Posted Hamilton Spectator
The Opposition should be "ashamed of themselves" for questioning why flying the Canadian flag near the site of a long-running aboriginal occupation in Caledonia is being treated as a criminal act by government agents, Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said yesterday.
Bartolucci said he will always support the actions of the Ontario Provincial Police, as should all elected politicians.
The minister was responding to Halton Conservative Ted Chudleigh, who demanded to know whether flying the Canadian flag in Caledonia was considered a criminal act.
"In 2006, a man was arrested for carrying the Canadian flag down the streets of Caledonia, but when someone walked down the same street ... with a Mohawk warrior flag, he got a police escort," Chudleigh said.
Then a lawyer defending the government in a recently settled lawsuit suggested flying the Maple Leaf near the occupation site was an act of provocation, he added.
The case involved Caledonia couple Dana Chatwell and Dave Brown, who sued the government and OPP for $7 million for abandoning them to the lawlessness surrounding the land claim site near their home. The suit was settled out of court in December.
"Why does the McGuinty government treat flying a Canadian flag as a provocative criminal act in Ontario?" Chudleigh said.
Bartolucci fired back: "This member and every other member in this House should support those types of actions that prevent violence."
"They should be supporting the OPP," he told the legislature. "That leader, that member and that side of the House should be ashamed of themselves."
Caledonia has seen violent clashes between native protesters and local residents over the four-year aboriginal occupation of the former Douglas Creek Estates housing development.
Nearby homeowners and businesses have complained the OPP aren't enforcing the law with Six Nations protesters. Earlier this month, a Superior Court judge gave the OK to a class-action lawsuit against police and the Ontario government that alleges they broke laws in their response to the occupation.
Chudleigh said Premier Dalton McGuinty is setting a dangerous precedent by letting government lawyers slam flag-waving in court.
"I can't carry the Canadian flag because I might be provoking someone into doing something illegal?" he said.
Attorney General and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Chris Bentley wouldn't comment on the lawyer's remarks, but said tensions have died down in Caledonia over the past three years.
He recently came under fire for refusing to rule out a possible handover of the occupation site to Six Nations. Yesterday, McGuinty wouldn't rule out a handover, either.
"Any solution really does require kind of a co-operative, collaborative approach that would see both sides involved in management and use of that land in the future," he said.