[IPSM] Secret Ipperwash tapes will be heard (fwd)

[Mike D]

May 9, 2005. 01:00 AM

Secret Ipperwash tapes will be heard

PETER EDWARDS AND HAROLD LEVY
STAFF REPORTERS

FOREST, Ont.—Sometime this week, sources say, the public will
finally hear "explosive, long-suppressed" tape-recordings that
lawyers for the family of slain native activist Anthony (Dudley)
George say explain why the Ontario Provincial Police shot and
killed the unarmed aboriginal protester late at night on Sept.
6, 1995.

The sources say the previously secret tapes, which record what
the George family lawyers call "high-level conversations," will
be introduced at the public inquiry into George's death during
the testimony of OPP Supt. John Carson, who is scheduled to take
the witness stand tomorrow.

Carson is the first OPP officer to take the stand at the
inquiry, which began hearing witnesses last July.

Sources say he can expect to be asked about a letter his lawyer
filed to a civil suit 20 months ago, in which he describes a
telephone conversation with OPP Insp. Ron Fox at about 2:10 p.m.
on Sept. 6, 1995, nine hours before the fatal shooting.

In that letter, Carson states that this conversation lasted nine
or 10 minutes, and that "this seems to me that Inspector Fox was
expressing his opinion that the Premier (Mike Harris) believed
that he had the authority to direct the OPP in its actions."

Immediately after Carson, the inquiry is due to hear two days of
testimony from Fox, who was at high-level meetings at Queen's
Park the day before and of the fatal shooting.

Harris's lawyer, Peter Downard, could not be reached for
comment.

Lawyer Peter Rosenthal, who represents some Stoney Point First
Nations people, says that as the officer in charge of the police
operation at Ipperwash, Carson will have to answer key
questions, including why the police marched on people who were
behaving peacefully in the park at 11 p.m.

Rosenthal added that "it will also be important to get his
(Carson's) view on the influence that politicians may have had
on what happened."

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