TORONTO — In a society that prizes its reputation for multicultural tolerance and inclusion, the title of CTV's latest small-screen movie offering seems shocking for its bald-faced political incorrectness. And One Dead Indian (Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET) doesn't pull any punches when it comes to content, either.

The movie is based on the book of the same name by Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards, who wanted the title to illustrate the injustice and prejudice involved in the Ipperwash crisis, which culminated in the death of aboriginal protester Dudley George.

"I saw the title as a way of turning an ugly phrase back on people who use, or think it," Edwards said. "The phrase 'One Dead Indian' is an ugly but revealing mirror."

The TV movie traces the events that led up to the Sept. 6, 1995, shooting of George in Ontario's Ipperwash Provincial Park and the subsequent trial of the provincial police officer charged in his death.

Once home to the Stoney Point native community, the Ipperwash reserve was taken over by Ottawa in 1942 for a military training camp, with the promise that the land would be returned at the end of the Second World War.

More than 50 years later, with the base closed and nearby Ipperwash Park a lakeside playground for summer holiday-makers, Stoney Point natives entered the park on Sept. 4, 1995, to stage a peaceful protest to back their land claim.

What happened two days later - and why - is the subject of an ongoing provincial inquiry, which is set to hear testimony in mid-January from former premier Mike Harris, who has denied ordering in police to remove the protesters.

An Ontario Provincial Police riot squad, backed by a heavily armed tactical unit, marched on the protesters the night of Sept. 6. In the ensuing melee, 38-year-old George (played by Dakota House of North of 60 fame) was fatally shot by provincial police officer Kenneth Deane as police opened fire on unarmed protesters.

Band councillor Slippery George was almost beaten to death by officers when he tried to talk the police into backing off.

In the decade since that night, George's brother Sam (portrayed by Eric Schweig) and other family members have continued to pressure the province for justice - and answers to a number of troubling questions: Why did the Ontario Provincial Police decide to confront native protesters that night and who gave the order? Was it strictly a police decision or was pressure brought to bear from Queen's Park?

"It still amazes me how it all happened," said actor Pamela Matthews, a Cree from northern Ontario who had met Dudley George for the first time a couple of days before his death during a chance visit to Ipperwash, where she had vacationed as a child in the 1960s.

In a weird twist of casting fate, Matthews portrays George's sister, Carolyn, in the movie.

"When I was a kid . . . my dad was the resident doctor (for cadets) in training at CFB Ipperwash, so we spent several summers going there, and we were actually camping on the army base camp portion of the land that's in dispute," Matthews recalled. "I was just a kid. I had no idea there was even a land issue."

On Labour Day weekend in 1995, Matthews and a friend were near Ipperwash while driving back home to Toronto and decided to visit the park, where they'd heard native protesters had gathered.

Despite the heavy police presence - "there were cops all over the place and the odd helicopter was flying overhead and there was a police boat out on the water" - Matthews and her friend jumped over the barricade and were waved over by a group of aboriginals sitting at a picnic table.

"One of them was Dudley George, and so we sat and talked for a couple of hours and they told us what was going on," she said. "We just sat there and everything seemed pretty calm. They were just enjoying the weather and enjoying the beach.

"It was men, women and children. There was no threat to the rest of society whatsoever. It was so peaceful. So we were quite shocked to hear the OPP had marched in and killed Dudley George."

Another coincidence also tied her to the TV project: Matthews had worked as a legal aide with the George family's team of lawyers and was in the courtroom the day Deane was found guilty of criminal negligence causing death. (He was sentenced to two years less a day to be served in the community.)

Matthews hopes One Dead Indian will help illustrate to Canadians the broader emotional context surrounding the shooting death of Dudley George, the first native protester killed in Canada in 100 years.

"A lot of non-native people understand, but don't understand, why the native people want their land back," she said. "And a lot of people think it's because we're greedy. But it goes a lot deeper than that. It's our ancestral lands.

"Hopefully this film will have them think more and realize that we just want our land back and be peaceful the way things used to be."