A CALL TO SOLIDARITY WITH CITIZENS OF QUEBEC CITY AND ST.-FOY: WEARING THE SCARF April 2 Importance: High Stand up to creeping police state tactics in Canada! A Simple Plan for Solidarity and Action to: * Support the Citizens of St.-Foy and Quebec City and * To signal to the Federal Government which is coordinating the "New Iron Curtain" and police state measures in Quebec City to protect the corporate driven Summit of the Americas Meeting on the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Greetings All! What is the situation? By now you have heard that the City Councils of Saint-Foy and Quebec City have passed bylaws prohibiting the wearing of scarves to cover a part or a whole of the face, not only during the demonstrations planned in Quebec City for the Summit of the Americas to promote the Free Trade Area of the Americas, BUT ALSO IN THE WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE EVENT! People are subject to fines and/or a jail sentence. The intent is to: * Make it easy for the security forces to spray tear gas directly into the face, mouth, and nose. * Make it easy for the security forces to photograph people who attend in Quebec City so that they can be entered into the security files of the rapidly expanding security system supposedly focused on "terrorism." * Build a climate of fear and inhibition in citizens to stop people from expressing their constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and petition the government. Several weeks ago, several students were arrested and taken to jail, temporarily, in Quebec City for distributing pamphlets on a public sidewalk without a permit! We all also know that during the Summit of the Americas, the 'authorities' are closing off a 3 square kilometer area of the inner old city of Quebec with 2 to 3 meter high chain link fences set in concrete highway dividers. This is to keep the heads of state and the 'corporate' contingent safe from the assembly and petition of citizens. All those living inside the "New Iron Curtain" must have police passes to come and go to their own homes or businesses! The erosion of civil liberties piling up in Quebec City is driven by the Federal Government, the same Federal Government which signaled to the RCMP to pepper spray students in British Columbia several years ago to prevent 'embarrassment' to the criminal and genocidal leader of Indonesia, President Sukharno, now 'retired.' Do we stand for democracy and constitutional rights or for the creep-in of corporate driven, neoliberal authoritarianism which now has too many governments in a puppet posture? * What is the action? The Ottawa Chapter of the Council of Canadians formed an action group Wednesday night to develop a democratic, nonviolent, and overwhelming response to this erosion of democracy. The concept of the action is based on one of the most successful civil, nonviolent direct actions in modern history. In Denmark, during the Nazi occupation, the order was sent to round up Jews on a given date for 'transport.' They were ordered to wear a yellow star of David. The whole Danish people in Copenhagen and elswhere, including the King, donned yellow stars and appeared in public, thus stopping the Nazi action. The Nazis dared not deport a whole nation! We can do something similar. The Action is "A Scarf Wearing Call-out" on April 2: The call is for those who can to hold vigils and marches before Federal Government buildings ACROSS CANADA starting early in the morning on April 2 and continue all day. WEAR A SCARF AROUND THE FACE! Mount placards and pamphlets of your own making! Call the media! Call your municipal, provincial, and federal representatives and protest the erosion of democracy. Stand in solidarity with the citizens of Quebec City and St.-Foy who will be otherwise left to the decisions of the security forces! Hold similar vigils and marches before your municipal and provincial houses! Ottawa citizens, go to Parliament Hill with your scarves around your faces! Ottawa citizens going to the April 2 FTAA demonstration in Ottawa in front of the Lester B. Pearson Building, wear your scarves around your faces! Go to work wearing a scarf around the face. Tell your colleagues to come with a scarf on the bus, in the car, and going home also. Tell the story of how democracy is being hollowed out by our corporate-serving government. Students, bring out your scarves on April 2! Wear them at every opportunity! All people, everywhere, wear scarves on April 2! Members of Municipal Councils, Provincial Legislators, and Members of Parliament, those of you who stand for the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution and the spirit of democracy, hold noon-hour vigils in front of your legislative chambers, join the forces of Democracy! * Why April 2? Because a cross country effort will amplify, immensely, a big action in Ottawa which opposes secrecy and the creep-in of antidemocratic government practices, like scarf bans, in support of the corporate agenda. There will be a demonstration in front of the Lester B Pearson Building in Ottawa starting the morning of April 2 to demand the release of the secret government position on the FTAA. This building houses the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) which is currently in charge of hosting the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. DFAIT'S policy is to negotiate, in secret, the issues of the Free Trade of the Americas which will effect every man, woman, and child in Canada and the Hemisphere. For months, the forces for democracy and social justice have been calling upon the corporate-serving Federal Government to reveal their secret position in the Free Trade of the Americas negotiations in Quebec City. This is the same Government which lied for several years about being in negotiations on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, denying the existence of such a scheme which was to be extended to over 25 countries. This was an agreement which would have given corporations supremacy over the people by allowing corporations to sue foreign governments in a secret private tribunal and force the countries' citizens to pay the damages. The Government was forced to confess when a 'whistle blower' sent the text of the MAI to democratic forces who then mounted a successful offensive against this step into corporate tyranny. This power to sue in secret already exists over Canadians because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Canada has already been successfully sued and we citizens are paying the award to Ethyl Corporation in the USA. The Free Trade Agreement seeks to extend NAFTA and the MAI concept to the entire Western Hemisphere! The Federal Govt. told parliament about one week ago that neither the parliament nor the people had the right to know the Government position on health care, education, and a host of other services. Superseding the rights of Parliament and the Citizens was the 'Government's loyalty to 33 other Western Hemisphere governments to negotiate in secret.' If you support this democratic, nonviolent 'Scarf wearing call-out,' please pass this message on to everyone who might be interested. Express solidarity with the citizens of Quebec City and St.-Foy! Express rejection of secret negotiations which will further subordinate Canada to authoritarian corporate rule! Thanks for reading and thinking about this message. Armand Cote Ottawa Chapter The Council of Canadians
