JULIAN ICHIM TO STAND TRIAL

I have long viewed Julian Ichim as our local canary in the coal mine. We all know the old adage not to poke and prod the bear. In his case the "bear" that he deliberately pokes and prods is our democratically elected government, supposedly run by the people , for the people. Julian is an avowed Marxist-Leninist. Personally I couldn't care less if he was an avowed spiritualist who believed that all human life should be ruled by radio waves coming from Mars. He doesn't accept the inequality and hypocrisy of our free enterprise, capitolistic, democratic society and he's not alone. Unfortunately for him and other activists they are primarily alone when it comes to speaking out and standing up for their views and beliefs. Thus they become easy targets. Last Thursday's (Sept. 20/12) Waterloo Region Record carrys this story: "Julian Ichim to stand trial over blog post about officer".

If nothing else I believe that Julian has exposed the pettiness and human weaknesses within our system of government. All our legislation is written in such a fashion as to appear, at least on the surface, as noble, honest, truthful and proper. The problem is that petty, deceitful, selfish, lying human beings are in charge of the judicial system. Obviously not 100% of any subset of human beings are dishonest and deceitful. The old joke however that 98% of lawyers/politicians give all the rest a bad name isn't that far off the mark. It is not the noble and honest among us who generally aspire to either public office or to positions of power and authority. It is those whose character desperately requires the constant "fix" of authority and power who so aspire. They learn how to camoflage their ambition and need to be in charge. They hide behind "public service" and other aphorisms to justify themselves and their goals. Their only real goal is self.

The Julian Ichims of this world are viewed as a threat by people of this ilk. These people are offended by the lack of respect and deference they receive by Julian and other likeminded people. Politicians are pettiness incarnate. Criticism for them is always personal. It is at this point that abuse of authority rears its' ugly head. Those in authority feel and believe that this disrespect of the position (and of them personally) can not be tolerated. Partly as a deterrent to others and partly just to hit back they abuse their authority by using the apparatus of the state to attack specific activists. More than likely the Maude Barlow's and David Suzuki's are beyond reach of petty state attacks. The Julian Ichim's are not.

Julian's alleged "crime" in this case is ridiculous. An undercover police officer infiltrated the local group of human rights activists of which Julian was involved. This police officer used a psudonym of course and befriended Julian and others. It appears to me that the extent of this officer's contribution to lawfulness and public safety, all at taxpayers expense, consisted of hurting Julian's feelings through his pretend friendship towards Julian. These hurt feelings of course resulted in Julian writing about this individual's lying behaviour in his Blog. Of course this police officer is a liar. That's precisely what he was told to do by his superiors. Nevertheless Julian "identified" the undercover officer by his alias. Not by publishing his real name but by publishing his alias which the officer was freely identifying himself as. For that Julian is facing jail time. By the way the officer has since been identified by a number of major national newspapers, both by his alias and by his real name. It seems however that our judicial authorities and politcal presence above them are not want to waste taxpayers money chasing national reporters and newspapers who have the funds to defend themselves in court. Nope they're going after Julian who will be defending himself in court.

As I said at the beginning: Julian is the canary in the coalmine. Look around yourselves. Look at your friends, colleagues and relatives. Freedom is lost one step at a time and this is a very big step. Whose unpopular opinions and actions are next to be squashed by an overzealous state and the petty individuals hiding behind it?