Bill Jackson – The Regional
Thanksgiving Monday represented a day to be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy, but it also fell two days before a provincial election.
A political statement was being made at the Remember Us march that was promoted by
The main objective is to get the government out that’s proven it can’t do the job, he told The Regional News.
But no politicians turned out for the march at all.
One man sported a sign calling McGuinty a turkey that should be cooked. Others carried defaced elections signs belonging to Liberal candidate Lorraine Bergstrand, or simply carried those unscathed promoting PC incumbent, Barrett. Some signs opposed two tier justice, plain and simple.
A March organizer told a crowd of 200 plus that Bergstrand lied during the last municipal election by telling people she had to ties to the Liberals. He pointed out that Bergstrand accused March organizers of forming an “anti native rally,” something he called a hateful statement.
None of the protests or rallies organized by McHale have resulted in violence, organizers contend. It’s so frustrating to see the leader of the provincial government come to this community just down the road and ignore this situation,” said Joe Gualtieri, the brother of a man recently beaten almost to death by natives on
PC leader John Tory has been to town nine times since the Douglas Creek conflict stated Kinrade pointed out, McGuinty 0. The Premiere has told developers to sort their own problems out with native leaders themselves. “All developers out there should be calling him and saying we don’t want to negotiate, we have no authority to negotiate, we have no qualifications to negotiate, we haven’t got the money to negotiate.” Said Gualtieri.
Ipperwash resident Mary-Lou Lapratte calls the Ipperwash inquiry a low blow to common sense for the province’s taxpayers. The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation issued a statement before the march blaming the complacency of politicians at
And while talk of inequality was top of the agenda for all at the last Monday’s march, a need to create policies to work with the native community was also voiced.
“The natives are growing up hating us.. and they believe that the only way to resolve this is with militant action or militant strategy. “ said Gualtieri.
We should start a fund to start educating natives on non-native concerns and fund the message of their concerns as well, he said. We need educators and ad campaigns addressing a long term problem. “We need to win their hearts, their minds, and thehir souls”.
Gary McHale said that media has not told the true stories of Caledonia and blamed the CBC for covering up injustices back in the 1960’s when native children were being abused in residential schools. Then and now the same sort of injustices are being covered up, he says.
He said local residents were scared to talk to the media because the media wouldn’t report information correctly. Last year approximately 40 media outlets came to a rally in
McHale blamed the media for not making the abduction of two OPP officers front page news last year and said reporters weren’t covering the Liberals’ attempt to muzzle the media recently. McHale has gone to jail for putting up a Canadian flag while natives have gotten away, he says with attempted murder and burning bridges. The media would rather report on two people fighting with one another on the street.
Mark Vandermaas said he’s never thought that small factions of native extremists or Mohawk Warriors spoke for the entire native community. When he met with solicitor general about a complaint against OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, he told a consultant that the biggest mistake government and police were making was treating a small fraction of native extremists special and taking them as speaking for all “honorable native people.”
Much could be said of the media’s representation of issues during the last 19 months. According to Kinrade, Band Council Chief David General wouldn’t attend the march because it was connected to Gary McHale.
Native spokesman Clyde Powless spoke at the rally on behalf of the native contingent protestors at the