[LabComm] Bring on the Clowns -- Support the Britannia 9

[Louise LeClair]

March 17, 2004

From:     The Committee Working in Support of the Britannia 9

Re:       Political freedom to speak out against injustice


Dear Sisters and Brothers:


On October 3, 2003 Gordon Campbell was invited to open a P3, known as the
Canucks Family Literacy Centre, in East Vancouver.
Several groups, including the public education coalition Save Our Schools,
called for a demonstration to protest both the P3 and the BC Liberals’ cuts
to public education especially those aimed at the poor.
A small group of people showed up to protest that day. The crowd reached
about seventy-five at the height of the demo. They were matched by about
forty-five Vancouver police officers. The event turned into a melee when a
United Church Minister, wearing a clown nose, was physically attacked by the
police while he was speaking-out.
George Feenstra, the clown-nose-wearing minister, along with Murray Bush, a
well-known radio journalist and labour activist, two youths and several
other anti-poverty activists were taken by police paddy wagon to a parking
lot where they were threatened before being strip searched and held in jail
without recourse to legal aid for 27 hours.
The Britannia 9, as the group have come to be called, have been through a
number of court appearances during the last year and legal costs for the
group are mounting. They anticipate another 30 or more days in court. The
current trial period began March 8, 2004, and is scheduled to run until the
end of March.
The Committee in Support of the Britannia 9 is writing to ask if your
organization will purchase a table of 10 tickets for an evening entitled
“Bring on the Clowns” scheduled to take, place at the Ukrainian Cultural
Centre in Vancouver on March 27, 2004 from 8:00 p.m. onwards. In addition we
are asking you to purchase a clown nose for each of your guests.
“Bring on the Clowns” aims to draw public attention to the serious threat
against political protest posed by the large police presence at this small
event and the subsequent silencing of these protesters through the legal
system. George Feenstra, for example, was instructed not to wear disguises
until his court case was complete.
We are asking people to wear their clown noses in public whenever possible
throughout the trial to demonstrate their demand for the reinforcement of
the freedom of political protest.
	Your purchase of a table and 10 clown noses ($20 per ticket and $5 per
clown nose) would be $250.00. The purchase will not only contribute to
helping defray the legal costs for the Britannia 9, it will lend your voices
to the demand for freedom for all citizens to participate in political
protest.

	The March 27, 2004 event at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre at 805 East
Pender Street in Vancouver will feature the Victoria celtic rock group the
Mcgillycuddys, DJ Champagne and friends as well as excellent food!
	 You can reserve tickets by contacting Louise at 604-291-1940 or Maryann at
604-8771223.  Individual tickets can be purchased at People’s Co Op Books on
Commercial Drive.

In solidarity


Louise Leclair
Maryann Abbs


PS While this letter is written in hopes that unions or organizations will
purchase a table please feel free to contact us about purchasing one or more
tickets and/or noses.