The OPP follows a poor example
The Ontatio Provincial Police have been taking a public relations beating over their handling of the protests in Caledonia, where Native activists have occupied the Douglas Creek Estates housing development claiming the land as their own. The OPP has refused to execute court injunctions, have been accused of ignoring violence being committed in their presence, ignoring acts of intimidation, and generally letting the Natives run rampant.
Fingers have pointed to the top echelons of the OPP. Claims have been made that OPP officers on the scene have been directed from the highest levels to take little or no action.
A website, Caledonia Wake Up Call, that has been highly critical of the OPP reports receiving this email:
We received this quote from a confirmed source:
From XXX (An off-duty OPP Constable who has not been to Caledonia)
"I read your website at home and off-duty. I have never been to Caledonia but before it is over I might get sent there. I have learned a lot from your website about what happened there and I am surprised that native criminal activity has been overlooked apparently. The other day while at my detachment I wanted to see what was new on your web pages, but the OPP has blocked your website so none of us can read what is really happening in Caledonia except at home. No matter, we can all read it at home. And we all do."
Let's assume that this is true, that OPP staff can no longer access Caledonia Wake Up Call from OPP computers. I have to say I struggled with this.
At first, I was sympathetic with the OPP. Most organizations have rules to limit access to certain types of websites. Generally those are broad categories, of course. Adult sites, warez sites, that sort of thing.
But limiting access to one specific website?
There is the question of morale, I suppose. But as the email suggested, every OPP officer will read up on the latest at home.
So what is the point? None really.
But then leaders are not always known to act rationally. Faced with criticism, the natural reaction would be to keep the information away from the troops. Why? Because the more hapless the leadership appears to be, the danger that the troops will ignore orders increases.
And when I realized that, it struck me what had really been bothering me about this. It was the historical comparison that was on the edge of my consciousness.
It is a comparison with the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy student demonstrators by the Chinese Communist dictatorship in 1989.
We all know that the army was sent in and probably thousands were killed. But what is often forgotten is that the units used were brought in from remote areas of China because the local Beijing units were considered unreliable. The local units had heard a great deal of criticism leveled by the demonstrators at their leaders. It could not be helped. But in Communist China, where information flow is tightly controlled, remote army units knew very little of what was happening in Beijing except that anti-revolutionary elements were agitating. Deliberately kept in the dark by a leadership extermely sensitive to criticism, these units killed hundreds, if not thousands of demonstrators (and bystanders) without compunction, having no reason to have doubts about the infallibility of their leaders.
Before anyone else says anything, I am not for a moment suggesting that the OPP is like the PLA, that Liberal government at Queen's Park is the equivalent of the Chinese Politburo, or any other literal parallel you care to draw from this.
But I am pointing out that when the senior commanders attempt to clamp down on information flow to their troops, information that is critical of those commanders, you have to wonder. Are they not confident in the quality of the leadership they provide to trust the troops to listen to the criticisms and then dismiss them? Or are they concerned that the criticisms hit too close to home? Are they concerned that the troops will start to question whether the leadership deserves their loyalty?
Do they have reason to worry?
Ironically, this ham-handed move to block the website is likely to be seen as desperate by the OPP rank-and-file. Unlike Communist China in 1989, where this sort of information control worked very well, in Ontario in 2006, it is likely to make a bad situation worse for the leadership already under pressure from within and without.
Skew my story on Skewz.com
Rate political news for their bias, read related stories, and leave your own skewed commentary
Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords
OPP Caledonia Tiananmen Square
Sphere presents related news articles and blog posts
Sphere It!
Comments
When I look at the Wake Up Call site, I feel like I'm reading transcripts from Jews in Warsaw 65 years ago.
Sort of Leon Uris-ish. People seeing things they can't believe, their policmen getting beat up by thugs. And the natives are wearing the brownshirts.
Posted by: Brian Lemon at July 23, 2006 08:39 PM
This is truly frightening. I can't believe it is happening in Canada.
Posted by: Joanne TB at July 23, 2006 08:52 PM
Steve, it is unlikely that you've been blocked by the OPP. It is far more likely that this person tried to access you when MuNu was having one of its interminable problems. Have you considered, now that you are somewhat "big time", moving to a server that isn't run out of some guy's basement and named after a manga character?
RG
Posted by: RightGirl at July 23, 2006 09:04 PM
It wasn't my site that was blocked. I've rewritten a portion of this post to make it clear. It was Caledonia Wake Up Call.
I'm ashamed to say I've never been banned by anyone -- the Saudis, the Indians, the OPP -- no one.
Posted by: Steve Janke at July 23, 2006 09:17 PM
...Steve, maybe clarify for the readers, or at least, reader (me) that your confirmed source can be seconded by another OPP cop, or different detachment. Are all detachments on the same network? Do all function with the same GPO (group policy object)? Maybe it was coincidence, WakeUp site was down?
Then again the Union did want to shut down Wake Up's site at the hosting level.
Indeed the emperor OPP lady has no clothes.
I am very saddened this is happening in Canada. Nothing good can come out of covering up PC mistakes.
Posted by: tomax7 at July 24, 2006 12:14 AM
..wow just surfed over the the WakeUp site and all I can say is "wow".
Is there no civil action that can be taken? Even a public inquiry?
1984 has nothing over what is going on in Ontario, if this festers, I'm afraid either we will see a full scale revolt or more officers either moving away, or worse yet committing suicide. They can't go against their concious.
Hard to sleep when you know your management is acting in a sulking and cowardly way.
Posted by: tomax7 at July 24, 2006 12:23 AM
I want to thank Steve for this post, personally. I am the owner of CaledoniaWakeUpCall and am, at my own expense, trying to give a voice to the people of Caledonia. I received many stories each day from people who email me – their stories go unreported in the Media and unreported by the OPP. All stories are confirmed by multiple sources before posting.
The OPP position of limiting information is in fact a way of discounting all blogs - They neither accept that blogs offer a service to the public nor will they communicate with blog owners.
They only want Media to have whatever small bits of information they release. They know most media will move on to another story quickly whereas blogs are a pain.
Please visit our site: http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/
Posted by: Gary McHale at July 24, 2006 12:25 AM
Gary, on your OPP lies page, you end with: "We will also bring you examples of OPP pressure tactics to get residents to change crime reports or to drop their reports altogether."
If that is true, then the OPP are worse than the Native Terrorists.
Posted by: tomax7 at July 24, 2006 12:48 AM
I haven't been able to confirm this story at all. I will try though. I did point out that I was assuming that it was true and followed it to the logical conclusion. Given the legal fight between the OPP and this site (one that I understood was resolved with the removal of "wanted posters" naming OPP officials) I thought it was reasonable, even likely, that the site was blocked
I should also point out that I'm not working with Gary McHale. I appreciate his thanks, but I'm following my own path with the Caledonia problem. I quote stories from his site that interest me, and skip others. For instance, I haven't been following the Gwen Boniface angle because I'm not convinced her personal background is a factor here. That's just my opinion. Also, most of the investigative work I've done with regards to Caledonia have been independent activities. Just in case people might be thinking that AGWN is plugging for McHale or my that my Caledonia stories are being dictated by him -- neither is true. Nevertheless, I wish McHale the best of luck, and for anyone looking for news and rumours about events in Caledonia, I heartily recommend using his site as a resource.
Posted by: Steve Janke at July 24, 2006 07:40 AM
...maybe it's me, but Gary's WakeUp site looks a bit hookie.
Meaning akin to getting spam/hoax email ALL IN CAPTIAL LETTERS wanting you to TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW type thing.
While he may have valid points et al, the presentation needs a bit of polish to make it more chewable.
Posted by: tomax7 at July 24, 2006 01:55 PM
Update on Caledonia. Ontario judge wants to know why nothing is being done against Indian occupiers. Link below.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060724.wcaledonia0724/BNStory/Front/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20060724.wcaledonia0724
Posted by: Rob at July 24, 2006 02:05 PM
I wonder if this situation is going to hang around until the next provincial election. The native thugs have shown themselves to be quite cunning in their actions (the timing of the Ipperwash scandal and their use of the media) so I would be surprised if there was a deal before the next election.
McGuinty knows he is over a barrel with his gitch at his ankles so he'll send the farm (or the development) to get any kind of deal done. To have this in the news during election time would be disastrous. It is he who has to move because the natives sure as hell aren't (they know he hasn't the balls to move them).
This is going to be interesting...
Posted by: NorthBayTrapper at July 24, 2006 02:49 PM
If anyone thinks the OPP are acting without orders they are a fool. The police in Canada are under very tight political control. The OPP lack of action is a direct result of the Provincial governments orders to ignore criminal activity.
The whole idea is to let the OPP take the heat while the politicians go for the ethnic and liberal votes
Posted by: Bruce at July 24, 2006 06:23 PM
Steve
I am an OPP officer who regularily surfs your site (from home). I know for a fact that the OPP has blocked the Caledonia web site from being viewed from any computer on the Ontario Government network.
Posted by: mapleleaf4ever at July 24, 2006 07:26 PM
As someone who has followed Gary and his wakeup site since the begining, I can tell you that the articles he has posted are completely legit. Furthermore, he not only gets flak from the O.P.P. but also from the natives, the non-native people of Caledonia as well as a lot of flak from other bloggers and website owners. I personally think he should be commended for trying to post the events surrounding the O.P.P.'s inability to do their jobs.
Posted by: Ed at July 24, 2006 10:10 PM
Well done!
My homepage | Please visit
Posted by: Maggie at July 26, 2006 01:10 AM
Re caledoniawakeupcall completely legitimate ... buried in the screaming tabloid, you may find articles without links to the original because they ahve been copied onto his site. Legitimate msm news articles can be changed if they are copied. Gary McHale and Steve Janke (Taylor) have both used a doctored media report to implicate someone else ... to defame.
Two laws broken. I would be checking with original sources when using Angry or cwuc website ... if you want the truth, that is.
Steve and Gary (or whoever you are) ... call me a liar ... please!! I would be happy to post the doctored report here ...!!!
Posted by: saga at July 27, 2006 04:24 PM
Oh ... and I do note your attempt to distance yourself from Gary, Steve. Makes snese ... since when I exposed the defamatory doctored media report, he blamed you for it!!! No love lost there!
Posted by: saga at July 27, 2006 04:30 PM
Regardless of the information on any form of media we should all make our own minds up about what is going on.
This is not the first time the Indians have used the media and the bleeding heart liberals to fool the public. ( eg: Oka, Ipperwash, & on & on )
This is the first time I have seen the OPP BAN there people from viewing a given site. Does Gwen not think her people have the abbility to separate the wheat for the chafe?
And if the Gov had loocked out all of there computers then I guess Montey Kwinter ( Min. Public Safety) was right when he said he had no knowledge of what was going on in Caledonia. Aren't you glad you elected him ???
Then why did he give that statement when two things have taken place in the highest office of the OPP.
1) Gwen just signed a 3 year contract to stay on with the OPP. June 06
2) As of July 27 she has been removed from that office on a sudden and wonderfull life long dream of working for the police in Ireland ????
I wonder if Montey had anything to do with this if he did not know what was going on in Caledonia.
Posted by: ALfer at July 29, 2006 12:48 PM
 
|
|
