Tape reveals racist police comments at Ipperwash standoff

Last Updated: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | 8:08 PM ET

CBC News

Racist remarks made by officers the day before the shooting death of an Ontario native protester in a police standoff reveal an attitude that made it "real easy to shoot an Indian," the victim's family lawyer says.

The racist comments were caught by police surveillance tapes of the standoff, which took place in September 1995. About 30 native protesters had erected barriers blocking access to Ipperwash Provincial Park in a dispute over land.

The tapes record a conversation between two Ontario Provincial Police officers posing as a media crew during the standoff. A day after the taped exchange, one of the native protesters, Dudley George, was shot and killed.

Murray Klippenstein

Murray Klippenstein, who represents the George family, called the taped conversation toxic and poisonous, and said it added a whole new dimension to the case.

"This kind of attitude ... makes it pretty easy to shoot an Indian, and if the Indian has a legitimate grievance about burial grounds you can joke about it and demean them," said Klippenstein. "Shooting them is not that big a deal."

On the tapes, which were obtained through an access to information request by the CBC's The Fifth Estate, the following exchange takes place:

Dudley George

"Is there still a lot of press down there?" one officer says. "No, there's no one down there. Just a great big fat fuck Indian," replies another. "The camera's rolling, eh?" "Yeah." "We had this plan, you know. We thought if we could get five or six cases of Labatt's 50, we could bait them." "Yeah." "Then we'd have this big net at a pit." "Creative thinking." "Works in the (U.S.) South with watermelon."

The OPP said it doesn't condone the remarks and that the two officers have already been disciplined. "The words were shameful and offensive and they should never have been said," said OPP Supt. Bill Crate. "And I can tell you our position with regards to this is pretty clear. It's just not acceptable behaviour."

One of the officers underwent native sensitivity training. The other was working on a contract that was not renewed.

OPP Sgt. Kenneth Deane was convicted in 1997 of criminal negligence causing death in the George shooting. A judge also determined that George and all other protesters were unarmed during the incident, in spite of police allegations to the contrary.

"I think once they start to think like that then they start to downgrade a person to a certain extent," said Sam George, Dudley George's brother, about the tape. "Then they start to feel that that person's not worth nothing. Then maybe it's all right to shoot them."

Klippenstein said the taped conversation will play a large part in the public inquiry into the death of George, which is likely to begin in September.

The inquiry will probe the role of Mike Harris's provincial government, and allegations that police were under political pressure by the premier to take action.