A plainclothes police officer had my then 18-year-old son Chris Arsenault on the ground as another officer in full riot gear crouched close by with his gun cocked. Chris’s crime: He spoke at a peaceful protest in Halifax.

Thankfully, he was acquitted on January 30, on a charge of unlawful assembly. In his decision, the judge said Canadians have a constitutional right to protest peacefully.

[Chris is a regular contributor to rabble.ca.]

In June 2002, 250 demonstrators and 500 police officers in full riot gear congregated in downtown Halifax where the G-7 finance ministers were meeting. People of all ages met for what participants called “a festive and friendly” gathering. Some beat drums. Some sang. Chris addressed the crowd a few times and led several chants using a megaphone.

No property was damaged. However, three-feet-high metal barricades separating the police from the protesters were knocked over and a few people threw water balloons in the direction of the police. At Chris’s trial, police said the drum sticks and placards could be weapons.

The police retaliated twice with tear gas, never warning the crowd.

It was the police, not the protesters, who acted badly. They overreacted.

One protester was hurt, hit with a stun gun.

A Halifax newspaper reported that police chased a photographer up the downtown’s Salter Street and pinned him to the ground before arresting him. Officers surrounded a group of people with their weapons drawn, yelling at others to stay away.

One pointed a rifle-styled weapon at a reporter, repeatedly saying “back off.”

A Dalhousie University law student, David Wallbridge, who attended as a legal observer, wearing a clearly marked yellow armband, was threatened with arrest for taking pictures. Before the protest, his group had met with Halifax police officers to explain their impartial role.

A police witness at Chris’s trial in December, 2003, said they expected many more protesters to come. Our police, with no experience in dealing with protests called in help from other police departments across Canada. It was said that even the infamous Sergeant Pepper came — the one who pepper-sprayed a peaceful group of British Columbia students during a protest in 1997.

Wearing riot gear must have made the police twitchy. It certainly created a more threatening atmosphere. At a protest shortly after the Halifax G-7, police in Calgary wore shorts, rode bicycles and passed out bottles of water. Things went much better there.

Halifax police made their arrests as the protest wrapped up and everyone tried to go home. Police herded protesters to the waterfront. They were watching my son from the start of the protest. Several police officers from outside Halifax were assigned to videotape the event. William Moore, of the Halifax Police Department, watched videos of the demonstration as it unfolded and determined that Christopher was “arrestable.” That’s not a real word.

Police pushed him to the ground. At the trial, the police officer who participated in the arrest said he and his partner with the gun were intimidated because some of Chris’s friends questioned the arrest. What hogwash. Christopher did nothing to warrant that violent police response.

One of Chris’s friends called us to say he’d been arrested. We didn’t get a call from the police. Several times on the Saturday we visited the police station but were given no information. After a visit again on Sunday morning we were told Chris had been moved to a correctional facility in Dartmouth. He hadn’t been.

Later on Sunday one of the legal observers called to say the police were holding Chris. I told her the police had lied to us. “That surprises you?” she said. “It did,” I replied. I brought my kids up to respect the police.

There was more police harassment to come.

On a beautiful summer evening after the protest Chris came home for a family dinner. After a pleasant meal he walked back to his tiny apartment with a care package of food. He got a knock on his door. Two police officers handcuffed him and whisked him off to the police station and held him in a cell.

The police said Chris had breached his bail from his charge at the G-7. He had attended a demonstration against a white supremist group operating in Halifax. We suspect the plan was to keep Chris in jail overnight. Fortunately, his lawyer at the time, Josh Judah, Chris’s high school debating coach, bailed him out. If he had spent the night in jail, he would likely have lost his summer job. Those bogus charges were dropped.

I still don’t understand why the police targeted my son. There are enough genuine bad guys out there to keep the police busy.

Chris, who has been an activist for years, really does work to make things better. He’s helped build schools in Southern Mexico. He supported striking janitors at his Halifax high school over unfair working conditions. He has currently organized the sale of fair-trade coffee at the university he attends in Ontario.

I am happy and relieved this case has been favourably resolved. I do see this as a victory for peaceful dissent in Canada. However, I really wonder if dragging activists through the courts is the best use of limited public funds.

With the court case behind Chris, we planned to file a complaint against the Halifax police but have learned that we’re too late. There’s a 30-day limitation from the incident to the filing day. We’ve missed the boat.