Barbara Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Nov 27, 2009)
Amateur videographer Dave Brown brought perceptions of the OPP's double standard of policing into sharp focus yesterday through the lens of his home videorecorder.
Brown, 42, whose family is suing the OPP and Ontario government for $ 7 million, taped two separate flag-raising protests in Caledonia this year. The tapes were played in Hamilton's Superior Court by Crown counsel David Feliciant who cross-examined Brown over four days.
The first video was recorded on May 24, when a group of about 40 people from Caledonia, a town of about 43,000 residents on Highway 6 and the Grand River, rallied on Argyle Street South with the intent to walk on the side of the road and erect a Canadian flag across from the disputed Douglas Creek Estates (DCE).
A group of native people were also gathered at the entrance to the DCE, which had been occupied since February 2006 by Six Nations members protesting government inaction on their long-standing land claims.
Caledonia resident Randy Fleming, who was attending a yard sale at the home of Brown and his wife, Dana Chatwell, suddenly decided to walk north on the side of the road toward the DCE carrying a Canadian flag. OPP officers immediately closed in and Fleming darted over the ditch toward the occupied property with his flag.
Brown's video camera caught Fleming being tackled by OPP offices, pinned face-down to the ground and surrounded by eight officers.
"Let's hear it for the OPP, (expletive) idiots," Brown is heard to say, as Fleming is seen being arrested and charged with obstructing police by resisting arrest.
Those charges have recently been dropped.
Feliciant stopped the video to ask Brown if he was concerned at the time that his videotaping the event would provoke a response from the native protesters.
"Counsellor, we are trying to raise a Canadian flag here. That's the issue. Our soldiers are dying for that flag," he said.
The second video was taken on July 15, 2009, when a small group of First Nations people, led by an OPP cruiser escort, paraded down the centre of Highway 6 from Hagersville to Caledonia. The marchers carried the Haudenosaunee Six Nations flag and hung the flag of the Mohawk Warriors off their vehicles as the procession made its way into the DCE. The tape shows traffic backed up for miles behind the parade.
Chatwell is heard to say: "Oh, (the OPP) are waving goodbye to them. Isn't that special."
The couple's lawyer, John Evans, asked Brown during his re-examination yesterday if the alleged acts of harassment, taunting, mischief and theft by the protesters have affected his health.
Brown sighed. "They (the native protesters) come and go, do whatever they want, whenever they feel like it, without any disciplinary action or arrest ... I swear to this day, I'm so exhausted I can't even see straight."
He said even when the OPP responds to one of his complaints, they never investigate a native suspect or make an arrest.
Chatwell took the witness box late yesterday and is expected to continue her testimony Monday. The court is recessed today in honour of the late Justice David Marshall, whose funeral is in Dunnville today.