Tell The Toronto Police Services Board That Their Cops Must Keep Their Hands Off Our Kids

ASSEMBLE JOHN STREET ENTRANCE OF METRO HALL (AT KING)
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, AT 1.00 PM

During last Saturday's successful OCAP action to reclaim abandoned housing for the homeless, a new and terrifying police tactic was introduced. As you will see from the statement below by Jeff Shantz, the Police decided to try and intimidate those exercising their right to protest by threatening the removal of their children.

A concerted effort was made to take away the two-year-old son of Jeff and his partner, PJ Lilley, and to involve child services in this vile process. At least one other parent at the same action was told to leave the scene or have her small child taken away from her. That these tactics failed was entirely due to the courage of the parents involved and the support of others at the event.

Poor people with limited access to childcare have as much right to assemble and express dissent as anyone else. The slanderous notion that people who seek to involve their children in something as noble and important as social struggle are "unfit parents" is something that can't be tolerated or legitimized.
The Police respond to legitimate and necessary attempts to resist poverty with massive displays of force. Having created such an environment, they then use it to try and remove the right of poor families to stand up and fight back.

HOW THE TORONTO POLICE KIDNAPPED MY CHILD

During the OCAP housing action on Saturday November 8, Toronto police officers abducted my 2-1/2-year-old son, Saoirse. Shortly after the march arrived at 558 Gerrard Street East to open the "Gatekeeper Squat," police attacked the child's mother, violently snatching Saoirse right off of her shoulders. When I attempted to stop this kidnapping in process, I was surrounded by officers who refused to let me retrieve my child, even after I had given identification showing that I was the father. After a tense stand-off, one officer told me, in the chilling language of a kidnapper, that, "The only way you will EVER get your child back is to get into one of our cars." When I got into the back seat of the police vehicle, rather than being allowed to leave with my son, the door was slammed shut and locked behind us and we were driven away. At this point it was quite clear that an abduction was underway. At no point was I told, despite repeated requests, why we were being held or where we were being taken. When the car came to a stop around the corner from the squat, at Broadview and Gerrard, I demanded to be released from the vehicle, since I was not being charged, to take my baby back to his food and essentials. It was at that stop that I heard the call come across the police radio ordering all officers to withdraw from the premises of 558 Gerrard East since they had no jurisdiction over the property at that point. This made clear that the police had no authority to stop people from approaching the property at the time that Saoirse's mom was attacked and arrested.

The officer refused my request to be released and instead drove me and Saoirse to 51 Division where two calls were put in to get child services ready to take us, and thus legalize the police kidnapping. When I refused to go into the building two additional officers were sent out to "escort" us in. I still refused to enter the station since I had not been charged with anything and the reason for our being held had never been stated. At this point one of the officers who had come to escort us inside grabbed me violently by the arm and wrenching it shoved me against the car. I ended up with a badly sprained ankle that has required medical attention. The officer was not even phased by the fact that I was still holding Saoirse during this attack. When the officer continued the rough treatment I realized that things would not end well for me and Saoirse unless I got some help. Luckily right at the moment that I started shouting for help a passerby happened on the scene and came over to see what was going on. In response, the officer who had assaulted me told me that he was going to charge me with "causing a disturbance" for my calls for help. He then proceeded to shove me again. When I objected to this assault, the officer looked at his colleague and said, "You didn't see anything, did you?" Sensing that with the witness present this might be my only chance to avoid complete capture by child services, I clarified that I had not been charged with anything and then turned and walked away with Saoirse in my arms. Thankfully we were not pursued. I have absolutely no doubt that had the passerby not arrived at the very moment he did I would have been further assaulted and Saoirse would have been fully captured by child services.

Clearly the Toronto Police will stop at nothing to protect private property and profit-making interests in this city. That they would abduct and traumatize a child in full view of several hundred people and reporters from major media outlets shows again that this is a force that is viciously out of control after years of indulgence from Queen's Park and City Hall. Police in this city have come to believe that they can get away with pretty much anything. At least one other parent has come forward to say that right after my son was abducted, an officer threatened to take her child if she didn't leave the demonstration immediately.

Still, this is not solely about police violations of civil liberties at demonstrations. The violence the police inflicted on my family on November 8, is the same violence they inflict regularly on poor children and their parents in neighbourhoods across Toronto.

While some might like to argue that a demonstration is not a safe place for children, it might be more appropriate to ask if, when it comes to the Toronto Police, there is any safe place in this city for poor children and their parents?

We cannot allow the police to target children and their parents in the streets, in our neighbourhoods or in our homes. We must assert our right to stand with our children publicly in our communities and to raise our voices with our children.

Jeff Shantz, November 10