Caledonia activist Gary McHale is on a journey to the land of sweet vindication.

Monday, the Canadian Advocates for Charter Equality announced that McHale – its executive director – will receive a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal next month for outstanding service to the community.

McHale, 50, of Binbrook, will receive the medal at a luncheon in Toronto Feb. 18.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation nominated McHale late last year. The Governor-General’s office in Ottawa recently approved it.

“To receive it from a respected group like the Taxpayers Federation is an honour,” McHale said Monday. “As opposed to receiving it from a politician, who may just be giving it to you because you’ve donated a lot of money to them.”

CTF is one of dozens of groups across Canada contracted by Governor-General David Johnson to recommend Diamond Jubilee recipients. CTF was authorized to submit 36 names but ended up nominating 33.

On Monday, president Troy Lanigan said the CTF board of directors decided it wanted to nominate people who have blown the whistle on waste while insisting on transparency and ethical behaviour from government. McHale, Lanigan said, meets this criteria.

“The more we thought about it, the more we saw that people who should be recognized wouldn’t be recognized,” he said. “These are the kind of people we wanted to recognize. They’ve challenged the status quo. Gary McHale fits the bill. He has fought, in our view, for the equal application of the law and the execution of court orders. He’s taken some risks and some beatings over this, both literally and figuratively.”

McHale came to prominence several years ago when the McGuinty government adopted a hands-off approach during the violent, early phase of the native stand-off in Caledonia.

McHale and his supporters have never wavered in their criticism that the province, in doing so, has embraced a two-tier approach to justice and law enforcement. McHale and CANACE have documented numerous instances where the Ontario Provincial Police have stood down in the face of native provocations while acting aggressively to curtail the activities of non-natives who have objected. In doing so, CANACE has earned the force’s eternal scorn.

CTF has an interest in the Caledonia standoff because the McGuinty government’s response has been hugely expensive.

“Over $120 million of taxpayers’ money has been wasted in Caledonia on the failed policing policies of the OPP,” CANACE said Monday in a statement. “Every community in Ontario has been forced to finance the enforcement of racist policies whereby millions of dollars have been paid out to cover the lawsuits due to the violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Tens of millions more will be wasted in Caledonia over the next few years to cover the outstanding lawsuits.”

Several years ago, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett estimated that the McGuinty government’s passive approach to the Caledonia situation has cost Haldimand hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic activity.

“This medal sends a strong message that the OPP and all political parties should take note (of),” McHale said. “Citizens will not surrender their rights and freedoms on the altar of political correctness.”

Monte Sonnenberg

519-426-3528 ext. 150

monte.sonnenberg@sunmedia.ca