BY ROBERT SIMMS
TORONTO - Two agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seized Nojan Emad, a Cuba solidarity activist and leader of the Toronto Young Socialists, April 20 in the Pathfinder bookstore here. They dragged him out of the store into a waiting van where four agents detained and interrogated him for close to an hour.

Emad was released only after a lawyer's call, organized by bookstore staffers, reached him via the van's cellular phone.

The lawyer, Bob Kellerman, spoke at a broadly attended April 22 press conference to protest the illegal harassment of Emad. He told the press that the young socialist "essentially was kidnapped by a police force."

Emad, 19, is a garment worker and political activist. In January, he traveled to Cuba as part of the International Youth Brigade. He has since spoken publicly many times in defense of the Cuban revolution, been interviewed on the radio, and wrote an article on Cuba in the April 12 Eyeopener, the Ryerson University newspaper. He is also a member of the Communist League.

The day before his abduction, Emad attended a demonstration of 2,500 people in Montreal defending women's, immigrant, and democratic rights outside the convention of the right-wing Human Life International.

Two plain clothes RCMP agents from the National Security Investigations Section entered the Pathfinder bookstore in

Toronto at 3:00 p.m. April 20. They asked to speak to Nojan, a volunteer staffer for the store.

Emad asked them to step out of the store. The agents began to interrogate him about his views on Cuba and said they wanted to ask him about "a telephone call." When Emad refused to submit to an interrogation, the agents warned him things would go worse for him.

At about 7:00 p.m., another RCMP agent joined by one of those who had previously questioned Emad entered the Pathfinder bookstore, again asking for Nojan. At first they refused to identify themselves as police officers. When they did, they were asked to leave the store, which they refused to do.

Upon seeing Emad emerge from the back, the two agents lunged for him. Volunteer bookstore staffers tried to protect Emad by getting between him and the officers. They asked if the agents had a warrant and getting no reply demanded that they leave. The agents said they were not arresting Emad but he must come with them.

The agents pushed the volunteers into the bookstore office. In the process, they knocked John Steele, the Communist League candidate in the upcoming Ontario provincial elections, to the floor.

They threatened two of Emad's defenders with arrest for obstruction and shoved other volunteers, including one in a wheelchair. The cops succeeded in grabbing Emad's jacket and arm. He protested and demanded to see their warrant. Both officers flashed their RCMP badges and said, "This is our warrant."

They dragged Emad out the front door where two other agents were waiting and put him in a minivan with tinted windows. The RCMP agents drove the garment worker several blocks away, parked the van, and began to harass and try intimidate him.

Among their questions: Have you ever been to Oklahoma? Do you know how to make a bomb? Do you promote terrorism? Do you belong to an Iranian organization? What is your religion?

They also demanded to know what he did at the Pathfinder bookstore, claiming it is not an ordinary bookstore. And for the second time that day they questioned him about why he had gone to Cuba.

Unsatisfied with how their harassment was going, they told Emad, "We are the top police force in the country - you should answer our questions; You came to our country and should live by the rules." They also wanted to know, "Why were those people protecting you?"

It was only after attorney Kellerman was allowed to talk to Emad in the van that the cops relented, telling Emad he was free to go. When Kellerman asked Emad why they had detained him, the agents, illegally listening in on the conversation, instructed Emad to tell them it was an "immigration" matter. After Kellerman said that couldn't be, that Emad was a Canadian citizen, agents scribbled out "National Security" for Emad to tell Kellerman.

Before letting Emad go, one of the RCMP agents warned him not to take action with his lawyer. "Right now the four of us are real friendly, but that could change like this," he said, snapping his fingers. One of the other cops told Emad, "We really are friendly," and that if he was short of funds, to give them a call anytime.

Immediately following the attack, supporters of democratic rights mobilized to defend Emad and the Pathfinder bookstore. The Canadian Arab Federation, Cuba solidarity activists, unionists, and others denounced the government police action at an April 22 press conference.

That same day, Emad spoke to a demonstration of 250 people organized by the Toronto Coalition Against Racism to protest Canadian government immigration policies. Many demonstrators approached him to offer support A public meeting that night on defending democratic rights sponsored by the Militant Labor Forum drew 45 people.

Emad is appealing to unions, civil and democratic rights organizations, solidarity groups, and individual fighters for democratic rights to protest the RCMP assault.

Emad explained, "This attack is a threat to everyone's right to engage in political and union activity. It has only one aim - intimidating anyone who is opposed to the policies of the Canadian government.

"Think of the crimes those agents committed," he said. "They were trespassing without a search warrant or arrest warrant; they are guilty of assault, kidnapping, and harassment. I wasn't allowed to call a lawyer. I wasn't informed of my rights, or charged with an offense, and they wouldn't give me privacy when my lawyer reached me. And their concern over `a telephone call' raises the question - was my home phone tapped or the same at the Pathfinder bookstore?

"Far from breaking me, which was their goal, this attack has only strengthened my resolve to fight injustice here and anywhere in the world," Emad said.

Emad is asking that supporters of democratic rights demand that those agents responsible be charged and prosecuted for their crimes and that the "investigation" against him be ended.

Emad also noted that many workers in the plants around Toronto are interested in his case. "Some think that the RCMP must have had some reason to do this. But most working people who've heard what happened to me are pretty angry and don't think it should go on."

Emad had just started a new job in an unorganized garment shop the day he was attacked by the RCMP. "I didn't go to work the next day, explaining I had an emergency," said Emad. But over the weekend, news about his case appeared in the major dailies in Toronto and on several radio stations. When he went in to work on Monday, most workers already knew what had happened and greeted him warmly. His supervisor told him if he needed to take some time off, he could. About 45 co- workers took Emad to lunch to find out more about the RCMP attack.

Protest messages can be sent to: Solicitor General of Canada Herb Gray, 340 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0P8. Phone: (613) 991-3283. Fax: (613) 952-2240; and to the RCMP Commissioner, 1200 Vanier Parkway, Ottawa, Ontario, K1a 0R2. Phone (613) 993-8887.

Copies can be sent to Pathfinder Bookstore, 827 Bloor St. W., Toronto, Ont., M6G 1M1. Phone/fax: (416) 533-4324.  
 
 
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