44th Anniversary of Invoking the War Measures Act: The Need to Recognize and Affirm Rights to Enforce Security - Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ), November 1, 2014 - Forty-four years ago on October 16, 1970, the federal Liberal government led by Pierre Elliott Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. Trudeau declared a state of apprehended insurrection in response to kidnappings and mailbox bombings taking place in Quebec. The War Measures Act gave the police the power to act without warrants and to detain people indefinitely without charges or trial. Even before Trudeau put in force the War Measures Act, the police had already carried out more than 1,000 raids from October 7 to 10. Also, using the provisions of the National Defence Act, the federal government deployed the army on the streets in Ottawa on October 12 and in Montreal three days later. On October 13, 1970 in front of Parliament, a reporter asked Trudeau how far he would go in suspending democratic rights. The Prime Minister replied, Just watch me. Upon invoking the War Measures Act, the military appeared in force in Quebec in full combat gear. The police carried out a further 3,068 raids and searches without warrants, arrested 465 additional people and held them without charges. The vast majority of the people arrested were eventually released without charge after 21 days while the rest were detained for longer periods. The PMLQ considers it important to reflect on the events of 1970, at a time when the Harper government continues to enact legislation that deprives Canadians of their civil liberties and declares the state of exception a permanent state of affairs. The government declares Canadas national interest and security are at stake as a result of a terrorist threat. The actions it is taking are to deprive the citizenry of the ability to affirm their civil rights. The words and actions of the government do not enhance the peoples security but rather put it in jeopardy. To deny people the right to participate in taking decisions that affect their lives is the greatest loss of control there can be. The security laws enacted and proposed, and other words and actions of the government and mass media generate an atmosphere of hysteria, fear and loss of control. They deprive people of the ability to think and discuss calmly about what is happening in Canada and internationally, and deprive them of the right to take decisions on those issues that affect their lives. They leave everyone at the mercy of secret decisions and agencies over which the people exercise no control. Secret Decisions and Agencies Did the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP (commonly referred to as the McDonald Commission into the wrong-doings of the RCMP) not reveal how the RCMP themselves were behind the violent events that took place prior, during and after 1970? The RCMPs participation in secret bombings and giving direction and means to various individuals and gangs to carry out violent acts were justified in the name of catching those engaged in illegal activities. The real reason in fact was to suppress the political movement of the people of Quebec for self-determination. The McDonald Commission found that the RCMP itself issued false statements in the name of the Front de Liberation du Québec (FLQ) and other groups calling for acts of violence. State agents provided arms and explosives to incite FLQ members and others to commit violence. State agents were found to be directly responsible for violent acts to the extent that one was injured when a bomb he was planting exploded prematurely. The government used the violent actions of its agents and their proxies as a reason to declare a state of apprehended insurrection, invoke the War Measures Act and take other actions to deprive the people of their rights. After 1970, the state intensified its campaign to criminalize dissent and block the people from participating in politics. State agents burned down a barn in Quebec used by political activists; they vandalized and burned bookstores operated by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and arrested more than 2,000 of its activists; they fabricated tax records of CPC(M-L) founder and leader Hardial Bains in an attempt to frame and jail him, and engaged in other illegal methods to stop the working class and its allies from organizing politically. The history of the use of the War Measures Act in Canada confirms that self-serving reasons are used to invoke it. Is it not ironic that the Government of Canada at this time of increasing loss of civil liberties is apologizing to Ukrainians for their internment under the War Measures Act invoked in 1914? Recently it apologized to Canadians of Japanese descent for their mass internment, negation of rights and loss of property and livelihoods during the Second World War. Will it now also apologize for the internment of the communists in WWII and their mass deportations, we wonder. Also, the McDonald Commission proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the state was behind the racist attacks in 1970 and after committed by groups called the KKK, Western Guard and other white supremacist names. Has the role of police agents not been revealed repeatedly since 9/11, as being behind attacks and conspiracies to commit violence, which are blamed on Muslim youth? Agents of the state incite various individuals to carry out illegal activities and even provide the means for them to do so. The leading role of police agents in committing and provoking violence was clearly the case at the time of the Summit of the Americas in Montebello, Quebec, in the summer of 2007 and again during G20 Summit in Toronto in 2010. The Native people also have a history of being infiltrated and violated and then blamed for being violent. The history of Canada is rife with such examples, which have led to the warranted conclusion that when acts of political and racist violence take place, it is the state that should be blamed, not the people. When the RCMP and other police and spy agencies themselves commit crimes or incite individuals to commit crimes and justify it in the name of catching those who pose a danger to society, is something not seriously wrong? The state agents then use the crimes they themselves have incited or directly organized to justify yet more exceptional measures of the state to deprive people of their rights. Should the people not be seriously concerned about what is taking place? A demonstration of 20,000 people against austerity in Montreal on October 31 was declared illegal by the authorities. To turn political, social, cultural and economic matters into law and order matters is completely unacceptable! The people cannot accept the states use of force to resolve conflicts instead of negotiations in good faith to find real solutions to problems. The resolution of societys problems begins with the authorities recognizing the right of the people to participate in the decisions which affect them so that they can exercise control over their lives. Our Future and Security Lie in the Fight for the Rights of All! The invoking of the War Measures Act in 1970 was in the context of a growing movement to assert the right of the nation of Quebec to self-determination. The Quebec movement for empowerment was as an expression of an all-sided awakening of workers, women and youth to claim the rights that belong to them by virtue of their being. The Trudeau Liberal government elected two years before was brought in with the agenda to create a just society precisely to divert the movement of the people in Quebec and across Canada to empower themselves. Trudeau brought in a retrogressive definition of rights based on checks and balances. By the end of his tenure, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted. The Charter ostensibly enshrines rights but in fact enables their circumscription by declaring rights have reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. Who defines these reasonable limits and under what circumstances can rights be suspended have been brought before the constitutional courts repeatedly and without resolution ever since the Charter of Rights was included in the Constitution. More importantly, the constitutionally declared reasonable limits prescribed by law has led to a situation in which governments use their Parliamentary majorities, or through collusion with other parties, to pass laws that sanction the violation of rights. This commits the fraud that violations of rights has passed into law and is now legal and not above the law. In other words, the proscription of rights by taking on dictatorial powers, which fall outside the rule of law and used to be limited by law, is made reasonable and legal through Parliament. In this way, a fascist state constitutes a legal regime that deprives the people of the rights that belong to them by virtue of being human. The PMLQ considers what the Harper and Couillard governments are doing to negate rights to be a very serious matter. It is especially serious for the Quebec people who know that Quebec and its people are themselves a target of attack every time special measures are passed. It is not for nothing that when the tragic October 22 shooting incident occurred in Ottawa, the police immediately seized control of the bridges to Quebec, stopping and searching all vehicles. Meanwhile, security measures outside federal establishments in Montreal were very visibly ramped up. Meanwhile, other incidents carried out by deranged individuals are not labelled terrorist threats. The PMLQ calls on the people of Quebec and all Canada to oppose the state of affairs whereby rights can be suspended at the decision of people in positions of power who base their decisions on secret evidence for self-serving reasons, in a process over which the people exercise no control. Far from this enhancing the security of the people, it creates a hell of insecurity. This is particularly telling for those sections of the people targeted based on racial, political, social or cultural profiling. Muslims and people presumed to be Muslims because of their national origin or attire have been living through this hell since 9/11. Now, disturbed and marginalized youth from Quebec are being set up to take the fall for violent acts and threats. This opens up the field of those targeted for attack to literally anyone who voices an opinion deemed improper by people in positions of power generating a further chill and pressure on the right to conscience. The government of Canada intensified its attacks on rights with anti-terror laws since 2001. Now, Stephen Harper plans to suspend privacy rights and the rights to legal defence permanently. As well, Quebecs Premier Couillard and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre conflate democracy with violence to arrive at the intensely backward view that democratic rights must be curbed to prevent violence. These actions of the political elite reveal the profound constitutional and political crisis caused by the definition of rights subject to reasonable limits prescribed by law, and the arrangements based on what are called checks and balances between rights and security. The PMLQ calls on Quebec workers, women, youth and students, and all Canadians and Indigenous peoples to take a firm stand in defence of the rights of all. Unite and stand against the measures being taken to deprive people of their rights; put the full weight of the people individually and organizationally behind the affirmation of rights. Rights belong to the holder by virtue of their being. The people strive to provide their rights with a guarantee using the resources of the society and the arrangements they enter into in a manner that favours their interests. The striving to affirm rights creates the conditions for security and its defence. Our future and security lie in the fight for the rights of all! The fight for new arrangements is precisely to ensure the society is based on a modern definition of rights according to which rights belong to all by virtue of their being human. Rights cannot be given, taken away or forfeited in any way. Humanity will flourish based on the affirmation of rights, not their denial or negation. cpcml.ca/Tmlw2014/W44039.HTM#1
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 19:56:30 +0000
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