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It’s been more than 10 years since the native occupation of the Douglas Creek estates housing site in Caledonia. During that time, local resident Randy Fleming was arrested while simply walking down the street holding a Canadian flag in what the judge called a peaceful march. He sued the OPP. In a 87 page document Ontario Superior Court Judge Kim Carpenter-Gunn ruled that “the court finds that the officers had a predetermined plan how to deal with Mr. Fleming based on the briefing session.”
It was May 24, 2009 when Randy Fleming was walking along a stretch of road carrying a Canadian flag for a flag rally that was peaceful. As he got closer to the Douglas Creek Estate gates he was stopped by OPP, forced into the ditch and later arrested. After suing the OPP Randy Fleming was awarded $300 000 in compensation.
Fleming has 3 more cases before the courts and Gary Mchale has 4. All of them very similar to this one. Fleming did not want to speak to CHCH news instead Mchale spoke on his behalf.
“This is what our rallies were all about. We knew that the OPP were always siding with the native protesters and they didn’t care about the charter rights of anybody else.”
In the end the judge found that “the officers had the opportunity to diffuse the situation instead their actions escalated the events in issue.”
They aren’t the only ones suing the OPP. Caledonia builder Sam Gualtieri filed his civil suit for $6 million after he was seriously beaten by native protesters inside the home he was building while he says OPP officers stood outside. 8 years later his case is still before the courts.
