A-Infos (en) update on montreal anti-hunger activists

[Dee or David <seahorse@odyssee.net>]

________________________________________________
     A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
           http://www.ainfos.ca/
________________________________________________

Out of the 108 people arrested, 48 received dates to appear before the
courts of injustice on Feb 5 and 6. So on Feb. 5, about half of the 48
along with supports went to court. However only some people were on the
list to appear, yet NO ONE was notified of this change. So these charges
are suspended and many of the of the accused don't know if they'll have to
go to court of no. It appears that the police want to just get whom they
perceive as the "ring leaders". Eight people from OCAP (Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty) came from the Toronto. Four of the eight had dates to
appear in court for Feb. 5, yet their names were not on the list.

When the court began at 9:30 a.m., many of accused refused to stand up. A
while later one of the accused had his arm on the back of the bench, which
is not allowed. When a security officer came by to tell him to put his arm
down he said "Hey get out of here, don't you realise you bothering
people... scam, scam!" Then a pig approached him to tell him to put his arm
down again and he said "Haven't you ever heard of internalised discipline".
They then let him be (which was a surprise). 

After hearing a few cases that went before us (the usual, where people of
colour and the poor are criminalized for just trying to survive in this
insane world) the accused of the Dec. 3 action were called up one by one.
The first 
three asked the judge that the charges be read out, one by one. We decided
to do this because it takes up more of their time and of course the accused
pleaded NOT GUILTY. 

Then another of the accused  was called up. The judge asked if she was to
plead guilty or not guilty, she asked  that the proceedings be in English.
The judge then adjourned the proceedings while the court had to look for a
translator.
 She also stated that she didn't have a lawyer. 

When the court began again nobody sat up when the judge came. The bailiff
started yelling that we had to stand up, that we "had no respect for the
judge, nor the courts." In fact he told us to stand up three times before
everyone did. What was remarkable was the fact that other in the courtroom,
who had nothing to do with our case, were refusing to stand up for the
judge as well!

Finally, the woman was called up again and her charges were read out to
her. There had been another charge added, which she just learned about,
while the translator read it out. The fourth charge was "illegal
gathering". She 
asked the judge to explain what that meant. The judge refused to answer,
and said "Do you plead guilty or not guilty?". She then said how can I
plead anything if I don't even understand what the hell I'm accused of? Does 
illegal gathering mean every time there are a few people hanging around it
is an illegal gathering?". The judge just repeated his "guilty or not
guilty". She then said "You are the judge, so you're suppose to know the
law, I demand 
that you explain to me what the hell it means!". The judge, red in the
face, just continued with his broken record routine "guilty or not guilty".
So she said "We'll of course I'm going to say NOT GUILTY because I don't even 
understand what the hell the charge is against me!" Then she sat down.

The next person to be called up was the man who earlier had refused to put
his arm down from the back of the bench. He stated that he wanted his
charges read out to him. Then the crown attorney said that he didn't go
down to get his prints or photo taken, which we were asked to do about a
month earlier. He said "I didn't see the point in getting my prints and
photo taken because you already have them on file". The judge said "You
have to get your prints taken and an officer will take you to get them done
now". The accused said "I'm afraid to go alone since Philippe Whitehead,
one of the accused went down to get his prints taken a couple of weeks ago
and he was brutalised by the cops. I'll go only if I can have a civilian
escort come with me." (Philippe Whitehead is a member of COBP, French
acronym for Citizens Against Police Brutality. He was brutalised by the
pigs and remained in jail for the night.) The judge said he didn't have the
right to have a civilian go with him and that he would have to go
immediately. Three pigs came up to him and forcefully put him to the ground
then carried him out of the courtroom by his arms and legs. At this point
the tension was thick in the air and someone from the back of the courtroom
starts chanting "etat policiere, etat policiere" (police state, police
state). As the man was being dragged out of the court room the woman who
earlier never had her additional charge explained to her became furious,
stood up, and yelled "Judge, you're a fucking asshole, you wouldn't even
explain to me what the hell I'm even charged with! This court is bullshit,
there is no justice!" At this point she stood up on the bench and pointed
at the pigs dragging out our comrade and started yelling "La police, au
service des riches et des fascistes. La justice, au service des riches et
des fascistes" (The police at the service for the rich and the fascists,
justice at the service for the rich and the fascists). Then everyone
started chanting the same thing and almost everyone jumped on the benches.
Many of us raised our fists while doing so. Then the judge said, in a loud
voice, that the court was adjourned and that the rest of the accused would
have to come in one at a time when the court would be in session later that
afternoon. 

As we left the courtroom we continued to chant, as corporate media filmed
us. (Not to our surprise, none of this went on the TV). About an hour
later, we were told that all court appearances were cancelled. So then we
went up 
to the crown attorney's office (Mr. Laigue), but he wasn't there. Then we
went down and we got a hold of the court representative, who said that all
cases for the day were cancelled and would be notified by mail for their
next court 
date. When the people from OCAP asked if they would have to appear, he said
a bailiff would contact them. Their names hadn't been on the list that day
and yet four members of OCAP had been charged and given a date to appear in
court before being released after the Dec. 3 action. This is totally
ridiculous because they live far away and don't have the means to
constantly come to Montreal. After spending money to rent a van to come to
Montreal (a six 
hour drive) they'd at least like to know what the hell was going on. Of
course we spent about an hour asking questions to the court representative
and no one got straight answers.

Then we went upstairs again to the crown attorney's office, but Mr. Laigue
wasn't there, so we decided to wait. It was during this time that our
comrade who was dragged away reunited with us. Then Mr. Laigue arrived, but
he 
quickly entered his office and locked the door. Then for about 20 minutes
we chanted "we want to speak to Laigue!" We punched and kicked his door,
but after a couple of minutes security guards came and stood in front of
the door. 
The reason we wanted to speak to him was because he was the ONLY person who
could answer our question -Who were going to be charged and when? In fact
by law, he must answer this. However he refused to do so. When he came out
he said "I have nothing to tell you." he refused to speak to us and he had
his guards all around him. As he walked away, protected by his goons, well
we were upset. So we all crowded around him. So here you have about 30
anti-hunger activists encircling Laigue and his guards pushing them against
the wall demanding that he answer our questions! Who will be charged and
when are the dates. Then the guards were getting mad. One of the guards
pushed one of the guys from OCAP on to the ground. 

Finally the guards helped Laigue escape. The protesters and the accused
then hung around for a few minutes, but then the guards handed them an
eviction notice stating that they had to leave for security reasons. When
the  anti-
hunger activists went outside, there were anti-riot cops all around. They
then decided to go to City Hall to the office of the Suzanne Jalbert,
Director of Litigation (legal department) but when they arrived, the
security had locked all the doors before the activists could see Suzanne
Jalbert. So then they returned to the Municipal Courthouse, only to find
that ALL the doors were locked and anti-riot cops everywhere. There was
nothing else to do, so they went home, only to join up again with everyone
at the benefit night that was organised by the Comite des
sans-emploi(Committee of the Unemployed). 

The next day, more accused arrived but this time Yves Manseau was
prohibited to enter the building. (Yves, along with Alexandre Popovic, whom
remained in prison for 9 days, have different court dates than the majority
of the 
accused. When they went to court on Feb. 5 and 6, it was to take notes and
support the other accused.) A lawyer by the name of St. Pierre saw that in
it was totally illegal what the security was doing - prohibiting Yves
Manseau to 
enter the Municipal courthouse. So this lawyer spoke to the Chief of
Security and then Yves was allowed in. On Feb. 6, the supporters were
allowed in the courtroom and the proceedings went relatively calmly. 

Later that day, Yves Manseau went back to City Hall to see Suzanne Jalbert.
He had a letter to deliver her asking her to inform the accused if the were
being charged and if so, when would be their court dates. When he entered the 
building a security guard chased after him through the building yelling
"It's the organiser of the demo, get him!". Then Yves turned and said, "I
am here to deliver a letter to Suzanne Jalbert and I demand that you leave
me in peace." He ended up leaving the letter at Jalbert's office who wasn't
in and he also made a written complaint to Mr. Cliche, the head of security
at City Hall about how he was treated when entering the building. 

COBP

One thing to note is that on Feb. 5, another comrade was going to court but
for other charges, 38 accounts of graffiti! She said that while she was in
the hall waiting to be called up, the police kept on talking about a
possible demo. But since they didn't see any placards, they figured nothing
would happen. 

_______________________________________________

Comite des sans-emploi Montreal-Centre
1710 Beaudry, local 3.9				
Montreal, Quebec   
Canada  H2L 3E7

tel: 514-596-7094
fax: 514-524-0222

Donations to the Defence Fund should be made out to the "Comite des
sans-emploi"




     ****** A-Infos News Service *****
  News about and of interest to anarchists

Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO@TAO.CA
             with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS
Info      -> http://www.ainfos.ca/
Reproduce -> please include this section