Political Prisoners in Canada - Newsweek Edition

Canada can't be shamed from within, so I will do it from south of the border.

Earlier today I had a piece published at Newsweek on the situation with the Coutts 4 guys, who, as of this writing, are on day 515 of no trial and no bail, a Kafka-esque travesty of justice unbecoming a modern western nation state.

Given that the Canadian Media, across the board, are utter cowards, and will not discuss the case other than in a brief and perfunctory matter, we have to, in the words of Jello Biafra, ‘become the media’ and take matters into our own hands.

Yes, there is a publication ban, but the ban is very narrowly applied to certain Information to Obtain (ITO) and witness testimony; there is no ban on discussing what is already public knowledge, nor asking basic questions like “When did Canada start treating people like Guantanamo Bay detainees, and when was the concept of Innocent Until Proven Guilty abandoned?”

I would like to thank Batya-Ungar Sargon for taking interest in the case, and allowing me to opine on it from Newsweek’s very large platform.

You can read the piece here.

Some pull quotes -

” … for charges related to "conspiracy to commit murder" against Canadian police officers …

These are serious charges, which should imply serious evidence presented at an expeditious trial; yet at time of writing, it has been 515 days since these men were arrested, and no trial has yet taken place.

These are political prisoners, pure and simple. They are being denied basic rights due to even the most violent of criminals because they are on the wrong side of the Trudeau government. They are being used as a fig leaf, the last shred of Trudeau's legitimacy for invoking The Emergencies Act and for the massive overreach of freezing bank accounts and seizing assets that it incurred.

The Coutts Four are the last of Trudeau's political enemies whom he can punish with impunity; they have no power and the full weight of the state against them. If his government can allow murderers and terrorists out on bail, they should extend the same to the men from Coutts and get on with the trial. Canada ought not be a nation where the works of Kafka and Camus play out in reality.”

Speaking of terrorists and assumption of innocence, I remember when the Canadian Media didn’t stop talking about Omar Khadr, and rightly demanded that then Prime Minister Stephen Harper DO SOMETHING! to try and keep the kid out of Guantanamo Bay. Whatever you think of that case or its outcome is irrelevant - the point is that the media WERE ALL OVER IT for a kid facing serious charges by the United States.

Bummer they can’t lift a finger for what appears to be a very political and unjust situation for men who are accused of ‘conspiring’ and not actually doing anything.

I would also like to thank Donald Best, former Toronto Police Service Detective, Private Investigator, and award winning whistle blower, for discussing the case with me, as well as Jason Lavigne, an independent journalist and federal candidate for Parliament in Alberta.

Margaret Mackay has been making noise about the plight of these gentlemen for quite awhile, longer than anyone else. I want to thank her for standing up for what is right, and being the best that Canada has to offer.

You can find out more about the case from her Alberta Political Prisoners Facebook page, or hear her interview with me on Voice Of GO(r)D.

Newsweek has their own word counts, style, and structure to their articles, which limited further examination of all the details I could get into about this situation.

I would like to write on it in a much deeper fashion - if you are here on my substack as a representative of a larger media platform who would be interested in publishing a ~2500ish word (or longer) essay on the matter, please contact me - gordilocks@protonmail.com

Thank all of you for reading this, and if you, like me, are disgusted at the thought of political prisoners in a free country, denied their rights to bail and a speedy trial, rotting in a remand cell as what happened to so many innocent men sent to Guantanamo Bay, please pass this around, and do not be afraid to speak up.