation was reversed and the Indians were under siege, being beaten, having their land and homes confiscated by armed goons, having their community disrupted and their lives left in tatters the media would turn this into an international incident. Instead, the victims are being arrested, harassed by the cops, threatened by the goons, denied the opportunity to protest (unlike the Indians) while being stripped of their Charter Rights, denied police protection and being ignored by a media that pretends to be the watchdog of all things Canadian. And this is happening because the majority of them are white. This reminds me of the words penned below in 1945 after the Second World War by one who went through the Nazi experience. It harkens back to my comment about the silence of elected officials, other communities and the media. Many of you will recognize it. According to a posting on the Wikipedia website the following poem is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals (but it surely applies to all of us) following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. In Niemöller's first utterance of it, in a January 6, 1946 speech before representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt, it went:

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

It seems to me the parallels are uncanny. I mentioned I the past that if this anti-democratic and clearly illegal situation is allowed to continue both the McGunity government and the OPP will be responsible for any ensuing violence, property damage, injuries or deaths that occur. When I was growing up in Ontario in the 1950s and 1960s, the OPP were regarded as one of the finest police forces in Canada and possibly the world, next to the RCMP. They were noted for their training, their professionalism and their sense of fair play. What has happened? In Caledonia these principles appear to have been abandoned. Where are the men and women in the ranks who have the courage to stand up to the goons and not tarnish this once proud police organization? Where is the integrity and the desire to uphold the rule of law for everyone? It has obviously been bred out of the current coterie of members. Through their complicity, I believe that they have sullied and disrespected every member of that force who has died in the line of duty. This is sad commentary given the recent funeral of murdered Police Constable Vu Pham who, by all accounts, was a very proud and dedicated family man, a contributor to his community and was deservedly well respected. It makes one wonder if any of the members in Caledonia are the least bit ashamed of their role in all of this. Still it all comes down to the silence of the media, the choice of other Ontario communities to remain silent and the entrenchment of racist policies in the standard operating procedures of the force and among the McGuinty Liberals. Perhaps too many people fear the consequences of speaking out. If they are, they should take time to read The Hangman by Maurice Ogden. You can easily find it on Google. In any event it is the story of a hangman who comes to town and starts his work by hanging an alien (foreign) resident. No one spoke up in an attempt to stop him. Progressing from that point, he eventually hung everyone in the town. The second last quatrain of the poem is chilling in its simplicity yet carries the solution to stopping the events in Caledonia and, indeed, anywhere else where the cancer spreads. It reads: "Dead!" I answered, and amiably
               "Murdered," the Hangman corrected me.
               "First the alien ...  then the Jew.
               I did no more than you let me do." Sound familiar?