News of Hiscock’s court sentence of 16 months for G20-related conspiracy charges spread through Twitter with the hashtag #TheLegendaryMandyHiscocks.
Her new blog — “bored but not broken” — which will chronical her life “on the inside” is being hosted on rabble.ca. In her introduction, she writes: “my name is mandy hiscocks, and i expect to spend most of 2012 in jail for my participation in organizing the protests against the G20 leaders summit in toronto in the summer of 2010. this blog is for me to communicate with you while i’m locked up. ideally, this will take some of the pressure off of my friends and family. i’ll also share useful information about jail and the criminal ‘justice’ system, as well as stories from the inside.”
Hiscocks has been involved in anti-poverty and environmental justice struggles for a number of years, including the 2002 Seven Year Squat in Ottawa.
During the G20 Summit weekend in late June 2010, more than 1,100 people were arrested in what was the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. Among those arrested was Mandy Hiscocks, who was among 17 activists labelled by the Crown to be one of the G20 ringleaders charged with such offences as conspiracy.
On Tuesday, November 20, 2011, a deal was struck between the Crown and the accused where six of the 17 individuals had their charges reduced and were sentenced to jail time 11 others had their charges dismissed.
In a statement to the court, “Of the 17 of us, six will be pleading and the 11 others will have their charges withdrawn. Alex Hundert, and Mandy Hiscocks are each pleading to one count of counselling mischief over $5,000 and one count of counselling to obstruct police, and Leah Henderson, Peter Hopperton, Erik Lankin, and Adam Lewis are each pleading to a single count of counselling mischief over $5,000. We are expecting sentences to range between 6 and 24 months, and all will get some credit for time already served in jail and on house arrest.
Three defendants in this case had their charges withdrawn earlier and one has already taken a plea to counselling mischief over $5,000 that involved no further jail time. This means that out of twenty-one people in the supposed G20 Main Conspiracy Group, only seven were convicted of anything, and none were convicted of conspiracy. The total of fourteen withdrawals demonstrates the tenuous nature of the charges.”
Mandy Hiscocks was sentenced to 16 months and has just started her jail sentence as what she refers to as “Occupy Vanier.”
In her statement to the court — which was interrupted eight times — she said, “No matter what my sentence is today, it won’t be about justice. Your system is not about justice. If it was, don’t you think we would have come to you when the G20 decided to set foot here to pursue their obviously unjust austerity agenda? Don’t you think we would have asked for your help when the police started to put up their fences and cages, and randomly arrest whoever they felt like so they could systematically abuse them in the detention centre?
If this system was about righting wrongs, don’t you think we would come to you to hold the rich to account for their abuses against the poor, immigration officials to account for their abuses against people without status, and settlers to account for our abuses against Indigenous people?
We didn’t and don’t come to you. We won’t ever come to you.“
Mandy Hiscocks welcomes letters and will try to respond to each one.
Her address is:
Amanda Hiscocks
Vanier Centre for Women
655 Martin Street
Box 1040
Milton, ON
L9T 5E6
As others have said, I don’t think of Hiscocks as going to jail, I think to myself that another community is just borrowing her for a while.
Please follow Mandy’s blog on rabble here: bored but not broken
Keep her in your thoughts and I’m sure she will be busy “organizing on the inside.”
Activism doesn’t begin and end with a demonstration, or a meeting or a teach-in.
Activism is the electrical wires that run between communities, between friends and allies and from the heart to the head to the hands.
One of the biggest impacts that the G2O Summit protests has had on Ontario activism is the notion that “no one is left behind” regarding court and jail support after the demo is over.
Mandy Hiscocks is Occupying a jail cell, let her also Occupy our hearts.
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