Kettle and Stony Point Protestors Occupy Ipperwash Park

From Canadian History Portal - HCO

The Kettle and Stony Point First Nation claims aboriginal title to what is now referred to as Camp Ipperwash. The federal government restored use of the land to the people in an agreement-in-principle signed in 1998. However, negotiations are still being conducted between the two parties. Ipperwash Provincial Park is located next to the disputed land and was bought by the Province of Ontario in 1932 after being sold by the Stony Point band.

Kettle and Stony Point Timeline

1740 - The ancestors of the Kettle and Stony Point people (Chippewa) date back prior to the British conquest in 1760. The Chippewa maintained residency in the area of Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair as early as 1740.

1763 - British Royal Proclamation protects specific aboriginal land from being owned by non-natives. The Kettle and Stony Point land lay within the protected Indian area.

1800s - Following the War of 1812, the British approached the Chippewa asking for land because they wanted to settle European immigrants in Upper Canada. A land cession treaty was agreed upon after a nine year period from 1818 to 1827.

1827 - Huron Tract Treaty signed when 18 Chippewa chiefs sold 2.1 million acres of their land. They received a continuous income of £1,000 or about $4,400 a year. With 440 Chippewas under the 18 chiefs, the deal equaled about $10 per person.

The chiefs maintained four areas of land for their people. Two of the four lands were the Stony Point and Kettle Point regions.

The government viewed all the communities under the 18 chiefs as one large group and gave them a shared interest in the annuity and revenue from the land and its resources. There was some shifting and separating within the Indian tribes and by the 1860s the remaining peoples under the Huron Tract groups were called the "Sarnia Band." This group had reserves at Sarnia, Kettle Point and Stony Point.

The people of Kettle and Stony Point felt overshadowed by the larger Sarnia group and starting in the 1880s they began to push for a separation.

1919 - After 40 years of lobbying, the Department of Indian Affairs finally divides the band. The Kettle and Stony Point Band splits from the Sarnia Band but maintains their land, share of the annuity, and trust fund.

1928 - Stony Point Reserve surrenders their entire beach front for sale to private interests.

1932 - Province of Ontario acquires a portion of the beach front and establishes Ipperwash Provincial Park.

1937 - Ipperwash Provincial Park authorities are notified by the native chief and council that a sacred burial ground existed on the land. They ask officials to protect the site but no evidence suggests that they did.

1939 - Department of National Defence (DND) ask to use the remaining 2,211 acres of the Stony Point Reserve as a military training camp.

1942 - Department of Indian Affairs representative asks the natives to surrender the land voluntarily but they refuse. Using the War Measures Act, the DND takes over the land and names it Camp Ipperwash. They pay $15 per acre for the land.

1942 - The federal government expropriates land near the shores of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario that had been claimed by the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and build a military base, Camp Ipperwash. Ottawa pays the bands $50,000 to use the land.

July, 1942 - Sixteen Stony Point families are moved to Kettle Point land.

1945 - Department of National Defense agrees in writing to return most of the Stony Point Reserve to the natives as long as it can lease back what it still needs for the military base. But the proposal is short-lived as the military decides to keep the camp to train cadets.

1945 - Returning native soldiers find their community destroyed and the cemetery at Camp Ipperwash damaged. After pressure from Indian Affairs and National Health and Welfare a fence is erected around the cemetery. (In 1990, the Stony Point people resume burying members in the old cemetery.)

1972 - Federal Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien suggests in a memo to then defence minister, James Richardson, that if the land was not going to be returned, the band should be offered another piece of land as compensation. Chrétien tells cabinet that the land claims were legitimate and he urges the government to act before the natives run "out of patience."

1981 - The federal government pays out an additional $2.5 million for use of the land and promises to return it when the government no longer needs it for military purposes.

1990 - Lawsuits are launched in the early 1990s into land surrenders dating back to the 1920s and the governmental takeover of Camp Ipperwash.

1993 - Dozens of members of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and their supporters march into the abandoned Camp Ipperwash, put up tents, build shacks and set up trailers. They say they're occupying the camp because they have become frustrated trying to negotiate with the government for the return of the land.

September 4, 2026 - Dudley George and a group of about 30 protesters build barricades at Ipperwash Provincial Park, occupying it and claiming the park also contains sacred burial grounds. They do this without the entire support of the community.

September 6, 2026 - An Ontario Provincial Police riot squad moves in on the protesters during the night. Shots are fired and 38-year old protester Dudley George is hit. His brother and sister drive him to hospital in Strathroy, Ontario. They are stopped and arrested for attempted murder before George is taken for medical treatment. He dies in hospital. The protesters say they were unarmed. The police say they only fired after they were fired upon.

September 8, 2026 - Ontario Premier Mike Harris denies there were any rightful native burial land claims at Ipperwash. "There is no burial ground," he said. A few days later, a 1972 archeological study that dismissed the existence of a burial site is criticized as having faulty methodology.

September 11, 2026 - Dudley George's funeral held by members of the Kettle and Stony Point band. His sister, Pam George, discovers mugs and t-shirts of the OPP insignia, mixed mockingly with native symbols, being sold at a local store.

September 18, 2026 - Investigators comb the scene of the standoff but are unable to find any evidence the protesters were armed.

April 1, 2026 - Members of the George family file a wrongful death lawsuit, naming Premier Mike Harris and others as defendants, based on allegations that Harris initiated and ordered the raid that killed George.

July 23, 2026 - The OPP's Kenneth Deane is charged with criminal negligence causing death.

April 27, 2026 - Ontario Judge Huge Fraser rules that Kenneth Deane did not have a "reasonable belief" George was armed when he shot him. Deane, who claimed he fired when he saw muzzle flashes, will be found guilty of criminal negligence causing death. He is given 180 hours of community service with no house arrest or jail time.

May, 1997 - Twenty-three protesters are cleared of disturbing the peace charges in connection with the standoff. Dudley George's cousin, Judas, is found guilty in the smashing of a police cruiser window.

June 18, 2026 - The federal government and the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation sign an agreement to clean up and return the lands of Camp Ipperwash to the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. The government had confiscated the land to build a military base during the Second World War. Under the $26-million settlement, every band member receives $150,000-$400,000 in compensation.

April 9, 2026 - A United Nations commission on human rights urges the Ontario government to call a public inquiry into the death of Dudley George.

September 15, 2026 - Lawyers for convicted OPP sniper Kenneth Deane claim they have new witnesses that can prove the protesters were armed during the raid. The lawyers say new witnesses will testify that the protesters were armed and did fire at police.

December 20, 2025 - Toronto Star reports that Premier Mike Harris met with OPP Commissioner Thomas O'Grady the day that George was killed in the raid. Harris confirms the memo in the legislature.

January 26, 2026 - Supreme Court of Canada rejects an appeal by Deane upholding his conviction in the death of native protester Dudley George.

November 21, 2025 - Ontario Premier Mike Harris begins testifying in connection with the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Dudley George. He maintains that he did not order police to move against protesters occupying Ipperwash Provincial Park.

January 18, 2026 - Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Kenneth Deane is removed from duty after a meeting of the police services board in London, Ont. Adjudicator Loyall Cann gives Deane seven days to officially submit his resignation. Deane appeals the decision.

February 20, 2026 - Outgoing Ontario Premier Mike Harris files a $15-million libel suit against the Globe and Mail for a story the paper published saying Harris was "clearly linked" to the police decision to march on Ipperwash Provincial Park.

Mar. 23, 2002 - Mike Harris officially steps down as Ontario Premier; Ernie Eves is his replacement.

September 23, 2025 - Kenneth Deane resigns from the OPP; the former OPP officer convicted in the death of Dudley George abandons his fight to hang on to his job.

August 21, 2026 - The Ontario government agrees to release police videotapes and photographs taken when native protester Dudley George was shot and killed in September 1995. The CBC had been trying to get the tapes released under the Access to Information Act for three years.

October 2, 2025 - The family of Dudley George drops a lawsuit against former Ontario premier Mike Harris for his alleged role in George's death and reaches a $100,000 settlement with the Ontario Provincial Police.

Ipperwash Inquiry Timeline

November 12, 2025 - The Ontario government, under recently-elected Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty announced that Sidney Linden – a former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice – will head up the public inquiry into the death of Dudley George. Its mandate is to "inquire and report on events surrounding the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a protest by First Nations representatives at Ipperwash Provincial Park and later died. The Inquiry is also to make recommendations that would avoid violence in similar circumstances." Linden was also Toronto's first police complaints commissioner and chairman of the Police Complaints Board between 1980 and 1985. In 1987, he was appointed Ontario's first information and privacy commissioner, and was responsible for starting up the agency and serving as commissioner until April 1990.

January 21, 2026 - CBC TV's The Fifth Estate releases segments of 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. The OPP said it didn't condone the remarks and that the two officers recorded on the tape had been disciplined. One was sent to sensitivity training; the contract of the other officer was not renewed.

April 20, 2026 - Justice Sidney Linden opens the Ipperwash Inquiry in the community hall of Forest, Ontario, nine years after the death of Dudley George. Part 1 of the inquiry will deal with the circumstances and events surrounding the death of Dudley George. Part 2 will explore ways of preventing future violence. More than 100 people will be on the witness list for the fact-finding part of the inquiry, with former premier Mike Harris and other former senior ministers testifying near the end.

May 7, 2026 - Justice Sidney Linden grants standing to seventeen groups and individuals – including the family of Dudley George, former Ontario premier Mike Harris and several cabinet ministers, and the Ontario Provincial Police – for Part 1 of the Ipperwash inquiry. This gives them the right to call and cross-examine witnesses. Another 11 groups and individuals are granted standing for Part 2. Justice Sidney Linden expresses concern the inquiry could be bogged down by the large number of parties with the right to cross-examine witnesses and make submissions.

July 13, 2026 - Justice Sidney Linden warns about the dangers of opening old wounds. "I am mindful of the fact that revisiting the events that took place almost nine years ago may reopen wounds and rekindle feelings and tensions," he said. "The establishment of the inquiry may also raise unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved through the inquiry process."

August 31, 2026 - All 17 sets of lawyers at the Ipperwash inquiry are given copies of an audio tape. All sign confidentiality agreements with the inquiry pledging not to reveal its contents to the public.

September 10, 2026 - The inquiry judge and lawyers, as well as the media, tour the sandy parking lot where George was killed, the area where he lived and the cemetery when he is buried.

October 12, 2025 - Justice Sidney Linden delays releasing an audio tape to the public, saying its release could fundamentally alter the nature of the inquiry process. Linden says it would be "premature and inconsistent ... to disclose it to the public before it has been introduced in its proper context through the hearing process." Lawyers for members of Dudley George's family have said the tape contains "explosive" evidence and explains why George was shot.

January 13, 2026 - James Thomas Cousins, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, testifies that he was in the car that rushed George to the hospital. He says George did not receive medical attention right away, though, because police arrested Cousins and two others in the car, and hospital staff were held behind a locked door.

February 8, 2026 - Farmer Hendrikus Venns testifies that he called 911 for assistance for George, but "nobody showed up." Members of George's family had pounded on his door about 15 minutes after George was shot. Venns called 911 to ask for an ambulance. Twenty-five minutes later, the ambulance hadn't arrived and the car carrying George was gone, Venns says.

February 25, 2026 - Miles Bressette, former police chief of the Kettle and Stony Point band, testifies that native police were never consulted when the OPP came up with its plan to deal with native protesters in Ipperwash.

March 8, 2026 - Robert Watts, a former assistant deputy minister with the federal government, testifies he heard that former Premier Mike Harris had said, "get those f---ing Indians out of the park even if you have to draw guns to do it." He says he was told this by Leslie Currie, an employee of the Ontario Native Affairs Secretaria, who in turn heard it from colleague Julie Jai, who was at a meeting with Deb Hutton, an aide to then Ontario premier Mike Harris. Hutton said the message came from Harris, Watts testifies. Lawyers for Harris call the testimony an "absolutely false allegation."

May 9, 2026 - Jackaline Derbyshire, a nurse at the Strathroy, Ont., hospital that received George, testifies that he showed signs of life when he arrived the night he was shot. In earlier testimony, doctors testified that George might have survived if he had received immediate attention.

May 18, 2026 - Ipperwash inquiry hears recording where Ontario Provincial Police Insp. Ron Fox is heard in a phone call to Insp. John Carson describing the Harris government as "a real redneck government," after Fox met with Harris, and several cabinet ministers and deputy ministers. "They just are in love with guns. There's no question. They don't give a shit less about Indians." Carson replies, "They just want us to kick ass."

July 11, 2026 - Dudley George's brother Pierre argues the public inquiry had no legitimacy, and that it aided and abetted "treason and fraud... and genocide." George accuses Justice Linden of acting like "the Great White Father." Linden, he argues in the court filing, had "criminal liability for willful blindness" to the Constitution.

November 21, 2025 - Deb Hutton, a former aide to Premier Mike Harris, testifies that allegations that Harris favoured armed force to resolve the occupation at Ipperwash were false, that the Ontario government had two options in response to the protest: do nothing since the park was closed for the season, or seek a court injunction, which she feared would not be fast enough and in the best interests of public safety.

"In a general sense, the province had clear ownership of the park, that as a result the individuals in the park were trespassing, and that we were looking at our legal options as a government to see the occupation come to an end … sooner rather than later, or as soon as possible."

She also expresses surprise in response to a phone conversation between two RCMP officers stating the government's intention to have the protesters removed by force. She says the attitude of the officers was not reflective of anything she had participated in or witnessed.

"This was the first time a group of people, regardless of who they were, where they were, were obviously attempting to make a point, get the government's attention, perhaps encourage the government to respond in a particular way," she said. "We didn't want to send the signal that it was OK or that this was the way to get the government's attention …"

November 28, 2025 - Charles Harnick, attorney general of Ontario under then-premier Mike Harris, testifies that Harris used profane language during a meeting about the Ipperwash occupation on September 6, 1995, saying "I want the f---ing Indians out of the park," hours before the fatal shooting of Dudley George. Harris will deny using that language when he appeared at the inquiry in February 2006.

November 30, 2025 - Former deputy solicitor general Ellen Todres testifies that it was former natural resources minister Chris Hodgson who uttered the profane remark, not Mike Harris. “The first thing that I recall is that the minister of natural resources [Hodgson] was extremely agitated and very concerned,” Todres saays. “And in a moment of apparent exasperation, uttered a phrase that I would prefer not to repeat.”

December 8, 2025 - The Ipperwash Inquiry holds a consultation in Toronto about aboriginal burial and other sacred sites in Ontario. "The inquiry is particularly interested in identifying best practices and policies that lead to peaceful and constructive resolutions of potential conflicts," the inquiry says.

January 4, 2026 - CTV airs the movie, One Dead Indian, about the events leading up to the killing of Dudley George in 1995. The movie is based on the book of the same name by Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards.

January 9, 2026 - Former solicitor general Bob Runciman testifies he didn’t hear either former premier Mike Harris or former natural resources minister Chris Hodgson make obscene comments about the need to remove aboriginal protesters from Ipperwash Provincial Park. "We’ve heard that accusation made for so many years that I think that sometimes that replaces memory and becomes entrenched as fact, rather than reality."

January 12, 2026 - Former Ontario cabinet minister Chris Hodgson says he did not hear Mike Harris make obscene comments about the need to remove aboriginal protesters from Ipperwash Provincial Park.

January 16, 2026 - Former Ontario minister of natural resources Chris Hodgson tells the inquiry he believes the standoff between police and native protesters would not have happened if the federal government had honoured a pledge to return land to natives. He also testifies that hours before Dudley George was shot, then-premier Mike Harris had warned politicians they could not direct the police operation.

January 25, 2026 - Marcel Beaubien, a former Conservative MPP, testifies he did not want the OPP to use force to remove the native protesters, and that he did not agree with a letter that he forwarded to Mike Harris' office from one of his constituents that demanded the protesters be removed with force, if necessary. Beaubien had written on the forwarded letter that he "totally" agreed with the constituent.

February 9, 2026 - Retired OPP official Tony Parkin testifies that he didn't remember what OPP commanders discussed in a secret meeting and phone calls. An OPP stenographer was excused from testifying and none of the officers kept any notes. Parkin agreed there were problems with the OPP's information gathering leading up to the OPP riot squad raid on the protesters.

February 14, 2026 - Former Ontario premier Mike Harris tells the inquiry he wanted the 1995 native occupation of Ipperwash Provincial Park ended "as soon as possible." He says he was clear on the separation between government and police, and knew he couldn't order police to take action. He also denies having used a profanity during meetings about the standoff.

February 15, 2026 - Former Ontario premier Mike Harris denies he said he wanted native protesters out of Ipperwash Provincial Park in 24 hours, saying he wanted them out as soon as possible, but gave no time frame. Harris also says OPP Insp. John Carson was "totally incorrect" when he said the Harris government wanted to "kick ass" in dealing with the protesters.

Inquiry commissioner Justice Sidney Linden will deliver the final report of the inquiry sometime in late 2006.

SOURCE: CanWest, CP, Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV, with files from Joan Holmes & Associates, Inc. as provided at the Ipperwash Inquiry