I was among the demonstrators who walked as witness to the G20 meetings here in Ottawa on Nov 17. I marched with a group from my congregation, Trinity United Church, along with my 17-year-old son and my 12-year-old daughter. I was especially pleased that my daughter chose to come. I saw this as an opportunity for her to experience and participate in an important democratic activity. Peaceful public demonstration is a vital means for ordinary people to help bring issues of justice to the attention of the public, the  media and our parliamentary representatives.

I very much want my children to feel responsible to the global community they live in, and to know that as Canadians they have opportunities to stand up for justice, especially for people who don’t have our democratic rights.  I want my children to be aware that they have some power to help right the wrongs in their world. As my 17- year-old  well knows, economic globalization negotiations are of grave concern among those educated about its serious impacts, both in developing countries and here in Canada. November 17th was a chance for us all to stand up and declare the truth that the G20 negotiations are fundamentally undemocratic. Inclusion, transparency and accountability to the public are fundamentals of democracy that are missing from the process. It is notable that the huge international movement against what these meetings are doing, is led by a youth educated about democratic norms. They know the secrecy is wrong. All they want is that our civil society be included at the negotiating tables.

Demonstrations, with the speeches and songs and information leafleting,  are (usually!)  great places for young people to become informed about social issues. They are one way kids can actively participate as citizens in our democracy. I take my kids to demonstrations,  just as I took them to the polls with me on voting days when they were little, in order to communicate my values to them.

Unfortunately, due to the shocking police behaviour on November 17th, that day proved to be an ‘educational moment’ of a very different kind than I had planned. The lesson that my daughter took away  was a deep distrust of police. The police were dressed as “bad guys” and they acted like “bad guys”. They grabbed a young man who was innocently  walking along in front of us, and allowed police dogs to attack and wound him.

How can we expect our children to see police as “protectors of the peace” when they commit such aggressive assaults right in front of families at demonstrations? How can anyone expect intelligent young people to respect police officers whose attitudes and behaviour reflect no understanding of the positive contribution that peaceful demonstrators make in a healthy democracy?

 Early that Saturday morning when we arrived at Lebreton Flats, the rally had a familiar “Festival of Democracy” feeling. There was much greeting and laughter, singing with the Raging Grannies and some informative and inspiring speeches.  Those gathered exuded the good feelings people experience when they are doing what they know to be right, standing up for justice - when they have gotten out of bed to come lend their support to an important cause.  Having participated in many peaceful demonstrations over the past 25 years, I was familiar with this experience and particularly enjoyed seeing my daughter take in the scene.

When the march began to move, however, the festival atmosphere quickly gave way to apprehension. As I walked I stared in amazement at a phalanx of riot gear clad police beside us. I walked right into one of them - actually I walked into his gun! That was quite disconcerting! Marchers had to walk through a “sieve” of these armed officers. I’d never seen such an intimidation tactic before - not in Canada anyway!

As we moved up the road, police stopped the group at the end of our parade, separating us from the other church group behind us. Our march organizers asked us to keep moving, so we were unaware of the aggressive police actions we later heard were taking place behind us. A block or so further along, we had our own shocking experience of police assault. Several officers suddenly moved amidst the marchers and grabbed a young man in black. They dragged him off to the side, and as we walked by they threw him down. We saw a growling police dog snapping at the young man lying on the ground. I stopped to watch in horror, wondering what I should do or say. I was persuaded  by a  marshal that we should keep on walking. I was very uncomfortable about leaving that scene, but I wanted to co-operate with the organizers.

At this point, a group of young people were walking just ahead of our church group. They were wearing the popular black ski masks that are now worn by many youth at demonstrations. They told us that they wear these masks because they are afraid of being identified and later targeted by police on the streets. (Their masked faces are a questionable tactic, in my opinion, but hardly a criminal one.)  These young people asked if some of our older, church folk would walk with them, as they were afraid of what the police might do to them. They explained that at meetings with police prior to the demonstration with their group, known as the “black block”, they had pledged to do nothing but march peaceably. That is truly all they were doing when we saw one of their number arrested and so violently attacked.

As we continued on our walk, sobered and scared by what we had seen, we chanted together as a crowd “This is what democracy looks like!” I believe that slogan is a very important message for both the police and our media to hear. Democracy involves demonstrations. Democracy always and everywhere has involved public marches and protests. Canadians who participate in demonstrations are doing a public good and exercising democratic rights. While a very few kids might use the opportunity and excitement of the crowd to do vandalism, the thousands who demonstrate are among the best educated and most politically aware Canadians.

 Demonstrators are usually people who know more that the rest of the media-fed public about justice issues. They are people who care passionately about the rights of people and about democracy. Demonstrators care enough to give up their precious Saturday morning off work or school, to go out in the cold to march. Rather than calling them “Protesters”, I think they should be  recognized by the public and our police as “Protectors”. In the current context of economic globalization, demonstrators are protectors of democracy and human rights and workers rights and our global environment.  Can that be bad? Why then  have our police treated demonstrators with such aggression and suspicion?

Our police forces, (and everyone else who doesn’t appreciate why people are demonstrating against these economic globalization meetings), would do well to get educated.

One personal recommendation is that: all police officers engaged in security for public demonstrations should attend a briefing on the issues, given by the organizations demonstrating. Officers who understood the issues at stake would likely respect the demonstrators and be very reticent to carry out the kind of assaults we saw on November 17th.

Further, that police involved with demonstrators receive training in international codes of conduct for police, which have not been adhered to in Canada of late.

I would also recommend that governments take responsibility for independent monitoring of police policies and behaviours at demonstrations, until the basic human rights abuses by police that we have seen recently stop happening.

We are aware that the unacceptable behaviour of police in Ottawa on November 17th is part of a disturbing trend. Following the policing excesses at the Quebec Summit last Spring, Amnesty International has called for a Commission of Enquiry into Police Conduct.

Let our Nation’s Capital lead the way to respectable policing policy, appropriate to a democracy. Let us be sure that our children never again see police behaving the way they did on November 17th.  Then our kids might be willing to give the police a second chance at earning their trust and respect.

Thank you for your attention.