[mobglob-discuss] FW: NO SECOND TRIAL FOR OCAP MEMBERS!

[Graeme Bacque]

-----Original Message-----
From: John Clarke [mailto:johnclarke at sprint.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 3:43 PM
To: unlisted-recipients:; no To-header on input
Subject: NO SECOND TRIAL FOR OCAP MEMBERS!


RIOT CHARGES AGAINST OCAP MEMBERS MUST BE
                                DROPPED!!
No Second Trial for Three Accused!

A Canada Wide and International Appeal for Solidarity


On May 11, the Judge declared a mistrial in the case of Stefan Pilipa,
Gaetan Heroux and John Clarke. For four months, the three had been in a
Toronto courtroom defending themselves on charges of ‘participating in a
riot’, ‘counselling to participate in a riot’ and ‘counselling to assault
police’. They faced maximum prison terms of up to five years in jail.

This legal attack flowed from a March of homeless people and supporters on
the Ontario Legislature that the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
organized on June 15, 2000. Instead of negotiating around a demand that a
delegation be permitted to enter the building, the Government used riot
police and mounted units to clear the grounds. In this way, a major
confrontation was engendered that led to dozens of injuries on both sides
and hundreds of criminal charges being laid.

The case against Pilipa, Heroux and Clarke relied on antiquated and
reactionary p   ublic order provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada. These
had been seldom used since the attempt to crush unemployed organizing in the
1930s and the growth of industrial trade unions in the period just after
World War Two. The attempt, however, backfired last week when a jury of nine
women and three men became deadlocked, despite deliberations spanning five
days, over the question of whether or not a riot had even taken place on
that day. Reflecting the divisions that exist in Ontario society under its
right wing Conservative Government, a section of the Jury had little
interest in accepting police testimony and was not ready to convict the
three OCAP members. The Prosecutions’s case fell short of the mark and a
mistrial was declared.

On June 18, OCAP will be back in court. At that time the Crown Attorney will
reveal whether or not there will be a new trial. Already, the investigation
and first trial have eaten up major public resources (well over $1 million,
we estimate). For three years, these charges have hung over the heads of the
three accused and serious bail conditions have limited their civil rights.
For more money to be spent on continuing this legal persecution would be
outrageous and a threat to all unions and social movements in Canada. Yet,
there are those in high places who are serious about doing just this. This
week, Norm Gardner of the Toronto Police Services Board, called for a
retrial. We have to regard such statements as a serious threat.

Over the next weeks, OCAP will be organizing a series of initiatives to kill
off the prospect of a retrial. One thing that supporters throughout the
Country and internationally can do to help is to rush letters into the
Ontario Attorney General demanding the charges be dropped in this matter.
Rather than draw up a form letter, we’d ask that people take a few minutes
to write up short messages in their own words. Three key points strike us as
especially important.

THE charges should never have been laid in the first place. There was no
‘planned riot’ but a confrontation that the authorities created. To proceed
with such reactionary charges poses a threat to civil liberties and the
right to dissent that is unacceptable.

THE Crown Attorneys have already spent long weeks presenting their case to a
jury and failed to even convince them that a riot occurred, let aside that
the accused played any criminal role in it. To put them at further risk on
this basis would be monstrously unfair.

PUT the money that would be spent on a new trial of the OCAP members into
the

creation of housing for some of the tens of thousands of women, men and
children

 that the Ontario Government has made homeless.

Below we list the contact information for the Attorney General of Ontario.
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SEND COPIES OF ALL LETTERS TO OCAP. If you use e-mail
and want to get a reply from the AG, you must include a mailing address.

BY MAIL

Norm Sterling, Attorney General of Ontario,

720 Bay Street,

TORONTO, Ontario

M5G 2K1

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty,

517 College Street, Unit 234,

TORONTO, Ontario

M6G 4A2

E MAIL

jus.g.mag.webmaster at jus.gov.on.ca

ocap at tao.ca

BY FAX

AG (416) 326-4007

OCAP (416) 925-9681

Please circulate this appeal far and wide.  Thanks for your support and
solidarity - OCAP




















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