Postal workers hold surprise picket at Richmond plant

PSAC / UPCE strike at Canada Post: Day 4

Published November 20th, 2008
psacbc.com

[Public Service Alliance of Canada = PSAC,  Union of Postal Communications Employees = UPCE, Canadian Union of Postal Workers = CUPW]

Early this morning in Vancouver, after a very successful evening setting up a surprise picket line at the Richmond plant – the plant director had to come from home to manage the situation – UPCE members continued to picket outside the main depot. Despite the rain turnout was excellent, including one member who is eight months pregnant. Local President Sharon Tieman was interviewed by CKNW radio and Vice-President Neil Brown also spoke to the media. Once again CUPW members took their coffee break en masse and walked around the block in Solidarity and once again UPCE members cheered them on. In the early afternoon, BC Supreme Court issued an injunction barring members from impeding vehicles or workers at specific locations in the Lower Mainland. Members were disappointed with this decision, but vowed to continue to pressure Canada Post. The caucus met this afternoon to strategize, and we shall see what tomorrow brings.

In Victoria it rained as well but picketers were warmed by overwhelming support from CUPW members. Trucks, cars and cabs experienced hour-long delays leaving the processing plant.

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Strike Bulletin – Day two
November 19, 2008
PSAC-UPCE

VICTORIA – Really strong lines again today received excellent support from the CUPW Executive who were on the line. A unionized trades worker refused to cross the line to fix some issues inside the facility told us he would return when the strike was over. Support from UVAE [Union of Veterans’ Affairs Employees] member as well.

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Who is UPCE and why are they striking?

UPCE members work in Canada Post call centers, they check mail volumes, are clerical workers and pay clerks.

They are striking because Canada Post is trying to cut back their sick leave and replace it with a “Short Term Disability” (STD) plan.  Manulife would oversee the administration and approval of this plan, subject to Employment Insurance regulations.

Canada Post wants to reduce UPCE member’s fifteen days paid sick leave entitlement and five days paid family related leave to a combined entitlement of seven non-cumulative days per year.

Almost 90% of UPCE members have said no to this rollback by authorizing a strike if necessary.  But, Canada Post isn’t listening.

cupw.ca

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PSAC-UPCE Strike Bulletins:

http://www.psac.com/bargaining/units/other_clc/post/bulletins-e.shtml

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Ontario prisoner faces charges after flooding police station

Prisoner faces charges after toilet tantrum

November 20, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator
ST. CATHARINES (Nov 20, 2008) [Ontario]

A man faces several charges after Niagara police say a major flood at police headquarters was caused by a prisoner who tore a toilet out of the wall inside a holding cell.

Police say the water caused a flood in the cell area of the Church and Carlisle streets building. The water also seeped into the basement area and caused a ceiling to partially collapse. It caused other damage, as well.

Police say the accused was arrested Tuesday night just before midnight after police responded to complaints about a violent disturbance.

The accused had to be subdued with a Taser after he became combative with arresting officers, police say.

The man was subsequently transported to the police station, booked into security and placed in a cell.

He is charged with two counts of mischief, assault with intent to resist arrest and breach of probation.

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Algonquins block Quebec highway again, five more arrested

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

SQ riot squad arrest 5 Algonquins, including Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway

[Algonquin Territory, Quebec]

Kitiganik/Rapid Lake, Algonquin Territory / – SQ officers and a Riot Squad arrested five Barriere Lake Algonquins, including a targeted arrest of Acting Chief Benjamin Nottaway, after forcing community members off highway 117, during their fourth in a series of blockades over a period of seven hours.

“Chief Nottaway sent a letter to Premier Charest on Monday requesting that the government resolve political issues through negotiations rather than police violence,” said community spokesperson Norman Matchewan.”Blockades are a tactic of last resort. For two decades now all we’ve asked is that Quebec and Canada honour signed agreements but they prefer to play with our lives.”

As the community was pushed off the highway for the last time at 2:30 pm, riot police broke out of formation to chase and arrest Acting Chief Nottaway. His was the second targeted arrest of the day. Community youth spokesperson Marylynn Poucachiche, mother of five and organizer of the community school, was arrested at one of the morning blockades after being reassured by police that no arrests would be made since protesters had agreed to leave peacefully.

One community member was pushed to the ground and kicked by several SQ officers before being arrested.

“The police dragged him with his head on the ground all the way to the police car,” said one community member.

Another woman from the community fell while being pushed back onto the access road leading to the Barriere Lake reserve, and hit her head. She was subsequently arrested.

-30-

Media Contacts:

Norman Matchewan, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 819 – 435 – 2171, 514 – 831 – 6902

Marylynn Poucachiche, Barriere Lake spokesperson: 514 – 893 – 8283, 819 – 860 – 3860

Norman Young, Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation Secretariat: 819 – 627 – 6869

http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/

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Trashing Police Cars in Quebec: In Praise of Fog

Trashing Police Cars in Quebec: In Praise of Fog

Sunday, November 16, 2008
http://sketchythoughts.blogspot.com/

Check out the following nice tidbit from the Journal de Montreal, translated by yours truly.

Funny how they fail to mention the most high profile attacks over the past two years, the police cars torched in Montreal’s East End by the allegedly anarchist Ton Pere Collective in March of this year.

You also HAVE to be trying to leave people confused and ignorant to talk about attacks on police without mentioning the anti-police riot after cops killed the teenager Fredy Villanueva and shot two of his friends in Montreal North earlier this year.

Yeah, these are “senseless acts”, no one has any reason to hate the cops, just plain “mischief”…

Also not mentioned is the fact that someone planted a nail bomb just outside of Quebec Provincial Police headquarters in Sherbrooke two weeks ago – according to the cops, it has “points in common” with a bomb that blew up a police car in Sherbrooke almost two years ago. While there too the cops say they are “following leads”, they also specifically have ruled out the bombs being the work of the Hells Angels, the reactionary biker outfit which is firmly based in Sherbrooke.

Hmmm… makes you wonder…

Here’s the article from today’s Journal de Montreal:

Vandals Damage Three Police Cars
Jean-Michel Nahas
16/11/2008

Vandals took advantage of the dark and fog Friday night to break the windows of three police cars in Repentigny.

The mischief has shaken the municipal safety in this city in Lanaudiere which already had to deal with similar crimes in the winter of 2007.

“For us, it is an attack against a symbol,” stated Lieutenant François-Steve Sauvé.

Attacks on vehicles belonging to the forces of law and order have been occurring with much greater frequency these past months. Police cars in Sherbrooke and Montreal were recently targeted by troublemakers.

Fog

In Repentigny, it was morning when officers noticed their vehicles had been damaged, when the thick fog began to thin and lift.

The suspects hit in the middle of the night. They broke the windows of three different vehicles, probably with a snow shovel found of the roof of one of the damaged cars.

A fourth police car was also attacked, but its windows resisted being hit repeatedly.

Those responsible are still at large.

“We already have some very important leads,” stated Lieutenant Sauvé, refusing to say any more in order to not hamper the investigation.

In January 2007, five young people aged between 16 and 19 were arrested after having set several police cars on fire in Repentigny.

Elsewhere in Quebec

Elsewhere, in Sherbrooke, last July two thirteen year olds were caught after trashing 21 police cars belonging the Quebec Provincial Police.

Last May, Lonny James Erickson, a Montreal scientist who had a grudge against the authorities, set an SPVM police car on fire.

Also remember that many Montreal police cars were vandalized during a violent riot that followed the victory of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team last April.

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Bomb threat clears Burnaby RCMP HQ

Bomb threat at RCMP HQ

Mia Thomas, Burnaby Now [British Columbia]
Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Burnaby RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] detachment was evacuated for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon after someone called in a bomb threat.

At around 4 p.m., a man called 911 and said only that he was standing in the detachment with a bomb before he hung up the phone.

The detachment was cleared while the police dog services searched the building, which is at 6365 Deer Lake Ave., close to city hall and the Shadbolt Centre.

In order to keep police services running, RCMP set up a mobile command centre nearby and diverted all calls to E-Comm, the regional emergency communications centre. They were able to keep responding to calls throughout the situation.

The police dogs searching the building didn’t find anything, although the Lower Mainland explosives disposal unit was standing by, ready to come out if something suspicious turned up.

By 6:30 p.m., the building had been officially cleared and staff and officers were able to go back inside.

Police have arrested one man, and the Burnaby RCMP’s general investigative section has taken over the case.

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Vancouver: Sabotaged 5 Cop, Probation Offices

Vancouver: Sabotaged 5 Cop, Probation Offices

[Posted by anonymous on November 16, 2008, to ottawa.indymedia.ca]

[British Columbia]

Over the night of November, 14th, 2008 we sabotaged a total of five Community Policing Centres and Probation Offices.

Probation offices on Burrard St. and on Commercial Drive had their locks glued and wire placed in the locks to make it more difficult to repair.

The windows of the Community Policing Centre on Commercial Drive were smashed yet again and the locks glued at two more Community Policing Centres on East Hastings and on Keefer St.

Fuck the Police!

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Saskatchewan’s singing the jailhouse blues

Saskatchewan’s singing the jailhouse blues
Two more escapes on weekend; continuing series of prison breaks sparked suspension of deputy minister and internal review

JOE FRIESEN
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
November 11, 2008

Two more prison breaks in Saskatchewan – one foiled, the other that saw an 18-year-old man get away – have once again cast a spotlight on the province’s troubled justice system.

On Friday, four young men broke out of the Paul Dojack Youth Centre, a large jail on the outskirts of Regina. Three were captured soon afterward, but police are continuing to search for Joseph Desjarlais, 18, who is wanted on a Canadawide warrant. Police would not say why he was in jail, citing the restrictions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but said they obtained a court order to have his name made public.

A day later, two 25-year-old men attempted to escape from the Saskatoon Correctional Centre. They tried to get out by climbing a fence, but were caught by corrections workers before they could get away.

These are the latest in a series of incidents that began with the spectacular escape of six inmates, many facing murder charges, from the Regina Correctional Centre on Aug. 24. Among them was Daniel Richard Wolfe, a founding member of the Indian Posse street gang, and several of his Indian Posse associates.

The men escaped through a hole dug in a cinderblock wall and concealed behind a kind of radiator grille that could be removed and replaced. They then used blankets to protect themselves as they climbed over a barbed-wire fence. One man was recaptured hours later in a nearby farm field. But Mr. Wolfe, who topped the RCMP’s most-wanted list, eluded police for nearly a month before they captured him in Winnipeg.

In October, court officials mistakenly released two men who should have been kept in jail, in one case because they didn’t realize he was awaiting another trial, and in the other case because they misunderstood the judge’s eight-month sentence as a sentence of time already served.

The provincial cabinet took the highly unusual step of suspending the deputy minister of corrections, the department’s top civil servant, pending an internal investigation.

In a strange twist, another man who should have been released was kept in jail for six months after his sentence expired, despite repeated complaints to jail guards and a prison caseworker. Last month, Premier Brad Wall publicly apologized to 19-year-old Kyle Dufresne for the mistake, and Mr. Dufresne is considering a lawsuit.

Corrections Minister Darryl Hickie has so far resisted the Opposition NDP’s call for his resignation. His office declined to comment for this story.

*****

(ALMOST ALL) BACK IN THE SLAMMER AGAIN

Saskatoon, Nov. 8

Two 25-year-old inmates were foiled while trying to escape over a prison fence on Saturday night at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre. They were charged with attempting to escape lawful custody, and one faces an additional weapons charge.

Regina, Nov. 7

Four young men escaped from the Paul Dojack Youth Centre on Regina’s western edge. Three were arrested shortly after. Joseph Desjarlais, 18, remains at large.

Regina, Oct. 22

John Albert Dumont walked away from the provincial courthouse in Regina after a guard mistakenly released him. He had been acquitted on a robbery charge but was facing a second trial in a separate case that should have kept him in jail. He was arrested on the Peepeekisis Reserve in Saskatchewan on Oct. 26.

Saskatoon, Oct. 20

Alan Mark Scott, 32, was mistakenly released after an appearance in Saskatoon Provincial Court. Guards thought he had been sentenced to time already served, when in fact he still faced eight more months in jail. He was arrested on Oct. 25 in Prince Albert, Sask.

Regina, Aug. 24

Six inmates escaped from the Regina Correctional Centre after scraping a hole in the cinder-block wall and concealing it behind a radiator cover. They then scaled a barbed-wire fence using blankets to protect themselves. It later emerged that top prison officials knew of an escape plot 10 days beforehand.

Kenneth Iron was caught two hours after the Sunday night jail break in a farm field not far from the prison. He was initially charged with attempted murder, but was awaiting trial on criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

James Joseph Pewean, 25, who is charged with second-degree murder, was captured on Friday, Aug. 29, at a home in Regina.

Preston Clarence Buffalocalf, 22, who is on trial for first-degree murder, was captured at a Winnipeg apartment building on Sept. 9, along with Cody Dillon Keenatch, 19.

Daniel Richard Wolfe, 32, faces two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. He was captured in Winnipeg on Sept. 17 after nearly a month on the run.

Ryan John Agecoutay, 25, was arrested on Sept. 23, after police surrounded a home on Saskatchewan’s Star Blanket First Nation. Shots were fired from the house before the arrest. At the time of the breakout he was awaiting trial for aggravated assault.

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Burning barricade suspects held for bail hearings

Burning barricade suspects held for bail hearings

November 12, 2008
Guelph Mercury staff
GUELPH [Ontario]

Five people are facing charges after being arrested at a burning barricade in south Guelph.

Guelph Police arrived at the corner of Gordon Street South and Clair Road just before 9 a.m. Monday to find about 20 people building a barricade of wood and debris on the road, blocking traffic.

Guelph Police spokesperson Sergeant Doug Pflug said many of the protesters had their faces covered with bandanas.

Signs at the protest read, “No cops in Guelph,” “No cops in Tyendinga” and “Dear Nestle I hate you.”

When the first cruiser arrived, the group advanced toward it, and one man began kicking the car, police said.

The barricade was then lit on fire, and a liquid accelerant was dumped on it in an attempt to keep it burning.

When several other officers arrived at the scene, the group broke up and scattered in various directions.

Police pursued them and arrested six people.

Firefighters were called to the scene, but the fire went out before they arrived.

The road was closed for about 30 minutes while the barrier was dismantled. The liquid accelerant, as well as a large quantity of nails, were cleaned up.

[Z.], 23, of Guelph, was charged with arson, mischief, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and wearing a disguise.

[D.], 20, of Hamilton, was charged with arson, mischief and resisting arrest.

[Y.], 23, of Toronto, [S.], 19, of Guelph and [A.], 34, also of Guelph were each charged with arson and mischief.

They are being held for a bail hearing.

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RBC Attacked in Victoria, BC

RBC Attacked in Victoria, BC

[Posted on November 10, 2008, to no2010.com]

In the early hours of Saturday November 8th [2008] I paid a visit to the Royal Bank on Cook St. in Victoria, BC. The locks were glued, ATMs were disabled and painted, and anti-2010 and anarchist slogans were painted on the property.

The Royal Bank (RBC) was targeted because of its role as a major corporate sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, as well as the fact that the CEO of RBC, Gordon M. Nixon, chairs the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), a key group of corporate elites behind such damaging initiatives as the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). RBC was also targeted because it is also a bank, an institution at the root of society which perpetuates systems of capitalism, exploitation and silencing.

May these sparks add to the growing flames.

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B.C. prisoners refuse to go back to cells, try to get on roof

B.C. prison under lockdown after fight breaks out among inmates

Nov 9, 2008

AGASSIZ, B.C. — A British Columbia prison was placed under lockdown over the weekend after a fight broke out among inmates.

The Correctional Service of Canada says inmates at Kent Institution in Agassiz were in the prison’s gymnasium Saturday evening when the fight started.

The inmates were returned to their block at the maximum-security prison, but they refused to be locked into their cells.

Instead, the inmates went into the yard and tried to break through a fence to gain access to the roof.

Guards used gas to get the prisoners under control, and after the scuffle a staff member was sent to hospital and later released.

Prison officials couldn’t be reached Sunday for an update on the lockdown.

There are currently 229 inmates at Kent, which is located about 120 kilometres east of Vancouver.

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