On Monday September 13, 2010, Justice Todd Ducharme ruled that Alex Hundert and Leah Henderson can remain free on bail even though he did agree with the Crown that the Justice of the Peace in the case had made several errors in his earlier written decision.

Alex Hundert and Leah Henderson were released on July 19, 2010 on $100,000 bail each. Shortly after their release, the Crown filed an appeal to review the terms of bail given by the previous Justice of the Peace.

Henderson was arrested at gunpoint after police kicked in the door to their home on Saturday June 26, 2010. Hundert was arrested the same day. Both were arrested for being alleged “ringleaders” of the G20 protests, among 19 in total, in what activists are calling the criminalization of dissent.

“No matter how repressive the attempts to stop resistance against the agenda of the G20 which takes away from people and their communities, and destroys the earth for profit and power, people will continue to resist this exploitative and oppressive system which seeks to deny people their ability to determine their own futures and wellbeing,” says Alex Hundert.

This month, the Crown announced that they will be similarly appealing the release of Amanda (Mandy) Hiscocks, who was arrested along with Hundert and Henderson in a violent pre-emptive pre-dawn raid on the morning of June 26, 2010.

On September 27, all 19 accused in that same conspiracy case will be before the Ontario Superior Court.

According to a TCMN presser, six people are still being held in prison on G20 related charges, almost all of them being held on the basis of systemic prejudices of the system. Ryan Rainville of the Sackimay Nation is an Indigenous Sovereignty activist targeted for arrest and now imprisoned, being held for detention in part because his family and friends do not have the capital assets to constitute being viewed by the court as “acceptable” for his release into their custody.  Of those still detained most are being held on prejudicial grounds.

“The public should be outraged that people are being held in jail for political reasons on the basis of systemic discrimination against poor people, Indigenous people, people without status and people with records of mental health concerns,” says Leah Henderson.

“This is reflective of the broader prejudices and assumptions that underwrite the agenda of the G20 and its member states, which includes deeply embedded systemic racisms and oppression of poor communities, Indigenous peoples, migrant communities, communities of colour and queer communities, and the repression of activists, organizers, and all those who would challenge the dominant norms of this system,” Henderson says.

G20 activists who work on Indigenous rights claim they have been targeted by the police post-G20.

According to Leah Henderson, “We are being targeted for the ideas we advocate as anarchist organizers including decentralization of power, non-hierarchical and non-coercive community structures, active resistance against oppression, and real freedom and equality. The Crown has singled us out specifically as anarchists, but also as allies to Indigenous land defenders.”

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The 247 Committee is providing support for the G20 arrestees and can be reached at [email protected].

To hear about upcoming meetings of the 247 Committee or the Toronto Community Solidarity Network and future events and organizing, please join a low-traffic announcement listserve at https://masses.tao.ca/lists/listinfo/community.mobilize.

For more information about calling for a G20 inquiry, please see http://www.g20inquiry.org/

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...