The use of police terror and violence against protesters, trade unionists, and community activists reached a high point in 2010, incomparable to past years and perhaps the last couple decades in Canada. The routine harassment of working class youth and minorities, particularly in Canada’s working class districts, has also intensified. How do working people defend themselves in the coming period?

October 23, 2010 marked a peculiar day in labour history. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 shut down all the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area ports. The eight-hour strike’s demands were unrelated to increased wages, benefits, or the like. Rather, workers left their posts for one reason: to protest the persistence of police violence against the working class, particularly Black and Latino youth.

On 5th May 2010, Junior Alejandro Manon, a Dominican youth living in Toronto, was pronounced dead after police officers pulled him over near the Keele Campus of York University. The story given by police, and repeated the next day uncritically by the corporate press, was that Manon, having been pulled over and his vehicle being impounded, ran away from the police and suddenly suffered a heart attack.  However, it is clear that Manon is only the latest victim of police brutality against working class people.

The media love to portray Canada as a country that welcomes all immigrants and gives them an opportunity to succeed.  The truth, however, is that as many as 500,000 live and work without "legal" status in Canada, meaning that they are subjected to even more abuse and exploitation than other workers.  In addition to this, they are under constant threat of being arrested and deported, such as with the Conservatives' recent raids.