Ipperwash Provincial Park is a former

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to t ...

on the shores of southern Lake Huron in

Lambton County Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Cl ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Located near

Grand Bend Grand Bend is a community located on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Municipality of Lambton Shores in Lambton County. History Grand Bend is situated on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron ...

, the park was established in 1936. It contains a long sandy beach on the lakeshore, as well as rare flowers and sand dunes. Wildlife include migrating jaegers,

scoter The scoters are stocky seaducks in the genus ''Melanitta''. The drakes are mostly black and have swollen bills, the females are brown. They breed in the far north of Europe, Asia, and North America, and winter farther south in temperate zones o ...

grebe Grebes () are aquatic diving birds in the order Podicipediformes . Grebes are widely distributed freshwater birds, with some species also found in marine habitats during migration and winter. Some flightless species exist as well, most notably ...

, and

brant goose The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus '' Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after ...

Ipperwash Crisis

In 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the Government of Canada appropriated land for a military base from the Chippewa of Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation, purportedly only for the duration, and initially with a promise of compensation. The military continued to use Camp Ipperwash for summer training of cadets into the 1990s. During the late 1980s, the Stoney Point First Nation began to pressure the federal and provincial governments to revert ownership of the entire property as per the 1941 expropriation agreement. The adjacent land at Ipperwash Provincial Park was claimed by the Stoney Point First Nation and was reputed to contain a burial ground. First Nations activism led protesters to occupy the base and the park in September 1995. A confrontation between Ontario Provincial Police and the protesters resulted in the death of Dudley George. In 2003, the provincial government commissioned an investigative inquiry, the Ipperwash Inquiry, into George's death and events of the protest. This led to changes in policing policy, and findings that some officials had made racist comments. On 20 December 2007, the Ontario government announced that it would return Ipperwash Provincial Park to the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, and that the park would initially be administered jointly. On 4 February 2015, chief Tom Bressette informed Lambton County that a cultural center would be built on site of the former park, with a hotel complex nearby.

References

{{Authority control Provincial parks of Ontario Parks in Lambton County Protected areas established in 1936 1936 establishments in Ontario Protected areas disestablished in 2007 Indigenous land rights