David Arthur Johnston e-mail #2
A week since David's eaten, St. Ann's update (7-11, 2006)
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:04:26 -0700
As David fasts in prison I wonder what Judge Neal, who sentenced David to 7 months for refusing to leave the province, is thinking. Didn't Judge Neal swear allegiance to the Constitution of Canada? Didn't he swear an allegiance to God? And what about all the cops that harassed David and the countless other activists battling against poverty; didn't they swear an allegiance to the constitution? Did they bother to read the thing? What do these cops think about in church?
Whichever way you come down on the question of God, you have to admit that in Canada we are allowed to serve in the ministry of God, and we are allowed to protest against the government.
I was arrested with David in Feb. 2002, on the lawns of BC's legislature. That's when I came into this social movement, but it dates back as far as the spiral island/spiral monkey protests of 2001. This is a protest that is as old as the Campbell adminitration of BC, but Judge Neal will not
aknowledge this. And over the four years of this protest, poverty has reached new heights of criminalization. Legislation such as the "Safe Streets Act" have come in denying us things like our rights to peaceful assembly and pushing No Fixed Address closer and closer to being a crime.
The welfare state is all but shut down. And, over the last four years, Victoria's hard-core drug industry has flourished!, filling the coffers of the rich with this multi-billion dollar industry that preys on the poor.
And over the past four years David Johnston has never stopped fighting. There are court orders forbidding him from going anywhere near many government offices, including the BC Legislature Building. He has now a criminal record and all the stigma that that entails. In his Journal of
the Occupation of St. Anne's Academy David has documented every discussion with police and security. He's been driven to the edge of town and left there again and again, but he keeps coming back. It is truly amazing the extent to which society seems prepared to go in order to silence David.
But he is not silenced! The fight goes on! The BC liberals may choose not to invite us to the table, but they cannot ignore us! Somebody has been putting up little pictures of David up all over town and the slogan 'free david' is appearing all over. The internet is awash with discussion, with the issue appearing in blogs and on web sites from every province and all over the world! Please help by forwarding this message to everyone you know.
Judge Neal is a hard one to understand. He's said that if forced to choose between anarchy and injustice, he would choose injustice. But whatever!
David had NO representation. So what do you think Judge Neal was thinking. He knows David never eats in Jail. He knows David has taken a solemn vow of poverty and hasn't let a dollar cross his palms for over a year now. He knows David lives off what he finds in the garbage. But maybe Property is much more important to Neal than human life. All David ever wanted was a
place for the homeless to legally go and form community.
t@v
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:04:26 -0700
As David fasts in prison I wonder what Judge Neal, who sentenced David to 7 months for refusing to leave the province, is thinking. Didn't Judge Neal swear allegiance to the Constitution of Canada? Didn't he swear an allegiance to God? And what about all the cops that harassed David and the countless other activists battling against poverty; didn't they swear an allegiance to the constitution? Did they bother to read the thing? What do these cops think about in church?
Whichever way you come down on the question of God, you have to admit that in Canada we are allowed to serve in the ministry of God, and we are allowed to protest against the government.
I was arrested with David in Feb. 2002, on the lawns of BC's legislature. That's when I came into this social movement, but it dates back as far as the spiral island/spiral monkey protests of 2001. This is a protest that is as old as the Campbell adminitration of BC, but Judge Neal will not
aknowledge this. And over the four years of this protest, poverty has reached new heights of criminalization. Legislation such as the "Safe Streets Act" have come in denying us things like our rights to peaceful assembly and pushing No Fixed Address closer and closer to being a crime.
The welfare state is all but shut down. And, over the last four years, Victoria's hard-core drug industry has flourished!, filling the coffers of the rich with this multi-billion dollar industry that preys on the poor.
And over the past four years David Johnston has never stopped fighting. There are court orders forbidding him from going anywhere near many government offices, including the BC Legislature Building. He has now a criminal record and all the stigma that that entails. In his Journal of
the Occupation of St. Anne's Academy David has documented every discussion with police and security. He's been driven to the edge of town and left there again and again, but he keeps coming back. It is truly amazing the extent to which society seems prepared to go in order to silence David.
But he is not silenced! The fight goes on! The BC liberals may choose not to invite us to the table, but they cannot ignore us! Somebody has been putting up little pictures of David up all over town and the slogan 'free david' is appearing all over. The internet is awash with discussion, with the issue appearing in blogs and on web sites from every province and all over the world! Please help by forwarding this message to everyone you know.
Judge Neal is a hard one to understand. He's said that if forced to choose between anarchy and injustice, he would choose injustice. But whatever!
David had NO representation. So what do you think Judge Neal was thinking. He knows David never eats in Jail. He knows David has taken a solemn vow of poverty and hasn't let a dollar cross his palms for over a year now. He knows David lives off what he finds in the garbage. But maybe Property is much more important to Neal than human life. All David ever wanted was a
place for the homeless to legally go and form community.
t@v
posted by Chris Rooney | 10:16 PM
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