HAMILTON -- Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino acknowledges that a Caledonia couple are no longer suspected by police of ransacking their own home and spray-painting their walls with vile epithets and racial slurs.

David Brown, 42, and Dana Chatwell, 45, are suing the province and provincial police for $7 million in the aftermath of a tense standoff near their home between aboriginal protesters and police in 2006.

Court has heard the couple returned home early one morning in December of that year to find their furniture overturned and electronics and computer equipment smashed. Even their teenaged son's cherished guitar and amplifier were trashed.

During testimony earlier this week, Brown, whose home borders the former Douglas Creek Estates that were occupied by native protesters earlier in 2006, described being stunned by the destruction and hatred levelled at him and his wife.

He said the walls were covered with obscene graffiti, the mildest of which stated "go home" and other slurs calling the homeowners "pigs," "white trash" and "racists."

"I was scared to death. I walked in and everything we owned was just demolished," said Brown.

The couple's lawsuit against the Ontario government and provincial police claims the province and its agents have a hands-off policy when it comes to native protesters and have ignored even serious unlawful conduct because of the political sensitivities surrounding aboriginal land claims.