Playing the Blame Game: The Ipperwash Inquiry

On 31 May 2007, the final report detailing the findings of the inquiry of the standoff at Ipperwash Park between Stoney Point Ojibwa and Ontario Provincial Police, during which one Dudley George was struck and killed by a police bullet. Andrew Coyne of the National Post believes this report "effectively legitimizes illegal protests".

Mr. Coyne feels our indigenous peoples, after having their land stolen and their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters wiped out by the White Man, ought to play by His rules in their quest for justice. Someone ought to tell Mr. Coyne what Terry Nelson of the Roseau River First Nation told the press:

"There are only two ways of dealing with the white man: one, either you pick up a gun, or you stand between the white man and his money."

How many of you believe these people are going to sit around and wait for the White Man's bureaucracy to work? Does bureaucracy ever work for those it is intended to serve? At the end of his piece, Mr. Coyne himself sites the following:

"90 The number of years one expert estimated it would take to clear the backlog at the current rate. 130 The number of years Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine...estimated it would take to clear the backlog at this pace."

Faced with the choice, would you sit and wait 90-130 years for justice, or force the public to listen?