[van-announce] Fwd: (en) Canada, Toronto, Queen's Park police riot trial (An appeal to sign and circulate)

Wed Nov 13 02:29:47 PST 2002

>Delivered-To: a-infos-en-outgoing at ainfos.ca
>From: Mick <mickblack47 at yahoo.com>
>Subject: (en) Canada, Toronto, Queen's Park police riot trial (An 
>appeal to sign and circulate)
>To: a-infos-en at ainfos.ca
>Sender: worker-a-infos-en at ainfos.ca
>Reply-To: a-infos-en at ainfos.ca
>Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 03:44:06 -0500 (EST)
>
>  ________________________________________________
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>Subject: queen's park police riot  (An appeal to sign and circulate)
>From: "John Clarke" <johnclarke at sprint.ca>
>Date: Sun, November 10, 2002 6:02 am
>
>PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS APPEAL FAR AND WIDE
>DEFEND OCAP MEMBERS FACING 'QUEEN'S PARK RIOT' JURY TRIAL
>(go to: http://www.ocap.ca/police_riot.html to view list of endorsers.)
>      
>We are asking that as many progressive organizations and
>individuals as possible endorse this statement and show their
>solidarity with our fight to prevent the criminalization of
>community resistance in general and OCAP in particular.
>      
>Details of the defence campaign's work can be followed on the OCAP
>website at http://www.ocap.ca/police_riot.html
>
>You can add your endorsement at: http://www.ocap.ca/addguest.html or it
>can be e-mailed into ocap at tao.ca, phoned into (416) 925-6939 or faxed to
>(416) 925-9681.  Donations can be sent to: OCAP, 517 College Street, unit
>234, TORONTO, Ontario M6G 4A2
>
>
>CIVIL RIGHTS ON TRIAL
>An Appeal from the Queen's Park (Police) Riot Defence Campaign
>
>Your support is urgently needed as the right of social justice
>movements to organize political protest goes on trial this
>January.
>      
>Three members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP),
>John Clarke, Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa, will appear in a
>Toronto courtroom beginning on January 13, 2003, charged with
>'participating in a riot','counseling to participate in a riot,'
>and 'counseling to assault police.' These draconian charges, which
>refer to their participation in the June 15, 2000 anti-poverty
>demonstration at Queen's Park, have been laid under some of the
>most antiquated and regressive sections of the Criminal Code. Each
>charge involves potential jail terms of between two and five
>years.
>      
>The gravity of these charges poses a severe threat to the civil
>and political liberties of all of us. That is why we have added
>our names to the Queen's Park (Police) Riot Defence Campaign. We
>urge you to add your name as well.
>      
>On June 15, 2000, OCAP led 1500 people to Queen's Park to protest
>Tory cuts to social programs. Among the marchers was a delegation
>of poor and homeless people demanding the right to address the
>legislature. Rather than seek an accommodation, the government
>responded with calculated intransigence, allowing riot police
>(included a mounted unit) to attack the crowd in order to disperse
>it. In the aftermath, police laid hundreds of charges against 45
>protesters.
>
>In one jurisdiction after another, the laying of hundreds of
>criminal charges has become the latest tactic used by police and
>authorities to squash political protest and dissent. We've seen
>this strategy employed during the Seattle protests of 1999, the
>Quebec City demonstrations of 2001, against housing activists in
>Montreal and Vancouver and, most recently, during the World Summit
>on Sustainable Development when hundreds of South African
>activists protesting poverty and privatization were subjected to
>mass arrests.
>      
>By imposing fines and jail terms on progressive movements, and by
>tying up their energies and resources in legal battles,
>governments and police forces are enforcing a 'tax on activism'
>designed to debilitate struggles for social justice. So far, three
>quarters of the charges laid as a result of June 15, 2000 have
>been withdrawn or dismissed, evidence of what a legal defence
>campaign can do to expose injustice. But the upcoming trial
>represents yet another stage in the battle against repression of
>social justice movements.
>      
>We cannot allow civil rights to be threatened, nor can we tolerate
>a situation in which those who challenge poverty and homelessness
>are criminalized. The January trial of these OCAP activists will
>be a crucial test of our ability as progressive movements to mount
>a meaningful campaign in defence of these three activists in
>particular and of political freedoms in general. Moreover, as a
>jury trial in which these activists hope to prove that the police
>engaged in a planned riot against demonstrators, it offers a
>unique opportunity to inflict a public defeat on the right-wing
>agenda.
>      
>We call on all those committed to social justice and the rights of
>political protest to join the Queen's Park (Police) Riot Defence
>Campaign as it organizes petitions, rallies and press conferences
>in support of these defendants. We urge you to add your name to
>the campaign letter now. If we can contribute to the acquittal of
>these activists, we will have struck a blow for social justice
>everywhere.
>
>
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-- 
Cheers

Dave
New Westminster, BC