Brutality Canada

NDP flays arrests at Trent rally

By CP
Ontario's NDP leader called for an investigation yesterday into an arrest at Trent University in which police in riot gear swarmed eight student protesters and strip-searched them.

In a letter to the solicitor general yesterday, Howard Hampton condemned the March 1 incident as a "shocking and unnecessary" use of force against students protesting school cuts.

"I am shocked that authorities would find it necessary to deploy 25 police officers in full riot gear to remove eight young women engaging in peaceful civil disobedience, and as such I believe that an investigation is warranted," Hampton wrote in a letter to David Turnbull.

Trent professors criticized the police crackdown at a faculty council meeting on Monday and voted to ask administration to drop the mischief charges.

During the three-day protest, the women chained themselves together in an office to protest closures of downtown colleges.

"If you have come here to help, please go away.
If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, let us work together."
-Lila Watson