The Daily GRRR! - January 9th, 2015 - Waves Through Walls: Prison Radio

Welcome, I am your host Dan Kellar and you are listening to The Daily GRRR! Waves Through Walls: Prison Radio, on 100.3fm, CKMS in Waterloo, Ontario. Soundfm.ca on the web, today is Friday January 9th, 2015.

We are broadcasting from the centre of the Haldimand Tract, the occupied Grand River Territory of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations).

The Daily GRRR! is a project of the Grand River Media Collective; and is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

The clip that kicked off the show is from Mumia Abu-Jamal with his piece entitled A World A Mess. Check prisonradio.org for more of Mumia’s podcasts.

Today’s feature is part of an interview from the John Bonnar Audio Blog on rabble.ca with Zoe Dodd, a member of the Ontario Coalition against Poverty. They talk about the fight to get a 24-hour drop in for women and trans people opened in Toronto, including the November 25th sit-in action which saw Zoe and 4 other womyn charged with criminal offences.

Now we will start with today’s headlines:

The Daily GRRR!
HEADLINES for January 9th, 2015 
1. Fireworks and Fisticuffs At Hamilton New Years Eve Prison Noise Demo
2. Regina Police Reportedly Threaten ‘Starlight Tour’ for Disabled Indigenous Woman
3. >Mountie in Manitoba Took Arrestee To His House
4. RCMP Officer Ignores Sexual Assault, Gets Docked Pay
5. Surrey Transit Police Kill Gitxsan First Nation Youth
6. 10 More Police Arrested In Ayotzinapa Student Disappearance
7. Attempted Bombing of NAACP Office in Colorado Springs
8. CBSA Pushes Death Sentence Deportation
9. Hamilton Man Set For Double Punishment Deportation
10. High Error Rate in Processing Immigration Documents
11. Conservatives Block Ottawa News Site From Government Servers
12. Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie

1. >Fireworks and Fisticuffs At Hamilton New Years Eve Prison Noise Demo
Dozens of anarchists and other anti-prison enthusiasts in southern Ontario “held noise demos outside prisons in the area, to show our hatred of prisons and the world that creates them, to show solidarity with folks locked up, and to build our collective strength with a tradition of fun, rowdy demos.”

2 incarceration centers were visited this year, the Syl Apps Youth Detention Centre in Oakville and the “usual stop at the Barton Jail in Hamilton.”

The private corporation that runs the youth detention centre is Kinark “also runs school programs and summer camps.” And the anarchists report “The youth in this jail responded enthusiastically to the fireworks, the drum band, and the solidarity, dancing, banging on their windows, and flicking their lights.”

At the barton jail, the noise demo went on under the purview of cops in a couple of police cruisers until the end when the pigs decided to try to arrest those lighting off fireworks. After some fisticuffs and several de-arrests, 3 people were arrested, only to be released without charges later on.

The report-back notes “We're glad to put on a good show of collective rage and resistance for folks on the inside, who pounded louder as the confrontation heated up.”

New years eve noise demos took place across the globe at prisons and other sites where our loved ones are held by tyrannical governments.

2. Regina Police Reportedly Threaten ‘Starlight Tour’ for Disabled Indigenous Woman

First reported by the mother of 25 year-old Brooke Watson over facebook, the Regina police apparently “took her boots coats and threatened to drop her off outside of Regina to die.” While Brooke is now out of police custody her mother Lisa Dustyhorn, told reporters at a rally on Thursday “She couldn’t come here today because she fears the police, she fears the public. She fears people now.”

The police apparently arrested Brooke for public intoxication, and according to GPS details from the cruiser, they drove around for 30 minutes before heading to the station. Video from the lock-up shows Brooke entering without shoes or a jacket.

Police in Saskatchewan have an acknowledged history of taking indigenous people out of town in the bleak days of winter and dropping them off, to die by exposure.

And the next two stories have only recently come to light and show the despicable nature of colonial policing in Canada.

3. Mountie in Manitoba Took Arrestee To His House
After arresting an Indigenous women and locking her up for being intoxicated, RCMP constable Kevin Theriault returned to the police station and asked for the women to be released into his custody. He then drove her home in his car in a move that Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak told the CBC was “appalling...It’s a gross abuse of power.”

While the incident took place in 2011, it is only recently being revealed and shows “a horrendous breach of trust,” Nepinak said. The officer was docked 7 days pay for the incident which many folk pointing out that this was a prime example of sexual assault.

The CBC reported thatthe New York-based Human Rights Watch reprot"Those Who Take Us," documents serious misconduct involving northern British Columbia RCMP officers and indigenous women in custody, many of whom were intoxicated.

The report attempts to link the way RCMP treat aboriginal women and girls in custody to the larger problem of missing and murdered women. Report Author Meghan Rhoad said “If communities can’t trust police to behave properly how can indigenous women and girls feel that these are people they can go to for protection?” she said.

4.RCMP Officer Ignores Sexual Assault, Gets Docked Pay
In another incident which has only come to light recently, RCMP constable Allan Paopst tried to convince a victim of an attack and sexual assault to not press charges, saying in a statement that “he was not satisfied that she had, in fact, been assaulted.”

The incident, which happened in Portage la Prairie Manitoba, saw the officer take a complaint from a woman who was choked, stripped, and beaten before being pushed out of the house naked by her then boyfriend. While the woman wanted the man charged, Paopst convinced her otherwise, and it was not until another officer saw the case that charges were laid against the boyfriend.

Paopst was only docked 3 days pay for his non-investigation, despite his complete disregard for the policy on dealing with violence in relationships.

5. Surrey Transit Police Kill Gitxsan First Nation Youth
While staying with his girlfriend following the funeral of his uncle, Naverone Christian Landon Woods, a 23 year old member of the Gitxsan First Nation was killed by Surrey transit police following an alleged incident with a knife.

The incident, which took place on December 28th, is being investigated by the so-called independent investigations office, and family members have said that Naverone was “a gentle, quiet guy” and that what was described to them was out of character for him.

…

and to end our ACAB session for this show:

6. 10 More Police Arrested In Ayotzinapa Student Disappearance
Another 10 pigs from the Iguala municipal police force have been arrested in the disappearance of 43 teaching students from Ayotzinapa. The arrests, marking 60 police officers and 30 others, including Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca, do little to bring information regarding the whereabouts of the 43 students.

The government claims that a drug cartel killed the students after being handed them by police forces. However, only 1 body has been found and the parents of the students continue to demand answers from state security forces who they claim had a direct involvement in the situation.

7. Attempted Bombing of NAACP Office in Colorado Springs
Following an explosion that luckily killed no-one at an NAACP office in Colorado Springs, the FBI is hunting for a balding white man in his 40s. The IED placed by the balding white man malfunctioned, and failed to ignite the gas can portion of the device.

While mainstream media in the states have virtually ignored this potential hate-crime, the FBI is looking into this as a case of domestic terrorism. The NAACP have escalated their push for justice following the police murders of several unarmed black men in the US in the past 6 months.

And now we move into a few stories on the injustice known as the canadian immigration system.

8. CBSA Pushes Death Sentence Deportation
After breaking with his family, his upbringing, and his faith, and escaping to canada 2010, 24 year old John Calvin has now been ordered deported back to Palestine where the Edmonton resident says he will be killed.

Calvin, born and brought up in the home of Hamas members in Palestine and trained in military tactics, came to Canada after being nearly killed following his conversion to christianity. He claims to have been a member of Hamas when he was younger but renounced them when Fateh took control of the West Bank several years ago.

Using the alias John Calvin, the man said “For me, deportation is the equivalent of a death sentence… If I am not killed by the (Palestinian) government, I will be killed by Hamas because I shamed them publicly, and if not them, then I will be killed by my family.”

However, due to his early involvement with Hamas, the canadian refugee protection board has deemed Calvin a terrorist and seeks to deport him. A crowd-funding campaign to help Calvin in his legal battle has been started on gofundme.com called “Save John’s Life”

9. Hamilton Man Set For Double Punishment Deportation
While in jail for simply robbery last year, Farai Chigogora was informed he would be deported from canada upon his release, despite being a permanent resident. Farai has not been to Zimbabwe since he was 14 and his family livse in Hamilton, yet under new rules the youth is to be deported to the violence plagued country.

Farai served 15 months in prison for robbery and is now subject to the new double punishment legislation created by the conservative government which strips new migrant residents of their rights, whether they be citizen, refugee, or others in any-stage of the migration process.

Youth advocate and law student Riaz Sayani-Mulji said in a press release:
“Beginning with the anti-Black racism in Canada’s criminal justice system, and ending with the unfairness of Canada’s immigration law with double punishment deportations, this is an injustice that needs to be righted,”

You can support Farai’s legal battle by making a donation at http://justice-for-farai.com, writing a letter to your local MP, or taking direct action to stop his removal.

10. High Error Rate in Processing Immigration Documents
An internal investigation of immigration canada has found a “high error rate” in the department “from permanent resident applications to refugee work permits,” which the toronto star reports has prompted “fears over the system’s integrity”.

Human errors cause by briskly trained, and under-paid staff have been highlighted as the cause of the integrity check noting “The number of request letters not sent, sent incomplete or unclear at initial stage and later on create a negative impact on both clients and the Case Processing Centre”

Steve McCuaig, national president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union said “Since the (Stephen) Harper government came into power, Citizenship and Immigration has seen too many cuts and lost many qualified employees.” The union noted that 50% of the workforce is now short-term student workers who are given 3 days training.

11. Conservatives Block Ottawa News Site From Government Servers
Harper's conservative government in Canada, the same one that calls for the respect of freedom of speech in light of the murder of 10 satirists in France, has blocked access to an Ottawa based news website which gives timely information about government actions and legislation.

BlackLocks.ca reported that they had been placed on a government blacklist by Shared Services Canada who blocked access to the website to all government employees.

On a post on their webpage, Holly Doan, the publisher of blacklocks said “It’s astonishing to see Canada join the short list of countries that forbid public employees from accessing internet news sites… This is not only Orwellian, it appears to breach the government’s own guidelines on workplace internet use.”

The post notes that “Access To Information records show the department’s IT security division blocked the website blacklocks.ca from last August 22, sending an email alert to numerous agencies including the Department of Industry, Correctional Service of Canada, tax department and others.”

12. Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie
In the wake of the killings of 10 satirists in France, who worked for a racist and islamophobic publication, Vancouver based anti-imperial and migrant rights activist social Harsha Walia responded with important analysis around satire, power relations, and dangerous solidarity. The post is short and to the point so I will read it here in it’s entirety:

“In condemning the killings at Charlie Hebdo, can we please not forget that it's a racist publication, that attacks on certain religions are racialized (and hence are racist attacks), that free speech/satire is not a sacred cow (especially when it becomes violent, hate speech), and that the backlash that will ensue will disproportionately target certain communities for scrutiny and surveillance (in the context of ever-rising anti-Muslim backlash in Europe under the guise of state/racialized secularism and anti-migrant sentiment). This is not to justify the murders (obviously), but this publication should continue to be condemned and not suddenly be let off the hook (like how the hell is there suddenly social license to reproduce their racist images as some kind of gesture of 'solidarity'?), and to be vigilant about the rationale that the state will deploy for further enacting violence.” - Harsha Walia

Thats all for the headlines, now for some
Midway Musichere is another one from RPM’s best Indigenous Artists of 2014 - Quese IMC featuring Cempoalli 20 and Marla Nauni with the tune The Comanche

And we are back, you just heard Quese IMC featuring Cempoalli 20 and Marla Nauni with the tune The Comanche

You are listening to Waves Through Walls edition of The Daily GRRR! Today is January 9th, 2015, my name is Dan Kellar and we are now moving into the feature portion of our broadcast.

Today’s feature is part of an interview from the John Bonnar Audio Blog on rabble.ca with Zoe Dodd, a member of the Ontario Coalition against Poverty. They talk about the fight to get a 24-hour drop in for women and trans people opened in Toronto, including the November 25th sit-in action which saw Zoe and 4 other womyn charged with criminal offences.

That was part of an interview from the John Bonnar Audio Blog on rabble.ca with Zoe Dodd, a member of the Ontario Coalition against Poverty.
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/john-bonnar-audio-blog/2015/01/feminist-...

This has been the The Daily GRRR! for January 9th, 2015. We are on weekdays from 9-10am on 100.3fm CKMS in Waterloo region, and http://soundfm.ca on the web. Check out all our past shows and other Grand River Media Collective work on our webpage http://grandrivermc.ca

The Daily GRRR! is supported by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and CKMS.

Stay tuned in for more Grand River Radical Radio after we close the podcast.

Thanks for Listening.

END OF SHOW