Toronto: Alex Hundert “released� on bai

[Eastside Revolt]

*ready to ride?*

Alex Hundert “released” on bail; in solitary confinement and coerced into accepting outrageous bail


Thursday October 15, Toronto, Mississauga New Credit - Less than 24 hours after refusing to sign outrageous bail conditions which included not expressing political views in public and non-associations intended to further isolate him, Alex Hundert was forced to consent to his release.
On the night of Wednesday October 14th, Alex was told by the security manager at the Toronto East Detention Centre that he had to sign the bail conditions or face solitary confinement in “the hole”, without access to phone calls or writing paper. He was put in solitary confinement after an initial confrontation with correction staff where he resisted initial attempts to make him sign. He was denied the right to call his lawyer, and told that if he didn’t sign now, they would revoke the bail offer and he would be held in solitary confinement until his eventual release from prison.


Coerced into signing these conditions, Alex was thrown out of Toronto East and left to find his own way home to his sureties’ house. The prison authorities forced him into a position where he could potentially be accused of further breaching his bail. Alex is now back on house arrest with an enforced curfew, with non-associations with co-accused and members of SOAR, AWOL, NOII and other community organizers. He also has the additionally imposed restrictions of no direct or indirect posting to the internet, no assisting, planning, or attending any public meeting or march, and no expressing of views on a political issue.
Over the past week, Alex has experienced a particularly malicious targeting. Last week, the criminal injustice system made the ludicrous finding that Alex had breached his previous ‘no-demonstration’ bail condition by speaking on a panel because he was supposedly engaging in the same kind of “behaviour that he exhibited in meetings leading up to the G20.” Then, he was forced to take a stand to go back to jail by refusing to sign fundamentally unjust and repressive bail conditions. And now, his right to refuse to accept such a blatant violation of his freedom to express political views and his freedom to associate has been further attacked through coercive and punitive attempts to force his own release.


In a previously published media statement, Alex has stated “They are targeting me because I am part of communities that are effectively organizing across movements. Whether it is the criminalization of anarchists and community organizers like me, or the daily demonization of Indigenous peoples, poor people and migrant communities, we have to show them that our resolve and our solidarity can be stronger than their intimidation and repression.”


Alex’s family, friends and allies are outraged and upset by the harassment and coercion Alex faced after refusing to set a dangerous precedent for our broader movements by choosing not to consent to egregious bail conditions. Outrage has been building across the country as the implications of politically-motivated G20 conspiracy charges become clear. The Crown, the prison, the police and the corporate and colonial interests they represent are clearly afraid of what we think and say, not only what we do.


Rallies in Kitchener-Waterloo, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto on Tuesday echoed with chants of “this is what a demonstration looks like”.



We continue to strengthen our resolve, and will fight these trumped-up charges until the end. One hundred conspiracy charges were dropped today against Montreal organizers arrested at gunpoint during a morning raid at the University of Toronto on June 27th. We cannot be silenced or intimidated, our resistance will only increase as we keep organizing for liberation for all people, especially those who daily bear the brunt of police, state, and corporate oppression.


Please stay posted for further updates.


For more information contact Jonah Hundert at [email protected]


For the press release from last week, please read http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/549 and for further background information on Alex’s arrest and the numerous attempts by the police and Crown to throw him back in jail, read this press release: http://g20.torontomobilize.org/node/504


For ongoing G20 defence and fundraising visit: http://g20.torontomobilize.org/


http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20101015135433618

[blake 3:17]

This is really crazy stuff -- the legalities are extremely questionable. I was going to say that I hadn't seen this stuff here in Ontario in recent years, but that'd be a lie. I was told today that it is illegal for Hundert to send an email. The same shit has been used recently against Muslims and First Nations peoples here. I don't know Hundert but I think the whole of the Left and anyone concerned with basic civil liberties needs to defend him.

From the Toronto Star:



Staggering' conditions on accused G20 ringleader

October 15, 2010
Dan Robson

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/d8/04/6dafc4e54da0ae67caae61fb988d.jpeg Alex Hundert, an accused ringleader of G20 violence, was released on bail late Wednesday after agreeing to stiff conditions.
JESSE MCLEAN/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Alex Hundert’s words will not appear in this story.

Unlike other Canadians, he’s not allowed to speak to the press.

At least that’s how a court interpreted the new bail conditions placed on Hundert, an accused ringleader of violence during the G20 summit in June.

“It’s staggering in its breadth,” said John Norris, Hundert’s lawyer. “I’ve never heard of anything as broad as that.”

Hundert, 30, faces three counts of conspiracy pertaining to G20 activities, and was released in July on $100,000 bail with about 20 terms, including not participating in any public demonstration.

Shortly after his release, the Crown filed an appeal to revoke his bail. Superior Court Justice Todd Ducharme ruled against that appeal.

On Sept. 17, shortly after Ducharme’s decision, Hundert was arrested for participating in a panel discussion at Ryerson University — which police deemed to be a public demonstration.

On Wednesday Hundert agreed to the new, more stringent, bail conditions.

They include a clarification of the no-demonstration rule, to include a restriction on planning, participating in, or attending any public event that expresses views on a political issue.

Justice of the Peace Inderpaul Chandhoke told the court the new conditions also restrict Hundert from speaking to the media.

“I’ve never seen that before,” said Norris, who plans to appeal Hundert’s initial arrest for breach of bail conditions, as well as the newest rules put on his client.

Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall, says bail conditions are meant to prevent crimes from being committed — and a person’s rights can be infringed upon to a “reasonable” extent to ensure public safety.

But in this case, Young says, the court has gone too far.

“It’s basically putting a gag order on a citizen of Canada, when it’s not clear that the gag order is at all necessary to protect public order,” he said, of Hundert’s restriction from speaking to the media.

“People have to be able to air grievances, and the media is a primary tool in which people can air grievances effectively.”
Young called the strict bail conditions “astonishing” — something unheard of in modern-day Canada.

“It really seems to be a very severe deprivation of rights,” he said. “I’d be very curious to see how a higher court will respond.”

Nathalie Des Rosiers, of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, says they plan to write the Attorney General in Hundert’s defence.

“Speaking to the media does not threaten public safety,” she said. “These bail conditions are only aimed at silencing speech.”