Ipperwash Crisis

The Ipperwash Crisis was a dispute over Indigenous land that took place in Ipperwash Provincial Park, Ontario, on September 4, 1995. Several members of the Stoney Point Ojibway band occupied the park to assert claim to nearby land which had been expropriated from them during the Second World War. During a violent confrontation, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) killed protester Dudley George. George was holding a stick when OPP officer Ken Deane discharged his firearm. George subsequently died from his injuries. Deane later claimed that George was himself armed but was found guilty of criminal negligence.

Later allegations emerged that newly-elected Ontario Premier Mike Harris said to the attending OPP: "I want the fucking Indians out of the park." The claim came from a former attorney general although eight other present witnesses denied this allegation. However, the Ipperwash Inquiry concluded that Premier Harris did in fact make the remarks.

The events stirred major political controversy in Ontario and Canada, casting a pall over government relations with Indigenous bands. In 2003 a provincial inquiry, the Ipperwash Inquiry, was started after a change in government. Former Ontario Chief Justice Sidney B. Linden led the investigation of events, which was completed in the fall of 2006. George's killing has been the subject of a non-fiction book One Dead Indian.