10 arrested for trying to stop Canadian participation in war crimes

Catholic New Times, April 20, 2003

TORONTO -- About 30 people from Homes Not Bombs and the Toronto Catholic Worker Community converged at the site of Canadian Forces Base Downsview on March 24 around noon. There they were met by scores of police fanned out across the base's main entrance. By day's end, 10 people had been arrested, charged criminally with obstruction of police, and ordered not to be within 250 metres of any Canadian military facility.

The demonstration was an attempt to enter the facility with an urgent plea: "... that members of the Canadian Forces, to avoid being complicit with ongoing war crimes, had to immediately return from the Persian Gulf, and that any member of the Forces not there had to withdraw from any alliance or organization currently involved in the commission of war crimes against the people of Iraq, else they could face criminal charges before a war crimes tribunal."

This was based on the Nuremberg Principles and the Canadian War Crimes Act. According to the Canadian Justice Dept.'s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program, "a person is considered complicit if, while aware of the commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity, the person contributes directly or indirectly to their occurrence. Membership in an organization responsible for committing the atrocities can be sufficient to establish complicity if the organization in question is one with a single brutal purpose, e.g. a death squad."

Captain Daryl Caldwell of the military explained his agreement that Canadians have a right to express "opinions," but protesters tried to explain that this was a matter of law, not opinion.

Subsequently arrested were Father Robert Holmes, Ron Partier and Maggie Panter, Matthew Behrens, Rob Shearer, Matthew Trowell, Donald Bonyer and Stephen Morris.