Listen to a benefit lecture given by Naomi Klein, all funds raised were for the Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians and the Tent City Organizing Collective.
Producer: CKUT Radio Uploaded by: CKUT Radio
==> About Naomi Klein:
Born in Montreal, Naomi Klein is the award-winning author of the international best-sellers, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies and Fences and Windows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate. She is an internationally syndicated column for The Globe and Mail, The Nation and The Guardian. For the past year, Naomi has been living in Argentina working on a documentary about the rise of occupied factories that has flourished in the wake of the popular uprisings of December 19 and 20, 2001.
==> About the Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians:
The Action Committee for Non-Status Algerians has been organizing against the deportation of non-status Algerians for the past two years. Their struggle intensified in April, 2002, when Immigration Minister Denis Coderre lifted the moratorium on deportations to Algeria, leaving over 1000 non-status Algerians facing removal to a country still torn by civil conflict and brutal violence.
In October, 2002, their dynamic political struggle won a partial victory, as Immigration Canada and Immigration Quebec announced the implementation of a special Joint Procedure for the regularization of some non-status Algerians. However, numerous individuals are excluded from that regularization procedure, and so the Action Committee has continued to fight for justice.
On Thursday, May 29th, 10 non-status Algerians and 2 supporters from the No One Is Illegal Campaign of Montreal occupied the waiting room of Coderre's Ottawa Office. They were demanding a face-to-face meeting with Minister and a just solution for individuals facing deportation to Algeria because they are excluded from the regularization process put into place by Canada and Quebec Immigration.
The police response to this occupation was brutal. At approximately 10:30 PM, members of the Ottawa Police Services tactical squad, in coordination with the RCMP, charged the people occupying the waiting room. After forcing them to the ground, the police beat and Tasered many of the men on their necks, backs, torsos and genitals. One man was bashed in the head with the butt of a Taser gun, leaving a large gash on his forehead. Another man lost a tooth as a result of being punched in the face by a police officer. Several people had Taser burns on the backs of their neck, backs and arms. The 12 individuals were arrested, charged with mischief over $5,000, and released from jail the next day. They will undergo a preliminary enquiry and a trial before a jury in Ottawa court in the coming months.
==> About the Tent City Arrestees:
Tent City was organized by members of the Comite des sans-emploi, CLAC logement and Comite logement Ahuntsic-Cartierville, in order to denounce gentrification and the ongoing housing crisis in Montreal. Tent City set up in Lafontaine Park on July 5th, 2003. Supported by a demonstration of over 400 people, those who participated in the action demanded decent housing for everyone, an end to the criminalization of poverty and homelessness, and the right to squat abandoned buildings.
At 12:30 AM on July 6th, the City of Montreal chose to enforce a by-law that declares Montreal parks closed from 12PM to 6AM by deploying 150 police dressed in riot gear to clear the park. In a general assembly of over 200 people, the majority of people chose to remain in the park and defend Tent City. As riot police swept the park, they arrested 9 people, who were charged with obstruction and unlawful assembly. They were also given tickets for $138.00 for allegedly breaking the park by-law. Seven arrestees will go to trial before a municipal court judge in the coming year.
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