Protest the G20, wind up in a gulag

[Steez]

The bullshit about the arrest being ordered by the Bilderberg group destroyed all the credibility the writer had with me. Alex Jones (the man your article claims to be arrested for 15 hours) is a talk radio host and filmmaker not a professional journalist. He was detained for 4 hours not 15! Link: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=f67cbe75-4eed-4daf-877e-189e52d1f33c&k=12919 (emphasis added):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6690392308244586173#
First 4-5 mins.

 

[island-guy]

They were questioning him if he was there to cover the Bilderberg meeting.......for 15 hours. Not 4.............

In THEIR OWN VIDEO they clearly state that they got in at midnight and then there they are in the hotel at "4:07 AM"

That adds up to FOUR HOURS not 15 hours.

Pretty simple math, actually.

I loved the part where he says "They did all manner of terrible things to us". Uh... really? Did you get sodomized? I don't see any bruises or lacerations on you. Did they waterboard you? Did you get tazered?

What exactly was "all manner" of things? Asking you questions maybe? oooo scary. What a "Police state".

 

[myselftheother]

In THEIR OWN VIDEO they clearly state that they got in at midnight and then there they are in the hotel at "4:07 AM"

That adds up to FOUR HOURS not 15 hours.

Pretty simple math, actually.

I loved the part where he says "They did all manner of terrible things to us". Uh... really? Did you get sodomized? I don't see any bruises or lacerations on you. Did they waterboard you? Did you get tazered?

What exactly was "all manner" of things? Asking you questions maybe? oooo scary. What a "Police state".

Exactly! "All manner of things" includes all the above and then some. Alex Jones is nothing more than another propaganist fear monger who also twists and spins facts to make money and further his and his backer's cause....this kind of bullshit further divides and marginalize the real issues that we all ought to be focused on, aware of, etc.

Blowing issues out of wack is not news. It's propaganda. It's not factual, it's clouded opinions....not the truth....that is what keeps people from really uniting against abject poverty, keeping the masses from truly being educated about how to filter the bullshit. Blue pill, please.

 

[davidmw]

This video shows one incident where the police actions seem unjustified and used excessive violence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaYbq484abs
Hot-Linked Video on Youtube

Norseman

 

[HubbaHubba]

They were questioning him if he was there to cover the Bilderberg meeting.......for 15 hours. Not 4.............

you really are a sheep follower....give it a rest.

 

[island-guy]

This video shows one incident where the police actions seem unjustified and used excessive violence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaYbq484abs
Hot-Linked Video on Youtube

Norseman

The police were mostly just keeping the street clear.

 

[Miss*Bijou]

The police were mostly just keeping the street clear.

Yes, of course that's what they were doing. They were clearly on the GRASS, riding their bikes into people sitting/standing peacefully on the GRASS.....all so they could clear the STREET.

You've got to be kidding.

I completely disagree. The protesters were not doing anything wrong, they were not violent, they were not doing anything illegal so there is not reason or justification for the police to escalate with violence. I'm very sorry some of you don't see anything wrong with this.

Actually, I find it pretty sad that you can feel that it's acceptable. Any more of our rights and freedoms that you don't think are all that important and that you want to get rid of?

 

[HubbaHubba]

Yes, of course that's what they were doing. They were clearly on the GRASS, riding their bikes into people sitting/standing peacefully on the GRASS.....all so they could clear the STREET.

You've got to be kidding.

I completely disagree. The protesters were not doing anything wrong, they were not violent, they were not doing anything illegal so there is not reason or justification for the police to escalate with violence. I'm very sorry some of you don't see anything wrong with this.

Actually, I find it pretty sad that you can feel that it's acceptable. Any more of our rights and freedoms that you don't think are all that important and that you want to get rid of?

Pahlease.........

 

[Steez]

In THEIR OWN VIDEO they clearly state that they got in at midnight and then there they are in the hotel at "4:07 AM"

That adds up to FOUR HOURS not 15 hours.

Pretty simple math, actually.

I loved the part where he says "They did all manner of terrible things to us". Uh... really? Did you get sodomized? I don't see any bruises or lacerations on you. Did they waterboard you? Did you get tazered?

What exactly was "all manner" of things? Asking you questions maybe? oooo scary. What a "Police state".

Paul Joseph Watson



Alex Jones and his team were detained by Canadian immigration on orders of the Bilderberg Group for a 15 hour nightmare of interrogation, accusations and threats of arrests in anticipation of the conference in Ottawa which starts today.

The group was detained at 11:45pm last night and only released after 2pm today.

Customs openly told Alex as soon as they brought him into custody that the Bilderberg Group was aware of his arrival and that this was the reason for his detainment. All three members of the team were instantly detained despite going through different immigration desks.

Officials knew everything about Alex, even the fact that George W. Bush had once had him arrested in 1998.

"I was screamed at, I was cussed at, I was interrogated," said Alex.

Jail threats were issued as officials seized and searched through Alex's equipment for 15 hours. He was told that if any trace of pornography was found on his three computers that he would be arrested.


"They were talking about how I was a criminal - they hooked our laptop computers up and said that if they found any porn, even mainstream porn, that it's illegal to take it across lines and that we'd be going to jail," said Alex, thanking God that no trace of any porn was found on his office computers.

Searches continued throughout the night and again in the morning.

Immigrations officials seemed to take a gleeful satisfaction in detaining the team, claiming they were liars and not part of the media despite one admitting to having seen an Alex Jones documentary. Accusations of drugs and weapons smuggling were thrown around without recourse.

"You Americans shit all over us Canadians think you can do anything you want to us," said one immigration official who was acting more like a drill sergeant.

Towards the end of the ordeal national media, including the Ottawa Citizen and CBC, got wind of what was unfolding and sent journalists to the airport to talk to Alex.

A CBC journalist vouched for the fact that Alex was in the media and that she was planning on interviewing him, after also being subjected to a barrage of questions by officials.

At this point immigration officials sharply changed their attitude, reversed a likely decision to deport the team and by the end were apologetic and conciliatory about the entire issue.


Alex would like to make it clear that the immigration officials on the whole were just doing what they were told in trying to prove who Alex was and they should not be the focus of any vitriol. Alex himself admits that his behavior was not perfect and he smarted off a couple of times when he should have remained quiet. The major element of this story is that the pressure was brought to bear by Bilderberg.

The point to emphasize again is that it was brazenly stated that the Bilderberg Group were behind the decision to detain Alex and his team. Bilderberg have acquired a notorious reputation of harassing journalists, including Jim Tucker and Daniel Estulin, who are simply trying to report on a meeting of the world's most influential powerbrokers.

The immigrations officials said that their reason for detaining Alex was because they feared he was in the country to infiltrate the Bilderberg meeting.

Since being allowed to enter the country the team have been watched and tracked by several nefarious individuals and also followed by car.

The team booked a decoy hotel in order fool Bilderberg security as to their real location. The decoy hotel has been receiving numerous calls from individuals within Bilderberg's Brooke Street hotel - despite the fact that Alex told no one he was staying there.

Further reports on this incident and developments from the Bilderberg conference itself will feature here over the next few days.
http://www.illuminati-news.com/060906a.htm

15 hours....

 

[island-guy]

Yes, of course that's what they were doing. They were clearly on the GRASS, riding their bikes into people sitting/standing peacefully on the GRASS.....all so they could clear the STREET.

You've got to be kidding.

I completely disagree. The protesters were not doing anything wrong, they were not violent, they were not doing anything illegal so there is not reason or justification for the police to escalate with violence. I'm very sorry some of you don't see anything wrong with this.

Actually, I find it pretty sad that you can feel that it's acceptable. Any more of our rights and freedoms that you don't think are all that important and that you want to get rid of?

They were on the MEDIAN in the MIDDLE OF THE STREET.

Like it or not, when you have motorcades with world leaders driving by, and people are throwing bricks through windows and setting police cars on fire, they don't want to have any "protesters" within a brick-throw of some President/Prime Minister's car.

If you can't actually understand that, well, you're not as smart as I thought you were.

 

[island-guy]

Paul Joseph Watson



Alex Jones and his team were detained by Canadian immigration on orders of the Bilderberg Group for a 15 hour nightmare of interrogation, accusations and threats of arrests in anticipation of the conference in Ottawa which starts today.

The group was detained at 11:45pm last night and only released after 2pm today.

And yet THEIR OWN VIDEO shows that they were NOT in custody and in a HOTEL ROOM at 4:07 AM.

So, when they start off with a pure made up lie, how much truth do you think that there is in the rest of their story?

Are you REALLY that stupid that you can't see the blatent lies?

 

[Miss*Bijou]

Pahlease.........

No problem.

You're welcome.

AMY GOODMAN: We broadcast right here in Toronto on CIUT. We’re going to be having a fundraiser Saturday night at 7:00 at the Trinity St. Paul’s United Church at Bloor and Spadina. That’s at 7:00 I’ll be speaking, very much looking forward to speaking with listeners of community radio in Canada. Well, I’m Amy Goodman.

The Toronto Star reported today that the province of Ontario has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation allowing police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search. At least one person has already been arrested under the new regulation, which expires after the G20 summit ends.

Well, Stefan Christoff is a Montreal-based activist who recently went public with news that he’s come under harassment from the Canadian intelligence agency, the CSIS, over the past year. Several of Stefan’s friends and colleagues have been visited by the CSIS agents seeking information on his whereabouts. Stefan joins us now.

Stefan, thanks for being with us.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: It’s my pleasure.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you come with anyone else today?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: I hope not.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, why don’t you talk about what you’ve been going through?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Well CSIS, the intelligence service here in Canada, has been given a bloated budget, and—

AMY GOODMAN: What does CSIS stand for, C-S-I-S?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. And it’s an agency that basically surveils citizens. And over the last months, myself and other activists across the country have been in a situation where CSIS agents have been showing up at our homes, asking questions, early morning hours, late at night, and basically cultivating this culture of fear around the G8 and G20 summits. Those who are voicing dissent against government policies or critiquing the G8 and G20 process are facing this chill effect. And the fact that those who are participating and organizing street protests like we’ll see in Toronto in the next couple days are under this type of pressure really speaks to the larger security crackdown that we’ve been seeing here in Toronto.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, the Toronto Star, in this report, of this regulation that was enacted on June 2nd and will expire on June 28th, that most people had never heard about.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: And there’s a picture on the front page of the Toronto Star, Dave Vasey standing outside the Eastern Avenue detention center, where he was arrested under a law allowing police to pick up people refusing to identify themselves. The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an extraordinary request by the Toronto police chief, Bill Blair, who wanted additional police powers, shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Well, in a sense, I think that the fact that the police can search, detain, question and hold anybody, any citizen, in Canada, in downtown Toronto, at this time around the summit, it speaks to this reality of a security culture that’s been cultivated here in Canada by the Conservative government, one of the most right-wing governments in recent Canadian history. And this new legislation, I think, speaks to the reality where also we’ve seen a three-layer massive security fence around downtown, constructed by a corporation, SNC-Lavalin from Montreal.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain the corporation. Again, say the name.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: It’s SNC-Lavalin, and it’s based in Montreal, a corporation. It’s an engineering giant. They actually produced millions of bullets between 2003 and 2005 for the US Army at the same time of the invasion of Iraq. So this is a corporation that’s inherently tied to the military-industrial complex internationally and also has been tied to the clampdown on dissent here in Toronto. It’s really incredible when you see the fence and also just see the almost 20,000 police and law enforcement officials that are patrolling the city.

AMY GOODMAN: Six police vans have actually just pulled into the lot where we are broadcasting from. We’re just next to the water. We’re overlooking the city of Toronto. This police fence, this security wall—

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —has shocked a lot of people around the core of Toronto. In fact, most people were given the day off yesterday and today. Thousands of people are staying home. They’re just told to stay away.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk more about this core security wall and what it has meant.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Well, it’s meant that downtown Toronto has become a fortress, literally. We could just hear now aircrafts that are hovering around the downtown core. Dissent has been erased. So, when we hear all these speeches and languages coming out of the G8 and G20 about transparency, globalization, sharing of ideas, the reality on the ground is that these meetings are happening in a militarized fortress. And the fence itself was constructed by a company that has been directly involved in contracts that are linked to the NATO-led military occupation of Afghanistan. They’re building all sorts of public work projects in cooperation with the Canadian military and the US military—this is SNC-Lavalin, based in Montreal—and also, as I mentioned, the contract with the US Army just after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. So the security fence, I mean, speaks to the whole reality today, I think, of walls around the world. We’re talking about walls going up—the US-Mexico border wall, the wall—the apartheid wall in Palestine. And at the same time, the leaders at the G8 and G20 are talking about walls coming down and free trade. But for people, walls are just going up, even in the largest city of Canada.

AMY GOODMAN: How has the surveillance of you, Stefan Christoff, affected your activism?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Well, let’s say that, in Montreal, we do a lot of work with artists, and the fact that government agents were questioning artists about my political views and my political organizing and my work in the media, I think, is really something that should be denounced. It’s something that I’ve gone over thoroughly with my lawyer in Montreal, and we’ve documented all these cases. It does present a sense of fear, unfortunately. And I think that the fact that this is happening and that CSIS agents are questioning artists who are socially engaged in the lead-up to the summit, people that, you know, are committed to social justice, hip-hop artists who are vibrant members of the community, agents showing up early in the morning, late at night at people’s homes speaks to the fact that the Conservative government in Canada is trying to normalize this clampdown and this culture of fear that is really rooted in the post-9/11 ideology.

AMY GOODMAN: The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, this is extremely significant for him, this meeting. He’ll be front and center for this period of days. They’re hoping for a seat on the UN Security Council.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: And he’s invited Uribe from Colombia. Canada and Colombia have just signed a free trade accord, despite the systemic human rights abuses against labor leaders and human rights activists in Colombia. So, he’s front and center, but he’s also welcoming those who are abusing human rights.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you carry a cell phone with you?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Not right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Well, I believe that it’s best to try to be secure about communications. And unfortunately, people like myself who are publicly protesting are under surveillance. And I feel it’s important to speak about it, because it’s a larger reality, especially within First Nations communities, within Arab and Muslim communities. After 9/11, the whole clampdown on Arabs and Muslims in Canada, like in the United States, with special registration, was an attack on basic human rights. And that continues. And the fact that now it’s moved toward social justice activists, I think they’re testing the waters.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, speaking of the waters, they are lapping up, certainly, against us right here on this dock. I want to thank you for being with us, Stefan Christoff.

STEFAN CHRISTOFF: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: You can go to our website. We’ll link to the piece he just wrote at rabble.ca.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/25/stefan_christoff

 

[Steez]

Totally Island Guy....we forget that these are the leaders of the 20 most powerful nations on earth. They are targets..not by rock throwing protesters but by rouge nations and splinter factions that could WIPE Toronto off the map. So you can't cut people slack.

What I don't get is why the fuck would you even bother going down there? I guess some people are just stupid. When I see cops throwing tear gas and cars on fire, I haul my fucking ass out of there pronto. It's called "avoiding a confrontation". If I need to make my point I'll write a letter.

And how much of a police state are you willing to take? How bad does it have to get before you start complaining. Cops in full armor hitting women? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3nCoNvldk you actually justify that?
And the anarchists doing the damage were dressed in black, these people here aren't. they just arrest whoever they want, detain them in a cage for a day or 2 and give you some bogus charge. Its there fucking city and they should be able to go where they want withouth police demanding ID.

Give me liberty or give me death mean anything to you?

 

[island-guy]

....

The group was detained at 11:45pm last night and only released after 2pm today.

.....

Officials knew everything about Alex, even the fact that George W. Bush had once had him arrested in 1998.

....

"They were talking about how I was a criminal - they hooked our laptop computers up and said that if they found any porn, even mainstream porn, that it's illegal to take it across lines and that we'd be going to jail," said Alex, thanking God that no trace of any porn was found on his office computers.

...


Immigrations officials seemed to take a gleeful satisfaction in detaining the team, claiming they were liars and not part of the media despite one admitting to having seen an Alex Jones documentary.

....

Alex himself admits that his behavior was not perfect and he smarted off a couple of times when he should have remained quiet. The major element of this story is that the pressure was brought to bear by Bilderberg.

So, let's see. Picking out the information that is right there in THEIR OWN STORY, as well as what can clearly be seen IN THEIR OWN VIDEO

1) He lied when they asked him "Have you ever been arrested"

2) He mouthed off to the CBSA agents

3) He lied about being detained until 2pm when he clearly was NOT in custody at 4:07 am, by his own evidence.

Try lying to the CBSA sometime and then mouthing off to them and see what happens.

This guy is delusional, big time.

 

[Steez]

And yet THEIR OWN VIDEO shows that they were NOT in custody and in a HOTEL ROOM at 4:07 AM.

So, when they start off with a pure made up lie, how much truth do you think that there is in the rest of their story?

Are you REALLY that stupid that you can't see the blatent lies?

LISTEN TO THE VIDEO, THEY WER LET OUT for the night, report back in the morning for there hearing. Still in custody and the interogation. 15 hours TOTAL. Tell me to listen?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moX9BH5dtCo

 

[Steez]

So, let's see. Picking out the information that is right there in THEIR OWN STORY, as well as what can clearly be seen IN THEIR OWN VIDEO

1) He lied when they asked him "Have you ever been arrested"

2) He mouthed off to the CBSA agents

3) He lied about being detained until 2pm when he clearly was NOT in custody at 4:07 am, by his own evidence.

Try lying to the CBSA sometime and then mouthing off to them and see what happens.

This guy is delusional, big time.

He was arrested for asking about the federal reserve....... You dont expose the puppet 2 years before hes put in as president.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpiDqjW-TxY

 

[island-guy]

Once again, when someone begins their interview/story with a blatent lie, then you can expect it to all go downhill from there.

CSIS does NOT do surveillance on citizens of Canada.

They are specifically tasked with dealing with people who are NOT citizens of Canada, ONLY.

The RCMP has their own task forces for dealing with citizens of Canada within Canada.

What CSIS has been doing, is keeping track of the FOREIGN trouble-makers who came to Canada specifically to cause trouble for the G20 conference.

So, you can put on your tinfoil hat and believe Mr Protester if you want, but he's either lying or totally clueless about what he's talking about.

 

[island-guy]

LISTEN TO THE VIDEO, THEY WER LET OUT for the night, report back in the morning for there hearing. Still in custody and the interogation. 15 hours TOTAL. Tell me to listen?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moX9BH5dtCo

Pretty bizarre definition of "in custody and held and interrogated for 15 hours", don't you think?

 

[Miss*Bijou]

Two activists speak out about G8/G20 CSIS intimidation: Stefan Christoff's story
By Stefan Christoff
| June 4, 2010


Two Montreal activists, Freda Guttman and Stefan Christoff, say they and their friends have been targetted by CSIS in the run up to the Huntsville G8 and Toronto G20 summits. Both write exclusively for rabble.ca on what they are experiencing.

Stefan Christoff's story is below. Read Freda Guttman's by clicking here.

Over recent months, phone calls to me from friends across Montreal have been filled with a distressing tone, a request to meet me in person over coffee, and vague references to unwelcomed visits by Canadian government intelligence officials.

When we meet, they have told me a story that involves members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) arriving at their apartments unannounced, often in the early morning hours, demanding sit-down interviews.

And, shockingly, CSIS representatives have wanted to speak to my friends about me. This has now happened five times this spring. The questions were forced on artists and activists from different social networks, including people who have been close to me over a decade.

In each case, they have proceeded to unravel a wild series of wide-ranging questions on my involvement in political activism in Canada, my views on anarchism, and my experiences during international solidarity missions in the global south.

In one example, individuals from CSIS showed up at the door of celebrated spoken-word poet Ian Ferrier, who is based on the Plateau in Montreal, in May. They proceeded to question my long-time friend about my work. Insidious in the questioning, the CSIS representatives indicated that they were cognisant of our decade-old friendship and were concerned about my organizing activities.
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Questions ranged from my work in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation to probing questions on the nature of our relationship, questions that were similar to activist stories chronicling the McCarthy era in the U.S.

CSIS also questioned friends involved in collective organizing to support of the Palestinian struggle against occupation and towards the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign that has seen many successes in Quebec and globally in the past year.

In my mind, it is without a doubt that the CSIS questions were drawn in parallel to the broader crackdown in Canada on Palestinian solidarity organizing administered by the Conservative government.

And in one instance, CSIS officials questioned a friend on my participation in a protest in Montreal to express solidarity with indigenous struggles in B.C. in the lead-up to the winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Disturbingly, on multiple occasions CSIS officials insinuated to my friends that my political organizing work, that stands with a strong public record in Montreal and is easily searchable on-line, is contrary to the values of Canada. CSIS also told my friends that I had been violent in the past, without presenting any evidence, accusations that amount to public malicious slander.

It is critical for me at this point to state that my activism throughout the past decade in Montreal has been entirely public in nature, popular grassroots organizing connected to local community-based struggles for social justice in Montreal, and solidarity work with struggles for liberation in countries around the world from the Philippines to Palestine.

My work has focused particularly on creating synergies between the arts and activism, building ties between key artists from the internationally celebrated cultural scene in Montreal and on-the-ground struggles for justice. Cultural based work that is publicly chronicled in Cultural Crossroads, my regular interview series for the Hour weekly newspaper in Montreal featuring celebrated artists from the city such as the late Lhasa de Sela.

Projects I have been involved with have included the Artists Against Apartheid campaign that has united hundreds of artists to support the Palestinian struggle for liberation and the global campaign against Israeli apartheid, to major cultural events in the lead-up to the historical protests to oppose closed-door meetings towards the now defeated Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in Quebec City in 2001.

Beyond the arts, my work has focused on many local struggles, direct involvement in supporting struggles for immigrant justice in Montreal against the deportation and detention of migrants by the Canadian government. Specifically, my energies have centred on supporting community-based initiatives like the Comité d'action des sans-statuts algériens (CASS) which led a fight against the deportation of over 1,000 Algerian refugees at the hands of Immigration Canada between 2002 and today.

It was largely successful after many street protests within a mediatised campaign that galvanized a wide selection of social justice advocates from unions to ecumenical justice groups, as some Algerians, like Mohamed Cherfi, took sanctuary in Quebec churches within the broader struggle for their right to remain in Canada.

In the past year, my energies have also been directed towards Project Fly Home in Montreal a campaign to support the struggle of Sudanese-Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik, the Sudanese-Canadian who was tortured and exiled in Sudan due to the actions of CSIS.

Abdelrazik's story is an inspiring struggle that eventually forced the Conservative government to respect his right of return to Canada and is still ongoing as he remains on the UN Security Council's "1267 list." The sanctions against him include a travel ban and assets freeze. Although Abdelrazik has been publicly exonerated the Canadian government continues to unjustly condemn him to a life without the basic rights afforded to all citizens.

Today, these written words intend to assist in breaking the silence on CSIS intimidation against activists in Canada, to convey a directly personal account on CSIS harassment that will hopefully encourage others to speak out. I urge progressive networks from coast-to-coast to collectively refuse to speak with CSIS on all accounts and in all circumstances. My words also are written in the reality that many in Canada are intimidated by CSIS, fearful to speak out due to lack of citizenship or other legal reasons; my words aim to contribute to building our collective solidarity in opposition to CSIS harassment.

I aim to contribute to efforts to break open the debate on CSIS practices in Canada, to affirm our collective right to struggle and to challenge the Conservative governments political repression against social justice activists in the lead-up to the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario.

It is certain that my values are a world apart from the Conservative government in Ottawa, which publicly justifies the killing of civilians by the Israeli army in Lebanon and Palestine or enforces immigration legislation that enforces deportation of migrants from Canada who have been killed upon returning to their home country.

It must be affirmed in this context that my publicly stated differences of opinion with a Conservative government in Ottawa, on the extreme right of the global political spectrum, provides zero justification for CSIS to track and intimidate me or my friends.

Certainly, my activism in Montreal will continue, as does my believe in grassroots social justice organizing, and my vocal support for struggles for liberation from oppression globally, including the right to armed self defence as enshrined in international law.

In the past decade it has been both an inspiration and privilege to contribute to the growing global movement for liberation from the race-to-the-bottom economics of neo-liberal capitalism, a movement that has seen stunning successes recently throughout Latin America. It is a movement that has confronted through the protests of hundreds-of-thousands, summits of unaccountable global bodies like the G8 that enforce a political and economic agenda of global apartheid, the same G8 that activists from across Canada will protest on the streets this month in Toronto.

It is inspiring to join a part of a diverse global movement that struggles globally across borders, a movement that fights for justice horizontally beyond nations, not first for political power or government office but for a different world rooted in revolutionary ideas of collective liberation.

Today in Canada, this grassroots global movement is facing repression and surveillance on the part of the Conservative government. My own story is one piece of a much broader story of intimidation and harassment on the part of CSIS that has hiked in intensity over the past year towards activist networks. In response to CSIS our best response is total non-cooperation and collective solidarity, see you on the streets in Toronto this June.

In the lead-up to the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario and the protest movement against the Olympics this winter in Vancouver, activists have faced intense repression not only on the streets on the part of the police but also from CSIS via unwelcome visits that intend to intimidate and create a political climate of fear within activist networks.

Stefan Christoff is a Montreal-based journalist, community organizer and musician who contributes regularly to rabble.ca and is on Twitter.

For what to do if CSIS comes knocking check out this People's Commission advisory by clicking here.

There's no need for the condescending reply, Hubba.

If you are complacent about what goes on around you, that's fine. Whether or not we agree with the (non-violent) protesters is completely irrelevant, the fact is that these protesters just like any other (non-violent) activists have every right to speak out. Their basic rights do not get taken away simply because they demonstrate their dissent.


Your apathy about their cause is not the issue, your apathy for their treatment is. Dissent and protest aren't the problem, apathy and complacency are. Honestly, I find it quite ironic that you would call steez a sheep follower. That is exactly what you're doing.


This isn't a one-of or unique, there are tons of accounts of this intimidation and harassment. Not from violent activists. Being an activist is all it takes. You think that's right? If so, then you are agreeing to giving up your basic rights too. Period.

 

[Steez]

Pretty bizarre definition of "in custody and held and interrogated for 15 hours", don't you think?

He was in custody, being interrogated for 15 hours total. Is that really hard to understand?