Another Letter to Garry Neil at The Council Of Canadians

Bob Ages of The Council of Canadians

Garry,

When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, I explained how I can understand your position that Bob Ages and other employees of the CoC are participating on their own time at Occupy Vancouver, and not as employees of the Council of Canadians. But, as we both agreed, there is some transference from the Olympic protests when Bob was officially representing the CoC, and helped lead negotiations between nonviolent and Black Bloc protesters.

The results of this incident led to the “Heart Attack” incident where people wearing balaclavas got into a street fight with police, and broke windows at the Hudson Bay company. The vast majority of people involved believe this was the death of the Anti-Olympic movement. So, as I said when we spoke- I’m slightly disappointed with your position, but do understand the importance of giving your employees the freedom to be involved in personal projects.

Tonight I was reading through some of the comments on Facebook, and was rather shocked to see Bob crossing the line and representing the CoC on an Occupy Vancouver discussion board. I’ve attached a clipping of this conversation at the bottom of this email.

Reading this thread, and considering the issue of transference we discussed- it does not appear to me enough effort is being made differentiate Bob’s role as an employee of the CoC and his role as a leader at OV. There is a lot of opportunity for people to get confused here. 

A similar situation to mine (where employees of the CoC signed a letter in a letter against me) happened at OV this week, when members circulated a flyer that slandered yet another person, calling him a dangerous stalker- this time with a picture of his face on it. I have written up a description of this incident on my blog, here’s the link:

http://www.genuinewitty.com/2012/02/02/occupy-vancouver-is-still-an-unsafe-place-rather-unsavory-too/

In both this case, and in my own, people made very serious public allegations and ad-hominem attacks. If these allegations were actually true, the correct action would be to file an official complaint with the police- not to print and publish warnings about our character. Canada is not (yet) a country where people accept ‘kangaroo court’ justice. If we are to keep it that way, organizations like the CoC need to ‘walk the walk’.

Considering the magnitude of this incident, and considering how there is still ambiguity about employees of the CoC’s involvement at OV, I’d like to ask you to reconsider your ‘hands-off’ approach to resolving these harassment issues. The problem seems only to be getting worse, and more people are getting hurt. At this point, it is incomprehensible to me to imagine an organization that works towards social justice could let this continue.

I look forward to hearing your response, and sincerely hope you can see how important it is to stop the current cycle of violence. I still believe in the CoC, and have full confidence your members would give backing to your involvement in protecting those who are being hurt.

Sincerely,

Greg Renouf

______________________________________________________________________

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106591

Thematic Social Forum Awash with Criticism for Green Economy – IPS ipsnews.net

ipsnews.net

Critical voices raised against what was dubbed

Related articles

• A Response from Garry Neil From The Council of Canadians (www.genuinewitty.com)
• My Response to Mr Neil of The Council of Canadians (www.genuinewitty.com)
• The Council of Canadians Supports The DTES Olympic Protest Stooges (and yes, I do protest the word Stooges!) (www.genuinewitty.com)
• Canadians: It’s Time To Demand A Public Inquiry! (www.genuinewitty.com)