Green Party of Canada International Secretary, Raphaël Thierrin, disappears, believed arrested, at FTAA summit protests in Quebec City.

Raphaël, earlier that day in front of disguised Muckdonalds
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

Raphaël's report, written just before he vanished during a police sweep at the FTAA summit protests in Quebec City.

Raphaël begins

Written April 20th, 2001

Hello to all, It's been an exciting day here in the capital city of Quebec!
Friday 4 a.m. - my schoolbus arrives in a darkened and very cold city, and drops us at Laval University, where a giant room covered with sleeping bags welcomes us: the gym where I will spend the next few nights.
8 a.m. - sound of voices outside my sleeping bag, alerting me that I can queue to get a coffee or brush my teeth. I pass on the opportunity, no need to be the first in line.
11 a.m. - I find the green party booth established in the Old Port and meet colleagues from Le Parti Vert du Quebec (PVQ). The next four hours are spent giving a presence to the greens, saying 'bonjour' to draw folks to the table and give them our two bilingual pamphlets:
1. "On s'en vient!" announcing the resurgence of the PVQ (with its inaugural meeting May 26).
2. Une nouvelle feuille verte, with the anti-FTAA motion passed by the Global Greens last week. Having the booth was a great initiative by the Quebec Greens.
Friday 4 p.m. - Linda Dawn Hammond arrives and we decide to take a 'perimeter' walk, in order to register at the indy media centre from where I am typing this report. (http://quebec.indymedia.org/) Linda also wants to photograph the protesters. Our walk begins below the cliff which separates the old port from the high town. The mass of rock and earth is impressive. The perimeter is slightly smaller than the centuries old fortress, which enables us to walk on the old ramparts and admire the textured rock formations and forested hills on the horizon. (SEE 'The Quebec Summit... It Was a Gas, Then a Disappearing Act.'for continuation of the account of Friday and Sat. events at the protests, as narrated by Linda)

Linda:

Written 12:30 pm April 21st, 2001

Raphaël and I are writing stories in the press office with other journalists. It's 12:30 pm. CS gas is seeping beneath the doors and we're effectively trapped. Reports of the absolute chaos outside are coming in regularly. Injuries, arrests, billowing teargas attacks, fires, people being corralled on to dead end bridges by riot squads and forced to jump off heights of several metres in order to escape. Raphaël has been volunteering to cover interviews on the street for CMAQ in French.

Actually, where is Raphaël?

Written April 23th, 2001

Confirmed! Raphaël Thierrin is one of FTAA's Political Prisoners!

Raphaël Thierrin has been arrested but has not been able to contact legal aid to report his situation, even though it is now over two days since his arrest on Friday April 20th, some time after 11:30 pm! It's now been confirmed- by a witness, Raynald Gauthier, who was also arrested on Friday night and was in the same police van as Raphaël. Raynald was with Eric Squire when I spoke with him tonight on the phone. Eric is presently at the prison vigil, working in the RV the Greens helped set up to assist those arrested.

Raphaël had left the CMAC press office for a few minutes to cover a press story. He was planning on staying at my house that night so when he didn't come back, leaving all of his personal belongings such as some clothing, papers, books and a camera in the office, I became worried. I waited until 3:30 am for him, then left after reporting to CMAQ my concern that he'd been arrested. I asked them to watch for news of him.

On Saturday April 21st at 8am, I was told by legal aid that none of the protesters who had been arrested after midnight Friday had begun to call in to report their arrests. They expected this to begin later that morning at around 10 am. I've been checking legal aid numbers constantly since Raphael disappeared Friday night. No-one had heard anything. The reason I knew he'd probably been arrested is that a note had appeared on the board at CMAC on Sat. which confirmed my suspicions. It had however disappeared from the board by the time I arrived at around 3 pm, but a CMAQ staff person fortunately remembered its contents. It was rather strange that the note had been removed. As of tonight (10 pm Sunday, April 22) Raphael still hasn't reported in! When I asked the witness Raynald Gauthier why this was, he said that Raphaël had finally been allowed his one call, but the number at legal collective hadn't responded and the police wouldn't give him a chance to try again. The witness, Raynald Gauthier, told me in French over the phone tonight, that at around 11:50 pm on Friday, he (Renald) had been arrested by police on Cote d'Abraham, near the church. He said that police were attacking anyone they could lay their hands on, even though the crowd was peaceful. He had personally retreated to the door of the church and was merely observing the situation in the streets when he was taken. The police entered the area in force from the high and low areas of the cote, cornering the crowd. Renald said that in his opinion the police used more force than necessary. For example, he said that police anti-riot squad were throwing protesters to the ground and treating them like "vulgaire merchandise" (translating this into English surely isn't necessary), like "garbage bags" rather than people.

I asked Raynald how Raphaël was. He said that Raphael was suffering from the cold. He had been driven around in the police van for hours with no access to food, water or a toilet, and inexplicably- NO SHOES AND SOCKS ON HIS FEET!!! What happened to them? The last time I saw Raphael at CMAQ, just before he disappeared, he was wearing them, of course. It was quite chilly in Quebec City. The witness said that Raphael was in a shoeless condition for over 40 hours after being arrested!!!

I think that we should complain to the Canadian government and police officials about the deplorable treatment of our brave friend and valued Green Party council member. We should demand an immediate accounting for and release of all FTAA political prisoners and a public apology for all those arrested!!!! We should ask our television stations why they chose not to report on this travesty of justice. This is a DEMOCKERY!
Call Jean Chretien at 1-613-941-6888

Report: Linda Dawn Hammond

UPDATE: Raphaël Thierrin finally released! Brief Statement.

Hello to all,

Just a very brief note to let you know that three days in the Orsainville jail have not tempered my political will. I just got back to Peterborough tonight at 6 pm (Tuesday March 24).

On my way out of jail around 9h30 Monday night, I was pleased to see a big sign on the lawyers' Winnebago: "Funded by the Green Party of Canada."

Thanks to all of you who left best wishes on my telephone service! I was unable to check on them until now, since I could only make collect calls from jail.

Best regards,

Raphaël

I am catching up, after an extended visit of the Quebec prison system. 'Participation in a Riot,' was my charge, handed out by a Darth Vader lookalike who charged down the street after his colleagues choked the peaceful crowd with tear gas.

Locked in the bowels of the Americas: Squalid conditions and nasty treatment forged bond among jailed protesters

Dateline: Thursday, April 26, 2001

by Raphaël Thierrin

"There comes another criminal," said the dark haired, mustachioed inspector, greeting me towards the Admission Centre of the Orsainville jail, near Quebec City. "Hm, there is a mistake here," I replied promptly. "I am accused, I am not a criminal."

After freezing for six hours in a police van, handcuffs in my back, and after being asked to strip down to my toes, in front of guards of both sexes, I was glad to keep my dignity, as the Summit of the America's latest political prisoner.

I would need it, during the three-day odyssey which followed. Stripping on a cold cement floor immediately after crossing the threshold of the loading area is not part of the routine here, I eventually realized. Like thousands of protesters, I had been immersed in a cloud of toxic pollution, and needed to be 'decontaminated' from the tear gas dust which still rankles in the back of my throat, as I write this, six days later. The correction officers wanted to preserve their jail as an enclave of fresh air, thus socks, shoes and all my clothes disappeared in a garbage bag. I obtained a greyish jogging uniform after a freezing shower. Warm water would have caused the tear gas dust to incinerate my scalp.

After a medical inspection, I was escorted, barefoot, through the rough asphalt of a courtyard where the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) inspectors held court, in a number of portables placed there for the summit. The SQ is the police force for the province, the commander of the dark helmets, and the controlling agency for much of the activities in the jail.

The ritual "one call" to a lawyer was made, and it became an exercise of fortitude in itself, as the SQ tried to dissuade me from calling the legal collective, a group of lawyers who offered their pro bono services to activists. "If you don't have much money, you should call Aide Juridique" (the government paid lawyers), I was told on two occasions.

When the inspector finally agreed to call the legal collective, there was apparently no answer, and I was forced to pick another lawyer right on the spot, as it did not look as though I would be able to call again, at a more reasonable hour. It was then 7h20 a.m.

What about privacy between lawyer and client? The door was left ajar, so that the inspector could occasionally peek in, perhaps to verify that I was not bashing myself into a pulp with the receiver. Turning my back to the door and lowering my voice helped to minimize this unnecessary intrusion.

After making the rounds of the admission procedures, it was a relief to be escorted to Cell #14, where I was able to relax in privacy, on one of its two mattresses. Too soon, the cell became a haven for five guys. Fortunately, we knew one another, and had already bonded from a night in the same van, after a tear-gassed arrest. It was easy for us to take stock of the luxuries of the place: a small window of sky, a lavatory and atoilet bowl. A few pin ups of snowmobiles and scantily clad models decorated the five by ten feet whitewalled cubicle. Light green metal surfaces jutted here and there: horizontal for sitting, vertical to prevent pee from straying too far. An automatic sliding door with a small square window completed the landscape. These surfaces became our instruments. Banging them enabled us to win our first prize, a roll oftoilet paper, conveniently dispensed with our first meal, baloney sandwiches and milk.

The boring, gruelling life of a prisoner had just begun: short naps, cramped on one side of the mattress, feet exposed to chilly air; moments of despair, not knowing whether any of our friends knew we were here (in fact, they did not); hearing frustrations from other cells, expressed through persistent drumming of metal surfaces and door; a dawning realization that we were not alone. "So-so-so-Solidarity" would be a chant that propagated itself throughout the cell block, at irregular intervals. What did it matter that we could not see companions from other cells?

The Summit of the Americas brought dignitaries from 34 countries together for negotiations between unequal partners. In contrast, the bowels of the Americas brought hundreds of men and women together in humble circumstances, and they helped us to forge bonds that we will forever acknowledge.

Raphaël Thierrin lives in Peterborough, Ontario. This story took place on Saturday April 21, and I was eventually released in the evening of Monday April 23, after being transferred to a more comfortable cell, late Sunday night (Earth Day!).

Teargassed- Raphaël(L) and Greens April 20
©Linda Dawn Hammond 2001

The Quebec Summit... It Was a Gas, Then a Disappearing Act