An in depth report on the recently released CLAC organizer, Jaggi Singh





CLAC organizer
Jaggi Singh is released

Jaggi Singh, a visible organizer with the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC), was released on $3,000 bail, after having spent almost three weeks in jail. Singh had been arrested by the police during the protests against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City on April 20. Previous bail requests had been denied until the latest ruling which came earlier this week on Monday. Singh had been pulled from the street only a few hours after the protests first began. No one knew his whereabouts until the late evening of the day of his arrest, thus prompting the legal team to report at one point that he had been kidnapped by the police.


Singh\'s charges include
launching of teddy bears

The initial charges against Singh, who faces an upcoming June 4 trial, included possession of a weapon, participation in a riot and breaching bail conditions from previous protest-related arrests. One charge has been dropped (more on this below). As for the possession of a weapon charge, which has not been dropped, the allegation is that Mr. Singh organized the use of a catapult that was used against riot police, who had stood guard behind the 3.9 kilometer long wall ostensibly erected to protect the 34 Heads of State who met at the Summit during the protests.

Perhaps the most strange aspect of the charges is the fact that the \"weapon\" in question was used to launch teddy bears. According to Richard Bourdon, a spokesman for the Sûreté du Québec (the security force of Quebec), the catapult had the ability to launch other things as well: \"Obviously, if you throw a teddy bear, it\'s not dangerous. But if you can throw rocks, it is dangerous.\" During Singh\'s third bail hearing, Officer François Colin testified that the catapult was used to launch Molotov cocktails at police, and that Singh used a megaphone to control the crowd. Nevertheless, no evidence was presented that demonstrated that the catapult did launch any objects other than teddy bears. Furthermore, the people who actually built the catapult, claim Jaggi had nothing to do with building it or organizing its use.

A statement signed by the creators of the catapult, who were members of the Summit protest affinity group, \"The Deconstructionist Institute for Surreal Topology,\" proclaimed that Singh was \"in no way involved with any aspect of the planning or deployment of the catapult and was never in possession of the \'dangerous weapon\' . . . the catapult was a prop which was used in an absolutely non-violent manner to mock the absurdity of holding the secretive and undemocratic summit within a walled fortress.\" Finally, the statement reasoned that Singh did not have the \'\'chutzpah\'\' necessary to pull off the stunt. The statement was sent to the Crown counsel and the Minister of Justice.


Singh\'s Release

Singh\'s release comes only after a third attempt at trying to garner bail, during what was a 17 day run of incarceration. Initially, Quebec Court Judge Yvon Mercier denied Singh\'s request for bail. In reaction to that ruling, which Singh only heard via a video-conferencing device, Singh reportedly \"raised a fist in the air and blew kisses.\" (National Post April 27) Judge Mercier made the ruling on the grounds that he had violated previous bail requirements that had been imposed upon Singh for a demonstration in Westmount, which Mercier had interpreted as preventing Singh from being present at any protest that turned \"violent.\" Thus, the judge denied him bail, arguing that by participating in the Quebec City protest, Singh had violated the conditions of his prior release from the Westmount demonstration.

On his third attempt to receive bail, however, Singh with successful as a ruling from Judge Laurent Dube of Quebec Court granted him bail, upon payment of $3,000. A key role in Dube\'s decision apparently was another decision that had been made by the prosecutor\'s office and was released just a few days before Dube\'s ruling. The Crown had dropped charges stemming from a Westmount demonstration Singh had participated in last year: \"Given the fact that appears that this may have been one of the factors that resulted in him being kept in jail, we consented to a stay of proceeding on the Westmount charges.\" The court then acknowledged that Mr. Singh\'s bail conditions from Westmount applied only to demonstrations that had occurred in Westmount. (Globe and Mail May 4)

Nevertheless, the Crown pressed on, laying new charges that Singh\'s participation in a demonstration in Montreal against the G20 last fall and the related bail conditions to Singh\'s arrest therein had been violated in Quebec City. However, when Judge Dube asked the prosecution what the G20 was, the prosecutor did not know, saying he thought it was a meeting of \"some politicians or businessmen.\" (The G20 meetings were meetings between 20 international finance ministers.)

After the Westmount admission and in light of exchanges between the prosecution and the Judge like the one just noted, it comes as little surprise that Judge Dube granted Singh bail this past Monday. Nevertheless, Singh\'s release does not come without conditions. Singh has been banned from using a megaphone, said his court-appointed lawyer, Pascal Lescarbeau. Singh also had to pay $3,000 in bail money to get released.

Judge Dube, however, did rule against prosecutor Georges Letendre, when he lobbied Dube to prohibit Singh from participating in \"any demonstration in Quebec City\" or anywhere else in Canada. Judge Dube stated that \"The accused is an activist,\" and ruled that Singh could participate in peaceful demonstrations but could not organize demonstrations (hence, the decision to prohibit megaphone usage).

In light of the key trial developments noted above, there is little doubt that such developments did not come at least partially as a result of the plethora of protests and public outcry against Singh\'s extended imprisonment. The Toronto based newspaper Globe and Mail reported shortly before Singh\'s release that, \"the [initial] ruling [and denial of bail] triggered a wave of protest across the country . . .\" and that \"as support broadens among labour unions, civil-rights groups and social activists behind the demand for his release from a Quebec City jail, the more difficult it is becoming for Canadian authorities to justify Mr. Singh\'s imprisonment for the past three weeks.\" Also shortly before Jaggi\'s release and according to the Canadian based National Post (May 3), \"\'Free Jaggi Singh\' protests,\" had taken place across Canada and the world, including \"Montreal and as far away as the Czech Republic, France, Germany and the United States since the Summit of the Americas in April.\"


A Pattern of Repression

Naomi Klein is a chronicler of the anti-corporate globalization movement and author of a book journalist Marc Cooper calls the political manifesto of the movement and is entitled No Logo. Klein spoke with six witnesses of Singh\'s kidnapping (later to have found out to have been an arrest): \"All say Mr. Singh was standing around talking to friends, urging them to move further away from the breached security fence. They all say he was trying to de-escalate the police stand off.\" Mike Staudenmaier, a U.S. activist who was talking to Mr. Singh when he was arrested, said Jaggi told him that \"it was getting too tense,\" right before Singh was grabbed and then surrounded by three large men. \"They were dressed like activists,\" said Helen Nazon to Klein, a 23 year old from Quebec City. \"They pushed Jaggi on the ground and kicked him. It was really violent.\"

\"Then they dragged him off,\" said Michele Luellen, one of the six witnesses. Nazon, who also spoke with Center for Media Alternatives reporter David Creighton, concurred with Luellen: \"[the undercover police] picked Jaggi up, dragged him into an unmarked panel van . . . and sped away.\"

Klein reported further that:

All the witnesses told me that when Mr. Singh\'s friends closed in to try to rescue him, the men dressed as activists pulled out long batons, beat back the crowd and identified themselves: \'Police!\' they shouted. \'Police!\' Then they threw him into a beige van and drove off. Several of the young activists have open cuts where they were hit.

Singh\'s arrest was not the first of its kind for him. In two other incidents, Klein writes about how Singh has been targeted before by police. For instance, during the day before the 1997 protests against the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit took place . . .

Mr. Singh was grabbed by two plain-clothes police officers while walking alone on the University of British Columbia campus, thrown to the ground, and stuffed in an unmarked car. The charge, he later found out, was assault police - Mr. Singh had apparently talked so loudly into a megaphone some weeks before that it had hurt the ear drum of a nearby police officer. The charges, of course, were later dropped, but the point was clearly to have Mr. Singh behind bars during the protest, just as he will no doubt be in custody for today\'s march. He faced a similar arrest took place at the G20 Summit in Montreal.

Such pre-emptive arrests against Singh have prompted him to state in a recent interview with the Montreal based journalist, Lyle Stewart, that \"whenever a handful of major world leaders are due to arrive in a Canadian city, I get abducted.\" In the face of yet another upcoming trial for Singh for an arrest that occurred scarcely after the protests against the Summit even began and in light of two prior pre-emptive arrests at a couple of past demonstrations, that certainly seems to be the case.