Ontario police seek arrest warrants after violence at aboriginal blockade (Canada)

Canoe News ^ | June 10, 2006 | Canoe Staff

[fanfan]

CALEDONIA, Ont. (CP) - Police are looking for seven people who face several charges, including attempted murder, assault and forcible confinement, after a string of violent clashes at the scene of a long-standing aboriginal blockade in southern Ontario.

An Ontario Provincial Police officer suffered serious injuries Friday after angry aboriginal protesters surrounded a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and dragged out its three occupants.

The injured officer was pulled out of the path of the stolen vehicle as it was driven deliberately at him, OPP Const. Doug Graham said Saturday.

"They were forcibly removed after they were swarmed," Graham said.

Graham said the officer was treated and released. The stolen vehicle was recovered but no arrests were made.

Other charges police expect to lay include theft of a motor vehicle, robbery, intimidation and assault causing bodily harm.

The incident was just one of several altercations with protesters on Friday.

Several hundred angry residents of Caledonia confronted police in full riot gear to protest police inaction after two CH-TV news cameramen were injured in a scuffle with angry protesters. One of the victims, who needed stitches to close a head wound, said police officers were nearby, but took no action during the attack.

Police say they will also be laying charges in relation to an incident Friday involving an elderly couple whose car was surrounded by protesters. The man in the car, who suffers from a heart condition, was taken to hospital for observation, but no one was injured, police said.

The rash of violence was just the latest flashpoint in the clash, which is now more than 100 days old.

A blockade was erected more than three months ago as protesters from the nearby Six Nations reserve took over a housing development they say was being built on land they have claimed as their own.

In announcing the warrants on Saturday, deputy OPP commissioner Maurice Pilon said his greatest fear was that someone would be hurt over the course of the standoff.

"Unfortunately that has occurred," Pilon said. "And I don't think that's acceptable."

Premier Dalton McGuinty said Friday he's angry about the way some people at the blockade are behaving, and said he hopes they don't destroy efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

Critics are blaming the legacy of the Ipperwash standoff, where aboriginal protester Dudley George was killed by a police bullet in 1995, for the reluctance of police to crack down on unruly protesters.

[fanfan]

This is ridiculous!

Canada ping!

Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.

[the invisib1e hand]

imagine, violence at an aboriginal blockade.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The police are put into an impossible position at these blockades -- as well as various protests with a significant anarchist element. The police are told to contain things -- meanwhile the protesters ratchet-up the intensity -- with property damage, and then increasing levels of violence. The intent is to push things so far that the police have no choice but to react -- then they all start screaming "police brutality". The whole fiasco is followed by an "inquiry", which invariably turns the protesters into victims -- which was the intent all along.

[PzLdr]

Paging Col. MacKenzie. Col. Ranald MacKenzie. Please report to the northern border.

Paging Col. Custer...

[fanfan]

But they can't allow this to continue.

Will the police do their job, or not?

sigh.

[Heatseeker]

An Ontario Provincial Police officer suffered serious injuries Friday after angry aboriginal protesters surrounded a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle and dragged out its three occupants.

Huh? The US border is nowhere near there.

[Bahbah]

Thanks for the ping. It looks like they are going to wait until these loons kill someone before they actually do anything.

[gcruse]

From a related article.....

"Officers from the U.S. Border Patrol were in the area to observe how provincial police were handling the standoff, he added."

Heh. Well, now they see how PC the OPP is.

[fanfan]

I have no idea what they might be refering to.

[fanfan]

I hope you are wrong, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Ontario has a Liberal government.

:-(

[Heatseeker]

Thanks gcruse! Still, it seems pretty dumb of the USBP guys to be there in a marked vehicle, considering how hot the situation is.

Am I being overly conspiratorial or does this sound like somebody in the OPP organization figured they needed something to light a fire under Dalton McGuinty's butt and figured the USBP would be good kindling?

[fanfan]

Hmmm.

Bump.

[Dumpster Baby]

This is very similar to our Wounded Knee standoff in the 70's. Let's hope the "insurgents" haven't been supplied with AK-47's like our Native Americans were. Some years after Wounded Knee I was working for General Electric. One of our guys was tasked with going around to all the electric power substations in the Dakotas to test and calibrate GE equipment. When he returned to our shop he said he had gone into a cement blockhouse sheltering electrical gear on the edge of the Wounded Knee site, and the outside of the blockhouse was pocked with hundreds of bullet craters from the heavy automatic fire from inside the rez. Our MSM barely noted these events and focused almost entirely on "jackboot thug" tactics by our federal officers.

[gcruse]

I don't know.  But I did get a pretty decent blog article from it. Check it out.

[Heatseeker]

Thanks for the link. Yeah, I can see that - USBP getting "on the job training" for "future operations".

[Peter Libra]

The police are put into an impossible position at these barricades

Your comments borne out by the uncessant coverage on "Death at Ipperwash". We using Shaw Cable get the channel 27. This channel all "aboriginal" controlled. I saw this hard looking "tough guy" for the Toronto Star, a Peter Edwards, absolutely kowtowing to the native commentators. Looks like an old time Welsh Rugby player ( laughs).There the illusion of tough ends.

The death of Dudley George at Ipperwash is used as a sledge hammer of guilt. As was said elsewhere to critics. "Put your self in the position of the OPP- what would you do"? Sergeant Kenneth Dean was sentenced to two years, but served in the community. Now dead in a car accident- they destroyed him.

I remember the name of Corporal Marcel Lemay, of the Quebec Provincial Police. Killed by a shot, fired by one of three natives, at Oka about thirteen years ago. No charges. No one seems to care.

A plan is needed. Swear out warrants for the ring leaders. They will laugh and hide out on the reservation. This will give the authorities time. After six months, they will tire. After all, once these people come out into the street- they can be arrested.

[Heatseeker]

Now that I think about it a little more, it occurs to me that I might have it wrong-way-round: McGuinty's side might ave invited the Yanks in, knowing they'd be a huge provocation, and hoping a blow-up would cause Harper to step in. That would get McGuinty off the hook wouldn't it?

[GMMAC]

"Huh? The US border is nowhere near there."

I suppose it depends upon one's definition of "nowhere near"?
According to 'Windows Live Local', all of the land crossings on America's "Niagara Frontier" are roughly 60 miles from Caledonia and access points into both Lakes Erie & Ontario are considerably closer.

Plus, these are de facto terrorists with a well known cultural history of total disrespect for the international border as well as the criminal laws on both sides of same.

Border Patrol?
Me, I'd have called in a damned air strike on them long ago !!!

[Heatseeker]

LOL, that's true. What I find sad but typical of the Liberal government's approach to this is that by mollycoddling the natives for fear of another Ipperwash or Oka, they've encouraged the more radical and hot-headed of the "warriors" to get out of hand - and so when they do finally have to restore order, they're going to wind up with the same situation.

They never learn.