Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been expropriated from them during the Second World War.
Eight other present witnesses denied this allegation,[1] however the Ipperwash Inquiry concluded that Premier Harris did in fact make the remarks.
[4]: 4–48 In 1942 during the Second World War, the Government of Canada wanted reserve land from the Stoney Point Band to use as a base for military training and offered to buy it for $15 per acre.
The band rejected the offer, however, under the War Measures Act, the federal government expropriated the lands from the Stoney Point Reserve and established Military Camp Ipperwash.
[5][6] On Labour Day Monday, September 4, 1995, a group of people started a protest in Ipperwash Provincial Park to draw attention to the decades-old land claims.
In anticipation of the move on the park by the Stoney Point First Nations, the OPP had prepared a contingency plan named Project Maple.
A rumour started that the protesters smashed up the vehicle of a female driver with baseball bats, a report that was later found by Justice Sidney Linden to be false and misleading.
[11] Out of public safety concerns, the OPP decided to deploy the crowd management unit (CMU) to force the protesters back into the park.
The OPP TRU teams opened fire on the vehicles, resulting in the wounding of two Native protesters and the death of Dudley George, an Ojibwa protestor.
Among the TRU members was Acting Sergeant Ken "Tex" Deane, a senior officer in charge of a four-man sharpshooter team with the job of escorting the force's crowd management unit.
George's sister Carolyn and brother Pierre attempted to take him to the local hospital for treatment but were arrested and delayed by the OPP for over an hour.
The judge rejected Deane's claim, stating that he had invented it "in an ill-fated attempt to disguise the fact that an unarmed man had been shot".
They discussed Premier Mike Harris's view that the government has "tried to pacify and pander to these people far too long" and to use "swift affirmative action" to remove them from the park.
This led Julian Falconer, acting as counsel for Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, to pointedly remark on cross-examination that Hutton had used phrases to the effect of "I don't recall" on 134 separate occasions in her in-chief testimony.
[16] Former Ontario Attorney General Charles Harnick also testified that Harris shouted, "I want the fucking Indians out of the park.
"[21] On December 20, 2007, the Ontario government announced its intention to return the 56-hectare Ipperwash Provincial Park to its original owners, the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.
According to Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant, the land will be fully returned over an unspecified period of time, until the Chippewas have full control.
On Thursday May 28, 2009, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Brad Duguid formally signed over control of Ipperwash Park[23] to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.