[opirgyork] DROP THE CHARGES! END CRIMINALIZATION OF DISSENT!

[aruna at opirgyork.ca]

Please forward this widely!
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DROP THE CHARGES! END CRIMINALIZATION OF DISSENT!

Monday, August 23rd
6:00pm
Toronto Police Headquarters
40 College Street (at Bay Street)

Rally in solidarity with G20 Defendants

Speakers: TBA

Most of our bruises have faded, but we haven’t. It was two months ago
when many were beaten on the streets of Toronto and in their homes,
with rubber bullets and tear gas fired into crowds of people of all
ages, from toddlers to seniors. Two months ago, the police conducted
the largest mass arrest in Canadian history with 1100 people arrested.
Two months ago, the police force conducted their vicious snatch squads
to kidnap (and sometimes arrest) our community organizers and others
simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Two months have passed since these visible assaults on our very basic
right to dissent, and they have continued to try to use every tool in
their arsenal to discourage people from dissenting. On Monday, August
23rd hundreds of people will be converging in Toronto again, this time
to appear to face outstanding charges from the G20 weekend. The crown
is pursuing charges for over 300 individuals, causing huge burdens on
the individuals and their families. They have given absurd bail
conditions generally reserved for charges such as murder. Some remain
imprisoned without bail. The police have also intimidated and harassed
people to ensure bail compliance, disproportionately targeting their
check-ins on ‘priority neighbourhoods’. Over the last 2 months the
police have tried to divide, isolate, and dehumanize us, but we must
show them their actions only make us stronger, more motivated, and
more resilient.

On August 23rd, let’s get out our friends, families, and communities
to make our message clear:

We are united with the people brutalized at the G20 protests, and
demand the Attorney General's Office DROP their charges immediately!
We will unite with the communities brutalized by the police every day,
and demand the assault on aboriginal and other racialized communities,
on queer communities, on street people end immediately.
We will continue to dissent and take to the streets against the
polices of the G20, including the proposed austerity measures.
We will continue to build our movements in the struggle for a better
world - this decade will not be marked by their austerity, but rather
by OUR resistance.

They Few. We Still Many.

FB Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=151725754840488