Those who believe in the politics of race continue to portray the shooting death of Dumas through the prism of their prejudice.
The race-baiters cherry-picked the facts heard by Judge Mary Curtis to fit their narrative and mislead the public and media. And many Winnipeg outlets are more than willing to regurgitate the fiction without shame.
Most shameless is the CBC, which suppressed the information Dumas had fought the police and escaped from the back lane before being cornered on Dufferin, right from the day of the shooting.
But their online story Friday thoroughly exposed the CBC agenda - by excluding key facts, it enabled their unquestioning coverage of Nahanni Fontaine's anti-cop tirades and aligned their newsroom with professional rabble-rousers.
Dumas was shot by police who had chased him down because they suspected he had committed a robbery. They said they used pepper spray on him and also told him they would shoot if he didn't drop the screwdriver he was carrying. When he continued to come toward an officer in a threatening manner, he was shot, police said.
Notice the CBC qualifies the details of the incident as being "what police said".
Not one word about Dumas running from a squad car driver who noticed he was trying to hide something up his sleeve.
Notice the absence of the fact independant witnesses verified the actions of the police to caution and disable Dumas before having to shoot to kill as trained.
Notice the total and complete absence of the fact Dumas was in breach of probation and that a warrant had been out for his arrest for over a month which explains why he ran.
This "reporting" set the stage for the Dumas apologists to continue to bleat about the dead criminal being a victim of his skin colour and not of his own actions.
"After hearing all of the information presented, the family remains convinced Dumas was a victim of racial profiling, just like native leader J.J. Harper, who was shot in 1988 after police mistook him for a car thief. "
The problem is they did not like what they heard.So they chose not to listen, and as expected invoked the memory of JJ Harper, an innocent man walking down Logan in 1988, who unlike Dumas was not wanted on a warrant, did not run from police, and was not carrying a concealed weapon when shot in a struggle with a police officer.
The Southern Chiefs Organization, a First Nations advocacy group that has supported the Dumas family throughout their ordeal, has called on Winnipeg police chief Keith McCaskill to repair the damage between the aboriginal community and police.
The SCO is not an "advocacy organization" of the grassroots in the community. It is a political organization composed of politicians - elected chiefs of Southern Indian bands. There is no evidence of "damage" between the police and aboriginal community outside of the SCO.
"We need to ensure that this never, ever happens again, that we don't have another one of our organizations supporting another family for 3½, four, five years, trying to get justice or answers as to why their son, who was walking down the street, within 14 minutes was shot and killed dead," spokesperson Nahanni Fontaine said.
As reported on CJOB, Dumas' supporters claimed the witnesses were coached and police were rehearsed. Of course the only way to make their accusations stick, is to discredit everyone else involved - even an aboriginal witness and a Metis cop.
Fontaine, who is not known to be deaf, heard the answers to her questions at the inquest. To make it simple, I will repeat the answers she says she still does not have.
- A cruiser car responding to a search for armed robbers scrutinized Dumas.
- He acted suspiciously, was trying to hide something up his sleeve, and took off running.
- Matthew Dumas was in breach of probation, a warrant was out for his arrest, and he was also in breach for having a weapon on him, when he ran away.
- He was caught after ducking into Rod Pelletier's yard and being barked at by a huge dog when he stood at the side door. He pretended to be looking for a friend and asked for a light for his cigarette.
- When Cst. Jon Mateychuk approached the scene he had no idea what he was dealing with at that house, and the dog bit his pants seat.
- Mateychuk took Dumas out of the yard into the back lane away from the dog, where Dumas could be searched and questioned.
- Matthew Dumas sucker-punched the cop, ran onto Dufferin and menaced witness Willie Sinclair with a screwdriver when Sinclair offered to help the policeman.
- Dumas refused to follow police orders to stop running, to disarm himself, to obey commands, and most importantly, that he would be shot if he did not cease advancing on officer Dennis Gburek.
That is why Matthew Dumas was shot and killed. (It still remains to be answered by the pro-Dumas crowd why Matthew had a screwdriver on him, and why he brandished it at the scene of the chase.)
Of course, the facts were of no use to the single-minded Fontaine.
Winnipeg Sun: "However, Nahanni Fontaine, the SCO's justice director, said Dumas would not have been shot if he had been white instead of aboriginal."
And to back up her delusional view, she trotted out her research partner, University of Manitoba professor Elizabeth Comack, who showed the true value of higher education by also feigning deafness to the facts.
"It's pretty clear that any fear and distrust that Matthew might have had about police was actually well-founded," said Comack. "Because he did, after all, end up being shot to death."
The Sun has also earned a well-deserved smack for failing to tell readers that Comack was part of the SCO dog-and-pony press conference -- and was not providing the newspaper with an impartial view of the inquest.
She is currently working with Fontaine to find more anononymous anti-police story-tellers for their next academic (study) attack on those who serve and protect.
And not be left out of the media hall of shame, even the Free Press editorial "The Stain Remains", pandered to the illusion of a community divided by failing to call out the hate-mongers.
After concluding "An objective conclusion from all the evidence presented would find that the constable Mr. Dumas lunged at with a screwdriver had no option but to use lethal force", the editorial admitted "attempts to draw comparisons to the 1988 shooting death of aboriginal leader J.J. Harper would be specious".
Yet the newspaper of record goes on give credibility to the Fontaines and Comacks of the city by writing:
"J.J. Harper's death left an indelible stain on the relationship between Winnipeg police and native people in this city and that infected the Dumas affair."
This "infection" was carried by the race-baiters, and they alone injected the issue of racial profiling.
The Free Press admitted those claims were unrelated to the apprehension and death of Dumas, yet willingly allowed the factual manipulations of the Dumas defenders to infect the editorial of the newspaper.
Let us be clear- there is no one in the general community who has once gone on the record as supporting the narrow agenda of the SCO and their pet academic.
One question still remains to be answered, and we are asking it of City Councillor Gord Steeves, chairman of the Protection Committtee:
When will he demand the resignation of Nahanni Fontaine from the Winnipeg Police Advisory Board ?
After ignoring all the evidence in this inquest, she has demonstrated that she has a one track mind - police are always bad, criminals are always misunderstood victims, and she has shown no hesitation to ignore facts when they contradict her ideology.
In no way can the citizens paying the tab for the WPAB be expected to believe she is capable of being a fair and objective advisor on matters involving the same Winnipeg Police Service she persists in calling racist.
