HAMILTON, Ont. - Ontario's top cop was grilled on the stand Wednesday by an activist he had charged with attempting to incite civil disobedience at a violent protest against an aboriginal occupation in southwestern Ontario.

Gary McHale, who is representing himself at his preliminary inquiry, questioned provincial police Commissioner Julian Fantino about the charges that flowed from a violent incident on Dec. 1, 2007 in Caledonia, Ont., the site of an often nasty land-claim dispute.

McHale suggested the commissioner had decided that he should be charged even before any violence had occurred.

Fantino bluntly accused McHale of being behind various violent confrontations involving First Nations, town residents and police.

McHale was an agitator who provoked confrontations and baited police, Fantino said looking straight at him from the witness box.

"But for you, Caledonia would have been a relatively peaceful place," Fantino said.

McHale became a controversial figure after Six Nations members occupied a 40-hectare building site outside Caledonia in February 2006, claiming the land is theirs.

The tense situation turned violent at times, and McHale - along with some residents and politicians - accused Ontario provincial police of a double standard in allowing the occupation to continue.

McHale maintains non-natives in the town who wanted to speak out were being silenced.

On Wednesday, court heard that on the morning of Dec. 1, Fantino responded to an email from one of the on-scene officers who said McHale was "agitating."

"At some point, McHale has to go," Fantino wrote in response.

"It was time for you to be removed," the police chief explained in response to McHale's questioning about the note.

"My interpretation was and is that but for you, things would have been peaceful."

Ontario Court Justice Bernd Zabel must decide if McHale, of Binbrook, Ont., should stand trial on a charge of counselling mischief not committed.

The Crown maintains McHale encouraged a longtime resident of the community to organize a road blockade outside an aboriginal smoke shack on that December day that turned violent.

The judge repeatedly admonished McHale for his broad lines of questioning, including one where he tried to get Fantino to talk about what police would regard as proof of property ownership and their discretion in laying charges.

Those questions were "more appropriate for a public inquiry or some other court case," Zabel said.

"You're going too far afield."

In another email to Haldimand County council and copied to senior Ontario government officials, Fantino took exception to comments a councillor had made supporting McHale, court heard.

Fantino told councillors he would support lawsuits against them if his officers were injured in the confrontations, and would charge policing costs - estimated at the time at about $800,000 a month - back to the county.

It wasn't a threat, the commissioner said.

"It was putting people on notice as to what I was prepared to do."

Fantino also said he stood by a letter of character reference he wrote for a native protester who was charged with assaulting McHale on the day of the smoke-shack protest. Clyde Powless pleaded guilty but was given an absolute discharge.

McHale, who sees himself as a civil-rights activist, repeatedly put it to Fantino that police had focused on him exclusively, and ignored the fact that other violent incidents occurred when he was not around.

The hearing continues Thursday and Fantino was expected to return to the witness stand next week.