“Two-thousand protesters, mostly anarchists with concealed weapons…” (Reuters News)

“It was a recipe for disaster at world finance meetings…” (Canadian Press)

The latest round of International Monetary Fund talks in Ottawa, and the protests that accompany IMF talks, have been played down by the mainstream media yet again. It is increasingly more difficult for people to get their message across in a society caught up in ‘terrorist mania’. On October 16th, the day Ontario Premier Mike Harris announced his resignation, there was an anti-poverty demonstration in the heart of Toronto’s business district.

The October 16 protesters were out calling attention to the lack of affordable housing, the high number of homeless people (especially the growing number of children and mothers on the streets), the feminization of poverty, and the lack of proper government services and care in the city of Toronto.

This is the message the general public received:

“Anarchists and other protesters reportedly threw Molotov cocktails, rocks and garbage at the Sick Children’s Hospital.” (CBC The National)

“Police estimate that roughly one-third of the protesters were involved in illegal activities all along Bay Street, including the vandalism of Sick Kids Hospital…” (CityTV News)

“These thugs are using these extremely upsetting times to push their message of hate, of disobedience, and of disrespect into our everyday lives. “ (Mel Lastman news conference)

The protesters, interested in exterminating poverty, in bringing better economic equality and opportunity to women and children, and interested in eliminating homelessness, were villainized by the mainstream media and their message was twisted and tainted so out of shape that it became one of aggression and violence to the casual observer.

The fact is that not a single stone was thrown at Sick Kids, although several children patients waved out their windows and some nurses honked their car horns in support of the demonstrators. There were obscure cases of vandalism that resulted in some National Post news boxes being overturned, and the American flag from a local hotel was set on fire.

Most of the violence that the demonstrators were accused of perpetrating was actually carried out by members of the Metro Police. People were kept chained up in the back of Paddy Wagons for six to eight hours (read John Milton’s story on the Hamilton Indymedia site), others were shot at with rubber bullets and tear gas, and many were beaten and pepper-sprayed after they had been handcuffed. One young man was even run over by someone driving a Jaguar, although the police wouldn't even let a report be filed by the demonstrators.

The lack of coverage of the Ottawa IMF/World Bank/G-20 protests is disturbing. This is a new trend in mainstream media that is scary. The terrorist attacks of September 11 have meant much more than security clampdowns at airports. It has given license to the media to produce any news they want, even if they need to make it up. Couple that with the fact that most of our media is operated by only a handful of companies (all right-wing supporters), and we have a very dangerous mix. The general public remains unaware of the messages that activists hope to make. Here are some examples:

Activist books, mostly written by PhDs and other learned authors, cannot be found at conventional bookstores.

News coverage of activism is distorted to make the activists look like the bad guys, and when the story can’t be twisted, it is given no coverage.

Reporters for media such as IMC are among the first arrested at demonstrations, and their press badges are ignored, as is their right to freedom of the press of any medium.

The coverage of the November 17 and 18 demonstrations in Ottawa was pathetic and twisted. The general population has been painted a picture of anarchists in black smashing store windows and beating on ‘innocent’ police officers, in the name of violence and hatred. In fact, the headline for Yahoo! News coverage states that the IMF was meeting to discuss ways to eradicate poverty, and that the protesters were there to make sure that poverty was kept as the status quo. This is not only false, it is completely made-up. The news is now being used as a propaganda tool, and the general public is unaware of it. In fact, most will argue the opposite.

It is through mediums such as IMC that the truth, although written by ‘amateurs’ and ‘hooligans’, is published to the general public. This makes IMC one of the most democratic forms of media around, and it is only through constant and meaningful contributions that IMC will remain one of the leading sources of real news that you can find.