Coverage of Ann Coulter’s recent visit to UWO.

CBC

London Free Press

UWO Gazette

nationalpost

the Star

Though we denounce the privatization of the university and its authoritarian system of governance, we do not seek structural reforms. We demand not a free university but a free society. A free university in the midst of a capitalist society is like a reading room in a prison; it serves only as a distraction from the misery of daily life. Instead we seek to channel the anger of the dispossessed students and workers into a declaration of war.

We must begin by preventing the university from functioning. We must interrupt the normal flow of bodies and things and bring work and class to a halt. We will blockade, occupy, and take what’s ours. Rather than viewing such disruptions as obstacles to dialogue and mutual understanding, we see them as what we have to say, as how we are to be understood. This is the only meaningful position to take when crises lay bare the opposing interests at the foundation of society. Calls for unity are fundamentally empty. There is no common ground between those who uphold the status quo and those who seek to destroy it.

The university struggle is one among many, one sector where a new cycle of refusal and insurrection has begun—in workplaces, neighborhoods, and slums. All of our futures are linked, and so our movement will have to join with these others, breeching the walls of the university compounds and spilling into the streets. In recent weeks Bay Area public school teachers, BART employees, and unemployed have threatened demonstrations and strikes. Each of these movements responds to a different facet of capitalism’s reinvigorated attack on the working class in a moment of crisis. Viewed separately, each appears small, near-sighted, without hope of success. Taken together, however, they suggest the possibility of widespread refusal and resistance. Our task is to make plain the common conditions that, like a hidden water table, feed each struggle.

Research and Destroy (2009)

What happens when the political becomes personal? Then who has the power?

Does Stephen Harper because he’s our prime minister? For sure. Does Oprah Winfrey because she’s a multi-million media celebrity who likes to share her political views and ideas? Yep, she’s got some sway. How about ordinary citizens who come together to champion certain causes, or try to tackle certain socio-economic problems? Do they have any political power? Darn right they do. And they’re what MakerCulture politics is all about. People, united in cause, working together to spread a message and set changes in action.

Whether at the local, provincial, national or global level, examples of MakerCulture politics are everywhere. And in this episode we’ll open your eyes to just some of these movements. We’ll show you that political power is not limited to a select few with high profile positions. Rather, it’s everywhere there’s people coming together to make change happen.

London activism: Empowerment Infoshop

There’s an American and Canadian flag that says “United We Fall” right above the dining room table, and a Barack Obama poster above the door with the words “You won’t make change” scratched across it.

This is the headquarters of Empowerment Infoshop, a radical information centre in London, Ontario. And those are just two signs among many that show the political views of the shop.

It’s not that the members dislike Americans, but they are frustrated with capitalist systems and mainstream governments. According to Anthony Verberckmoes, the facilitator of Empowerment Infoshop, he and his activist friends aren’t the only ones unhappy with the current government.

“There was just a poll that came out… and 20-something per cent of the Canadians in this poll were against the capitalist system,” said Verberckmoes. “I mean, that’s a fifth of the Canadian population. That’s an enormous number.” In London, Ontario there is a growing number of activists who are taking action to make political change.

Verberckmoes is one of those activists. Common Cause is an Ontario-wide federated anarchist organization that recently added a London chapter. Verberckmoes is a member of the group as well as Alex Balch, a Fanshawe College student.

Balch says Common Cause members are putting their political plans into action. “We’re trying to get a free school organized now,” said Balch. “Also a lot of members are active within unions and trying to push for anarchist organizing methods and we have workshops and educational and stuff like that for the public.”

Another up-and-coming organization in town is the London Activist Assembly which was created in September by a group of the University of Western Ontario Students. Heather Graham, a founding member, says the assembly, is also against capitalism and large corporations.

“The fact that everything is being turned into a business and it’s very hard for individuals to promote their own skills, their own services and their own needs, separated from the consumer culture that we live in — that’s been a very big issue of ours,” said Graham.

She says the assembly is largely into guerrilla campaigning which involves things like posting stickers around the city to promote their political views. Both Common Cause and the London Activist Assembly agree that with the growing number of Canadians getting frustrated with government bodies, Canadian activism is sure to increase in the coming years.

from ‘How MakerCulture Is Reinventing Politics’ -thetyee.ca

By Autumn L’Ouverture

The University of Western Ontario’s administration claims to provide “the best student experience.” Surely, this slogan does not apply to Irnes Zeljkovic’s student experience after he recently became the victim of police brutality on October 14th, when he was assaulted by campus police in the Social Sciences building in the midst of an extremely violent arrest. The now-infamous youtube video, shows five police officers repeatedly kneeing Zeljkovic in the back, striking him on his upper body with a baton, and punching him on the top of his head and/or shoulders over thirty-five times. Despite the police officers shouting “stop resisting,” Zeljkovic was already subdued, and the police continued their assault.

As if the arrest was not shocking enough, the response from the university administration, the University Students’ Council, and the Gazette proved equally disturbing. All three should have been there to defend a victimized student, but instead they chose to support the campus police, despite the many outraged students and faculty members who expressed their opinions online and in person following the arrest. By closely examining the actions of the administration, the USC, and the Gazette immediately after the event, it becomes clear that they all were more concerned with defending the police at all cost, rather than acknowledging what really took place.

The Western News, the official publication of the university administration was the first media outlet to report on the situa¬tion and made false claims in order to label Zeljkovic as violent in order to justify the excessive use of force. The article stated that a student “has been arrested following violent confrontations on a number of floors at Western’s Social Sciences Building,” and goes on to claim that Zeljkovic “continued to fight violently and would not allow himself to be handcuffed”. Eyewitnesses to the event dispute the former argument, evidenced by one who said, “He didn’t say much. He didn’t try to hit anyone. He just seemed disoriented.” The youtube video proves the Western News’ later claim that he fought the police violently to be false.

University spokesperson, Gitta Kulczycki appeared n solidarity beside Elgin Austen, the director of campus police at a press conference the morning after. The same strategy was taken up by USC president Emily Rowe, and USC Communications Officer Carolyn Hawthorn in the days following the arrest. Appearing on CTV news beside Austen, while Rowe admitted that the event was “a huge concern on campus” before providing an unclear message centered around a vague notion of “communication.”

“What we’re urging (students) to do is to communicate with the London police and the campus police and come to kind of a communication and an understanding of what the police do here on campus,” said Rowe, clearly flustered and not making sense. This unclear statement on live television prompted Canada AM host Jeff Hutchinson to simply ask, “Well, what does that mean?” She continued by saying, “What we’re urging students to do is talk to the police, or anyone on campus.” The USC president’s weak message and lack of coherent thought failed to voice the concerns of the students that she supposedly represents.

Carolyn Hawthorn took a similar approach when she appeared beside Austen on a special edition of the television program Big Purple Couch and said, “Police were acting on the best interest of every other student here on campus.” This claim was met by a chorus of boos from students in the Spoke, where the program was filmed. Clearly, Hawthorn and Rowe cannot claim to represent the voice of students when their messages are met with such clear opposition from the student body.

The university administration and the USC’s support of police brutality was further supported by the Gazette in its coverage of the arrest. In the first issue published Friday October 15th, an anonymous editorial back-handedly justified the police actions and stated that, “it would be beneficial for people to wait until they are fully informed to make comments.” The Gazette’s attempts to silence voices that oppose the USC (the source of its funding) and it’s account of events didn’t stop there. At an on-campus rally to support Zeljkovic on November 4th, people came out to support the victim including a criminal lawyer and a UWO sociology professor who publicly addressed the crowd. Both professionals claimed that the arrest constituted police misconduct, with professor Tom Murphy expressing concern over the university’s insistence on “towing the party line” and not question¬ing the events that took place. The Gazette article covering the rally failed to quote these informed opinions.

The university administration, USC, and the Gazette are proven mouthpieces for the police and their unjustified violence. University institutions should question the police, especially when they abuse their authority, as they did when an unarmed Irnes Zeljkovic was physically assaulted by numerous baton strikes, punches, and kicks by five police officers. Hopefully Zeljkovic’s lawsuit against the police, and the university is successful, so that justice may finally be served in spite of the university, the USC, and the Gazette’s insistence on supporting a violent and corrupt status quo.

Police Brutality At The University Of Western Ontario ! The video seems to speak for itself.

By Darius Mirshahi

Welcome to the rest of your life. Some of you just graduated from high school and have immediately launched yourselves into the poverty of student life. Others are returning to get new training, to work new jobs, to pay old debts, from previous schooling. Welcome to the trap.

We are led to believe that post-secondary education is our way out of impoverished existence, when in reality we are digging ourselves into deeper holes, and for what? So that we can be more efficient workers for our rulers? To become more dependable cogs in their machine?

So let’s get this straight, they want us to borrow money from them, so that we can pay them to be brainwashed and molded into obedient workers by their institutions, so that we can work for their corporations, so that we can pay them back (with interest of course). That’s right, we’re getting fucked, except it’s more like rape, because we never consented to any of this. We had no say in the world we would be born into. We never got to choose between a free joyful existence, and a life-sentence of servitude. The total domination of our lives by those who control capital was imposed on us before we were born.

We are not here to chart our own paths, develop our own skills, expand our minds, or ‘find ourselves’, we are here to work, because if we do not work here, they’ll find ways to put us to work in even more demeaning and unsatisfying positions elsewhere. Coercion is an apt way of putting it. “Go to college or you’ll end up working at McVomit your whole life”.

So yes, we are here to work, because for the moment it is a less depressing existence than the other options our rulers have made available to us. We are here to work in some twisted reverse paid training scheme that drains us of everything we’ve got.

We trade them all our money, all our time, all our mental and physical energy, the best years of our life, for some vague promise of a less miserable future where they might also be willing to lend us cars and houses to keep us passive, subservient, and most importantly indebted to them.

Debt is their most potent form of social control. This is why they’re constantly pushing you to get credit cards, student loans, car leases, and lines of credit. Once your in debt, it’s hard to get out, and you’ve got to work harder and harder just to pay the interest. The more we play by their rules the more entrenched their domination over us becomes. Freedom isn’t in the cards. Knowing this, and to a certain extent accepting it, we steal small portions of our lives back. We skip classes to learn through our own experiences in those stolen moments.

We call in sick to our part-time jobs in order to go to parties. We drink on the street and throw bottles at cops who raid our parties, even burn couches in the street to block traffic (see Fleming Dr. last year). We commit half-revolutions.

We never go far enough. We skip classes instead of dropping out of their institutions and exploiting them in return. We call in sick instead of organizing with our co-workers and taking over our workplaces from our bosses. We burn couches instead of banks and malls.

We break the law, but only on the surface, so as not to challenge the totality of our dominated existences. Half-revolutions allow this domination to stay in place and still dictate our actions as either obedient or reactionary, and are thus not considered a real threat.

But since we’re half-way there let’s step it up. We can start by asserting our desires, dreams and aspirations publicly and demand that the world find a place for them. Let’s steal back our lives openly and with pride.

Instead of fighting for stolen moments of freedom in secret, let’s shamelessly fight for total liberation from their traps and self-determination for our future.

Your future is in their hands, so lets start breaking their fingers.

July ‘08 was the birth of Iconoclast out of the ashes of the Indymedia feud. The last of the ‘Reconcilliation Meetings’ took place with the end result being the split of the group into two factions. The first crew stayed with Indymedia and have operated the website to some degree since. The second faction started Iconoclast Media. Since then, we have produced 13 consecutive monthly zines, a regularly updated website, our first public panel discussion (with focus on the War Resisters), and taken part in a number of social functions locally. We plan even more in the year to come, with fresh blood in the group and plenty of exciting ideas.

The July 27/ ‘08 London Pride parade was a festive event enjoyed by nearly everyone in attendance. Nearly everyone, because there were a handful of haters with signs denouncing the rights of homosexuals. They were congregated around Dundas and Wellington, silently milling around. When asked to further explain these positions they were advocating, they responded with short non-answers. “We don’t need to explain this to you.” One might think that they would be more anxious to get their message out there. Especially since they were greatly outnumbered by their opposite, the Anti-Racist Action group. These were a substantial number of mainly youth, some with their identities hidden, others not. They stood in front of the haters with signs of their own. The crowd seemed to get quite a kick out of this. It was heartwarming and entertaining to see. The absence of some of the more notorious local haters was refreshing too. Wayne Kellestine, who has come out to shout hate at the gays regularly in the past, was missing this year due to his incarceration over the Bandidos murders of ‘06.

The anti-Wal-Mart/ Save Meadowlilly Woods campaign reached its peak around Sept ‘08. After several well attended info sessions to build awareness and screenings of docs like “The High Cost of Low Prices” and “Wal-Mart Nation”, the coalition of various interest groups and concerned citizens developed a following. Along with attempts to influence the company and local politicians, an energetic rally at Victoria Park was held on September 6th as an expression of the animosity towards Wal-Mart and the appreciation of natural preserves like Meadowlilly Woods. As of now this fight continues.

The War Resisters Support Campaign in London has been a popular effort since its inception. They were really pushing the cause after the Parliament of Canada voted to let the US resisters stay in Canada. The vote was non-binding and the Conservative government decided to ignore it, choosing instead to follow the wishes of their ideological brethren in Washington. With several resisters here in London, the local community rallied behind them in large numbers. A decent turnout to the rally at Vic Park on Sept 13th, even though there was rain, was indicative of the level of concern shown on behalf of Londoners. The real demonstration of these feelings came on Monday Sept 15th at the London Convention Center, as hundreds came to greet Stephen Harper himself. The rally consisted of several different groups and causes - centered around a shared resentment of the Harper government - including the War Resisters, London District Labour Council, CAW, CUPE, ABC (Anyone But Conservatives), Anti-War Organization of London and the Council of Canadians. The large group shut down the York street area in front of the Convention Center and used chants, songs and puppets to send a message to our PM. On June 27^th, Iconoclast Media hosted a public panel discussion on the War Resisters at the Central Library. This struggle also continues. Let them stay!

The fallout of the ‘08 federal election led to a situation where the Liberals (still under Dion) were toying with the idea of a coalition government with the NDP, (with the Bloc in support.) The Conservatives cried foul, saying this was undemocratic and arranged to prorogue parliament with the blessings of the Governor-General. In between these events, however, fault lines appeared in the Canadian left - even locally. Many NDP supporters seemed to smell power, with thoughts of cabinet ministers dancing in their heads. Opponents to the coalition cited the Liberals support for war, pro-corporate and neo-liberal policies as evidence that the concerns of many activists weren’t on their agenda. The issue was divisive, with passionate stances adopted on both sides of the divide. This was evident at the December 4th Coalition Rally at Vic Park, which was a sea of labour and NDP/Liberal friends with cries of “Yes We Can!”. This was met by an Anti-coalition rally of anarchists and others distrustful of the Liberals. “We can’t let our votes for the NDP be extended to the corrupt Liberals.” In the end, the idea died as Ignatieff took control of the Liberals and expressed his cool feelings of any sort of power-sharing plans.

The December Greek rebellion was a major source of inspiration to our radical left. Originally an anarchist response to heavy handed police tactics, the population rose in rebellion against both the police and the state. The demonstrations were coupled with strikes and occupations across the nation. The youth in Greece are particularly radicalized by a past filled with confrontation with fascist state power and polarized politics. By attacking both capital and the state, the Greek insurgents showed that these are two sides of the same coin, a currency whose denominations are hierarchy, exclusion, and exploitation. They were not seeking merely another government, but another society altogether. Many here watched these events unfold with wide eyes. The simmering turmoil crossed Europe for a spell, climaxing Jan 29th - Black Friday in France. In England a lesser version was evident for Financial Fool’s Day on April 1st.

Suddenly came the Dec/Jan Israeli attack on Gaza - a brutal and hyper-violent assault on a mostly undefended people by the regional superpower. Day after day, the coverage was horrifying in its levels of violence; war crimes have since been alleged by several respected human rights organizations. December 30th a large group of people gathered at Victoria Park to express their dissatisfaction. Flags and signs, songs and chants filled the sides of Richmond at Central. The killing continued for weeks. A packed audience at the Wolfe Hall heard Norman Finkelstein talk on January 14th about the Israeli aggression on Gaza, and how the situation is spun into fairy tails here by the North American media. On January 23^rd Forwell Hall at Fanshawe was the scene of an inspiring rally for Gaza, including songs, speeches, poetry, and emotional testimony. UWO Students Taylor Davy, Ashley Annis, Peige Desjarlais, along with Dr Nabil Sultan and activist Beth Guthrie travelled with the Canadian Delegation to Gaza as part of Code Pink. They were invited by UNRWA, the Red Crescent, and the government of Gaza, to visit schools, children’s centres and hospitals and to report back to the Canadian people about the disastrous effects of Israel’s bombardment earlier this year, and the ongoing 19 month siege.

Empowerment Infoshop (636 Queens Ave) has continued to be an important center for activism in London. Open to all progressives, many local groups hold meetings and events here. Fundraisers, workshops, info sessions, presentations, concerts, discussion groups, and movie nights are part of the action. You can find radical books and literature, including Iconoclast and Linchpin on the shelves of their infoshop. Empowerment has played host to the War Resisters, Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, the Re-Education Project, the Olympic Resistance Network, Iconoclast, BC Anarchists, Common Cause and the Grassy Narrows campaign in this last year.

The Fanshawe Social justice Club had a successful year too. Among the numerous events and campaigns organized by the club were the Fanshawe Rally to Drop Fees, two Really, Really Free Markets, the School of the Americas trip, the Second Annual ‘Empowerment Film Festival’, Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, No2010 (which seems to have successfully discouraged a Coca-Cola sponsored appearance of the torch at Fanshawe), and a fairly major non-event in the absence of the Canadian military at the Fanshawe Career Fair this year. After two years of counter-recruitment demonstrations, such as the ‘08 ‘Die-In’, the school decided not to have the military didn’t participate in this year’s Career Fair. Apparently they didn’t want to have to use violence against their students to stop them from effectively voicing their opinions. The school’s administration doesn’t want confrontation, but they will continue being confronted.

On April 16/09, an incident between London police and some students on a Dundas street property between Beal and CCH escalated into a confrontation with many students surrounding the police after perceived aggression was carried out against a young female. The students had the normal, healthy and ethical reaction that people should have to injustice; they tried to stop it. The police called in for backup and arrested some of the students for ‘trespassing’. Hundreds of students responded with a march and demonstration in front of city hall and the downtown police station on April 17th. Outrage was expressed in various forms by witnesses and fellow students over the actions of London’s finest. “Fuck The Police!” was the cry heard over and over. The contradiction of the day-to-day oppression of the police apparatus upon the people of London was brought to the surface by the students of Beal.

On May 11th students demonstrated in front of the London courthouse in solidarity with their friends and fellow students being tried inside. The students voiced their opinions with signs, a megaphone and chants of “Drop all charges; Charge the Police!” and “No Justice, No Peace. No racist Police!” These young champions of civil rights were an inspiration to many in the city who find themselves tired of the stagnant complacency demonstrated by Londoners in the face of police brutality.

May 24, 2009

HAMILTON- Local members of the provincial anarchist organization
Common Cause fear Hamilton police are seeking to criminalize local
organizers after a Hamilton police report identified the 2nd annual
Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair as a potential source of hate crime.

While presenting the Year-End Hate Crime report (available online)
to the Hamilton Police Board on May 19, acting sergeant Michael Goch
stated police would be “actively monitoring” the book fair scheduled to
take place on June 6.

Alex Diceanu, Ontario Treasurer of Common Cause responded, “As the
organizers of the annual book fair, and as local anarchists and
activists, Common Cause is deeply disturbed by these statements.

“This is a manipulation of hate crime laws to criminalize activism. At
this time of economic and environmental crisis, alongside increasing
political disengagement, activism and educational events such as the
book fair should be encouraged, not chilled with surveillance.”

The report also identifies the 2010 G8 summit (Huntsville, ON), the
2010 Olympics, “local native land reclamation issues”, “the anarchist
movement” and “anti-government and anti-establishment reaction of
economic crisis and job losses” as trends and events that “may have
significant impacts and repercussions on the Hamilton community in
terms of hate/bias related incidents.”

For the first time the report also includes incidents of graffiti
aimed at police even though this contradicts the report’s own
definition of a hate crime.

Diceanu commented, “We are concerned that public resources meant to
investigate hate crimes are being focused upon people trying to
improve this community.”

The Hamilton Anarchist Book Fair is not a threat to the community.

It is open to the public and family-friendly, featuring free child care
and a kid’s workshop.

Over 300 people attended last year’s book fair.  Activists will gather
again this year to exchange literature and other forms of information.

Workshops at the book fair attempt to address issues faced by marginalized groups named in hate
crimes legislation, including indigenous peoples, racialized groups,
people facing disability barriers and others. Other workshops address the
the economic crisis, environmental justice and workplace organizing.

“Common Cause’s Basic Policy states clearly that, and I quote, ‘we actively
oppose all manifestations of oppression such as racism, sexism, [religious]
sectarianism and homophobia and we struggle against them.’

Indeed, anarchists have always sought to understand and end all forms of
oppression in our struggle to create a world marked by true equality,
freedom, peace, and harmony with the natural environment” says Diceanu

The full police report is available here (look for the May 19 Hamilton Police Services Board Public Agenda package at the top of the page).

http://www.hamiltonpolice.on.ca/HPS/PoliceServicesBoard/

For more information please contact:

commoncauseontario@gmail.com

see also:

http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/news/article/176460

I  learned a lot at the May 11th protest by Beal students. The protest was to raise awareness about the lunch hour incident at Beal on April 16th, when these students witnessed police officers physically attack and arrest six of their colleagues, including a 15 year old girl. After the violence police ordered bystanders to erase footage of the incident on their phones. This is illegal. The police are therefore corrupt; covering up what they know will incriminate them.
The next day the headlines read that students swarmed police, which is not true. Students were concerned that police were attacking their friends, and tried to stop them. Two of the students who were attacked and arrested were Black (one female), and three others were Native.
The media then portrayed the protest the following day (April 17) by highlighting the angry slogan chanted by some, not all of, the students (Fuck The Police). They had a right to be angry, fed up with being harassed by cops and were expressing that anger in words only.

Back to the protest of May 11th. We marched on the day of the court hearing from the courthouse to downtown.  Some students took the megaphone to ask questions and let their feelings out. Several students shouted; “honk if you are against police brutality!” Many people honked their support, many stared and a few others made some bad comments. Of the 3 negative comments I noticed 2 were from police and the third was the incoherent yet loud ramblings of a man who was drunk at the corner of Dundas and Richmond at 12 noon. This protest was not covered by the local media.

A little bit of context about the incident. I am a former Beal graduate. In my time we also frequented the local businesses during school hours. If it wasn’t for their proximity to a high school these businesses would not do as well, they likely bring in thousands a day from the students. The students are not allowed to use the football field at lunch. This is a crucial issue: the school grounds are off limits, and so the students can either spend free time in the cafeteria or on the streets. The high school is across the street from a Methdone clinic and places frequented by the homeless, and the ever-expanding police headquarters. Beal is then exposed to the harsher aspects of life not seen by students at suburban schools such as Banting. I was a student at that school also, and there is access to green space at lunch and safer areas surround the school for the students to frequent.
Apparently on April 16th a business owner called police to complain of trespassers (kids hanging out without buying). I wasn’t there so I won’t comment on this issue. I am sure that other things happen, such as occasional shoplifting. Lunchtime at Beal will see hundreds of teens on sidewalks and in the parking lots of the surrounding businesses. I do not see how this is avoidable given the fact that they spend cash at the businesses and have few other places to go. If the school won’t allow them onto a green space they need to provide them with other places to be.
I feel that this issue needs to be addressed on a large scale and taken very seriously by the school and community, however it appears to have been swept under the rug by Beal staff and the local media. What was witnessed on April 16th by the Beal students was racism, abuse of authority, police brutality, police corruption and ageism.
So why isn’t this saga front-page news? Likely because these were Beal students. Young people who are not respected by Police or fellow Londoners. I have seen police officers harass and bully teens just because they have skateboards.  I have seen police ask the homeless to move while sleeping on Richmond street. I have watched an officer call my partner a “goof” because he did not jump when ordered to by a rude police officer. I have heard first hand testimony of a teenage girl who was held down on the street at Dundas and Richmond on a cold day during a short and peaceful protest, then told she was being a “bad little girl”. I have also seen Police in this city be treated like gods. They are called heroes, and many feel that they should be, or automatically are, role models. In fact, many believe that anyone legally licensed to carry a gun is automatically a hero.
If anyone is heroic here it is the unarmed, untrained students who stood up for their human rights. They were not wearing guns, tasers or bullet-proof vests, and the law did not protect them. They are not willing to take the ageism, racial profiling, targeting, intimidation and corruption any longer. And I will stand with them.

I suggest the following when dealing with police; after all, it is apparent that they are NOT SAFE to deal with:
-get their name and badge number incase something goes wrong. You can get a hold of them or if necessary file a complaint afterwards.
-discuss any attempt to arrest or detain you, many times this is done illegally. Do not let them violate your personal safety and human rights. You have rights.
-police need soft skills training. They need to understand that we are not always going to be up for questioning. We are not there to take orders from them. Their actions are up for discussion JUST AS MUCH AS ANYONE ELSE’S SHOULD BE. We are not subject to their whims.
-the practice of asking people for their identification is invasive. It creates a world of paranoia that makes even the most pious and careful individual fear cops and the law. We should not have to fear the law but WE ALL DO.
If you want respect, give it out. I feel that the authority figures have set a poor example. They need to be retrained and educated, and be held accountable for their actions.
A MESSAGE TO THE LONDON POLICE FORCE:
The many individuals and communities of London Ontario will ensure that you will be held accountable for your actions as individuals and in groups, so treat us with respect.

There is an orthodox view of what it means to be well educated, that a person is well educated who has gone through all the levels of the education system. The higher up you go, the more degrees you have, the better educated you are. The more knowledge you have, the more facts you have acquired, the more languages you can speak, the more important people you can quote, the more reading you have done, all of that falls within the orthodox definition of higher education. And, of course, a lot of that is legitimate; that is, to me a lot of that makes sense.

However, to me being well educated means not just a mastery of information, not just quantity of information, but being educated in (or coming to the conclusions of) what is important and what is not important, having a sense of what knowledge is significant, what knowledge is not significant, what knowledge is trivial and what knowledge has very powerful ramifications, what knowledge can contribute to the betterment of society and what knowledge is really just sort of static information lying there, whether in a book or in the head.

Skepticism or critical thought is one of the most important qualities that one can possess. I think it arises from realizing that what has been revered is not necessarily to be revered. The acts that have been romanticized and idealized and presented as marvelous deserve to be scrutinized and looked at critically. The actions of your country, the ideas of the people who have been held up to you as important thinkers, should be scrutinized.

Skepticism can turn into cynicism, but I think the way to avoid that is to recognize that ideas, people and actions that we have learned to be skeptical of have also been the objects of other people’s skepticism and other’s reaction, that these things have not gone unchallenged. In learning the history of such challenges, we see that very often in history people have shown their critical understanding of society by rebelling against what they saw and by organizing to change what they saw.

I think that the entire school curriculum, from kindergarten through graduate school, will be tolerated only so long as it continues to perform its institutional role. Universities, for instance, do not generate nearly enough funds to support themselves from tuition money alone: they are parasitic institutions that need to be supported from the outside, and that means they’re dependent on wealthy alumni, on corporations, and on the government, which are groups with the same basic interests. As long as the universities serve the interests of those powers, they’ll be funded. If they ever stop serving those interests, they’ll start getting into trouble.

Sadly as a result the institutions reward discipline and obedience, and they punish independence of mind. You’re not really supposed to think, you’re supposed to obey and just proceed through the material in whatever way they require. In fact, most of the people who make it through the educational system and get into the elite universities are able to do it because they’ve been willing to obey a lot of stupid orders for years and years. Some people go along with it to get ahead, others do it because they’ve just internalized the values. But you do it or else you’re out. Ask too many questions and you’re going to get in trouble.

There are children with behaviour problems -but a lot of them are just independent-minded, or don’t like to conform. And they get into trouble right from the beginning, and are typically weeded out. Or handed a prescription for the latest mind-altering form of Ritalin.

There is great value in every person developing individual thought. Although many of the factors stated above pressure people into accepting myths, dogmatism, conformity, and ignorance it is critical for people to understand their ability to think for themselves. This must be protected and encourage whenever possible. After all we know from history and even our day-to-day experience that blindly conforming to certain sets of beliefs and ideas leads to devastating effect such as unjust wars, discrimination, racism, genocide, sexism et cetera. If society is to be pushed forward to an increasingly moral state (if the world is to continue to be a better place), it will be done by critical and independent thinkers fighting for their moral causes. This is the only way society can be changed for the better.