Vindictive Cruelty.

 

    To lots of people, the state of Canada has managed to create around it the illusion of a civilised country, possibly because of comparisons with it nearest neighbour America. However, like all developed capitalist countries it has within its institution the savage claws of authoritarianism, and has no qualms about useing them. Ask its indigenous population, they will be able to reel off a catalogue of cruel and savage injustices perpetrated on them by the state for centuries.  

        Another section of the population of Canada, that continually feel the effect of those claws of authoritarianism is the prison population. This report from Quebec tells its own story. Across the world during this Covid19 pandemic, prisons have been one of the places where their populations have been left to rot. Callous, vindictive actions resulting in unnecessary deaths.

This from Act For Freedom Now: 

 

     Noise Demos Outside Montreal-Area Prisons Following Death of Prisoner and a Hunger Strike ,Canada.

Read also : Bordeaux Hunger Strike
Manifesto of Bordeaux Prisoners
Family Members and Advocates Call for Action after the Death of a Prisoner at Bordeaux

       10 May, Montreal – At 2pm today, a caravan of over 30 vehicles visited the Federal Training Centre prison in Laval and the Bordeaux jail in Montreal, demanding the immediate release of all prisoners in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vehicles, decorated with slogans such as, ‘Prison Should Not Be A Death Sentence,’ & ‘Free All Prisoners,’ honked their horns, made noise, and held banners in solidarity with those inside.
      “We’re here today to show people inside these prisons that they’re not forgotten and that we’re out here working for their release,” said Ellie Santon, a participant in the demonstration. “What’s happening in these prisons is a crisis created by the government. If they wanted to, they could solve all this tomorrow. For some reason they seem intent on letting people die.”

      On May 5th, Correctional Services Canada (CSC) announced that a prisoner held inside Laval’s Federal Training Centre had died from COVID-19, the second death inside a federal prison due to the pandemic. 138 prisoners have now tested positive for COVID-19 in the Federal Training Centre, making it the largest outbreak in a Quebec federal prison.
      “The government has spent months refusing to act and now the virus has exploded inside prisons and people are dying,” said Virginia Boucher of the Prison Support Committee. “There is no justifiable reason for this. People should be released from prison, now. People in halfway houses should be allowed to live at their own homes full time. Everyone released should have access to safe housing and healthcare.”
      On May 5th, prisoners in Quebec’s Bordeaux jail also began a hunger strike that has since spread to multiple sectors of the institution. There are over 60 cases of COVID-19 associated with the Bordeaux jail, where 75 percent of prisoners are being held pre-trial, making it the 2nd largest outbreak in a provincial prison.
      “I’m worried about my partner, who is in one of the infected sectors,” said Jean-Louis Nguyen, a participant in the demonstration. “He finally got tested on Friday, but we don’t know the results, and his parole hearing just got postponed by two weeks. Quebec needs to provide public information about what’s happening in its prisons and expedite bail and parole hearings to get as many people as possible out of prison and back with their communities.”
      “Quebec’s jails now have the highest infection rate of any province, but they’ve refused to act,” said Ted Rutland of the Anti-Carceral Group. “Provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia have released thousands of prisoners by speeding up bail hearings and releasing people close to the end of their sentence, but Quebec refuses to follow their example.”
       Social distancing is impossible inside prisons and prisoners are at high risk of contracting COVID-19. Health care in prison is abysmal. Guards have employed pepper spray and force against prisoners across the country who have taken action to protest their situation. There are now over 500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to prisons across Canada.
#liberezlestou.te.s
#grevedefaimbordeaux
#bordeauxhungerstrike
#FreeThemAll
#FreeThemAllCaravan
#FreeThemAll4PublicHealth

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THE ANGER IS GLOBAL

      What seems to be in the spotlight at the moment is the European crisis, but it is not just in Europe that the people are taking to the streets against an economic system that is now seen to be totally unjust and unable to serve the people. It is really across the globe that people are taking to the streets in an attempt to put an end to this continual exploitation of the many by a small group of parasites. What has always been seen, politically, as a quiet backwater, Canada, now has turmoil and anger on its streets. From East to West, the world is in revolt and the anger is directed at the same thing, this exploitative economic system controlled by an unelected, faceless, financial Mafia.

This from  Linchpin:

      Early on the student strike in Quebec adopted the slogan “it is a student strike, and a popular struggle” (in French, “la grève est étudiante, la lutte est populaire"). Over the course of this unprecedented strike, the slogan has become a reality, as people from all sectors of society have joined the students in opposition to the neoliberal government of Jean Charest and his Liberal party.
    As this is written, neighbourhood committees are forming in Montreal and daily protests, including the now famous casseroles (pots and pans) protests, are occurring across Quebec – including in small towns and regions not known for their militancy. The legitimacy of the government and its police force is being called into question as tens of thousands defy its “special law 78”, which criminalizes spontaneous protests among other measures. The student strike has indeed become a popular struggle. While no one could have predicted that the student strike would spill across society, this development is not entirely without a foundation in recent struggles. And this foundation is best exemplified by the Coalition Opposée a la Tarification et Privatisation des Services Publics (in English, the Coalition Against User Fees and the Privatization of Public Services).

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WHERE ON THE PLANET IS CAPITALISM WORKING?

         Europe is in turnmoil with every city across the continent having protests, strikes and angry people on the streets, America has the Occupy Movement growing on a daily basis, even sleepy old Canada where a pedestrian crossing the street without using the pedestrian crossing is considered news, is having its problems. Montreal say running battles with the Police at  the proposed North Plan. A plan to allow the corporate mining gangsters to plunder the Northern Territories of Quebec.

      It seems that capitalism is having a hard time at the moment. I suppose it would the kindest thing to keep up the pressure and put it out of its misery.

      This from Contra info:

      A demonstration against the neo-colonial project “Plan Nord” (North Plan), which seeks to exploit to a maximum extent the minerals in Québec’s northernmost territories for the profit of mining companies, has turned into a street battle between insurgents and riot police, with an intensity and length rarely seen in Montréal.

Gathering about 2,000 people including indigenous militants, ecologists, striking students, anarchists and trade-union militants, two demonstrations converged and heavily disrupted the Plan Nord’s Employment Fair taking place inside Montréal’s Palais des congrès (convention center) last Friday 20th of April.

At around 12h30, a group of demonstrators (mainly striking students) has succeeded in entering the huge building, even if it was heavily guarded by riot police.

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