Free the Ontario Four -- at least, free their CAR!

Adam Lewis wrote:

Well, what can I say? It has been a matter of days and I am still being indirectly detained in the United States in Washington DC. The police have impounded our travel vehicle for no apparent reason at all. This, to me is a direct violation of my rights. Although i acknowledge that I am in a country other than my own, there is something more to this incident than a simple "criminal investigation."

The police have constantly given us the "run around" with regards to information. We have yet to find a real reason why the vehicle is still being held by police. It has been exceptionally difficult to obtain information from the police throughout this entire ordeal. We have been most fortunate to have the assistance of various people here in DC. Karen and Richard have opened their home, the ACLU has assisted us, we have been supported by the activist network here in DC in addition to countless others.

So how do I feel about the United States in general? I know for a fact that there are many good people who live within this country. There are many good people who are fighting every day for what they believe in. They are standing up and fighting back against a government, a foreign policy and a "justice" system that is putting their country's image to shame. These are the good people. These are the people the US should be run by and who the government should listen to. But it is sad to say that such a reality does not exist.

My trip to the US has only sought to reinforce my perception that there is something fundamentally wrong in the United States. It is evident that the government and the police force does not put the needs of the people first. There are some disturbing realities within the justice system, in which we have had to operate to find a remedy to our solution. There is an evident erosion of rights and liberties within the United States. This appears to be a disturbing trend within so called "western democracy's" in this day and age. Civil liberties appear to be on the chopping block and it is evident that something must be done.

In this light I applaud the efforts of many of the generous people I have met in the past few days of being stranded in Washington. There must be an emergence of a movement so Americans can truly take their country back. The policies of the US government and military are some of the most oppressive and destructive in the world. The politicians in this very city are responsible for much of the pain, suffering, oppression and destruction throughout many areas of the world.

As a Canadian citizen the US Administration appears to be a grand threat to world security and peace. Militarism and unilateral politics must not be the way of the future. It seems time to acknowledge that the very powers that aim to stop terrorism are in fact the ones who have created it. They are the ones rolling back civil liberties and waging illegal wars of aggression. My own country too is wrapped up in a war I perceive to be unjust and a tool for imperialist tendencies. I am not exempt from Western aggression. All citizens have a right to make their voice heard and stand against injustice. I have seen many individuals these last few days doing just that: standing up and fighting back. Western countries must be held accountable for their actions and crimes throughout the world. I have gone on enough for one sitting it seems and thus I will now bring this narrative to a close. In sum, I have found the US to be a beautiful country, with many wonderful citizens who aim to change what their government has become and I must applaud them once again for fighting back. There seems to be much at stake in this country and the corrupt powers are in for a fight!

Power to the people!

Jamie Adams said:

Adam has basically covered where I stand on the U.S situation but to elaborate a tad more on where I personally stand I would have to say that originally living in Canada I seemed to live with the notion that all Americans were ignorant, self entitled pigs. Being in America has more so confirmed most of my already stereo-typed beliefs. with the exception of a few very amazing very generous people like Karen Bradley and Richard Bell and all of the amazing people from Code Pink who have graciously taken us peanut-butter eating strangers into their home, fed us, clothed us and aided us as they could through our rather frustrating situation.

Walking around D.C (which in my opinion stands for democratic corruption) I've encountered a lot of absolutely mind baffling things, like i notice almost every man in business attire is white, where the majority of homeless and people in lower wage jobs like fast food etc. were peoples of different ethnicity. Even the way they communicated showed a relative degree of lesser education; i couldn't believe the gap and it is a noticeable gap between the rich and the poor. However i found it so inspiring talking to random people on the streets. We ran into a group from Greenpeace and a few homeless people who left us all with some rather insightful words to ponder. i am also repulsed by the American government, a country that lives off fueling words such as FREEDOM, LIBERTY, JUSTICE and OPPORTUNITY; is really a country that exploits its peoples, represses its citizens and takes advantage of anything and everything it can. To me i see a bunch of children on a playground the American government is the bully that everyone is afraid of, its police force is its followers and the business men conform to live oblivious to the chaotic corruption and systematic failure. everyone else is a target. "WE" myself, Adam, Lenna and Kendra were the new kids and like most bullies will the government and it's smug mindless flock of sleep officers had to hassle and push us around.

It's childish, unreasonable, foolish BULLSHIT!!!!! it's a violation of our HUMAN RIGHTS; i myself have lost precious time and money missing school. Now tell me who is going to compensate for that? Who is going to cover the phone bill we've stacked up trying to sort this f***ing mess out?.....and when am i going to get my stuff back???? I feel like i have been violated, raped of my rights; i feel cold, i feel myself detaching from the belief and faith in the security of the system that has been set up to protect and help it's people.

"I was innocent until the world had done its work on me", it seems the more we learn and the more we experience the colder we learn to be and the more heartless we are 'made'. if it wasn't for the few people who opened their hearts and homes i would feel like the God that blesses this sick infested country had run away a long time ago, perhaps he still has. Tell me would your American God bless a country built on lies, would he bless a government that represses it's people, would he bless a system that runs in circles filling the arms of the rich and the greedy while depriving the poor and the needy? i can't say i believe in "God" per say but whatever is out there may it bless those that still give a f*** and liberate the victims of the country's sick fascist ways. And I hope that although American government seems like an indestructible machine, all those who have a dream or a vision for a new American future remain dumb enough to believe it will happen. what i mean by this is that they should never give up and always push forward no matter how often they are shut down and disappointed. May they never stop believing and always strive for change. i know that's why we're here. We see Canada following an American militaristic style and we believe this is wrong. As a matter of fact the whole war in my opinion seems rather unjust; coming from a country with a peace keeping background, I am ashamed, but i will keep eagerly keep believing that together united we will be heard.

Kendra has gone to sleep, but we will finish with Lenna, who has emerged as a poised, intelligent, and ready-to-go activist:

When I left home for Washington, DC, I never expected to still be here almost a week later. A frequent traveler to the United States, I have always felt there is a distinct difference between our countries, it is felt in the atmosphere. Yet never before have I felt so strongly that my rights are being violated at every turn. We came, as students, to learn from the big-city activists, to further our training in non-violent direct action. Coming into the United States, we had no intention of having to deal with police, we were not planning to put ourselves into arrestable positions. It is incredibly ironic that despite that stance, we have managed to avoid the arrest of our person, only to have our identities effectively snatched away by DC police anyway (a worse fate, as far as I'm concerned). With no travel documents, no money, no belongings, and not even a change of underwear (don't worry--we're doing laundry), we are left homeless, without possessions, and without the slightest notion of when our articles will be returned to us.

The question we are all left with is: why do the police still have my car as evidence for a "crime" of civil disobedience that was committed while we were not even in the city? Simply because I have Ontario license plates (or "tags" as I have learned to call them), does not mean that I am connected to another Ontario driver. Simply because my car was parked at the Convergence Space of No War No Warming, does not mean that I am implicitly connected to this other random Ontario driver. There are millions of people in Ontario, this notion is ridiculous.

We have the right to free association. We have the right of free speech. Where are these rights in practice? I have the right to walk down DC streets and not be stopped by police asking for my ID...but this happened as the four of us were on our way to the Canadian Embassy, to appeal for help that they failed to give us. Our Canadian government, in the aftermath of the Maher Arar incident, have claimed that they have learned how to properly protect their citizens. I am not suggesting that our situation is anywhere near the severity of that incident; however, just as the government was able to hide behind the wall of "terrorism" in his case, so they are hiding behind the wall of "not getting involved in DC judicial process" with us. We, as citizens, have not been charged, arrested, detained, or even briefly questioned off the record about any events. We are innocent of any crime. So where is the government, protecting us?

I echo the sentiments of my friends when they say that the situation we have found ourselves in has only reinforced the reasons we were here in the first place. What kind of a world do we live in where we can only expect to have our freedom taken away in exchange for exercising our freedoms of speech in the first place? I am deeply ashamed to live in a world where the democracy we think we have is a farce when you test its boundaries. I do not want to continue to live in this world, and the only hope we have is to join in solidarity and fight for what we know is right.