Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Indian Burn

Never mind that the OPP might have bungled breaking up the Indians' protest at Ipperwash.

Never mind that Dudley George might have died because of his own stupidity instead of a policeman's panic or malice.

Never mind that Mike Harris might have exceeded his authority in directing the OPP's actions.

The real story is whether he called the protesters a bunch of fucking Indians:

Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris denied unequivocally on Tuesday that he used a profane slur against natives during an emergency meeting on the day of a deadly standoff 10 years ago at Ipperwash Provincial Park.

In November, former Ontario attorney general Charles Harnick told the Ipperwash inquiry that he heard Harris say, "I want the fucking Indians out of the park" during a meeting with senior government officials at the height of the standoff.

"I absolutely did not say that, or words to those effect, or use that adjective at any time during this meeting," Harris told the inquiry on Tuesday.

"The adjective is not foreign to me, but not the kind of language I would use at any kind of a meeting like the meeting we were at."

Several others who attended the 1995 meeting, such as former deputy solicitor general Ellen Todres and former solicitor general Bob Runciman also deny Harris made the statement.


Why all this fuss over a statement that was merely profane, not derogatory, and was a simple expression of frustration over a protest on provincial parkland that had been dragging on for far too long?

Surely the real story is whether he exceeded his authority by directly ordering the police to remove the squatters, instead of going through proper channels.

Leave it to the media to focus on the sensational instead of the substantial.

Source: CTV

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Would this be the same media that champions the Howard Stern broadcasting style, which epitomizes a "freedom of speech" that includes the "freedom to offend?"?

Just asking.