Personal account of FTAA & Police Brutality

Dexter X

My story:

I was accompanying an elderly gentleman up the stairs by the media centre to warn police they were tear-gassing a baby when the officers, in full riot gear, grabbed me and started bashing my face against an iron grid and concrete wall. They beat me, choked me and stomped on me. Then they dragged me across Cote d'Abraham, hid me between two cars and beat me again. Officer Jean-Yves Gagnon #5018 yelled at me "Parlez francais icit, ostie! Go back your country! Go back your country! C'est mon pays, pas ton pays."

I was kept in prison for two nights with no water and no medical attention. They served us rotten milk for breakfast after starving us. I was intimidated and harassed whenever I tried to assert my rights. They pulled my hair to take photos of me, they hung up the phone when I tried to call my lawyer, they threatened to keep me in jail for six months or to release me alone in the middle of the night if I didn't cooperate.

I was simply working as an independent journalist reporting for a local radio station, Radio Bas-Ville in Quebec City, CKLN in Toronto and CMAQ's webcast Radio des Ameriques. I also DJ'd at the People's Summit, in the mobile sound system in Saturday's legal demonstration and at the open air rave at L'Ilot Flurie zone autonomne temporaire.

My thoughts:

We all owe a great debt to the brave women and men, throughout history, who have been willing to stand up to state repression to practice direct action and civil disobedience. Their sacrifice has yielded profoundly positive changes in our social and legal consciousness. We should recognize that those facing trial in Quebec are walking in the footsteps of giants and we should honor them with our full support.

Wednesday, at the Palais de Justice, Judge Yvon Mercier denied bail to Jaggi Singh, one of our most dedicated and articulate anti-globalization activists.

The Summit of the Americas showed me that "harmonization" with Latin America and the Carribean means spending millions of dollars on brute police force while gutting social services.

My suggestions:

For those of you who offered to post bail for me: thanks for your generosity - I urge you to please consider posting bail for those who are still in jail. Really, any of us could have been arrested.

CASA and the CLAC have created a Legal Defense Fund for the political prisoners of the Summit of the Americas. Over 400 people were arrested, and the majority must pay from $300 to $500 bail to be free.

Many are unable to afford the bail. Eventually they will have legal fees to pay. You are invited to show your support by sending whatever you can afford, with the least possible delay.

Instructions for how to do that are below followed by a brief description of what happened to me for those who asked.

In Quebec: Please deposit directly, via InterCaisse, in the name of CASA, indicating "fonds de defense", using the following:

Account: 32130
Transit No. 92276-815
Caisse d'economie des travailleuses et des travailleurs (Quebec).

For donations coming from Canada outside of Quebec: Send a cheque, made out to CASA, and indicating on it "fonds de defense", to:

Le Maquis
C.P. 48026
110 Boul.Rene Levesque
Quebec, PQ
G1R 2R5

For donations from the USA, cheques/deposits should be made to the Lower East Side Fund:

The credit union is the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union.
The account number is 7181
The routing number is 226082598

Afterwards for all donations, please send an email to la_casa2001@hotmail.com, with "Defense Funds" in the subject line and indicate in the body how much was deposited, where and when.

Thanks a lot!