Communist Party
leader Miguel Figueroa has denounced the "cover up" of
police infiltration of the anti‑Summit protests in Montebello.
He is demanding a full and independent public inquiry, and the
criminal prosecution of all those responsible for this "dangerous,
anti‑democratic action."
For
several days after the August 21 events at Montebello, the Quebec
Provincial Police refused to admit their use of agents provocateurs to
foment violence and provide a pretext for police to attack and
break up the protests. Yet even after the QPP recanted and admitted
their use of provocateurs, federal Public Security Minister Stockwell
Day continued to downplay the incident and brush off demands
for a public inquiry.
"This
was not just a localized assault on the labour and social activists
protesting in Montebello," Figueroa said. "It was a
crude attempt to discredit the entire opposition movement against
the Security and Prosperity Partnership pact promoted by the
big business and their pro‑corporate governments in Canada,
the USA and Mexico, and to manipulate public opinion to accept
this sell‑out agreement. There is absolutely no way that
this dangerous provocation could have been undertaken without
the prior knowledge and approval of the RCMP, CSIS and the Prime
Minister's Office itself."
Right‑wing
governments have repeated used agents provocateurs to
subvert people's resistance to the neoliberal and so‑called "globalization" agenda
of the transnational corporations and banks, and the governments
and states they control. Strong evidence of such tactics surfaced
in the APEC protests in Vancouver, at the Seattle mobilizations
against the WTO, and in Genoa where the Italian police were caught
red‑handed.
"Canada
is not a fascist police‑state, and the Canadian people
cannot allow such grave violations to be perpetrated without
a full investigation and punishment of those found responsible," Figueroa
said. "At stake are not only the right to peaceful dissent
and protest, but also the very future of sovereignty and democracy
in Canada itself."
_________________
For more information,
contact Miguel Figueroa, Communist Party leader, at figueroa@cpc-pcc.ca or
by telephone at 416-469-2446 (office).
Central Executive
Committee,
Communist Party
of Canada
Sept.
9, 2007
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