Vancouver Police Department's "Guns-Drawn" Graffiti Raid Draws Fire
by C.L. Cook - PacificFreePress.com
On June 3rd, Vancouver Police staged a "guns-drawn" raid against a house of known indigenous and anarchist opponents to the energy policies of the central government and its corporate sponsors.
The ostensible reason for the raid was given as the search for graffiti materials believed to be tied to an ongoing "no pipelines" tagging campaign. Warrior Publications publisher, Gord Hill was one of those arrested and released.
As his computers and communications devices were seized by police, I conducted an e-mail interview with him over the course of the four days following the raid. - C.L. Cook
C.L.Cook This raid reminds me of the Line 9 arrests in Ontario, where two locals were busted in the same violent way. "What does the manner of this arrest suggest to you?"
Zig Zag The manner in which the Vancouver police carried out their raid and arrest suggests to me that it is a politically motivated act of repression aimed at intimidating anti-pipeline resistance in the city, an attempt to blunt the growing radicalism that is focused on pipelines and oil tankers in the region. It can be seen as a pre-emptive strike by the state prior to any actual construction of proposed pipelines. But raids of this nature also serve other purposes. They are fishing expeditions for police to document our lives and possessions, and to acquire intelligence on our activities and intentions. By stealing our laptops and cell phones they not only gain intelligence from the information on the devices, but also deprive and disrupt our ability to carry out public communications work, which most of us in the house are involved in.
C.L. Has Warrior Publications been targeted by police prior to the June 3rd raid?
ZZ During the anti-Olympics campaign I was targeted by the RCMP Joint Intelligence Group (JIG). They would come by my apartment in the Downtown Eastside, leave business cards, and approach me on the street. It was basic intimidation tactics that they portray to the media as "outreach" work. I later obtained a Freedom of Information request and was able to get a glimpse of the surveillance they had conducted against myself from 2007-2010 including watching my residence and following me around the city.
C.L. The police tactics you mention were revealed prior to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver; the June 4th actions aside, have these tactics continued, merely shifting focus to pipeline opponents?
ZZ Yes, I think the basic tactics of repression of social movements evolve but are basically the same. During the two year period prior to the Olympics we had cops showing up at our residences, work places, as well as approaching us on the street. This was meant to intimidate organizers and show them they were known and under surveillance. The cops refer to this as "community consultation." For the Olympics, the RCMP established a massive bureaucracy under the Joint Intelligence Group and worked with a wide variety of government agencies, local police, etc. For the oil and gas industry, they have already established an Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Edmonton (dedicated to oil and gas security). One thing that's important to keep in mind is that oil and gas is part of a national strategy aimed at transforming Canada into a petro state, so it's a major priority for the ruling class and corporations to impose these pipelines and oil tankers despite widespread opposition.
C.L. On the same day as the raid on your house, David Pugliese wrote in the Ottawa Citizen of a "leaked" memo sent "to all federal departments" from the GOC, or Government Operations Centre, informing all that they are: “seeking your assistance in compiling a comprehensive listing of all known demonstrations which will occur either in your geographical area or that may touch on your mandate...” Pugliese describes the GOC, writing; "The Government Operations Centre or GOC is supposed to provide strategic-level coordination on behalf of the federal government “in response to an emerging or occurring event affecting the national interest.”" I'd never heard of this GOC, but it sounds a lot like what you describe; are you aware of this outfit?
ZZ I wasn't aware of the GOC until the Pugliese article, but it fits in with the trend of the last few years including the "Hotspot reporting system," which was established by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). (http://warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/state-surveillance-of-indigenous-protests-in-canada/#more-260). This system collected reports from various government agencies. Overall there has been a huge increase in surveillance of social movements, including those opposed to oil and gas pipelines. This trend not only reflects the state's concerns about potential conflicts but also the deteriorating socio-economic conditions the capitalist system is experiencing. I think it's clear the state is preparing for ever-greater social conflict and is preparing its repressive apparatus to attempt to deal with this. Even mobilizations such as Occupy and Idle No More, while being extremely moderate and reformist, are seen as a potential threat.
C.L. The initial (corporate/State) media reports on the raid of your house, arrests and release emphasized the nature of the graffiti rather than the portents of police actions. At the fore of those was the painting upon a mural of children swimming underwater - a painting favoured by the community. The point, it seemed to me, was to paint graffiti-protest as mindless vandalism, and protesters thus outside both mainstream thought and rational accommodation. There was no mention in those reports of the fact the "no pipelines" graffiti meme appears in a number of places, picked up by any number of independent opponents, or might even be used as a passive agent provocateur method of delegitimizing all opponents of the energy agenda. The notable exception to this predictably reactionary tone was a piece by Bineshii at Vancouver Media Coop, where s/he writes; "Whether a person thinks the graffiti on the mural is good or bad … anyone’s personal opinion on the murals has no legal relevance to the home raid that occurred, but when mainstream organizations and people in leadership positions make disparaging remarks directed at a person or people undergoing legal persecution, it does have legal bearing on the ability of already marginalized, grassroots community members’ capacity to defend themselves against a clearly over zealous and violent police force."
Is this raid, and the reporting done on it, merely a way of "preparing [the State's] repressive apparatus" and the public mind for any charges/arrests made against anyone in the house in the future?
[Here's the Binseshii article at Van. Media Coop - http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/blog/bineshii/30901].
ZZ I think raids of this nature serve various purposes. On one level, the Anti-Graffiti Unit itself is undoubtedly under pressure to at least be seen as "doing something" about the graffiti. On another level, there are undoubtedly other units in the VPD, such as those involved in intelligence gathering, that would exploit the raid as a means of gathering more information on our house and us as individuals. Then there is the context and timing of the raids, amidst a growing public opposition to oil and gas tankers and on the eve of the federal decision regarding approval of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines. It's highly unlikely the cops raided our house at this time out of pure coincidence, and in that way it is meant as message to other anti-pipeline opponents. As for the media coverage, overall I think what made this raid newsworthy was not just the murals that have been graffitied, but the scale of the police operation and the use of firearms to execute it. If the cops were pursuing a media strategy at this time then that's what they would have done, with a press conference etc., except at the end of the day no charges were laid. This could of course occur in the future, and then we'd have to see how they "frame" the narrative of the raid and subsequent arrest. At this time there's little media work they can do other than denying the scale of the raid and whether or not firearms were used to carry it out. Overall I think they would have preferred there had been no media coverage as the optics of raiding a house with guns drawn for six petty mischief charges doesn't look good on their part.
C.L. It seems this second week of June is to be a big one, with rumours of an energy policy announcement coming out of Ottawa, following Stephen Harper's G7 meetings in Europe. As a final question, Zig Zag, what's your take on next steps for both indigenous and other resistance to the seemingly implacable progress of Big Carbon in BC?"
ZZ I think the next logical step is to physically block and disrupt the construction of major pipelines, but the "mainstream" campaign has been so managed by professional activists and NGOs that it's difficult to see them engaging in real and effective direct action. Their primary methods are based on legal and political reforms, through either the courts or by electing sympathetic political parties. If the state is determined to force through energy projects, as we saw recently with the anti-fracking resistance in New Brunswick, it will of course require much more effort than public relations exercises and voting. In fact I think there is a lot that can be learned from that struggle.
And even though some political parties have vowed to stop Enbridge if elected, there are other major pipelines and energy projects, including fracking for natural gas, that they do endorse.
The same can be said of the Indian Act band councils presently opposed to Enbridge, but who are partners in other pipeline and energy projects. Like the professional activists and NGOs, the band councils have carefully managed and controlled most of the Native opposition to Enbridge. They may use tactics such as blockades, but these are symbolic efforts aimed at creating publicity and political pressure. They are not real examples of direct action, and like the NGOs who rely on corporate charities, the band councils are ultimately controlled by their dependency on state funding.
It's necessary for their to be autonomous forces that are neither dependent on outside funding nor restricted to purely legal and political methods. For Indigenous peoples this would mean a grassroots movement that was neither controlled nor influenced by the band councils. For non-Natives, this would mean a grassroots movement that was not managed by the professional activists and NGOs. The emergence of such autonomous movements would of course indicate a radicalization of the struggle, something the state obviously fears.
It's also possible that the federal government will reject the Enbridge pipeline, providing the opposition with a "victory" and potentially dispersing it, in order to push through all the other proposed pipelines and energy projects. Enbridge itself is already working to pump Tar Sands oil across the country to ports on the East Coast, with the Line 9 reversal, for example.
It's important to remember that the Enbridge Northern Gateway is only one of several major pipelines proposed.
Right now the Unist'ot'en camp in Wet'suwet'en territory is facing the imminent start of construction for the Pacific Trails Pipeline, a natural gas line running from Prince George to a proposed LNG plant in Kitimat, on the coast. This line connects to gas fields in the Peace River region in north eastern BC, where there has been a large expansion in fracking. Here in Vancouver, there is the proposed expansion of the Kinder Morgan TransMountain pipelines from Edmonton to Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver. This would see hundreds of oil tankers going through Burrard Inlet each year.
Ultimately I believe it will require a broad, diverse movement of groups and individuals, using a wide variety of tactics and methods, to stop the pipelines and oil tankers.
C.L. Cheers.
Chris Cook serves as managing editor at www.PacificFreePress.com, and hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria at cfuv.uvic.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.Blogspot.ca.
Gord Hill, aka Zig Zag is Editor/Publisher of the Warrior Publications site. Gord Hill (Kwakwaka’wakw nation) is also the author of The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book (both published by Arsenal Pulp Press), and 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance (published by PM Press).