BY NED DMYTRYSHYN
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - About 60 riot cops dressed in
full protective gear, accompanied by a police squad armed with
tear-gas launchers and dogs, attacked participants in a
demonstration protesting Prime Minister Jean Chretien's presence
in Vancouver December 8.
The crowd, estimated between 700 and 1,000, was there to protest the prime minister's role in ordering attacks by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) against student demonstrators protesting the Asia Pacific Economic Conference here in November 1997. In the cop attacks at that time, pepper spray was used. Out of those events an RCMP Public Complaints Commission was set up, which has heard testimony accusing the RCMP of violating students' constitutional rights and claiming political interference by the Prime Minister's office.
Now that commission has been temporarily suspended. The chairperson of the inquiry has resigned and the Solicitor General of Canada, Andrew Scott, was forced to resign after revealing that he was setting up Hugh Stewart to take the fall for the pepper spraying incident. Students are calling for a full public inquiry. Hugh Stewart was the RCMP officer in charge of the cop action on December 8.
Other slogans of the December 8 protectionist action included "End economic tyranny through globalization" and "No to Canada's involvement in APEC, one of many undemocratic trade deals - " demands that promote Canadian nationalism in the guise of concern for democracy and human rights. Sponsors of the action included the Vancouver and District Labour Council, The Canadian Autoworkers Union, The Canadian Federation of Students, the Council of Canadians, the Communist Party of Canada, the International Socialists, and others.
A handful of protesters tried to go around the police lines and into the hotel where Prime Minister Chretien was. They were quickly arrested. The cops used this as a pretext to bring out the riot squad and viciously attack the entire demonstration, which was peaceful. According to rally organizers 20 were treated for injuries and at least two were taken to the hospital for serious injuries.
As the riot squad was wading into the crowd Chretien told Liberal party supporters seated for a $400-a-plate dinner in the hotel that "Canada is praised worldwide as a model of tolerance and generosity where everyone enjoys equality under the law."
The Canadian Autoworkers Union National Council meeting held December 12-13 in Toronto called on organizations to protest the use of police clubs to attack people asserting their democratic right to oppose government policy in Canada.
The December 8 cop attack comes in the context of deepening attacks on democratic rights. The British Columbia attorney general's office has revealed that phone taps are routinely used against the Sikh community, supposedly to combat "terrorism." The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has filed a complaint to the office of the police commissioner about actions taken by police to deal with drug trafficking which involve illegal searches and seizure of property, invasion of privacy, and attributing drug trafficking to Hondurans, thus unjustly tainting people from Honduras and others of Latin American descent as being involved in criminal activity.
Ned Dmytryshyn is member of the International Association of Machinists.