A Canadian activist and author was released after five days in prison following accusations by an anti-Palestinian media personality that he had harassed her, and his refusal to stay quiet about his case.
Yves Engler was taken into custody on the morning of 20 February in Montreal and spent five days in Bordeaux prison in Montreal before being released Monday after a court appearance.
Thousands of people signed letters asking for the charges to be dropped, and more than 100 people turned out to support the author – who has been a long-term critic of Canadian foreign policy and its military-industrial complex – at court.
Speaking to Middle East Eye on Tuesday from his home in Canada, Engler said he was “feeling good”.
“Jail was unpleasant, but it wasn’t traumatic for me, although I appreciate it’s traumatic for others. It’s a dehumanising place.
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“I think the key issue is I had to go to jail for five days to win the right to (publicly) criticise charges brought against me. The police, and then the crown, wanted to restrict my right to write about my case. When I wrote about it, they claimed I was harassing the police. I was in jail for five days over a technical condition. When I went on Thursday morning, they could have processed and let me go.”
Engler’s detainment is part of a larger crackdown on free speech in Canada, he says.
“Less than two weeks ago, I spoke on a webinar with a lawyer from the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, and it was titled, The New McCarthyism in Canada,” he said.
“It was all about the targeting of those opposing Canadian complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide. We went through a whole bunch of examples of people who’ve been targeted. Canada has, for more than a century, provided all kinds of support for Zionism and for Palestinian dispossession. The targeting of those opposing Israel’s crimes is just one of the innumerable ways that Canada has assisted in Palestinian dispossession.”
‘Double standard’
Engler said there had never been as much of a popular uprising against Canada’s involvement in international crimes as there has been over the past 16 months. He says law enforcement’s tactics were partly a response to the scope of the activism. “It’s disturbing. Obviously, the battle against genocide and the battle for free speech are quite interconnected.”
He says that the key aim was to chill activism.
“I am concerned this sends a chill. I think there are lots of people who are scared. I sometimes think it’s healthy. But then sometimes people go beyond a healthy fear to a paranoia that’s beyond the reality of our dynamics, and that can restrict their activism.”
Engler says that his five days in jail are inconsequential compared to what thousands of Palestinian prisoners endure, sometimes for decades on end.
John Philpot, Engler’s lawyer, said he was pleased with the result.
“The right thing happened. He got out last night, which was very heartwarming. Free speech prevailed, which is a burning issue. “We see a double standard in the legal process and the political process,” Philpot said.
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Speaking about the case, Philpot said that Dahlia Kurtz had lodged an initial complaint against Engler last summer, which the police dismissed.
However, further to Neil Oberman, a lawyer and Conservative Party candidate, picking up the case in December, police brought charges against Engler. Philpot said that Oberman has been involved in making injunctions against pro-Palestinian protestors in Montreal.
Philpot said that in a minor case such as Engler’s, police would normally ask the person being charged not to contact the person filing charges again, but police imposed additional conditions on Engler.
“In her (Kurtz’s) case, the police wanted to impose conditions not to talk, not to discuss the case on social media, and not to discuss the name of the person on social media,” Philpot added.
He said Engler refused these conditions and was penalised accordingly.
While Engler has been released from jail, he will still appear in court for a hearing on 25 April.
“I’m happy he won. I’m happy that we had support, and I’m happy we had a judge who understood the issues, “Philpot said. “We insist the charges be dropped against him and that he’ll be reimbursed for five days in prison. So that’s where we are at right now.”
