[R-G] BCCLA wants Vancouver 2010 police out of City Hall

[Anthony Fenton]

  http://www.bccla.org/

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
February 19, 2009

For immediate release

BCCLA wants Vancouver 2010 police out of City Hall

Vancouver – The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has released an open  
letter to the Vancouver 2010
Integrated Security Unit (ISU) asking them to stay out of City Hall  
for intelligence gathering purposes.

A report obtained by the BCCLA indicates that three plain-clothes  
members of the RCMP coordinated
ISU attended City Hall on January 22, 2009 to gather information about  
individuals attending a City
Council meeting to speak against municipal Olympic intiatives. The  
report, released by the Vancouver
Police Department, indicates that two Olympic-related agenda items  
were “items of interest” to the ISU,
as were the names of three anti-Olympic activists on the speakers’ list.

“Having this activity occur in the context of a meeting of publicly  
elected officials where members of
the public are entitled to attend, hear what is said and, at the  
appropriate juncture, speak out about
matters that concern them, is troubling,” writes BCCLA President  
Robert Holmes in his letter to the
ISU. “We would not want, and we assume that the ISU would not want,  
there to be any suggestion of
intimidation by the presence of such officers at that kind of meeting.”

Following the public Council meeting, the three ISU officers stopped  
individuals who had spoken
against the Olympics during the meeting ostensibly to invite them to a  
“consultation” process. The
BCCLA has asked the ISU to stop monitoring City Hall proceedings and  
to approach activists for the
purposes of consultation through less potentially intimidating methods.

“We call on the ISU immediately to cease its practice of monitoring  
the public democratic process that
takes place at City Hall,” says the letter from BCCLA President Robert  
Holmes. “We also urge the ISU
to establish contact with organizations through their established  
channels, rather than through
spontaneous contact in venues traditionally viewed as protected from  
police monitoring.”

No response from the ISU has yet been received by the BCCLA. The  
BCCLA’s letter, which includes
the full VPD report, is available on their website at www.bccla.org .


MEDIA CONTACTS
Robert Holmes, President – 604-681-1310
David Eby, Acting Executive Director - 778-865-7997