Obert Madondo’s Canada Crime Bill C-10 Hunger Strike – Senator Vernon White Must Resign

Below is my appeal to newly-appointed Conservative senator and former Ottawa Police chief, Vernon White, to resign. I mailed the letter to the senator on March 14, 2012. On the same day, I started an indefinite hunger strike against the Conservative government’s cruel new crime law, the deceptively christened “Safe Streets and Communities Act” (Bill C10).

Why the senator’s resignation is the second most important of my hunger strike demands…

On November 23, 2011, I tasted the wrath of the draconian new law proposes. That day, Canada turned into a police state. I was part of eight unarmed and peaceful Occupied Ottawa protesters peacefully resisting the movement’s politically-motivated eviction from Ottawa’s Confederation Park. i was subjected to cruel and unusual treatment. I was treated differently than my two white colleagues. The police hurt my back, legs and left arm and he ended up in hospital. I was recently certified temporarily medically unemployable.

Furthermore, for 3-4 hour operation, the Ottawa Police Services spent $16 000 of Canadian taxpayers’ money to deliver eight $65 trespass tickets and evict protesters from a public park which, at the time, had no contesting use. In the meantime, 600+ Aboriginal women and girls are missing or murdered but the government remains unwilling to commit resources to resolve this national shame.

Vernon White was in charge of the Ottawa Police that morning. That’s why I’m demanding the senator’s resignation. I’ve nothing personal against the senator as a fellow human being, but that morning, “a failure of judgment and Canadian leadership occurred. I strongly question the senator’s judgment in a situation that demanded the utmost in sobriety and a quick glance at the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Obert Madondos Canada Crime Bill C-10 Hunger Strike – Letter to Senator Vernon White