[NOII] 12 Reasons to take to the streets of Montreal-Nord this Saturday

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The following excellent text is from the No One Is Illegal Montreal blog:

This coming Saturday at 2pm at Parc Pilon in Montreal-Nord, a diverse cross-section of Montreal groups and individuals are coming together to denounce police brutality as part of a child-friendly demonstration. This is a crucial protest for all those who oppose poverty, racism and police brutality, as well as support autonomous, grassroots organizing for real justice and dignity.

It comes just two months after the killing of Fredy Villaneuva in Montreal-Nord, one year after the tasering death of Quilem Registre in St-Michel, and more than two years after the unexplained shooting death of Anas Bennis in Côte-des-neiges. It comes in a context where 43 people have been killed by the bullets or electric shocks of the Montreal police in just 21 years.

There are three main demands for this Saturday’s demonstration: 1) a public and independent inquiry into the death of Fredy Villaneuva; 2) an end to racial profiling and to police abuses and impunity; 3) the recognition of the principle that as long as there is economic inequality there will be social insecurity.

Below are 12 more reasons to get out and demonstrate this Saturday. Please post and forward widely, and do make a final effort TODAY (Friday) to encourage your networks and contacts to attend this Saturday.

Police partout, justice nulle part! No justice, no peace!


12 Reasons to take to the streets of Montréal-Nord this Saturday

1) Breaking down fear and isolation; 2) Oppose "divide and rule" – Part 1; 3) Oppose police investigating other police; 4) Oppose police attempts to shut down public transparency; 5) Oppose police and media smears of police killing victims; 6) The 43 Reasons; 7) The Montreal-Nord riots were justified; 8) Accommodate This!; 9) Oppose "divide and rule" – Part 2: 10) Oppose sellout "community" gatekeepers: 11) Support grassroots community organizing; 12) For People Power



1) Breaking down fear and isolation

It's not easy to confront police brutality and impunity. The police have tremendous power, as the armed force of the state. Individuals experience police abuses, brutality, and racial profiling on a daily basis, but are often too afraid to speak out. When we do speak out, we lack the resources to effectively take on the cops and government, and are marginalized by both mainstream groups as well as government-paid community hacks. This Saturday's demonstration is one clear way that we can all, collectively, come together to break down the fear and isolation we so often feel, and instead stand united behind clear demands for justice.


2) Oppose "divide and rule" – Part 1

This past Thursday's cover story in Le Journal -- "Les Agitateurs s'en mêlent" -- is a transparent attempt by the police and their media allies to create divisions between the diverse groups that have come together to denounce police brutality. The police and government officials fear the emerging unity between grassroots, on-the-ground social justice groups and movements that have converged in support of the clear and powerful demands of this Saturday's demonstration. Let's show the hacks at Le Journal, and their cop friends, that we refuse to be divided.


3) Oppose police investigating other police

Mayor Tremblay and all kinds of other politicians and so-called community leaders have constantly urged the public to refrain from judgment in the killing of Fredy Villanueva until the "investigation" has been completed. But, all the so-called investigations into police killings involve one squad of police investigating another. We are now supposed to trust the Surête de Québec (SQ) to fairly investigate the Montreal police. This is the same SQ that has it own corrupt and deceitful past and present – from the "Matticks Affair" where police officers were involved in illegal activities, to the recent Montebello protests where SQ officers acted as agent-provocateurs and tried to lie about it afterwards. Most recently, this past Monday, the SQ riot squad attacked members of the Lac Barrière Algonquin Community, using tear gas and pepper spray even against children. There is a mafia-like "brotherhood" between cops that prevents them from ever honestly bringing any of their members to true justice, and gives them an incentive to cover-up each other’s abuses.


4) Oppose police attempts to shut down public transparency

When there are quasi-independent inquiries into police killings, the cops try to shut them down. More than two years after the police killing of Anas Bennis, and after a long public campaign led by the Bennis family, a corner's inquest was called to investigate the reasons for Anas' death. However, as they've done in other cases, the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal have gone to court and sued the coroner and the Bennis family themselves, to try to shut the inquiry down. The police and their expensive lawyers have consistently tried to shut down even the most modest efforts at accountability.


5) Oppose police and media smears of police killing victims

Recently, the lawyer for Montreal police officer Giovanni Stante, who was involved in the killing of homeless man Jean-Pierre Lizotte in 1999, wrote in both the Montreal Gazette and La Presse, claiming that Lizotte was not a victim of police brutality, and proceeding to smear Jean-Pierre Lizotte's reputation. Lizotte is not around defend himself, but that doesn't stop cop lawyers (and the media) from smearing the people killed by the cops. Innuendo and rumours have been used against other victims of police brutality. This Saturday's demonstration is occasion to stand in solidarity with, and give voice to, all those who have been shot down and smeared by the cops.


6) The 43 Reasons

Anthony Griffin, Jose Carlos Garcia, Yvon Lafrance, Leslie Presley, Paul McKinnon, Jorge Chavarria-Reyes, Fabien Quienty, Yvan Dugas, Marcellus François, Armand Fernandez, Osmond Fletcher, Trevor Kelly, Yvon Asselin, Richard Barnabé, Paolo Romanelli, Martin Suazo, Philippe Ferraro, Nelson Perreault, Daniel Bélair, Michel Mathurin, Richard Whaley, Yvan Fond-Rouge, Jean-Pierre Lizotte, Luc Aubert, Sébastien McNicoll, Michael Kibbe, Michel Morin, Michel Berniquez, Rohan Wilson, Benoît Richer, Mohamed Anas Bennis, Quilem Registre, Fredy Villaneuva ... and 10 more individuals, women and men, whose names remain unknown. Together, they represent the 43 people killed by the Montreal cops in the last 21 years. Saturday's march is for all victims and survivors of police brutality.


7) The Montreal-Nord riots were justified

This Saturday's demonstration is child-friendly. It will allow for all kinds of folks to come together in opposition to police brutality. But, that does not mean we should shy away from defending the justified community uprising that took place in the aftermath of Fredy Villaneuva's death in August. Politicians and media have worked overtime to attempt to divide "good" protesters (the community gatekeepers who stay docile and harmless) from the "bad" protesters" (those who are willing to take direct action). Saturday's demonstration is one way to clearly show solidarity with Montreal-Nord, including the riots that were a justified expression of our collective anger and rage against police brutality.


8) Accommodate This!

During the xenophobic "debates" around reasonable accommodation in Quebec, immigrants were essentially being asked to justify their presence in Quebec. A Montreal cop even recorded a song – played on youtube – telling people from minority groups to "crisser vos camps" and "retournez chez toi". The reasonable accommodation debate clouded and confused the unity and solidarity we share -- as workers, poor, women, queer and trans people, migrants, and others -- fighting together to achieve real justice. It distracted from our unity together in confronting poverty, precarity, racism and racial profiling. This Saturday's protest is another occasion to tell the xenophobic and racist elements of Quebec society – most embodied by the cops – to accommodate this! (ie. "go fuck yourselves").


9) Oppose "divide and rule" – Part 2

As part of their divide and rule tactics, the cops have also been visiting community organizations, asking about their involvement in the demonstration this coming Saturday. Many community groups have taken a clear stance against police abuses, and the police response has been to intimidate behind the scenes, as well as to start a whispering campaign to denounce so-called radical protesters. We must refuse these police tactics to marginalize the groups and individuals that have taken principled stances against police impunity.


10) Oppose sellout "community" gatekeepers

Various levels of government provide substantial money to so-called "community" organizations to provide basic services. One of the primary "services" of these groups is to act as "gatekeepers" preventing and sabotaging grassroots organizing for justice. The so-called "tables de concertation" in various neighborhoods (funded by the City of Montreal), or fake coalitions like "Solidarité Montreal-Nord" (also set-up by the City) basically exist to dilute clear demands that speak to the reality of our communities. These gatekeepers refuse to clearly denounce racism, racial profiling and police brutality, and have taken on a prominent role after the death of Fredy Villaneuva, by denouncing "violence" without ever clearly denouncing police violence. They are groups comfortable marching with politicians like Marcel Parent, Gerard Tremblay and Denis Coderre. These groups are basically breeding grounds for the politicians from all political parties that will go on to screw us over in other ways. This Saturday's demonstration is beyond the grasp of the compliant gatekeepers, which is why it annoys the cops and government so much. Let's annoy them even more with a huge turnout!


11) Support grassroots community organizing

In contrast to the fake community organizations (who are paid by government money) and their politician friends, diverse individuals and groups have engaged in autonomous, grassroots organizing, based on demands that come from our lived realities in poor and marginalized communities. This kind of organizing is not easy. We lack resources, and it's hard to find time to mobilize with our day-to-day grind for survival. But still, various on-the-ground networks, most notably Montréal-Nord Républik and Mères et Grandmères pour la vie et la justice, have courageously spoken out clearly and openly against police impunity.


12) For People Power

Our real power lies in our ability to unify, to break through fear and isolation, to name our enemy, and to confront it, united in our principles for social justice and dignity. This Saturday's protest is truly autonomous, beyond the sway of government-paid community hacks and politicians. It responds to the demands we know and feel daily. This Saturday's protest is one model for how we should continue to organize together, within our communities, and united between communities. Ce n'est qu'un début ...


written and distributed by jbswire@gmail.com
traduction par patcad. merci sofia. a guru collaboration

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Justice for Fredy Villanueva! Demonstration Oct. 11

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The following is the callout for a demonstration next Saturday, to protest the police murder of Freddy Villanueva in Montreal-North:

A year ago, Quilem was killed by being tasered six times in St-Michel.


NEVER AGAIN!


OCTOBER 11th 2008

BIG FAMILY FRIENDLY DEMONSTRATION

2:00PM at Parc Pilon (corner Henri-Bourassa & Pie-IX)


Everyone knows the story about Fredy Villanueva, this young teenager cowardly assassinated by police in a Montreal-North park while two of his friends were seriously injured. It was the 43rd time since 1987 that someone was killed by officers of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), who have never been condemned, in any of these cases of murder or manslaughter.

We know that the SPVM attempted to violently arrest Villanueva without telling him he was under arrest. We also know that officer Lapointe,in order to feel safe enough, had to shoot three bullets into Fredy’s body, even though he was unarmed. To shed some light on these events,the government will use a dubious method : the police will investigate the police.

Almost a year ago, Quilem Registre was killed in Saint-Michel by six taser discharges. The officers involved were never interrogated by investigators. As for Mohamed Anas Bennis, this Muslim unknown in police circles, was killed as he walked by an anti-terrorist operation. According to the official version of the events, he attacked a policeman with a kitchen knife on which investigators never bothered to look for fingerprints.

In the wake of such facts, we must demand a public and independent investigation into the death of Fredy. However this simple request will not be satisfied easily. It took over two years of struggle so that the state would agree to launch such an investigation into the death of Bennis, and even now it’s being contested in the courts by the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal. How could we possibly trust them when they systematically oppose, using any means at their disposal, a little more transparency?

Racial profiling, harassment towards youth hanging out, abusive searches,etc. are common practice by police officers. Just last January, the SPVM was formally declared guilty by the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse of practicing discrimination and racial profiling. In poor neighborhoods, every youth has shocking stories to tell about cops. It’s not complicated, little by little, a lasting fear of the SPVM was established among poor, young and immigrant communities. The day after Fredy’s death, in Montreal’s disadvantaged neighborhoods, the question was on everyone’s mind : « What if it had been my friend, my brother, my sister? »

We won’t fall into an easy denunciation of the riots, like some community groups in need of government cash did. These events that happen all the time in the whole world are inevitable when a social class with no future is confronted with the death of loved ones. As long as we won’t offer everyone living conditions that match human possibilities, legitimate revolts will occur.

We have to shout it loud : never again do we want one of our brothers to fall under the SPVM’s bullets! We have to organize, in the street, a collective political response. If we don’t, police forces will take advantage of the events to heighten the repression. We must be there in great numbers at the large family-friendly demonstration on Saturday, October 11th at 2 PM.

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New Blog for San Francisco 8

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There is a new blog specifically devoted to the San Francisco 8's ongoing ordeal: check it out at at http://freethesf8.blogspot.com/

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Dayton, Ohio: Amerikans Mark Ramadan by Attacking Muslim Children

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Last Friday a ten year old girl was assaulted by two men at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton.

According to the Dayton Daily News:

The girl was watching children whose parents and relatives had gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, 26 Josie St., to celebrate Ramadan when she noticed two men standing outside a basement window about 9:40 p.m., according to police.

One of the men then sprayed something through the open window and into the girl's face from a white can with a red top, according to a police report. The girl said she immediately felt burning on her face and felt "sick to her stomach," the report stated.

Other children and a woman in the room felt affects from the chemical and the mosque was evacuated.

The following account is from a friend of some of the people who had been at the mosque that evening, and first appeared on the Huffington Post website:

She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn't stop sobbing.

This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love.

I am hurt and angry. I tell her this is not America. She tells me this is not Heaven or Hell -- there are good and bad people everywhere.

She tells me that her daughters slept with her last night, the little one in her arms and sobbing throughout the night. She tells me she is afraid, and will never return to the mosque, and I wonder what kind of country is this where people have to fear attending their place of worship?

The children come into the room, and tell me they want to leave America and return to Syria, where they had fled to from Iraq. They say they like me, ... , and other American friends -- but they are too afraid and want to leave. Should a 6 and 7 year old even have to contemplate the safety of their living situation?

Did the anti-Muslim video circulating in the area have something to do with this incident, or is that just a bizarre coincidence? Who attacks women and children?

What am I supposed to say to them? My words can't keep them safe from what is nothing less than terrorism, American style. Isn't losing loved ones, their homes, jobs, possessions and homeland enough? Is there no place where they can be safe?

She didn't want me to leave her tonight, but it was after midnight, and I needed to get home and write this to my friends. Tell me -- tell me -- what am I supposed to say to them?

The local police have ruled there is no evidence it was a hate crime because the assailants did not leave anything at the scene of the attack! "The men didn't say anything to her (before she was sprayed)," one cop told the media. "There was nothing left at the scene or anything that makes us believe this is a biased crime."

Well of course. Any flinch or glare from a Brown kid is interpreted as a challenge or a sign of terrorist-sympathizing guilt, but white men pepper spraying kids at a mosque fails to indicate any underlying racist agenda. Welcome to America.

Oh, and i should mention: the racist DVD mentioned above is Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, a 60 minute propaganda film being distributed to 28 million people in swing states by the right-wing Clarion Fund.

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Another u.s. Activist Murdered in Oaxaca

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Sali Grace, RIP

On September 24th the body of Marcella Sali Grace, a u.s. solidarity activist working in Oaxaca, was found in a deserted cabin. She had been raped, murdered and mutilated, so that her body could only be identified by her tattoos. Largely through the mobilization of community groups in Oaxaca, a man has since been apprehended who admitted to "consensual sex" with Sali, after which he claims they argued and he killed her.

The following posted by Sali's friend Kristin Bricker on the Narcosphere website:

In my memories of Sally Grace, she looks just like the photograph of her that her friends published along with the communique denouncing that she was raped and murdered--laughing and smiling with a camera in her hand.

Sally told me she was a wanderer who had her strongest ties to Arizona. When she arrived in Oaxaca in the summer 2007 to help out local organizations in the popular struggle against Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, she published her photos, updates, and translations from the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon (CIPO-RFM) and the APPO on Arizona Indymedia. When she went back to Arizona for a visit in March, she organized fundraising events and reportbacks where she showed photos and videos from the streets of Oaxaca and sold artisanry woven by CIPO women.

Sally's friends in the CIPO-RFM, Encuentro de Mujeres Oaxaqueñas "Compartiendo Voces de Esperanza" ("Sharing Voices of Hope" Gathering of Oaxacan Women), Colectivo Mujer Nueva (New Woman Collective), Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom), Colectivo Tod@s Somos Pres@s (We're all Prisoners Collective), and Encuentro de Jóvenes en el Movimiento Social Oaxaqueño (Gathering of Young People in the Oaxacan Social Movement) say that she helped out wherever needed, be it painting banners or murals, performing Arabic dances, organizing punk shows to raise money for the organizations she supported, teaching women's self-defense classes, or translating and teaching English. She also served as an international human rights observer, accompanying activists who felt threatened by the government or paramilitaries in Oaxaca.

Most recently, Sally accompanied family members of a witness in the case of murdered Indymedia journalist Brad Will. She lived in their home and accompanied them as they went about their daily lives. However, a family member decided that the situation put Sally's life in danger, too. For example, the mysterious people following the family didn't leave them alone, even if Sally was around. So the woman encouraged Sally to go off with some friends who were uninvolved in the movement.

***

Sally and I met in Oaxaca during the November 2007 commemorations and protests that marked the anniversary of Brad Will's murder. We woke up early the morning of the gathering that aimed to re-erect the barricades in the place where government agents shot Brad to death. Someone went out to check out the meeting spot. He came back pale. "There's police there. They're masked and they're grabbing everyone who shows up. We can't go." So we stayed hidden where we were, and Sally and I chatted about who we were and what we did. She talked about the neighborhood where she lived; she said it was dangerous because it was teeming with PRI members, supporters of the despised Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Hours later, Sally left with other compañeros and compañeras to participate in and take photos of a huge march called by the Section 22 teachers union and other APPO members. I stayed behind, using the excuse of other work that had to be done behind the scenes. Sally came back hours later and got to work uploading her photos of the march to Arizona Indymedia and her Flickr album. She worked all night while we slept.

We stayed holed up where we were for a few days. When a friend and I decided that the situation on the streets had sufficiently cooled down, we decided to venture outside to run errands downtown and find a new place to stay. Knowing that tattoos, dark clothing, and anything else "suspicious" would be more than enough reason to snatch us, we borrowed light clothing that covered our tattoos and bade farewell to Sally and the rest of the compañeros there. Then my friend and I walked out into the streets for the first time in days.

When we reached downtown we made our way towards the market. I don't know exactly at what point the pick-up truck full of municipal police began to follow us, but they made their presence known soon enough. Two cops jumped out of the back of the truck and, communicating with whistles and hand signals, ran towards us. One came around front and, without saying a word, pointed his automatic weapon in our faces.

I grabbed my companion's hand, and even though he didn't speak a word of English, I began to talk to him in English: "What's going on? What do they want?"

"Tranquila, tranquila," he responded. Act calm. Don't show them fear. They're looking to see if you get scared.

The police officer kept his gun leveled at our heads, first pointing it in my friend's face, then mine, then back again. "What's happening?" I asked in English.

The cop's colleagues whistled to him. He whistled back. Then he lowered his weapon and ran, disappearing around a corner. The pick-up full of cops peeled off. We continued towards the market as if nothing had happened.

I knew that being a reporter in Mexico entailed risks. Mexico is, after all, the most dangerous country in the hemisphere to be a reporter, and second in the world only to Iraq.

This point was driven home when I was working in Sonora in late October 2006. I was covering a Day of the Dead celebration with Subcomandante Marcos when everyone's cell phones began to ring. Those of us who answered got the bad news: they'd killed a gringo Indymedia reporter in Oaxaca. His name was Brad Will.

***

Sally's raped and decaying body turned up in a cabin 20 minutes outside of San Jose del Pacifico. A neighbor noticed the smell and called the police.

According to the friend who identified the body, her face was unrecognizable: it was black as if it had been burned, and all of her hair was gone as if it had been ripped out. But Julieta Cruz recognized Sally's tattoos.

Sally's murder may have passed as yet another case of sexual violence, completely unrelated to her political work with some of the most persecuted organizations in Oaxaca. But Sally's friends in Oaxaca City know that she was being followed as a result of her human rights work and her associations with CIPO and other Oaxacan organizations for whom political violence is a daily fact of life.

While Sally's friends can't say for sure that her murder was politically motivated, they are certain that the government is not doing enough to seek justice in her case. The police and attorney general's office are slow to act, and they are not interviewing key witnesses who saw Sally before she was murdered and may be able to identify whom she was with. To protest this lack of action, organizations who knew Sally held a protest on September 25, first in front of the US consulate in Oaxaca and then at the local attorney general's office. A CIPO spokesperson says CIPO simply doesn't have the resources to thoroughly investigate the case, and the government won't share information with anybody who isn't family. Therefore, they have to resort to pressuring the government to do its job and investigate the murder of Sally Grace.

***

Sally was not by any means a central figure in Oaxacan activism. She was not an organizer. On the contrary, she did the only thing a foreign activist can do: she helped out here and there as she could. And through her translations and reportbacks, she kept the lines of communication between the US and Oaxaca open. Long after international attention and outrage had fizzled in Oaxaca, Sally stayed and accompanied activists whose safety no longer matters to the international community. She didn't protect them and she didn't get involved--she just watched and listened.

So why would someone take the trouble to follow and then brutally murder someone like Sally?

My friend Sister Dianna Ortiz was disappeared and tortured in Guatemala in 1989. Sister Dianna taught Spanish to indigenous children, hardly a revolutionary or insurgent undertaking. She hadn't been in Guatemala long before she was disappeared. But they chose her.

Years later in her memoirs, Sister Dianna notes that torture and political violence aren't just intended for the individuals who physically suffer a violent act. Torture and political violence are meant to terrorize an entire population. When the attackers grabbed Sister Dianna – probably one of the least prominent and powerful people in her mission, and one without any connection whatsoever to the resistance – they sent a message to everyone: No one is safe.

If they'd grabbed a priest, a bishop, a social leader, or an insurgent, everyone else would have been able to explain it away, "Well, he was an insurgent, and she was a leader. I'm neither. I'm safe."

But when they grab someone who operates on the periphery, like Sister Dianna or Sally, they succeed in terrorizing everyone: foreigners, locals, leaders, rank and file, neighbors, activists, punks, journalists, women... No one is safe.

***

Brad Will died a martyr. He died on the job. He died in the streets during an uprising. He filmed his own murder. He died surrounded by compañeros and witnesses. Despite this and other damning evidence, the Mexican government still tries to explain away his murder. As if using his murder as justification for a violent police invasion of Oaxaca City weren't enough, the day Sally's body turned up the government announced that it will yet again seek arrest warrants for APPO members and supporters in relation to Brad Will's murder.

Sally, on the other hand, died in the worst way: scared, tormented, and alone. There's no video or photographic evidence. There was no uprising providing an obvious motivation for murdering her. On the contrary, her murder leaves open the question of whether it was politically motivated or a random act of sexual violence. This could have been intentional on the part of her attacker or attackers to hide their true aims.

***

Shortly after publishing my article exposing the identities of the private contractors who led torture trainings for police in Leon, Guanajato, people followed me. It happened at least twice. The first time I was with a friend, and the person drove off after a few blocks.

The second time I was alone. A gray pick-up started following me very slowly, keeping pace behind me as I walked. I stopped and asked him what he wanted. He didn't respond. He just stared. I kept walking.

After what seemed like forever, I stopped a second time. "What do you want?" I yelled in Spanish. He rolled down his window a bit. "Tell me what you want or leave me alone!" He just stared. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!" He stared.

I stomped off. He kept following. I called someone for help. My friend came out into the street. The gray pick-up drove off.

I never denounced it because I still don't know if the motivations behind it were political or perverted. That's the double-bind of being a female social fighter. We suffer violence as activists, and we suffer violence as women. The violence is almost always linked. But political violence can be used as a cover for sexual violence, and sexual violence is used as a cover for political violence.

As NYC Indymedia explained earlier this year:

Oaxacan women rose to international prominence in 2006 when they led the takeover of a TV station during the people’s uprising in Oaxaca city. What started as a women-only march on August 1, culminated in the peaceful seizing of the state-owned television station, Channel 9. For three months, they collectively ran the station and opened a forum of discussion on the airwaves previously innaccesible to the community. Their media revolution was only haltered when the Mexican government decided to attack their own station, destroying the antenna and effectively taking them off the air. Taking over the communications broadcasting system, including several radio stations, has been heralded as a symbol of the popular movement in Oaxaca.

As such, women have been on the frontlines facing state repression. Just a few months ago, in April, Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martínez, 20, two women journalists working for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio Indigenous radio station were murdered, all suspicion falling on government paramilitary forces. It was the struggle of women like these, and their communities, which inspired people like Sali to travel to Oaxaca and do what they could to support this struggle for a better world.

Fittingly enough, on September 30, on what would have been Sali Grace's 21st birthday, a march was held in Oaxaca demanding an end to violence against women.

A photo of graffiti that Sali had taken. It reads:
"You can not call somebody dead who fought for life."

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That Financial Meltdown

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On the agit prop "let's get our message out there" level, the left is not worth listening to when it comes to the financial crisis gripping the capitalist world. Or at least not yet.

It's not that what is being said is wrong, it's that what's being said is just so plain obvious. An ignoramus such as myself could think up the stuff most left groups and commentators have churned out so far, and the op ed and business pages of most ruling class newspapers have just as informative analysis.

This isn't a criticism, just an observation. And it's probably normal in the midst of rapid change, of the sudden transformations that the ruling class are calling catastrophe, that even superpowered theory can at best keep up with and explain what is going on, rather than provide some kind of philosopher's stone with which to extract what we want from the crisis.

So rather than try and map out the minutiae of where the ruling class misstepped, or guess at what saves and stumbles lie ahead, i'm just going to note a few perspectives from amongst the dozens of angles folks must have. i could be full of shit, in which case let me know, but better to be wrong trying to understand where we are is what i figure...

The ruling class is almost unanimous in supporting massive state intervention to save their economy from a bloody nose. How long it takes them to do so may be a barometer of how dysfunctional their political culture is, but they will do so. And this is neither inconsistent not a break with tradition: despite the hype, the capitalists have always supported state spending, but in their "neo-liberal" stage it has been important to clothe this in acceptable militarized or repressive garb: the war on drugs, war on terror, etc. What is key about the current situation is their need to do it in the open, and for something as mundane as their economy.

The middle classes who support and benefit from this system are mixed about the idea of massive state intervention to support the financial sector. They fear that the money is going to be used to save the big rats while the small rats like them get proletarianized. They may be right, but it's hard to see what alternative they have: it is just stupidity to think of the system they support as some productive machine being exploited by nasty parasitic financiers, while it is in fact a wholly and unambiguously nasty parasitic machine, of which the financiers constitute a key part. These people, in their disgust at seeing the system's true nature, could swing far to the left or far to the right. Depending on the political weight of this panicked middle class, those sects which try and court them may find themselves in fact being pulled into their frenzied gravity well.

Different kinds of "solution" may be found depending on this interplay between the ruling class and the middle classes, but for the most oppressed no solution will be forthcoming "from above". Either neo-keynesian "managed capitalism" (is there any other kind?) or the spectre of "every MAN for himself" barbarism, in both cases the implication is continued exploitation, regimentation and pain for the oppressed.

However, gotta be clear: the levels of misery could certainly be ramped up dramatically either as part of the "solution" or as a result of further breakdown.

Other "crises" facing the capitalists - the lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate chaos, interimperialist rivalries from Georgia to the North Pole - will all be accelerated by the financial turmoil.

The only question of importance at this point is whether it is possible to use the current juncture to organize today for resistance tomorrow. It takes more than an opinion or a point of view to be able to do so, one needs more than a plan, one needs to be actively following that plan.

The military thinker Clausewitz referred to the consequences of such a concrete plan as a "state of tension". In the book On War (posthumously compiled by his widow and co-thinker Marie von Clausewitz), it is explained that:

if neither party [in a conflict] wills something positive, there is rest, and consequently equilibrium... As soon as even one of the two parties proposes to himself a new positive object, and commences active steps towards it, even if it is only by preparations, and as soon as the adversary opposes this, there is a tension of powers…

What's more:

In a state of rest and of equilibrium a varied kind of activity may prevail on one side that results from opportunity, and does not aim at a great alteration. Such an activity may contain important combats – even pitched battles – yet it is still of quite a different nature, and on that account generally different in its effects.

If a state of tension exist, the effects of the decision are always greater partly because a greater force of will and a greater pressure of circumstances manifest themselves therein; partly because everything had been prepared and arranged for a great movement. The decision in such cases resembles the effect of a mine well closed and tamped, whilst an event in itself perhaps just as great, in a state of rest, is more or less like a mass of powder puffed away in the open air.

i think it is undeniable that in the metropole for years now there has been nothing but a "state of equilibrium" between the revolutionary left and the state, to the point that one really has to wonder in what sense "revolutionary left" remains a useful term in North America, for anyone. This was true during the antiwar mobilization of 2003 ( for "Such an activity may contain important combats") and remains true today, and as such even this great crisis of capitalism risks passing without our making any meaningful intervention ("like a mass of powder puffed away in the open air").

The challenge is reversing this situation quickly, and intervening in a way which lays the ground for something new.

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Looks like i'm in trouble...

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Economists Warn Anti-Bush Merchandise Market Close To Collapse

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[Kasama Blog] Misuses of the Erotic: Debate Among Revolutionary Youth

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An interesting post by Jed Brandt on Mike Ely's Kasama blog about the anti-queer political line advanced by the (u.s.) Revolutionary Communist Party up until a few years ago: Misuses of the Erotic: Debate Among Revolutionary Youth.

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The Demise of the USSR

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Soviet SS-21 short range missile, aimed at Western Europe and the People's Republic of China starting in 1978...

Some time ago i posted a poll, on the effect the demise of the Soviet Union had on revolutionaries in the imperialist countries and in the Third World, the options being Easier, Harder, Bit of Both, or Neither. (An additional joke "The Soviet Union was never defeated" appeared in the list for the imperialist countries, and got four votes.) Obviously, only a very few people answer these little polls i put up, so the results are not really the point, but they do provide a way to discuss a question.

RESULTS:

EASIER: Only four people thought that the demise of the Soviet Union made things unambiguously easier for people in the imperialist countries, nobody thought it had this effect for comrades in the Third World.

This was in line with my first expectations, the line being that in the imperialist countries the Soviet Union was such a negative example of what communism or socialism could look like - a despotic, highly stratified class society where people lived hard lives with few freedoms - that it helped to keep people hostile to the left. Whereas in the Third World this kind of negative example was assumed to have less weight, and the Soviet Union provided material aid to anti-imperialist insurgencies and regimes like Cuba and Nicaragua.

Nevertheless, i can't help but suspect that this appraisal of the USSR's effect on struggles in the Third World misses some nuances. While the Soviet Union did provide aid to almost any and every anti-American insurgency during certain periods, it must be remembered that it also supported anti-communist insurgents and regimes when these were seen as being the best bet to counter the west. One of these days i'd like to look into this more...

HARDER: Six people thought that the demise of the USSR made things harder on revs in the imperialist countries, twelve people thought it made things harder on people ion the Third World.

i'm not sure why these twelve think things got harder in the imperialist countries for revolutionaries. The Soviet Union provided neither aid nor effective leadership, and (through the Communist Parties) often sabotaged and deradicalized struggles here. On the other hand, despite its obvious shortcomings, when the USSR fell apart and the u.s. emerged as the "winner", there was a sense of euphoria on the right and demoralization on the left, not because people had liked the "real existing socialism" of the USSR but rather because it was interpreted as a sign of American strength, and spun as a personal victory for such reactionaries as Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II.

As for making things harder for people in the Third World struggling against imperialism, the argument is more obvious. As mentioned above, the Soviet Union had provided material aid, including military aid, to insurgencies and to anti-imperialist regimes like Cuba.

BIT OF BOTH & NONE: Eight people thought the demise of the USSR had mixed results on revs in the imperialist countries, five people thought it had mixed results in the Third World. At the same time, only two people thought it had no effect in either.

And that's that for that poll...

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Jean-Pierre Lizotte Remembered

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Jean-Pierre Lizotte

From today's Montreal Gazette, an excellent op ed piece by No One Is Illegal member Jaggi Singh, about the 1999 police murder of Jean-Pierre Lizotte, a homeless PWA, in the trendy Plateau Montreal neighbourhood:

The ‘poet of Bordeaux’ spent many years in prison, but he possessed a simple dignity

Lawyer Michael Stober takes offence at a Gazette report on the death of Jean-Pierre Lizotte in 1999. In his Gazette opinion piece (“Police were not responsible in the death of homeless man,” Sept. 12) Stober, lawyer for Montreal police constable Giovanni Stante, writes that the report gives the “false impression that Lizotte was a victim of police brutality.”

Stober reiterates that Stante was acquitted by a jury in 2002, and cleared by the Police Ethics Tribunal for inappropriate use of force just last month. These are cold, hard facts.

Stante stands acquitted, but it’s still completely valid, and necessary, to question the actions of the Montreal police, despite the police procedures that apparently allow for the punching of an unarmed man held by someone else. One simple fact that readers should consider: Police did not reveal Jean-Pierre Lizotte’s death in 1999 to the public until 53 days later.

There is one witness to the events on the early morning of Sept. 5, 1999, outside the Shed Café on St. Laurent Bvld. who will never get to tell his side, and that’s Jean-Pierre Lizotte himself. Lizotte died following the substantial injuries he suffered that fateful night.

While vigilantly defending Stante almost a decade after the incident, Stober goes on to cite Lizotte’s extensive criminal record. Dead men tell no tales, as the saying goes.

But, fortunately, despite two decades in and out of prison, this particular dead man had a lot to say, and he said it poignantly and insightfully. Jean- Pierre Lizotte deserves his voice, too, as much as Stante has his voice through his lawyer’s skillful advocacy.

Thanks to a remarkable radio program called Souverains anonymes, which encouraged the creative side of prisoners at Bordeaux, we still have a record of many of Lizotte’s words.

After learning of his death, the producers of Souverains Anonymes recalled something Lizotte wrote to Abla Farhoud – a Quebec playwright, writer and actress, originally from Lebanon – who had participated in one show at the Bordeaux prison. Lizotte was responding to the words of the main character of Farhoud’s novel, Le bonheur a la queue glissante, who observed, “My country is that place where my children are happy.”

Lizotte’s response to Farhoud is moving, as he seeks common ground while reflecting on his own life. It’s worth citing in full:

“Hello Abla, my name is J-P Lizotte. For the 21 years that I’ve been returning inside, prison has become my country. When I leave it, I become an immigrant! I experience all that an immigrant might experience when they miss their country of origin. When I’m inside, I want to leave. And when I’m outside, I miss the inside. Sometimes I say to myself, ‘If I had a grandmother or a grandfather, things would have been different for me.’ But how can you have a grandmother when you’ve hardly had either a mother or father. The memories that I have make me cry, so I won’t tell them to you. But, a grandmother, like the one in your novel, is not given to everyone. So, I say to everyone who has a grandmother or grandfather, take advantage of it. Thanks.”

(The French text of Lizotte’s note and other writings are available at: http://www.souverains.qc.ca/recidivi.html)

His fellow prisoners dubbed Lizotte the “Poet of Bordeaux,” and he wrote prolifically. His poems, in a rhyming and often humourous style, address deeply personal themes: his difficult childhood, his lack of a caring mother, his father’s alcoholism, depression, his HIV-positive status, his drug problems, along with subjects like music, prison and revolt. He even wrote an unpublished memoir about his itinerant life titled, Voler par amour, pleurer en silence.

Clearly, there are underlying and understandable reasons why Lizotte was in and out of prison for more than two decades, beyond the list of criminal offences that Stante’s lawyer provides, without context.

Lizotte lived a harsh reality, right from his childhood, as he shared in his poems and writings with simple honesty.

On Sept. 5, 1999, on a trendy and expensive part of St. Laurent Blvd., Lizotte’s reality came up against the contrasting reality of restaurant patrons, bouncers and police officers. Lizotte was allegedly causing some sort of disturbance, and he had to be restrained in a full-nelson hold and punched at least twice, according to Stante’s own testimony. (Some witnesses claim that Lizotte was punched “repeatedly” and excessively.) Witnesses said there was a pool of blood left at the scene. One witness referred to Lizotte being thrown into a police van “like a sack of potatoes.”

Stante was duly acquitted by a jury in 2002. Police officers are often acquitted – on the rare occasions that they’re charged – within a criminal-justice system that appropriately demands proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” before conviction.

But, what if there were a video of what happened outside the Shed Café in 1999, instead of the imperfect and contradictory memories of witnesses at 2:30 in the morning? What if JeanPierre Lizotte were present in the courtroom, in a wheelchair and paralyzed, in front of the jury’s own eyes?

At Stante’s trial and again in The Gazette’s pages, Stante’s lawyer put a dead man who can’t defend himself on trial. Lizotte openly acknowledged who he was. What’s unfortunate is to continue denying Jean-Pierre Lizotte – the homeless “criminal” – his full humanity and dignity, because he possessed both in such stunning abundance.

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Rearview Mirror Glance at August's Riot

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As most readers will know, Montreal's unusually cool summer included a very hot August, hot with the bitter heat that comes from tragedy.

On August 9, a group of teenagers were playing in a park in the proletarian neighbourhood of Montreal North. Cops drove up and busted one of the kids, who had a warrant outstanding. His younger brother, the 18 year old Freddy Villanueva, was one of many kids who got in their faces about this. While accounts differ as to the exact chain of events, what is clear is that within a few minutes a police was firing their weapon into the kids, hitting three of them, including Freddy. The kid died that night.

The next night there was a vigil called in the neighbourhood. This happens sometimes (rarely) when a cop murders someone in this city. More often than not there is nothing for weeks or months, or even ever. But this time it was the next night, already a "good" sign, if one can talk of "good" in this context.

But what came next was better... youth from the neighbourhood, many of whom (like the young Villanueva) children of the immigrant working class, started to set things on fire, and to fight the cops. There were molotov cocktails, and one cop got a flesh wound, shot by a rioter.

All this points to the fact that inspiring, high levels of consciousness exist just out of (whose?) sight, that some people understand what solidarity means, even though (unlike leftists who rarely riot) they it may not be word they drop into every conversation. That this level of consciousness exists in one of the key neighbourhoods of the immigrant working class in Montreal is no coincidence, no accident.

Of course, consciousness can play both ways. Police were able to engage "law abiding citizens" in its post-riot repression, using images from local business's security cameras to catch rioters - according to a news story that appeared today, 71 people were arrested, 51 of them due to this latest police tactic. This had already been used earlier this year during the largely apolitical Hockey Riots, and it seems it is going to be a regular problem in cases of mass resistance. It remains to be seen how long it will take for rioters to mask up as a matter of course.

i am of course not saying that everything, or even most things, that happen during a riot are "good" or "correct". Nor is it a matter of assuming that everyone who displays advanced consciousness in such a situation is a comrade in the next. But what it does point to is a much more promising and less decayed situation than one normally finds after a cop killing.

And the effect it had was exactly what everyone and anyone would expect. Within twenty four hours sections of the establishment were opportunistically distancing themselves from their pitbulls in blue, were talking about the need for an "impartial investigation", for a "public inquiry", for an end to police harassment and racism. While other members of the establishment played the same old racist tune, insisting that people in Montreal North should be better parents and then their kids wouldn't be shot by the nice police officers. Both developments predictable, and positive because by forcing matters quickly the ruling class was prevented from putting forward a united front.

So yeah, i haven't been blogging much, but hope to get back in the swing. In the meantime, if only for posterity, i thought i should jot down these few sketchy thoughts...

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Working Class Struggle in Quebec: 1970-

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There was an excellent talk yesterday by Richard St-Pierre, about his own personal experience of working class struggles in Quebec since his politicization as a teenager in 1970.

This was probably one of the best talks i have ever heard in Montreal, and it is a real shame that it was not recorded. St-Pierre's itinerary is like many of his generation: a working class teenager, he was initially attracted by the "social gospel" of Roman Catholicism and the idea of armed struggle to win an independent and socialist Quebec. He then quickly became one of the tens of thousands of people who rejected these ideas to plunge into the Maoist movement that was so active in 70s Quebec.

Where St-Pierre differs from most of his comrades is that he has not only remained politically active but after a few twists and turns his commitment to working class revolution led him to left communism, specifically the tiny International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party. Despite his current adherence to the IBPR, St-Pierre did us all the service of recounting the groups and struggles he had been involved in as he saw them at the time, while not being shy to point out, and take responsibility for, specific errors.

The talk was organized in a non-sectarian, comradely manner, by the Montreal local of the North East Federation of Anarchist-Communists (NEFAC), and perhaps forty people attended. While he spoke for over two hours, St-Pierre had time to get through less than half of what he had prepared, and particularly frustrating to me, the section he had to skip was the section on "consciuosness", which i'm guessing would have been the most provocative and interesting bit.

If he speaks again, i strongly encourage you all to attend. In the meantime, with a bit of luck and time over the next few days, i'll try and write up a more detailed report from the notes i took.

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Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents From the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners

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Look what just arrived back from the printers:

This is the book that killed two months of my summer, doing layout like i'd never done it before and finally breaking in InDesign. It's a 912 page brick, full of historical documents collected by Matt Meyer (of Resistance in Brooklyn and the War Resister's League), all giving a very particular and interesting perspective on some of the key campaigns to free political prisoners over the past twenty years.

Apart from the foreword by Argentinean former political prisoner (and Nobel Peace Prize recipient) Adolfo Pérez Esquivel there are also afterwords by Lynne Stewart and Ashanti Alston. Not to mention writings by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Ramona Africa, Dan Berger, Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, Terry Bisson, BO, Marilyn Buck, Safiya Bukhari, Chrystos, Angela Davis, Susie Day, Bill Dunne, Jill Soffiyah Elijah, Bob Lederer, Jose López, Oscar López Rivera, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Jalil Muntaqim, Luis Nieves Falcón, Leonard Peltier, Ninotchka Rosca, the San Francisco 8, Assata Shakur, Meg Starr, Jan Susler, Linda Thurston, Desmond Tutu, Laura Whitehorn, and many more.

As the back cover blurb explains:

Let Freedom Ring presents a two-decade sweep of essays, analyses, histories, interviews, resolutions, People’s Tribunal verdicts, and poems by and about the scores of U.S. political prisoners and the campaigns to safeguard their rights and secure their freedom. In addition to an extensive section on the campaign to free death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, represented here are the radical movements that have most challenged the U.S. empire from within: Black Panthers and other Black liberation fighters, Puerto Rican independentistas, Indigenous sovereignty activists, white anti-imperialists, environmental and animal rights militants, Arab and Muslim activists, Iraq war resisters, and others. Contributors in and out of prison detail the repressive methods – from long-term isolation to sensory deprivation to politically inspired parole denial – used to attack these freedom fighters, some still caged after 30+ years. This invaluable resource guide offers inspiring stories of the creative, and sometimes winning, strategies to bring them home.

This is almost a reference book, providing snapshots of the work being done on the oustide, and of the condtions on the inside of amerika's gulag system. For me personally, some of the most interesting pieces were the contributions by political prisoners, many of which were sent in to Resistance in Brooklyn for photocopies booklets they produced in 1992 (Dissing the "Discovery") and for the "John Brown 2000" conference. Let Freedom Ring also provides a good framework through which to get an idea of some of the forces in the national liberation movements of the internal colonies - Indigenous people, Puerto Ricans, Chican@s, and Black/New Afrikan people - and a glimpse at the reasoning and worldviews that have motivated people from these movements from the 1960s on.

For more details, feel free to check out the appropriate page on my Kersplebedeb website: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/letfreedomring.html

-------------------------

Seeing as this is a brick, weighing almost three pounds, postage is going to be a pain in the ass. In fact, by my reckoning Canada Post is going to charge me almost $20 to ship a copy anywhere in the u.s. - definitely a bother.

To ease the pain, i'm going to be charging $15 postage and for a limited time will be throwing in a FREE copy of the 2009 Certain Days Freedom For Political Prisoners calendar with every order. You can email me (info@kersplebedeb.com) for more details, or else just use the paypal button here to pay online:

and yes, i will be posting about Certain Days soon, but in the meantime you can check here for more details: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/books/cal2009/index.html

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Thinking & Forgetting

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Y'know...

thoughts without discipline
are
a lot like leaves
waiting
for the wind to come

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Prisoners of New Orleans need your help now (Hurricane Gustav)!

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The following from Critical Resistance:

To All CR members, Allies, and Comrades of New Orleans,

Prisoners and Families of New Orleans needs your help immediately!
If you haven't heard already Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans
and is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane, the same as Hurricane Katrina. There will possibly be a mandate for all people (outside of prisons and jails) of New Orleans to evacuate starting tomorrow August 29th, the three year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It is predicted that hurricane Gustav will pose great flooding potential regardless of its category rating, the levee that broke by elected official's decisions during Hurricane Katrina has not been fixed to it's potential, or replaced.

The over crowding Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, holds 2, 500 prisoners (this count is not certain, due to lack of information given to the public.) Although not official, we have information that the Prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison will be evacuating to Angola Prison and Hunt Prison in the next coming days and are also prisons that can be affected by Hurricane Gustav due to overcrowding.

During Hurricane Katrina there were prisoners able to evacuate and others who remained locked in their cells with a minimal chance of survival. Prisoners were left in flooded cells, with no food, and had minimal ventilation, to say the least. Family members, of prisoners who were held at Orleans Parish Prison, are still in the fight to locate their loved ones who had been evacuated to other prisons during Katrina. Due to the flooding, lack of organization and care from New Orleans Department of Corrections and elected officials, prisoner's records were also missing. As a result, prisoner's constitutional rights have been violated.
This abuse can not happen again!

What will happen to the prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison located in New Orleans this time?

Critical Resistance (CR) is demanding that the elected officials of New Orleans will not create the same devastating wrongs as they did to the prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison during hurricane Katrina.

1. we demand a full and safe evacuation of all prisoners
2. we demand to know what the evacuation plan for prisoners is
3. we demand to see a public document about that plan immediately
4. we demand information about how we can find people after an evacuation

We are urging every member, ally and comrade of New Orleans across the country, to make atleast one call to:

Sheriff Malrin Gusman: 504.827.8505
(James Carter's secretary said "Orleans Parish Prison is Gusman's prison")
James Carter: 504.658.1030
(Criminal Justice Council Member who is able to put pressure on the sheriff even if they say they can't)
You can also send an email: JCarter@cityofno.com
please put in your email subject: How will you protect prisoners this time?

Please call as many times as you can to put pressure on them and let them know our demands and it is their job to be accountable to us!!!!!!!!

For further information from us please contact Critical Resistance New Orleans:
Mayaba: 917.385.5472 or mayaba@criticalresistance.org
Koolblack: 504.813.4714 or koolblack@criticalresistance.org

(If you can't get through due to evacuation please contact: pilar@criticalresistance.org for further information)

In solidarity,
Critical Resistance

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[NEFAC Mtl] 35 years of Workers' Struggles: Analysis and Perspectives

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The following event is happening in a little more than two weeks. It promises to be one of the most interesting events NEFAC Mtl has ever organized; St-Pierre is a veteran of over thirty years of working class and communist struggles in Quebec, with views which i may not completely share, but which i find much more interesting than most of what the local left produces...

while i'm translating this into english, i don't know if translation will be available at the event itself. Nevertheless, i really hope comrades take the trouble to attend even if french is not their language of choice...

35 years of workers' struggles
analysis and perspectives

NEFAC Montreal invites you to a talk by Richard St-Pierre, a longtime communist activist. He will give an overview of the recent history of the Quebec workers' movement, while bringing to the table some elements of his own political point of view and personal experience.

Over the past decades he has been involved in many quite different struggles. Amongst other things, he was active in groups like the Regroupement Autonome des Jeunes (RAJ), the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) and the Comité des Sans-Emploi (CSE). He is presently a member of the Montreal section of the International Bureau for a Revolutionary Party.

Saturday September 13th
2pm
Pub St-Ciboire
1693 St-Denis

A presentation of the Montreal Local of the North-East Federation of Anarchist Communists - NEFAC

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[ZNet] No Justice, No Peace: Behind the riots in Montreal after the shooting-death of Fredy Villanueva

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The following summary of the problem of police violence in Montreal which led up to August's riots in Montreal North is by Charles Mostoller and from ZNet:

Montreal-Nord, Montreal--"Why four gunshots? Why?", asked Patricia Villanueva. "I don't believe they had reason to shoot four times, just like that. Nothing justifies a death." Patricia is sister to Fredy Villanueva, an 18 year old Honduran youth who was shot dead by a Montreal police officer on August 9th, sparking a small riot among the fed-up youth of this impoverished immigrant neighborhood in North Montreal.

Villanueva is the latest death in a long line of police killings here in Montreal, although the first to occur in this North Montreal neighborhood.

According to police, two officers approached a group of youths who were playing dice in a park, and attempted to arrest Dany Villanueva, Fredy's brother. When an argument broke out, one officer fired four shots, killing Fredy and injuring Denis Meas and Jeffrey Sagor Metelus, who are recovering in the hospital. Police have stated that the officers were attacked by a group of about 20 youths, despite statements from witnesses who say that only five or six people were present and that there was no physical confrontation.

"My brother said 'What are you doing with my brother? Let go of him.' Then I heard gunshots, and my brother fell to the ground," said Dany, according to the CBC. According to statements by the Villanueva family, Dany has had some trouble with the law in the past, but Fredy was the 'good' son, doing well in school and staying away from drugs and trouble.

Jean Loup Lapointe--the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal (SPVM) officer from Montreal-Nord's Station 39 who fatally wounded Villanueva--has not been suspended, although he has been taken off patrol duty.

Although over 30 witnesses have already been questioned in relation to Villanueva's death, the two police officers responsible for his death have yet to be questioned. His sister wants to know why.

"It's so important to have a transparent investigation, to know what really happened," she said. "But they haven't taken the police officers' testimony yet. What are they waiting for?" Despite the slow course of the internal police investigation, the Villanueva family hopes that Fredy's death will finally make police on the island more responsible and less likely to resort to lethal force.

"We want this never to happen again," said Patricia, speaking after a press conference on Friday. "If it happens once, it can happen again, and it has happened before." The incident has sparked debate in the media and among politicians here, more over the supposed threat of street-gangs in the area than over the reckless use of force displayed by Montreal's finest--with many, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, suggesting the need to beef-up the police units in the area to crack down on gangs. However, Francois du Canal, a spokesperson for the Coalition Against Police Brutality (COBP), believes that the most pressing issue in Montreal's poor neighborhoods is poverty, not gangs.

"They are treating everyone in the neighborhood like they are would-be gang members," he said. "There is poverty and a lot of social problems in neighborhoods like Montreal-Nord, but instead of dealing with poverty--like by giving money to community groups--they give millions of dollars to cops." Take a quick stroll through Montreal-Nord and this is immediately obvious. Local residents gather in front of the dilapidated housing buildings, while groups of five or six police officers patrol the sidewalks and teams of police cruisers line the corners. Many people feel intimidated by the heavy police presence, which has been a part of daily life since long before Villanueva's death.

"There are too many police here," said Kevin Garcia, a friend of the Villanueva family. "Caravans of 10 or 15 police cars will come into the neighborhood all of a sudden, and we feel very insecure, because it seems like anything can happen from one moment to the next. It makes us feel very intimidated to have so many police everywhere." "It seems like they are here to provoke things," he added. "They see a few young people, and even if there are little kids around, they approach them, trying to intimidate--or what are they looking for? They are provoking things, trying to take this to the next level." However, it is unlikely that Villanueva's killers will ever face justice, given the history of impunity for police officers in cases like this. Villanueva is the 43rd person to be killed by the Montreal Police in the last twenty years, yet only two police officers have ever faced charges for their actions--and were acquitted in both cases.

"They kill people, and they're not even accused of any misdoing," said Canal. "So they get away with it. That's what we call impunity, and because of it, they know they can kill people, so they just keep on acting like they can do whatever they want."

"They use harassment, intimidation and violence as tactics," he added, "and things like this happen, because the politicians are too afraid to control the police more. And they will continue to happen if nothing happens to these cops."

Surete du Quebec (SQ)--the Quebec provincial police who are leading the inquiry into Villanueva's death--have promised "an investigation with impartiality, rigor, objectivity and rapidity," according to SQ Lt. Francois Dore.

However, past investigations into fatal shooting by the Montreal Police suggest that we may never know what really happened on August 9th.

For example, in the case of Mohamed Anas Bennis--a youth killed in December of 2005 by a Montreal Police officer--the findings of the investigation into his death have still not been made public., two-and-a-half years later. Nor has the officer who killed Bennis, Yannick Bernier, been penalized.

"It's always the same story," said Canal. "The cops investigate themselves and there are no accusations, so we never really know what truly happened. The cops are not even suspended."

In 1996, former SQ investigator Gaëtan Rivest told the COBP that an investigation into the death of Yvon Lafrance--killed by police in 1989--had been tampered with in order to protect the officer responsible, Dominic Chartier. According to the COBP, Rivest confirmed "that such practices are common within the different police services in Quebec."

"So it really sends a message that the city and the government are backing the police," said Canal, "even if they say they think about the family and all that. But they really seem more upset that there was a riot than the fact that the cops killed an unarmed youth."

Communities like Montreal-Nord are fed up with the situation. The riot that happened the day after Villanueva's death was probably just a release of the neighborhood youth's pent-up anger, not an action organized by local 'street gangs'.

"The only street gang around here is the police," shouted Will Prosper, along with hundreds of other Montreal-Nord residents in front of the town's municipal building on Wedensday night.

Local residents had gathered in the parking lot in front of Mayor Marcel Parent's office, calling for an public investigation of Villanueva's death and an end to police repression in Montreal.

Shouting "No justice, no peace! Disarm the police!" and "Enquête public!", dozens of residents barged into a meeting the mayor was holding, and Prosper raucously called for the mayor himself to resign--for not trying to help lift Montreal-Nord out of poverty.

"I don't think he can lead Montreal-Nord correctly, because he's not listening to his people," said Prosper. "If he was listening to his people, maybe Fredy Villanueva would still be alive."

According to Prosper, unemployment among youths has skyrocketed under Mayor Parent , and police abuse has gone unchecked.

"These people want jobs, houses, families--and are tired of police harassment," he said. "If you don't give them some options, what are they going to do?"

Both Prosper and Canal feel that in a poor neighborhood like Montreal-Nord, the police just exacerbate the problem.

"The police are not here to help people, they're here to criminalize people and then they do things like killing people," said Canal. "This makes it so that everybody in the community feels alienated--like they are being unjustly treated--and that's one of the reasons why an explosion like the one we saw after the killing of Fredy Villanueva happened."

In the end, police brutality towards immigrants seems like a systemic problem in Montreal, and one that won't be going away soon. According to Prosper, minorities are twice as likely to be shot by police in Montreal, and poor immigrant neighborhoods like Montreal-Nord are overrun by police officers.

"They have a gang mentality," he said. "A lot of police are good officers, but they tolerate abuses by other police officers. How come they don't say anything about that? They ask the population to anonymously denounce criminals, but then they let criminals in their own ranks."

"If we could respect the police, the riot wouldn't have happened. But right now," he continued, "there's no trust, no respect. We know what happened that night, and that's why we want change."

The political response to police killings is to criminalize immigrant communities and victimize the police, sending in more police to fight against street gangs--in other words, young people. Until less money is spent on police in poor neighborhoods and more is spent on community programs, Canal explained, the vicious cycle that has led to so many deaths at the hands of police will probably continue.

"If they don't stop police brutality, and their answer to what happened is to put more police on the streets," said Canal, "then there's going to be more police brutality and more riots to come."

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Demonstration Against Police Abuse in Montreal North

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Demonstration in Montreal North!
A Call to Mobilize!
The Breach Has Been Opened in Montreal-North!

Montreal-North is burning. After the murder of Fredy Villenueva by the Montreal Police (SPVM), and the riots which broke out to express the people's anger, the community of Montreal-North remains angry. The time has come to organize a social and political offensive against the local elites who are trying to cover up this state of affairs.

Montréal-Nord Republik (Montreal North Republik) is a new voice in the neighbourhood. It intends to put forward another view of the recent events around the death of Fredy Villanueva and the riots which took place in Montreal North. The group also intends to dispute the dominant discourse which is insinuating that the rioters and protesters are just apolitical hooligans. Montréal-Nord Republik hopes to bring together the neighbourhood community along with all the population of Montreal in order to denounce police repression as well as economic, social, cultural and political oppression.

The MONTRÉAL-NORD RÉPUBLIK movement is struggling for justice following the murder of Fredy Villanueva. We have five demands:

1 THE IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION OF THE MAYOR OF MONTREAL-NORTH, Mr. MARCEL PARENT, who has stated that "Everything is going well in Montreal-North, there is no problem here. I never saw this coming."

2. A PUBLIC AND INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO THE DEATH OF FREDY VILLANUEVA.

3. AN END TO ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR BY THE POLICE (intimidation, harassment, racial profiling, abusive arrests, etc.)

4. A WORK prodced by neighbourhood artists and supported by the borough to keep the memory of Fredy alive.

5. A RECOGNITION of the principle that as long as there is economic insecurity, there will be social insecurity.

A DEMONSTRATION IS PLANNED THE EVENING OF THIS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20TH, AT 6PM, IN FRONT OF THE MONTREAL-NORTH CITY HALL (11 155, rue Hébert, corner
Charleroi). WE WILL SUBMIT OUR DEMANDS DURING THE MEETING OF THE BOROUGH COUNCIL WHICH TAKES PLACE AT 7PM. All those in solidarity with Fredy and with our demands are invited to come demonstrate.

HOW TO GET THERE: FROM METRO HENRI-BOURASSA, TAKE THE 48, 49,
69 OR 89 GOING EAST TO GARON. FROM MÉTRO PIE-IX, TAKE THE
139 UNTIL CHARLEROI. CHARLEROI IS TWO STREETS SOUTH OF HENRI-BOURASSA AND RUE HÉBERT TWO STREETS EAST OF PIE-IX.

For all information, please communicate with us via the following email address and let us know how to reach you, we will do so quickly:

Email: mtlnord.republik@gmail.com

Website: www.montrealnordrepublik.blogspot.com

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COBP Communique on the Murder of Freddy Villanueva (Montreal)

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Communiqué by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)

Justice for Freddy Villanueva, the 43rd Montreal police killing in 22 years!

Montreal, August 13, 2008 -- On Saturday August 9, 2008, at about 7pm, a police officer from Station 39 fired four bullets that injured two youth and killed Freddy Villaneuva, 18, in Montreal-Nord. The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP) offers its condolences and solidarity to the Villaneuva family who are beginning a difficult journey that we hope will lead to the truth and real justice. We offer our solidarity as well to members of the community, and in particular to the families of the two injured youth, Denis Meas, and Jeffrey Sagor Metelus who is still in hospital.

The death of Freddy is part of a long history of repression, abuse and brutality by the Montreal police. What happened is unjustifiable. The police know that they committed an enormous error. They are trying to hide the facts, speaking of twenty youth, when eyewitnesses assert that there were five or six. The police say they were attacked when witnesses assert that they saw no direct confrontation between the police and the group of youth. Four bullets were shot at youth who were not armed and who were reacting to a scene of police brutality that was happening in front of their own eyes. We can't be surprised that people have no confidence in the police and revolt.

As per usual, the Montreal police (Service de police de la ville de Montréal, SPVM) and their union (Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal, FPPM), in complicity with the Quebec Provincial Police (Sureté de Québec, SQ), will do all they can in their power to clear the police officer that unjustly killed the youngest son of the Villanueva family. It's unacceptable that police investigate other police officers in such sensitive cases. Police organizations are in solidarity with each other, which is not difficult to prove. During a press conference organized by COBP in 1996, a former SQ investigator, Gaëtan Rivest, confirmed tampering an investigation to the benefit of Dominic Chartier (a Montreal police officer who killed Yvon Lafrance in 1989). He explained that such practices are common within the different police services in Quebec. So, it's not shocking that killer cops are systematically cleared by their colleagues.

The police officers involved in the Saturday evening incident have yet to be questioned, although 30 other witnesses have so far been questioned. This manner of proceeding clearly shows the lack of transparency and impartiality in the investigation led by the SQ. If we trust previous experience, we can expect that this investigation will end by clearing the accused officers. Previous history shows us some facts from which to draw some lessons. Of the 43 cases documented by COBP, 2 police officers have been charged (Alan Gosset who killed Anthony Griffin in 1987 and Giovanni Stante who killed Jean-Pierre Lizotte in 1999) and they were both acquitted. In addition to officers Gosset and Stante, three other officers have been charged after a police killing:

- Police officer Marcovic killed Paul McKinnon, 14, on October 25, 1990. He received 45 days in jail for dangerous driving causing death in 1995, because he didn't show remorse to the family of the victim. He appealed the decision.
- After the beating death of Richard Barnabé, 38, on December 14, 1993, charges were laid against five officers. One officer was acquitted but four others were found guilty of assault causing bodily harm on June 27, 1995: officers Pierre Bergeron, Louis Samson, André Lapointe and Michel Vadeboncoeur. They rejoined the Montreal police force. In 2006, the dismissals of Bergeron and Samson was confirmed in appeal by the Police Ethics Committee.
- After the death of Martin Suazo, 23, on May 31, 1995, police lieutenant Pablo Palacios was charged with obstruction of justice for hiding facts during a police investigation. But on September 14, 1995, the decision to not lay any charges against officer Michel Garneau, who shot and killed Suazo, was announced.

As for the so-called "transparence" of the SQ investigation, we can't count on that either. In the Mohamed Anas Bennis case, killed on December 1, 2005 by police officer Yannick Bernier, the investigation report has still not been made public more than two-and-a-half years later.

Sunday's riot was a clear expression of the dissatisfaction of an entire community. Youth and others are fed up being targeted by the police, and being constantly harassed for the colour of their skin, age, and clothes. The people who participated in the uprising on Sunday did not come from street gangs and were not criminals, as expressed by Yvan Delorme, chief of the SPVM. Rather, they were residents of the neighbourhood and the surrounding area and live daily police repression and discrimination. They sounded alarm bells that must be heard. The Mayor and the SPVM chief must assure that police abuses will stop. At the very least, they should suspend the police officers involved in the death of Freddy Villanueva. For his part, the Minister of Public Security, Jacques Dupuis, must change the law so that police no longer investigate other police officers. There must be a public and independent police inquiry into the events of last Saturday, without waiting more than two-and-a-half years like the Bennis family. Finally, the police involved must be charged criminally so that they answer publicly for their acts.

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!

The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP)
514-395-9691 * cobp@hotmail.com

Source: "From Anthony Griffin to Mohamed Anas Bennis: 40 people killed by the Montreal police in 20 years (1987-2006)", pamphlet by COBP available by request by e-mail.

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Katenies at the Superior Court in Cornwall, Ontario

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The following important news comes via No One Is Illegal Montreal:

[Included below are links and the text of some recent articles concerning Katenies and her refusal to recognize the jurisdiction of Canadian colonial courts and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). Katenies again refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the Superior Court in Cornwall, Ontario this past July 14, 2008. She is due to appear before a judge in the Superior Court of Ontario in Alexandria on October 21, 2008. It appears as if both Katenies and Kahentinetha will be charged criminally in relation to the CBSA attack on them on June 14, 2008. More updates to come.]

Mohawk Nation News: Stone Wall in Cornwall
Article linked HERE.

Cornwall Standard Freeholder: Protesters pack city courtroom
Article below and linked here: http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1114035

Ottawa Indymedia/The Dominion: Mohawk Grandmother challenges border jurisdiction (Video)
Video linked here: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/weblogs/lia_tarachansky/1931

Statement: Solidarity with Katenies! "Canada" has no jurisdiction over Mohawk land
Statement below and also linked here: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/07/solidarite-with-katenies.html; to endorse the statement, e-mail indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com

Background Info/Previous Articles & Audio:

http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/06/katenies-cbsa-background.html


INFO: indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com – 514-848-7583
-----------

Protesters pack city courtroom;
Cornwall Standard Freeholder

Protesters from Ottawa, Montreal and Hamilton packed a Cornwall courtroom Monday in support of Janet Davis, a New York State Iroquois woman who was arrested on June 14 at the Cornwall border crossing in relation to three Customs Act charges from 2003.

Davis, 43, who is also known by her Iroquois name of Katenies, is facing two additional charges of failing to appear in court after she allegedly passed through the border in 2003 without stopping for a Canada Customs agent.

She claims the Canadian judicial system has no jurisdiction over her as an indigenous woman, and even filed a motion in January 2007 to dismiss the charges on those grounds.

The motion was denied, but Davis renewed her objections yesterday by demanding that the court provide written proof of their authority to arrest her and charge her based on what she calls "colonial law."

"My people never gave up their rights or their land to anyone, it was taken from us, these laws were forced on us," said Davis outside the Cornwall courthouse.

"They have no jurisdiction here. I've asked them a question and they have refused to answer it. Where do they get this authority?"

Davis added that she signed her official objection to the court with her fingerprint instead of a written signature as a statement of her individuality as a native woman.

About 30 people packed the courtroom yesterday morning as Davis, who has refused representation, addressed Justice of the Peace Linda Leblanc along with Frank Horn, a Cornwall defence lawyer who says he was only there with Davis as a friend of the court.

"Katenies stands by the Two Row Wampum Treaty," said Horn, referring to an agreement signed between the Dutch and the Iroquois Nation of northern New York in 1613.

"Two cultures may live side by side, but they will never cross. She feels that these charges are a crossover between our two cultures, and that's not right."

Horn was also present in court to object to the treatment of his sister, Kahentinetha Horn, who was with Davis in June.

Horn said both Davis and Kahentinetha, who is 68 years old, were handcuffed and wrestled to the ground by border guards, treatment he said led his sister to suffer a heart attack and be rushed by ambulance to Cornwall Community Hospital.

"She hasn't been the same since this happened," he said. "She won't leave the house, and she's already been back in the hospital once since June. It's just terrible what our family has been going through."

Horn said tensions have been mounting over the past few months between border guards and those from the Akwesasne reserve, adding that many believe the guards are unfairly targeting aboriginals as an excuse to beef up security.

"The Harper government has this whole strategy to get tough at the borders, and they're using our people as the means to stir up Canadians and say: 'Look, we've got this issue at the border, so we've got to increase security,'" he said. "My people don't appreciate being used in that manner."

Horn said many aboriginals are getting sick of the treatment, and protests such as yesterday's will continue until the message is received.

Davis' case will go to trial in Alexandria court starting Oct. 21, 2008.

Original article here: http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1114035
-----

Solidarity with Katenies!
"Canada" has no jurisdiction over Mohawk land

On July 14, 2008, Mohawk grandmother and activist Katenies appeared before a judge in the Superior Court of Cornwall, Ontario. And again, Katenies refused to recognize the authority of the courts, and demanded that Canadian officials prove they have jurisdiction over her as an Indigenous woman. She has been ordered to appear in court again on October 21, 2008, in Alexandria, Ontario.

On June 14, 2008, Katenies -- accompanied by Kahentinetha of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory – was targeted for arrest by Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) guards on an outstanding warrant for allegedly "running the border" in 2003, and offenses resulting from her refusal to appear in court and validate the colonial justice system.

Katenies has maintained since 2003 that border officials and the Canadian colonial courts have no jurisdiction over Kanion'ke:haka people or land. In January 2007, Katenies served court officials with a Motion to Dismiss, demanding that they establish jurisdiction, if any, over Mohawks and their ability to travel freely between "Canada" and the "United States".

During the CBSA attack, Katenies and Kahentinetha – who are both writers and contributors to Mohawk Nation News (MNN) – were treated brutally by border guards. Both were handcuffed and tackled to the ground. Katenies was jailed for three days. Kahentinetha suffered a heart attack and had to be hospitalized for several days.

As mainly non-native groups and collectives based in settler communities on or near Mohawk lands, we are publicly standing in support of Katenies, and demand all charges against her by the colonial courts be dropped. We also condemn the brutal attacks by the CBSA on both Katenies and Kahentinetha on June 14, 2008 and declare our solidarity with Indigenous struggles for land, freedom and self-determination.

Endorsed by:
Agitate (Ottawa)
Les Apatrides Anonymes (Montreal)
Block the Empire-Montreal
Coalition Guerre à la guerre (Quebec City)
Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (Montreal)
Collectif pour l'Autonomie du Peuple Mapuche (Montreal)
Comité Solidarité Nouveau Equateur (Montreal)
Common Cause Ontario
CUPE Local 3906 (Hamilton)
DIRA Bibliothèque Anarchiste (Montreal)
Kingston Indigenous Solidarity Network
La Otra Campaña (Montreal)
NEFAC-Montreal
No One Is Illegal-Kingston
No One Is Illegal-Montreal
No One Is Illegal-Ottawa
No One Is Illegal-Toronto
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (Toronto)
OPIRG-Carleton
OPIRG/GRIPO-Ottawa
Ottawa Raging Grannies
People's Global Action Bloc (Ottawa)
Peterborough Coalition Against Poverty
Peterborough Coalition for Palestine Solidarity
Solidarity Across Borders (Montreal)
and others.

Reports about the CBSA attack, and background information, are linked at the following
website: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/06/katenies-cbsa-background.html

To endorse this statement, please e-mail indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com; Katenies' next scheduled court date is October 21, 2008 in Alexandria, Ontario.

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Man Being Starved by U.S. Prison

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The following from Philly's Human Rights Coalition/Fed Up! Chapter:

Distribute Far and Wide and Please Take Immediate Action

HRC/Fed Up! has received correspondence from five prisoners in the Special Management Unit (SMU--the most restrictive hole in Pennsylvania) in the last week to report that prison guards and the Unit Manager are starving an inmate as a means of retaliation. We have also been contacted by the inmate's family.

Gary Tucker #FG8520 has been denied breakfast and lunch since 6/19/08, and not been fed at all since 6/26/08. Mr. Tucker was brutally assaulted by 5 or 6 prison guards on 1/29/08, and his efforts at pursuing a grievance in the matter were officially exhausted on 6/18/08.

Unit Manager Chambers, Correctional Officer Bankes, and Sgt. Jones have been implicated as the ringleaders of this targeted starvation. The official rationale given for depriving Mr. Tucker of his human rights--and potentially his life--is that he has been wearing a t-shirt wrapped around his head. Mr. Tucker claims to have been doing this since 2006, and other prisoners in the SMU have written to HRC that they too have wrapped t-shirts around their heads to test the policy. They still receive food.

Given the urgency of the situation we are asking that our allies and all those in solidarity with prisoners and advocates of fundamental human rights call SCI Camp HIll immediateley. Our brothers in the SMU have taken considerable risk to coordinate a letter-writing campaign on behalf of their fellow prisoner. Now it is up to us to do our part and demonstrate that their trust was well placed.

Contact SCI Camp Hill (717-737-4531) and ask for the Superintendent's Office, or ask to speak with Robert Volcheck or Unit Manager Chambers. I spoke with Volcheck last week and he claimed that prison guards feared that Mr. Tucker had concealed bodily waste within the towel wrapped around his head and was potentially planning to rush the door and jam his arm out the tiny tray slot and throw it at them. . . . Honestly, it was the most preposterous and downright stupid things I have ever heard.

When we call we should demand the following:

1-Stop Starving Gary Tucker! Give Mr. Tucker all his meals, everyday.
2-Remove Sgt. Jones and C/O Bankes from having contact with Mr. Tucker. These two were involved in the January assault, and while they need to have their employment terminated, for now let's insist that they be removed from proximity to Mr. Tucker.

Any additional questions, suggestions, or approaches are welcomed. Thanks to those who called for Michael Edwards and sent us feedback. We encourage others to send word and let us know that you called.

Solidarity,

Bret
HRC/Fed Up! Family

--
Human Rights Coalition - FedUp! Chapter
5125 Penn Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15224
412-361-3022 xt.4 hrcfedup@gmail.com
www.thomasmertoncenter.org/fedup/

An alert from the Friends and Families of Prisoners Emergency Response Network

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Iraqi Uranium Comes thru Montreal

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The following just out on CBC:

Uranium shipped to Montreal from Iraq in top secret mission
Last Updated: Saturday, July 5, 2008 | 7:27 PM ET Comments84Recommend54
The Associated Press

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program, a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium, reached Montreal on Saturday to complete a top-secret U.S. operation.

The removal of 550 metric tonnes of "yellowcake," the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment, included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a voyage across two oceans.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars."

A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.

"We are pleased … that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," Krahn said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 9,300-hectare yellowcake site since its discovery.

The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives — kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way.

It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf.

Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and be within easy range of extremists.

The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.

Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
Deal reached earlier this year

The yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about half that.

The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.

At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers, some leaking or weakened by corrosion, and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.

In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport.

Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried on 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.

On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" — a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material — it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.

Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

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