Ipperwash crisis

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ipperwash Crisis was a clash between a group of Chippewa Indians and the government of the Canadian province of Ontario in September 1995. During the crisis, which sparked off a dispute over land rights, an Indian protester was shot by police. After the Oka crisis, the Ipperwash crisis was the second major confrontation between members of the First Nations and the Canadian state in the 1990s and had a political aftermath of 26 years.

prehistory

The prehistory of the crisis goes back to the time of the Second World War. In 1942, the government of Canada established a military training camp adjacent to Ipperwash Provincial Park in Ontario, Camp Ipperwash. The land belonged to a people of Chippewa Indians, the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation , who had been expropriated under wartime legislation. The land was not returned after the war, despite repeated demands from the First Nation.

In 1995, as tensions intensified in the 1970s–1980s, a group of Indians occupied the camp from which the military had withdrawn and began building barricades in the provincial park. Protester Dudley George was shot dead by police officer Kenneth Deane during an eviction by Ontario police. Deane later claimed he had reason to believe George was armed, while protesters denied that there were guns in the park at the time.

The conservative Canadian government has refused to request an investigation into the incident. It was not until 2003, when the Liberal Party took over government, that a public inquiry committee was set up. In 1998 the dispute over the land on which the camp was located was resolved. This land was returned to the Chippewa Indians and compensation was paid. An investigation into the police operation was carried out between 2005 and 2006, which accused Deane of negligence and also gave the then Prime Minister of Ontario, Mike Harris , and the Canadian government joint responsibility for the events that led to the death of Dudley George.

In December 2007 the Ontario government announced that it would also return the area of ​​the Ipperwash Provincial Park to the Chippewa Indians.

The actual return in 2016

The 29th Canadian Cabinet under Justin Trudeau , 74 years after the expropriation shortly after taking office, arranged for the country to be finally returned to the First Nation. Substantial compensation is paid to the 16 families affected. A total of CAD 95 million is agreed for this; 20 million are intended directly for the families, the rest is used for the economic development of the area through non-profit foundations. The Federal Government will promptly clear the site of all military remains, especially unexploded ammunition, at its own expense, and will meet the other environmental requirements; all the landowners must be shown respect. The contract was signed publicly on April 14, 2016 by Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan , Minister for Autochthonous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Benett, and Chief of the Tribe, Tom Bressette, in front of hundreds of victims on the ground. The agreement was negotiated in September 2015.

Perry Bellegarde, Chief of the First Nations National Assembly, commented: It took us 74 years, but now the land is back to us. Bresette said: Back then, with the protests, we began a long journey that has now reached its destination. Sajjan said the contract ended a long-lasting injustice. I know these years have been painful for you. Nobody understands that your people served our country in the war, but when they came back they found their land dispossessed. Benett also said that the whole process is inconceivable and she hopes that there will finally be an end. In addition to the compensation, it is important to her that there will be a cure for the autochthons, that they will feel safe in the future. She also hopes that the relationship between white Canadians and the First Nations will improve significantly. In the eyes of the Canadian government, the agreement is a historic step, a new departure. She is fully aware of the pain of the victims.

Bressette underscored this by saying that we now have a government that is really trying, and that is trying to work with us. He regrets that one of their own had to die before the case gained national attention. Two people from the families of the victims who had been children at the time of the expropriation also spoke. One elder said that their struggle was always about the land, not the money.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Ontario turns over Ipperwash park to First Nation". CBC News . CBC , on Radio Canada
  2. ↑ according to Terry Bridge ( memento of the original from December 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , The Observer Canada: Feds' 1942 land expropriation dispute resolved with land's return and $ 95-million payment to Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation , April 14, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theobserver.ca
  3. ↑ King meets a white official on a flight who was dealing with the return, which he refuses, and questions him; he feels its sayings as evasive. Nothing had happened in the matter up to May 2012, although there was a corresponding law since 2010. The development after 2012 was not yet known to King.