Like most of you I would LOVE to know this guy is and why, despite the fact the seems to have been a chief instigator of the police car attacks that the police aren't the least bit curious about him. Even if he is a government agent, as some suspect, it doesn't matter.
Most Canadians do not believe in agents provocateur any more than they believe in the tooth fairy. If you talk to them about police instigating violence disguised as the black bloc you might as well tell them about how aliens picked you up on the weekend and took you to visit Elvis while you're at it. Pictures of boots and backpacks are not going to convince them. It would take something like a confession, with supporting documentation, presented live on CBC News in front of Peter Mansbridge.
I've seen more and more from various people bringing up the agents provocateur theory and focusing on that risks losing everything. It makes those calling for a G20 inquiry look, to most Canadians, paranoid and delusional and decreases the credibility of all of our claims.
If you have absolute proof that would stand up in court, not circumstantial evidence and theories, then fine but otherwise we need to focus on what we can prove. Police brutality, the suppression of guaranteed charter rights, illegal search and seizure and more.
Most Canadians and most Torontonians have already made up their minds about what happened on Saturday afternoon, and nothing is going to change it. It is the story of what happened after that that needs to be told. It is the events of Saturday night and Sunday that require an inquiry. We can hope that more information about Saturday afternoon will come out in the wash but no political party is going to call for an inquiry over this guy and they wouldn't get much public support if they did.
Ultimately it doesn't matter if there were police in black hoods or not. It doesn't matter because even if it is true, it wasn't only police. Various anarchist groups announced they were coming and have published their accounts including taking responsibility for Saturday's violence on their web sites. If pressed and presented with evidence police will simply claim that they had operatives within the group to gather information and the whole thing will go away. In Montebello, Quebec the police admitted to using agents and the public still didn't care.
This is an uphill battle to begin with, stick to the fights we can win and the ones that are worth fighting. Our fellow citizens were denied their charter rights, denied their human dignity and in many cases were physically assaulted, threatened, lied to, had their possessions seized, and in some cases may have been at least sexually harassed if not abused. If we want to ask questions about that we can get much of Canada onside to find the answers. Let’s not blow it by throwing in questions that the bulk of the population will find absurd. In the end who, individually, broke which window is not a question that is nagging at me.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
6 comments:
Justin - great piece. I believe a coordinated response is needed by 'average citizens' like you and I, outraged by the disrespect for the public and disrespect for our own legal system shown by law enforcement during the G20. Like you, I can't join the 'conspiracy theorist' contingent is also upset about all that was wrong about law enforcement there. The CCLA is one option...though their list of supporters in objecting to G20 abuses is all predicably left wing. Where are the Liberal and Conservative (yes, The Natural Governing Party and the Law and Order folk) who are upset about the breaking of Law and Order by the people we paid $1Billion to maintain it?
Seconded. If it did actually happen that way, we'll find out in due course anyway.
Meantime, let's keep pushing for the inquiry on all the other grounds that we already have.
Good point Justin. And while I agree with Michael in principle, taking this to the streets might do more harm than good. If most Canadians and most Torontonians have already made up their minds about what happened, further civil disobedience and/or protest could have the same effect as focusing on A.P.s moving with the bloc... i.e. making us all look like bigger banana-heads.
It might take longer and be infinitely more frustrating at the outset, we gotta play it their way first. Whatever the circumstances, we are obligated to respond in a way befitting rational people.
If the report following this inquiry is a crock of shit, then it's time to take it back to the streets.
Code Pink members didn't get across the border.
I have stated this before: the police used to just escort us and ptotect us at peace marches.
And at Clayoquot they treated us with respect and gently arrested us on our blockades.
No riot squads. No swat teams.
Why form a perimeter around us in TO? And fail to monitor the one known, highly visible threat and not protect,guard businesses to be expected to get vandalized?
And speaking of the public, who, what moulded the public opinion to support the police actions...er inactions?
The MEDIA.
See you in Toronto -- Queen's Park, 1 pm -- to take the issue of G20 attacks on civil liberties to the streets, and demand an independent inquiry of the security measures taken.
Looks like Andre Marin's going to kick butt and take names. And subpoena the Premier if need be to do it.
Post a Comment