[van-announce] DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST THE BRITANNIA 9!

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Blank***Forward Widely***Apologies for cross postings***

DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST THE BRITANNIA 9!

Come and show your support at the important political
trial of five of those arrested at the 

'Britannia Police Riot' on October 3rd 2002. Trial
began: Monday December 1st 9:30am, 222 Main St. Room
513 and will run until December 12th.

There will be a press conference Tuesday December 2nd,
4:30pm at 222 Main St (in front of the court house
following the day of court.)



WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SUPPORT:

* Come to the press conference to show support before
the media

* Come to the trial to show support for the defendants
before the judge. The trial is scheduled to last until
December 12th, but we are asking for a mass show of
support in the first days of trial.

* 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 to donate to the Legal Defense fund or
bring a cheque to court.

* Write a letter demanding that the crown drop the
charges against the Britannia 9 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

WHAT HAPPENED AT BRITANNIA?

On October 3rd, 2002, Gordon Campbell was scheduled to
speak at the opening of the Canucks Family Literacy
Centre at Britannia Community Centre. Mothers 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 filing in slowly. 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 paddy 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. Attempts to negotiate with the
police the release of those arrested on a promise to
appear failed. 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 surrounded 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.

Drop the charges against the Britannia 9!


For More Information Contact: 

Shannon Bundock: 
604-340-9670
shannonbundock at yahoo.ca

Maryann Abbs: 
604-877-1223
edoherty at portal.ca



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