Video still from Ipperwash Crisis in 5 Minutes (subMedia).
CBC News journalist Brett Forester reports that newly declassified internal documents indicate the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) conducted a secret investigation into “Native extremism” in 1995 and appear to have falsely claimed that Indigenous land defenders in Ipperwash, Ontario were armed.
Those false claims were reportedly made just days prior to an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer shooting land defender Dudley George on September 6, 1995, during a re-occupation of a provincial park.
George was declared dead hours later in the early hours of September 7, 1995.
On September 10, 1995, the Peace Brigades International-North America Project (PBI-NAP) reported that it had received a verbal invitation to “be observers for First Nations people if needed; be present during discussions between the different groups as a nonpartisan witness; do accompaniment for anyone fearing further violence on the part of the police; write nonpartisan reports on what we witness and hear.”
By July/August 1996, PBI-NAP reported: “PBI has made three more visits to the area of Ipperwash.”
CBC News now notes that during the public inquiry hearings that began in July 2004 into the death of George, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Staff Sgt. Wade Lacroix testified in May 2006 about a visit from CSIS investigator “Rocky Robart” who “claimed the Anishinaabeg at Ipperwash had guns”.
The article adds: “At least four more witnesses at the inquiry testified CSIS was involved in some way in the tragic events of 1995, yet when Justice Sidney Linden tabled his report, CSIS wasn’t even mentioned.”
Forester writes that the declassified papers indicate that “CSIS viewed the occupation as a possible terror threat.”
“CSIS initially refused to confirm or deny the records even existed, a position the information commissioner endorsed following an investigation in 2022. But after CBC News filed a court challenge three years ago, CSIS backtracked and offered to release some heavily censored records that were delivered this year.”
Forester further notes: “The service declined an interview request for this story and provided a statement instead.” In response to written questions, CSIS states: “As part of the Ipperwash Inquiry, CSIS was not named once in any of the findings nor were any of the recommendations directed toward CSIS.”
Lessons from the Ipperwash Inquiry
CBC News has previously reported that “the biggest bombshell” during the Ipperwash inquiry came from former attorney general Charles Harnick who testified that then premier Mike Harris had stated “I want the f****** Indians out of the park” just hours before George was killed by an OPP sniper.
That same article notes: “In January 2004, CBC News obtained surveillance videotapes taken by police officers in September 1995, one of which contains racist remarks made by police officers the day before George’s death.”
Concerns were raised about history repeating itself in October 2020 when the current Ontario-premier Doug Ford described Six Nations land defenders as “… a couple bad apples causing problems…”.
And in February 2025, CBC News reported: “[Justice Michael Tammen of the Supreme Court of British Columbia] said there were multiple offensive and discriminatory comments made by multiple officers on Nov. 18, 2021 and Nov. 19, 2021. RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group [C-IRG] led the enforcement [against Indigenous land defenders on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia]. ‘That is potentially a sign of systemic attitudinal issue within the C-IRG,’ he said…”
PBI-Canada also recalls that the Ipperwash Inquiry included recommendations on how Indigenous protests and occupations could be addressed to prevent the killing of another land defender
A key recommendation of that report was: “The provincial government should invite the federal government to participate in interministerial ‘blockade’ committees to inform and coordinate governmental responses to Aboriginal occupations and protests when a potential federal interest is engaged.”
As Indigenous land and environmental defenders are likely to oppose the fast-tracking of multiple “national projects” in Canada, the role of CSIS “to investigate activities suspected of constituting threats to the security of Canada” in relation to Indigenous land defence struggles should be clarified, and the death of Dudley George and the findings of the Ipperwash Inquiry must be remembered.
To read the full article by Brett Forester, a reporter with CBC Indigenous in Ottawa, go to CSIS ‘actively’ investigated Ipperwash land dispute before fatal shooting of Dudley George, documents show (CBC News, September 11, 1995).
