NEWS RELEASE posted on November 8, 2010 by stimulator
Police Raid Camas Educational Bookstore
NOVEMBER 8, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Police Raid Camas Educational Bookstore
Victoria, BC on November 5, 2010: the Victoria Police Department entered Camas Books, 2590 Quadra Street with a warrant to search and seize computer equipment and documents. Four volunteers were detained while officers searched the premise, seizing 2 computers, a Camas Educational Society annual report, and Shaw and Telus account bills.
The Camas Educational Society is a not-for-profit registered society that functions collectively to operate the volunteer run Camas Books and Info. Camas Books first opened its doors in September 2007, with the intention of providing a voice for social justice perspectives, and helping to foster a spirit of solidarity with other such struggles taking place globally. The Camas Collective has a mandate to keep the store and space as accessible and inclusive as possible in order to provide free access to internet and print information that follows our mission statement, akin to a library.
The camas collective has received no information from police about any incident that the search and seizure may be pertaining to, or what lead police to the book store.
For more information on Camas Books or the Camas Educational Society go to www.camas.ca
Media Contacts: Meaghan MacDonald Email: Meaghan.j.macdonald(at)gmail.com Phone: 250-896-7588
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
Comments
Speculation
One might speculate that this court order was prompted in part by the attack on Victoria city mayor' home. (See Communique from 'PG72' here http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/5068). The book-store is a significant resource for organizing communities and cultural life in Victoria, so the court-ordered action could have been for any number of possibly connected, on-going cases of state-surveillance towards repression of political or alleged criminal activity.
follow up
There has been no why provided yet. Applications are being made to the court to get further details.
why?
what was the reason they gave?
Raid on Camas, Janine Bandcroft
Camas is seen by many in the anarchist net as a resource, with good instructions on all sorts of ways to destroy and dismember the kapitalist state. See online vandalizing information that Camas Books offers their anarchist activists, scrolling down their Burning Fort Distro webpage: http://www.camas.ca/?q=node/7
Janine Bandcroft (Left Coast News etc) has suggested on Globe and Mail comment page on the news story that the Mayor Fortin vandalism could be work of police "agents provocateurs". Anything possible, but if its agents provocateur, they could be from Mayor Fortin's own support groups. Nothing gets the politicians thinking than knowing that near to those who propose mild, pink changes, are those getting set for radical red change.
too true
"Nothing gets the politicians thinking [more] than knowing that near to those who propose mild, pink changes, are those getting set for radical red change." I suspect this is too true.
Suspected vandal of mayor’s house arrested
Suspected vandal of mayor’s house arrested
Roszan Holmen - Victoria News
Updated: November 10, 2010 4:51 PM
Victoria police have arrested a 37-year-old man in connection to an incident of vandalism at Mayor Dean Fortin’s house.
Police searched a business in the 2500 block of Quadra St. and a residence in the 2500 block of Prior St. They found evidence linking the man to an email sent to media claiming responsibility for the crime.
Fortin’s house was vandalized early Nov. 5. His car window was smashed and his house and car were spray painted. The graffiti made references to issues facing homelessness in the city.
The email claimed a group called PG72 was behind the crime. It supposedly refers to Pandora Green and the number of shelter beds publicized as being closed by the provincial government that week.
In September, city council passed a bylaw banning camping on the boulevards, including a popular spot on Pandora Green.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/victorianews/news/107093963.html