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THE OCAP CRACKDOWN: CRIMINALIZING PROTESTS
(This article is from the Sept. 1-15/2000 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.)
People's Voice Toronto Bureau
"At a signal, the police went crazy, lashing out right and left with batons, riding whips, feet and occasionally blackjacks. Mounted Cossacks rode their scared and plunging horses right at the nearest victim ... " (Description of a Queen's Park demonstration, August 1929, from The Little Band: Clashes between the Communists and the Canadian Establishment, 1928-1932 by Lita-Rose Betcherman.)
THE ACTIONS OF the police at and following the June 15 demonstration at Queen's Park, organized by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), are reminiscent of the Depression, when organizing amongst the unemployed was met with extreme police violence and repression.
The criminal justice system has also stepped up the heat in their continuing war against OCAP. On July 21, Organizer John Clarke and three other activists, Gaetan Heroux, Stefan Pilipa and PJ Lilley, were arrested in connection with the June 15 demonstration. All have since been released, and it is clear from their bail conditions that the main objective of the police is to criminalize and destroy OCAP.
In a chilling rendition of the events of June 15, the crown declared that the organizers must have been planning for a riot because protesters came wearing cargo pants, many layers of clothing, bandanas and sporting bicycle helmets and swim goggles. The crown failed to take note of how the police were dressed: full riot gear, clubs, tear gas, horses and cattle prods. Most charges against participants in the demonstration, including those laid against the four OCAP members, have been for "participating in a riot." Clarke was also hit with "counselling to commit an indictable offence," a charge that carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail.
Bail conditions, which were agreed to only because OCAP wanted to fight them in a higher court, restricted their access to Queen's Park and Allan Garders, (the home of many homeless and the site of the ongoing "Safe Park" demonstration). The four activists were ordered not to participate in protests, demonstrations or marches, and to stay away from members of OCAP and each other. According to OCAP lawyer Jeff House, these unconstitutional conditions will be fought in court. House stated that they are clearly related to "police perceptions that OCAP is a conspiracy."
The breach of civil liberties permeates the police actions related to June 15. As well as the bail conditions, which in Clarke's case, restrict his ability to work, the police have seized photographs and videotapes from various media outlets. Several media organizations are challenging the police warrants in court.
Lawyers were told that police intelligence has a list of other OCAP members that they are looking for in connection with the demonstration. The lawyers asked for the list, so that they could arrange for the members to turn themselves in. The request was denied. The police are more interested in playing cat and mouse games -- taking activists down publicly, as in the case of Clarke who was arrested on the Bloor Viaduct on his way home.
Over 200 OCAP supporters gathered at the courthouse for the bail hearings, including members of the OCAP Allies group -- labour and social justice leaders from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Canadian Auto Workers, York University Faculty Association and the Metro Network for Social Justice. "The anti-poverty work that OCAP does day after day will continue," said Steve Watson from the CAW. "Labour will ensure that the work of defending the poor and the homeless will continue."
One of the most moving moments of the day was a speech from Gaetan Heroux, obviously exhausted from his overnight stay, who told the assembled media that "If you turn your cameras away from me right now you will find thousands of people living and dying on these streets, and you will not stop us from speaking about that."
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