Continuation …
POLICE TACTICS IN MONTEBELLO VIDEO-TAPE, INPUT AND RESPONSE
Dialogue in response to 2007-08 WATCH: Montebello, Police provoke Violence at SPP protest
Through Gloria’s questions about the need to support the RCMP I am able to further develop my thoughts. Thank-you Gloria.
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I (Sandra) have been following the SPP developments for a couple of years.
There has been other footage of the policemen who posed as protestors.
Their purpose is to turn the protest into a violent event to give the media footage to discredit the protestors. Write them off as a bunch of violent and unreasonable people.
Industry has paid, full-time, professional lobbyists who have direct access to the people who make the decisions in Government. All that citizens have is a right to speak up.
When corporations make their wants known it is called “lobbying”. When citizens make their wants known it is called “protest”.
I do not support the SPP. It is a corporate-driven agenda that is about Canadian water and energy. The people making the decisions are corporation executives, Bush, Harper and the Mexican Prime Minister. That is not right.
If we are going to sell water and energy to the USA, that decision needs to be fully debated in the House of Commons.
At one point I was going to be in Ottawa at the time of the protests. Had that worked out I fully intended to protest in whatever way I could. In addition to the street protestors there were “educational” meetings in Ottawa. “Educational” meetings tend to not get covered by the mainstream media. People are not even aware of the SPP. They are becoming more so.
But only because of the activists. Were it not for them, we would all be in the dark.
These are very serious issues. I will fight every alignment of Canada with the American administration that I can. I believe that George Bush will eventually be taken to the international courts for War Crimes – crimes against humanity. The damage that administration has done globally is an atrocity. The lies, corruption and debt creation of that administration already has serious repercussions around the world. Large numbers of people, Americans included, are in for an increasingly tough ride. With wise leadership, we might have been able to work our way peacefully through the challenges that face us.
I meet and talk with the Peace activists. Every one of them that I have met is an informed person who is dedicated to community service. They work tirelessly; a small number of them have positions that pay them a salary.
That salary is ploughed back into the organizations, the after-hours meetings, and the weekend work.
The Montebello video of the police disguised as protestors trying to create mayhem, is real. As I say, I have respect for the protestors and would have joined them. I know some of them personally. Maude Barlow was there. I have heard her speak – she is amazing. I have worked in small conference with her – she is as humble, kind and respectful as you could ever want a person to be. Her dedication and persistence and accomplishment over the years is without rival.
Protestors are given short shrift by the media. I think of the three scientists who blew the whistle on Monsanto’s attempted million-dollar bribery of Health Canada officials. One of them, Michelle Brill-Edwards attended the Prevent Cancer Now Conference in Ottawa. The Conference was relatively small. The attendees were together at presentations and in workshops. Many stayed in the same dormitory. People ate together. … You will not meet a more genuine, kinder, thoughtful person than Michelle Brill-Edwards. She spoke up and stayed the line. As a consequence, she lost her job. She should be a hero. She’s not. Her name is treated with suspicion because she refused to go along, because she helped to expose the million-dollar attempted bribery.
When Chad Kister from the USA was here, I heard his story about the peaceful protests in Washington that coincided with the Seattle protests at the World Trade meetings. He is a peaceful person. He joined the protests in a peaceful way. The same tactics were used by the police as at Montebello. He was rounded up and put in jail. He had broken ribs as a consequence. There was tear gas, etc. Fortunately, someone video-taped Chad. The video-tape was presented at his Court hearing. He was acquitted and the Government was ordered to pay him $66,000 in compensation. (at that time and in US dollars it was a larger amount of money than it is today)
It is public protest that will stop the abuse. If not challenged, the abuse will only escalate.
Whitewash of the police role is not helpful. Just as it is not helpful to hide addiction or child abuse in a family. When it is “outed” it can be dealt with. Escalating spirals can be arrested.
It is a painful process, but the alternative is far more painful and destructive.
I know there are excellent people in the police forces. They become demoralized if they don’t have support for the needed changes. The support has to come from us, as I see it.
I am very concerned about the under-mining of the rule of law. Tactics such as those used at Montebello only serve to make the population ungovernable.
Respect for the police declines. Not a good state to be in. The police forces have to recover ground they have lost.
As with addiction and abuse within a family, the only way it will be dealt with is if it’s exposed. The ball is in their court. It’s up to them whether they respond appropriately which is to clean up their act. The good people inside the forces need to be part of the clean-up. Their good name is being sullied by bad apples. The same as the name of good priests being sullied by bad priests.
The turning of the blind eye for year after year eventually led to the downfall of some of the established churches. We don’t have that luxery – we can afford to lose established churches. We cannot afford to lose a just and responsible police force.
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Response to above, from Gloria:
My point in all of this … and yes, I concede that what you have written has some VERY valid points……
MY point is that yes the RCMP needs to be held accountable, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! They have good and bad people within the force just like every other work force.
They do not deserve to have a target painted on their backs (so to speak) because of careless comments such as those Mike Webster made… My word, he didnt’ need to know more of the story that the 25 second video was enough???? As if he knew they were all criminals with tasers, as if he knew this beforehand! Unless, of course, he’s been misrepresented by the media, which is entirely possible.
Who do people making comments like this about the RCMP, who do they think is gonna protect them if they discredit the RCMP to the point of meaninglessness, tying their hands and then expecting them to still be a force to be reckoned with?? There are already not enough people to do the jobs that are available, it simply doesn’t make sense to make the police force as one of the ‘undesirable’ places to work!!! So, to my way of thinking, seek to FIX the d*mn problem within the RCMP, don’t just condemn it!
I am with you on a lot of the battles you are taking on, but I simply had to speak out against aligning myself (by association with you) with this Mike Webster. Or anything else that seeks to destroy some of Canada’s institutions, warts and all. I would feel the same way about Canada’s Hockey League going to the states, if that had not already happened while I was snoozing at my post.