Posted By Tobi Cohen
Sept. 25, 2007
Brantford Expositor
Forced into unemployment and now on the brink of bankruptcy, a family stuck in the middle of a volatile aboriginal occupation in Caledonia wants nothing more than to leave their neighbourhood to start over.
But after unsuccessful attempts to sell their home, which included failed negotiations with the province, which eventually bought the contested land adjacent to the property, the family is turning to the courts.
Dave Brown, Dana Chatwell and their teenage son Dax, who live within the aboriginal blockade, have filed a $12-million lawsuit that alleges Ontario Provincial Police failed to protect their most basic civil rights.
In an interview Monday, Brown said his beef isn't with the Six Nations protesters who first occupied the subdivision in February 2006, but with the police, whom Brown and his family allege have failed to uphold the law, making them feel like second-class citizens.
"This is not a racist issue with us here. This is bigger than me. It's older than me and I don't know anything about this," Brown said.
"I just want my life back and I'm tired of being surrounded with an issue in a conflict that has nothing to do with me."
The suit, filed last week, names OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, former commissioner Gwen Boniface and Insp. Brian Haggith, alleging negligence, false imprisonment, assault, trespass and breach of their charter rights.
In a statement of claim, the plaintiffs allege that police failed to respond to 911 calls pertaining to threats and harassment from the protesters and that they refused to enforce injunctions and contempt orders to end the occupation.
The family's days and nights are filled with the sound of gunshots, loud noises, chanting and erratic driving through their property, the lawsuit says.
The statement also alleges police secretly installed a video camera inside their kitchen while they were away on holidays after their home was broken into.
The cameras were supposed to be located outside near motion-detecting lights in order to pick up the faces of trespassers, said Brown, not directed at his kitchen table taping him in his "underwear eating breakfast."
"It's embarrassing, and I was just furious."
Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the province's attorney general, said a statement of defence has not yet been submitted.
The family's claims have not yet been proven in court.
Officials from Premier Dalton McGuinty's office and police refused to comment because the suit is currently before the courts.