charges relating to the October 16, 2001 anti-poverty action in Toronto withdrawn.

Hello everybody. I writing to inform you that all my charges relating to the October 16th, 2001 anti-poverty demonstration in Toronto have been withdrawn!!!

Initially I was facing five criminal charges: assault while resisting arrest, obstruction of a peace officer, accesory after the fact, carrying a concealed weapon and dangerous weapons. My lawyer and I decided to fight the charges on two grounds. First of all we fought them on purely factual grounds, that I did not commit the crimes that they allege. But we also launched a constitutional challenge basically stating that the Toronto Police had illegally suspended civil liberties for the day of the protest. By being subjected to arbitrary searches, road blocks and unlawful arrests and detentions, myself and the members of the group of which I was a part had our constitutional rights violated. The defense had many witnesses ready to testify about how they were wrongly treated by the police that day as well as video evidence. If successful this could potentially prevent police from continuing their policies of so-called 'pro-active policing' (ie. arbitrarily suspending liberties of whole groups and basically deciding law on their own).

The trial didn't even make it to defense witnesses. When court started on Monday it became clear to me that the prosecution did not want to be there. First thing in the morning they offered to drop all my other charges if I plead guilty to obstruction for allegedly giving my last name as 'Squipp' instead of 'Squibb'. I couldn't believe that was even a charge as I had never heard that false allegation before. I refused the deal. After hearing the contradictory testimonies of two lying pigs, by the names of Matthews and Caccavale from 51st division, I was offered two more deals. First they said I could plead guilty to any charge of my choice and have the rest dropped. I refused. Later they offered me an absolute discharge with any guilty plea. Again I refused. When court ended on day one we had only heard from 2 of the dozen or more witnesses available. It was clear that this would take way more time than the alotted two days.

This morning (Jan. 21) I arrived in court and I was immediately offered a 'peace bond'. This meant that if I signed a little piece of paper stating that I would keep the peace for 18 months they would withdraw all my charges. The peace bond is completely unenforcable. Technically if I 'break the peace', what ever that means, they could come after me for $500, but I'm told there is not even a mechanism in place to enforce that. So I agreed. I signed the peace bond, which is NOT an admission of guilt and all the charges were withdrawn. Still they wouldn't give me back my confiscated bellaclava and other items.

The only draw back to me accepting the deal is that the constitutional challenge is dropped. I wish I was in a position where I could afford to keep pushing this but multiple trips to TO for court is a huge inconvienence, not to mention very costly and there was no guarantee of it's success. Besides I don't believe that we can fundamentally change the system by working through it's bureaucracies. But the motion could work again both in defending other activists and challenging the illegal activities of police forces. If any one would like a copy of the motion contact me and I'll get one to you.

Well I'm really happy today. The bail conditions I've had to live under for the past 15 months (guilty until proven innocent?) are gone, the piece of shit 'peace bond' already went up in flames and I'm a free man.

la lucha sigue
adam squibb