No Justice, No Peace

Last Wednesday, 23 October, the Hamilton Police Service began arresting left-wing activists for so-called “criminal offences” committed at the protest at Mohawk College. Charges against these activists include “intimidation”, “cause disturbance”, “obstruct police” and “theft under $5000”. That “theft” charge, by the way, was levelled against a female anti-fascist protester who was attacked by neo-Nazi Andre Chiasson; her “theft” involved grabbing the Canadian flag he had fastened to a hockey stick which he had converted into a sort of spear, complete with sharpened point and custom grip… and which he was actively attacking the woman with.

She was charged with theft for defending herself while being attacked by an armed neo-Nazi in the presence of police.

This is typical of the police response to right-wing violence in Hamilton. Frankly, all the charges were trumped-up and all the people charged were victims of violence from far-right groups… groups which, it is now clear by their own boasting, deliberately attended the event to commit violent acts against protesters and on behalf of the People’s Party of Canada. Under the guise of “working security”, they committed multiple felony assaults against left-wing protesters… with the apparent cooperation and approval of the Hamilton Police Service.

I’ve written about the demonstration at Mohawk College before, so I’m not going to get too far into breaking down my own experience again, but the left-leaning alternative press is increasingly analyzing both the demonstration and the post-demonstration fallout and turning an increasingly critical eye to the conduct of the Hamilton Police Service in regards to the protest. North Shore Info published an excellent article detailing both the far-right violence and the police collaboration with it, during and afterwards, and I heartily recommend it.

Socialist Fightback is organizing fundraising for the legal defence of at least one activist, and has been explicit in condemning both the alt-right violence and the police response.

And of course, online anti-fascists have discovered considerable evidence that not only the violence at the event, but also the post-demo media campaign of feigned outrage was a deliberately orchestrated campaign of propaganda and harassment by several hate groups, including the Proud Boys and others.

Not that the police will care about a criminal conspiracy by these hate groups to commit violent acts and harass and threaten innocent people. The Hamilton Police Service, again and again, has made it clear that they’ll cheerfully work with literal fucking Nazis if it gives them the chance to crack down on anarchists, socialists and anti-fascists.

Look: Fascists are cowardly scum. You can expect them to be cowardly scum. They attack only where they think there’s weakness. (That’s one of the reasons that we, as anti-fascists, need to stand united against them.) And frankly, you can expect the cops to be anti-left at the best of times because people who have a problem with authoritarianism are going to have some friction when it comes to the authorities. But the Hamilton Police Service, with these politically-motivated arrests and a track record of blatantly one-sided application of the law, is displaying a degree of anti-left bias and corruption that’s just appalling… even for an old queer anarchist like me whose expectations of the police (to put it politely) aren’t set all that high.

The Hamilton Police Service is targeting left-wing activists… as they have done all summer and, indeed, have done for years. The change is that they no longer seem interested even in maintaining the pretense of justice or impartiality. This last round of arrests have made it clear that the HPS is not concerned about maintaining the law, but about suppressing the free speech of activists. (And I write that knowing that statement might earn me my own bullshit arrest for “malicious lingering” or “assaulting” a Proud Boy by viciously applying my jaw to his fist.)

I’ve speculated about the motives of the HPS and Hamilton’s City Hall earlier in the summer and nothing I’ve seen has made me change my mind about my conclusion — this is all about suppressing left-activism in order to smooth the road for that sweet, sweet gentrification money.

It’s been a rough month, I’m not going to claim otherwise. The right-wing violence at the protest, the coordinated campaign of harassment and hate which followed it, the police harassment and intimidation of the left-learning community, and now these transparently political arrests. And all of it seemingly without recourse or remedy.

It’s very easy — even without the challenges and crises in my personal life over the past few weeks — to get depressed about this situation. But we need to recognize that’s there has been a great deal of support and an increasingly tight solidarity among left and anti-hate groups in Hamilton and across Ontario (and indeed, Canada). The PPC was humiliatingly defeated in the election, not least of which because the violence committed by PPC supporters and far-right hate groups at Mohawk College made it unavoidably clear that they’re a far-right party with links to fascist hate groups. And those same hate groups clearly overreached in their attempts to defame and silence anti-fascists.

I’m trying to end this on a positive note, so I strongly recommend reading S.K. Hussan’s article on Medium.com, which was published last week: We Must Say This Aloud: Alaa Soufi did the right thing.

He did. And so did the rest of us who stood — and continue to stand! — against intolerance, hatred and creeping fascism. And regardless of the consequences, including police repression and the violent hatred of the alt-right, we must continue to do the right thing. As a friend of mine recently reminded me, doing the right thing is important even when it’s unpopular.

We aren’t going to stop.