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Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:09:10 -0400<br>
From: "Montreal ABCF" <montrealabcf@gmail.com><br><br>
<br>
hey,<br><br>
thanks to everyone who helped support our sumoud event for child
political prisoners in palestine last night. we had a large turnout,
great speakers, moving poets, and amazing solidarity statements from
north american PPs. as those of you who attended will know, the event was
raided by police. media coverage of the incident has been extremely
inaccurate, so i am passing along the following statements... <br><br>
yours in solidarity,<br>
sara falconer<br><br>
<br><br>
Over 20 police cars and heavily armed police officers violently raided a
Palestinian political prisoners event last night in Montreal. The event
featured a series of speakers and performances, and was the opening night
of a Canada wide speaking tour on Palestinian child political prisoners.
Five people <br>
were arrested but eventually released with no charges.<br><br>
Police raided the venue during a musical performance on the pre-text of
an incident that occurred outside of the building. Within a matter of
minutes, a large number of police officers arrived without any warrants
and demanded that one of the organizers leave the hall for questioning.
<br><br>
All attempts to reason with the police failed. The police called in
several more officers for back up and proceeded with their unreasonable
and unjustified<br>
interventions which included arresting 5 people. Many of the
attendants in the venue were violently attacked and at one point the
police locked a number of people inside the venue with no regards for
safety and fire regulations. At no point did any of the officers
explain to the organizers what the cause of this <br>
massive raid had been.<br><br>
This event fits into a greater pattern of racist abuses by the Montreal
police. It is also the latest incident in a long line of arbitrary
political arrests carried out by the Montreal police force over the last
5 years. These abuses have recently been condemned by the U.N. human
rights commission. Ongoing surveillance and harassment of Palestinian
solidarity activists has escalated since the election of the Harper
government.<br><br>
It accompanies the Canadian government's unqualified support for the
policies of the Israeli apartheid state. <br><br>
<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: <b>Jaggi Singh</b> <br>
Date: Apr 20, 2006 4:53 PM<br>
Subject: Statement about the evening of April 19<br><br>
<br>
Several journalists have been in touch about the ruckus at El Salon
on<br>
St-Laurent last night (April 19). I really don't have much time to be
able<br>
to respond to all of you, due to several other organizing and work <br>
commitments. So, I'm putting out this statement to be able to respond
to<br>
you all once.<br><br>
Last night, I was one of the organizers, with many others, of an
event<br>
called "Break the Chains", an evening of speakers, spoken word,
poetry and <br>
music on the theme of child political prisoners in Palestine, as well
as<br>
political prisoners in general.<br><br>
The evening included a film called "Stolen Youth", followed by
talks by<br>
Ayed Abu Eqtaish (of Defence of Children International in Palestine),
Adam <br>
Haniyeh (of the Sumoud political prisoner support group in Toronto)
as<br>
well as Kahntinehta Horn (a Mohawk journalist and elder). The film
and<br>
talks were proceeded by poetry and spoken word (Ehab Lotayef and Rafeef
<br>
Ziadah read and performed) as well as recorded and written statements
from<br>
political prisoners in the United States. The last part of the evening
was<br>
a show by local hip hop artist Narcicyst of Euphrates, to be followed by
<br>
DJ Leila P.<br><br>
The event was very moving, with powerful speeches, statements and
poems.<br>
Over 150 people attended to listen to the speakers, poets and
musicians,<br>
as well as to get information from the tables of the organizing groups:
<br>
Books to Prisoners-Montreal, the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM),<br>
No One Is Illegal-Montreal, the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity
Movement<br>
(IPSM), Montreal Anarchist Black Cross Federation, Solidarity for<br>
Palestinian Human Rights at McGill and Concordia, The Twelve Months<br>
Political Prisoner Calendar Project, the Coalition Against the
Deportation<br>
of Palestinian Refugees, as well as Sumoud and Defence of Children<br>
International-Palestine. (Please note: this event was organized by
several <br>
groups.)<br><br>
It was during the last music portion that the police intervention<br>
occurred. Outside the venue (El Salon at 4388 St-Laurent), I had a<br>
conversation with a man who was wearing an earpiece (in one ear). I was
<br>
asking him why he was wearing the earpiece, and told him that
several<br>
participants at the event were bothered by how he was staring at them
with<br>
his earpiece. At one point the man, who was much larger, pushed me, as
<br>
well as another older participant at the event. There was no fight.
The<br>
man pushed me, and the other person, and we held our ground. We
continued<br>
talking with the man after the pushing, and eventually, I left to return
<br>
to the event.<br><br>
Someone, maybe a bystander, phoned the police. A few officers
arrived<br>
outside, and then entered the venue, with the man who had the
earpiece<br>
directing them towards me. One officer asked me to go outside. I asked if
<br>
I was under arrest. The officer said no, but that I had to go outside.
I<br>
refused, stating that if he wanted to talk, we could talk inside, in
a<br>
corner, or he could phone me later (I even gave him my number). My<br>
position was quite clear: I did not have to do anything the police
were<br>
asking of me, unless I was under arrest. I wanted to spend the rest of
the<br>
evening at the event, and I didn't have to cooperate with police unless I
<br>
was under arrest.<br><br>
Very quickly, many police officers entered the venue, and many of
the<br>
people attending the event, objected to their presence, and asked for
a<br>
clear reason why they had to remove me. None was ever provided by the
<br>
police, beyond the basic sentiment, expressed in various ways: "You
have<br>
to do what we say."<br><br>
I myself counted, as I was dragged out and waited in a police car,
at<br>
least twenty police cars. Others said later that there were thirty police
<br>
cars on site. A friend says there must have been 30-40 police who
entered<br>
the venue. It was a completely disproportionate and excessive response
by<br>
the police. Moreover, if they had provided a clear reason why I had to
<br>
leave the event (such as being under arrest), then I would have left.
The<br>
police do not have the right to expect people attending a<br>
political/cultural event to do exactly what they want without any<br>
questions, and without providing a legitimate response. It was the police
<br>
who escalated this matter. The police response was totally<br>
disproportionate and unnecessary.<br><br>
It is not true that any chairs or tables were thrown at the police (I
did<br>
not see any from where I was, which was in the middle of police officers
<br>
who were dragging me out of the venue). In the end, five people -- 3
women<br>
and 2 men, including me -- were briefly arrested by police. None of us
was<br>
jailed, or even taken into a police station. To the best of my knowledge,
<br>
me and another woman were given a "promise to appear" on the
charge of<br>
"obstruction" two others were given tickets for .obstruction.
and the<br>
fifth person was just let go.<br><br>
(I also want to mention that while I objected to the man with the
earpiece <br>
staring at folks, I do not know for sure who he was -- that's exactly
one<br>
of the questions I asked him. In retrospect, he probably was not
involved<br>
with the police, and was likely private security for someone in the area;
<br>
but, the police certainly let him give them direction at the beginning
of<br>
their intervention).<br><br>
This was a minor incident (an interaction outside with a man who pushed
me<br>
and another person during an argument) that was turned into a major <br>
incident by an overzealous and unnecessary police response. In the
end,<br>
the police couldn.t even justify holding anyone longer than the time
it<br>
took them to write a few tickets and citations (to which all of us,
I.m<br>
sure, will plead "not-guilty"). I was able to look at the
police computer<br>
while handcuffed in the backseat of the police car. When my file came
up,<br>
aside from personal information (including information about my political
<br>
affiliations), the file mentioned that I had no criminal record.<br><br>
Again, I write this to respond to the various media requests I'm
getting,<br>
and to be able to get back to my other more pressing commitments. I'm
sure <br>
too there are more important things for the media to report, including
the<br>
recent attack by police on the territory of the indigenous peoples of
Six<br>
Nations.<br><br>
-- Jaggi Singh, April 20, 2006<br><br>
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