[Ppnews] Defiant G20 protester jailed 10 months

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Defiant G20 protester jailed 10 months

Published On Tue Dec 20 2011

Peter Small/Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/torontog20summit/article/1105038--defiant-g20-protester-jailed-10-months?bn=1

One of the most prominent anti-G20 Toronto 
anarchists remained defiant Tuesday while being 
sentenced to 10 months in jail for counselling mischief.

“I stand here guilty of breaking your laws, not 
the laws of justice,” Leah Henderson, 27, told 
provincial court Justice Lloyd Budzinsky.

“I submit to your jails because today you hold 
all the weapons,” she told a Finch Ave. W. 
courtroom packed with her supporters.

Henderson and her then-boyfriend, Alex Hundert, 
were arrested in their west Toronto apartment 
after police stormed in during the early hours of 
June 26, 2010, the second day of the G20 summit.

She did not participate in protests where some 
people smashed windows and set fire to police 
cruisers, but pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to counselling others to commit mischief.

It has not been proved that anyone she advised went on to commit crimes.

“This entire prosecution was borne of the 
politics of fear ­ fear of our ideas,” said the self-described anarchist.

She told the judge she responded to the G20 as a 
person of conscience and as part of a community 
that envisages a “future that is truly free.”

Defence lawyer Brydie Bethell said Henderson, who 
grew up in Alberta, is committed to social 
justice and the anarchist ideal of 
non-hierarchical, locally driven communities.

But Crown prosecutor Jason Miller said Henderson 
and others used the G20 “to exercise dissent in a 
criminal and violent fashion,” thus harming the 
freedom of expression of peaceful demonstrators.

Miller said she has shown a degree of maturity 
lacking in many fellow accused. “Ms Henderson knew better,” he said.

“It seems apparent to me that Ms Henderson 
realized at some point that this got away from her.”

During Miller’s comments, some spectators 
sniggered, drawing a warning from the judge.

The judge said Henderson’s politics and beliefs 
are not being punished, just her criminal 
behaviour. “Your approach was to put your beliefs 
above the safety 
 of others,” he said.

He accepted a joint sentencing submission from 
defence and Crown, sending her to jail for 10 
months on top of the 24 days she spent in custody before making bail.

Henderson smiled as she was handcuffed to be led 
away, friends chanting: “Leah, Leah, Leah.”

On Nov. 22, in the middle of a preliminary 
hearing, she and five others pleaded guilty to counselling mischief.

Erik Lankin, 24; Peter Hopperton, 25; and Adam 
Lewis, 23, have all been sentenced for their roles.

Amanda Hiscocks, 37, and Hundert, 31, who both 
pleaded guilty to an additional charge of 
counselling to obstruct a peace officer, are yet to be sentenced.
***************************************

Leah Henderson Statement Read in Court

http://conspiretoresist.wordpress.com/leah-henderson/

Below you will find the statement that I read to 
the court, followed by a letter to my community.

Statement read in court at sentencing hearing:
All you need to know about me is that I am a 
person of conscience, I came to this situation 
from a place of morality within myself, and I am 
a member of a community that shares that morality 
and a powerful vision for a future that is truly free.

I stand here guilty of breaking your laws, not the laws of justice.

The court has been told, “this prosecution is not 
political”, and that this has been done to protect society from danger.

The truth is this entire prosecution is born from 
the politics of fear.  Fear of our ideas, fear of what we represent:

Freedom.

A Freedom that your jails will not confine.

I am not here for approval.

I am here because this is what stands for justice on this colonized land.

Though I stand here being judged by you, I am 
accountable to more, that is beyond these walls.

I am accountable to the indigenous communities 
whose lands we are on. To the earth who we’re 
daily assaulting with saws, and chemicals. To the 
elders in my life and to the generations yet to come.

The laws that govern our societies are not laws 
of community, or laws of consensus, they are laws 
of oppression. Laws that underpay and overwork 
mothers. That deport the poor and those of 
colour. Laws that rob Indigenous Nations of their 
traditions, their land, their childhoods. Laws 
that blame the unemployed and rewards those that get rich on their backs.

I have been deeply and profoundly affected by 
this process, but have not been changed by it. I 
have been moved by the incredible support that I 
have received, far beyond what I could have 
imagined. It has been made more clear to me 
through this process that this vision for the future is part of a groundswell.

I want to say thank you to everyone that has 
supported me, thank you to my friends, my family and my lawyer.

I submit to your jails because today you hold 
many of the weapons, and many people under your 
spell. A day is coming when that will not be so.

A day is coming where the distorted mirror that 
hides the lies of capitalism and colonialism will shatter.

Sometimes a cupcake, is just a cupcake.

A Letter to my community:
As most of you probably know by now, I have 
decided to plead guilty to the charge of 
counseling to commit mischief. Originally, I 
along with 20 others was charged with four counts 
of conspiracy in what was called  the G20 main conspiracy group.

I am writing because the past year and a half of 
facing these charges and living under bail 
conditions has meant that I have not been able to 
talk as openly as I would have liked. My voice 
has been muzzled by the state, which has served 
as a powerful reminder of the many voices that 
are muzzled by the daily colonialism, patriarchy, 
racism and violence of the world. While the 
silencing of my voice has an end date, the work 
to hear the chorus of our grandmothers and the 
Indigenous Peoples whose land we stand on is
ongoing.

I never considered that the people in power would 
see me, my community and our values as anything 
other than a threat ­ because we are a threat. We 
are working to tear this system down and to make 
space for life-centered systems that make the 1% 
irrelevant. Those who benefit from the status quo 
have always tried to crush that.

I want to tell you that I was arrested because I 
am seen as a threat. I want to tell you that you 
might be too. I want to tell you that this is 
something we need to prepare for. I want to tell 
you that the risk of incarceration alone should not determine our organizing.

My skills and experience ­ as a facilitator, as a 
trainer, as a legal professional and as someone 
linking different communities and movements ­ 
were all targeted in this case, with the state 
trying to depict me as a “brainwasher” and as a 
mastermind of mayhem, violence and destruction. 
During the week of the G8 & G20 summits, the 
police targeted legal observers, street medics 
and independent media. It is clear that the 
skills that make us strong, the alternatives that 
reduce our reliance on their systems and 
prefigure a new world, are the very things that they are most afraid of.

I organize openly as an anti-colonial, 
anti-capitalist anarchist. My organizing is 
focused on movement building, and this commitment 
to build skill sets and support other activists 
is another part of why the state has targeted me. 
However, this attempt to deter me has failed, 
just as it has failed to deter thousands of 
others similarly facing police brutality and 
jail. I am strengthened in my resolve to build 
communities of resistance. We are building the 
structures of a new kind of society in the midst 
of the old, and we cannot do that without a 
commitment to skill-sharing, mutual aid and collective liberation.

Since the G8 & G20 protests, Toronto (and beyond) 
has witnessed a wave of repression that has seen 
the justice system trap people and their 
communities in its jaws, using all of their time 
and energy to survive the resource-intensive and 
soul-sucking legal process. The state hoped that 
there would be no energy left to fight against 
them as they cut funding to essential services, 
ignored self-determination, and further 
criminalized poor people, migrants and people of colour.

They were wrong.

The awe-inspiring and humbling surprise in all of 
this is that we have refused to be crushed and, 
in fact, we have grown in strategy, strength and 
numbers: in Toronto, I’ve seen the anti-austerity 
movements grow with campaigns like “Stop the 
Cuts”; in Grassy Narrows, one day of powerful 
mobilization forced the government to listen to 
the community’s demands; globally, there has been 
a continued, intensified uprising that is showing 
collective dissatisfaction with the capitalist 
system and austerity agenda that the G8 & G20 perpetuate.

I took this plea willingly. I consented today to 
confine myself to a cage, away from the people, 
work and struggles that I am connected to. I did this for a reason.

As a group of accused, we come to organizing with 
different access to power. When the 17 of us 
found ourselves around a table facing a trial, 
continued disruption of our lives and 
livelihoods, possible convictions, jail sentences 
and deportations, it became essential that some 
of us plead guilty to ensure that the rest walk free.

It was a decision that could not be and was not 
taken lightly. I was inspired, along with the 
rest of the 17, by a proud history of political 
trials, where people have chosen to plead guilty 
to end the legal process? if it resulted in the 
best possible deal for all involved.

This plea is not a defeat. I am energized. I am 
hopeful knowing that we have each other’s back 
and will take care of each other, even if it 
means that some of us go to jail. I am proud. I hope you are too.

I am incredibly grateful for the people in my 
life who have been supporting me and who will continue to do so.

To the women who have carried me through this ­ 
you are my faeries with magick wands and combat 
boots; you’ve granted me wishes and kicked the 
crap out of anything I couldn’t handle. Your care 
and support is revolutionary. May it become less invisible to the world.

To my family ­ every day I am grateful for your 
unconditional love and support; that I chose you 
when I came into this world is perhaps the 
greatest gift I have given to myself.

To my community ­ you have grown and expanded 
with me since my arrest; this growth is a testament to our strength.

To my sureties ­ you took me out into the world 
when no one else could; you housed me, sat on 
absurdly uncomfortable court benches while 
pregnant and while waiting to see if your own 
child would be released from custody.

To the assistants, receptionists, lawyers, and 
legal workers that represented us ­ thank you for 
your dedication and commitment.

To my friends that stayed in to keep me company, 
moved me, brought me comfort and, most 
importantly, helped me to laugh and cry and 
rage-craft through this ­ I hope that I can give 
half as much to you as I have received.

To my co-evils (otherwise known as co-accused):

“While I can’t have you, I long for you
 I spin 
worlds where we could be together. I dream you.” – Jeannette Winterson

I’ve missed you, friends. After all this time, my 
heart still beats as one with yours. But things 
have changed, we have grown, my heartbeat sounds 
different ­ I’m sure yours does too. Since we 
became wrapped up in this together, I have 
carried you with me everywhere I go. I’m excited 
to begin new relationships with you that don’t 
have the state stuck in between us. Thank you for 
all that you have been through this process: 
fierce,vulnerable, honest, inspiring, loving, 
strong, and deeply committed to working 
collectively, challenging oppression and building communities of resistance.

There is a complex combination of rage and 
inspiration that this experience has given me 
that cannot be summed up in one statement, let 
alone a lifetime of statements, but moving 
forward, I am energized and filled with hope that 
we will continue to struggle together in 
creative, supportive and inspiring ways. I would 
say see you in the streets, but if you know me, 
you know that I’m more excited to see you in a meeting.

With love, rage and solidarity,
Leah

Please write to me! If you don’t know what to 
write, send my a copy of your favourite poem(s), 
recipes, you really like or short stories.

Leah Henderson
c/o Vanier Centre for Women
655 Martin Street, Box 1040
Milton ON L9T 5E6




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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