[IPSM] Press Release from Tyendinaga

[Jaggi Singh]

--A message from our friends and allies in Tyendinaga--

Ontario Provincial Police Recruitment Drive
Thursday, Dec 8th/05
  10:00AM
59 Hall, Tyendinaga, Mohawk Nation Territory

Despite objections from the community, the Ontario Provincial Police plan to 
hold a recruitment drive on the Tyendinaga Territory tomorrow.

Recent comments made by OPP officers including the idea of baiting Indians with 
beer,
  that have come to light as a result of the Ipperwash Inquiry into the OPP 
shooting death of native protester Dudley George, have sparked renewed 
opposition to OPP presence in First Nations communities.

The number and frequency of blatantly racist comments and acts that can be 
attributed to OPP members demonstrates deep-rooted racial problems that the 
Force has yet to address.

As for Tyendinaga, those vocal in their opposition to the OPP have been told to 
expect a riot squad in response to any attempts to impede their presence in the 
community.

That the OPP would come here looking for officers is particularly offensive 
given that our own Tyendinaga Police Force has been chronically under funded 
and has been requesting a larger complement of officers for years, said Shawn 
Brant of Tyendinaga.

For more information contact the
Mohawk Nation Elders Council at: 613.391.4055

More information:

Mar. 22, 2005
OPP withdraws from Race Relations Awards Ceremony after learning that reporters 
Peter Edwards and Harold Levy are to be honoured. Edwards and Levy were 
honoured for outstanding reporting on issues faced by First Nations people and 
particularly in the wake of the OPP shooting death of Dudley George and Public 
Inquiry on Ipperwash.

March 12, 2004
OPP Elite Unit disbanded after allegations officers had defaced a Mohawk Unity 
flag and a poster of an OKA protester from 1990 found in a home on the Chippewa 
of the Thames reserve. Eight members of the OPP
s Central Tactics and Rescue Unit, a paramilitary outfit based in Barrie, were 
charged with discreditable conduct and deceit.

Nov. 11, 2001
Elderly Nawash woman dies after OPP fail to initiate any meaningful search.
On the night of Nov 11/01, Lucy Pedoniquott wandered out of the Wiarton 
Hospital where she was a patient wearing only bedclothes and paper slippers. 
The Wiarton OPP searched only the grounds of the hospital before calling off 
their search. When family initiated a search of their own, they approached the 
OPP for assistance. They were refused even requests for flashlights.
At 4PM on November 12th, the OPP
s Emergency Response Team found Lucy, deceased, in the swamp directly across 
from the Wiarton Hospital.

July 5, 2001
60 OPP officers under investigation for circulation of racist emails, including 
autopsy photos of an Indian woman with the accompanying caption: Steak knives 
are good for more than just steak.


September 6, 1995
OPP shooting death of Stoney Point member, Dudley George. OPP also shot a 
16-year-old boy in the back that evening and beat a Kettle Point band 
councillor unconscious. Shortly after Dudley
s death family members found OPP commemorative mugs & t-shirts reading Team 
Ipperwash 95
  with an OPP crest with an arrow through it and others with a feather lying 
horizontal under the OPP crest appearing in some stores in the neighbouring 
town.

Come out and join the team!