Ipperwash June 23/04 - Caledonia Wake Up Call

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disputes. We decided to sell our home that was built on East Parkway close to the park. We knew we would not have an easy time selling the west Beach property because the Supreme Court Decision had not removed the cloud of title to the beach in regards to the Natives use for recreational purposes which is to go to mediation. When we first completed building the house in 1995 it was estimated by the Real Estate to be worth $230,000.00 By the time of the sale in Sept /98 the value of our home and those of our neighbours who were also selling had fallen significantly. Our top dollar for are home was $163,000.00 This home was 4100 square feet on just under two acres. It was a sad day when we had to sell it, but we just could not support three homes in the area with no tenents. We moved back to the west beach home, but I would not stay in this house in the summer months. We leased every summer since then and we stay elsewhere. 81) In June/99 The residents of the west beach were approached by the lawyer for Kettle Point, Russell Raikes in a letter to consider sitting down to mediation to settle three issues. The Federal Government wanted to deal with all three issues at once. 1) the breech of fiduciary trust 2)the beach usage/ownership issue 3) the allocation of court costs. A Justice White was to be appointed as the Mediator in this Dispute Resolution Process. The Federal Gov t and the First Nation had agreed to share the costs. Several meetings were set up in /2000 in February and March and all subsequently cancelled by the natives. By the fall of /2000 the Federal Gov t did not want to be involved with mediation at all about the beach. Charlotte Bell the lawyer for Indian Affairs went so far as to say we had to sit down by ourselves with the natives and solve the beach issue. In Sept/99 we received a letter from Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault stating that he could not see any reason why we should not approach the municipality to close the west beach to vehicular traffic as the Town had done for the centre and east beaches every year between May and Thanksgiving. Due to all the traffic problems and lack of washrooms, garbage pick up, no hours of use of the beach and no speed limits, the residents just could not tolerate the disruptive environment. We had asked many times to have the beach open only to pedestrian traffic, but because of the land claim the town would not do this. In June 1999 Ralph Dailey and myself spoke to the town council and asked them to approve our request. It was accepted and referred to the Ipperwash Beaches Committee and the Public Works Committee. Everything was in place to be done in Sept./2000. At the last minute the Works Committee asked for a legal opinion from the Town s lawyer David Nash. Mr. Nash at first suggested that the ends of the roads going onto the beach could be declared as parkland since the Town owns this and signs put up that vehicles are not permitted. He then wrote another letter stating that NO the Town was not to close the beach to vehicular traffic. We as the owners were supposed to receive a copy of Mr. Nash letter but never did get one. Several councillors voluntarily told us that the idea of closing the beach to traffic in west Ipperwash was not well received by Kettle Point. In fact the Chief threatened to start an incident worse than OKA if this was attempted. This information was received by councillors Dave Pugh, and Jim Dezorzi. We also had the Federal Gov t not wanting to deal with the beach issue at all, but also telling us not to close the beach to traffic. We had 3500 cars on this one and half km. beach in the year 2000 with virtually no control over anything that happened on this property and yet we all have to have additional liability insurance if something happens to protect ourselves. Some residents were getting sick from the exhaust fumes from all these vehicles there from 6a.m. until the wee hours of the next morning. We feel like we have no rights over our own lifestyles and the safety of those using this beach. Of course the OPP were in a panic afraid of another uprising as well. In March of 2001 we received another letter from Robert Nault Minister of Indian Affairs in which he has again stated that he thought we should approach the council of the new Town to once again have the beach closed to traffic. He stated that he could not comment on why the Town did not do this last year. The Department of Justice has also decided to book July 23,24 and 25 th to sit down and mediate the beach usage/ownership issue with Justice Adams as the mediator. Apparently the government did a cost analysis survey as to whether the costs are in line with the anticipated results of this mediation. They have agreed to pay only for three days of
exploratory mediation. Most of us at the west beach do not hold any hope the natives will keep this appointment. 82) Crime in the area escalated completely out of control in the year /2000. By May I had personally contacted George Matthewson of the Sarnia Observer to do an article on the crime level at Ipperwash. It was printed May 16/2000. Marcel Beaubien MPP stated in the same article that he was arranging a meeting with the Solicitor General David Tsbouchi to discuss the crime and policing issues in Bosanquet. In anticipation of this meeting, I spoke personally to the commander of the Lambton Detachment of the OPP officer Wade LaCroix. I felt very intimidated by this man. He was literally yelling at me on the phone saying in one breath the OPP do go on the base and the park and then in another breath saying the base is not the responsibility of the OPP, the land ownership has not been civilly decided, and the base still has signs stating Military police are responsible and the land is Federal Jurisdiction. He also accused me of lying when I said officers have told us flat out they will not go on the base and the park. He then demanded their names and said they could be reprimanded because they are lying. I gave him all the names I could think of in my shook up state. I wrote a letter to David Tsbouchi relating my conversation with LaCroix and quoting the numbers of incidents since Jan/2000. I also quoted from the job description of the Solicitor on policing and asked him who is responsible to police the lands which comprise the base and the park. My answer arrived six months later in August. He lauded the good job done by the OPP and did not answer my question of responsibility for the park and the base. The OPP told him of only 58 incidents up to May/2000. I had documented 72. I wrote him back demanding a copy of the protocol used by the OPP in regards to the base and the Park. I also requested the advisement of Gwen Boniface to him in writing as well. This was sent in Sept/2000. I received a reply from a new Solicitor General David Turnbull in March 2001. At least this one acknowledges that Gwen Boniface is aware of the increase in incidents in the area as well as Wade LaCroix. Mr Turnbull suggests that the year round bike patrol and the winter cottage watch done by the OPP are great advantages to the fight against crime. You cannot have a year round bike program in snow. Furthermore we did not have a cottage watch this year as it was cancelled by the OPP. He also suggests I should become active in the policing committee. I was for four yrs. as chairman of the neighbourhood watch and as vice chair of the policing committee. I also organized the citizen patrols in the summer of 1996. None of my initiatives changed policing for the better in this community because the base and the park are safe havens for criminals where the police will not pursue. 83) The Kenneth Deane Trial As I had stated earlier, we were interviewed by Jim Kennedy from S.I.U. during the investigation of the death of Dudley George. I was told by Chris Martin and Dennis Adkins that the affadavits that we gave to Chris Martin were all handed over to the S.I.U. However, another investigator for the office of Norm Peel, Deane s first Lawyer, a Mr. Lebrasceur also interviewed us about this whole affair and stated that Deane s lawyer never received these affadavits from the S.I.U. Tapes and pictures from residents were also confiscated by the OPP but were never used at the trial either. All of a sudden all of these things were available for the appeal which was denied this year. People out here just do not any longer have any faith or belief in the justice system or the actions of the OPP supposedly on our behalf. 84) At one time the OPP would give us a monthly account of the crimes in the area at each police committee meeting. That stopped or was inaccurate on many occasions once the police started their Crime Alert Site on the Internet. We would check them weekly and find incidents missing or untrue excuses for them not catching the offenders. The Town used to get a total from the OPP as well and that also stopped with the Crime Alert Website. One of the positive initiatives of the OPP was to call the Neighbourhood Watch Chairman or the Chairman of the Policing Committee and report to them the incidents as they occurred in the community. This has basically stopped in 2001. It is almost impossible to keep an accurate assessment of areas hit the hardest if you don t have the input from the police. Our response time for 2000 was very traumatic to us. We noticed because a lot of residents have police band radios. The time between the call to OPP and the dispatcher alerting a cruiser was way too long in some instances. Also the time of response once the dispatcher got a cruiser was sometimes up to three hours. During this time several crimes were being still committed. There are times when residents did not see a cruiser in their area for days. This is not
Page 1 and 2: Affadavit to the Ipperwash Inquiry
Page 3 and 4: 11) On July 12/93 Three natives occ
Page 5 and 6: at a time would engage in target pr
Page 7 and 8: 31) At 6:15a.m. on Sept.7/95 we got
Page 9 and 10: 40) We were hustled into a room at
Page 11 and 12: 50) The natives at the park blocked
Page 13 and 14: that ONFIRE had set up on the beach
Page 15 and 16: worst aspect of this is what I perc
Page 17: 75) When the natives drove their AT
Page 21 and 22: ase, because a native committed ars

Ipperwash June 23/04 - Caledonia Wake Up Call

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