I do not have time to prepare a submission or attend the panel but I strongly support what you doing. What follows is a letter I sent the Citizen on Nov 19th after reading the paper's account of the event. It expresses my reaction to what I experienced, for your records. Thank you for this opportunity.

Letter to Ottawa Citizen Nov 19, 2001 Unpublished:

Susan Riley's November 19th column describes very well the dynamics that I witnessed between peaceful demonstrators and police and was a refreshing counterpoint to the drivel that appeared in the Sunday Citizen under various bylines. I commend her for her objective and critical reporting.

I don't usually go to demonstrations anymore. This probably has something to do with now being well into my 50s and tending to see more shades of gray in the big issues of the day than blacks and whites. I did, however, decide to take part in the Saturday demonstration because I wanted in some way to convey dissent with agendas that are hatched in secret meetings and that negatively impact the environment, impose private agendas on public institutions, and seek to impose a one size fits all economic order on the world. Others who chose to demonstrate had other reasons for being there and expressed those reasons in various and peaceful ways.  All were exercising what most Canadians, and the pre-September 11th laws of the land, would acknowledge are a basic democratic right. The police seemed to have a different view.

The imposing presence of police in full riot gear with an intimidating array of weaponry may be explained as a requirement of the times for this kind of event, given how badly such events have gone in other countries and in Quebec City. I can appreciate the need for heightened security, even including the targeting of groups within the ranks of demonstrators who advocate violence and have a track record of trashing property. The police carried out such screening with some black uniformed anarchists at the beginning of the march - pulled them aside, searched them, roughed them up. However, what followed in the behaviour of the police along the Laurier Avenue route was simply over the top. It was both enraging and disappointing.  They behaved like ticking time bombs ready to go off. Aggressors rather than peace officers. Their aggression seemed unprovoked, in one instance setting a dog on someone and yelling obscenities into the crowd for no apparent reason than that the person crossed some imaginary line between police and demonstrators. A word of warning would have probably sufficed. In another incidence my daughter was aggressively pushed and told to move on as she simply walked between police lines which formed in front of demonstrators at the beginning of the march. There was nothing provocative in her dress or demeanor. A firm but civil verbal command would have more than sufficed under the circumstances. We can expect better from our police and they can do better.

The experience led me to conclude that the  civil liberties of all of us are at considerable risk in this new environment and we should not assume that our police will exercise restraint in using additional power they are being given under new legislation. Soon we may not be able to attend public demonstrations at all except in support of government policy.