December 31, 2009 Toronto Star
Daniel Nolan
CALEDONIA, ONT.–An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a Caledonia family's lawsuit over claims the Ontario Provincial Police abandoned them to chaos and lawlessness during the 2006 native occupation of a housing project.
The settlement with the Ontario government and OPP was finalized Tuesday. Provincial officials and a lawyer for David Brown, 42, his wife Dana Chatwell, 46, and their teenage son Dax said the terms of the deal include the financial settlement being confidential.
The family had sued the province and provincial police for $7 million in general, punitive and aggravated damages. Natives occupied the housing project Feb. 28, 2006, and still occupy the site. The province bought it from the developers.
The family lives beside the occupied Douglas Creek Estates, and said they lived a terrified existence trapped between barricades for more than a month, harassed by day with threats to kill them and burn down their house, and at night by spotlights shining on their house. The couple said the OPP adopted a hands-off approach and stopped enforcing the law when it came to native protesters.
Both sides said the settlement was reached without any admission of liability by the government or OPP.