Gary McHale's History

Polarizing figure takes on native protestersCaledonia fight becomes full-time for Christian with troubled background

HAYLEY MICK

When dawn breaks this morning, Gary McHale and his wife, Christine, will pull away from Richmond Hill in a beige sedan with two Canadian flags tucked in the trunk.Mr. McHale will head west at exactly the speed limit, to ensure that his archrivals, the Ontario Provincial Police, have no reason to stop him before he reaches the town of Caledonia.It is there, on land that has been occupied by Six Nations protesters for almost a year, that he hopes to raise his flag, get arrested along with his followers and prove what he thinks is a valid point."Native people think that they are above all laws," Mr. McHale said.Eight months ago, the 44-year-old had to scan a map to locate Caledonia, a town of 10,000 just south of Hamilton. Now the two-hour trip into southwestern Ontario is a familiar part of his mission to end the "two-tier justice" he says allows native occupiers to surf above the law.Mr. McHale, in turn, has risen to become one of the most polarizing figures in the conflict -- a troublemaker to some, a hero to others -- while many local Caledonians, police officers and politicians trying to resolve the conflict wish he would just go away.A heavy police presence will be there today to quash clashes that they fear will erupt between the Six Nations protesters and Mr. McHale's followers.Mr. McHale hopes the rally will surpass in arrests and attendance one that he co-organized in December, which attracted national media attention and hundreds of protesters, and ended with a London realtor and Mr. McHale in jail. Neither man was charged.But since then, many people have wondered: Who is Mr. McHale and why, with no connections to the town or the land dispute, is he planning rallies that could shatter its fragile peace?In reality, long before he quit his job to become the creator of his website, CaledoniaWakeUpCall.com, he was no stranger to conflict, whether with his family, the law, or even fellow churchgoers.Gary McHale grew up the youngest of six brothers, playing in the creeks and farm fields of Violet, Ont., a village north of Kingston. Money was scarce -- his mother worked at a seniors home and his father on various jobs -- and the brothers grew up fast.At age 7, Mr. McHale was baking bread; the same year he stole 26 chocolate bars from a local store. "We were kind of wild as kids," he said.His mother was killed in a highway accident when Mr. McHale was 10, and soon after the family moved to Kingston. "My father wasn't really around, so we kind of raised ourselves," he said.He says some of his brothers fell into crime, and city life didn't suit him. He rejoined relatives in Violet when he was 13. Two years later, tensions he says he created drove him to live in St. Catharines with his oldest brother, Greg. By the time he graduated, he had attended six high schools.He was a shy teen -- he once asked a teacher to give him a zero, just to avoid a public speaking assignment -- but at Laura Secord Secondary School he met Christine, a petite, accomplished piano player who held his hand on their third date.By Grade 13, the pair were engaged and living in a two-bedroom apartment behind the Famous Players movie theatre, where they both worked. They married in Kingston when he was 19 and she was 20.Still, past hardship left him angry. "I would say primarily it was bitterness against my father . . . I guess it was against anyone in a position of authority," he said.Greg McHale, 53, who lives in Oshawa, said the death of their mother probably affected his youngest brother most. "I think it was difficult for him."Crime was a symptom of the anger, Gary said. "I was a professional shoplifter throughout my teens." Anything from 30-pound turkeys to stereo systems were fair game, he says, until the law caught up in 1981 and he was convicted for theft under $200 in Kingston and Bellville.Then, at age 22, he followed several family members down a new path, and became a Christian."I'm a different person. The anger was virtually gone instantaneously," he said.His wife added: "You went from night to day. To me it was like, what happened to my husband and who is this man?"By the early 1990s, Mr. McHale was taking courses at Seminary College, north of Toronto, where he earned a reputation as an eager, curious and capable student -- if a little overbearing in class."Sometimes he expressed himself in ways that didn't keep the dialogue going very well," said Professor Stan Fowler, then the school dean and one of Mr. McHale's theology professors.Mr. McHale met Michael Haykin, a history professor who was impressed with his eagerness for Christian pursuits. The pair collaborated on what was supposed to be a five-volume series on the "Vineyard" evangelical movement.They parted after two books, but Mr. Haykin said he never felt comfortable with the critical tone of the works. When one volume was re-released in 2005, he said, he toned down parts of the text."Gary is a black-and-white guy. He's all or nothing," said Mr. Haykin, now a professor at Toronto Baptist Seminary. "He pushed me in terms of the way things are expressed."Around this time, Mr. McHale and Christine were gaining popularity at Richmond Hill Baptist Church, where Mr. McHale was elected deacon and became friends with the pastor, Perry Edwards. That relationship soured after about a year -- in large part because he had formed a Bible study group, Mr. McHale said."Call it egos, call it pride, call it whatever you want, the pastor was upset that these meetings were getting bigger and bigger."Others close to the church say Mr. McHale had divided the congregation and clashed with Mr. Edwards, who did not wish to answer questions about Mr. McHale. "I really don't want to be involved in any way with Gary McHale," he said. The McHales were eventually asked to leave the church.Soon, Mr. McHale found another passion: politics.In 2001, he was jailed overnight for jamming Richmond Hill MP Bryon Wilfert's fax machine by sending the same 35-page document over and over again.[/u] Paul Martin's Liberal government was often a target in letters he sent to Toronto newspapers. In February, 2006, he started a blog dedicated to turfing British Columbia MP David Emerson for quitting the Liberals to join the new Tory government.Then, in June of 2006, Mr. McHale turned on the television, and witnessed his "final straw."He hadn't thought much about native issues, he said, but was outraged to learn that two seniors and a cameraman had been attacked in Caledonia, with no arrests.He quit his home-based accounting business and devoted himself full-time to a website that now has over 11,000 pages. The site includes videos, news articles, and editorials written by Mr. McHale. "My website wouldn't be needed if the media were doing their job," he said.He says he puts in 16 hours a day on his computer. He and Christine live off donations from supporters that they say have amounted to $11,000 in the past eight months.As for today's rally, he has ignored repeated public warnings by both Ontario's minister responsible for aboriginal affairs, David Ramsay, and OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino, who say that his tactics are counterproductive."We know from past incidents that there is a potential for violence at these things. Tempers seem to be escalating," OPP Sergeant Dave Rektor said."It's just sickening to think that someone would grandstand and use Caledonia as their venue."Mr. McHale's father, Leo also says he feels uneasy. "He's going the wrong way about it. He's not going to change anything by going up there and trying to cross 'em," he said, adding that he sympathizes with some of his son's opinions.Janie Jamieson, who has acted as a spokeswoman for the Six Nations protesters, dismisses Mr. McHale as an "exhibitionist" and says the occupiers will ignore the rally."My perception of Gary McHale is someone who's struggled with a sense of belonging and sort of needs recognition," she said.Mr. McHale says he knows "powerful forces want to bring him down," but that he won't stop until he "changes the system."At the end of a recent three-hour interview, he said that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent has interviewed him twice: once in his snug home office, and again over lunch at the Lone Star Texas Grill."If I was the government, I'd be investigating me, too," he said. "I mean, they don't know who I am. I could be the most whacked-out nut going. I could be building bombs in here," he said, indicating his condo.But, he says, he understands."I'm a player in a game now, if I can call it that way."

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