Ipperwash Inquiry - Where's Mike Harris when you need him?

People are disappointed with the recommendations coming out of the Ipperwash Inquiry, but they shouldn't come as a surprise.

The same old reactionary approach to dealing with native occupations should have been expected last week. The McGuinty Liberals never intended to get to the root of such standoffs, but rather wanted to see former Premier Mike Harris crash and burn.

It's too bad that a proactive approach to solving intimidation and threats by natives has been conveniently ignored, while an attempt to smear Harris was unsuccessful as well. However that isn't the author's fault.

Justice Sidney Linden was given a mandate to 1. lead an independent public inquiry into the events surrounding the death of Dudley George in 1995 and 2. "to make recommendation to help avoid violence in similar circumstances."

The mandate says nothing about upholding laws and justice, or deciphering right from wrong. His task was essentially: How to react when a bunch of natives come and claim land? The report could be called Damage control in the face of accepted native terrorism.

Nowhere in the report does it say what procedures the OPP should use when a land claim or occupation is illegal, such as the one in Caledonia.

Linden certainly didn't step outside of his mandate one bit. For him, similar circumstances meant native occupations – an already reactionary starting point for an inquiry that was supposed to help prevent violence, not injustice, and certainly not land native claims in their entirety.

But Linden did step outside of his mandate by saying that he agreed with Harris' characterization of the infamous line the former premier was blamed for uttering ' "I want the Indians out of the f-ing park."

On the stand, Harris said that the comment could be taken as racist, but denied saying it.

Problem is, it wasn't racist at all.

Sure, we all know by now that there was a lengthy report detailing the findings of the Ipperwash Inquiry that was released last week in which Linden determined that Harris' apparent comment was racist, but did not lead to OPP actions at Ipperwash. And to repeat, even when Harris was questioned on the stand, the former Premier admitted that such a comment would be racist, but denied making it.

But could it be that Mike Harris actually did say what everyone thought he said, but also thought that denying it entirely was better than admitting the words, which could have lead everyone to believe that he did have a hand in shooting of Dudley George? Could it be that Linden is rightfully saving the hide of a prominent politician while appeasing natives in the Politically correct province and country we live in, where everyone pussyfoots around language to avoid being called racist?

We think so. Any why shouldn't Harris be concerned in a country where, according to a recent survey, two-thirds of our population thinks we should negotiate with the Taliban?

Last week the Ipperwash report concluded that Harris probably did make the statement" Get the f-ing Indians out of the park…" Thing is, there was nothing about Harris' comment that was racist. It might sound crude, abrupt, rather aggressive. It contains a four letter sear word. But racist?

Maybe we should as the department of f-ing Indian Affairs?

If you take the work Indians out of Harris' controversial sentence, all you're left with is a curse, one that many people use endlessly and for everything. But the need to appease native protesters and use a reactionary approach to future land claim occupations and protests is evident throughout the entire Ipperwash document which doesn't address intimidation and crimes against non-natives, but simply addresses violence in "similar situation" – Ipperwash and more specifically, Dudley George.

Last week the Ipperwash report found that Harris could have made the comment, but that it really didn't have any affect on the policing of Ipperwash or cause Dudley George's death. Like many government reports and conclusions, it makes the general population happy or neutral. Harris is deemed somewhat of a 'potential' racist which makes natives rejoice, but Harris gets off scot free on the death of Dudley George, discarding the need for more bureaucracy, legal fees and controversy. And we'll continue to treat natives with kid gloves by rewarding criminal behavior with money, which doesn't come as a shock anymore, because nothing will change.

How pointless was this report, $25 million later?

Last week there was an editorial cartoon published in the Toronto Sun that showed a picture of a tanned man (an Indian for lack of a better term) with a feathered headdress with the caption: "F-ing politicians."

Fact is there are many labels we use everyday to describe the different people in our society, whether it be because of job occupation, race or even character. And most people swear.

In most native standoffs that occur, including the one here in Caledonia, there is a clear attempt made by natives to draw a line between themselves and any other person living in Canada. They are native, we are non-native. Even the Indians themselves call themselves Indians.

If Indian was a slang term, such as the 'n' word some use to describe people who are of African American descent, or the 'p' word that is used to describe people from Pakistan, then one could determine racism. But the work Indian is a word in our English vocabulary that is not offensive and shouldn't be taken as such.

Let's be fair. If the Indians are different than us, they should be called something different too – Indians, or natives. But the line the government draws should not extend its way into law enforcement, which continues to be at the root of the problem.

Where's Mike Harris when you need him?