Canadian activists attacked, arrested while handing out literature
Attempt to intimidate social justice organizers
by Andy Freeman - Liberation
On Aug. 31, at Metrotown Skytrain Station near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, transit police officers and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assaulted, handcuffed and removed three activists who were peacefully handing out the Fire This Time newspaper. This is despite the fact that posted rules clearly state that "printed material for non-commercial purposes will be permitted on transit properties, other than transit vehicles or fare-paid zones," provided distribution does not impede transit traffic or operations.
Thomas Davies, Shakeel Lochan and Mike Larson, who are activists with the Canadian-based social-justice organization Fire This Time, were giving away the FTT newspaper without incident at the Metrotown Skytrain Station. After about an hour, two transit police officers arrived and began telling them that they needed to stop distributing and leave the station. The activists quoted the posted rules and refused to leave. The police insisted that it did not matter what the posted rules were since there were other rules that were not posted. Instead of stating what these other rules were, the police handcuffed the activists, tackling one, Davies, to the ground and applying pressure point controls.Ten police officers were involved in removing the three activists from the station. The three were driven in separate police vehicles to the Burnaby Community Police Station and released without any charges being filed. In addition to confiscating 150 newspapers, the video footage of the incident on Lochan's phone was deleted. All three activists went to the emergency room for medical treatment after the assault. In spite of police efforts to suppress the video record, links to videos of the attack can be found at http://stopassaultonpoliticalactivists.wordpress.com/ .
The Aug. 31 attack was not an isolated incident. In the preceding four months, activists have been repeatedly harassed but were allowed to continue distributing their newspapers when they pointed out that the transit rules allowed them to distribute the papers at no cost.
It appears the transit authorities are trying to intimidate FTT activists in order to stop them from organizing and distributing social justice-oriented literature at the transit stations. All progressive people should support FTT's right to distribute their newspapers in their struggle for social justice. Down with police harassment! Down with police brutality! Support the right to distribute literature in all public locations!
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