Barbara Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Nov 19, 2009)
A lawyer for the Ontario government says he's skeptical about a Caledonia man's "fantastic" story of accidentally setting off a shotgun and blowing a hole through his ceiling during the tense standoff between native protesters and provincial police.
Crown counsel David Feliciant opened his cross-examination of David Brown, 42, who is suing the province and the OPP for $7 million, by suggesting the plaintiff fabricated evidence.
Brown, whose Argyle Street South home abuts the occupied former Douglas Creek Estates and was inside the native barricades, testified this week he was so exhausted and stressed from lack of sleep following the failed OPP raid on the development property on April 20, 2006, he nodded off at his kitchen table while his shotgun was braced between his legs. Brown said his hand slipped and hit the trigger, causing the gun to go off and blast a hole through his ceiling.
Feliciant grilled Brown at length about the size of the hole, and who patched the drywall and fixed the roof, which subsequently developed a leak. The lawyer suggested Brown did not tell one of his closest friends, OPP Constable Jeffrey Bird, about a having a shotgun in the house.
He described Brown's colourful anecdote as a "fantastic -- not in a good way -- almost unbelievable story. I would like to get some evidence of where that hole is."
Brown answered, "Like I said, if you want me to take a picture of it, I'll do it."
"Well, I'm going to suggest to you, and you are aware, that this story got quite a lot of attention ... and was actually reported in the press," Feliciant said.
Brown told the lawyer he didn't worry about his then-15-year-old son, Dax Chatwell, getting hold of the gun and hurting himself because Dax was not living in the home at the time. He said the boy was staying at a friend's house because the school bus couldn't get through native barricades to pick him up.
His wife, Dana Chatwell, didn't want a shotgun in the house, said Brown, but understood the need to protect themselves and their property. However, his wife took the shotgun shells away from him after he blew a hole in the ceiling.
"All I know was, like I said, sir, I had no police protection, no law, I was scared and I didn't know what would happen next," Brown said.
Twice during his cross-examination yesterday, Brown said he felt nauseated and asked to be excused from the witness box before making a sudden dash from the courtroom. Superior Court Justice Thomas Bielby sent the witness home to recover and adjourned the proceedings until today.
In another courtroom yesterday, Hamilton lawyers John Findlay and Margaret McCarthy were before Superior Court Justice David Crane seeking certification of a class-action lawsuit against former OPP commissioner Gwen Boniface and detachment commander Inspector Brian Haggith on behalf of business and property owners in Caledonia who were damaged by the occupation of the Douglas Creek Estates and the barricades erected on Argyle Street and Highway 6.
The original plaintiffs are the owners of two local businesses, a Dairy Queen and the St. George Arms British Pub. They are seeking to certify four classes of claimants, including a business class, property owners' class, contractors' class (including subcontractors of Henco Industries, the former developers of Douglas Creek Estates who were paid $16 million for the property by the province) and a Highway 6 class, including businesses outside Caledonia that were affected by the road closure.
Crown counsel Orlando Da Silva is opposing the class action, saying, "The case is so complicated, so unwieldy and cumbersome, that it will not achieve any of the goals of a class proceeding."