CANADIAN POLITICS/CANADIAN LABOUR:

A MILE OF BULLSHIT FOR AN INCH OF TRUTH:

You could not imagine my joy when I came across the following at the CEP Union website. It beautifully ties together the last two posts, one about undercover police and one about a branch of the CEP union. The photo above would be a true cold water bath to try and shock certain 'fashion anarchists' who disgrace the name into some sort of realization of what they are doing. Flick it in front of them and ask, "who are the good guys and the bad guys in this picture".

The answer. The three masked hoods to the right are actually three undercover policemen who were caught red-handed at the 2007 Montebello summit trying to get the rock throwing going. What they were has long since been independently verified, though their identities and who gave the orders for their actions are still a deep dark secret two years later. The grizzled old guy in the suit at the left (an appropriate position ) is Dave Coles of the CEP Union, one of the unionists present at the demonstration who intercepted the 'Police/Black Bloc' before they could put their plan into action and sent them skittering behind police lines for protection. Since that time the CEP Union has taken a somewhat personal interest in getting to the bottom of this incident. Here, from their website, is their latest news on the subject.

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Union dragged through bogus process to find out who gave undercover police orders at Montebello:
OTTAWA (December 3, 2009 ) -- As Canada prepares to host the G20 summit next spring, the president of one of Canada’s largest unions is committed to ensuring that protesters won’t be baited by undercover police, as they were at the North American Leaders Summit in Montebello, Qc.

“We are being dragged through a bogus process to get to the bottom of what really happened at Montebello,” says Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, “but we are determined to leave no stone unturned to find out who gave police their orders.”

“It is crucial,” he says, “that as the G-20 meeting looms for next spring, that Canadians can confidently exercise their free speech rights, free from the threat of police intimidation and violence.”

“At the same time, world leaders must know that they can come to Canada without having to worry about violence instigated by police agents to discredit those who want to assemble peacefully to express their views.”

Coles made headlines two years ago when his attempts to stop undercover police officers from infiltrating the peaceful protest were posted on YouTube.

CEP immediately called for an independent judicial inquiry to find out who ordered the police to try to turn a peaceful protest into a violent one, but was told it had to take the case through the Quebec Ethics Committee, established under the Police Act.

That committee has now agreed to a public hearing, but is seeking to hand prosecution of the case over to a public official who has already concluded that the police involved should be excused of wrongdoing.

“So the guy who is prosecuting, is the same guy who has already whitewashed the whole affair,” says Coles. “It’s a total charade.”

CEP today took the precedent-setting step of applying for standing as a party to the hearing before the Ethics Committee with the right to call evidence and conduct cross examination.

“CEP is committed to getting to the bottom of what really happened at the Montebello Summit in 2007, says Coles. “We will continue to push for an independent judicial inquiry into this whole cover up, and take whatever steps we need to get there.”
MORE INFORMATION: Dave Coles (613) 299-5628

FROM THE HARPER INDEX:
INTERVIEW WITH DAVE COLES, THE MAN WHO UNMASKED THE POLICE AGENTS AT MONTEBELLO:
The Harper Index has an interview with David Coles, the union leader who confronted and successfully exposed three police provocateurs at the recent Montebello Summit protests (see reports on this blog in the August archives on these events). Coles speaks about the events at the demonstration, the way that the Security and Prosperity Partnership will harm Canada, the long history of police provocateurs and the possible role of the Harper government in directing the tactics used. Some extracts from the interview:



"I feel disappointed and disgusted. I've been around people being infiltrated all my life in the labour movement. It never stops. These people will resort to every dirty trick in the world. It's not uncommon in the progressive movements for either the corporate cops or the state police to do this sort of thing. They have used these types of tactics for 100 years, from the Pinkertons to the RCMP...."
"That is why I maintain that somewhere up the political ladder someone is giving instructions to not let us tell our story. Our union has a very critical story to tell. Harper and his crew don't want it out..."
"A number of media insiders have told me that if they really wanted to have a meeting that didn't have a confrontation, why wouldn't they fly into Camp David or some other armed fortress and leave ? They set it up so they could send their goons in."
READ MORE...

ALSO AT THE HARPER INDEX THIS WEEK:
PRIVATIZING FEDERAL BUILDINGS A "SWEET DEAL" FOR NEW OWNERS:
The usual graft and corruption. While the events of Montebello took centre stage the Conservative federal government snuck in a little "sweet deal" for one of their corporate friends, Larco Investments. Sixteen federal buildings at nine different locations were sold to this outfit at a cost of $630 million less than their independently accessed values. Even at the falsely lowered value given out by the Harperites Larco stands to make a profit of $330 million over the course of 25 years. The icing on the cake is that the company has an open ended option to increase management and maintenance "costs" whenever it sees fit. In other words the feds will still be on the hook for ALL the costs involved in running said buildings while a private firm has basically been given a blank cheque to make money. This buildings are the first of some 40 federal properties that the Conservatives plan to sell off at God knows what long term cost to the taxpayer.
READ MORE on this boondoggle at the Harper Index.

MONTEBELLO PROVOCATEURS:

STILL MORE NEWS:

The Anarkismo Site today contains a report from a member of the new anarchocommunist group in Ontario previously mentioned on this blog. this person claims that the three police agents who were identified at Montebello. These people were originally confronted by an anarchist group 'Rouge/Noir' (sorry no Molly information available on what rouge/noir is) as they were trying to make their way to the more 'militant' part of the demonstration. Thus they found themselves (still carrying their 'rock disguises' of course) in an area of the demonstration where lurking union activists skilled in spotting police agents were present. check out the Anarkismo site for further information.

All that Molly can say is that, if it is true that the officers involved were from the QPP/Surete, that it shows a woeful level of incompetence. Now maybe it is "naturally" hard to disguise well fed and physically fit policemen as the running argument against vegetarianism that anarchist events often resemble. Still, one expects a bit better planning from at least the superiors in the QPP. Given my estimation of the ability of a provincial police force versus the RCMP I am inclined to believe the denials of those who say that the RCMP was not involved.

The real RCMP (or CSIS) agents are as deeply embedded amongst the radicals, anarchists included, as journalists are embedded in the invading armies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not everyone who advocates violent self-destructive tactics is a "police agent"-there is an endless supply of idiots or the naive-, but the majority of such agents play out their role advocating just that. Besides information gathering their function is to make such groups as ineffective as possible by advocating violent tactics. This sort of thing was old when the first vertebrates crawled onto land in the Devonian. Regular readers of Mollys Blog will know exactly how I stand vis-a-vis "tactics" and how much I think set piece riots are counterproductive. All that I can hope is that repeated instances of such things as these, where the other side "gets caught" in doing what some crazy anarchists want to do for free will lead to some sober second thoughts (Hey, can Molly be appointed to the 'Anarchist Senate' ?) . Or perhaps to "first thoughts", thinking at all before you do the police's work for them for free.

Anyways drop on over to the Big City Liberal Blog for further news on what I have reported above. Not that I agree with BCLB's politics, and he certainly doesn't agree with mine, but this is very interesting news.

MONTEBELLO PROVOCATEURS:

MORE SQUIRMING FROM THE QPP AND, OF COURSE, FROM 'ROCKWELL DAY':

The attempts on the part of both La Surete du Quebec (the QPP) and Public Security Minister Stockwell Day have descended further into comedy. As reported on the Big City Liberal Blog the QPP spokesman, Marcel Savard, said, "One of the extremists gave the rock to one of our police officers and he had a choice to make. He was asked by the extremists to throw the rock at police, but he never had any intention of using it." Are these the same "extremists" who confronted the trio of police agents demanding that they put down their rocks and unmask ? Jesus, how things can change in a heartbeat.

According to the Big City Liberal Blog Stockwell has coughed up this line as well. The protesters who confronted the police agents at the Green Zone and demanded that they disarm were, according to Stockwell, "three people in question were spotted by protesters because they were not engaged in violence". Nope- merely armed with a generous "rock gift", and merely asked to discard it by people who wanted no part of any violence. Speaking of "gifts" the Big City Liberal Blog comments on the open beer in the back pocket of one of the agents. Is this also a "gift" ? Perhaps part of the disguise ? Or maybe, as is increasingly becoming obvious, the trio caught in the act were not just goofy plants but also violating regulations about drinking on the job. Maybe a few beer are good for relieving job stress.

Molly wants to institute the 'Rock Award' for the clumsiest excuse ever devised for a government action. This is the first entry. Yep...they're playing "musical rocks" at these demos. Too silly for words.

POLICE PROVOCATEURS AT THE MONTEBELLO PROTESTS: LA SURETE COMES PARTLY CLEAN:

After previously denying any connection with three rock carrying protesters at the demonstration at Montebello, Quebec who other protesters claimed were police agents infiltrated into the demo to provoke violence the Quebec Provincial Police/La Surete du Quebec admitted that the three were indeed police officers this evening. Reports on what was said can be found at the website of the CBC and at the website of the Toronto Star. The news release for the Surete claimed that the officers were planted in the crowd to locate any violent protesters and that their cover was blown when they refused to throw their rocks.

COUGH,COUGH,COUGH,GAG !!!. That's the sound of Molly expelling a mammoth sized hairball. If this story is true then my asshole chews bubblegum. If your agents were out to locate violent protesters why were they planted in the 'Green Zone' where it was agreed that no violence would occur, a zone populated by families, union members and others whose politics make them highly resistant to the idea of using even non-violent civil disobedience, let alone violence ??? Seems that the violent protesters that you were supposedly "looking for" would be far away near the front lines of the demo. Hmmm ? Rather than "refusing to throw their rocks" it was said that the union members who confronted the trio and tried to unmask them were demanding that they put their rocks down. "Throw your rocks away" is NOT the same as "throw your rocks". Besides, if the police spokesmen originally denied that the trio were undercover agents and then retracted that lie when they were confronted with the magnitude of the proof, why should they be believed when they come up with the 'Plan B' story ? The whole cover-up story stinks.

Besides, the fact that the Surete claims responsibility for the men caught in the act is more than slightly convenient for the federal government. When questioned about this matter after making a crime prevention announcement in Winnipeg today Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said that he'd "made the inquiries and there was no RCMP that were involved as those three individuals go". Gotta love Stock's clear grasp of English grammar. Maybe the three were really dinosaurs that still walk the Earth with humans. But Stockwell at least knows which direction this river flows. He went on to metaphorically thumb his nose at the public by saying,"If people have concerns ...there is a complaints process for the RCMP. There is also one for the Surette du Quebec. This incident happened in Quebec, so I imagine people could also file under that complaints process". Those uppity Quebec nationalists can be convenient at times of buck passing under stress.

The Liberal Party has called for a police probe into the matter. It might be hard, however, to find a non-involved police force in Canada that has both the resources for such a thing and is independent of the events. The ever helpful Molly suggests the federal police force of Venezuela. You gotta admit that they had nothing to do with it and have nothing to hide. The NDP has called for a public inquiry on the matter. After their brief news release on the matter the QPP refused to comment further on the matter. The Quebec government also refused comment, as has the RCMP.

Some time ago there was an online petition asking for signatures demanding that Stockwell day change his first name to Doris. Stock paid no attention to the voice of the people then. Molly suggests another petition for Day to change his first name, this time from "Stockwell" to "Rockwell". In line with the mounting pebbles of evidence about how little the government respects the right to free speech one might suggest that you have to have rocks in the head to believe the official story...or perhaps be really stoned. "Rock of Ages, cleft for me; let me hide the facts in thee". And so on...

Stay tuned to the Ottawa Indymedia site for further updates on this story.

MONTEBELLO PROTESTS:
AGENTS PROVOCATEURS CAUGHT IN ACT:
When an afternoon of sporadic tear gassing and the occasional clubbing of demonstrators failed to provoke an incident it seems like the police present at the Montebello protests had a Plan B. As has recently been reported on the Ottawa Indymedia site and now even in the website of the Toronto Star the crowd had been infiltrated by officers disguised as demonstrators.

Three balaclava wearing "demonstrators" prominently carrying rocks were confronted by Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and paperworkers Union when they took up position near the 'Green Zone' of protesters, a zone that was supposed to be free of any confrontation with the police. As the confrontation developed many onlookers began to suggest that the three were really police agents and tried to snatch the masks from their faces.

Rather than deny this the three moved towards police lines and seemed to engage in conversation with them. They then pushed into the line and "seemed" to be wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and taken away. None of the three were listed as "officially" arrested by the police. All told four people were arrested at the demo at Montebello on Monday. Ottawa Legal Support and Montreal Legal Support are organizing solidarity with the four who were "really arrested". Further details will be updated on the Ottawa Indymedia site.

The failure of the agents' cover was well documented by both photos and a video on YouTube. The funniest part was when a photo taken when the three were supposedly arrested shows that both the "protester" and a police officer kneeling beside him have the same identification mark, a yellow triangle on the soles of their boots. Well...I guess it is a prudent precaution to have some sort of visible ID because it is easy to attack "one of your own", and anyone hit in the head by a baton can easily be too incoherent to identify themselves. Better to have a signal that will show up when the one who is hit is laying down on the pavement. Molly can see only one problem with this. If a riot squad member approaches the prone person from behind the mark is visible. If, however, he wants to kick him in the head instead of in the balls then the yellow mark won't be seen. Ouch ! Molly proposes the following. Any future agents should be required to shave their heads bald- sorta puts them right in fashion. Then they should paint a big glowing yellow triangle on top of the head and hide it beneath a ball cap. When they assault a riot baton with their head the cap will fall off and the owner of the baton will know to stop. That's Molly...always kind and helpful.

In addition to the above video a series of photos has now been posted at the Canadian Union of Public Employees website. You can see the yellow mark on the soles of the boots there. Oh yes, the Ottawa Indymedia site continues to accumulate more photos as well. Drop on over there and to the Toronto Star site to read more about this developing story.

One last thing before Molly signs off. Seems that the locals in Montebello were as pleased as punch about the protests. Besides the fact that local snack food merchants did a roaring business the consensus was that the town got publicity that no amount of money could have bought.