[R-G] True peace - peace of mind - can only come about if there's justice for everybody, protester says

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 The Gazette, a division of CanWest MediaWorks  
Publication Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The Gazette (Montreal)

August 18, 2007 Saturday
Final Edition

SECTION: SATURDAY EXTRA; Pg. B2

LENGTH: 567 words

HEADLINE: Justify your existence: Mandeep Dhillon True peace - peace  
of mind - can only come about if there's justice for everybody,  
protester says

BYLINE: STEVE FAGUY, The Gazette

BODY:


Raising important issues or just raising hell?

Mandeep Dhillon is an organizer with No One Is Illegal Montreal, an  
immigrant rights group that is joining People's Global Action Bloc  
Montreal in a protest Monday in Montebello, where Prime Minister  
Stephen Harper, U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President  
Felipe Calderon are meeting to discuss security and trade as part of  
the Security and Prosperity Partnership (although they are not going  
to sign any formal agreements).

Gazette: What's wrong with the Security and Prosperity Partnership?

dhillon: The SPP represents, on the economic side, a strengthening of  
the policies that NAFTA brought in, illegal policies. Natural  
resources coming from land stolen from indigenous peoples are now  
being dealt away by our governments. There's the driving down of  
wages and the control of workers around the continent. On the  
security side, there's "homeland security-type" policies that have  
been causing terror in (minority) communities in Canada and Mexico.

Gazette: What specific policies do you oppose?

dhillon: One example is the arming of border guards and enforcement  
officers. Those people are armed for the first time in history. Now,  
in addition to the intimidation that you face at the hands of a  
Canadian Border Services agent, now that person carries a handgun. On  
the U.S./Mexico border (where guards are armed) that has meant the  
shooting death of dozens of Mexicans since 1994. There's also going  
to be expansions of temporary worker programs. Temporary workers  
liken their working conditions to modern-day slavery.

Gazette: What's the plan for this weekend?

dhillon: It's hard to picture what's going to happen because it  
depends a lot on what the police are going to do to us. The plan is  
to get as close as possible to the conference by various means and to  
try to halt that conference, if possible.

Gazette: What do you say to the residents of Montebello who are  
nervous about property damage?

dhillon: We've actually talked to some of the residents and some of  
them aren't too aware of what the issues are. Other people are  
actually sympathetic to what we're doing there and perturbed by the  
security set up in their small town. There's a fear campaign put on  
by the RCMP against us, saying (residents) should be afraid for their  
safety.

Gazette: One of your chants is: "No justice, no peace." What does  
that mean?

dhillon: We're being asked to be "peaceful." What that means to us is  
that under this facade of peace we would have to be ignoring  
injustices, racial profiling, repression, people who are being  
detained illegally. True peace - peace of mind - can only come about  
if there's justice for everybody.

Gazette: What lessons have you learned from the massive anti-free- 
trade protest in Quebec City in 2001?

dhillon: We're preparing ourselves as much as we can for police  
repression. I think one of the major things for the organizers behind  
this to learn is that movement-building has to happen on a daily  
basis. The protests get media attention, but that's a small part of  
the work that thousands of us across the continent are doing on a  
daily basis on these issues.

Gazette: What do you hope to accomplish by protesting?

dhillon: I hope it gets people to think about these issues and learn  
about the issues that they don't hear about in the mainstream media  
or the education system. The hope is that it raises questions in  
people's heads.