[news] Britannia Trial Update

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*BRITANNIA 9 TRIAL UPDATE:*

*COURTS DROP 6 CHARGES AGAINST DEFENDANTS!*

The trial of the Britannia 9 re-convened on March 8^th after a two-month 
recess. The prosecution continued and concluded their case with the rest 
of their list of 24 police witnesses and remained persistent that all 
the charges against the defendants be carried through.

At the end of last week, after three-weeks of prosecution witnesses 
(almost entirely police officers), the defense brought forward 
applications for 'no evidence' motions. Despite the testimonies of 24 
police witnesses, six charges were dropped against the Britannia 
defendants due to a lack of evidence to uphold the charges.

Both 'assault police' charges and one 'obstruction police' charge 
against defendant and political organizer Ivan Drury were dropped on 
March 13^th and 16^th . The charge against Justin Goodman of 'assault 
police' and the charges of 'causing a disturbance' and 'unlawful 
assembly' against Minister George Feenstra were also dropped.

That the crown was not able to find evidence to continue with these 
charges is a clear sign of the falseness of all the charges against the 
Britannia 9. The dropping of these charges is a great victory for the 
Britannia 9 against these fraudulent charges. Four weeks into the trial, 
and especially following the acceptance of the 'no evidence' 
applications, the thing that is most clear is that the whole case has 
been a tremendous waste of time and money.

On Monday, March 15^th , Ivan Drury took the witness stand and testified 
against the allegation that he and other protestors caused disruptions 
and obstructed police in the execution of their duty at the Britannia 
protest. He testified that the police caused the disruption of the peace 
that day by assaulting the crowd over and over again and that they were 
not acting in lawful execution of their duty. He agreed that he had 
pulled people away from the police, but that he was acting in defense of 
the protestors, against the assaults being carried out by the police.

These statements were backed up by the next witness, Tammy Tupechka, 
President of the Grandview-Woodlands Area Council. From the view of 
someone who only came across the protest once the police had already 
begun to assault crowd members, Tammy testified to the crowd's fear of 
the actions of the police and refusal of the police to discuss their 
actions with her. Her testimony for the day ended with the great relief 
she felt when the police finally left the scene.

The demonstration on October 3^rd 2002 was an important development in 
the movement against the BC Liberal government's cuts. This 
demonstration, composed and organized mostly by people who were not 
'usual suspects' at protests, was brutally attacked and suppressed by 
police. The trial of the Britannia 9 has become more than a trial 
against protestors. This trial has become another charge against the 
Vancouver Police Department in a long line of charges and convictions 
for police misconduct, harassment and brutality against poor and working 
people in Vancouver.

This routine harassment and brutality is continuing still today, as is 
evident by the violent attacks on a group of 6 women and 2 men along 
Hastings Street last week. The VPD must be held accountable for its 
regular misconduct and brutality. All the charges against the Britannia 
9, for defending themselves and others against this brutality, must be 
dropped.

* *

*WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUPPORT:*

    * Come to the trial to show support for the defendants before the
      judge. The trial is scheduled to last until March 25 (with Fridays
      off) and your support is especially important now through the
      defense witnesses.

    * Donate money to the Britannia Legal Defense Fund. Murray Bush's
      legal costs are in the thousands of dollars as he has been denied
      legal aid. Contact
      mbush at direct.ca <mailto:mbush at direct.ca> to donate to the Legal
      Defense fund or bring a cheque to court.

    * Write a letter demanding that the crown drop the remaining charges
      against the Britannia 9 (Murray Bush, Ivan Drury, George Feenstra,
      Justin Goodman, Jessica Mott, Scott Rohan) and send it to Rich
      Coleman the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General of BC:
      (phone) 250-356-7717 / (fax) 250-356-8270 / (mail) PO Box 9053 Stn
      Prov Gvt Victoria BC V8W 9E1

* *

*Drop the charges against the Britannia 9!*

*/ /*

/ /

/For More Information Contact:/

Shannon Bundock:  Co-ordinator: Fire This Time Movement for Social 
Justice (FTT) and Co-Chair: Mobilization Against War and Occupation 
(MAWO)      778-891-1470

shannonbundock at yahoo.ca <mailto:shannonbundock at yahoo.ca> ,  
www.fire-this.time.org 
<http://www.fire-this.time.org> ,  www.mawovancouver.org 
<http://www.mawovancouver.org/>* *

____________________________________________________________________________________

/_

BACKGROUND:

_/*

WHAT HAPPENED AT BRITANNIA?

*

On October 3^rd , 2002, Gordon Campbell was scheduled to speak at the 
opening of the Canucks Family Literacy Centre at Britannia Community 
Centre. Parents from the Commercial Drive area and people involved in 
Britannia organized a protest against Campbell and his cuts to education 
and social programs.

The demo had been called on very short notice and people were hanging 
out casually. A man was playing a saxophone. A tall, thin older man 
wearing a clown nose and a loose brown suit was doing a mime routine 
about being excluded from the ceremony in front of the small cluster of 
bored police at the door.

He was seized by the police officers, swung around, handcuffed and 
arrested.

The police dragged him around the corner and the crowd followed the 
police around the side of the building in the alley off of Commercial 
Drive. The police slammed the arrested man's face into the stucco wall 
of the building while people chanted "LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO!"

More arrests were made when the man, Minister George Feenstra, was taken 
to the police wagon. The crowd grew with pedestrians witnessing the 
scene from Commercial Drive and streaming in to support people against 
the police brutality they saw.

The crowd sat down in the alley and blocked the wagon from passing 
through. High school got out of class and students joined the protest.

The police moved in to displace the crowd seated in the alley. They 
attacked, threatened and threw people to the ground. One 13-year old 
Britannia student was assaulted, picked up, carried away and arrested by 
the police.

The standoff between the crowd and the police continued as the police 
pepper sprayed, beat and arrested more of the crowd. The crowd came 
together and stood off against the line of police and drove them off; 
booing and chanting, "Out, out, out! Out of our community!" The cops 
retreated through the alley to the cruisers parked on Commercial Drive. 
The crowd marched down the street without a cop in sight.

While the demonstration reached the Community Policing Centre in 
Grandview Park, the police parked the wagons in the Canadian Tire 
parking lot and harassed the people arrested and cuffed inside. Scott 
Rohan and Murray Bush were in the back of a wagon together. The door to 
their cell opened and a circle of 25 cops stood around the open door in 
the abandoned parking lot. A massive enraged cop stepped forward into 
the middle of the semi-circle, pointed at Scott, called him out and 
threatened him. Scott looked at him and the horseshoe of cops behind him 
and shook his head.

The six adults initially arrested were held in jail until the next 
evening. Two youths, including the high school kid who was punched by 
the cop, were arrested and charged. They were harassed, threatened and 
subjected to psychological examination by the police and the jail. They 
were released in the afternoon the day after the arrests. All the people 
arrested left jail with ridiculous release conditions, most notably: not 
to be within 2 blocks of Gordon Campbell, and not to associate with any 
others arrested.

Three days later the cops isolated and arrested Ivan Drury, a political 
organizer involved in the Britannia Police Riot. As he rode his bicycle 
down Main Street, the cops cut him off with a cruiser and arrested him 
on a warrant. When they were handcuffing him on the sidewalk in front of 
the police station, a truck full of un-uniformed police stopped in front 
of him, leaned out their windows and chanted, "You will lose, Drury! You 
will lose!" and sped away. Ivan was held in jail overnight.

*

WHY WERE THE BRITANNIA 9 ARRESTED?

*

The Britannia protest started long before the third of October. 
Increased poverty, uncertain employment and work conditions, 
inaccessible health care, vanishing child care and the repression of 
dissent through unrestrained police brutality and harassment is the 
backbone of the BC Liberal government agenda. The Liberals use 
legislation to attack the lives and security of poor and working people 
in favour of freedom of profit for corporations and then use the army 
and police to crush the resulting resistance.

The Liberals' legislative attacks on poor and working people have 
brought the reality of state oppression into the lives of many people 
who previously felt like they were safe and secure. The Britannia police 
riot has brought the awareness of the police as a tool of the government 
to control and forbid people's resistance to these attacks.

Within this case is the fundamental question of the right to protest. 
The charge against many of the Britannia 9 of "attending an illegal 
assembly", a charge rarely used in Canadian law, asks the question, when 
did this assembly become illegal? How loud are we allowed to raise our 
voices? How effectively are we allowed to organize? The answer will be 
determined by this trial and by the movement of people in BC against the 
Liberal government.

While the Britannia 9 were still in jail Gordon Campbell denounced them 
as 'thugs'. The real thugs are the ones who use violence, intimidation, 
harassment and the threat of prosecution to protect their profit driven 
agenda. The case of the Britannia 9 is between the thugs in government 
and poor and working people throughout this province who are defending 
ourselves against their agenda.

We must support the Britannia 9 and demand that the charges be dropped 
in defense of all working and poor people in BC who are impacted by the 
BC Liberal agenda. In the struggle against cuts, the limiting and 
elimination of labour rights and privatization and the rest of the 
Liberal agenda, we must defend the people who are arrested for their 
involvement in this movement.