Police accused of using provocateurs at summit
 http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608
Aug 21, 2007 09:14 PM
Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."

Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."

Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.

"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.

Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader
YouTube video shows union leaders trying to push back masked men
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 | 4:06 PM ET
CBC News

Organizers of the protests at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que., say they have video that shows police disguised as masked demonstrators tried to incite violence on Monday.

The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.The YouTube video shows Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, ordering three masked men back from a line of riot police.
(CBC)

About 1,200 protesters were in the small resort town near Ottawa as Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with U.S. President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a two-day summit to discuss issues under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America pact.

The video titled Stop SPP Protest — Union Leader stops provocateurs, posted on YouTube Tuesday, was shown at a news conference held Wednesday in Ottawa by protest organizers, including Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, who appears in the video.

In the footage filmed Monday afternoon, three burly men with bandanas and other covers over their faces push through protesters toward a line of riot police. One of the men has a rock in his hand.

As they move forward, Coles and other union leaders dressed in suits order the men to put the rock down and leave, accuse them of being police agents provocateurs, and try unsuccessfully to unmask them.
Continue Article

In the end, they squeeze behind the police line, where they are calmly handcuffed.

In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.In this handout photo provided by CUPE, police and protesters clash in Montebello on Monday. Union leaders say photos and video taken by protesters raise troubling questions about police actions during the summit.
(CUPE/Canadian Press)

"The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union believes that the security force at Montebello were ordered to infiltrate our peaceful assembly and to provoke incidents," Coles told reporters. "I think the evidence that we've shown you today reinforces the view."

Coles showed photographs of the masked men's and police officers' boots taken during the handcuffing, in which they appear to have identical tread patterns on their soles.

He also questioned why other activists have been unable to identify the three men whose images have been broadcast worldwide and demanded to know who the masked men were.

"Do they have any connection to the Quebec police force or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or are they part of some other security force that was at Montebello?" Coles asked, adding that he wants to know how the Prime Minister's Office was involved in security during the protests.

He suggested that the government might want to provoke violence in order justify its security budget for the summit and discredit protesters.

"They want to defuse our questions ... by trying to make it look like some radical group trying to create a confrontation," he said.

The RCMP has refused to comment, while Quebec's provincial force has flatly denied that its officers were involved in the incident.

It said it is not releasing any names as no charges were laid.
Retired police officer believes masked men were cops

Meanwhile, a retired Ottawa police officer who was formerly in charge of overseeing demonstrations for the force said he questions who the masked men really are, after viewing the video.

"Were they legitimate protesters? I don’t think so," said Doug Kirkland.

"Well, if they weren't police, I think they might well have been working in the best interests of police."

He added that if the situation was as it appeared, he did not approve of the tactic. "It's pretty close to baiting," he said.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Montebello thanked police and protesters, praising the fact that there wasn't a single report of damage during the two-day summit.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership pact, signed in 2005, is intended to forge closer trade and security links between the countries.

Opponents say negotiations about the agreement are secretive and undemocratic, and the treaty itself erodes Canada's control over its natural resources, security and defence.

 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/08/22/ot-police-070822.html

Police accused of using provocateurs at summit
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Aug 21, 2007 09:14 PM
Canadian Press

OTTAWA – Protesters are accusing police of using undercover agents to provoke violent confrontations at the North American leaders' summit in Montebello, Que.

Such accusations have been made before after similar demonstrations but this time the alleged "agents provocateurs" have been caught on camera.

A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked men is holding a rock in his hand.

The three are confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find their own protest location.

Coles also demands that they put down their rocks. Other protesters begin to chime in that the three are really police agents. Several try to snatch the bandanas from their faces.

Rather than leave, the three actually start edging closer to the police line, where they appear to engage in discussions. They eventually push their way past an officer, whereupon other police shove them to the ground and handcuff them.

Late Tuesday, photographs taken by another protester surfaced, showing the trio lying prone on the ground. The photos show the soles of their boots adorned by yellow triangles. A police officer kneeling beside the men has an identical yellow triangle on the sole of his boot.

Kevin Skerrett, a protester with the group Nowar-Paix, said the photos and video together present powerful evidence that the men were actually undercover police officers.

"I think the circumstantial evidence is very powerful," he said.

The three do not appear to have been arrested or charged with any offence.

Police confirm that only four protesters were arrested during the summit – two men and two women. All have been charged with obstruction and resisting arrest.

Veteran protester Jaggi Singh, who is helping to circulate the video as widely as possible, said all four of those arrested are known to organizers and are genuine protesters.

"But we see very clearly in that video three (other) men being arrested . . . How do (police) account for these three people being taken in, being arrested? Where did they go?" Singh said.

"I have no hesitation in saying they were police agents . . . and they were caught red-handed."

Singh, a member of the Montreal-based No One is Illegal, believes the agents were meant to provoke a confrontation and give the police an excuse to use some of their "toys," such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

"To a certain extent it's self-fulfilling logic. You provide police with this kind of equipment and they end up using it and one way to justify it is to plant some people that toss a rock or two."

Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would comment on the video or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing agents provocateurs.

"I cannot answer your question because I don't have the information," said Const. Kane Kramer, a spokesman for the RCMP at the summit.

 http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608

Montebello Editorial Reveals Media Bias
Jordan Thornton

Responding to revelations that police at the SPP Summit in Montebello had planted Agents Provocateurs at the protest, the Globe & Mail’s Editors began “In years past, it would have been dismissed as the sort of conspiracy theory that professional protestors are fond of” (Blown Cover, August 24).

Dismissed by whom?

By editors of corporate “news” outlets, of course, who increasingly seem to think that investigative journalism is something to be found only in history books, not a central concept to be practiced.

This statement, as well as the implied suggestion that “professional protestors” are some sort of irrational reactionaries, are very enlightening, and a great example of the well-documented (1) and consistent mistreatment of protest movements by the media.

The timing of this Disinformation (2) was rather ironic because, on the same day the video came to light, the Italian media was reporting on an investigation into police misconduct at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa (3). Italian Police raided a school housing protest organizers, alleging that protestors were making Molotov cocktails for use against the police. The report states that police had actually planted several petrol bombs in the school after the raid was completed, and used this “evidence” to justify their detainment of 93 prominent activists. It also found that police used brutal measures against protestors throughout the summit, and a reported knifing, used to paint a picture of protest-created chaos in the streets, simply never happened. One activist was shot in the head, and then backed over by an armoured vehicle. The police later justified this by citing the “widespread violence” of the protestors, but it now appears to have been the sad result of a corrupt process. This, coupled with the Montebello revelations and reports of police misconduct (the most common are of illegal mass arrests, used to clear the streets) at other such summits, presents a clear pattern of repression at events where politicians meet behind closed doors to negotiate questionable policy agreements, collectively referred to as “Globalization”.

Honest leaders, who respect the democratic process, do not act in such a manner.

I hope that these revelations will cause the media to begin investigating and acknowledging this pattern, and take protestors’ (whether “professional” or not) concerns more seriously in the future.

But if the Globe’s editorial is any indication, I guess it would be unhealthy for me to hold my breath.

Here's the Globe & Mail's editorial:

Blown cover
 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20070824.wercmp24%2FBNStory%2FspecialComment%2FQuebec%2F&ord=1010479&brand=theglobeandmail&redirect_reason=2&denial_reasons=none&force_login=false

1) See: "Inventing Reality: The Politics of the Mass Media" by Michael Parenti

2) 25 Tactics for Truth Suppression
Tactics used by Disinformation Agents
 http://alaskafreepress.com/msgboard/disinfo/index.html

3) Genoa Police 'Admit Fabrication'
 http://winnipeg.indymedia.org/item.php?5981S




The YouTube video:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow

CUPE photos showing arrests:
 http://www.cupe.ca/gallery/montebello-monday?page=4


Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.
~Albert Einstein