Wednesday, November 12, 2003

IPPERWASH INQUIRY AT LAST

As one of his first acts in ofice, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant has done what the Conservatives refused to do for years and called a public inquiry into the fatal police shooting of First Nations protester Dudley George at Ipperwash provincial park in 1995.

Justice Sidney Linden, a former Ontario Court chief justice and head of the province's legal aid system, will lead the inquiry.

This is long overdue. For eight years the George family lead calls for a public inquiry into the shooting incident. It should seem obvious that when so many questions surround an incident in which agents of the state killed a citizen under such politically charged circumstances these questions need to be answered in public for the public good. The Conservatives opposed this for their entire term in government, perhaps hoping the issue would go away. That the George family along with various citizens groups, the opposition parties, and thousands of individuals refused to let it do so shows the importance of this issue and that our public sphere still has the strength to effect political change.

Posted by Matthew @ 2:40 p.m.