Canadian Police Provocateurs Caught With Their Boots On

The accompanying photo shows police kneeling over and
cuffing three supposed protestors during the North
American Summit on August 21 and 22, 2007. President
Bush, Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, and President
Felipe Calderon of Mexico were meeting as partners
in NAFTA to review the global market turmoil, the credit
crunch, and North American integration issues.
Of course, some people in Canada don’t like NAFTA and
the economic policies pursued under NAFTA, and some
don’t like President Bush. As is their right, they organized a
demonstration. Three of the people in the demonstration
wore bandanas over their faces. One of the three held a rock.
A trade unionist in the demonstration confronted them and
told them to remove their masks. He told the person with the
rock in his hand that this was a peaceful demonstration and
that he should drop the rock immediately. When there was
no response, he ripped the bandana off the face of one of the
supposed demonstrators. The Canadian police in riot gear
were standing very close to this confrontation. They then
“arrested” the three masked “demonstrators.”
As the photo shows, the three “demonstrators” were
wearing exactly the same combat boots as the Canadian
police. It is an old tactic of police serving
governments across ideological
boundaries to infiltrate demonstrators
with agents provocateurs, police officers
posing as demonstrators who urge
demonstrators to use violence and/or
use it themselves.
The name of the game is to delegitimize
the demonstrators in the eyes of the
public and to justify violent repression by
the police. It is a very dirty tactic, especially
in a country that professes to
respect civil and human rights. It is interesting
that this picture from Canada came
to light at the same time as a video that
showed that the New York police had
lied, and thus committed perjury, about
the actions they had charged demonstrators
with during the Republican National
Convention.