CLIMATE OF MISTRUST

POLICE VIOLENCE, AND DIVISIVE PROTEST TACTICS, SCAR THE ANTI-CORPORATE MOVEMENTS

Paul Spendlove

Peter Atack admits that one of his reasons for bowing out of next month's G8 protests is mundane - he will be closing on his first home that weekend.

But Atack, an activist who was heavily involved in organizing the G20 protests in November, also has philosophical reasons for his decision not to participate. He says he and other activists feel they can't accept the agenda of Take the Capital, the main coalition of groups organizing the demonstrations on June 26-27.

Atack, a Quaker, says his religious views prevent him from supporting the coalition's commitment to a diversity of tactics, some of which could be violent. "Even though we're fighting the same fight, and even though I don't want to see them get hurt, they haven't left me any grounds on which to support them or defend them in public," he says.

But he says he saw a lot of police brutality at the G20, so Atack's biggest fear is for the safety of the protesters at the hands of police.

"I've been seeing a rising level of police violence and police actions," he says. "They were quite frankly disgusting in November, and I'm concerned the police will hear about the division in the movement and use that as an excuse to attack the protesters. And that's just not acceptable."

These views are common among "mainstream" protesters like religious groups, unions and political parties such as the NDP. They are alienated by the hard-liners organizing the June 26-27 demonstrations, but they have a deep mistrust of police - a hangover from the G20 violence - and they say it won't go away until police take responsibility for their mistakes and abuses during the November protests.

Participants in Take the Capital - a coalition representing about 50 activist groups, mainly from Ontario and Quebec - say their plans are not exclusionary.

"This is also an anti-capitalist callout ... that doesn't mean everyone protesting is anti-capitalist, but it is the framework organizers have taken," says John Hollingsworth of the Ottawa Coalition Against the Tories, referring to an online invitation for a recent two-day planning session in Ottawa. "Certainly the NDP and faith groups are free and able, like any other group on a decentralized basis, to organize their own actions, and to participate in events such as the upcoming Counter-conference [activist workshops June 14-16 in Ottawa]."

But Atack points out that Take The Capital's callout, posted online in March, requests that participants in the planning accept specific political and organizing principles. Among the principles are "a clear anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist position against globalization," "a respect for a diversity of tactics, and showing solidarity with the full scope of resistance in our communities," and "a distrust and skepticism of lobbying efforts, emphasizing instead grassroots organizing, popular education and mobilizing."

Atack is dismayed by the coalition's rejection of lobbying and political groups, whose fundraising, he says, is key to the protest movement: "To turn around and dis your best allies doesn't strike me as being wise or effective."

Yet, in a showdown between police and protesters, there are no doubts as to where his sympathies lie.

"Those of us who are familiar with history know that rights are inalienable and absolute," he says. "It is never okay for the police to use the tactics they have been using. And it's never okay for our citizens to be attacked by our cops."

Police, for their part, insist that all measures are being taken to ensure the G8 protests are peaceful. Adhering to principles set out in the Ottawa police's "Agenda for Excellence," released April 22, a document described as a starting point for public discussions on policing major events, officers have been assigned to meet with protesters before the June demonstrations.

"We want to be proactive in the sense that we want to liaise with everybody, so that at the end of the day, everything will be done in a very transparent manner," said Staff Sgt. Monique Ackland, Ottawa police media liaison for the G8.

The Agenda for Excellence insists the "liaison mandate should be separate and independent from any intelligence-gathering function."

This line seems to respond to a charge by the G20 police liaison committee - a four-member group including Atack - that police used the liaison role to gather information on protest plans. Atack says police "pumped them for information" on tactics prior to the November demonstrations, then used the information to ambush peaceful marches.

Ackland wouldn't comment on G20 events, but did elaborate on the role of police in liaison committees. "Say someone is doing protester liaison, and over here someone is planning to bomb a building," she said. "That person is responsible for informing the proper authorities. Our role as police is to protect the public."

Reverend Sharon Moon of the First United Church in Ottawa echoed Atack's concerns: "My fear is that there is fear-mongering and sabre-rattling going on, and my concern is that 'intelligence' will again be used to quell civil liberties."

Moon was one of the community leaders who helped create the Citizens Panel on Policing and the Community in the wake of the G20. Created in the absence of any official enquiry, the five-person panel, led by former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar, listened to dozens of G20 protesters who said their trust was betrayed by police actions. In a May 9 report, the panel stressed the importance of communication between protesters and police and called on police to apologize for "errors in communication and coordination with marchers."

Some on the Citizens Panel said they see the police Agenda for Excellence as a step in the right direction. But with no apology from the police forthcoming, many activists are not impressed.

"The police can say whatever they want, but with the activist community, they have no credibility," said Vicki Smallman, who represented the Ottawa Centre NDP at the G20 protests, and was, with Atack, part of the liaison group that met with police. "I'm not even just talking the anti-capitalist community, but the faith groups, my group ... the mainstream progressive community is furious at them and doesn't trust them anymore."

A Take the Capital organizer echoed Smallman's mistrust. "Most of the organizations [in the coalition] refuse to dialogue with police," said Jeremy Bell, spokesperson for Take the Capital. During the G20 demonstrations, "police were simply lying to us, trying to manipulate things in whatever manner they wanted to. That will continue to be our approach. We're not intending a dialogue with police," he said.

Caught between the two extremes - condemning police abuses, but questioning the willingness of some activists to use violence - some mainstream groups see a possible new role for themselves, foreshadowed in one of the recommendations of the Citizens Panel: accompany protesters as independent observers, encouraging responsible actions by both sides.

"It would be useful, I think, for the citizens of Ottawa, as well as all parties, to have some sort of independent witnesses whose only duty there is to bear witness, to say 'this is what happened, this is what we saw,'" says Atack.