Montreal: Demos in solidarity with Pelican Bay prisoners and prisoners everywhere

Montreal, july 3

Sunday afternoon in the Montreal area demos were carried out in solidarity with the Pelican Bay prisoners on hunger strike and with prisoners everywhere.

A group of about 30 people appeared at the prison complex in Laval comprising of the Federal Training Center, Montée St-François Institution and Leclerc Institution, and the Canadian Immigration Prevention Center which holds immigrants whom are awaiting deportation and is operated as if it was a maximum-security penitentiary.

Although the screws attempted blocking the way with their vehicles and to drown out the chanting with their sirens, the group of comrades were able to break through them and dash with their banners up to the fence yelling slogans of solidarity like “OUR PASSION FOR FREEDOM IS STRONGER THAN THEIR PRISONS” and shooting fireworks. The banners deployed were: “FOR A WORLD WITHOUT BOSSES, COPS NOR PRISONS Ⓐ” “FROM CALIFORNIA TO QUEBEC SUPPORT THE PRISONERS IN STRUGGLE” and a third with a PO box to which the prisoners could write. The group was then able to continue bringing their solidarity to all sections of the complex.

A group later appeared at the Bordeau Detention Center with chanting, banners, flares and fireworks. Afterwards they marched through the surrounding neighborhood handing out flyers and chanting as they finally reached the Tanguay Detention Center for women. At this point the pigs had arrived but people were able to reach the fences and get eye contact with a group of women in the prison yard and as the group of comrades screamed slogans, throwing themselves against the fence, climbing on it and shaking it the women responded by yelling back their joy for the solidarity.

With the presence of pigs growing, the group then headed back through the surrounding neighborhood while chanting “PIGS, COPS, MURDURERS”, marching in the street, passing out flyers with a heavy presence of SPVM squad cars tailing behind and repeatedly urging them to get off the street to which comrades responded by chanting louder. Everyone was able to get back to a bus which brought them downtown after some harassing by the SPVM and being followed by a squad car until they all dispersed upon arrival at a metro station.

Here’s the text from the flyer:

CALIFORNIA PRISONERS ON INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE

On july 1st, dozens of prisoners in long-term isolation units in California prisons (“SHUs”) began an indefinite hunger strike.

These men are held in their cells for 22½-24 hours per day. Most are there for having been labelled “active gang members”, often based on the false information (e.g. labelling self-help or cultural groups as gangs). Isolation has been shown to induce psychological trauma, yet many prisoners have been in the SHU for decades. The only way out of this slow torture is to “debrief”, i.e. inform on other prisoners, a situation which clearly encourages false accusations.

These prisoners are served unsanitary and unwholesome food, punished collectively for the actions of individuals, and routinely – and without reason – denied access to programs and amenities which are considered standard in similar facilities in other states and at the federal level, including self-help and educational programs, one phone call per week, and warm clothing.

In response to these conditions, these prisoners have united to put their own lives on the line.

the prisoners demands are:

1. Eliminate group punishments.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to longterm solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate food.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.

The US now holds over 2,000,000 prisoners, almost 100,000 of them in isolation. Meanwhile in Canada the government is preparing for a massive rise in the number of prisoners as a result of new and upcoming legislation (for example, the “omnibus crime bill”).

To support the fight of tortured SHU inmates in the US is to fight against the Canadian government’s attempts to implement and expand those policies here!

PICKETS AT THE US CONSULATE! (July 8, 15, etc.)
Noon-1:30pm, 1155 rue St-Alexandre at René-Lévesque Every Friday as long as the strike continues!

SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION ON JULY 16!
1pm Saturday, July 16th Dorchester Square (Peel metro): denounce Montreal’s prison contractors

HUNGER STRIKE SUPPORT COMMITTEE
contrelesprisons.blogspot.com