National Affairs
Good old-fashioned, dirty politics
Claire Hoy
The late American composer Oscar Levant once cynically quipped that a politician is someone who will "double-cross that bridge when he comes to it." Which brings us, of course, to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his shameless reaction to the final report of the Ipperwash Inquiry by commissioner Sidney Linden, a retired judge.

Even Linden hardly covers himself in glory with his blatant advocacy of the view that the Native protesters who occupied a provincial park in 1995 carry no shared responsibility whatsoever for the tragic events leading to the death of protester Dudley George at the hands of an OPP sniper.

But more on Linden shortly.

Moments after Linden's overwritten and overwrought report was released, McGuinty telephoned the George family to apologize on behalf of Ontario and then stood in the Legislature to repeat his apology on behalf of the province. What McGuinty failed to say, of course, was that the real reason he set up the inquiry to begin with in November, 2003, was to embarrass former Tory premier Mike Harris and use the tragedy to enhance his own electoral fortunes.

Sure, McGuinty claimed he was "looking for the truth about what happened ...(and) what lessons we might draw from that tragedy so that we can ensure that it is never repeated."

Chances are - although one can't be certain - that those noble goals were indeed part of McGuinty's motivation.

But the main reason was good old-fashioned, dirty politics.

For years leading up to the inquiry, McGuinty and his Liberals - along with the NDP and most of the provincial media - had consistently blamed Harris directly for the tragedy, accusing him of personally ordering the OPP to use force to end the native occupation.

To be sure, Linden concluded that Harris was anxious to end the occupation - one would hope he'd want to since it was clearly illegal (unlike McGuinty who has allowed the illegal occupation of Caledonia to continue for going on to two years) - and said he did not believe the Harris denial (and the denials of others who were in the room at the time) over a controversial, and crude, comment he made about getting the Indians out of the park. At worst, says Linden, the Harris approach may have played a role in the OPP's decision.

But as to the oft-repeated accusation that Harris personally directed the OPP, Linden says there is no evidence to support that. None.

So if indeed McGuinty really wanted to get to the "truth" of what happened that night, and he is so ready to apologize to the George family, perhaps he should also apologize to Harris for all those false allegations he made against him over the years in order to buttress his own political fortunes.

As for Linden, while he is quite justified in criticizing the OPP - although he conveniently forgets that at the time there were a rash of serious and violent native blockades across the country - and criticizing the federal Liberals for having failed to return the Ipperwash military base which they took during the Second World War and had promised to give back (that's the base, by the way, as opposed to the park where the protesters staged their occupation) - it's simply mind boggling that a senior judge would absolve the protesters themselves of any blame in the subsequent events.

It's also amazing that he continually portrayed the native actions as a "peaceful protest," given that, among other established provocations, one of the protesters was actually convicted in a court for driving a school bus at the police and trying to run them over.

As the National Post editorialized recently, "there was once a standard in Canadian law whereby anyone who commenced an illegal act that resulted in injury or death was a least partly to blame ... but, at least for aboriginal Canadians, this concept no longer applies."

What's more, elected politicians are terrified to act. Witness Caledonia and the recent blockage by natives of the main rail line between Toronto and Montreal over an issue about a quarry pit which is miles away from the line.

Worse, Ottawa followed up the Linden report by offering the squatters in Caledonia $125 million to end a land claim which the federal government has strongly argued has no legal merit at all.

No doubt that given all these sorry events the natives undoubtedly are now convinced that the laws which apply to the rest of us don't apply equally (if at all) to them, we can count on more of the same when they hold their national day of protest later this month.

Count on it.

And count on chicken-hearted politicians to wring their collective hands, send money, and continue to bask in their misplaced white guilt.