[
I didn't write this, I'm just reposting it. I agree with it wholeheartedly.]
This is a half-page flyer written about 'special law' and Bill 78, the anti-protest law
passed by Quebec as part of a crackdown on the student movement. This was made to be
distributed in Ontario at the 'casseroles,' or pots and pans demonstrations, inspired by
and in solidarity with the struggle in Quebec.
Reading version available for download at Zine Library.
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep
under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread. Anatole France
"Violence was the law, and with the cannons in the hands of the whites,
the law was white." Sunera Thobani
The social struggle in Quebec, grown out of a student movement against
tuition, has inspired many. But perhaps the central issue causing people to take the
streets with pots and pans across the country is Bill 78, known as the 'special law.'
It criminalizes demonstrations not approved by police and imposes heavy fines for
political activity on school campuses. It has been accompanied by a crackdown that has
seen more mass arrests than the FLQ Crisis of 1970, at last count over 2,500.
But the special law is not special. It is a predictable response to a special
mobilization, a struggle that is unprecedented in its size, popular support and ferocity
in recent Quebec history. In Ontario, we got a taste of 'special law' in 2010 at the G20
Summit, where government and police collaborated to create a 'no-go zone' around the
security fence protecting G20 leaders. Rights were thrown out the window as downtown
Toronto was transformed into a police state. Middle class white people were especially
outraged, and will have their day in court now that the threat has temporarily subsided.
But for people already criminalized under this system, this only represents an
intensification of an everyday experience of targeted harassment. We see this same process
happening in long-term ways on a federal level, with sweeping crime bills and specific
laws aimed at pre-empting dissent, such as the anti-mask law with penalties of up to 10
years in prison.
[Here I would have written also that whether or not such a law is in place,
the police use force to disperse gatherings that challenge the status quo, in any case.]
This is about the interests of government and capital, not the evil conspiracies of
Charest or Harper.
[I would have written "... and the evil conspiracies..."]
If we exceptionalize Bill 78, we ignore the fact that the law is a set of tools and
weapons governments use to entrench the interests of the powerful, control and regulate
the general population, and wage war against the ungovernables. The Canadian state is
founded on the genocidal conquest of indigenous nations and land, and concessions such as
the Charter are desperate attempts to create legitimacy where there is only a ruthless
violence underpinning 'Canada'. So we shouldn't be shocked when we see these same rights
instantly evaporate in a 'crisis'. And in these times of social upheaval and economic
austerity, we are approaching perpetual crisis.
Focusing on a particular law or appealing to rights risks going on the defensive and
getting drawn into a conversation with our enemies. It paints the movement as powerless
victims. We should be inspired to action not just by images of police brutality, but also
by images of masked rebels chasing riot police. Now is the time to build our grassroots
power, prepare for repression, support those targeted by the state, but most importantly
to go on the offensive.
