[1]: 425 The inquiry was established by then-Premier Dalton McGuinty shortly after he took office after winning the Ontario general election on October 23, 2003.
On November 12, 2003 the Liberals called for an inquiry with a twofold purpose, to investigate events surrounding the death of 38-year-old Dudley George, who was shot and killed by an OPP officer at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995, and to make recommendations to prevent the escalation of violence like that which took place during the Ipperwash Crisis.
[6] Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada said that "[e}Eight years is simply too long to wait for answer" and that governments at the federal and provincial level had "ignored their responsibilities" and defied a 1999 request from the United Nations.
[1] On November 12, 2003, the Liberal government that had just won the Ontario general election on October 23, 2003, under Premier McGuinty, called for an inquiry.
[11]: 3 It was led by a neutral third party, Sidney B. Linden, "pursuant to his powers as commissioner established under the Ontario Public Inquiries Act."
The inquiry had a twofold mandate, set out by the order in council, "to look into and report on events surrounding the death of Dudley George and to make recommendations focused on the avoidance of violence in similar circumstances.
[18]: 42–46 [19] Stony Point of According to a September 20, 2015 CBC News report twenty years after the Ipperwash Crisis, the land dispute dated back to 1942, when the federal government appropriated Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation's land to build Camp Ipperwash, a military base, under the War Measures Act and relocated 16 First Nation families and their homes.
Linden also called on the federal government to issue a public apology and return Camp Ipperwash – along with compensation – to the Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation.
[22] According to a June 1, 2007 article in The Toronto Star, the Law Society of Upper Canada described it as "a landmark report on Aboriginal, police and government relations.
[25] The University of Western Ontario's political science professor, Andrew Sancton wrote in his 2012 article, that the case for Caledonia residents would have been weaker if the Crown had implemented Linden's "democratic policing" model.
[26]: 365 In her 2010 book entitled Helpless: Caledonia's Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us, reporter Christie Blatchford said that Linden's democratic policing model received "virtually no public attention".