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I was just a toddler when the October crisis occurred; the kidnapping of James Cross and the murder of Pierre Laporte in 1970. FLQ engaging in such activities like bombs in mailboxes in Westmount. The FLQ were considered terrorists by many back in the day. According to my history lessons, Prime minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the war measures act. The military were occupying the streets of Montreal. Hell, even a curfew was imposed. Many detained simply for either being related to an FLQ member or simply being suspected as such or just being unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Given my tender age at the time, I don’t remember any of it. Everything I know from that time was from history lessons, some Quebecois novels and anecdotal accounts.
Now, I read the news, read the blogs from Toronto residents and of course, anecdotal accounts from my brother who does live in Toronto. Such horrors of a police state; a city under siege. The residents of Toronto along with the rest of Canada are footing the bill so Torontonians themselves can be deprived of basic necessities like running errands, going to work or being free to move where you like and talk to whomever you like.
I am not the only one to wonder about this newly created police state being like the War Measures act.
“It reminds me a little bit of the War Measures Act,” said lawyer Nathalie Des Rosiers of the new regulation. Des Rosiers is a lawyer with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which has been working to monitor arrests during the summit. “This is highly unusual to have this declaration done by order-in-council without many people knowing about it.”
Mark Francis over at Section 15 has the highlights of these new laws, or as I just heard on the radio, really an old law being dusted off the shelf.
A guard or peace officer,
(a) may require any person entering or attempting to enter any public work or any approach thereto to furnish his or her name and address, to identify himself or herself and to state the purpose for which he or she desires to enter the public work, in writing or otherwise;(b) may search, without warrant, any person entering or attempting to enter a public work or a vehicle in the charge or under the control of any such person or which has recently been or is suspected of having been in the charge or under the control of any such person or in which any such person is a passenger; and
(c) may refuse permission to any person to enter a public work and use such force as is necessary to prevent any such person from so entering.
Go. Read more of the highlights. Worth a read.
Furthermore, my brother informed me that while taking pictures is usually a lawful activity, many who had the misfortune of being seen by the cops taking pictures of the fence (outside the fence, even) have had the misfortune of being ‘grabbed’ (my brother’s word) and having their memory cards confiscated.
New draconian laws giving the police more powers than they ever would have passed by the Ontario provincial Liberals makes me wonder if Montrealers were suffering such indignities during the October crisis, or worse.
Looks pretty scary to me. And I only get to see the pics, as I was too young to remember any of it. I bet many Canadians in or out of Montreal thought this kind of marshall law could never happen again in Canada.
Here we are, 40 years later with new/old ridiculous laws for the police, this time in Toronto. And not even because of a militant group looking to be heard by politicians and the media (well, yeah, there are protesters in TO, but it’s not the highlight; although, the week-end is young…), but for the world’s most expensive photo op and ego trip for St-Stevie. What a waste! Any normal person (including true conservatives, you’d think, as usually they stand for freedom and businesses running ) seeing pics like these and these, should be at the very least, frightened. Steve has no qualms over this and he would do all this again on his whims.
I remembered Vic Toews telling Craig Oliver on Question Period that the billion dollar security bill was the Liberals’ fault. Ah Yes! That old stand by. Liberal Derangement syndrome. I remember when Craig Oliver asked Toews why he couldn’t use the military for a lot less, mainly because there would be no overtime pay and Toews’ answer being because he was afraid the Liberals would chastise the Harpercons for having military in the streets. He picked a convenient time to worry about what the Liberals would say about him or the rest of the Harpercons, didn’t he?
After seeing the pictures from various Toronto bloggers of fences, cops, and cop vehicles from cruisers, to boats to helicopters and old pics from the October Crisis of 1970 in Montreal with the military patrolling the streets and asked myself which looks visually more frightening? My opinion is both look equally frightening. However, I would say that the G20 security is far worse not only because of cost, but because of cause; many FLQ members were engaging in violence, again, there was the kidnapping of James Cross and the murder of Pierre Laporte. While the idea of stripping human rights is nauseating, I’m sure many could and would have understood why such drastic measures were taken back then. The G20 is nothing more than an ego trip, photo op and Stevie spiteful simply demonstrating what he’s capable of to his faithful.
I can say one thing, it would be foolish to lull ourselves into a false sense of security in believing such draconian police measures wouldn’t happen again. It would most certainly happen again as long as Steve remains in power, particularly if he gets his majority.
Keep in mind that in 1970 it was not merely Montreal but the entire province of Quebec that was under martial law, whereas the current restrictions target Toronto and Muskoka. What are the differences, so far you haven’t had mass arrests of singers, songwriters, poets, union organizers, student activists, left wing candidates for office, ie the FRAP campaign team in 1970 in municipal elections in Montreal all being yanked out of their beds and hauled to jail in the middle of the night. I was a teenage student at the CEGEP in Hull at the time, I recall police coming in, pointing out suspect student leaders and hauling them off. They even hauled off the student printing press, an old Gestetner machine, less those missed in the first haul manage to print out some leaflet of protest. Which I did with sympathetic protesters in Ottawa who weren’t affected by the measures. I was subsequently arrested for protesting against the arrests and the suspension of civil liberties.
This was targeted martial law, targeting the boundaries of a single province. As for so called ” apprehended insurrection”, half the so called terrorists were police operatives, this all came out later in various commissions of enquiry, the Trudeau government had moles extending to the leadership bodies of the PQ, Claude Morin as a “snitch” for the RCMP, etc., Trudeau could have given lessons to Nixon, G. Gordon Liddy and cronies on how to successfully carry out wrecking operations against political opponents, but all this is history now, Nixon is vilified, the other is lionized.
In fact, per the blogging tories and those such as Patrick Ross, this was Trudeau’s shining moment, the one thing they all rally behind him on, giving Quebec a good stomping, and they willfully ignore and reject the arguments and positions held by the Progressive Conservative opposition of the day.
ck Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 6:35 PM
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Dupmar. As I’ve mentioned, I was a toddler, before I even started nursery school. Too young to remember, so I welcome any comments from those who have actually lived through the October crisis of 1970.
I also had no idea they were all over Quebec. With the exception of perhaps Quebec City, I assumed this only happened in Montreal.
RCMP in AB & BC were invoking the rights of the war measures act in going after radical newspapers, hitch bikers or anyone with a pack sack that they didn’t like. It became an excuse across the country. Very oppressive time.
ck Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 7:51 PM
In 1970?? During October crisis??
Details are fuzzy (I was 6 at the time), but I do remember a squad English-speaking Canadian soldiers with their dirty boots and weapons at the ready rummaging through our house in Sainte-Thérèse as part of a warrantless sweeps because they heard rumors about James Richard Cross being held captive in the northern suburbs.
For a better picture of the real face of the Canadian regime, try to get a copy of Michel Brault’s Les Ordres if you haven’t already.
ck Reply:
June 25th, 2010 at 7:50 PM
Merci d’avoir partage cet exeperience. Je ne peux pas imaginer l’effet une evenement comme ca peut avoir pour un enfant de 6 ans.
Yes, during the October crisis, in 1970. And you know what? The dirty boots stuck with me to this day. Not the guns. The boots. Because my mom had to clean up when they left.
The whole of Canada was under marital law in 1970, not just Quebec. I was in high school. Yes, there was a 7pm curfew in each of the provinces and territories. What you don’t say, perhaps because you aren’t aware of this, is the majority of Canadians thought Trudeau did the correct thing in calling upon the War Measures Act to locate the FLQ. Although he denied knowledge of the wrongdoing of the RCMP, who else would have the authority to direct the RCMP into their duties.
The Public Works Protection Act has remained basically the same since 1939 when it was first enacted. The only thing that changed for the G20 Summit was two schedules were added to indicate a specific location: i.e. the metro convention centre and surrounding area. What you quoted has always been there. This Act is usually meant for electric-hydro stations and crown property such as courthouses. The Act was modified to protect the leaders attending the G20 Summit. It’s unfortunate it was misinterpreted by some people.
As for the Integrated Security Unit who policed the streets of Toronto it’s up to the justice system to decide whether they acted inappropriately with the mass arrests and detentions. That aside, they managed to arrest over 1,000 people and release many of them with various orders to stay away from downtown Toronto. The key point is despite being released the alleged accused all have their photos and fingerprints filed under the Identification of Criminals Act. That doesn’t go away: ever. They are marked as criminals to any police officer conducting an investigation even if official charges were never laid. They were released because the Crown prosecutors felt there wasn’t enough evidence or the officer-in-charge decided to release them. Under the Criminal Code of Canada those police officers are protected against lawsuits for wrongful arrest. It will be a long and expensive exercise for Des Rosier in challenging this in court. An inquiry into the actions of the police may take as long as the Macdonald Commission did.