The Dominion - police brutality

Homelessness and Police Brutality

mccabe.melissa — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:20:41 +0000

A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project

VANCOUVER—In the winter of 2000, I was co-managing a four bedroom house in Walley, BC. My co-manager and I became friends, but eventually he wanted to have a relationship. When I refused, he started to become verbally abusive and controlling with me. I took the abuse for a while, until I started to get incredibly stressed. I decided to leave in the spring of 2001. In a state of extreme depression, I left with a couple of bags and took the bus into Vancouver, where I ended up homeless.

During the day I panhandled for food and smokes, and at night I stayed wherever I could find a quiet and safe spot on the streets such as in a park or in a doorway. I felt alone, scared, and lost in the cracks and in the crowd. I could not sleep at night because there was no privacy, only constant harassment—whether it was the police, private security, drunk people leaving the bars, violent men, or somebody trying to rob me. A few guys tried to get me to do sex-work on the street for them, but I refused.

While I was panhandling, people would always hassle me and yell at me to move away from their store. I would often get sworn at or told to get a job. I felt judged by the people walking by and I was so ashamed of myself. I wish I could have made them understand how hard it really was. It was overwhelmingly difficult just to survive and I would never want to be homeless again. There are approximately 11,000 homeless across BC, with 3,000 people homeless across the Lower Mainland.

I had been on the street for a few months when someone told me to go to the Downtown Eastside to access support and services. I found a welfare worker who helped me get into the Bridge Shelter, where I stayed for one month, after which I got into Bridge Housing in June 2001.

I had to start all over again to establish my life. I found the Downtown Eastside Womens’ Centre. When I first walked in the doors, I did not want people to know me or know where I came from. But I met some friends who told me about the different activities available and I joined various programs and groups. Being a part of the DTES Power of Women Group showed me how to stand up for myself and others, which helped me regain my confidence and I began to feel good about myself again.

One of the issues I have continued to raise my voice against is that of police brutality in the Downtown Eastside. This is just one of the many stories that inspired me to take action.

I had been living in a supportive housing building for women for about nine years. As opposed to private single-resident-occupancy (SRO) housing, one of the benefits of supportive housing run by non-profits is that it maintains the confidentiality of the tenants who live there. Unless it is an emergency or a tenant has called 911, the police can only enter with a warrant.

One day the police arrived at my building looking for a tenant. They did not have a warrant and no one had called 911. The building staff refused the police access into the tenant’s room. I was sitting in the lobby of our building and witnessed the whole incident. At first the female officer got agitated and was demanding that they be allowed into the tenant’s room. The staff did not give in, which just made the police officers angrier, stating that they had a right to go inside. I saw one officer go towards the staff member to grab her arm. I ran out to try to inform people about what was taking place and to get some help.

When I returned, the staff was in handcuffs and had been taken outside. I heard them saying that they had arrested her and would charge her with obstruction of justice. By that time a crowd had gathered and staff from next door at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre had also arrived. Eventually, the arrested staff member was let go.

This whole incident made me very angry. There are so many stories of police arrogance and violence, and most are worse than what happened to this staff member. In this situation they were not even following their own protocol. I was scared that if this could happen to a staff member what could happen to someone like me who has less authority in this neighbourhood? It made me feel very powerless and vulnerable, especially as the incident occurred in my own building.

I have lost faith in the police. I fear that if I ever needed them to help me, they would turn on me instead. They do little to protect against actual violence, like all the murdered and missing women. Instead, they are violent towards us, frequently arresting people for minor things like jaywalking, or harassing people who are just standing on the street. It deeply frustrates and angers me that we let the police use their power and badges in such negative ways, and that society allows them to power-trip and do what they want. I imagine a Downtown Eastside where we are free from the arbitrary beatings and the brutality of the Vancouver Police Department, and so I and others fight to make this possible.

Karen Lahey is proud to be a survivor. She has been living in the Downtown Eastside for the past 11 years. Because of the DTES Power of Women Group, she can now publicly speak in front of a crowd and in front of cameras. She likes to help other women find their voice.

This story was originally published on the Vancouver Media Co-op as part of the Downtown Eastside Power of Women “In Our Own Voices” writing project. For more information and to read more stories, please visit http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

Karen Lahey

Double Punishment for Villanueva

dru — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 04:14:58 +0000

MONTREAL—In August of 2008, 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva was playing dice in a parking lot in Montreal North when he was shot and killed by police officer Jean-Loup Lapointe. Two other youth were also shot, but survived.

All three were unarmed youth of colour. The killing has been described as emblematic of racial profiling at its most violent by community members, as well as by community groups, including Montreal-Nord Republik (a group of residents that formed, after the the killing of Villanueva, to denoounce racial profiling and economic marginalization), and Head & Hands (a non-profit youth service centre based in Montreal's NDG).

In 2010, the tragedy faced by the Villanueva family got worse. Having lost one son, Lilian Villanueva is now facing the possibility of being forcibly separated from another.

Dany Villanueva, who was an eyewitness to the killing of his brother, is slated to be deported to Honduras, a country in which he has not resided since 1998, when he was 12.

“They have already taken the life of my youngest son....now they want to take away my other son!” a tearful Lilian told the audience at Montreal's Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity in January 2010. Lilian had to struggle for a coroner’s inquest into her younger son's death. Now she is fighting her surviving son's deportation.

Fredy's killing, and the community response that it sparked, have exposed what some describe as the fault-lines of systemic discrimination in the forms of racial profiling, police impunity and a two-tiered immigration system.

Alexandre Popovic, a spokesperson with the Coalition Against Police Abuse and Repression, says the timing of Dany's deportation order is suspicious.

“It is hard for me to believe that the way that they dealt with Dany Villanueva’s file is not related to the public inquiry [into Fredy’s death]. It’s hard for me to believe that the people at the CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] are making those decisions, at those specific dates, without having in mind the coroner’s inquest,” he says.

The Villanueva family led a long struggle for a coroner’s inquest, which they hope will uncover details surrounding Fredy’s death, and which is set to continue through the summer months.

Though their initial strategy was calling for Jean-Loup Lapointe to be put on trial for murder, or at least for a public inquiry with legal repercussions, it was difficult for the family to win any sort inquest into Fredy's death, and the current investigation represents a modest victory in the family's search for justice.

The role of the inquest, by definition, is to investigate and reveal to the public the details surrounding the death of the unarmed 18-year-old, and to put forth recommendations to avoid such situations in the future. It does not, however, have the judicial power of a criminal investigation, which Montreal-Nord Republik, among others, have said is warranted, given the details of the case.

Dany was charged with robbery in the spring of 2006 and served the full sentence for his crime that same year. More than three years later, in August of 2009, and while the Villanueva family was in the final stages of securing the coroner’s inquest, Dany received a letter informing him of his upcoming deportation. Popovic points out that Dany’s appearance before the immigration board closely coincided with the dates of his witness testimony for the coroner’s inquest about his brother's death, much to his family's distress.

Popovic believes the city's lawyers, who are defending the police, are unjustly using this highly-publicized immigration issue to shift the blame away from Lapointe, the police officer who fired on the three youth in the park. It is Lapointe whose actions are under scrutiny in the coroner’s inquest. While the city of Montreal planned to pay for the legal fees of the police, the Quebec government, the body responsible for the inquest, initially refused to cover the legal fees for any witnesses, the family, or the victims of the shootings. The government's position changed after witnesses threatened to boycott the proceedings.

In December 2009, the inquest revealed that Lapointe’s partner at the scene, Stephanie Pilotte, did not feel that her life was in danger when the shots were fired. Lapointe had previously testified that shooting at the three youth was necessary because he felt his life to be in danger.

The defence lawyers' strategy, says Popovic, has been to attempt to shift that police culpability onto Dany.

“The police lawyers are using, or attempting to use, the coroner’s inquest to criminalize Dany Villanueva. They are the ones who are questioning Dany Villaneuva the most. Their agenda is very clear: first they want to convince the coroner that the whole thing is the fault of Dany.”

Popovic says this is explicit in the proceedings at the coroner’s inquest. He points out that Pierre-Yves Boisvert, a lawyer for the city of Montreal, has stated that Dany is responsible for the death of his brother.

“The city will argue Fredy Villanueva is the victim of his own behaviour and the behaviour of his brother and his friends,” Boisvert said in a statement at the inquest.

By painting Dany as a criminal, Boisvert’s arguments in the inquest attempted to simultaneously justify Fredy's death and Dany’s deportation.

“He has an immigration order against him and Canada Border Services want to send him back to Honduras, a nice country, probably, but one he doesn't feel like going to,” said Bosivert.

As a result of this strategy, Dany has been painted unsympathetically as a gangster and a criminal by much of the corporate media. Numerous articles in the Quebec media kept Dany’s supposed criminality as their focus during the time of his testimony for the inquest this April. The Montreal Gazette ran an article with the headline “Dany Villaneuva was in a gang,” under which they printed photos taken from a hip hop website to show that the colour of Dany’s touque suggested gang membership. These photos were also used by Boisvert at the coroner’s inquest.

Popovic decries this media sensationalism, which places Dany under enormous pressure to defend his own character during his testimony, where his only focus should be his provision of an eye-witness description of the shooting incident in which his younger brother was killed by police.

Dany Villaneuva's pending deportation has also drawn attention to a phenomenon known as “double punishment.” The term was coined to describe the use of the immigration system to mete out additional penalties to non-citizens convicted of crimes, after having already subjected them to the punishments defined by court rulings. Migrant justice advocates call it a de facto two-tiered justice system.

Jared Will, a Montreal-based immigration lawyer, explains: “Non-citizens who are convicted of crimes often face punishment not only in the form of the sentence they get in the criminal courts, but also in the form of their loss of immigration status and deportation from the country.”

Dany’s case is an example of this practice. Having already served a sentence for his crime in 2006, Dany is now facing a second punishment for the same crime by being deported to his native Honduras, which would mean leaving behind the rest of his family in Montreal, who all have citizenship status.

Will stresses that double punishment is an issue that brings together aspects of racial profiling and the criminalization of migrant communities.

“The problem of racial profiling in the targeting of youth of colour has a disproportionate effect on migrant communities,” says Will.

Increasing documentation shows that racial profiling, especially of youth, is a harsh reality in Montreal, most recently documented by the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Montreal-Nord, St. Michel, Cote-des-Neiges, Notre Dame de Grace and Parc-Extension are the neighborhoods with some of the highest concentrations of immigrants in Montreal, as well as some of the highest populations of people of colour.

“When police target those in racialized communities there is a double fear for those who are refugee claimants and permanent residents,” says Will.
“Obviously the targeting of those communities has the effect of bringing a lot more people into immigration proceedings.”

Will says racial profiling increases the numbers of migrant youth in the justice system, and due to the de facto two-tiered nature of the legal system, it also places their fate in the hands of the immigration system.

A growing grassroots campaign in support of Dany Villanueva brings a broader analysis to and a rejection of the practice of double punishment. A solidarity statement drafted by Montreal-Nord Republik, No One Is Illegal-Montreal, Solidarity Across Borders, and the Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse lists two demands: “An immediate end to all removal proceedings against Dany Villanueva, and that his permanent resident status is restored; and an end to the double punishment against migrants with criminal records.”

Organizers who have endorsed the statement are working to accrue the support of community organizations, human rights groups, and unions.

Though Dany’s deportation has been officially announced, the campaign in solidarity with the Villanueva family’s quest for justice continues. An appeal has been filed by Dany’s lawyer Stephen Handfield to overturn the decision. In the meantime, supporters of the family are asking for assistance in the campaign, calling for people to endorse the solidarity statement, and also to attend the on-going coroner’s inquest, which is open to the public.

To support the Villanueva family, send endorsements of this campaign to solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com, and condemn Dany Villanueva’s deportation order and double punishment by letter, fax, or phone to both the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Minister of Public Safety. Support the Villlanueva family by filling the courts during the course of the coroner's inquest and during Dany’s appeal. Dates can be found here.

Robyn Maynard is a journalist, writer and activist based in Montreal, and a member of No One Is Illegal-Montreal. She is active in various struggles against racial profiling, police violence and impunity.

Rally for Dany Villanueva

"The Only Crime": Testimony of Marcial Hernandez, beaten, detained and hospitalized in Honduras

Sandra — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 12:53:10 +0000

IMG_3804.JPG

"The Only Crime": Testimony of Marcial Hernandez, beaten, detained, and hospitalized in Honduras

Text, translation and photos by Sandra Cuffe

San Pedro Sula, Honduras, August 15th, 2009.

Repression against the national movement against the military coup in Honduras has become a daily occurrence. All over the country, police and the army are using tactics of terror and violence to disperse protests and illegally detain demonstrators.

Nevertheless, the resistance actions coordinated by the National Front of Resistance to the Military Coup in Honduras (FNRCGE, for its acronym in Spanish) continue to grow across the nation.

On August 14th, organizations and citizens in resistance from the northwestern region of the country mobilized in Choloma, blocking vehicle traffic along the highway between San Pedro Sula and Puerto Cortés. It was a very strategic choice of location, along the main highway leading to the country's main port. Puerto Cortés has a great volume of exports, principally to the United States, of textile goods from the maquila factories in the northwestern region, as well as the fruits of the Tela Railroad Company, subsidiary of the transnational banana company Chiquita.

Soon after the highway blockade began, there was a negotiation between resistance leaders and police officials, supposedly in order to avoid yet another violent eviction. According to witnesses, a verbal agreement was made between the two parties to allow the protest to continue for another hour and peacefully disperse.

Riot Police in School Yards Prompt Demonstration

Moira Peters — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:43:10 +0000

Youth not the problem, say protesters

HALIFAX–With solemn faces, CJ Hamilton and Chris Whynder carried a banner reading “Education Not Incarceration" through the North End of Halifax. The two Auburn Drive High School students, who have since graduated, led a 50-strong multicultural march on June 20 to Halifax Regional Police headquarters on Gottingen Street. The message of the protest, organized by the Black Independence Network Nova Scotia (BINNS), was clear: Halifax police and media need to stop portraying black youth as criminals.

“Schools, not prisons!” Dalhousie University faculty member Isaac Saney bellowed into a megaphone. Walking beside him, a young girl carried a sign that read: “Domestic Terrorists Wear Blue!”

Since violent events at Cole Harbour District High School and Auburn Drive in May, BINNS has accused the media of misrepresenting what the group says was unprompted police brutality towards black students. BINNS literature handed out at the protest said riot police arrested 14 black youths at Auburn Drive after a schoolyard argument on May 1.

In a similar incident at Cole Harbour, three youths were arrested following a series of fights at the school on May 4.

One protesting parent, who preferred not to be named, said police used unreasonable force against her son, leaving him with a black eye and rings around his wrists from handcuffs.

“Police have to do their job, but I think they’re being excessive, especially towards youth,” she said. “I mean, wow, you’re a big, bad cop, you’re carrying a gun, you’re going to bully a 15- or 16-year-old?”

An editorial in a local daily called the black youths involved in the two school incidents “pimps and drug dealers,” but The Dominion's anonymous source says her son, a student at Auburn Drive, is a good kid.

“Youth are not the problem,” Saney said after the protest, “it is the way society is structured socially, economically and politically.”

He said racism from police and the media is typical, not unusual.

“The black community has come to unfortunately expect it,” he said. “It’s part of being black in Nova Scotian society.”

Hilary Beaumont is a freelance journalist and editor in Halifax, and a contributing member of the Halifax Media Co-op. Currently she's writing the first ever Ethics Code for the oldest newspaper in North America, The Dalhousie Gazette.

Domestic Terrorists

Justice in Genova

dru — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:24:18 +0000

Police who beat and tortured international activists sentenced

On July 21, 2001, activists attending the G8 demonstrations in Genova, Italy, were attacked in a schoolhouse where they slept, mercilessly beaten by police, and subsequently tortured for days at the hands of guards and doctors.

Two Canadians who were among those beaten say they will never forget those awful nights and days. For them, part of the healing process is acknowledging the brutality at home and continuing to take a stand against it.

"We were travelling in southern and eastern Europe and had met Greek anarchists, Kurdish revolutionaries, Italian activists and squatters," recalls Kara Sievewright, an activist and artist based in Vancouver. "Earlier in our trip we had gone to a large demonstration in Napoli against the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD) Global Forum."

She had been traveling with David Cunningham, an organizer with Vancouver's Anti-Poverty Committee and a writer for Direct Action magazine. "We went to Genova to join what was billed as the largest street battle in the history of the anti-globalisation movement," he says. Between 100,000 and 200,000 converged on the city and were met by a heavy-handed response from the Carabiniere, Italy's military police force. Black Bloc members increasingly engaged in direct confrontation with police, and on July 19, 23-year-old Carlos Giuliani, an unarmed Italian protestor, was shot to death by the Carabiniere.

Sievewright and Cunningham were staying at Diaz School, along with activists from Italy, Britain, Poland and Ireland. "It was advertised publicly as the headquarters for the Pink Bloc who openly organised on passive grounds," Cunningham says. "The cops didn't understand the sectarian difference and attacked the Pink as if they were Black Bloc."

Shortly after midnight on July 21, police swarmed into the building, rousing the startled occupants with shouts and blows.

"I remember the people screaming 'polizia, polizia,' and the sound of the riot police banging down the door. I remember looking out the window of the third floor and seeing a wave of shiny blue helmets swelling into the gates and through the doors of the school," says Sievewright. "I remember the shock on the faces of the first medics who were allowed into the building, and I remember the absolute terror and fear of the people who'd been beaten."

"I remember a lot of pacifists who could not believe that it was happening to them," Cunningham adds.

The schoolhouse was dubbed the "Slaughterhouse" by Indymedia reporters and radical press. Pictures circulated of walls and floors smeared with blood, of young men and women being carried unconscious through the front doors. Three activists, including British journalist Mark Covell, were left in comas, and one sustained permanent brain damage. Ninety-three people were arrested, many taken to a temporary detention camp established at Bolzaneto, six miles from Genova.

"I was beaten pretty badly, mostly on my back," Cunningham says. "I had zigzagging bruises on my back in the shape of the batons handles. My head was split open."

Shockingly, some of the worst treatment he received was at the hands of doctors. "I was in some kind of military hospital for two days."

"There, the 'doctors' worked with the police to get information from us. We were not allowed to sleep, as the pigs would smash batons off bed posts."

Afterwards, he was transferred to a men's prison for several days. "In prison we were made to sing fascist songs. Because I would not, I was kicked repeatedly, and put in an isolation cell away from the others. Guards would rush my cell and tell me that they would 'rape my girlfriend' and 'kill me in my sleep.'"

Meanwhile, similar emotional and physical anguish was being visited on the women who were detained, Sievewright says. "I was taken to a hospital for one night because they thought I had a head injury but I was lucky to get away with only major bruising on my legs and arms. The police came to the hospital in the morning, arrested me and took me to the Bolzaneto detention centre. I was there for about 30 hours in a small cell with about 30 other women from the school. Most of them had been there all night and had been forced to stand while sustaining head injuries, broken arms, fingers, noses, teeth, bruising and bleeding. They had been forced to sing fascist songs and threatened with rape. All night we heard screaming and banging. We were told that we were to be raped and tortured."

After days of threats and humiliation, Sievewright and Cunningham were released. "Upon our release from the detention center, a group of Marxist Leninists took us underground for a few days, as we were supposed to be out of the country immediately," Cunningham says. "I believe that there was support from the anarchists in general and the Black Cross in specific."

In the years following the attack, Sievewright and Cunningham traveled back to Italy to testify in a legal case that was organized by a local group under the banner Processi G8. As they struggle to come to terms with what they experienced, their resilience is as evident in their gallows humour as it is in their ongoing commitment to organizing for social justice.

"Though the impact of my experiences in Genova have lessened over the last seven years, I definitely had some symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and on occasion it still haunts me. And Genova didn't do much for my love of police officers," Sievewright says dryly. "Witnessing and experiencing political violence in Genova was a big motivator in getting more actively involved in political organizing in Canada."

The experience has shaped Cunningham's activism as well. "Political violence as a threat from the state here in Vancouver is less terrifying, as I believe I have survived the worst that I might be subjected to, given my relative privilege as a white activist in occupied Canada," he says. "Here I've only had [police] throw me through a glass window and later break a rib that pierced my lung!"

On July 15, after a three-year trial, verdicts were handed down by the Italian court. Fifteen officials were given sentences ranging from five months to five years. Thirty others were cleared of charges. Defendants will each receive 10,000 Euros and upwards in damages. The decision is considered an embarrassment to Silvio Berlusconi's right wing government, in power both then and now. In 2005, 29 officers were indicted for grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest for the raid on the on the Diaz School. By 2003, all of the activists arrested that night had been cleared of all charges including resisting arrest.

The commander of the Bolzaneto camp, Biagio Gugliotta, received a five-year sentence. The chief doctor, Giacomo Toccafondi, was given a 14-month sentence, accused of failing to intervene when detainees were sprayed with asphyxiating gas.

"I know that most of the people involved in the case were disappointed in the verdict – only a fraction of the accused were convicted and most of them were given little jail time – but to be honest I was surprised that the police, the officials and the doctors were convicted, sentenced or given any jail time at all," Sievewright admits. "I know that a couple of years or months in prison, that they will likely not even serve, is little compared to the trauma and abuse that they afflicted on the hundreds of people in the detention centre; and it is small compared to the 25 people out of the 300,000, convicted of rioting and property damage who were given a collective total of 110 years of jail.

"But generally throughout the world people in positions of power are rarely brought to justice through the legal system. In Canada there have been numerous cases of people dying in the hands of the police ― Frank Paul, Robert Dziekanski, and most recently the 18-year-old in Montreal [Fredy Alberto Villanueva, killed August 10], to name a few – and in these cases, as in other cases, it is unlikely that the police will even be made to stand trial."

"I feel no closure," Cunningham says simply. "Fascism is on the rise in Europe and is making a resurgence here. Unless a militant force can organize to challenge them in the street, Carlos' death and the brutalities at the Diaz School and detention centres will be remembered in vain, with the current legal cases producing only symbolic legal victories void of any real justice."

G8 Files

Diaz School

Land & Jail

hillarybain — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:57:44 +0000

Ipperwash, official racism and the future of Ontario

On May 31, 2007, nearly 12 years after Dudley George was shot by an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer, Sidney Linden released the four-volume Ipperwash Report.

In his remarks when he released the report, Linden, the commissioner of the Ipperwash Inquiry, noted that George was the “First aboriginal person to be killed in a land-rights dispute in Canada since the 19th century,” and stated: “If the governments of Ontario and Canada want to avoid future confrontations, they will have to deal with land and treaty claims effectively and fairly.”

At this time Linden also noted, “The single biggest source of frustration, distrust, and ill-feeling among aboriginal people in Ontario is our failure to deal in a just and expeditious way with breaches of treaty and other legal obligations to First Nations.” The Ipperwash Report explores the events that led to George's killing and makes a number of recommendations to the provincial government.

Recent police actions against Indigenous defenders of the land and provocative statements by government officials contradict the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry, as well as the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which called for a restructuring of the relationship between indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples through “a comprehensive agenda for change.”

Origins of the Ipperwash conflict

In 1942, the federal government expropriated land belonging to the Stony Point First Nation under the War Measures Act to build a military training facility called Camp Ipperwash. The Department of National Defence offered a conditional return of most of the land after the war, but later rescinded the offer. The dispute simmered until 1995, when approximately 30 frustrated defenders of Indigenous title barricaded the park.

The OPP faced off against the defenders. In a tragic series of events now referred to simply as Ipperwash, OPP Sergeant Kenneth Deane shot and killed 38-year-old Stony Point activist Dudley George. Deane was sentenced to 180 hours of community service.

In the Ipperwash Report, Linden ruled that the OPP, the government of Ontario, Premier Mike Harris and the federal government were responsible for the Ipperwash tragedy. He identified the number one priority as the “return of the former army camp to the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation immediately, with an apology and appropriate compensation.”

On December 20, 2007, Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant announced that Ipperwash Provincial Park, located on the former army base about 40 kilometres northeast of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario, would be returned to the Ojibwas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. “In doing so, we are sending a clear signal that the McGuinty government is acting on the premier's ambitious agenda on aboriginal affairs,” said Bryant.

A closer look at the issue and the report reveals that the Ontario government still has a long way to go, however. Linden presented an understanding of the “frustration” of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation that precedes the occupation of the park in 1995. In fact, he held, the grievance goes even further back than the federal government expropriation of Stony Point land in 1942:

The roots of the Ipperwash occupation go back as far as 1763, when King George III made the protection of Aboriginal land an official crown policy. The 1763 Royal Proclamation established an "Indian Country," as it was then referred to, where aboriginal land was protected from encroachment or settlement. When Sir William Johnson came to Niagara Falls to explain the Royal Proclamation to 1,500 Anishinabek Chiefs and Warriors, he consummated the alliance by presenting two wampum belts, which embodied the promises contained in the proclamation.

Indeed, an understanding of history seems crucial to overcoming the division between Original Peoples and non-indigenous peoples.

Racism, from Mike Harris on down

On February 16, 2006, the Ipperwash Inquiry heard testimony from ex-Attorney General Charles Harnick who related what then-Premier Mike Harris had said: "I want the fucking Indians out of the park."

Although Harris denied this accusation, Linden maintained that the comments were made.

First broadcast in 2004, tapes obtained through an access to information request by the CBC’s The Fifth Estate revealed racist banter among OPP officers as well:

“Is there still a lot of press down there?”

“No, there's no one down there. Just a great big fat fuck Indian.”

“The camera's rolling, eh?”

“Yeah.”

“We had this plan, you know. We thought if we could get five or six cases of Labatt's 50 [beer], we could bait them.”

“Yeah.”

"Then we’d have this big net at a pit.”

“Creative thinking.”

“Works in the [US] South with watermelon.”

The day before George was killed, Sergeant Stan Korosec of the OPP emergency response team at Ipperwash was recorded on tape saying: “We want to amass a fucking army. A real fucking army and do this. Do these fuckers bigtime.”

“Cultural insensitivity and racism,” Linden says, was “not an isolated incident” within the OPP. However, Linden found it was politicians who had pressured the OPP away from its initial “go-slow” approach to the stand-off.

OPP Inspector Ron Fox was recorded saying, “We're dealing with a real redneck government...They just are in love with guns. There’s no question. They don't give a shit less about Indians.”

The criminalization continues

When Original Peoples have fought, demonstrated for, or pursued legal routes, they have been, for the most part, unsuccessful in securing control over their traditional lands. The federal and provincial governments, for their part, have long resorted to the criminalization and incarceration of Original Peoples defending their land claims.

This strategy has been used by the OPP in the case of Tyendinaga Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) leader Shawn Brant-–as evidenced by repeat arrests against him without conviction.

Brant is a long-time activist, having demonstrated at Oka and Ipperwash. During the November 2006 Tyendinaga reclamation of a gravel quarry-–allegedly stolen by the Canadian government-–Brant was charged with making death threats to Canadian army personnel. On April 14, 2008, Brant was cleared of the charge by Justice Charles Anderson, who, according to Sue Collis, Brant’s wife, described the police and provincial roles in the affair as “problematic” and “troubling.”

On April 25, 2007, Brant was arrested for alleged involvement in organizing a blockade of a Via Rail line to stop construction on land in Tyendinaga Territory, a community situated on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern Ontario. Brant, arrested during an interview with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, said:

"This is it. Justice for First Nations communities: lock us up. Anybody who speaks out, lock ‘em up. KI6, Bob Lovelace, lock ’em up. That’s what it’s about: lock ‘em up. Don’t fix the problems, lock ’em up."

On June 29, 2007, the Aboriginal Day of Action, Brant organized the blockade of a CN rail line and Highway 2, running through Tyendinaga Territory. According to CBC’s The Current, the OPP had deployed “heavily armed units” to the sites of the blockades, and OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino allegedly warned Tyendinaga that, “The OPP would go in with everything they had, whether or not there were women and children.”

These actions were contrary to the recommendations of the Ipperwash Inquiry and, as activist group No One is Illegal pointed out, “...disregarded their common practice of obtaining injunctions before considering using force against indigenous occupations.”

Brant was charged with mischief and breach of bail conditions.

On April 25, 2008, Brant was arrested and detained for assault and possession of a weapon (a fishing spear) in a confrontation precipitated by James Lalonde and Mike Lalonde-–two residents of Deseronto-–against Tyendinaga women and girls.

Brant has become emblematic of federal and provincial policing against Original Peoples: if they struggle for their land, they will be thrown in jail. According to some observers, the OPP is involved in a disinformation campaign and trumped-up charges that undermine the very basis of the Ipperwash Inquiry recommendations.

On July 30, the Toronto Star online headlined: “OPP forgets lessons of Ipperwash.” The political and legal persecution of Brant was exposed through comments made to Brant by Commissioner Fantino during an illegal wiretap of Brant’s phone between July and August 2007.

Brant’s lawyer, Peter Rosenthal, criticized Fantino for the wiretap and his controversial statements. Rosenthal called on Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to investigate whether Fantino was appropriate for the commissioner’s post (which Fantino continues to hold at time of writing).

Among the statements Fantino made to Brant, as revealed by transcripts of the OPP wiretaps, are:

“I don’t wanna get on your bad side but you’re gonna force me to do...everything I can within your community and everywhere else to destroy your...reputation” and, “Your whole world’s gonna come crashing down on this issue."

Fantino also urged Brant to “pull the plug” on the blockades or “suffer grave consequences." At a news conference, Rosenthal said Fantino threatened Brant "with premature death at the hands of [an OPP] sniper."

Rosenthal warned, “If somebody does read that transcript, who’s aware of Ipperwash, they would recognize that there's danger in allowing Fantino to be head of OPP and the danger we talk about is life and death.”

Fantino issued the following statement in response: "Consistent with the recommendations from the Ipperwash Inquiry, the OPP continues to work collectively with legitimate First Nations leadership and communities to ensure that both the interests of participants during lawful protests and public safety can be served in the best way possible."

This is part one in a series of articles about the systemic incarceration of indigenous peoples in Canada.

Dudley George Memorial

Mike Harris testifies

Brutal mass arrest of activists on opening day of summit.

Amy Miller — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:02:03 +0000

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Photo Credit: Aaron Lakoff

The opening day of the largest NATO gathering in history a brutal mass arrest of activists took place in Bucharest, Romania.

This afternoon hundreds of police made a sudden attack on the legally rented convergence center that local activists had set up to house demonstrators from abroad, as well as serve as a space to organize actions. Wearing ski masks and carrying sub machine guns a team of 80 special forces moved into the space where people were in the process of cooking and talking. Albert, one of the 60 activists who were arrested spoke to me from the police station:

“Yeah the place, over the space was taken by the police. There is nobody inside. Everybody who was inside was taken by the police. They beat everybody inside, and everbody got arrested. "

A police spokesperson stated that nothing illegal had been found within the center, but that the police intervention was provided for in the national constitution. One protester was rushed to the hospital due to the severity of the violence strikes by the police. The Romanian government has taken a zero tolerance towards any actions against NATO.