Comrade Marcel
28th October 2003, 21:10
An anti-poverty activist was cleared today of charges he incited a bloody clash outside the Ontario legislature more than three years ago, CFTO-TV reported today. (Youppi!)
OCAP's Clarke cleared again over riot charges
Allegations stem from violent 2000 confrontation at Queen's Park
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
An anti-poverty activist was cleared today of charges he incited a bloody clash outside the Ontario legislature more than three years ago, CFTO-TV reported today.
An Ontario Superior Court judge stayed the charges in the second trial against John Clarke, a chief organizer of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
"We went into this feeling strong and we were ready to fight a second trial, but now we don't have to," Clarke told the station outside court.
"In the end, this massive operation which involved huge police and Crown resources, which was all about vilification and criminalization, proved in the end to backfire."
"The notion that it (the government) was going to be able to create monsters and fiends out of us and criminalize us totally fell apart."
CFTO reported that the judge, in staying charges against Clarke, ruled that the second trial took too long to begin. The first trial ended in a mistrial May 11 after two months of evidence and five days of jury deliberations.
Clarke, 48, was charged with inciting the bloody rally June 15, 2000, outside the legislature that left dozens of demonstrators and as many as 42 officers and nine police horses injured.
The fierce hour-long clash erupted when a delegation from the crowd of anti-poverty demonstrators, union supporters and homeless people were denied their demand to address the legislature.
Clarke was arrested a month later after police seized tapes of the clash to identify the instigators.
Also arrested were Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa, who faced lesser charges of participating in a riot.
In June, a judge ordered a retrial for Clarke but determined it wasn't in the public interest or worth the time and expense to put Heroux and Pilipa back in court.
OCAP's Clarke cleared again over riot charges
Allegations stem from violent 2000 confrontation at Queen's Park
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
An anti-poverty activist was cleared today of charges he incited a bloody clash outside the Ontario legislature more than three years ago, CFTO-TV reported today.
An Ontario Superior Court judge stayed the charges in the second trial against John Clarke, a chief organizer of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
"We went into this feeling strong and we were ready to fight a second trial, but now we don't have to," Clarke told the station outside court.
"In the end, this massive operation which involved huge police and Crown resources, which was all about vilification and criminalization, proved in the end to backfire."
"The notion that it (the government) was going to be able to create monsters and fiends out of us and criminalize us totally fell apart."
CFTO reported that the judge, in staying charges against Clarke, ruled that the second trial took too long to begin. The first trial ended in a mistrial May 11 after two months of evidence and five days of jury deliberations.
Clarke, 48, was charged with inciting the bloody rally June 15, 2000, outside the legislature that left dozens of demonstrators and as many as 42 officers and nine police horses injured.
The fierce hour-long clash erupted when a delegation from the crowd of anti-poverty demonstrators, union supporters and homeless people were denied their demand to address the legislature.
Clarke was arrested a month later after police seized tapes of the clash to identify the instigators.
Also arrested were Gaetan Heroux and Stefan Pilipa, who faced lesser charges of participating in a riot.
In June, a judge ordered a retrial for Clarke but determined it wasn't in the public interest or worth the time and expense to put Heroux and Pilipa back in court.