Pep'rJack
Active Member
.
It seems that virtually *everyone* finally gets it this time - quite heartening!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Revenge of the paranoid
by John Moore
National Post
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=dec9d0cf-0168-43b8-831e-181e33b0e00e
If anything positive can be said of last week's humiliation for Quebec's provincial police at Montebello, where leaders from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico gathered, it's that at least it only took three days for the Surete du Quebec to admit its skullduggery. The Surete--a force already burdened with a somewhat clownish reputation -- insists its three undercover officers who were mingling with protesters outside Montebello were merely gathering intelligence. Had they shown up in T-shirts and told their fellow protesters they were there to save the Spotted Owl they would have blended in without question or suspicion. That the three officers felt the need to wander into a crowd of Raging Grannies, hippies, coeds and suit-wearing union leaders dressed as masked anarchists, one even carrying a rock, reveals a great deal that is disturbing about our police and political leaders.
Clearly, the police, in many of the scenarios they find themselves in, often consider their fellow citizens to be "the enemy." The RCMP and QPP clearly didn't think they were in Montebello to ensure the peace while protesters went about the legitimate business of expressing dissent. They were there to minimize the expression of that dissent.
This of course is the norm now. Somewhere in the last 10 years it became perfectly acceptable for police and government to tell protesters where and how they may rally. Often the designated location is a kind of cage many kilometres away, reducing protest to a mere symbol of protest.
Protesters have learned a great deal since the anti-globalization street fighting in Seattle in 1999. They know that all it takes to be written off as Leninist rabble is for one hothead to throw a brick through the window of a Starbucks. At the Summit of the America's in Quebec City in 2001 there were skirmishes. Not surprisingly the policing of that event was in the same hands as the Montebello Summit. Notably in 2002 when the G-8 met in Calgary the Chief of Police announced ahead of time that his force would not engage protesters. There was no trouble.
What does Montebello reveal about our political leaders? Stephen Harper wrote the protesters off with a smirk and called them "sad" -- assuming apparently that there were no hockey dads or Tim Hortons customers amongst them. Stockwell Day's dismissive attitude following the revelation that the Surete had indeed planted bogus troublemakers made it clear that in his mind the police are not public employees empowered by the people to maintain the law, but are agents of the government charged with the task of fighting the bad guys.
Of course this sort of thing is not unique to the Conservatives or the QPP. In the 1970s the Mounties routinely engaged in Inspector Clouseau worthy subterfuge to discredit the separatist movement and who can forget Jean Chretien's noblesse oblige response to an RCMP staff sergeant unloading a fire extinguisher of pepper spray onto protesters at the APEC summit in 1997? "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate," he said.
It's important also to note the media's handling of the Surete imbroglio. When union chief David Coles first blew the whistle on the undercover officers the reaction ranged from indifference to ridicule. Even when the video evidence made it painfully clear that the three "anarchists" were clumsily disguised police officers, those of us who pressed the issue were mockingly dismissed by talk radio and opinion makers as cranks and fantabulists.
Well this time the conspiracy theorists were right. And the incident should not be allowed to fade. This is about a fundamental right in a free and democratic society. It's about the mindset of our police. It's about the attitude of our elected officials. It's about a form of government where corporate CEO's are regarded as consiglieres and unionists and environmentalists are troublemakers.
Such attitudes are quite simply inconsistent with democratic principles.
Ironically, though much has been done to discredit the protests that inevitably occur at major summits, the concerns of the activists are very much shared by the Canadian public. Poll after poll finds Canadians do worry about the environment, global warming, Canadian sovereignty and resources. At Montebello the interests of the Canadian people were being far better represented by the protesters than by the police who conspired to silence them.
.
It seems that virtually *everyone* finally gets it this time - quite heartening!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Revenge of the paranoid
by John Moore
National Post
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=dec9d0cf-0168-43b8-831e-181e33b0e00e
If anything positive can be said of last week's humiliation for Quebec's provincial police at Montebello, where leaders from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico gathered, it's that at least it only took three days for the Surete du Quebec to admit its skullduggery. The Surete--a force already burdened with a somewhat clownish reputation -- insists its three undercover officers who were mingling with protesters outside Montebello were merely gathering intelligence. Had they shown up in T-shirts and told their fellow protesters they were there to save the Spotted Owl they would have blended in without question or suspicion. That the three officers felt the need to wander into a crowd of Raging Grannies, hippies, coeds and suit-wearing union leaders dressed as masked anarchists, one even carrying a rock, reveals a great deal that is disturbing about our police and political leaders.
Clearly, the police, in many of the scenarios they find themselves in, often consider their fellow citizens to be "the enemy." The RCMP and QPP clearly didn't think they were in Montebello to ensure the peace while protesters went about the legitimate business of expressing dissent. They were there to minimize the expression of that dissent.
This of course is the norm now. Somewhere in the last 10 years it became perfectly acceptable for police and government to tell protesters where and how they may rally. Often the designated location is a kind of cage many kilometres away, reducing protest to a mere symbol of protest.
Protesters have learned a great deal since the anti-globalization street fighting in Seattle in 1999. They know that all it takes to be written off as Leninist rabble is for one hothead to throw a brick through the window of a Starbucks. At the Summit of the America's in Quebec City in 2001 there were skirmishes. Not surprisingly the policing of that event was in the same hands as the Montebello Summit. Notably in 2002 when the G-8 met in Calgary the Chief of Police announced ahead of time that his force would not engage protesters. There was no trouble.
What does Montebello reveal about our political leaders? Stephen Harper wrote the protesters off with a smirk and called them "sad" -- assuming apparently that there were no hockey dads or Tim Hortons customers amongst them. Stockwell Day's dismissive attitude following the revelation that the Surete had indeed planted bogus troublemakers made it clear that in his mind the police are not public employees empowered by the people to maintain the law, but are agents of the government charged with the task of fighting the bad guys.
Of course this sort of thing is not unique to the Conservatives or the QPP. In the 1970s the Mounties routinely engaged in Inspector Clouseau worthy subterfuge to discredit the separatist movement and who can forget Jean Chretien's noblesse oblige response to an RCMP staff sergeant unloading a fire extinguisher of pepper spray onto protesters at the APEC summit in 1997? "For me, pepper, I put it on my plate," he said.
It's important also to note the media's handling of the Surete imbroglio. When union chief David Coles first blew the whistle on the undercover officers the reaction ranged from indifference to ridicule. Even when the video evidence made it painfully clear that the three "anarchists" were clumsily disguised police officers, those of us who pressed the issue were mockingly dismissed by talk radio and opinion makers as cranks and fantabulists.
Well this time the conspiracy theorists were right. And the incident should not be allowed to fade. This is about a fundamental right in a free and democratic society. It's about the mindset of our police. It's about the attitude of our elected officials. It's about a form of government where corporate CEO's are regarded as consiglieres and unionists and environmentalists are troublemakers.
Such attitudes are quite simply inconsistent with democratic principles.
Ironically, though much has been done to discredit the protests that inevitably occur at major summits, the concerns of the activists are very much shared by the Canadian public. Poll after poll finds Canadians do worry about the environment, global warming, Canadian sovereignty and resources. At Montebello the interests of the Canadian people were being far better represented by the protesters than by the police who conspired to silence them.
.
