What do Ottawa Trans defenders, Palestinian youth, and military care workers have in common? Since the fall, community members taking collective action in Ottawa have been on the receiving end of an escalating pattern of state oppression including surveillance, harassment, ticketing and arrests by Bylaw and the Ottawa Police Service.
The past few months have seen unprecedented enforcement of city noise Bylaw 2017-255 which limits use of any “sound reproduction” devices in public, with a caveat of excluding ‘special events’. Bylaw officers are now interpreting this law in such a way that any protest that has a megaphone is in violation. This costly and disturbing control tactic, paired with increased surveillance and violence by police, was first used to target Palestine organizers on December 23th, 2023. However, Bylaw and the Ottawa Police Service have rapidly expanded use of this restriction to clamp down on far ranging forms of collective action, including Trans Health Defense Rallies and striking workers.
Palestine solidarity organizing
Since October 23rd, 2023, record-breaking numbers of protesters have taken to the streets in the fight for Palestinian liberation. As consensus grows among Canadians of the need for a lasting ceasefire, thousands of protesters have returned to downtown Ottawa weekend after weekend. Marches are designed to be family friendly, with hundreds of families and children walking hand in hand or being pushed along in strollers
Protests culminated on November 25th, 2023, when an estimated 100,000 protesters marched on Parliament Hill to demand a ceasefire and an end to Israeli apartheid. It was at this protest that the combined forces of Ottawa Police Service, Parliamentary Police and RCMP beat, arrested and held overnight a disabled and Autistic man accused of spray painting ‘No Justice No Peace’ on the Prime Minister’s Office. This incommensurate use of force left many community members enraged, while others faced fears of being mistakenly targeted as an attendee.
A month later, Bylaw began targeting one of the most basic Charter Rights, the freedom of expression, through use of a megaphone and music. Bylaw announced on December 23rd that they would be issuing $490 fines to any attendees using or possessing speakers or megaphones at protests. They have been heavily backed by the Ottawa Police Service, including Special Unit Police, who enforce participant identification under threat of arrest. Palestine solidarity protests faced increasing surveillance and videotaping to identify all protesters, and in two instances Bylaw deployed members to issue tickets directly at community member’s homes. In another instance a member was issued an arrest warrant days after a protest.
Last weekend, on February 4th, four police officers and one Bylaw officer cornered two Palestinian women alone in the parking lot after a protest to demand identification and issue a ticket. When community members were alerted to the situation, they were blockaded from entering or leaving the parking lot and fourteen additional Special Unit Police were deployed into the building. Community members were only allowed to re-enter and disperse once the police collected another community member’s information. In total, tickets have now accumulated to an estimated $8000, if not more.
Needless to say, megaphone use and music are powerful and indispensable tools for communication and self expression. The broader community in Ottawa has responded strongly in condemning clear repression of free speech. Thousands have sent emails to the mayor demanding these tickets be canceled. Many Ottawans, who had not previously attended Palestine protests have been brought into the movement, are sending donations to the legal fund and beginning to express public solidarity for the first time. However, Bylaw and Ottawa Police Service have continued to expand this tactic in serious and concerning ways.
Trans health defense protests
While Trans defense protests throughout the summer faced disproportionate police surveillance and violence in the form of drones, undercover officers, pepper spray, and ‘catch and release’ arrests, organizers were allowed to communicate and express themselves through use of megaphones, music and speakerphones.
As of February 5th, 2024, this is no longer the case as three protesters have been served $490 fines for use of megaphones at a rally protesting Marlaina “Danielle” Smith, Alberta premier responsible for implementing aggressive anti-trans healthcare legislation who was speaking at a far-right event with the Canada Strong and Free Network. Similar to Palestine rallies, megaphone use in this setting is a critical tool for communicating with large crowds and protecting vulnerable community members from police violence and far-right hate.
Again, protesters faced aggressive intrusions into the crowd from Bylaw and Ottawa Police Service and forced identification under threat of arrest. This has signaled a turning point for Ottawans interested in the right to freedom of assembly, speech and expression. While initial unfair targeting of Palestinian solidarity groups may have been incited by vicious anti-Palestinian racism pervasive in Canada, police are now keen to expand this newfound power.
Solidarity between Trans liberation groups such as Community Solidarity Ottawa and Palestine Liberation groups such as Palestinian Youth Movement have already been growing since October when the very first of the weekly Palestine marches began. They have respectively supported each other in attending rallies, providing marshals for community safety and engaging in logistics and planning together.
“We show up for trans kids as we have been showing up every week for Palestine,” shouted Emily Quaile, Member of Community Solidarity Ottawa at the rally on the 5th. However, it is now clear that even more joint action will be needed to re-affirm Ottawans right to protest.
Non-Public Funds strike
Meanwhile, far from downtown at 4120 Labelle St, some of the nearly 500 military support workers from Non-Public Funds (NPF) have been on strike since January 15th, 2024. These workers provide critical support services such as healthcare and housing to Canadian Forces members, their families, and veterans in Ottawa, Petawawa, Kingston, Valcartier, Montreal-St. Jean, and Bagotville and are fighting for fair wages, equal pay for equal work, and better job security.
Talking with these members on the line, they tell me they have been hardened by the progress of their strike. As one member told me, “I really felt our demands were so reasonable that the strike would be over in one day”. Non-public funds members are not covered under a national pay scale and on average earn 62% less than a federal worker at an equivalent job – many just $1 over the federal minimum wage. Throughout the strike they have faced aggressive employer harassment including issuing of trespassing orders and daily calling of the police despite engaging in very typical strike tactics such as slow-downs, flyering, and chanting with megaphones.
Yet again, Bylaw and Ottawa Police Service have stepped in to newly enforce restrictions on megaphones, threatening strikers with multiple $400-600 fines for use of signage, speakers and megaphones on city property. Workers are faced with ‘doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t’ terms as the employer continues to threaten them with trespassing while Bylaw and the Ottawa Police heavily surveil and restrict their actions on public property. Fines are a huge threat to low wage workers, many of whom share that they are already having to attend the foodbank on their current wages.
Police overreach culminated on Wednesday, February 7th, when they arrested and charged Alex Silas, the Vice President of the National Capital Region of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, at a picket outside the Department of National Defence/Canadian Armed Forces Joint Intelligence Operations Centre. Alex was seen to be walking towards a planned press conference for NPF Members when the Police swept in, cuffed him and pulled into a police vehicle. He was then held for six hours and charged with mischief, intimidation by blocking or obstructing a roadway, causing a disturbance by impeding, and counselling an uncommitted indictable offence. This is the first union arrest on record since the 1988 Edmonton Nurse’s Strike where striking nurses faced charges of civil contempt, and the threat of $1,000 fines and jail time.
The connections between striking workers and broader movements have been slowly growing throughout the strike. Members of Labour4Palestine and Community Solidarity Ottawa have shown up to walk the picket lines and bolster worker’s confidence.
“I’m really learning how important it is to have solidarity not only between us but from other workers as well,” shared one NPF administrative assistant. As we walk, some workers express their solidarity with Palestine and what they’ve learned attending the weekly rallies. We spoke with one Palestinian worker who communicated the immense grief of seeing how Canadian policy is furthering the genocide in Gaza. After Alex Silas’s arrest, Labour4Palestine widely distributed a solidarity statement condemning the OPS’s actions and sharing the strikers’ demands for fair pay.
Building a coalition
With the most recent tickets and arrests it is clear that the Ottawa Police and Bylaw have no plans to walk-back their blatant disregard for Charter-protected free speech. While individual groups have been able to apply some pressure on the municipal government, broader community action is necessary to cancel these tickets and abolish the inappropriate use of this bylaw.
While the process of legal challenge has begun its painfully slow trajectory, immediate action is necessary to address this imminent threat to free speech in Ottawa. A united front coalition is building to demand an end to the unconstitutional use of this bylaw and more generally freedom of people to come together and resist. This campaign must be people-led, fueled by the power of the multi-racial working class fighting for a common cause, not through back door deals or selective high-up connections.
As Ottawans continue to exercise their Charter rights to stand up for what is right, it seems that the city’s enforcement arms feel themselves empowered to escalate state oppression towards these workers and activists. Instead of backing down, community groups are locking arms with each other to fight back.
Photo courtesy of Sadik Elgallal.
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