Political Prisoner Brad Love at work in the oilpatch
Former political prisoner and citizen journalist Brad Love had only been back in Fort McMurray for four days and five (yes 5!) police squad cars pulled up to his apartment and burly RCMP officers put this dangerous letter writing under arrest for “harassment”. This part of years of real harassment perpetrated by the local Mounties on the outspoken Mr. Love.
His latest crime? Heckling and getting into a verbal argument with a gang of cleanup workers, some Third Worlders, some students brought up from Edmonton and housed in a camp. “You guys are ruining the jobs market here. You are working for slave wages at $16 an hour, There are no jobs here for us,” he added. The workers surrounded his car.
Brad points out that, with the extremely high cost of living in Fort Mac, $16 an hour may seem like a good wage, “but you can’t pay rent or run a car on that.” The only way these temps can do it, it they are fed and housed in a camp and driven to the work projects.
One of the people he shouted at snapped a picture of Brad and his car.
In politically correct Canada, even many seemingly manly outdoor workers are feminized, pussyfied babies. A generation ago, a dispute like this might have been settled with one side or the other throwing the finger and both parties walking away. Not today! Someone scuttled off to phone the Mounties about “inappropriate” comments — no threats of violence, mind you — by the voluble Mr. Love.
Later that evening, five police cars pulled up to arrest and cuff the unarmed man with an opinion.
Mr. Love was held for 21 hours. One might have expected “released on one’s own recognisance” for this non-violent charge. Mr. Love has been scrupulous in attending previous court hearings. Instead, a Justice of the Peace extorted $1,000 cash bail. “Outrageous,” spits Mr. Love in recounting the incident.
On returning to his apartment, worried neighbours whispered to Mr. Love that his neighbourhood “had been crawling with cops” the previous evening and that the “RCMP had cordoned off neighbourhood streets and part of a highway” looking for the outspoken man.
Mr. Love contrasts this fanatical diligence for going after a soft target — a man who writes and voices his views — with the RCMP’s spectacular failure to solve more than a dozen recent murders, mostly of Somalis, suspected on being in the drug trade.
Politicians and news media in Fort McMurray who don’t like being challenged have conspired to box Mr. Love in. When he has called to voice his views, they call the police. A parole condition is that he not contact any media or police to express his views. [This conditions was, incidentally, imposed in Canada, not North Korea!]
What the police now seem to do is charge Mr. Love after any complaint. He’s out bail money and under the shadow of a charge for months. Then, frequently just before a trial where the ridiculous nature of the charge and the pattern of police harassment could be exposed, the charges are quietly withdrawn.
As Mr. Love was sticking up for Fort McMurray’s many unemployed, he was advised by CAFE to approach the Alberta Federation of Labour for support and perhaps, legal assistance.
Mr. Love was one of 80,000 Fort McMurray residents forced to evacuate the city after out-of-control forest fires menaced the entire cities and destroyed 2,400 homes, including the one Mr. Love lived in. “I got out with one suitcase and my car. I lost almost all my work clothes and tools and 10 years of memorabilia since I moved to Fort Mac,” he explains. He went first to Edmonton and then Lac Lebiche, all the while keeping in touch with old bosses in the hopes of a job as the town rebuilds.
Brad Love has the Protestant work ethic on steroids. he is known as an indefatigable and hard weorker. As soon as he got the all clear, he lined up an apartment and returned Tuesday, June 7 to Fort Mac.
Welcome home! You know you’re in Canada. You’er told to do your job (if you have one), pay your taxes, shut your mouth and not offer an opinion if it’s not politically correct.