Ontario Provincial Police, Caledonia, Dalton McGuinty

The OPP--your tax dollars at work

The Ontario Provincial Police, a.k.a. the Ontario Pathetic Police, a.k.a. the Ontario Paralyzed Police, have come under a lot of criticism lately for their inaction regarding the native land dispute in Caledonia. The force has been accused of merely standing around watching while innocent citizens were being assaulted and intimidated by mask wearing aboriginals.

What has been happening in Caledonia has proved that the OPP are merely nothing more than another arm of the provincial government who are carrying out the bidding of Premier Dalton McGuinty. Besides the general principle the guides the government political correctness Dalton McGuinty is a coward who fears that any attempt by his police to keep the peace or otherwise enforce the law, might result in another incident like the one that took the life of Dudley George back in 1995. Protecting innocent men, women and children comes a distant second to protecting the political fortunes of Dalton McGuinty.

But to be fair to the OPP, just because they spend their days in Caledonia standing around and watching does not mean that they arent hard at work in the rest of the province. Why last week they even took the time to arrest one of their own.

Sanjiv Parashar, a 17-year veteran of the OPP was arrested by his detachment in Caledon (not to be confused with Caledonia) and charged with pointing a firearm and assault with a weapon. It is alleged that he pointed his firearm at a fellow officer. Parashar should have realized that you cant do that; only Indians can point firearms at other people and get away with it. Hmm, Sanjiv; come to think of it, he sounds like an Indian. Maybe he is and he just didnt realize that hes the wrong kind of Indian only aboriginal Indians are above the law and allowed to point firearms at other people in Dalton McGuintys Ontario. Still, he may have an interesting defense to the charges.

In her Toronto Sun column, education reporter Moira MacDonald wrote about a mother who was barred from the governments Macdonald Block after allegedly having a confrontation with someone from the Ministry of Education. On June 13, a lone OPP officer braved the wilds of Torontos tony Rosedale neighbourhood to serve the woman with notice that she was not allowed in or near the Macdonald Block. Reading between the lines in Ms. MacDonalds column, it appears that the operation was concluded without incident.

Any thought that the majority of OPP officers are shirking their duty was put to rest earlier this week when the force went on a two-day blitz of the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes on Highways 403 and 404. Residents of Caledonia may be worried about their personal safety but they can sleep at night knowing that lone drivers who tool along the provinces HOV lanes will be apprehended and punished. The men and women of the OPP bravely risk repetitive strain injuries from constantly bending down and leaning in windows to issue tickets. And they risk their lives every time they pull a car over; after all they never know whether the driver will turn out to be a violent criminal on the lam, a homegrown jihadist, an irate Rosedale mother, or in the worst case scenario, an aboriginal from the Six Nations reserve. Of course the HOV blitz is nothing more than a cash grab by the province, but hey, somebody has to pay for Daltons land purchases.

So despite what is happening in Caledonia, the OPP are still hard at work in the rest of the province. Anyone who stops errant motorists in the HOV lanes can hardly be called pathetic or paralyzed.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Toronto Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: Columns 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 '01 '00 1999 Media 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 Toronto 2006 '05 '04