[IPSM] OPP racists at it again

[Mike D]

OPP officer demoted for defacing flag
Admits incident on Chippewa reserve
Constable will lose $12,000 in wages
Feb. 28, 2006. 05:15 AM
ROBERTA AVERY
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

ORILLIA
A former member of an elite Ontario Provincial Police emergency response 
unit was demoted yesterday and will lose about $12,000 in wages for 
defacing a First Nations flag and then conspiring with other officers to 
cover up his actions.
Const. Ron Heinmann, a first-class constable and a 17-year veteran of the 
force who was found guilty last year at a police disciplinary hearing of 
discreditable conduct and deceit, will return to work immediately.
His demotion under the Police Service Act by hearing adjudicator Bob 
Fitches is to third-class constable for six months and to second-class 
constable for three more months. The demotion will result in a pay cut.
Heinmann, who has been suspended from duty with pay since shortly after 
the incident at the Chippewa of Thames First Nation on Jan. 11, 2004, 
admits he drew a black X on a Mohawk flag after a standoff at a home on 
the reserve, but denied his actions were racist.
Chippewa of Thames Chief Kelly Riley called the defacing of the flag by 
members of the OPP's Tactical and Rescue Unit (TRU team) from Barrie, 
Ont., "disgraceful." He said it showed "a lack of acceptance" by OPP 
officers of the verdict in the death of Dudley George during a standoff 
with police at Ipperwash Provincial Park.
"I think that when they saw the flag, they reacted with anger and that's 
kind of scary," Riley said in a phone interview from the reserve, 70 
kilometres southeast of Ipperwash.
Provincial Judge Hugh Fraser, ruling that Dudley George, 38, was unarmed 
when he was shot by TRU Sgt. Kenneth Deane, found Deane guilty of criminal 
negligence causing death in April 1997. Deane was killed in a traffic 
accident on Saturday.
The 17-member Barrie TRU team was disbanded after the flag incident, four 
of its members resigned and eight others received penalties ranging from 
informal discipline to demotion.
The TRU team was later reformed and now operates out of OPP headquarters 
in Orillia.
In the 2004 incident, the OPP Barrie unit was called in to assist First 
Nations officers on the Chippewa reserve after reports of shotgun blasts.
A standoff ensued outside the home of Aaron Deleary, who later surrendered 
and was charged with weapons offences.
When the TRU team entered the house, Heinmann defaced the flag and a 
poster of a Mohawk protest at Oka, Que.
During a hearing in May, Heinmann's lawyer said his client's actions were 
not racist.
Testimony was also heard that TRU team members conspired in secret 
meetings held in a church to cover up the incident.