Former G20 “Conspiracy” Co-accused faces jail time over blog
Three days after starting to blog about his experience at the G20 and with undercover infiltration, community organizer Julian Ichim was ordered by the OPP to take down his blog.
For refusing to comply and alter any blog postings, he is now facing three charges of disobeying a court order and must appear in court at Old City Hall on December 13 at 11:00am in courtroom 111.
Ichim, who had his G20 charges dropped just over a year ago, was very close to one of the police infiltrators, who befriended him one and a half years before the G20. Upon finding out that this supposed friend was a police officer, and encountering what he felt were distortions of the truth presented in disclosure to all his former co-accused (which could have appeared in court, had his charges not been dropped), Ichim felt he had to speak out. Ichim stated, “I wanted this to go to trial, I wanted to face these accusations head on and set the record straight,” but instead created his blog as a means of presenting his side of the story.
The OPP ordered Julian Ichim’s blog be significantly altered or taken down, with threat of arrest for non-compliance. When Ichim refused to comply with the order, he told the police that he would remain at his home until arrested, and would go on hunger strike if taken into custody. Ichim commented, “I considered this decision carefully, but the issue is that they are trying to silence us from telling people what happened.” Recalling activist Dan Kellar's arrest and charges for blogging about the same undercover operation, Ichim continued, saying, “If it was just me it would be different, but since they had arrested Dan Kellar as well, I knew it was an issue of fear and intimidation and I had to take a stand. It's not just a technical argument over a blog, it's a fight over speaking the truth about policing.”
At this point, Ichim says he feels “ironically victorious,” noting that he is not in jail and his blog is still online. If taken into custody, however, he cautioned that “the hunger strike is still on”.
Ichim's blog can be found at http://julianichim.wordpress.com
For more info please call Ichim at 519 576 8953
Call for Court Support: fuck defeatism
[Updated December 11th]
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The G8/G20 meetings took place in Ontario from June 25-27, 2010. Toronto-based organizations of women, people of colour, indigenous peoples, the poor, the working class, queer and trans people and disabled people organized a peoples convergence with 40,000 people taking to the streets, standing up for justice in collaboration and solidarity!
Activists, community members, inspired and outraged individuals came together as a movement to demand justice for people and the planet. Over a week of mobilizations, events, workshops and direct actions took place in the face of state and police repression, violence and infringements on rights and freedoms.
We must continue to mobilize and build greater solidarity among our communities- an important part of this is supporting all those arrested during the G20 summit, including our allies still in detention, and those released on bail.