Dear Citizens Panel,

I would like to thank you for presenting me with the opportunity to air my grievances in regards to police conduct towards protestors on the days of November 16, 17.  I was involved in the planning of events on both days.

I will begin with the 16th.  The event that we had planned was a march from the University of Ottawa to the Human Rights Monument on Elgin.  We had tried to present an event that would allow people to participate who were not interested in attending a "snake march" that was also planned for that day.  We had also made a concerted effort to attract people from the Muslim Community.  After the events of September 11th many people from that community were victims of racism and we wanted to show solidarity and put a message out that racial attacks would not be tolerated in our community.  Many of the people that attended that day were attending their first demonstration.

We made our way from the University of Ottawa to the Human Rights Monument without incident.  It was completely peaceful.

At the monument we started our speeches and everything was in order.  Mt memory fails me as to what time this was but at one point people who were participating in the snake march joined our rally.  They remained peaceful.  There was no property damage done in that area.

That day was a part of Ramadan were people of Muslim Faith pray and break there fast.  It was our intention to have this happen at the monument to help educate people on the faith and promote tolerance.  However, a police officer saw this as an appropriate time to launch a tear gas cannister (There has been some debate as to what the cannister in fact was, but I know that I smelled tear gas) into the crowd.

There was no provacation for this attack.  People began to panic and started running in all sorts of directions.  I jumped on a speaker and asked people to repeat after me and stated that we would not be intimidated, we would not be provoked and we are going to continue with our rally.  People began to calm down and the speaker who had been interrupted continued.

At this point the police, in full riot gear, began to surround us.  A decision was made to get people out of there.  I approached a police line and stated that I was just as interested as they were to get people out of there without further incident as they were and was told to get back and backoff.

As the police surrounded us, people began moving down Elgin away from the University of Ottawa which was to be our final destination.

We eventually got the group to turn back around on Metcalfe.  As people were marching back, I spotted two Ottawa Carleton Police Officers on bicycles.  I approached them, hoping to get a better response than I did from the riot cops.  I told them that I needed to get these people back to the U of O and I wanted to do it with out incident just as much as them.  They said that they could radio ahead and try to get the way cleared for us but I would have to slow the march down.  I promptly ran ahead and slowed the march down.  We had just begun to turn on to Laurier, with only one bridge to cross to get to the University, when the police decided again that this was a good time to jump into the crowd with there guns and arrest someone.  There was a person hurt on the corner and the panic set in again as people started to scramble.  We managed to calm people down again and went back to the University.