On 6 September 1995, Dudley George, aged 38, became the first Indigenous person known to Amnesty International to be killed in the twentieth century by a police officer in a land claims dispute in Canada. Amnesty International and numerous other bodies, members of Canadian civil society and individuals have raised concerns around his death and the events leading up to it. However, in the interceding eight years, the federal Government of Canada and the provincial Government of Ontario have resisted continuous calls for a public inquiry. Documents have been disclosed which strongly indicate that the government may have directly controlled or sought to influence police operations during the Ipperwash protests which preceded his death. This paper examines the events leading up to the violent confrontation between the protesters and the police and details Amnesty International’s concerns.
