Canadians! Civil Liberties Under Attack

[William Prest]

Unknown to most, a quiet campaign by the Harper administration is afoot to curtail civil liberties and rights in Canada. Harper will not tolerate further criticism of the way he is doing things. Stephen Harper has a controversial record of rule at best, given robocall scandals, the perouging of parliament, 2010 and being in contempt on two occasions, it is little wonder that he would like to place a limit on freedom of expression. Given the current state of the economy and Canada's role in foreign policy, specifically in regard to Iran and the way that Iranians are being treated both domestically and in Iran, any attack on civil liberties needs to be challenged. The Canadian government has pulled their diplomats out of Tehran and expelled all Iranian diplomatic personnel. Several weeks ago near the beginning of July, TD Trust did an expelling of their own by closing accounts of Iranian born Canadian citizens and Iranian Immigrants. For all appearances, Canada appears to be doing point duty for the attack on Iran and is encouraging the US to do likewise.

The free newspaper Fire This time has had a taste of censure and oppression at the hand of the state via the transit police and the RCMP for expressing their rights freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech. On August 31^st, 2012, they were apparently arrested and handcuffed without charge for allegedly obstructing traffic and distributing a profit making periodical on “private property”. The transit police seized a large number of copies and these subsequently disappeared. A through search for them later suggests that the 150 or so copies are still in custody of Translink authorities and/or security. Translink, a government owned public facility is now under fire by the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). Further, the publishers of Fire This Time have been in consultation with legal council pursuant to breach of civil liberties of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and are seeking to take the assault to court, possibly in the form of a constitutional challenge, but the whole incident is currently under review by legal council, which they have retained on account of the unjust assault and unlawful arrests and detentions. Translink officials and security as well as the RCMP are falling all over themselves trying to account for and justify their excessive use of force. Some of the distributors wound up in the hospital emergency to have their injuries addressed by medical staff.

Translink has since retracted somewhat and allowed distribution of the free paper provided that traffic is not obstructed and that they do not litter. However, this does nothing to erase damages already committed in a clear breach of civil liberties concerning freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. As the individuals who volunteered to distribute the free paper had their civil liberties breached, this is also a breach of all of our civil liberties. Therefore an appeal is being made to defend the civil liberties of all Canadians by way of donations toward legal costs. There is thus a fund raising campaign to raise money for this end. This is not just an appeal for the volunteers who distribute the free paper, but an appeal for all Canadians who apparently now have to push the envelope in order to express their democratic rights on public (for all Canadians) property. No crime has been commuted (yet) so for the sake of the volunteers and your own sake, we urge you to donate what you can to the legal defence chest. You can sent money orders directly to the Vancouver Committee to Defend Freedom of Expression. They can be reached at [e-mail] for more details. Alternately, if you are able to send funds via paypal, donations can be sent to the paypal account [e-mail] and earmarked as legal defence for Vancouver Committee to Defend Freedom of Expression. Help send a clear message to Harper and all his henchmen that we will not tolerate the gutting of out Rights and Freedoms. Help us mount a successful legal battle. We take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your help. Stay posted for further developments. Following are links to articles covered by the leading Vancouver corporate media press.

Province

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Transit+Police+allegedly+harass+han...

http://www.theprovince.com/Civil+liberties+group+wants+probe+into+T...

Sun

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Civil+liberties+advocates+again+qu...