And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 08:24:29 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Canada
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9/16/99
Toronto Star
Ipperwash officer's defence was flawed, court told
By Peter Edwards
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
The lawyer representing an Ontario Provincial Police officer
convicted of slaying a native activist was either misled at the trial or was
incompetent, the Ontario Court of Appeal was told yesterday.
The comments were made by criminal lawyer Alan Gold, who is representing Acting
Sergeant Kenneth Deane as he appeals his 1997 conviction for criminal negligence
causing death.
Deane was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to perform 180 hours of
community service.
At Deane's trial, Judge Hugh Fraser ruled that the officer knew Indian activist
Anthony (Dudley) George was unarmed when he fatally shot him with a sub-machinegun at
Ipperwash Provincial Park near Sarnia on Sept. 6, 1995.
Gold told a three-judge panel at Osgoode Hall that Deane was denied a fair trial
because key evidence about natives having weapons was not introduced at the trial.
No equipment or police officers were hit with bullets the night George was killed, and
no weapons or bullet casings were recovered from natives.
Gold listed the names of 17 people yesterday who he said could have given evidence
that the Indians were armed and angry before and after the shooting.
He also argued that Fraser couldn't hear a tape in which an officer said police were
under fire from natives because a police officer blundered when trying to tape record
it.
Deane's original lawyer, Norman Peel, didn't introduce any of that evidence because he
was either misled by the crown or he was incompetent, Gold said. ``He was misled about
an agreement or he was not performing as to standards,'' he said.
During the trial, Peel argued that Crown Attorney Ian Scott broke a pre-trial
agreement not to discuss muzzle flashes in the park.
At the time, Scott reacted angrily and challenged Peel to produce any evidence that
such an agreement had been reached.
Fraser also found that Deane and fellow OPP officers lied on the stand during the
trial.
George was among 30 Indians occupying a patch of land in the park.
They said the park was built on a sacred burial ground, a claim that was later
verified by the federal government.
Peel is a respected lawyer who headed a legal team representing former defence chief
Gen. Jean Boyle at the public inquiry into the ill-fated 1992-93 Somalia mission.
The hearing continues today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from Ottawa Citizen 9/16/99
Ipperwash natives armed, dangerous, lawyer says
WENDY MCCANN
TORONTO (CP) - New evidence shows natives occupying Ipperwash Provincial Park were
armed and dangerous before one of the protesters was shot dead, Ontario's appeal court
heard Wednesday.
Alan Gold, the lawyer for the provincial police officer who fired the fatal round,
told the court that he has affidavits from 18 civilians and army members who saw guns
in the natives' hands or heard shots around the time of the 1995 protest.
Acting Sgt. Kenneth Deane, who killed protester Dudley George, is appealing his
conviction of criminal negligence causing death.
Among the most startling new evidence, Gold said, is testimony from a cottager who
says she was told by natives about a week before the standoff that they had military
assault rifles and submachine-guns and were "ready for anything."
Another couple living near the park say they heard an officer say "they're shooting at
us; return fire," on a radio scanner the night of the deadly altercation, court heard.
A fourth resident of the Lake Huron cottage community says she saw George riding
around in a car with a high-powered rifle not long before his death.
The testimony paints a very different picture than one portrayed by the Crown during
Deane's 1997 trial, Gold told the three-judge panel.
During the trial, the Crown maintained the natives were unarmed and engaged in a
peaceful occupation of the park they said contained an ancient burial ground.
The Chippewa protesters - who were refusing to leave - had been there just 48 hours
when about 40 provincial police officers armed with shields and laser-sighted rifles
marched in formation on the park. George was killed in the ensuing melee.
Gold wants the province's highest court to order a new trial for Deane based on the
new evidence.
Earlier Wednesday, he argued for a mistrial, saying the provincial police officer was
not treated fairly.
Deane's trial lawyer was operating under the false impression that the Crown had
accepted as fact that the natives had shot first, Gold told the appellate judges.
Deane's lawyer didn't bother to introduce evidence that would have proven the officer
felt threatened because he assumed that the fact they were armed had been established,
he said.
"Because of this misunderstanding, the accused was denied his day in court on this
issue," Gold told presiding judge Marvin Catzman.
At his trial, Deane conceded he had killed George but pleaded not guilty to the
criminal negligence charge. He maintained he saw George aiming a gun at police.
The police scanner malfunctioned that night and so there was no record of Deane's
observations.
Deane was convicted after the trial judge decided he was lying about seeing the gun.
He was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to perform 180 hours of
community service.
Outside court, Pierre George said Deane should be put behind bars for "using excessive
force" against his late brother, not have his conviction overturned.
The hearing continues Thursday.
© The Canadian Press, 1999
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
from Ottawa Citizen 9/16/99
'Illegal' logging halted while leaders meet
GREG JOYCE
VANCOUVER (CP) - The chief of the Westbank First Nation, saying he will not allow the
B.C. government to keep "raping our land," stalked out of a meeting Wednesday intended
to find a solution to the band's unauthorized logging.
Aboriginal logging could now spread to Crown land elsewhere in the province, another
First Nations leader said.
About 50 native leaders attended the meeting, which was triggered when Westbank
members began logging on Crown land near Kelowna, B.C., without a permit last week.
The band had stopped logging Tuesday as a show of good faith for the meeting with
Forests Minister Dave Zirnhelt. Phil Fontaine, grand chief of the Assembly of First
Nations, also attended.
But the session lasted little over an hour.
"They are not going to keep raping our land while our people are committing suicide
and they take our jobs," Westbank chief Ron Derrickson said as he left the meeting.
Meantime, the Ulkatcho Indians of Anahim Lake said they intend to log mountain pine
beetle-infested timber in Tweedsmuir provincial park.
They maintain the government and the forest industry are taking the wrong approach in
an effort to battle the beetle threat to forests in west-central British Columbia.
Environment Minister Joan Sawicki has ruled out logging in the park.
The logging of Crown land renewed criticism about the slow pace of treaty talks and
revived debate about whether aboriginals should abandon the treaty process, relying
instead on courts or engaging in confrontation.
"The government hasn't even contemplated how serious this is," said Stewart Phillip,
president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
The union of chiefs comprises about 60 bands not involved in the treaty process. About
130 bands involved in treaty talks belong to the First Nations Summit.
The logging issue, however, has united the two aboriginal groups for the first time
and could spell trouble for the government.
"There's no question about it, logging will resume (Thursday) in the Okanagan, but
it's also going to spread to other communities," said Phillip.
Unlike the rest of Canada, treaties were not signed with B.C. First Nations, except in
the southern part of Vancouver Island and in northeastern British Columbia.
Band leaders said they are asserting their aboriginal rights under the 1997 Supreme
Court of Canada ruling known as Delgamuukw.
The province, calling the logging illegal, responded with a stop-work order.
The First Nations Summit unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday supporting Westbank.
Grand Chief Ed John said the summit didn't go so far as encouraging other bands to
take similar action, "but if they do, our support is there."
John said earlier that while negotiations have been the preferred route to reach
treaties, aboriginal leaders are wondering if they should return to the courts, or
take more direct action like the Westbank band.
"There is an extremely high level of frustration at the lack of progress at the
table," said John.
Although the Westbank band and other native leaders cite the Delgamuukw decision to
justify the logging, other observers say the 1997 ruling is not that clear.
Delgamuukw strengthened the concept of aboriginal title and provided criteria to help
prove it.
Essentially, it says that governments and First Nations "either negotiate or litigate
what parts of B.C. are subject to aboriginal title," said Hamar Foster, a law
professor at the University of Victoria.
The Supreme Court of Canada decision said aboriginal title exists in British Columbia,
that it has not been extinguished, and where it exists it's a full property right.
But it only goes so far, said Foster.
"Where does it exist?" is the key question, Foster said.
"The only way to get a definitive answer from the government point of view is from a
court or in a treaty negotiation."
In Delgamuukw, the court encouraged negotiation over litigation, said Foster.
"But at the same time (the chief justice) acknowledges in that decision that
litigation will also be necessary to clarify difficult issues as the process goes
along."
John said the "onus has shifted to us to prove our existence. It's ridiculous that we
have to go to court to prove we existed on this land."
In Victoria, Aboriginal Affairs spokesman Peter Smith maintained the treaty process is
working.
More than 30 of 51 treaty tables are at the fourth of six stages, trying to reach
agreements-in-principle, he said.
The B.C. government's position is that it has constitutional authority on Crown land
regardless of whether First Nations claim it as traditional territory, he stressed.
"There is nothing in Delgamuukw that removes the Crown's jurisdiction to manage lands
and resources," said Smith.
© The Canadian Press, 1999
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Winnipeg Sun 9/16/99
Kocsis will lead native council
By STAFF The Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg has a new president today.
Alexander "Sean" Kocsis was elected president of the lobby group after last night
after two days of voting by about 500 Winnipeg aboriginals.
Kocsis beat Lionel Houston, Nelson James, Billy Moore, George Munroe and Gerry Neault.
Official ballot results must still be released by the electoral officer, said Joan
Harris, executive director of the ACW.
The president's position carries a $45,000 annual salary during the three-year term.
Past president Mary Richard decided not to run for the position again and is instead
campaigning in Point Douglas for the Conservative party.
Steve Courchene and Sherryl Daniels were given the nod to fill two volunteer board of
director seats that were open.
The ACW has an annual budget of $200,000 and is an advocacy group for urban
aboriginals.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
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