Political Bookshelf with STEWART KIFF
Helpless Caledonia’s Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy, and
How the Law Failed All of Us Christie Blatchford, Doubleday Canada
I
magine you live in a lovely small town – close enough to the big city to be convenient, but far enough away to be a quiet country hideaway.
Now imagine that one day, without warning or provocation, a group of thugs arrive in your town and take a construction site hostage. In the months to follow, these interlopers – with a little help from their friends – will erect barricades, rip up the main street, push a van on its side and roll it off a bridge, and blow up a hydro facility, cutting power to the town.
Fiction? Not at all. This nightmare actually took place in the Ontario town of Caledonia, with members of the Six Nations reserve seizing con- trol of the Douglas Creek Estates subdivision on February 28, 2006. Five years later, the occupation is still going on. Columnist and crime reporter Christie Blatch-
ford’s Helpless is the tale of how the residents of Caledonia had their lives turned upside down – in the name of political correctness gone mad. Blatchford makes it clear right from the start that this book is not about the validity of native land claims, or a chronicle of abuses Canadian officials from an earlier time foisted upon our First Nations. What she is interested in doing is telling a story that few, if any, have had the courage to tell, reveal- ing dark and difficult truths along the way.
The book also shines an unflattering light on the province’s judicial system, as well as the mainstream media, which for the most part could not be bothered to cover this story.
Needless to say, there has already been something of a backlash to this book. Some have even gone as far to condemn Blatchford as a racist. Others point to her portrayals of the townsfolk as heroes and the natives as thugs and bullies. While showing sev- eral of the residents of Caledonia acting with great
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courage and patience, only one of the occupiers comes off well – Michael Laughing, a high-steel ironworker who volunteered at Ground Zero fol- lowing the 9/11 attacks. Blatchford, however, saves her real venom not for the natives holding Caledonia hostage, but for those who seemed unwilling or unable to enforce the Rule of Law in this community. Whether call- ing out the Government of Ontario – and, in par- ticular, Premier McGuinty – or senior officials with the Ontario Provincial Police – first and foremost, former OPP Chief Julian Fantino – Blatchford shows just how spineless and conniving those in charge can be. The book also shines an unflattering light on the province’s judicial system, as well as the mainstream media, which for the most part could not be bothered to cover this story. Hovering over this story is the ghost of Ipper-
wash – another Native occupation from 1995, where one of the protestors, Dudley George, was shot and killed by an OPP officer. With the pub-
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