CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST DAN KELLAR

Sketchy! That's how my kids would describe this situation. Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us "Harassment, other charges dropped against G20 protester". Quoting Dan Kellar's lawyer, Davin Charney, "It is fundamental that people be free to criticize police. The charges were laid to muzzle an activist. This is a case of police abuse of power and criminalization of dissent.".

Holy crap, here in Canada you say. The charges which were dropped by Prosecuter Jason Miller yesterday in Toronto included harassment, intimidation and counselling to commit assault. They were related to two undercover police officers who infiltrated various Kitchener-Waterloo activists groups prior to the G20 conference in Toronto in June 2010. This kind of politically motivated attempt to criminalize dissent is exactly what local activist Julian Ichim has been proclaiming both in his own case and that of other local activists.

Yours truly went through something similar fifteen years ago. In that instance I was protesting educational malfeasance by the School Board and essentially they called upon their buddies at the Waterloo Regional Police to straighten me out. This included something like eleven different Trespass charges as well as a criminal charge of Obstruct Police. The criminal charge was beyond contemptible and fortunately I had tape recorded my conversation with police prior to being arrested and charged. The Crown I will say had enough common sense and decency to immediately drop these charges.

The bottom line in my case is similar with Dan Kellar's in that I was criticizing the educational establishment and he the police establishment. The last two sentences of Davin Charney's in the first paragraph are dead on the money namely "The charges were laid to muzzle an activist. This is a case of police abuse of power and criminalization of dissent.". That is the ongoing shame in this province and country. Activists can and are harassed by the judicial system simply because they are criticizing the powers that be. What kind of a democracy do we really have when dissent and criticism are criminalized by the authorities merely to hide from that criticism?