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STOCKWELL DAY GETS MILKED IN KITCHENER
Special to People's Voice
(This article is from the October 16-31/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
KITCHENER, Ontario - Stockwell Day chose Kitchener to launch the Alliance's right wing, anti-people, election platform on Oct. 5. He received a welcome that he did not expect! He was met by protesters, both inside and outside the pre-election rally, held at the Conestoga College Recreation Centre.
Outside were about 30 protesters from the Kitchener-Waterloo chapters of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Anti-Racist Action, Food Not Bombs, as well as several individuals who came on their own initiative.
Protesters stood their ground, despite being harassed by Alliance party goons sent out to intimidate them. A firm message was delivered to Alliance party members and their leaders that they were not welcome in Kitchener. Inside, several protesters managed to slip into the "invitation only" rally, which had been kept a closely guarded secret.
One protester, University of Waterloo student Julian Ichim, managed to infiltrate the tight security and well orchestrated media show. He was actually seated right in front of Day by security people, after they removed several elderly Alliance supporters to fill the front row seats with youth, so the media would get the false image that the Alliance is a party of youth!
Ichim was picked by Alliance security people, because of his short hair and his neatly dressed, clean cut image. Just the kind of youthful, but "respectable" look they sought to portray to the media! A few seconds after Day emerged from the centre of a Canadian flag to address his crowd of followers, Ichim leaped up and drenched Day with two containers of chocolate milk.
Ichim was immediately grabbed by two burly Alliance goons. While they held him, a third, paid goon came up and punched him repeatedly. They only stopped beating him when they realized that it was all being captured on video, by national news media! Ichim was able to temporarily escape the building, chased by the news media who were followed closely by 10 or 12 Alliance goons.
In the Rec Centre parking lot, Ichim stopped and was quickly surrounded by the media. A second incident almost took place as the Alliance goons tried to force their way through the media mob to prevent Ichim from speaking. Ichim did get his message out. When asked why he did it, he said he acted because the Alliance was on record as being anti-labour, homophobic, and anti-immigrant. He denounced their plans to privatize hospitals and cut funding to universities, and accused them of making war on the poor.
Moments later, Ichim was arrested by waiting police. He was held for several hours and has been charged with assault. So far, police have declined to press charges of assault against the Alliance goons who beat Ichim. Despite the beating being caught on video, with parts of it being broadcast on national TV, Waterloo Regional Police claimed they didn't yet have enough evidence to lay charges.
(This eyewitness story was sent in by a Kitchener-area reader of People's Voice. We encourage other readers across the country to send in your reports from the campaign trail!)
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