[news] OCAP report on riot trial

[resist admin]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 11:21:14 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>
To: copb-van-l at lists.resist.ca
Subject: [copb-van-l] OCAP report on riot trial

OCAP report: WEEK SEVEN March 6th 2003: PRE-TRIAL MOTIONS AND JURY
SELECTION CONCLUDED - 'QUEEN'S PARK (POLICE) RIOT' GETS UNDERWAY

   On Thursday, March 6, twelve jury members took their seats and began to
hear the Crown's evidence against Stefan Pilipa, John Clarke and Gaetan
Heroux on charges that present them as architects of a 'planned riot' at
the Ontario Legislature on June 15, 2000. As such, the authorities seek to
send them to prison for terms of up to five years.

   This will be a new development when it comes to state persecution of
social activism in Canada. To find a comparable attempt to jail 'leaders'
of a political protest on these kinds of charges, it would be necessary to
go back to Valleyfield, Quebec in 1946 and the imprisonment of textile
workers' organizer, Kent Rowley. Indeed, the charge of 'counselling to
participate in a riot' is without precedent in Canada.

   The trial was preceded by seven weeks of arguments and deliberations on
various pre-trial motions that will continue to be subject to a total
publication ban (including on internet communication) that will remain in
effect until the jury retires to consider its verdict.

   The jury that has been selected may well seek to be as fair minded and
objective as they can but the Ontario Government's restrictive fiscal
policies cast a long shadow even over the process of selecting a 'jury of
their peers' for three organizers of the homeless and poor. Jurors are
paid only at a rate of $40 a day after the 11th day of service. Where
employers will not cover lost wages during jury duty, this allowance would
barely cover extra transportation and child care costs, let alone be
anything like adequate compensation. People on Employment Insurance or
Ontario Works would not be able to serve either. Sitting on a jury would
render them 'not available for work' and would lead to loss of benefits.
What exists, therefore, is a situation where the unemployed and working
poor are effectively unable to sit on juries. Yet, these are or course the
very people who face the bulk of criminal charges and, when they do, they
can expect the allegations against them to be considered by people whose
income level (and life experience) is very different from their own.

   So, on Thursday, March 6, Vincent Paris, from the Crown Attorney's
office gave his opening remarks to the Jury. He outlined the essential
elements of his case that a riot had been planned, that John Clarke had
counselled it and that Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa had participated in
it in a leading capacity. He also called his first witness, Detective
Sergeant Stubbings, who was with Police Intelligence at the time of the
demonstration. Stubbings offered his comments while, Paris played a couple
of hours of video footage of the scene that day.

   It is clear that the Crown's case will rest on the notion that OCAP
planned a confrontation on June 15 and the events of that day flowed from
our attempt to violently force entry into the Legislature. For our part,
we will present our plan for a militant action that would pressure the
Tory Government into accepting a delegation effected by homelessness and
responding to its grievances. We will also show that the confrontation
that was generated that day flowed from Tory intransigence and a police
force that was either reckless and incompetent or willfully provocative.

Court will resume on March 17 at which time our cross examination of
Det.Sgt. Stubbings will begin.