When we hear the term “political police,” we are likely to think of state enforcers operating in countries where no body of democratic rights exists and the ruling regimes openly prohibit free expression and dissent. However, even in a liberal democracy like Canada, the role of the police is heavily politicized and their conduct, closely linked to the needs of the power structure, is directed against those who are perceived as threatening or disruptive.
On November 10, 2023, activists pasted posters and splashed red paint on the windows of an Indigo bookstore in Toronto. The company’s CEO, Heather Reisman, was condemned for “funding genocide” due to her support for Israeli Occupation Forces. By any reasonable application of the law, this political gesture should have been viewed, at most, as a minor breach of the Criminal Code and treated as such in a measured way.
This was clearly not the reaction of the Toronto Police, however. According to Global News, the force conducted a “large-scale investigation… involving more than 70 police officers and 10 nighttime raids.” Dramatic and terrifying arrests were made at peoples’ homes in the early hours. Searches were conducted and phones and computers confiscated. Charges of “mischief, conspiracy and criminal harassment” were laid and, seizing upon the fact that Reisman is Jewish,
Police labelled the incident a ‘hate-motivated mischief investigation.’
Last month, charges against three more of the so-called Indigo 11 were dropped, and others have been granted absolute discharges. Global notes, “it seems likely that this large-scale investigation…will not achieve a single registered criminal conviction.” Suzanne Narain, one of the accused, whose charges were dropped, stated,
They invaded our homes, destroyed our lives and spent millions of dollars to do this. And there hasn’t been one conviction. Just to silence organizers speaking out against Palestine. And none of us are silent.
Legal persecution
It is gratifying to see this long process of legal persecution end in ignominious failure, but it must be understood that the attack on the Indigo 11 has played out as part of a systematic effort by the police to disrupt and contain the Palestine solidarity movement in Toronto.
Last June, a report in The Breach detailed how both Palestinian and non-Palestinian non-violent protestors had been targeted in “a sweeping, heavily-resourced Toronto police operation that experts say has engaged in extreme overreach.”
It must be stressed that this conduct isn’t attributable to some overzealous cops but is part of a pattern of behaviour fully supported by political decision makers. As The Breach relates,
Led by an expanded Hate Crimes Unit and operating under the name ‘Project Resolute,’ the police’s tactics have included pre-dawn raids, snatching people on the street, trying to turn arrested individuals into informants, showing up unannounced at university lectures, and capitalizing on years of surveillance of activist movements.
Those quoted in the article make clear that this operation reflects the pervasive anti-Palestinian sentiment among officials and constitutes an attempt to “repress one of the largest mass organizing movements seen in decades.” A more clear-cut example of political policing would be hard to find.
The grossly misnamed Hate Crimes Unit that the Toronto Police operate is a component of Intelligence Services. During the late-1990s and early 2000s, when I was an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), Intelligence Services had our organization squarely in its crosshairs. Whenever any of our members or supporters faced charges and had to be defended in court, intelligence officers were clearly working closely with the prosecutors in order to make their cases against us.
It became readily apparent that Intelligence Services was doing far more than gathering information on us. Clearly, their objective was to disrupt our activities and undermine our ability to function. I could give many examples but one in particular stands out. In the late-90s, a group of racists held a protest outside a motel where Roma refugees were temporarily accommodated. They had brandished two signs reading “Canada is not a garbage can” and “Honk if you hate gypsies.” OCAP responded by putting on a barbecue for the Roma families with games for the children and we brought along a sign of our own that read “Honk if you hate racists.”
Intelligence officers showed up and spent a lot of time talking to the Roma families. We discovered that their efforts were devoted to convincing them that we were dangerous and violent fanatics who would get them into trouble. They tried to get them to shun us and go back inside the motel. With some difficulty, we overcame this underhanded tactic and the event was a smashing success.
After the barbecue was over, we discussed the police conduct and it became obvious that the cops were engaged in a sustained effort to undermine our work, reduce our influence in the community and hamstring our organization. The police were unmistakably playing a political role.
A few years later, the night before a major OCAP action, a group of intelligence officers showed up at our office. They had come to warn us of severe consequences (some of them far from legal) if any trouble occurred the next day. As they barged into our office it was noteworthy that one of the cops identified his group as the “Red Squad.” He probably knew that the historical reference would not be lost on us.
Social control
During the 1920s and 30s, police red squads were formed to spearhead the targeting of dissent and the containment of social unrest. In Toronto, as a TVO article describes,
left-wing radicals faced Chief Denny Draper, a former army general turned police commander. Military-minded Draper despised Communists and ensured that the party could never secure permits for outdoor rallies or find a rental space for indoor events. In early 1929, he issued a police order mandating the use of English at public meetings in Toronto.
The deployment of the police, including specialized units, to disrupt protest activity and movement building has continued into our own era, but it is also important to understand that more everyday police functions centre on forms of social control that are linked to the political priorities of the ruling establishment. A look at the roots of modern policing confirms this.
The first modern police body was the Metropolitan Police Force in London, England, which was formed in 1829. It came into being at a time when densely populated working class residential areas had developed under the impact of the Industrial Revolution. With this innovation, state enforcement took the form of an ongoing presence intended to control impoverished and potentially restive communities. As Michelle C. Zachary put it dryly but accurately in her 2017 undergraduate thesis,
Research on the subject for the purposes of this analysis reveals a high level of intersectionality between class structure and the development of what we consider the modern police.
Local urban police forces emerged in Canada to discharge the same function as their English counterparts but the RCMP, as the federal police force, has its origins in the clearing of the plains. It was established as a colonial policing operation to subdue Indigenous resistance and clear the way for dispossession and an incoming wave of settlers.
A 2023 APTN News article points out that John A. Macdonald “was looking for a model and the model was a paramilitary force created by the English to basically control the Irish.” The forerunner of the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was indeed modelled on the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as a tool of colonial subjugation and enforcement. The RCMP is the product of an openly repressive political project that was directed against the Indigenous nations.
A more detailed look at the evidence concerning the nature of policing in Canada would consider union picket lines, homeless encampments and racialized communities. It would also examine the role of the police historically in enforcing dominant moral codes and standards by targeting those who failed to conform to these.
When those who challenge the injustices of this society organize and mobilize to demand redress, the police are the front-line enforcers of a power structure that resists change. As such, their function is deeply political. However, in their day-to-day operations, as they patrol and control targeted communities, the police are serving and protecting that same power structure just as surely.
If you have ever found yourself locked up in a police station, you will have noticed that those in there with you were overwhelmingly poor and racialized. At the same time, the exploiters, speculators and polluters responsible for the most socially destructive forms of behavior would have been conspicuous by their absence—a highly selective approach to criminality that speaks loudly and clearly to the political nature of policing in Canada.