>Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 11:17:22 -0500 (EST)
>To: "'[EMAIL PROTECTED]'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: John Hollingsworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
I was there yesterday. One of the first things is that there has
been a lot of inaccurate coverage of events. 11 persons were
arrested, one for assault and ten for obstruction. The CP wire
reporter claimed that these were people who roughed up Joe Clark, who
for unfathomable reasons chose to wander, with full media entourage
in tow, right into the middle of the crowd that had moved to block
Wellington street. Then, the media almost caused a real problem when
J.C. beat a hasty retreat back to the Parliament, moving this way and
that quite recklessly while plenty of older people stood in their
path, many with banners. The arrests were all at the point of the
first police line on Parliament Hill, which blocked access to the
front doors on the west side of the circular drive, in face of a very
militant and pissed-off crowd that was not prepared to take no for an
answer. While I generally don't call cops 'pigs' (it's generally
trite rhetoric to me), many of these most definitely were. Spit was
flying, landing on us protestors as much as on the pigs, and many fur-
trimmed caps were tossed about. Like a friend said, you can call the
police names until you're blue in the face, but take the piss out of
their uniforms and they often risk losing it.
There were 300-400 protestors, from Toronto, Tyendinaga, Kingston,
Montreal, and Ottawa. It was the first time in a long while that I
found myself asking (for a point) not how close we'll get, but how
far we'll get. Despite the presence of around 100 cops (50 with full
riot gear), the front of the line without a moment's pause marched
right up to their faces and began pushing them back for a bit before
an uncomfortable stand-off occured, with sporadic outbursts. We
stayed for several hours at the police line, hurling insults and
demanding a meeting with Chretien, but after a 'delegation' was sent
in (only to be blocked by a security guard at the PMO from meeting
with anyone) the ranks of the crowd began to thin. Soon after (and
at this point I wasn't there), I heard that the police moved in to
disperse the remaining crowd.
Buses for Toronto left, while some four people from Toronto were left
behind in the RCMP lock-up (plus two organizers who stayed behind).
I went with Dave Bleakney of CUPW to the RCMP lock-up to find out who
had been arrested, what their physical condition was, and to make
sure that someone was there for when they got out. With the two of
us there, they said it would take many hours to 'process' the persons
held in the MacArthur St. lock-up. Roberto from Montreal, who was
charged with assault for breaking a cop's nose, was released fairly
quickly from the Elgin St. cop shop when a busload of protestors
showed up to secure his safe release. He looked at little roughed
up, but otherwise was thankfully alright. The bus from Tyendinaga
went down to MacArthur St. and the processing also, for some reason,
speeded up there. Apparently, one person from Montreal was detained
overnight.
While this was by no means a very smooth operation, of one thing I
remained convinced a day later. We will take back our housing
entitlement and to fight harder and smarter. Next time, the feds
won't get off so easily. Solidarity and Congratulations to everyone
from Mohawk Nation, OCAP, and le Comite des Sans-Emplois.
John
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
