ckut community radio

interview with salma one of the organizers of the ocap women of etibocoke

OCAP Women of Etobicoke:
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST POLICE HARASSMENT

Friday July 7
12 pm
Outside 23 Division
2126 Kipling Ave

By TTC: Subway to Kipling Station
Take Bus #45 (Kipling North)
Get off at Redcliff Blvd and walk south to the division

The Metro Toronto Police 23 division has a long history of violent and
racist behaviour in the housing projects of North Etobicoke-charging kids
with little to no evidence, brutal arrests, trumped up charges, slamming
youth with baseless criminal records from an early age. Parents in
protecting their children are hit as hard by the division.

In the last weeks, an increasing number of youth have been targeted and
arrested by this division. One particular incident has shaken and angered
families living in Mount Olive, a housing project at Finch and Kipling. In
response to the arrest of a 14 year old boy at Mount Olive, organizer
Amina Ali says,"The boys his age used to play basketball or go to the
youth centre in Albion, but now at 7pm they have to go home. Because
they're scared - maybe I'll be booked, maybe I'll be stopped. It
traumatized the small kids under fifteen. What happened to Faizal did not
happen to him alone. It happened to the whole community."

As the government increases spending on police in poor areas in the name
of safety, poor communities feel the effects of escalating violence and
injustice at the hands of police. Accordingly, it is necessary for
communities to resist this escalation.

Friday will see the first demonstration organized by the OCAP Women of
Etobicoke. Please join us in standing against police harassment of youth
in North Etobicoke.

For more information, call:
OCAP Women of Etobicoke
416-749-7770