The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Since 1997, the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP) has organized a protest in Montreal on March 15th to highlight the International Day Against Police Brutality (IDAPB). This day of action (decreed after the violent beating of two youths, ages 11 and 12, in Switzerland on March 15th, 1996) has been highlighted in numerous cities and countries around the world. On March 15th, 2007, protests and other events took place in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Toronto, Belleville (Ontario), Guelph, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, and Oaxaca, Mexico.

This year, COBP once again invites concerned groups and individuals to participate in the 12th International Day Against Police Brutality in Montreal, on the 15th of March, 2008, at 3pm at Berri Square. We also encourage you to organize an event in your city and to endorse this callout if you support our demands.

Enough Police Killings and Impunity!

The media has devoted a lot of coverage this year to the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport after he was given two electric charges from a Taser Gun. Less coverage was devoted to the cases of Claudio Castagnetta and Quilem Registre, two men who [also died after being tasered]. Numerous people die each year as a result of police blunders, leaving victims' families in silence and resentment. The problem lies in the regular abuse of power by police officers who, unlike the rest of the population, are free to kill without fear of consequence, due to the obvious complicity of the government and judicial system. As if this wasn't enough, Jacques Dupuis, Quebec Minister of Justice and Public Security, has consistently refused to render justice in cases of death resulting from police brutality, and is planning to change the law on policing to further facilitate impunity [...]

No to Tasers!

Now more than ever, we ask for the abolition of this deadly weapon which has already taken too many lives. An end to the collaboration of government and corrupt corporations...

Stop Social Cleansing!

Police routinely harass homeless, youth, and sex workers to get them out of public places. Peace officers not only apply the laws and regulations, they also systematically attack certain segments of the population. This is particularly obvious in downtown Montreal, where the police act as armed enforcers for local commerce, assuring its vision of a shopping district reserved for the rich and the tourists. The number of fines given to homeless people by agents of the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM) has significantly increased in the last several years. This form of repression is very costly to society, and does nothing but put at risk those who are most deprived. In the last few years, several new regulations have been adopted to this end:

- The closing of the last public places where homeless could spend the night, in September of 2006.
- The banning of dogs from Berri and Viger squares, known to be frequented by street people and their companions, in June of 2007.
- Benoît Labonté, mayor of Ville-Marie borough, seeks to outlaw walking more than two dogs in Ville-Marie by March, 2008.

Stop Racial Profiling and Colonialism!

The racist police officer is not a myth. In the summer of 2007, several cases of abuse by Montreal police against blacks and Filipinos were reported, particularly in Côte-des-Neiges. Illegal arrests, police harassment and brutality are experienced daily by youth in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods. The Human Rights Commission recently ruled on several cases of racial profiling, ordering the city of Montreal to compensate the affected families, but the mayor has refused to do so. It would seem that mistreatment and racism are also political matters! Canada is a country founded on colonialism, land theft and the genocide of indigenous peoples, and things haven't changed. Indigenous people fighting to live as they wish are victims of repression, as shown by the case of anti-colonial activist Shawn Brant, a Mohawk imprisoned in Ontario.

No to security certificates! In the name of the so-called "War on Terrorism," the government uses "security certificates" to deny a bunch of basic rights to suspected terrorists, all from Arab and Muslim communities, further reinforcing prejudices. The Canadian state also offers a disgusting fate to its refugees, holding them indefinitely and without cause and deporting thousands to countries where they face imprisonment and torture.

Enough Political Repression!

This past August, at the anti-SPP protests in Montebello, the public was shocked at the images of "agents provocateurs" in the crowd. This is not the first time, however, that police have employed these tactics. The different policing agencies have always had the purpose of protecting those with power, and to nip in the bud any opposition. In this supposedly democratic state, the tactics used by officers of the law are more than questionable: mass arrests, agents provocateurs, tear gas, rubber bullets, and illegal searches. We have only to remember International Women's Day, March 8, 2007, when police used force against women and others protesting. We witnessed the same treatment during the student strike in the fall of 2007 at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal, when 107 people were arrested completely arbitrarily. And the list goes on. In the name of security, those in power eliminate all political opposition with violence and bloodshed.

We've had enough! In solidarity with all those who fight for liberty and justice, we demand the release of all political prisoners here and everywhere.

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

Harassment of Montreal Homeless Must Stop!

The Ville-Marie borough council is preparing to modify its by-law to ban walking more than two dogs at one time on a leash on public property. The new by-law was to be put to a first vote of elected representatives at the borough council's first meeting on February 5. The change is just one of a series amendments the borough is suggesting, including a ban on pit bulls in Ville-Marie and granting police the power to shoot dogs they deem "dangerous." Currently, police are allowed to shoot only if an animal appears rabid. The amendments to the by-law to be presented to council include an exception for people whose job is to walk dogs.

Borough Mayor Benoît Labonté hypocritically notes that the new restrictions, part of a number of measures taken last summer banning dogs from Viger Square and Émilie-Gamelin Park, are aimed at the homeless. "I think everyone will understand that within the context of a downtown area, a person cannot have five or six dogs on the sidewalk. Just imagine if that number were multiplied by 20, 25 or 30 per citizen. We are in a space of cohabitation, not a kennel," said Labonté.

Besides the fact that the by-law is part of all the regulations and by-laws aimed at criminalizing the most rudimentary aspects of life, it is thus clear it targets the homeless. For the homeless, animal companionship can be a means of coping with an existence reduced to a constant quest for survival. To harrass the homeless is unconscionable and cannot be tolerated in any society that calls itself civilized.

The issue facing society is how to provide for the needs and recognize the rights of all its members, not to criminalize its most vulnerable members. The harassment of the homeless must stop!

Beware -- The Police Torture and Kill with Tasers!
It Happened Close By ...

On November 24, another Canadian died because of the Taser. Another death which joins the 18 others. So why do the government and Taser International continue to lie to us by saying the weapon is inoffensive?

Taser International, the government and the cops constantly repeat that the Taser is not lethal, that far from it, this torture weapon "Saves lives." However, on at "Truth... not Tasers" (http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com/), the family of a Taser victim has documented 310 deaths linked to Tasers in Canada and the U.S. The weapon has already been banned in many countries (Belgium, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbia and Pakistan) as well as some U.S. cities, such as Jacksonville, Florida. In November 2007, the province of Newfoundland also declared a moratorium on the use and purchase of the Taser.

Taser guns are weapons capable of sending electric discharges of over 50,000 volts which immediately paralyse those who are hit. For at least five seconds, the victim's body is hit by close to 80 electric waves which paralyse the body's nervous systems. Information transmitted between the brain and other body parts are immediately blocked. The muscles then violently contract, provoking sharp muscular pain, and cries of suffering. The victim is paralysed for a few seconds and falls. She/he remains conscious but unable to move... traces of burns often remain as testimony to the violence of the electric shock.

Tasers are used by 60 police formations across Canada, over 5,000 police forces and prison guards in the U.S. as well as the U.S. military, which has been accused of torture in Iraq...

A Weapon Open to Abuse

If polices services claim that Tasers are used rarely and only in cases of extreme necessity, experience shows otherwise:

- In October 2001, Montreal police agents used Tasers against squatters during the brutal Préfontaine squat eviction.

- In June 2003, RCMP tactical squad agents shot a number of electric discharges at the forehead and necks, amongst others, of non-status Algerians at a peaceful sit-in at Ministry of Immigration offices in Ottawa, after they had already been handcuffed.

- In May 2004, a person detained at the West Operational Centre had to be brought by emergency to a hospital after having being tasered by Montreal police agents.

- In February 2006, police in Florida used the paralysing gun against a 13-year-old adolescent who had fought with her mother. The young girl was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car when she was submitted to electric shocks.

- In the fall of 2007 at a debate organized by the University of Florida, a student who had shouted insults at John Kerry, a Senator and former U.S. presidential candidate, was electrocuted with a Taser.

These Cases Are Only the Tip of the Iceberg

Based on Amnesty International, in the majority of cases people who were tasered were unarmed and did not represent any real threat: "Stun guns have been used by police to overwhelm unruly children, unarmed persons with psychiatric problems or people who were intoxicated, suspects fleeing after committing a petty offence or persons having an altercation with the police or who did not immediately comply with an order. Some evidence may lead one to believe that rather than it being used under restricted and clearly defined circumstances to avoid the use of lethal force, the stun has become the police services' main weapon of constraint."

Instrument of Torture

It is noteworthy that contrary to standard use, the police often fire a number of successive electric discharges. This was evident in the case of a young American who died after receiving 17 electric shocks in three minutes. He was not alone. In fact in most cases of deaths linked to the use of the Taser, the victims were shot a number of times. One wonders whether police services derive a perverse pleasure from the use of this weapon as an instrument of torture. Even the UN Committee on Torture has recently declared that the use of the electric stun gun constitutes a form of torture and can cause death.

When Death Comes Knocking

Medical studies and analyses have shown that where deaths have been linked to the use of the Taser, victims had suffered from heart disease or were under the effect of amphetamines or cocaine. The problem is that often the coroner attributes the death solely to cardiac arrest or an overdose, while completely discarding the Taser factor in their reports. But the lie is a very serious one, because by continuing to negate such facts the authorities are permitting other fatalities through continued administration of electric shocks on persons who have heart disease or are on drugs.

Lack of Rigorous and Independent Studies

The absence of serious research on the subject is also nonsensical. In fact at present, the only studies on which the police rely to claim that the Taser is inoffensive have been carried out on animals. In 2007, needless to say, such experiments besides displaying cruelty towards animals, are in no way scientifically credible. Furthermore, these tests are regularly carried out by researchers directly paid by Taser International and are not independent scientists. Since the time that the product was first marketed, Taser International has been fiercely opposed to more studies being carried out.

A Slew of Lawyers to Defend a Legal Death Tool

Taser International has been cited in at least 39 cases of death or injuries caused by Tasers. The company has therefore hired a ton of experts and lawyers to defend its image and threaten those voicing any criticism. For example, Taser International sent formal notices to no less than 60 organizations regarding the Dziekanski case. Taser president Tom Smith stated in a press release that the media had "irresponsibly published conclusive headlines blaming the Taser device and / or the law enforcement officers involved as the cause of death before completion of the investigation."

Links Between Taser International and the Canadian and U.S. Governments

On November 28, 2007, while the controversy over Tasers was in full bloom as a result of, amongst others, the airing of the video of the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport, Ken Boessenkool, a former counsellor to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Public Security Minister Stockwell Day was hired as a lobbyist by Taser International... Two days later, it was learned that Ontario's Chief Coroner, James Cairns, had allowed Taser International and another linked company to pay his travel fees to give presentations in the U.S., however he saw no conflict of interest there, even though he is responsible for investigating a number of deaths linked to the Taser!

In digging deeper, we also find that the company is involved in other scandals... Bernard Kerik, a member of Taser International's Board of Directors, was accused in November of having accepted bribes, tax evasion and having lied when his buddy Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, recommended him as head of homeland security for President Bush in 2004. Kerik had first been chauffer and bodyguard for Giuliani, who then nominated him as Chief of Police of New York in 2000. Small wonder this seedy company's business has doubled since the last quarter, while the death toll continues to rise!

When Police Kill with Impunity

Recent deaths caused by Tasers continue to push up gruesome statistics. 42 persons killed by Montreal police in 21 years; at least 54 deaths caused by police in Quebec since 2005. Since 2003, with the help of the Taser, police have killed 19 people in Canada and since 2001, 291 persons in the U.S.! The number continues to climb without letup as the police regularly kill innocent civilians and are always exonerated.

Since 1989, a ministerial policy states that investigations into deaths caused by the police during a police intervention or following an arrest must be investigated by another police force: the SQ (Sûreté du Québec), the SPVM (City of Montreal Police Service) or the Quebec City Police Service (SPVQ). But in fact, our investigations show that when it comes to the police, police solidarity wins out every time. In other words, a cop in Quebec City or Montreal is still a cop. And between friends, there's got to be respect and loyalty.

It is not unusual that an investigation by one police force on another is botched, if not totally deceiving. How often have the deadlines of an investigation been postponed to enable the police to adjust their versions, how many times has proof disappeared, how many undesirable witnesses have been gotten rid of?

Ludicrous investigations reminiscent of a circus where the families of the deceased are always forgotten. In fact in many cases when families did demand an explanation, all they got was silence and total contempt from police authorities. And each time the State acts as a police accomplice by closing its eyes to horrendous crimes. Unfortunately, it never comes as a surprise to learn that the [events] were whitewashed [and the police exonerated]. And they know that they have the law on their side and that they can do as they please because the State is there to protect them.

Clearly, the deceased deserve to rest in peace and their families to finally have truth and justice, but it is also clear that the government is part of the problem and not the solution. Rather than counting on them, we must rely on our own forces!

That doesn't mean that we will not demand accountability from a police State which under the cover of modern democracy kills and lies to the population. Things will have to change. Investigations into deaths regarding the police must be independent and public. And killer cops must be judged for what they are. In the case of Quilem Registere as well as others, we demand a public inquiry.

The Quilem Registre Case

On October 18, Quilem Registre died in a Montreal hospital after being in a coma and having a number of heart attacks. It all began on October 14 around 9:30 pm at the corner of Jean-Rivard and 23rd streets in the Saint-Michel area.

Based on the police version of events, Quilem was intoxicated and unruly. But it's always the same story when this kind of tragedy happens. The victim's run-ins with the justice system are always exposed. However, though it was initially assumed that Mr. Registre's death was a result of intoxication, the medical report revealed that the tiny traces of substance found in his blood could not have been the cause of his death.

It Seems the Young Man Died as a Result of Excessive Use of the Taser

For the moment, it seems that Quilem Registre was the victim of a police blunder. He received a minimum of 6 electric shots. However, the norms for using the Taser gun ban the firing of successive shots. As well the Ministry of Public Security has stated that in Quebec, only special intervention units are equipped with this type of weapon, while the coroner in charge of investigation has confirmed that the police who killed Quilem were ordinary patrolmen?

A report is expected for further clarification. But once again, it could take months before it is received. Anyway, it's always the same old story: as far as the justice system is concerned, the police are never guilty.

Though no qualms are made about tarnishing the deceased's reputation, everything is being done to hide the identity of the killer[s]. In all the articles recently published in the papers, there is no mention of [those who killed] Quilem Registre. Isn't that strange? Why hide the truth? These police officers should be judged as assassins.

The whole story certainly sounds fishy. The SPVM will probably try to bury the whole affair. We'll have to follow it closely. Police impunity is already the cause of too many deaths. Registre is the 42nd victim of the SPVM in 21 years. Let's hope the family of the deceased is not once again the victim of a corrupt justice system that always exonerates [the police who kill].

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

How much longer will we have to endure the horrific lies of such killer companies? The dangers of the Taser gun are real and it is our duty to denounce them before other innocent lives are lost. It is imperative that this weapon be banned, while not losing from sight that the real problem is not only the Taser, but mainly police brutality and impunity which carries on. What will it take for us to wake up?

Further Incident of Police Brutality Involving Tasers

On March 10, a video surfaced showing John Dempsey, a 45-year-old disabled man, who suffered from torsion dystonia, a movement disorder similar to Parkinson's Disease, being subdued by two RCMP officers in 2004, including jolts by a Taser, inside the Kamloops, BC, RCMP detachment.

In the time-lapse security video, Dempsey had apparently refused to walk through a doorway and had wedged his foot in the door frame. One officer is seen throwing Dempsey to the floor while the second officer uses a Taser on the handcuffed man.

Dempsey launched a civil suit several years after the incident, saying he didn't file a complaint at the time because officers told him he would have to stay in jail and he believed he would not have access to his medications.

The fate of the lawsuit is now in doubt because Dempsey died last month in a highway accident.

Speaking about the incident to a Kamloops radio station last year, Dempsey said, "(The officer) grabbed me, threw me to the ground, sprained my collar bone, bruised my front forehead, chipped my tooth and broke a piece off my glasses. He threw me down on the ground (and) Tasered me twice."

The RCMP produced the video during the disclosure phase of Dempsey's suit, but initially moved to block the public release and display of the video on March 10. However, by the end of the day, an RCMP spokeswoman seemed resigned to the video going to air.

"The RCMP agreed to the release of the video, and if the video were to air, there's really nothing we can do about it at this point, said Const. Annie Linteau. She said the Mounties did conduct an investigation into the incident, but wouldn't comment on the results.

The video of John Dempsey's tasering by RCMP officers comes in the wake of the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in November 2007, who died shortly after being repeatedly shocked by police with the "non-lethal" Taser in the Vancouver airport.

Days later, Robert Knipstrom of Chilliwack, BC, also died after being shot with a stun gun after a struggle with RCMP that also involved the use of police batons and pepper spray.

In December, the RCMP superintendent in Kelowna, BC, apologized to a 68-year-old stroke victim who had been shocked with a Taser by one of the superintendent's officers. The man, John Peters, has since filed a lawsuit against that officer, according to news reports.

In February, BC Attorney General Wally Oppal launched two inquiries into Taser use in the province, both headed by former judge Thomas Braidwood. One probe will look specifically at the Dziekanski case, while the other will focus more broadly on Taser use by municipal police forces, sheriffs and provincial corrections staff.

Calendar of Events

All events organized by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality in collaboration with the Comité social Centre-Sud, 1710 Beaudry Street (metro Beaudry). For information: (514) 395-9691.

Workshop: Possible Recourse for Victims of Police Brutality
Tuesday, March 11 -- 7:00 pm
What are our rights, how to contest a fine, how and why should we lodge a complaint with the police ethics system. With Stéphanie Tremblay, Educator/Intervenor, Clinique Droits Devant

Resisting Social Cleansing in the Montreal Downtown Area
Wednesday, March 12 -- 7:00 pm
A look at the situation, the criminalization of populations as a means of social control, resistance for and by the marginalized. With Donald Tremblay, who has worked in defence of Native rights as well as on homelessness and drug abuse, and Jean, an activist against police intimidation.

Cop Watch Workshop
Thursday, March 13 -- 7:00 pm
Examples of police surveillance patrols in different places around the world, and the negative and positive impacts of cop watch. With Collective Opposed to Police Brutality.

Saturday, March 15 -- 3:00 pm

List of Persons Deceased After Being Tasered

1) Terry Hanna. On April 19, 2003 Terry Hanna, 51 years old, died shortly after being tasered by RCMP agents in Burnaby, British Columbia.

2) Clayton Alvin Willey. On July 22, 2003 Clayton Alvin Willy, a 33 year old Native person, died after being tasered by RCMP agents in Prince George, British Columbia.

3) Clark Whitehouse. In September 2003, Clark Whitehouse, 34 years old, died after being tasered by RCMP agents in Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territories.

4) Perry Ronald. On March 23, 2004, Perry Ronald died after being tasered by police in Edmonton, Alberta.

5) Roman Andreichikov. On May 1, 2004 Roman Andreichikov, 25 years old, died after being tasered by Vancouver police in British Columbia.

6) Peter Lamonday. On May 13, 2004 Peter Lamonday, 33 years old, died approximately 20 minutes after being pepper-strayed, struck in the face, then tasered a number of times by the London Police Service in Ontario.

7) Robert Bagnell. On June 23, 2004 Robert Bagnell, 54 years old, died after being tasered by the Vancouver police, in British Columbia.

8) Jerry Knight. On July 17, 2004 Jerry Knight, a 29 year old semi-professional boxer, died after being tasered by Peel Region police, in Ontario.

9) Samuel Truscott. On August 8, 2004, Samuel Truscott, 43 years old, died after being pepper- sprayed and tasered by the Kingston police, in Ontario.

10) Kevin Geldart. On May 5, 2005, Kevin Geldart, 34 years old, died after being tasered at least 8 times and pepper-sprayed by four RCMP agents from Codiac, Moncton, New Brunswick.

11) Gurmeet Sandhu. On June 30, 2005 Gurmeet Sandhu, 41 years old, died after being beaten, pepper-sprayed, tasered and physically restrained by RCMP agents in Surrey, British Columbia.

12) James Foldi. On July 1, 2005 James Foldi, 39 years old, died after being tasered by Niagara Regional Police, in Ontario.

13) Paul Sheldon Saulnier. On July 12, 2005 Paul Sheldon Saulnier, 42 years old, died after being tasered, struck with a billy club and pepper-sprayed by RCMP agents in Digby, Nova Scotia.

14) Alesandro Fiaccco. On December 24 Alesandro Fiacco, 33 years old, died after being tasered 4 times by Edmonton police, in Alberta.

15) Jason Dean. On August 10, 2006 Jason Dean, 28 years old, was tasered 3 times by RCMP agents in Red Deer, Alberta. He died on August 30, 2006 after being in a coma for 20 days.

16) Robert Dziekanski. On October 14, 2007 Robert Dziekanski died after being tasered twice by RCMP agents at the Vancouver Airport in British Columbia.

17) Quilem Registre. On October 14, 2007 Quilem Registre was tasered at least 6 times by City of Montreal Police Service (SPVM) agents, in Quebec. He died in hospital on October 18, 2007.

18) Howard Hyde. On November 22, 2007 Howard Hyde, 45 years old, died hours after receiving stun gun discharges at the Burnside Correctional Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

19) Robert Knipstrom. On November 19, 2007 Robert Knipstrom, 36 years old, was struck with a billy club, pepper-sprayed and tasered by RCMP agents in Chiliwack, British Columbia. He died on November 24.

For More Information on Tasers

Réseau Alerte et d'Intervention pour les Droits de l'Homme (RAIDH), France: www.raidh.org

(Sources: Cases 1 to 17: "Unappropriate and Excessive Use of Tasers" Amnesty International Canada, May 2007; Cases 18 and 19: La Presse and Radio-Canada.)

12th International Day Against Police Brutality