[Montreal] Picket Next Wednesday for Mohamed Anas Bennis

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If you're in Montreal next Wednesday, drop by this picket being organized by the Justice For Anas Coalition in front of the palais de justice. It looks like it's best to come by as close t the beginning as possible, as there is a press conference at 10:30.

Mohamed Anas Bennis was the young Muslim man who was murdered by police on December 1st 2005. The ridiculous police story - that Anas had jumped out of some bushes and tried to attack them with a knife - is contradicted by many facts (i.e. they never produced a knife; there are no bushes where the incident occurred, the autopsy showed bullets entering Anas' body from the top down which implies he was kneeling, sitting or crouching when he was killed; and must damningly of all: security videos shot from across the street were confiscated but never released to the public.)

According to initial news reports, the police were in the area on a multi-agency raid on an "Algerian fraud ring" which "had possible ties to terrorism". This has lead many observers to suggest that Mohamed Anas Bennis - who "looked Muslim" and was shot outside of a prayer room (completely unconnected to the police raid) - might, like Jean Charles de Menezes and Rigoberto Alpizar, have been killed by a trigger happy cop whose head had been filled with stories of suicide bombers and scary immigrants.

There is a PDF flier for this event online here (print on legal paper, double-sided, short edge binding, if you want it in French and English).

Solidarity Picket : JUSTICE FOR ANAS!

FOR ACCESS TO ALL INFORMATION REGARDING MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS' DEATH, A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO THE EVENTS OF DECEMBER 1ST 2005, AND AN END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AND IMPUNITY.

OVER A YEAR OF SILENCE AND SECRECY, THAT'S ENOUGH!

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Wednesday April 11th, 10 am - 1pm
Quebec Ministry of Public Security,
10, Saint-Antoine East, Montreal
(Metro: Champ-de-Mars)
**Press Conference at 10:30 am : Be there to show your solidarity!**
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Come support the Bennis family in their struggle for justice in Anas' death.
Speak out against the secrecy and contempt surrounding this case and protest police impunity!
Child-friendly picket.

On December 1st 2005, on the corner of Kent and Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal police officer Bernier from Station 25 shot and killed Mohamed Anas Bennis, a 25-year old Canadian of Moroccan heritage, while in the presence of three other police officers from the same Station. More than one year later, the events of that morning remain shrouded in mystery.

For over a year, the Bennis family has been trying to understand what happened to Anas that morning. But instead of answers, they are met with secrecy, documents that are devoid of content, incomprehensible delays and explicit contempt.The police and the Crown prosecutor continue to deny the family access to the evidence and information related to Anas' death. "We feel like we are being lied to, that they are hiding things from us," says Khadija Bennis, Anas' twin sister and a member of the Justice For Anas Coalition.

The minister of Public Security Jacques Dupuis has endorsed the contemptuous attitude of the police by intervening to suppress both the police and the crown reports.

Join us to remind him that despite the black outs and cover ups, we continue to demand JUSTICE!

WE DEMAND...

1. the immediate release of all reports, evidence and information concerning the death of Anas Bennis to the Bennis family and to the public;
2. a full, public and independent inquiry into the death of Anas Bennis;
3. an end to police brutality and impunity.

Demands endorsed by:

• Action Anti-Raciste/Anti-Racist Action Montréal
• Association Bélagir
• Action des chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture et la peine de mort (ACAT)
• Action et solidarite pour la Colombie
• Association facultaire des étudiants en sciences humaines de l'UQÀM
• Association Vwa Zanset (Voice of the ancestors)
• Bloquez l'Empire Montréal
• le Centre de services de justice réparatrice
• le Centre des travailleurs et travailleurs immigrants/Immigrant Workers Center
• CKUT radio
• le Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP)
• le Conseil des églises pour la justice et la criminologie
• Haiti Action Montreal
• Head & Hands/À deux mains
• Kabataang Montreal
• La Ligue des Noirs du Québec/The Black Coalition of Quebec
• Mères Unies contre le Racisme/Mothers United against Racism
• l'Observatoire canadien pour les droits humains (OCDH)
• No One Is Illegal/Personne n'est illégal-Montréal
• NPD Section Québec
• Philippine Women Centre of Quebec/Centre des femmes Philippines du Québec
• Projet Genèse/Project Genesis
• Quebec Public Interest Research Group-McGill
• Quebec Public Interest Research Group-Concordia
• Québec Solidaire
• SIKLAB-Quebec Filipino Migrant Workers Organization
• Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity Across Borders
• South Asian Women's Community Center
• Tadamon! Montréal
• 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
• United Muslim Students' Association of Montréal (UMSA)