[R-G] Fears of APEC-style Clash in 2010

[Anthony Fenton]

http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/02/16/APECGames/

News
Today: Monday, February 16, 2009
Fears of APEC-style Clash in 2010
Scene from APEC protests in Vancouver, 1997.
Distrust, anger festering between activists and police. Learn from  
pepper spray nightmare, say critics.
By Geoff Dembicki
Published: February 16, 2009


TheTyee.ca

"It was kind of torturous." That's how long-time activist and Olympics  
Resistance Network member Garth Mullins described getting a face full  
of pepper spray on the final day of the 1997 APEC summit. In late  
November of that year, 18 world leaders descended on Vancouver to  
forge greater economic ties across the Asia-Pacific region.

But their high-profile talks are now remembered as the footnote to an  
event marked by ugly confrontations between police and protestors.

Mullins, who was 26 years old at the time, recalled how he pried his  
eyes open to remove his contact lenses as pepper spray pooled behind  
them. He told the Tyee he believes the APEC clashes were the product  
of weeks of distrust and enmity between activists and RCMP in the lead- 
up to the event.

Now a prominent figure in the anti-Olympics movement, Mullins has  
joined a growing chorus of voices that accuse police of heading down  
the same road to conflict once again. Unless things get better, they  
say, pre-Winter Games tensions could trigger an even higher profile  
confrontation in 2010.

"APEC was small-scale," said David Eby, acting executive director of  
the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. "There will be a huge number of  
tourists and visitors coming to the Vancouver area for the Games -- so  
the potential for embarrassment is significant."

Trouble brewing

In late 1996, news that Vancouver would be playing host to the annual  
economic meeting of Asian-Pacific leaders galvanized a fledgling anti- 
globalization movement. Across the city, a diverse mix of protest  
groups found common cause in a battle cry that linked free trade to a  
stifling of democracy and police repression.

"Throughout Vancouver there was definitely a groundswell of activism,"  
said Jesse Ferreras, a reporter for Pique newsmagazine who wrote his  
master's thesis on the APEC confrontation.

The upsurge soon hit UBC's activist community after it learned that  
visiting dignitaries planned to converge on the Museum of Anthropology  
for the final day of the summit. Linguistics student and firebrand  
protestor Jaggi Singh helped form APEC Alert, a collection of fervent  
protestors that quickly became one of the most disruptive groups of  
the anti-APEC opposition.

Over the next year, its members crashed a mini-conference of Asian- 
Pacific diplomats, postered campus with "fuck APEC" signs and staked  
out an "APEC-free zone" near the Student Union Building.

The student population began to take notice -- and so did the RCMP.

Police crackdown

On November 13, 1997, RCMP Staff Sergeant Lloyd Plante informed fellow  
officers that he intended to seek charges against Singh for an  
altercation between the activist and a campus security guard six days  
earlier.

"An anti-APEC group, APEC ALERT, have several planned demonstrations  
which may involve civil disobedience from now until the conclusion of  
APEC on 97/11/25," he wrote in an e-mail to four Lower Mainland  
detachments. "It is hoped that we can obtain support from Crown which  
may result in a charge of assault against the obvious leader of the  
group, JAGGY SINGH. It is our intention if we can obtain a "no-go UBC"  
with respect to SINGH, we may basically "break the back" of this group."

On November 24 -- the day before leaders were set to arrive at UBC --  
Singh was surrounded by four officers as he strolled across campus.  
Police wrestled the activist to the ground, placed him in handcuffs  
and threw him into the back of an unmarked car.

Ferreras said the incident had a profound effect on the student  
population.

"It was a very dramatic arrest done in public of a very high profile  
activist," he said. "It was absolutely a trigger for renewed anger  
among the protestors."

Security fence collapses

The next day, students and protest groups had plenty more to get riled  
up about.

Early that morning, law student Craig Jones was arrested for  
displaying signs that said "Democracy," "Free Speech," and "Human  
rights."

But even thornier was a controversial decision to relocate designated  
protest zones out of the sight of visiting world leaders -- a  
directive later traced back to the Prime Minister's Office. "That was  
a huge issue," Ferreras said. "The excrement wouldn't have hit the fan  
quite nearly as much if the protestors had known they could be seen by  
the dignitaries."

After gathering outside the Student Union Building, more than 1,000  
protestors defied RCMP orders and marched towards the security fence  
at Rose Garden Plaza. Police watched warily as protestors climbed the  
rickety structure. The fence swayed under their weight, then collapsed.

Alarmed officers unleashed pepper spray into the crowd, students and  
activists were hauled to the ground and screams filled the air. A  
second clash followed later that day. By the end of it all, dozens of  
protestors had been arrested and Canada's reputation had taken a  
beating.

"The whole thing culminated with the pepper spray," Mullins said. "But  
it was the culmination of a very chilly climate for a protest."

Eleven years later

Not surprisingly, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the  
RCMP was hit with a deluge of grievances after the event. Outraged  
protestors alleged everything from charter violations to police  
brutality -- claims the department considered serious enough to  
warrant an official inquiry. The public hearing took several years and  
offered an exhaustive look into the events leading up to the summit,  
the actions of police and protestors on Nov. 25 and the shortfalls of  
RCMP security preparations. In spring of 2002, the commission issued a  
final report with dozens of recommendations.

It was clear the RCMP had shown excessive force and poor planning in  
some instances, the report concluded, but APEC Alert's hostility to  
police helped sour relations between the two sides.

To avoid future conflicts, the report put the onus on security forces  
and activists to develop "cooperative relationships" well in advance  
of major public events.

More than 11 years after "peppergate" -- as the events of Nov. 25 are  
often called -- this conciliatory framework appears to be all but  
abandoned as the RCMP-led Integrated Security Unit prepares for the  
biggest peacetime security operation in Canadian history.

Like APEC, the 2010 Winter Games have united a diverse swath of  
protest groups eager to make their message heard. But as activists and  
civil liberties groups have attested, much work remains to repair a  
troubled relationship that could erupt in conflict when the world  
descends on Vancouver.

"There's absolutely a risk of the problems we saw with APEC," the  
BCCLA's Eby said.

Rocky start

Eby traced current tensions between activists and security forces to a  
relationship founded in rumour and suspicion. To provide a safe and  
secure Olympics, the RCMP was put in charge of a coordinated unit  
composed of local police, military and private security forces. Though  
Games security could cost $1 billion and put 12,000 officers on the  
streets of Vancouver and Whistler, preparations have been shrouded in  
secrecy.

With such a large force and scant details on how it will operate,  
activists feel left out of the planning process -- and worse, like  
police are scheming against them.

"Before the ISU ever contacted any activist groups, reports started  
coming out that intelligence officers were approaching activists and  
asking them to become informants," Eby said. "That started things off  
on a relationship of mistrust."

Mullins said nobody is sure if police have spied -- or are spying --  
on the Olympics Resistance Network. But with protest groups listed by  
police alongside al-Qaeda as the biggest threat to the Games, he  
considered it likely.

"I would be extremely surprised if they weren't doing that right now,"  
he said.

Police are trying

Like APEC Alert before it, the ORN is easily one of the loudest  
protest groups in the anti-Olympics coalition. Its members have  
disrupted VANOC press conferences, organized protest marches and even  
appeared in city council chambers. And like its predecessor, the ORN's  
actions have attracted police attention.

After a public presentation at city hall last month, three officers  
from the ISU's community liaison team approached Mullins and several  
other protestors. According to an ORN member at the scene, the  
officers "glad handed, sweet talked and [distributed] business cards  
in a very friendly way."

The activist wasn't impressed. "There is nothing to be gained from  
meeting with these people, and I think ORN should not do so as a group  
or as individuals," the activist wrote.

In a Q&A session with reporters several weeks ago, RCMP assistant  
commissioner Bud Mercer said the ISU has boosted its community  
relations team from three to five people over the last year and  
planned to double the numbers over coming months.

"I'm quite comfortable that they're reaching out to sectors of the  
public that they need to," he said. But he suggested that building a  
working relationship with protest groups requires cooperation from  
both sides.

"I think there's a responsibility on these groups that if we're not  
reaching out to them, that they reach out to us," Mercer said. "We'll  
continue to do our best."

'The meeting did not go well'

Worried that activists and downtown residents weren't being included  
in the security planning process, the BCCLA recently formed an  
outreach committee headed by retired judge Jerome Paradis. The group's  
plan was to engage the ISU in a dialogue that would address the  
concerns of local residents and protestors. But initial talks left  
committee members frustrated.

"The meeting did not go well," Eby said. "The ISU was not prepared to  
share any aspects of its security plan." Both sides have agreed to  
meet again in March, but unless the unit becomes more transparent,  
productive talks are unlikely, he said.

According to Mullins, the committee's experience has made many  
activists question the motives of security forces. "It sounds like  
they want a one-way flow of information -- they want to find out all  
about what we're doing but they're not interested in sharing back," he  
said.

With only a year to go until the Games and large-scale military  
exercises already underway, the window for meaningful security  
consultations is closing quickly -- but the ISU still has a chance to  
make things better, Mullins said.

As part of the bid process for the 2010 Games, VANOC, Vancouver and  
the federal and provincial governments agreed on a list of social  
commitments laid out in the Inner-City Inclusive Commitment Statement.  
Chief among them was a promise to "commit to a timely public  
consultation that is accessible to inner-city neighbourhoods, before  
any security legislation or regulations are finalized."

Last month, Vancouver City Council passed a motion urging VANOC to  
hold the meeting, a decision both Eby and Mullins supported. So far,  
the ISU hasn't made any commitments and e-mails from The Tyee to VANOC  
about the issue were not returned.

Lists of concerns

If such a meeting were held, it would give downtown residents, protest  
groups and security forces a chance to voice their concerns in a  
public setting, Mullins said.

No doubt, the session would be vocal.

Activists are worried that come Games-time, the ISU will force them  
into far-flung "protest pens" where their message won't reach the eyes  
and ears of spectators and media. They also want reassurances that  
security forces won't try to provoke a violent incident with  
protestors -- along the lines of the provocateur incident at  
Montebello -- to justify a crackdown.

On the security side, military and police officials need to be certain  
that activists will behave in a peaceful way and not try to disrupt  
the operations of the Games. And the BCCLA has raised a slew of  
issues, including the use of closed-circuit cameras, police crackdowns  
on the Downtown Eastside and potential restrictions caused by security  
barriers.

But until the ISU makes meaningful public consultation a reality, it  
runs the risk of repeating APEC all over again, Mullins said.

"If the police want to make Canada proud, they've got to change their  
paradigm entirely and get on board with the understanding that protest  
and resistance is really part of a democracy," he said.