Adrian Humphreys, National Post
November 17, 2009
HAMILTON -- David Brown, the Caledonia resident whose house was trapped on the native side of the blockades during the fiery aboriginal occupation in Caledonia, found himself crawling through the swampy tree line at the edge of the contentious site to investigate noises that had frightened his elderly neighbours, court heard on Tuesday.
"I was looking through the grass, my heart was pounding," Mr. Brown testified.
Not far from him he saw men unloading long, rectangular wooden crates -- about four feet long and a foot wide and a foot deep with rope handles -- from a white Jeep and placing them inside two tents set up in the trees, he testified.
The boxes had "funky wording," as he said it, painted on the outside, like Cyrillic letters used in Russia and some other Eastern European countries. The crates were marked in a similar way as the wood he saw in the lumber yard where he worked whenever they received a shipment of "Baltic Birch" from Russia.
He reported what he saw to senior Ontario Provincial Police officers, he testified: "They said it is possible it could be AK-47s."
The possibility of high-powered assault rifles being in the hands of the native protestors, many of whom already wore camouflage gear and face masks, added another sinister note to testimony on the lawless environment from the time of the 70-acre site's occupation in 2006 and continuing today.
The unusual incident comes as Mr. Brown, 42, testifies in the $7-million lawsuit launched by himself, his wife, Dana Chatwell, 45, and their son, Dax Chatwell, 18, against the OPP and the province, alleging a failure to protect them or enforce the law against the protestors around their home.
During his second day of questioning by his lawyer, John Evans, Mr. Brown documented his understanding of events that often took place behind the scenes while the violent occupation made national headlines.
And while he emotionally spoke of the dramatic siege his family faced and the lack of police intervention -- including their home being broken into and ransacked, their belongings smashed amidst a splash of vulgar graffiti on their walls; hundreds of nails being dumped along his driveway; and a native protestor known to have a history of violence pointing a handgun at him -- he also spoke of actions he took while under the pressure that he is now embarrassed of.
One particularly grim day, he learned his wife had collapsed and was taken to hospital by ambulance, where he rushed to see her.
"I see my wife lying in a hospital bed with wires all over her chest, oxygen mask on her face and I didn't know how she was doing," he said. "I thought I was losing my wife."
When he got home, he "was a basket case."
"I was eating pork chops and baked potato," he said, and made an angry phone call to Inspector David McLean, the head of the local OPP detachment, threatening Dennis Brown, the province's senior lawyer on civil matters, whom he thought was the one making decisions on handling the occupation.
"I told him I was going to stick a steak knife in his heart," Mr. Brown said. "I lashed out. I was scared to death. I'd had enough at this point."
Insp. McLean came to Mr. Brown's home and the two men had an argument over the incident and then Insp. McLean left. Betraying the stress of the situation for everyone, on his way home, the inspector called for help himself; he was having a heart attack at the side of the road.
"I felt terrible," said Mr. Brown, who went back to the hospital to see him.
"It was a lot to take in in one night: two people in hospital with probes and oxygen masks."
Mr. Brown was charged with making the threat, however, and went to court where it was withdrawn after he agreed to enter into a peace bond. He said it was unfair that he reported hundreds of threats against him and his family by natives and police did nothing but he lashed out and is criminally charged.
On another occasion, in September 2008, he was confronted by two young natives who challenged him to a fight, he said. He grew irate and agreed to meet them at the entrance to the occupied site where he was threatened to have a nearby flag pole inserted in his rectum, he said.
He took the flag and left, still seething with anger.
Police visited him at his home and tried to calm him down and took him to the hospital where a doctor ordered him into a 72-hour psychiatric assessment.
"I'm in tears, I'm freaked out," he said. "They put me in handcuffs and take me to St. Joseph's Hospital [in Hamilton]... lock me in a steel room without asking me any questions," he said.
"I'm just trying to get out of this ridiculous nightmare," he said.
Mr. Brown will be cross-examined by the government's lawyer on Wednesday as the case continues before Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Bielby.