[Caution: strong language.]
By Corrie Sakaluk
Obviously, the best way for the matter of Rob Ford’s speech and conduct during his unnecessary calls to emergency services when This Hour Has 22 Minutes comedian Mary Walsh approached him outside his home on October 24, 2011, would be to release the tapes. If there is nothing to be covered up or untoward about Ford’s comments during the calls, then the tapes would reveal and prove this once and for all.
Instead, Chief Bill Blair referred the tapes to OPP Commissioner Chris D. Lewis in order to be reviewed and to have his accounts publicly validated. In an extremely brief letter to Blair on Jan. 20 the Commissioner stated that he could “confirm that the statement you made in a public release on October 28, 2011, is an accurate interpretation of the content of the tapes”.
Great. If that’s the case, then simply release them. It is only a matter of personal request on behalf of the Mayor that the tapes of his 9-1-1 calls have been kept private. He has also already admitted to using the word “fuck” during his call, and to behaving “inappropriately”.
I want to commend CBC ombudsman Kirk LaPointe who reported on January 5 that CBC would stand by their stories and pointed out that Chief Blair’s account of the tapes could not be trusted because his budget was controlled by Mayor Rob Ford. As far as I am aware LaPointe has not retracted or changed his mind, despite having taken flack from Blair spokesperson Mark Pugash, who has called it “offensive” that he would suggest that budget concerns would at all influence Chief Blair.
Is Pugash serious? Is the public really expected to believe that the allocation of money for the police force by Mayor Ford, and thereby Blair’s reputation amongst his colleagues and police officers, as well as their morale, would not be a motivating factor for his actions?
Blair himself is reported as asking for a review of Ford’s comments by the OPP Commissioner “in order to assist the CBC ombudsman in doing his job”. I am personally sceptical that Kirk LaPointe needs or should ever receive police assistance in doing his job as ombudsman at the CBC. In fact I would prefer that he operate independently, free from coercion and police pressure.
Frankly, I find the entire situation with Rob Ford, Mary Walsh and 9-1-1 hilarious. When Rob Ford got elected, I couldn’t have imagined (even in my wildest imaginings) that he would do so many absolutely ridiculous things to make himself such an easy target for political comedians and pundits.
What Rob Ford said or didn’t say during his 9-1-1 call is not even not of huge concern to me. The Mayor called the police on a sketch comedian because he felt truly at risk! The more extreme and frantic he was during the calls is actually the more uproariously side-splitting the story gets.
The broader issue is that even in a situation with so little at stake (i.e. the reputation of a Mayor who is so clearly a buffoon), the police force continues to act as a brotherhood where loyalty and protecting each others’ reputation is a number one priority, regardless of damage done to regular civilians or principles of public disclosure.
This time its whether or not Rob Ford said the word “bitches” or referred to himself as “Rob fucking Ford…the mayor of this city!”
Other times its cover-ups or acquittals when cold-blooded murder is perpetrated by police officers on Toronto streets. The collusion between city police and provincial and federal forces in developing and enforcing secret laws and covering up police violence was nowhere more obvious than in the G20 debacle of summer 2010.
Any attempts to hold police accountable through civilian organizations, such as the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) created in the 1990 Police Services act, have been completely undermined. After decades of civilian activism around police brutality against the Black community in Toronto, the SIU was originally set up to be comprised of civilians instead of police homicide investigators. However it has only been staffed only by retired police officers seen by the force as the only “civilians” qualified enough to conduct investigations of incidents.
Not surprisingly, the SIU has cleared police officers of any wrongdoing in the police murders of several Toronto youth since 2008, including 18-year-old Alwy al-Nadhir and 28-year-old Byron Debassige, leaving their families even more heartbroken and disillusioned.
In the 2010 police murder of 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon, the SIU interpreted the cause of Junior’s death as a heart attack. They told police that their autopsy found “no broken bones and no anatomical reasons for the death of this 18-year-old”.
The only reason the Toronto-OPP cover up of Rob Ford’s true comments to 9-1-1 staff in October 2011 is of concern is because it points to the bigger problem of lack of police accountability overall. Whether or not he swore or spoke in an arrogant way is not the point.
A critical take on the Conservative ‘tough-on-crime’ agenda
by Natasha Brien & Sasha Carty – BASICS Issue #27 (Dec 2011 / Jan 2012)
Now that the Conservatives have their majority government, they will be forging ahead with the so-called ‘tough-on-crime’ agenda they’ve been pushing for five years. One of the first changes came earlier this year with the repeal of accelerated parole (previously available to first-time, non-violent, federal prisoners after serving 1/6th of their sentences). The basis for eliminating this law was the case of Mr. Earl Jones and Mr. Leon Kordzian – two men convicted of extorting large amounts of money from primarily affluent people.
What is striking is that the repeal of accelerated parole was applied retroactively. Unless prisoners had an acceptance letter in hand or were already out in the community, they were immediately denied accelerated parole, creating a backlog in the system. This was clearly one strategic move to ensure more bodies remain within Canadian prisons.
Building upon this is the omnibus crime bill, which Harper publically promised to pass within 100 sitting days of being re-elected. Many people have jumped on board with the bills, blinded by the fallacy that tougher laws and longer sentences will ultimately reduce the crime rate (a rate that has been decreasing prior to harsher crime bills) and in return create a safer society. Read more…
By Sara Falconer
Beginning July 1, several prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) began an indefinite hunger strike to protest and expose the brutal conditions in the solitary confinement unit, known also as the SHU (Security Housing Unit). First-hand reports came in indicating that there are aver 6000 participants, in at least 11 different prisons across California.
Although the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) originally claimed that fewer than two dozen prisoners were part of the strike, on June 5 a spokesperson reluctantly admitted, “There are inmates in at least a third of our prisons who are refusing state-issued meals.”
The Bay Area-based group Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity learned that prison officials had attempted to head off the strike by promoting a Fourth of July menu that included strawberry shortcake and ice cream. The wife of one SHU prisoner said her husband had never had ice cream there and “has never seen a strawberry.”
There are 3,500 prisoners in SHUs across the California. Although they are supposedly sent to security units for participating in “gang” behaviour or misconduct, it’s often a punishment used against any prisoners who dare to organize with others or to engage in civil disobedience. Prisoners are held in extreme isolation in windowless, soundproof, 6 by 10 foot cells, 23 hours a day, for years at a time. Human rights organizations have condemned torturous conditions, which often lead to mental illness.
“It’s been a difficult and uphill battle, a lot of brow-beating and direct debate, but as it stands all are participating on a limited basis,” writes hunger striker Chad Landrum from PBSP.
“Some, including myself, are going ‘indefinitely’… victory or death!” Landrum, who is known to friends as “Ghost,” has end-stage liver disease, was hospitalized almost immediately – which also means that he was isolated. “If the demands have been met in whole, [or] negotiated part, I will not take the cops’ word, for the pigs have proven their word to be hollow,” he explains.” I will need the word of you or your outside support.”
One of the strategies used for the strike the CDCR used was to announce that the strike was over in an attempt to confuse the already strained lines of communication between striking prisoners. This was minimally successful because or the well organised and co-ordinated nature of the strike and the outside solidarity group.
At a well-attended rally in Oakland on July 2, supporters chanted, “Pelican Bay brothers: we hear you, we’re with you!,” according to Revolution newspaper.
“I stand here with a mixture of excitement and horror.,” said Laura Magnani of the American Friends Service Committee. “Horror at the conditions faced by 1,200 prisoners at Pelican Bay and over 3,500 prisoners insecurity housing units throughout California. Excitement that the prisoners have successfully organized across racial groups to take this action. This is a tremendously courageous action—to go on hunger strike, when people are virtually on starvation diets to begin with—to deprive themselves of food indefinitly. And it is extremely important that we be here to support them and show our solidarity.”
Unprecedented support is being shown around from around the world, with actions planned in dozens of cities including Toronto, Montreal, Kitchener, and Vancouver. Toronto Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) held a letter-writing night on July 1 and sent letters to the authorities as well as messages of solidarity to several of the hunger strikers. On July 9 we observed a 24-hour fast, and we are encouraging others, wherever they are, to participate to the extent that they are able. In Montreal, actions include a picket line in front of the American Consulate as well as letter-writing. Messages are also expected from as far as Ireland and the Basque regions. Most recently more than 150 religious communities of Roman Catholic nuns mailed in letters of support of the prisoners’ requests to the governor of California.
Finally on July 20th, after 4 grueling weeks, the leaders of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay confirmed that the strike was over. They confirmed that the CDCR has agreed to make immediate concessions as an act of good faith to address the longer term 5 core demands of the hunger strikers. This is why support is still needed: to keep the pressure on CDCR, who have made it clear that the demands of the prisoners will be adressed and implemented in a timely fashion. The leaders of Pelican Bay released a statement saying that the strike will resume if the CDCR does not fulfill it’s end of the agreement. This is in light of the new California legislation that requires prisons to eliminate overcrowding.
Todd Ashker, one of the hunger strike leaders, writes:
“It’s very important that our supporters know where we stand, and that CDCR knows that we’re not going to go for any B.S. We…mean what we said regarding an indefinite hunger strike peaceful protest until our demands are met. I repeat–we’re simply giving CDCR a brief grace period in response to their request for the opportunity to get [it] right in a timely fashion! We’ll see where things stand soon enough!”
There are still hunger strikes going on in Corcoran and Tehachapi Prisons, protesting their own horrific living conditions.
Landrum and thousands of other prisoners carried on their slow, painful act of resistance, waiting for their demands to be met at any cost. “Hopefully the situation doesn’t deteriorate,” he writes.” I end this letter with the words of Ulrike Meinhof [of Germany’s Red Army Faction], ‘Protest is when I say I don’t like this or that. Resistance is when I see to it that things I don’t like do not occur.’”
http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
By Louisa Worrell
The blocks all over the city are hot this summer, and I’m not talking about temperature. Police surveillance and harassment seems to be at an all time high in some areas. Maybe it’s because the Toronto Police just got richer.
“It’s like they are picking us off one by one” said one resident of Vaughn and Oakwood who wished to remain anonymous.
Despite Rob Ford’s policies to “stop the gravy train” and having all city services to cut their budgets by 5%, the police budget continues to grow.
In January 2011, the police budget was given a 3.8% increase. The $905.9 million police operating budget makes the Toronto police force the largest single expense on the city budget.
On top of the increased police budget, the Toronto police officers were given 11% raise, which will make them the highest paid officers in the province. That means that a first- class constable earning $81,249 in 2010 will make $90,623 in 2014.
The increased police budget is allowing for a larger police presence in Toronto’s hoods, the communities that face the highest unemployment rates and will be most affected by the Ford cuts.
Rather than providing people with employment and public services, the Ford government is committed to criminalizing these communities.
The police are expanding their presence in the Davenport-Perth area. They are constructing a new police station where an elementary school benefited the local children only a few years ago.
Even a smaller building complex like Martha Eaton Way, near Tretheway and Black Creek, is seeing daily visits from the bike cops, who roll up and proceed to interrogate the closest young black man in a fitted baseball cap, asking him for identification, phone number and occasionally searching him, not to mention the frequent cursing and insulting.
The long record of deaths at the hands of the on-duty officers is no secret to anyone from these areas.
So watch out for the heat waves and most importantly the hot blocks, because with all this un-employment, someone has to be paid to contain the people’s dissatisfaction. Stay alert and organise your area, these are the only real options for working and unemployed people.
The Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity took place in Montreal, on January 29-31, 2010. Over the course of the weekend, well over three hundred participants explored a range of themes, including: asserting oneself when dealing with the police, police repression of social movements, youth and profiling, profiling of drug users, campaigns for justice led by family members of people killed by the police, gender and police violence, and working toward justice without police.
The organizing committee of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity is pleased to announce that the videos of the panels and workshop-discussions are finally available on-line, thanks to the work of several members of the committee and our allies/friends.
No Justice, No Peace: Why people leave the police
Families speak out against police killings and impunity
To view the videos, please visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/FAPVI?blend=4&ob=5.
Also, a 5-minute video-documentary about the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity, by three engaged artists (Emiliano Bazan Monanez, Violaine Brisebois-Lavoie and Ziona Eyob) can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/FAPVI?blend=4&ob=5#p/f/1/0Yiu9IlM0OY. In solidarity, The organizing committee of the Forum Against Police Violence and Impunity
www.forumcontrelaviolencepoliciere.net
BASICSnews.ca – 16 April 2011 – BASICS Live Report
We need a better way to handle conflicts in our city. At 12:50pm today three Police officers charged into a subway train to remove a man.
The police quickly took the man to the ground. They then proceeded to knee, kick and punch the man telling him not to resist arrest. As passengers began to see the police beat the man, they started yelling at the police. “He’s not resisting arrest!” yelled one woman on the train. “Stop beating him!” was the call of several other passengers.
Three police officers beating a man at Bathurst subway station
The TTC manager worked along the side of the police by preventing people on the train from trying to defend the man against the police brutality. When he saw the passengers becoming more agitated, he yelled at the conductor to get the train moving. As the train left the station, the police were left alone with the man.
The TTC called the police after the man had become involved in an altercation. One witness told BASICS that it was evident that the man “was not well”.
However, shortly after the incident, the man was calm and was just listening to music.
After a TTC employee told him that they had called the police and that he should leave. He proceeded to do just that, but then he came back.
At the time the police had arrived, the man was posing no danger to other passengers.
“Someone needed to deal with his situation. It wasn’t the police’s. They would have been the last people I would have asked to intervene” a witness told BASICS. Incidents like the one today should make us think twice about calling the police to “maintain the peace”.
by Makaya Kelday – Pound Magazine (April 6, 2011)
On August 9th, 2008 Montreal police officers Jean-Loup Lapointe and Stephanie Pilotte began questioning a group of young men playing dice, an activity which is prohibited under municipal bylaw. (In reality: the po-po were looking for a viable reason to interrogate these youth that wouldn’t be seen as racial profiling.) The officers attempted to arrest one of the young men, Dany Villanueva, claiming he was in violation of his parole. Dany attempted to resist arrest and the police became violent. That’s when Dany’s younger brother Fredy intervened trying to diffuse the situation. Officer Jean-Loup Lapointe countered Fredy’s attempt by firing four shots, three of which hit Fredy, killing him. The two other young men on the scene, Denis Meas and Jeffrey Sagor Metellus were also shot but survived their injuries.
On April 6, a candlelight vigil was held at Henri Bourassa Park to mark the birthday of Fredy Villanueva, the Montreal North teen who was killed by police in August 2008.
News soon reached residents of the Montreal North community and for the next two days, riots ensued. Reporters on the scene placed 50 to 100 rioters at the height of the riot, with some 500 police deployed to quell the violence.
Officer Lapointe has faced no consequences for his murder of an innocent young man. The case is unfortunately all too familiar to inner-city residents everywhere.
Fredy’s family has planned a memorial service for today, April 6th, to celebrate what would have been his 21st birthday.
As if the Villanueva family hasn’t suffered enough, Dany is facing deportation back to his native Honduras. A rally in Dany’s support has been scheduled for April 12th when he will face the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Contact coalitioncrap@hotmail.fr to see how you can support the Villanueva family and help Dany stay in Canada.
Check out this tribute video created by some of Fredy’s friends
On the evening of May 5, 2010, a horrific crime was committed in this city. The terror took place in what was more or less broad daylight, in front of numerous onlookers, off a major street and on the campus of a well-known university.
At around 6:30 pm, a victim fled two assailants who had been harassing him without any provocation at the Keele and Steeles intersection.
He made it to Founders Rd. just off Steeles when his attackers caught up with him. They knocked him to the ground and began to beat him mercilessly in the face and chest.
Despite the victim’s clear disadvantage and cries for help, the attackers called for five of their buddies to join in the frenzy. Read more…
The SIU has cleared the Toronto police of any wrongdoing in 18-year-old Junior Alexander Manon’s death last May. We sought reactions from people in Junior’s community.
We interviewed four residents of the Jane-Finch community, ranging from age 18 to 40, all of whom have been recognized for serving their community in positive mentorship roles and in positive community-based projects and initiatives for youth.
They will all remain anonymous.
“It’s the police investigating the police, what do you expect?
“…It’s like sending a child to their room and having them decide what the punishment should be…. Read more…
‘Strikingly Similar’ Pattern Alleged in Non-G20 Related Incident
by Geordie Gwalgen Dent – Toronto Media Co-op (Jan 10, 2011)
Toronto – Two Toronto Police officers implicated in the assault of a G20 protester are also being accused of police brutality in an unrelated incident.
Abbas Jama of Toronto is claiming that constables Luke Watson and Todd Storey assaulted him during his arrest for weapons possession. The same constables have also been accused of assault by G20 protester Adam Nobody.
Jama was arrested in June 2009 and is currently before the Ontario Superior Court facing 9 charges including possession of a firearm with ammunition and failure to comply with a probation order. Read more…
