BY BRIGITTE GROUIX

MONTREAL - A serious attack on democratic rights took place here on April 23, when Richard Saint-Pierre, a long-time political activist, was sentenced to 10 days in jail and was banned from participating in any public demonstrations for three years by Judge Jean-Pierre Bonin. Saint-Pierre was charged with knocking over a table on December 6 of 1994, during a demonstration against unemployment insurance cuts.

The protest was part of a series of cuts known as the Axworthy Reforms. Demonstrators were trying to stop public hearings on the Axworthy Reforms. Saint-Pierre was put in jail immediately after being sentenced.

"Am I a threat to society when I demonstrate?" Saint-Pierre asked. "Am I more dangerous than the governments who cut social programs? Than bosses who lay off workers? Am I more dangerous than owners at Kenworth?" he continued, referring to the truck plant in nearby Ste-Therese, where workers have been on strike for eight months. At the beginning of April the company said it will close the plant. Saint-Pierre is planning to appeal the demonstration ban.

The day Saint-Pierre was sentenced, the Committee of unemployed of Quebec had a press conference denouncing the ban. "The Axworthy Reforms are unacceptable attacks against the poorest of the society. We believe that it is our fundamental right to resist...the attacks by governments to impoverish us," said their press release. "The new method of the repressive police-justice apparatus to `break' activists by banning them from demonstrations was used last year against another activist, Alexandre Popovic," continued the press release.

The attacks on Saint-Pierre democratic rights have been protested by several organizations. "To demonstrate is part of freedom of expression," stated Gerald McKenzie from La Ligue des droits et liberte's (the League of Rights and Freedom), a human rights organization.

Yves Manceau, from the Office for the rights of the detainees, explained that the sentence "occurs when the police is increasingly watching on community organizations and dissidents. Will they be able to force them into silence by condemning them for minor offenses?"

Messages of support can be send by mail to: Comité des sans emplois, 1710 rue Beaudry, Montreal, Quebec, H2L 2E2. Tel: (514) 596- 4401, Fax: (514) 596-7093.  
 
 
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