Canadian pro-Palestinian activist released from jail says free speech under threat

 

Yves Engler spoke to Middle East Eye about spending five days in jail and Canada's crackdown on pro-Palestinian speech

A Canadian activist and author was released after five days in prison following accusations by an anti-Palestinian media personality that he had harassed her, and his refusal to stay quiet about his case.

Yves Engler was taken into custody on the morning of 20 February in Montreal and spent five days in Bordeaux prison in Montreal before being released Monday after a court appearance.

Thousands of people signed letters asking for the charges to be dropped, and more than 100 people turned out to support the author - who has been a long-term critic of Canadian foreign policy and its military-industrial complex – at court.

Speaking to Middle East Eye on Tuesday from his home in Canada, Engler said he was “feeling good”.

“Jail was unpleasant, but it wasn’t traumatic for me, although I appreciate it’s traumatic for others. It’s a dehumanising place.

“I think the key issue is I had to go to jail for five days to win the right to (publicly) criticise charges brought against me. The police, and then the crown, wanted to restrict my right to write about my case. When I wrote about it, they claimed I was harassing the police. I was in jail for five days over a technical condition. When I went on Thursday morning, they could have processed and let me go.”

Engler’s detainment is part of a larger crackdown on free speech in Canada, he says.

“Less than two weeks ago, I spoke on a webinar with a lawyer from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, and it was titled, The New McCarthyism in Canada,” he said.

“It was all about the targeting of those opposing Canadian complicity in Israel's apartheid and genocide. We went through a whole bunch of examples of people who've been targeted. Canada has, for more than a century, provided all kinds of support for Zionism and for Palestinian dispossession. The targeting of those opposing Israel's crimes is just one of the innumerable ways that Canada has assisted in Palestinian dispossession.”  (more...)

Canadian pro-Palestinian activist released from jail says free speech under threat

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Montreal police arrest Yves Engler for criticizing a supporter of Israel