Dudley George: Why Land Rights Matter
Posted on: 01/08/07

"The first thing I'd really love to do is thank you all for being there with us. It's been a long hard journey and without your support it would have been a lot longer."
Maynard “Sam” George speaking to Amnesty International Members at the 2007 Annual General Meeting in Kelowna, BC.

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In 1942, the Canadian federal government “borrowed” the lands of the Stoney Point reserve in order to establish a military camp. They promised to return the land after the end of World War II. That promise was never kept. In 1993, a group of Stoney Point people re-occupied the land, claiming it as their own. Two years later, in 1995, protestors occupied Ipperwash Provincial Park, which they considered to be part of a larger traditional territory where their treaty and Aboriginal rights had not been honoured.

Dudley George was a part of that protest. On September 6, 1995, although there was no evidence that the protest posed any threat to public safety, more than 30 Ontario Provincial Police officers charged the protestors at Ipperwash Park. The riot squad was backed by snipers armed with submachine guns. The protestors, including Dudley George, were unarmed. Dudley George was shot by a police officer, and died later that night.

The officer who shot and killed Dudley George was later convicted of criminal negligence causing death for knowingly shooting an unarmed man. However, the Inquiry into the death of Dudley George and the broader land rights issue came much later. Finally, on May 31, 2007, the “Ipperwash Inquiry” produced its final report. Some of the critical concerns of the report included the failure of Federal and Provincial governments to resolve the land dispute at the heart of the 1995 protest, the use of a law enforcement response rather than a political solution and the existence of cultural insensitivity and racism within the police and government which contributed to the failure of the government to ensure a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

Please write a letter calling for the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry Report.

Write to:

Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1A1       

Tips for Letter-Writing: A short, one-line letter can be extremely effective. Include more details in your letter if you prefer, or simply write the one-line message above.

Amnesty International’s Concerns

The failure of Canadian officials to recognize and uphold the land rights of Indigenous peoples – even when these rights are clearly established in law – has lead to widespread threat to the human rights of Indigenous individuals, families, communities and nations. The rights at stake include rights to health, livelihood, cultural identity and to meaningful control over their own lives and futures.

International human rights bodies have repeatedly recognized that secure access to lands, territories and natural resources is essential to protecting the human rights of Indigenous peoples. In cases such the Lubicon Cree in Alberta, governments in Canada have been repeatedly criticized by the United Nations for failing to protect these rights.

Amnesty’s Involvement

Following the killing of Dudley George, Amnesty International called for the creation of an Inquiry into the case and the land dispute of the people of Stoney Point. Amnesty International Canada also held Intervenor status at the Ipperwash Inquiry and worked with Maynard “Sam” George, Dudley George’s brother and Murray Klippenstein, the Counsel for the George Family, to ensure the completion of the report and now to pressure for its implementation. Sam George spoke at the Amnesty International Annual General Meeting in Kelowna, BC in June 2007.