Posts Tagged ‘police state’

In Remembrance of the Charter of Rights and Freedom

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

William Hogarth, "Court of Law"By Elizabeth Littlejohn

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
- John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963), in a speech at the White House, 1962

I write this on the eve of Remembrance Day, 2010, as PM Harper flies to South Korea for a repeat performance of the G20, as three days of testimonies unfold in Toronto and Montreal to question RCMP conduct, and the government continues to refuse a public inquiry into the G20. This judicial inquiry is morally imperative as it would enable the federal court to subpoena evidence from witnesses under oath to knit together the patchwork of incriminating evidence, establish the chain of command of policing during the G20, and finally assign culpability. Both parties are standing firm- this all-encompassing inquiry must not be allowed happen. It may be the only issue they agree upon at this time, having closed ranks to goose-step around civil liberties. Meanwhile, PM Harper is fiddling while Rome burns, selling more of our assets to multinationals in South Korea. Has it occurred to him that Canada is not his to sell?

I dedicate this article to my grandfather, who fought in the First World War, and was one of the few who survived the air force. He came back so shell-shocked that if his family spoke while he drove, he had to pull over to the side of the road to calm down. Within my extended family, several members have been awarded Orders of Canada for public service. I am, however, a vilified ‘protester’, as I believe that there must be a full inquiry into the G8/G20 Summit so that both levels of government are forced to be responsible for the gross abuse of police power, violation of civil liberties and powers of taxation, and desecration of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the Charter cannot defend its own constitution and abrogation of civil rights, it is a constitution no longer.

It is exactly one week since I witnessed the voting down of the second reading of Bill 121, a public interest investigation into the G8/G20 Summit tabled by Welland’s NDP MPP, Peter Kormos, by 8 ‘ayes’ to 28 ‘neas’ in Queen’s Park. Upon the resounding ‘nea’ across the floor by the consolidated Liberals and Conservatives, there was a unanimous, audible gasp by those in the peanut gallery. Included in that singular voice was my own, and within an hour, having sped away on my round legs, I was listening to Chris Hedges talk about his new book, “The Death of the Liberal Class” at the Munk School for Global Affairs. His lecture was a play-by-play of what I had seen at Queen’s Park, and spoke directly to me.

Could it be, according to Chris Hedges, that the liberal left – unions, churches and universities, progressive political parties, and the press – has lost moral suasion as a guiding voice for democratic dialogue? Have we abandoned our moral compass in favour of corporate elitism? And have we allowed the gutting of ethics, and the erosion of civil liberties, for financial gain? As I watched the provincial NDP fight back at Queen’s Park, and be mocked for their efforts by the opposing parties, I thought no- it is worse- citizens’ rights are being viewed with contempt as they contest the streamlining of economic interests, the growing division between the rich and poor, and the destruction of the environment. As Chris Hedges notes, without a robust liberal voice to engage in this debate, there is a very real danger that things will degrade into violence as the middle and working classes become increasingly disenfranchised, angry and confused. Internationally, general strikes rage, generated by falsely imposed austerity measures imposed by the banks, and Chris Hedges predicts that the US, then Canada, will be next, on the front line. A cynical friend said that no doubt the Conservatives had a contingency fund for legal challenges as part of their G20 bottom line, a line item right after their $500, 000 worth of delegate party favours -glow sticks, hand sanitizer, and $100 pens.

At Queen’s Park, throughout the presentation of the bill, I was distressed by the disregard the opposition had for the NDP. They held extended conversations during their presentation, loud enough to be heard by me in the upper gallery, to show their displeasure at the possibility of the second reading of Bill 121. For me, as a Canadian citizen, it was a momentous historical occasion, for the Liberals and Conservatives, it was a $1.3 billion farce of the highest order, worthy of a William Hogarth cartoon – when Peter Kormos mentioned the editorial in the Star demanding a formal inquiry, a Liberal MPP turned to the fashion section, searching for it there. I watched her. A MPP from the Muskoka region, Garfield Dunlop, mentioned the success of the G8 in Huntsville, although I heard how golfers were losing balls off the green, and militia were crawling out of the brush, holding the golf ball up, and warning them not to hit off the fairway again.

I have always been ambivalent about the Ontario Parliament Network, the official channel of the provincial legislature, but I was glad that it was recording and broadcasting this debate for posterity, ignored as it was by the opposition. MPPs, please be aware that you are being observed. I have heard how the intellectual level of discourse, as transcribed in the Hansard, the official record, is the lowest it has ever been historically, but the resounding speeches of NDP MPPs, Peter Kormos, Andrea Horwath, and Cheri DiNovo , showed courage, a monumental standing up for the underdog. As I left the gallery, I made the universal symbol for typing to Cheri DiNovo. I will transcribe my own citizen’s Hansard of events, and I will remember this travesty of justice in the defense of the Charter, and my grandfather, who fought for a kinder, gentler Canada, and my right to protest. During the G20, police erased incriminating photographs on iPhones by resetting the factory settings to default, and stomping on memory cards, to erase incriminating evidence of police brutality. I refuse to let these memories be erased.

Later, at the lecture, deeply shaken, I asked Chris Hedges about the vilification of protesters, and he spoke of having his microphone cut off, twice, during a lecture, and being escorted off a university campus. The press reported that he had created a riot, and the university sent him his coat by mail. Protesters, intellectuals, academics, environmentalists- these are all epithets, just as a Liberal MP pointed out the eloquence of Peter Kormos was due to his background as a lawyer during the Bill 121 debate. Those who ask for educated discussion are discredited to enable bigotry and prejudice, as PM Harper plays his role as ideologue to evade facts, discourage analysis, and hold court through emotion. Elitists, environmentalists, lawyers, lefties, union members, protesters- these have all become dirty words – just read the comments section online, and see how democratic discourse has descended into name calling, supported by this new form of government.

There will be no justice until there is a public inquiry, which ties together the disparate inquiries into a coherent series of events enabled by a chain of command, and yes, assigns blame. We deserve to know what happened, and not to be distracted by the pomp and circumstance of yet another G20 Summit, quick on the heels of our own. Regulation 233/10, the five meter fence rule, will lead right back to the Premier McGuinty’s office, then to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Investigation of this fallacious law will prove PM Harper’s desire to cut away the backbone of peaceful resistance by targeting caring, educated and engaged youth to ensure their future political passivity. The young woman, hit by rubber bullets, may never return to Toronto, and sadly, these memories of the state of martial law have changed a generation’s perception of police. As an educator, I will never forget this deliberate humiliation of over eleven hundred protesters, and as a citizen, I will never forget that my grandfather fought for naught, because I can be taxed to the hilt to have my civil liberties suspended for a political spectacle enabling police brutality, and civilian abuse. Canada is not safer since the Summits and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been allowed to be put into question, and with that, the fundamental rights of every citizen. Shame.

References:
Hedges, Chris. The Death of the Liberal Class. New York: Nation, 2010. Print.
Theo Moudakis, Opinion in Toronto Star, Public Inquiry November 1st, link at http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/883743–g20-summit-public-inquiry-still-required
Krystalline Kraus, “Activist Communique: Ontario G20 inquiry public members bill failed to pass second reading and the Summit cost totals”, ‏link at http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/krystalline-kraus/2010/11/activist-communiqu%C3%A9-ontario-g20-inquiry-public-members-bill
The Hansard, November 4th, http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/house-proceedings/house_detail.do?locale=en&Date=2010-11-04&detailPage=%2Fhouse-proceedings%2Ftranscripts%2Ffiles_html%2F04-NOV-2010_L066.htm&Parl=39&Sess=2#P1300_294131

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We Will Not Be Intimidated: The FBI Raids in Context

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Image via Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune

By Ron Jacobs in Dissident Voice, September 27, 2010.

On September 24, 2010 the FBI raided several houses and a couple offices in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and North Carolina under the guise of looking for proof that the people living in those houses were involved with organizations that “lent material support to terrorists.” Ironically (or perhaps presciently) the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) also released an 88 page document titled “The Policing of Political Speech: Constraints on Mass Dissent in the U.S” on that day. Not content to criminalize the representation provided by attorneys to those accused of fomenting terrorism as in the case of Lynne Stewart, with these raids the Obama administration has stepped up the repression that became quite commonplace under George Bush.

In short, the government is attempting to criminalize the organizing of antiwar protests. Furthermore, it wants to make opposition to Washington’s assistance in repressing struggles for self-determination illegal. Other repressive actions by law enforcement against US citizens, including the sentencing of a videographer to 300 days in jail for trespass after he tried to film an unauthorized talk in Chicago and the acknowledgement by the Pittsburgh FBI office that it had spied on peace activists and used a private agency to help out, makes it clear that the PATRIOT Act and its excesses are alive and well under the Obama administration. Repression is a bipartisan activity, especially when it comes to the repression of the left.

These raids are a clear and vicious attempt to intimidate the antiwar movement. The grand jury is a fishing expedition, as evidenced (for example) by the warrant asking for papers from no determined time. This intimidation is a continuation of the harassment of the Twin Cities left/anarchist community that began before the 2008 Republican National Convention. If one recalls, several organizers had their homes and offices raided prior to the convention. In addition, hundreds of protesters were arrested and many more were beaten by law enforcement. Eight organizers were eventually charged with a variety of charges including conspiracy. As of September 25, 2010, three of those charged had all of their charges dropped and the rest face trial on October 25, 2010.

This is not just about the movement in the Twin Cities, however. The September 24th raids also took place in Chicago and North Carolina. There is a grand jury being convened in October 2010 with the intention of perhaps charging some of the people (and maybe others) subpoenaed on September 24th. These raids are an attempt by the federal government to criminalize antiwar organizing They are also an attempt to make support for the Palestinians and other people fighting for self-determination illegal.

The PATRIOT Act was passed on October 26, 2001. Since that passage, the level of law enforcement intimidation and outright repression increased quite dramatically. From little things like protesters being forced to protest in so-called free speech zones or face arrest to the recent approval of the assassination of US citizens by federal death squads, there has been a clear progression away from any concern for protecting civil liberties. Indeed, the concern for civil liberties is usually dismissed by politicians, judges, and other people in power almost as if they were some worthless costume jewelry from your grandmother’s jewelry box. As mentioned earlier, this harassment and repression is not new to US history. In addition to multiple murders of Black liberation activists, illegal surveillance, false imprisonment and other forms of harassment, the use of grand juries was essential to the repression of the antiwar and antiracist movements of the 1960s and 1970s. As the NLG document points out, “from 1970-1973, over 100 grand juries in 84 cities subpoenaed over 1,000 activists.” However, nowadays there seems to be less resistance to it. Some of this can be attributed to the lack of press coverage, which is quite possible intentional. Much of the lack of concern, however, can be attributed to the state of fear so many US residents live in. This is a testimony to the power of the mainstream media and its willingness to serve as the government’s propaganda wing.

To those who argue that the media doesn’t always support the government and then cite Fox News’ distaste for Obama or a liberal newspaper’s distaste for certain policies enacted under George Bush, let me point something out. Like the two mainstream political parties (and the occasional right wing third party movement like the Tea Party), even when different media outlets seem to be opposing each other, the reality is that neither opposes the underlying assumptions demanded by the State. In fact, the only argument seems to be how better to effect the underlying plan of the American empire. The plan itself (or the rightness of the plan) is never seriously questioned.

The September 24, 2010 raids in the Twin Cities, Chicago and North Carolina may not seem like much, even to other antiwar organizers and leftists. The setting up of “free speech zones” may also appear minor. A grand jury fishing for supposed links to “terrorism” by antiwar activists may seem like no big deal. Violations of human rights in cases involving foreign nationals like Aafia Siddiqui (who was sentenced to 86 years after a trial that barely recognized her defense) do not even register on most Americans’ radar. Yet, it is the cumulative effect of all of these efforts at repression that we should be aware of. As James Madison wrote: “”I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” If these seemingly minor encroachments on liberties we assume we have go unchallenged, how long might it be before assassinations and torture by the US military and their mercenary cohorts are carried out on US citizens? Oh wait, that’s already happening.

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Alleged G20 “co-conspirator” re-arrested after speaking at Ryerson University

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Police allege panel presentation breached condition to not protest in public

by Tim McSorley,

Published in the Toronto Media Co-op on Sept 18th, 2010

About 100 people have gathered at the Old Court in Toronto this morning in support of local activist and organizer Alex Hundert, who was taken into police custody on Friday night by Toronto police.

Hundert, one of the most outspoken critics of the G20 and the police crackdown on those who participated in the Toronto protests at the end of June, was reportedly arrested at around 10:30pm yesterday following his participation on a panel at Ryerson University. The panel was entitled, “Strengthening Our Resolve: Movement Building and Ongoing Resistance to the G20 Agenda.”

Police have said that his participation on this and other panels amounts to a breach of one of his bail conditions stipulating he can not participate in a public protest. Hundert is scheduled to appear in court sometime today.

Hundert was originally arrested on the morning or June 26 before the G20 protests began. He is co-accused with over a dozen others on conspiracy charges relating to the protests, and has been labeled a protest “ringleader” in the media. He is currently out on bail with strict conditions.

“We are outraged at Alex’s re-arrest. He was speaking at a panel discussion in a university classroom alongside professors, which is clearly not a public demonstration,” said No One Is Illegal organizer Mohan Mishra in a statement to the press. “This is yet another attempt to silence Alex, and is a strong indication of the police’s intent to criminalize ideas, dissent, and effective community organizing.”

Hundert and his partner and co-accused Leah Henderson had both previously been threatened with re-incarceration for breach of bail conditions over interviews they had granted to the press. This included an interview he granted to the Vancouver Media Co-op, and republished in The Dominion.

Hundert’s re-arrest comes as police have continued to make arrests in the months following the protests. Juan Pablo Lepore, an Argentinian documentary filmmaker, was the latest to be arrested in early September. He remains in Toronto police custody awaiting bail on charges of mischief exceeding $5000, mischief endangering life, and assault. Supporters say he is being targeted because of his work as an indymedia journalist.

Despite what many see as a concerted effort to criminalize protest and freedom of speech, community organizers say they will continue on.

“Though many of our members have been arrested and are facing trumped-up charges, our movements will not be silenced. We will continue to organize against the G8 and G20 leaders and their corporate villains that pillage the earth with industrial projects and profit from war,” Rachel Avery, a member of Anti-War at Laurier (AW@L) and a music student at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, said at the same press conference as Mishra, earlier on Saturday.

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An Attack on Democracy and Indigenous Freedom at the G20

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Published on Aug 26, 2010 in the First Nation’s Drum: Canada’s National Native Newspaper
By Danny Beaton, Mohawk
Photograph courtesy of Ben Powless, Mohawk

Police Car burns in downtown Toronto

As we walked out to catch the streetcar headed east on College Street, the rain was warm as it began to soak through our hair. On Saturday, June 26, 2010, we were going to join the protest of the G8 and G20 at the Legislation steps at Queens Park in Toronto, Ontario. The streetcar stopped near Grace Street, and my partner’s son’s drum teacher got on and sat in the seat in front of us. We exchanged greetings. Later in the day, we saw him drumming magnificently on his chrome snare drum belted across his chest as he and several dozen drummers and dancers celebrated the fifteen thousand concerned citizens, artists, teachers, mothers, fathers, even grandparents of all colours and backgrounds who had gathered to protest the many concerns we collectively inherited.

We stood on College Street watching the colours and banners of different groups, organizations, unions, and people all smiling and filling the air with positive energy with chants and slogans of justice. When I saw Greenpeace, I said to my wife, “Let’s join them,” as I have known some of their staff for many years. “No,” she said. “We will wait for the Council of Canadians, as they will remember us and they will have some Site 41 people there, maybe some farmers, too.” Sure enough, the Council began to walk by us, and we stepped in and shook hands with Don and Mary Jane and their two university children. We all exchanged hugs and began to chat as we walked down University Street, stopping now and then to wait for the crowd to catch up.

When we reached the American Embassy where the protest had stopped, hundreds of armed police in military combat stance stood in front of the embassy in all directions, staring at us with cold glaring eyes locked on us. We smiled in our now mindful experience of the military state we were entering. Military-style police stood on public benches, some wearing protective face masks, some with clubs and huge shields like an army ready to pounce, scare, beat, or confront an enemy. Many of these guards held what looked like shotguns, riot guns, assault weapons ready for a confrontation. I felt a negative force, and all I could say to them was, “What are you protecting?” I felt a monster present; that image in front of the US Embassy was something from a movie like Apocalypse Now. The entire protest, I am sure, was surprised at the size and array of goons in military style. My friends shook their heads in disbelief. We all exchanged comments regarding the police, and we all agreed this was uncanny for Toronto to have such a cold army of riot squads, like we were back in the days of Gandhi in India, boycotting the British rule.

The march continued south, and the image we saw as we passed the US Embassy that afternoon will remain etched in our minds, knowing what we are up against in our struggle for justice, freedom, and environmental protection. We continued down University Street with roughly 15,000 walking peacefully, calmly, now in a state of awkwardness, feeling like our message was being heard just by our sheer numbers. Everyone was positive. Many of us were carrying cameras, snapping away at the momentum and unity achieved by the organizers. The Spirit of Unity, Harmony, Justice, and Peace had been achieved.

Now we had started at Queens Park and traveled to Queen Street, where we were confronted with two rows of shoulder-to-shoulder riot police with shields and batons. They forced our peaceful walk from south to west where every street north and south was guarded by the same 2 rows of shoulder-to-shoulder riot police forcing our walk west, giving us a boxed-in feeling with the reality of being truly controlled by a goon squad.

This once trendy shopping district filled with tourists, Torontonians, street vendors, and citizens alive with zest, peace, and calm now appeared to be under marshal law, about to explode with danger, and the feeling of danger was everywhere. Being surrounded by a riot squad and goon force was no easy feeling as we were not ready for battle, nor were we prepared for a beating; we were peaceful protesters chanting and drumming for life. Just as we reached Spadina Street, a group of protesters turned around and headed east, followed by a hyper group of riot police running after them—this I believe was the beginning of the violence to come over the next three days.

Our city was now under siege; the monster was unleashed; the tear gas exploded. Billy clubs were stained in blood by angry police who came to Toronto for a confrontation. Several hundred innocent citizens beat to the ground by the riot squad, and for what? For who and why? The G20 and elite G8 were not in Toronto to discuss the most serious environmental disasters in the history of the earth (oil rupture by BP in the Gulf of Mexico) or the most serious environmental crisis (climate change or global warming enhanced by Canada’s tar sands). North American Native peoples have never been consulted by this elite of western political leaders about environmental issues in any serious strategic context regarding environmental protection or any forms of joint management of natural resources. Native peoples of North and South America and the indigenous peoples of the world demand the protection of Mother Earth for Seven Generations of Accountability for future generations to come.

The gathering of government leaders of the world in Toronto without the input of indigenous leaders was the first mistake Prime Minister Stephan Harper made to discredit any world debate on the solving of world problems. Realistically speaking, the G20 or G8s first priority or intention was never meant to solve environmental problems but was meant to keep the activity of material goods and consumption moving along so that the profits would continue, based on the exploitation of natural resources and development of indigenous territories without Native or Aboriginal consent. Now these political leaders have gone back to their own countries to try and keep their economy from collapsing—and the economy is a real issue, only there are even bigger issues. Real issues of environmental degradation have not been addressed. The fishermen by the Gulf of Mexico and so many others have lost their economy, but this was not a priority for western thinkers who gave the “go ahead” on deep sea oil drilling. The Tar Sands in Alberta are destroying rivers, lakes, streams, and Native homeland. Not to mention animals, birds, fish, the traditional Native diet, berries, plants, and medicines are contaminated, and for what? Profit. Contamination is now moving along to other communities.

We have to ask ourselves about what is more important: profit or water and sustenance. Economies should evolve around life, not death. We cannot let negative thinkers, businessmen, politicians hide with the police and army to protect them while they develop and destroy water and earth, because it belongs to our children and their children. Real problems like environmental protection need to be addressed now because soon there might be a dead ocean. Collecting the oil was not a first priority, and it created a far worse problem by dispersing toxic chemicals that have devastated the people’s homeland and life.

The people have a human right to defend Mother Earth and her blood and their children’s future because it is Our Way of Life—everything has a right to live, and Respect is the Law of the Land. This is the North American way of life and always has been, and it is the Natural Law of life with the natural world. Mother Earth can take care of us, but we have to take care of her, too. The police should never have used force on innocent protesters, artists, teachers, fathers, mothers, students who stood up for justice, unity, righteousness, and peace. Thank you for listening. All My Relations.

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Connecting the dots of an emerging police state

Friday, August 27th, 2010

A video by The Real News Network
Video with transcripts can be found on The Real News

Clayton Ruby defends Charlie Veitch, second person charged under Public Works Protection Act

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21 Reasons for a Full Public G20 Inquiry

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

(Note: This list was posted on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/ontario-watchdog-launching-new-review-of-police-action-during-g20-summit/article1648886/ by Paul R 64 on page 2 of the comments section.)

The internal investigation/deputation process by the Toronto Police Services Board, though to be warmly received, is not the full public inquiry that I and 50,000 others are campaigning for to clear up the answers to so many questions:

1. Why did Stephen Harper choose to hold the G20 summit in downtown Toronto against the advice of the city government?

2. What other advice did he consider in making that decision?

3. Where did the billion dollars go – not just the security budget, the whole expenditure on the G8/G20 summits – in detail?

4. What were the details of the tendering/selection process whereby Contemporary Security got the contract to provide security services? Remember, they didn’t have a license to work in Ontario.

5. How did the Ontario Government process the application of Contemporary Security in such a short time relative to the time that it takes to process other similar applications?

6. Why did Bill Blair think he needed additional legal powers to protect the area inside the security fence and why did he specifically ask for the Regulation under the Public Works Protection Act?

7. In the days leading up to the summits, why did Dalton McGuinty and his cabinet remain silent about the existence of the Regulation that they had passed?

8. Why did Bill Blair, with no authority in law, create the 5-metre exclusion zone OUTSIDE the security fence, then order his officers to enforce it?

9. Why did Dalton McGuinty, when David Vasey was arrested on June 24 under Bill Blair’s fake law, not speak up and inform Blair that he had overstepped the authority of the law?

10. It was known for months that vandals would arrive in Toronto to attack property. What was the strategy of the ISU to deal with them?

11. Who gave the command that the police in the street should abandon their “cruisers”? The quote marks are intentional. These were not functional cruisers. Why were they there?

12. Why, in NONE of the videos or still shots that have surfaced of the burning cruisers or the vandals damaging property, are there any police officers? Where where they?

13. Who gave the command that the police give free rein to the Black Bloc-ers as they burned the cruisers and broke windows? Why was this order given?

14. Who gave the order to disperse the demonstrators from the designated demonstration site in Queen’s Park on Saturday, June 26? Why was this order given?

15. Who gave the order to detain and arrest the people on the Esplanade on the night of Saturday, June 26? Why was this order given?

16. Who gave the orders to fire tear gas and to arrest people outside the detention centre on the morning of Sunday, June 27? Why were these orders given?

17. Who gave the order to “kettle” the people at Queen St. and Spadina Avenue on the evening of Sunday, June 27? Why was this order given?

18. Who designed the Eastern Avenue detention centre? What were the principles under which the centre was designed; e.g., why were gays detained separately?

19. Who gave the order for police to demand identification and to make unwarranted searches of peaceful people in locations all over the city, far away from the security fence?

20. What training did the police officers receive that, as individuals, they behaved in a manner so disrespectful and contemptuous of the rights of Canadian citizens?

21. What will be done to identify police officers who removed the identification (names and numbers) that they are required to wear? What sanctions will be applied against them?

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OCAP Protesters Arrested Without Provocation, July 22nd 2010.

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Policing at the G20 summit sets a new precedent. The Toronto police continues to violently repress and threaten community organizers during peaceful protests.

Article by Megan Kinch, Toronto Media Co-op

Eleven peaceful protesters were arrested Wednesday, for the crime of speaking out against cuts to Ontario Works and Ontario Disability which take away food from sick people. Lisa Schofield, an organizer with OCAP (the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty) said “it’s clear that they they are using the security budget to police poor communities. The austerity budgets that they are bringing down will be brought with lines of riot police.”

In an OCAP press release Anne Abbot said “I went to the demonstration to demand the special diet not be cut and that welfare and ODSP rates be raised 55% for those of us on social assistance. Instead, I was arrested and the police called me “a pawn” because I am disabled. I am not a pawn. Disabled people fight against governments that make and keeps us poor everyday, and we will fight until we win enough money to eat healthy food and pay our rents,” Current welfare rates are $585 a month for a single person, which is not enough to buy food for a previously healthy person, yet alone someone with special dietary needs.

The protest wound through the downtown, stopping at the offices of the provincial Liberals, who cut the special diet without warning. According to the OCAP website, it was to be a short stop to deliver an invoice “demanding full re-payment of benefits taken from people living on social assistance.” A banner was dropped from an office window and people spoke to the assembled crowd below.

Lenny Olin, was working as an interpreter for Ann Abbot, her employer, and was reading out Anne’s speech from the window when the crowd saw her dragged away by police. Ironically, the conclusion of the speech would have been a statement of solidarity with all prisoners.

The crowd chanted for the release of the prisoners, but to no avail. Several OCAP and allied labour activists, handcuffed, were loaded into a police van. One of those arrested was Ilian Burbano, a long-time community organizer with the Latin American Solidarity Network and the president of CUPE 3393.

Lenny and Anne however, were not loaded into the van.

“presumably because they didn’t have transportation that was wheelchair accessible.” Lenny said. “I guess in this case the ableist fucked up injustice system worked in our favour. However people with disabilities in general are drastically over-represented in prisons and other types of forcible confinement, such as government run institutions, nursing homes and accessible living facilities.” Evoking the use of hospitals as prisons for disabled people, the police at first refused to arrest Ann but threatened to send Ann to a hospital as they were arresting her employee.

The arrestees were taken to 52 Division, where a small solidarity protest went on all afternoon as people from OCAP, the Latino community and their allies anxiously awaited news from inside. People were shocked to hear that the charges for some were mischief and forcible entry, which were hugely disproportionate to the actions taken. Previously, this sort of protest would have resulted in a trespassing ticket at worst. As Ali Mustafa, standing outside the prison, commented “They set a new precedent now, thanks to the G20.” These events demonstrate that increasingly aggressive policing continues, and that the policies of “g20 land” were not a state of exception but a continued policy.

OCAP is refusing to capitulate to police intimidation, and is calling for supporters to gather at bail hearings, which will take place July 22nd at 10:30, at college Park courthouse  (south-west corner of Yonge & College).

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They Were Doing Their God-Damn Jobs: On Policing

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

“Some public discussion suggests that policing during the G8/G20 reflects a breakdown, a failure to carry out their duties “properly”… This is not a case of the system going awry, breaking down, or being over the top. This is a case of the system doing precisely what it is organized to do.”


by Jeff Shantz
Linchpin, State Repression Columnist
Image by Ali Mustafa

In the days following the mass police assaults on organizers, demonstrators, and bystanders during the G8/G20 events, even as comrades linger in squalid detention centres and jails, a troubling notion is taking shape, seemingly gaining traction, among activist circles as well as some sectors of the general public more broadly. This notion suggests that the police in Toronto acted in a way that was somehow atypical or out of the ordinary. Even more there is a sense that the police could have “kept order.” Some public discussion suggests that policing during the G8/G20 reflects a breakdown, a failure to carry out their duties “properly.” Incredibly, during a rally in support of people in detention, Naomi Klein suggested that the police “Do your god-damned job!” In response many in the crowd chanted “Do your job! Do your job!” Elsewhere, and even more incredibly, Judy Rebick has suggested that the were police failed to do their jobs properly in not arresting perceived black block participants: “What they could have done is arrest the Black Bloc at the beginning before they had a chance to be part of the bigger crowd and that’s what they didn’t do.” Some seem to believe that the police were supposed to be there to protect them or that the police provide the means for “protest” to take place.

The concern here is that the discussion is being framed in a rather liberal framework that presents a proper, even desirable, form of state policing, a good way of policing against a bad, that police in Toronto presumably strayed from.

While it is certain that the police job is a god-damned one, should activists really be calling on the police to do it? Think about what that would actually mean. More than this, though, the police during the G8/G20 (as during APEC in 1997 and Quebec City in 2001) WERE doing their job. They were doing what they were and are instituted and structured to do. This is not a case of the system going awry, breaking down, going off the rails or being over the top. This is a case of the system doing precisely what it is organized to do (and in a rather limited way).

The related argument is that the task ahead is then to get the police back to doing it right, to doing their job, to act properly as police. Thus calls for public inquiries that will supposedly shame the police or find them to have acted inappropriately or hold them accountable (to whom?/ to themselves?/to Harper?). Historically the more brutal the police, the less the allegiance of the citizenry. They know this.

In earlier ages the ruling classes were rather more direct about what the job of the police involved (they wrote it down without concern since most non-elites were not taught to read anyway). The term “police” itself comes from the Greek “polis”—the city. The institution was created to regulate the working classes and poor (the so-called dangerous classes) who were moving to cities after having been violently displaced from their communal lands (and who were rightly pissed about it and did not want jobs in the deadly factories). Look at the legislation that founded the first modern police forces in France and Germany. The royal edict of 1667 that founded the first modern police under Louis XIV in France stated clearly that the job of police was: “purging the city of what may cause disturbances, procuring abundance, and having each and every one live according to their station and duties.” Procuring abundance simply means ensuring the condition for economic exploitation. Having people live according to their station and duties is as clear an expression of maintaining class inequality as you can get. In Germany the language was similar and included urban planning and surveillance of prices among police functions.

Canadian state history, despite popular perceptions and mythologies, is replete with examples of the police—municipal, provincial and federal—“doing their jobs” in mass arrests, detentions, beatings, even killings of non-elites from various backgrounds (but particularly against indigenous communities and worker’s strikes). Only a short sample would include: the Red River Rebellion, the Northwest Rebellion, the Winnipeg General Strike, the On to Ottawa Trek, the FLQ “crisis,” the Quebec General Strike, Solidarity BC, Oka, Gustafsen Lake, Ipperwash, the OPSEU strike of 1995, June 15, Sun Peaks, Six Nations. And on and on so it has gone up to the present. Did the police not do their jobs in these cases?

In all of these instances, people were being restored to their station as the ruling classes saw it. Techniques, dress, language, and certainly public relations have changed. But, at root, the job of the police remains. And that is a job that we should be looking to abolish rather than restore.

More privileged audiences can tend to forget or overlook these foundation of policing while their effects are typically imposed on the poor, and indigenous people on an ongoing basis. When more privileged sectors are subjected to police violence, as during protests like APEC 1997 or the G8/G20, calls are raised for returning the police to their supposed “proper” place, and discussions of appropriate or inappropriate behaviour emerge, rather than calls for, say, abolition of the police as an institution.

The real issue is the existence of a standing private property army tasked with ensuring that non-elites are maintained in their station. The rising wave of direct actions is not about defiance of law and order—rather it is a challenge that the regime of rule itself is illegitimate. Their order is not ours and the order they are tasked with keeping is not one we want kept (at demonstrations or otherwise). For those who think police let the crowds get out of control, that does a disservice to us and our capacities. And why would organizers not want to get out from under police control anyway?

That the police are not forced to reveal their role more openly regularly, is, perhaps, a testament to our own incapacity in threatening to break out of our roles and station (partly what the black bloc is all about). We do not want to suggest that current policing has simply “gone off track” or “become corrupted.” Appeals to propriety suggest that there is a proper and legitimate role for the police institution—the job of policing.

Were the police at the G8/G20 (or APEC or Quebec City or June 15, 2001 or Vancouver 2010) doing their jobs? The answer is resolutely: “Yes.” Do we want them to do their job “more properly,” “more appropriately,” “more effectively?” “Hell, no.”

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Posted in Assault on Democracy, The Real Issues | 3 Comments »

G20 Toronto: Song of Peace and Redemption

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

(Link to http://railroadedbymetrolinx.blogspot.com/2010/07/g20-toronto-song-of-peace-and.html to read the article on the blog.)

“You will not recognize Canada when I get through with it.”
- Prime Minister Harper

This is one of the few things PM Harper has said which I hold to be true. Over the past three weeks, I marched on eight demonstrations, until Sunday, when I collapsed from heat exhaustion. I no longer recognize Toronto, or Canada, because of PM Harper’s actions, and for the last two days, I have been disoriented as if I have been caught in a tornado, and landed head first and upside down in a city which I do not comprehend. This new city is a militarized state which can suspend civil liberties to impose a summit, with a history of violence, to enable a group of self-selected economic leaders to streamline economic revenues into the hands of the corporate elite, and exclude the rights of civil society to share in this profit. I was so politically naive, I had not even heard of the Black Bloc until days into the People’s Summit workshops.

I marched for hours beside youth who had degrees in International Studies, organic farmers, grandmothers, trade unionists, First Nations leaders, and media activists. I had involved conversations about the International Monetary Fund, food security, child poverty, privatization of public assets and natural resources, and the pollution of native lands and waters through mining. We knew why we marched, and in great detail, but later, not why we were arrested for Breach of the Peace. And we watched the cameras watching us, and cameras became the protectors of pacifists, like myself, who wanted to nothing to do with the riot police, but wanted to bear witness to the brutality perpetrated on others, who were often non-confrontational as well. This 6 km, $5.5 million, zinc-bathed steel fence was commissioned by the government from SNC-Lavalin, which is paying $1 for the right of way to run 140 diesel trains daily in the Air Rail Link through west-end Toronto. (This is my nod to what I am supposed to be writing about in this column exclusively, and how everything is interconnected in terms of government contracts in the military-industrial complex.)

Although CSIS had ascertained that there was no terrorist threat for either the G8 or G20 Summits, on June 14th, Premier McGuinty secretly revived and passed a war bill from 1939, the Public Works Protection Act, to enable Chief Bill Blair to draw an invisible 5 meter line to mark an area outside this 3 meter high fence. This fence protecting the red zone of the G20 Summit became a net to catch protesters, who passed within this outlawed area, and police were able to invoke the Public Works Protection Act during their arrest. It was only after the G20 that the public was made aware that only protesters who were behind the fence could be lawfully detained by the police, and this law had no legitimate power, thus was used to suspend civil rights arbitrarily.

The media has completely ignored our stories of non-violent, educated resistance, and this possibility for equitable coverage was superseded by the Black Bloc burning police cars, and smashing store windows, with still less damage than the hockey riots in Montreal in April 2008, after the Montreal Canadiens playoff victory over the Boston Bruins. With the Black Bloc’s direct actions, they took away our rights to be heard, and as a media activist and pacifist, I believe the citizen who sang the G20 Song for Peace has infinitely more value than the erasing of our social message by hammers, combat boots, and tossed lighters.

This elderly gentleman represents to me what I love about Toronto – he had the courage to sing his own peace song, alone, with a bullhorn, with his revised lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’, because he fought for our rights in the Second World War, and was saddened to see our rights taken away by the state, police chief Bill Blair, and Premier McGuinty. At the top of this chain of command is PM Harper, who decided to hold the G20 Summit in the center of Toronto, despite the formal request by Mayor Miller to hold the Summit in the walled Canadian National Exhibition Stadium. This courageous singer can show his face, and walk alone to represent civil society’s unrepresented majority, whereas the Black Bloc chooses to remain anonymous, and run in a pack.

I believe in ingenious protest, and the creation of visual metaphors to engage the media to compete for the small amount of air time allocated to the opposing discourse, as the amalgamated, corporate controlled media has swung far more right than the average Canadian citizen. All the mainstream news media – radio, print and TV – completely ignored the Shout out for Global Justice held by the Council of Canadians, and the People’s Summit forum held at Ryerson, and other social forums held over the month leading up to the Summits. The CRTC should be notified that this complete lack of coverage on social justice policy was inequitable- they allowed the Black Bloc to dominate the media, as much as the police did by allowing the police cars to burn for 1.5 hours for the international photo op. Where were the riot police’s water cannons then? Were they only to silence citizens? Based upon the Miami Model, military tactics learned from oppressive regimes, police brutality and kettling were used to corral protesters during a non-violent event that was promised to be in a Free Speech Zone, located in front of our provincial legislative buildings in Queen’s Park. The irony of it all.

During the past two weeks, I have analyzed the mainstream media deficit regarding alternative social policy forums, and could not turn my eyes away in horror. During the union march on Saturday, I marched with two vibrant young women, and sang the Star Wars battle theme as we passed the police, who were outfitted in full Darth Vader riot regalia. We saw the visor of the leader of the squad tremble, and realized that he was giggling at our shaky, out of tune rendition.

An hour later, the Black Bloc rampaged, a small percentage of vandals who have criminalized the term ‘protesters’ for a new generation of educated, engaged citizens, and hijacked our rights to be heard by the mainstream media. The Black Bloc played right into the hands of PM Harper, and helped him justify the $1.5 billion cost for security, spoiling the event for the rest of us. During the Saturday play by play on CityTV, police Chief Blair felt it necessary to hold Sid Ryan, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, accountable for encouraging families to bring their children to Saturday’s union march, as if Sid Ryan could control the Black Bloc. This was a passing of the buck for police responsibility, and a deliberate undercutting of the labour movement by Chief Blair, I think.

As a civil society response to this suspension of our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and arresting of 1079 protesters during the G20 Summit, six of us have built a repository of citizen media, The Real G8/G20, to privilege our different perspectives, and focus on the Bolivian call to arms from Cochabamba for the rights of Mother Earth. This online forum is designed to enable the ongoing transformational, social policy making and activism that arose during the Summits, but was sidetracked by violence, and the media preference for sensationalism. For all of those who had the courage to protest peacefully, and want to add to the discourse of social, environmental, trade, and water justice to add Toronto’s official voice to the People’s Agreement of Cochabamba, I salute you with my metal water bottle.

As one of my fellow protesters said to me on Saturday, “We are the people who will not look away”. These are the people I valorize by writing this column, and by volunteering to organize this online forum. I encourage you to submit material to the The Real G8/G20, and add to a movement which sets its own social policy and media representation beyond a police state, and militarized civil society. As Dr. Vandana Shiva said, as she threw her sari over her shoulder as she walked off the stage at the Shout Out for Social Justice, “This too shall pass”. We must make it go away together.

Highly Recommended References:
G20 Toronto Song of Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSAdg3LEiGk (A special thank you for the citizen who sang this, and the person who posted this video.)
People’s Summit, link at http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/3671
Mary Ormsby, ‘Fortress Toronto: Secrets of the fence’, link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/825908–fortress-toronto-secrets-of-the-fence
Public Works Protection Act, link to http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2010/elaws_src_regs_r10233_e.htm
Linda McQuaig, ‘Police, bankers exempt from austerity’, link at http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/829902–mcquaig-police-bankers-exempt-from-austerity
CRTC Complaint and Inquiry Form, link at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/rapidsccm/register.asp?lang=e
Catherine Porter, ‘When police stick to phony script’, link at http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontog20summit/article/828876–porter-when-police-stick-to-phony-script
Star Wars battle theme, link at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aet9wYHaufk&feature=fvst
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, link at http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html#anchorbo-ga:l_I
People’s Agreement of Cochabamba, link at http://pwccc.wordpress.com/support/
The Real G8/G20 Submit Content, link at http://therealg8g20.com/
Dr. Vandana Shiva at the ‘Shout Out for Global Justice’, link at http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/watch-shout-out-global-justice

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Posted in Political Art, The Real Issues | No Comments »