Catapult into the spotlight

>> Fresh from 17 days in prison, activist Jaggi Singh still has scores to settle

by CRAIG SEGAL

Jaggi Singh spent 17 days in Orsainville Prison, a squat grey building 10 minutes from Quebec City. He was released after a Monday court hearing that prompted incredulous laughter from supporters, journalists and even courtroom officials.

Judge Laurent Dubé released Singh on $3,000 bail and the condition that Singh "not play a leadership role in any demonstrations or protests," or use a megaphone.

Police insist that Singh was the criminal mastermind behind violent actions at the free-trade Summit in Quebec City last month and charged him with breaking bail conditions from prior demo charges.

Though the police have no witnesses, they argue Singh ordered black-clad troops to throw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police, and controlled a teddy-bear-launching catapult. Journalists at Monday's hearing laughed when Quebec City Detective Sergeant Doris Pagé said no cops actually heard Singh issuing commands, but "saw" him in a thick cloud of tear gas 20 feet away "moving his arm in a forward motion." Pagé himself only saw the catapult in action in police surveillance videos--firing two or three teddy bears.

Police did not charge the creators of the catapult, though they did seize it from them during the Summit. Catapulter Paul Smith also testified Singh had nothing to do with the device. Other witnesses testified Singh was not engaged in any violence during the Summit. Moreover, charges from a Westmount protest that led to Singh's arrest in Quebec were recently dropped.

On Monday, though faced with the prospect of returning to prison until his trial begins in June, Singh represented himself with help from his lawyer Pascal Lescarbeau. Released from Orsainville into bright sunlight, the broke Montreal-based activist was immediately confronted by a press scrum and a growing reputation as the unifying force of the Left.

The Mirror spoke with Singh about prison, activism and the benefit of using humour when representing yourself in court.

On getting out of prison

"I feel great and a little bit swamped, which is a feeling I had before prison. There's the upcoming Montreal Anarchist Book Fair, talks, personal stuff to get in order. I have to find an apartment. I'm phoning people and thanking them for their support. I'm doing laundry and stuff.

"In the end I was relieved and really satisfied to be out. I just couldn't wait for that moment. I actually felt more tired and tense afterwards than during it. Afterwards it just hit me and I felt it in my body. To even be in that position was insidious. I should never have been in that position based on those charges."

On the Anarchist Book Fair

"About 1,000 people were there last year. A lot of activism revolves around protests and stuff, but this type of thing is no less important. There are 50 tables, workshops, all sorts of things. It's just a great way to plug into radical ideas and radical groups. A lot of it is structured for people who are new to this stuff. It's at 1710 Beaudry, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m."

On the current court cases against FTAA activists

"The important dates coming up are May 21 and 22. I'll be going to Quebec City right after the Book Fair to help out with the cases. Two to three hundred people are still facing charges."

On the five members of the anarchist affinity group, Germinal--arrested before the Summit on weapons possession charges--who are still jailed at Orsainville

"It's really important for people to get acquainted with the Germinal case. And the way the Germinal guys were treated was part of a fear campaign by police, and the fear campaign continues.

"I met them for the first time in prison. They've been great for my morale. They're really fun to be around and they're nice guys. And they're really bright. What they were planning has been misrepresented. I feel they are deserving of strong, strong support because the full measure of police and state repression is being focused on them in a way that hasn't been seen in a long time. It almost seemed staged the way their arrest was announced two days before the Summit. The worst thing they're accused of having are 'Thunder Flashes'--which are basically glorified firecrackers that make a big sound--and gas masks. They had a lot of things that people bring to demonstrations and a few other things that maybe people don't bring. But they definitely weren't explosives the way that it's being made out to be."

On humour in the courtroom

"Humour is an important way to keep yourself grounded. In those situations, it's all in one person's hands. So all you can do is make the best case possible. My case was just as strong as it was before with the other judge, but this time it wasn't by videoconference from the prison. On video everything was hazy. People moved slowly like a slow Internet connection. In the video room you don't see people's reactions. You lose the human element. But I also think that in many ways the prosecution made a satire of themselves."

On the accuracy of the police's testimony

"They lied in their testimony! Out and out lied! I have no hesitation in saying that. They lied on so many levels. It was so obvious. It's obvious to the people who saw the nabbing that it was a lie. You know--'Stop police!'--when was that ever said? I never heard that. They're putting words in my mouth during the demo. One thing I supposedly said was 'On s'énerve pas. On recul.' Now when I have difficulty understanding what the French means, I probably couldn't say it. I didn't say that. I didn't say that in English."

On representing himself in court

"I feel it's important on a lot of issues to speak for myself, to have that ability in the court. I have a basic understanding of the law and so that's important. By the same token, I'm not naïve. There are potentially very complex legal questions. And that's why I have a lawyer there. But it does allow me to speak in my own words. I've done it before at the APEC hearing, at the Operation SalAMI trial and at other trials as well.

"It's also a challenge. I like challenges, and to do so in French is that much more challenging. But I wouldn't do it if it compromised my situation.

"The legal system is structured in a way to disempower people. So representing yourself is a way of empowering yourself and talking about things in plain language, and judges just hate it. That's why they want lawyers. Because you just say things in plain language, like when I asked to hug a friend in court, the judge was, like, 'I don't know.' And I was saying it would humanize the process. And everybody laughed, and they agreed."

On the prospect of becoming a lawyer now that he has represented himself in court several times

"No, no. Although my mother always reminded me she wanted me to go have a stable profession. But what I think we need is more and more good, solid, radical lawyers. It's an important element of support. Just imagine they had nabbed 10 people instead of just one, how much effort and energy and money that would have taken."

On the SQ saying they arrested Singh because he might "have an influence on people who are sometimes ambivalent," and, "If their leader is arrested, they will decide against taking part."

"You know, I've always said that the police are not the sharpest knives in the drawer and those comments sort of show it. But I find those comments to be astounding, to be that open. At APEC, to get those kinds of comments we had to look at the internal documents. Externally they were simply saying, 'It's a criminal matter.' And now here we have a police spokesperson saying, 'No, we wanted to nab him not because of what he did, but because of what he might do.' And that doesn't jive with their really carefully cultivated public relations strategy that they've been using throughout the Summit."

On being called "Braggi Singh" by the Deconstructionist Institute for Surreal Topology (DIST)--creators of the now infamous teddy-bear-launching catapult

"That's sort of an old inside joke. There's been a back and forth thing between us. I mean, maybe they're just upset because I thought that instead of using the catapult people should have used the Trojan Donut--a large, large donut that's offered to the police at the security perimeter as a peace offering. And so the Donut gets through, and then the cops are salivating to bite into this big Trojan Donut. And it's really a ruse, and out pops the Black Bloc, ready to do what the Black Bloc does. In any case they're just joking around."

On life in prison

"Prison life is arbitrary--you're behind bars and it's meant to degrade you. I don't want to fetishize prison life. It's perhaps the most obvious example of coercive state power. And one of the things that we should expunge from society is the idea of prisons and putting people behind bars. It's a radical thing to say, but it's true.

"I believe my imprisonment was unjust, but there are all kinds of prison injustices: people arrested for drug crimes who really don't deserve to be in prison, a lot of people who have to serve time because they haven't paid a fine. It's a revolving door system. And it's insidious."

On how he supports himself

"I write contracts--subtitling, but mainly writing. It's not been very lucrative at all. I'm badly in debt right now. Also, when I speak in high schools or CÉGEPS, I get money. Right now, I'm lucky. I don't have kids or anything like that. So getting $600-700 a month is what I have to strive for. But because I haven't been doing that I'm in debt--to friends and, of course, the usual suspects: Hydro and the phone company and all of that."

On police intimidation

"There's a real fine line between being paranoid and being vigilant, and I always try to be vigilant. And it's disconcerting, you know, like when you're having close conversations with family members or friends and somewhere somebody is listening.

"What I do know as a result of the APEC documents is that it was clear they were doing surveillance. I was followed around for five days. They readily admitted that my photo was all over the police stations and stuff. We know that the SQ and the Montreal police have both admitted that they have had infiltrators in groups. Part of the reason for that surveillance isn't always to get information. It's just to intimidate people. Period. I saw that in Windsor, where a certain amount of paranoia creeped into the organizing, and in many ways it disempowered people."