New bail conditions for Hundert disturbing

RE: On campus protest supports G20 accused, Oct. 14

I’m a first year student at Laurier and I found your article about Alex Hundert very disturbing. Particularly the new bail condition in the Legal update sidebar that he “not express political views in the media”.

If this is an accurate representation of the bail conditions it is profoundly at odds with my view of Canada. If the state accuses us of a crime should we have to choose between bail and freedom of speech?

I applaud Alex on his choice to remain in jail and I would encourage him to write his own version of Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and release it to the media. The state has tried to muzzle him by making him choose freedom of person over his freedom of speech, having failed to do that, do they really believe Alex’s ideas are a danger to the public or is this just an artless attempt at controlling legitimate political dissent?

— David Carr

In last week’s Cord, it was mistakenly printed that Sterling Stutz is a former student at WLU. While this error was an honest mistake (and quickly corrected), it is not surprising it was made. There has been a complete lack of support from the WLU Students Union and administration towards students and alumni who have been the target of the G20 security apparatus.

While Stutz is not attending class at the moment, it is not by her choice. She is being denied access to her education because the Canadian courts believe the third year student is some sort of threat to society. She was jailed for two weeks following the G20, and is now forced to live in Toronto as the courts believe that only her parents can “unbrainwash her”. Stutz is in the process of transferring to the University of Toronto, her only option to continue with her studies.

Sterling is one of seven members of AW@L who were targeted by the state with conspiracy charges (thought crimes), four of which are also WLU students or alumni. While some students and faculty have been vocal against this criminalization of dissent, it has been disheartening to observe the apathy and ignorance of the WLU community.

— Rachel Avery

It is clear that the colonial corporate state of Canada fears the ideas and the efficacy of the social and ecological justice movement. Members of our community have been targeted, violated, and criminalized for sharing their ideas for a better world, and the efficacy of their organizing.

When WLU Alum and AW@Ler, Alex Hundert was arrested for speaking at WLU and Ryerson, and then had a “justice of the peace” impose a gag-order as a condition of his release (which his jailors coerced him to sign), there was little reaction on Waterloo Campuses or in these communities.

Alongside Alex, the political prosecution of AW@L member Sterling Stutz, a founder of Laurier for Palestine and a part of the WLU Women’s Centre, again shows this troubling trend of the criminalization of effective social justice organizers. These are not isolated incidents; they are two examples from a history of state-targeting of those who can resist injustice. Are we at university and in academia to learn from our pasts and challenge dominant ideas and unjust situations? Or are you really only here for a piece of paper which will privilege you enough to collaborate with and help steer those dominant systems of destructive industrial neoliberalism and ongoing racist colonialism?

— Dan Kellar