Major Highlights from the Ipperwash Inquiry

There are 101 witnesses registered to testify at the Ipperwash inquiry. Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris is listed at the 100th witness.

According to the inquiry's website, "Its mandate is to inquire and report on events surrounding the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a protest by First Nations representatives at Ipperwash Provincial Park and later died. The Inquiry is also to make recommendations that would avoid violence in similar circumstances."

A timeline of testimony

February 14 – 16, 2006

Former Ontario premier Mike Harris appears at the inquiry for his highly-anticipated testimony.  Harris vigorously denies allegations that he said 'I want the fucking Indians out of the park.'

"I absolutely did not say that, or words to those effect, or use that adjective at any time during this meeting," Harris says.

He also dismisses comments made by a police inspector who described Harris' government as indifferent to the welfare of native protesters during the Ipperwash Crisis.

Ontario provincial police Insp. Ron Fox was in attendance when then-Ontario premier Harris held a meeting with senior government officials just hours before George was shot and killed.

Shortly after the top-level meeting, Fox had a tape-recorded conversation with Insp. John Carson, the incident commander at Ipperwash, and said authorities were dealing with "a real redneck government" and that "There's no question.  They don't give a shit about Indians."

Carson replied: "They just want us to kick ass."

"I would say it's 100 per cent the wrong view," Harris says of the recorded conversation.

In his third day of testimony, he again denies suggestions that his Conservative government favoured a hard-line approach to ending the standoff.

"Certainly it wasn't the intention of the government to say, 'OK, whatever it is, let's take a hard line,'" Harris tells the inquiry.

At issue is when the news media knew the government was pursuing a court injunction to have the native occupiers removed from Ipperwash Provincial Park and how news reports may have influenced police decisions.

The former Ontario premier dismisses charges that his government pressured police to end the conflict.

"I rejected that totally," Harris says. "I don't consider seeking an injunction taking a hard line."

It was "standard practice'' with both the Conservatives and their provincial predecessors to seek court orders in similar situations -- a move that wouldn't put excessive pressure on police, Harris says.

February 9, 2006

Retired OPP official Tony Parkin testifies that he doesn't remember what OPP commanders discussed in a secret meeting and phone calls. Three officers have testified that they don't recall the two-hour long discussions on Sept. 6, 1995, the day Anthony Dudley George was shot and killed. An OPP stenographer was excused from testifying and none of the officers kept any notes.

Parkin did agree that there were problems with the OPP's information gathering leading up to the OPP riot squad raid on the protesters.

January 25, 2006

Marcel Beaubien, a former Conservative MPP, wraps up four days of testimony saying that he did not want the OPP to use force to remove the native protesters. He says that he did not agree with a letter that he forwarded to Mike Harris' office from one of his constituents that demanded the protesters be removed with force, if necessary. Beaubien had written on the forwarded letter that he "totally" agreed with the constituent.

January 11, 2006

Former Minister of Natural Resources Christopher Hodgson denies saying "Get the fucking Indians out of the park." Ellen Todres, former deputy solicitor general, made the claim during her testimony saying that it was Hodgson, not Mike Harris, who used the obscenity. Hodgson also denies that Harris said the now infamous quote.

January 9, 2006

Former Ontario premier Mike Harris did not use an obscenity to demand aboriginal protesters be removed from a provincial park during a standoff that turned deadly, the politician responsible for law enforcement at the time, Bob Runciman testified.

"I don't recall that comment," former solicitor general Runciman replied when asked if Harris said, "I want the fucking Indians out of the park" during the Sept. 6, 1995, meeting.

January 4, 2006

One Dead Indian airs on CTV.

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.

November 30, 2005

Ellen Todres, former deputy solicitor general, testifies that Mike Harris did not say "I want the fucking Indians out of the park." She says it was then natural resources minister Chris Hodgson who spoke those words. "I get the sense that they wanted things done," Todres testifies. "He (Hodgson) said, 'Get the fucking Indians out of the park'."

November 28, 2005

Just hours before native protester Dudley George was shot dead by police at Ipperwash Provincial Park, former Ontario premier Mike Harris was heard yelling that he wanted "the fucking Indians out of the park," former attorney general Charles Harnick told the inquiry.

Harnick said that he walked into a meeting attended by Ontario Provincial Police officer Ron Fox when he heard Harris make the comment in anger.

"As I walked into the dining room, the premier in a loud voice said, 'I want the fucking Indians out of the park,'" Harnick told the inquiry.

July 11, 2005

Dudley George's brother, Pierre, tries to shut down the year-old public inquiry into the shooting on the grounds it has no legitimacy.

Pierre, who drove his brother Dudley George from the park to hospital in a futile attempt to save his life, also argues in court documents that the inquiry aids and abets "treason and fraud . . . and genocide."

The legal challenge takes direct aim at Sidney Linden, the judge heading the inquiry, whom George accuses of acting like "the Great White Father."

Linden, he argues in the court filing, has "criminal liability for willful blindness" to the Constitution.

May 18, 2005

Just hours before Dudley George was shot dead by police a senior officer described Ontario's then-Conservative government as gun-loving rednecks, the Ipperwash inquiry is told.

The comments are heard in a tape played at the judicial inquiry.

In the phone call -- between Ontario police Insp. Ron Fox and the incident commander, Insp. John Carson -- Fox is heard saying: "We're dealing with a real redneck government."

"There's no question. They don't give a shit about Indians."

Carson, who is now deputy commissioner of the Ontario provincial police, replies: "They just want us to kick ass."

The inquiry was told Fox, serving as police liaison with the Ministry of the Solicitor General during the protest, had just come from a top-level meeting also attended by then-premier Mike Harris.

July 13, 2004

The Ipperwash Inquiry begins hearing testimony.

Sidney Linden, the former Ontario Court Chief Justice who is chairing the inquiry, says he is mindful that revisiting the events of that day could rekindle feelings and tensions.

"The establishment of the inquiry may also raise unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved through the inquiry process," he says to a community hall in Forest, Ont., filled with George's family members and supporters.

Justice Linden has the power to issue search warrants and determine who can testify, but he cannot make accusations of civil or criminal liability.

April 20, 2004

The judicial inquiry into the death of Anthony Dudley George begins more than eight years after he is shot and killed by a police officer at a protest over land claims at Ipperwash Provincial Park.

Nov 12, 2003

Newly elected Premier Dalton McGuinty fulfills a campaign promise and calls an inquiry into the death of Dudley George.

With files from Canadian Press