The Ontario government plans to go to court to block the release of its legal bills in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by family members of native activist Anthony (Dudley) George. The government is seeking to block the release of its legal fees in the seven-year lawsuit brought by George’s family after he was shot to death at Ipperwash Provincial Park on Sept. 6, 1995.
Tom Mitchinson, the assistant information and privacy commissioner for Ontario, had ordered the government to release the figures for the amount of money spent on lawyers fighting the George family.
Government lawyer Elaine Atkinson wrote Mitchinson to ask him to hold off on releasing the figures, which Liberal MPP Gerry Phillips has sought for the past 24 months.
“This is yet another example of the Harris/Eves government preventing the truth about what happened at Ipperwash from coming out,” Phillips said. “Tragically, it appears that by the end of the civil case, more than $5 million will be spent fighting the George family, when the funds should have gone towards a public inquiry.”
