Cheers, Ken Hanly
Hello friends ...
I want to first offer my belated but sincere thanks for your support after my arrest and detention in Quebec City this past April and May. Your help was crucial to my eventual release on bail. It was also important for my morale inside prison, knowing that there were people on the outside who genuinely cared about my situation.
For your information, I am still facing charges as a result of the Quebec City demonstrations (and yes, I'm still accused of possessing a teddy-bear-launching catapult, among other charges). The trial is technically set to go ahead, before a jury, sometime in January 2002. But as you can appreciate, when it comes to the courts, nothing is certain. There are sure to be more developments in my case, as with the cases of hundreds of others arrested at the Summit of the Americas. I'll try to update you when I have more news. There are occasional updates about the legal situation of the Quebec protesters at the Quebec Legal Collective's Website (http://www.quebeclegal.org).
I'm also writing you to ask you to support rabble.ca.
rabble launched just before the April actions in Quebec City, but the staff there didn't hesitate for a moment to use their limited resources to organize a petition for my release from jail, and in support of other arrested protesters. About 7,000 of you signed that petition within days, and it made a huge difference in so many ways.
I'm assuming that many of you see yourselves as part of a struggle for social justice -- whether as anarchists or raging grannies (or both!). Independent media that sees itself as part of that struggle is essential to sharing our collective visions, and informing ourselves of the world around us in a critical and engaged way.
Since the Quebec City protest, rabble has provided a space for voices that are generally marginalized or ignored in the corporate media. After September 11, a space like rabble has become that much more important as an invaluable source of news and dissenting opinion to the prevailing climate of war hysteria and jingoism.
Independent media spaces like rabble are important, and I write to ask you to consider a monthly donation of $10 or $20 a month ("according to your ability," to paraphrase a certain German economist and journalist). Think of the donation as a voluntary subscription, or a form mutual aid to the workers, writers and readers behind rabble.
You can donate online at http://www.rabble.ca/about_us/donate/. Or, if you'd like to send a single donation by cheque, please make it out to rabble.ca, and mail it to 489 College St., Suite 500, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6G 1A5.
Stay in touch, and once again, thanks for your support.
In solidarity, Jaggi Singh (jaggi at rabble.ca) Montreal, November 7, 2001 ----- Original Message ----- FromHello friends. As you probably know by now, I was refused entry into the belly of the beast last night. A friend and I had to turn back our car into the great white north, but not before we were held, questioned and searched for about ninety minutes at the Vermont border by your ever-vigilant United States Immigration and Customs officials. During those ninety minutes, as about twenty-five or so cars went by, it was only my friend and I, and two other African men after us, who were questioned and held. But far be it for me to suggest that Vermont border guards practice racial profiling.
Getting stopped at the border is not such a big deal, although staring at large, framed colour photos of George Bush Junior and Dick Cheney for over an hour has to qualify as some kind of psychological torture, especially for two anarchists.
After September 11, I've become especially aware that the profile of the archetypical modern terrorist/hijacker is a clean-shaven, brown-skinned male, between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-five, with some higher education and a good command of English.
That's why I grew a beard.
Still, I couldn't fool those border guys. I guess you should all feel collectively safer knowing that I'm stuck back in Montreal.