The trials have begun for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) protesters who were arrested after a melee with police on June 15, 2000, in front of the Ontario Legislature.

“Every day from now until April or May, there will be an OCAP trial in courtroom 121 in Old City Hall in Toronto,” OCAP lawyer Peter Rosenthal told a solidarity meeting on Wednesday.

Thirty people face jail time. John Clarke, Stefan Pilipa and Gaetan Heroux, who the Crown sees as leaders, face more serious indictable offences and jury trials later this year. One homeless man has already been sentenced to 110 days for tearing up paving stones in Queen’s Park.

The trials have been delayed for two reasons:

  • OCAP successfully challenged bail conditions that prevented its organizers from doing their jobs.
  • Several television stations challenged the Crown’s attempt to seize news tape of the demonstration. The Crown fought this case all the way to the Supreme Court and won.

The June 15 demonstration was a protest against Mike Harris’s welfare cuts and measures to criminalize the poor. The 2,000 protesters were met with dramatic police aggression, including attacks on horseback and beatings with batons. Much of the media characterized the protest as a riot.

According to OCAP, police neither warned the demonstrators nor demanded that they disperse before the horses rode into the crowd.

“Either we were dealing with a premeditated attack by the police,” says Clarke, “or we were dealing with buffoonery.”

Moreover, the police lines were weak and the barricades were not secured. According to Clarke, “It was almost like the old saying ‘come into my parlour said the spider to the fly,” OCAP will also blame Mike Harris’s refusal to meet with poor people for the confrontation.

Until recently, the charge of participating in a riot has been rarely used. But police in Quebec City also used it against protesters last April. The OCAP trials will likely define its legal meaning.

An even more serious attack on civil rights is the charge against Clarke for counselling to participate in a riot.

“John counselled to participate in a militant demonstration,” said Rosenthal. “It was police who turned it into a riot.” Rosenthal believes that this charge is a serious attack on freedom of speech.

OCAP is calling on the entire social justice movement to close ranks in defence of those on trial. While most social justice groups supported OCAP after the June 15 events, over the last two years, OCAP’s militancy has provoked more controversy on the left. Last fall, Canadian Auto Workers Union president Buzz Hargrove publicly announced he would withdraw funding for OCAP. This decision was in response to the occupation and ransacking of Ontario Finance Minister (and current leadership hopeful) Jim Flaherty’s Whitby constituency office last year.

“It is essential,” says Clarke, “that the movement not be intimidated. This prosecution is an attack against OCAP as an organization. We will defend ourselves, but we have chosen not to become a legal defence movement.” As proof that the group is continuing with its activist agenda, at the end of the meeting, OCAP organizers announced an action to defend refugees who have been incarcerated, and a protest at the upcoming Tory leadership convention.

OCAP needs to raise $60,000 to cover its court costs. It is also asking people to attend the trials for support.

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick

Judy Rebick is one of Canada’s best-known feminists. She was the founding publisher of rabble.ca , wrote our advice column auntie.com and was co-host of one of our first podcasts called Reel Women....