The Hamilton Spectator
Toronto (Nov 8, 2007)
The cost of policing the native land occupation in Caledonia has reached $32 million.
All by himself, the town's infamous "interloper," Gary McHale, has racked up a bill of more than half a million.
That's $500,000-plus spent to police his rallies. To shut down his flag-raisings. To watch over his stump speeches. To keep him and some supporters in jail overnight. To deal with a guy who travels from his condo in Richmond Hill every week to "stir things up" in a town that doesn't need to be stirred any more.
That's the way OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino sees it anyway.
It takes Fantino just three and a half minutes into an interview at his downtown Toronto office to offer up, unsolicited, the cost of policing McHale. This is at his fingertips. It takes someone else at the OPP to hunt down the $32-million figure.
This is Fantino on the attack.
Anybody who has been following the native protests in Caledonia since February 2006 knows the dispute between self-appointed watchdog McHale, who runs a controversial website critical of the OPP's conduct in the town, and no-nonsense Fantino is nearly as heated as the land-claim issue itself. The critic and the cop have been trading barbs and legal threats publicly ever since Fantino stepped in as commissioner one year ago.
Fantino says the half-million or so the province has spent to deal with McHale thus far doesn't even cover the cost of backfilling positions in other communities where OPP officers have been drawn from to cover his shenanigans in Caledonia.
"So the costs, in reality, are probably much, much higher," he says.
"When (McHale) comes to town, when he agitates and creates problems down there, we obviously create a greater police presence," Fantino says.
McHale, when told of Fantino's comments, had this to say:
"Half a million? I'm surprised it's not higher." The bookkeeper-turned-activist wonders if the OPP have also taken the time to figure out the costs racked up in Caledonia by highly visible native protester Michael Laughing.
He says all it would take to shut down his rallies would be for Fantino to sit down and talk with him. "He could save taxpayers money immediately if he agreed to meet with me," he says.
McHale has four lawsuits filed against Fantino, OPP union leader Karl Walsh and the provincial police. Two are for defamation of character, one is for false arrest and false imprisonment and another is for violating his charter rights. They total $3.5 million.
In turn, 22 OPP officers have launched a $7.2-million lawsuit against McHale for defaming them on his website.
"He can sue all he wants," Fantino says. "Every Canadian can do whatever he wants, I suppose, but that's all mischief making. That's all diverting attention."
Yes, it is. So let's get past all the dollars and cents of this. The cost of having McHale in Caledonia goes beyond money.
Each time McHale stages a production in Haldimand County, everyone leaves the negotiating table to deal with his antics. How is this helpful?
By the way, McHale says he is working on plans for something new in Caledonia, but won't tip his hand.
You can bet Fantino won't be happy about that.
"Things have stabilized (in Caledonia) considerably," the commissioner says, "as long as we don't have these interlopers coming in to create problems."