Ten years after the death of Fredy Villanueva: The struggle against poverty and oppression continues
- Details
- Wednesday, 22 August 2018
- Julien Arseneau
On August 9, 2008, Fredy Villanueva was shot to death by a police officer in the Montreal neighbourhood of Montréal-Nord. The 18-year-old's murder sparked a riot, which brought to light the poverty, misery, and racism prevalent in the neighbourhood. The police officer who killed Fredy, Jean-Loup Lapointe, has never been held accountable for his actions. Ten years after these events, there is still a heavy police presence in the area, racial profiling has not diminished, and Montréal-Nord remains one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city. None of the problems which led to the riot have been solved.
Following the big demonstration on Nov. 12 against racism in Montreal, Socialist Fightback Students organized two public events on the topic of “The struggle against racism and the socialist revolution.” The first event was held at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) on Tuesday, Nov. 14 and drew out around 35 people. A similar number of people attended the same event in English at Concordia University on Thursday, Nov. 16. The two conferences were facilitated by Farshad Azadian, member of the editorial board of Fightback and a longtime activist.
Three years ago, the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO brought to the surface the brutality faced by the black and poor population of the city of St. Louis and its surrounding suburbs. Now, the city finds itself in the news again with a murderous police officer at the center of the story.
There has been a proverbial media storm surrounding the recent settlement of the lawsuit launched by Omar Khadr. Khadr was a Canadian citizen who was captured by American forces during the invasion of Afghanistan. He was a minor at the time and was held as a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for ten years prior to being released and allowed to return to Canada. He then sued the Canadian government for breaching his charter rights by engaging in his interrogation, in collaboration with American officials, at the detention camp.
When Black Lives Matter halted the Toronto Pride Parade last year, they had a fairly short list of demands. These demands called for an end to Pride Toronto’s marginalization and exclusion of LGBTQ people of colour, prioritization of the hiring of members from particularly vulnerable sectors of the LGBTQ community (e.g. black trans women), the reinstatement of the South Asian stage, and the removal of police floats from all Pride marches and parades. Indigenous activists joined them by praying, smudging, drumming and chanting, and Latin allies participated in the drumming as well. 
On Thursday March 23, the parliamentary motion (M-103) on Islamophobia rightfully passed in the House of Commons. Federal Liberal MP Iqra Khaled introduced this 
The Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec was the victim of a brutal atrocity, a bit before 8pm Sunday evening, where one man opened fire, killing six people and wounding a further eight. The thirty-nine other people who were gathered for a night prayer were unharmed. Fightback strongly condemns this cowardly attack on the Muslim community and we offer our condolences and our solidarity to the victims and their families.
On Sunday March 19th, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Toronto initiated a protest outside Toronto police headquarters. The protest subsequently turned into an occupation which lasted two weeks. The instigating event was the failure of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to prosecute the officers involved in the fatal shooting of 45-year old Andrew Loku, who is of South Sudanese origin. After eight months of deliberation, the SIU ruled that the officer in question did not exceed the range of “justifiable force”.
The 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident has brought into focus the history of Canada’s immigration policy. The anniversary of this mass deportation has been marked by coverage and specials in the mainstream press, by statements from politicians, as well as remembrance ceremonies, particularly in the Sikh-Canadian community. The same policies that caused the tragic events of 100 years ago are largely present today.