ILPS in Canada Statement in Solidarity with Julian Ichim
Julian Ichim is a veteran organizer and activist based in Kitchener, Ontario, who for more than 20 years has organized with youth, poor people, and street involved folks, as well as workers, migrants and indigenous. They are well known for their activism against poverty, homelessness and the war on people who use drugs and for their solidarity work with the Irish Republican Movement, the Bolivarian movement in Latin America and other struggles for national and social liberation around the world.
Leading up to the G20 protests in Toronto Julian was targeted by the Canadian State for extensive and invasive surveillance, and in the aftermath was (unsuccessfully!) prosecuted for sharing publicly about the experience of a having a police agent assigned to infiltrate the G20 organizing.
Since then Julian has been subject to ongoing persecution by the police, the security state and other institutions of the Canadian state. This persecution has included targeted surveillance and harassment, interference with their healthcare, and collusion with the U.S. government, preventing them from travelling to show solidarity with movements in Ireland and Latin America.
These hostile actions of the Canadian state have put Julian in a situation where they have been forced to break the bourgeois Canadian law in order to survive. Because they have been denied necessary and appropriate healthcare they have had to rely on the illegal drug market to survive. Because the Canadian state has attempted to prevent them from participating and showing solidarity with the progressive, mass people’s organizations that they support, they have been forced into a choice between breaking the law and responding to the urgent need for solidarity or doing nothing. In other words, Julian has been criminalized by Canadian state!
On Friday, January 10th, Julian will be facing a host of charges resulting from this criminalization. If convicted in the Canadian bourgeois, colonial court, Julian could face jail time and the Canadian state will have removed an important community and anti-imperialist leader. ILPS in Canada joins the call for the dropping of all these charges and an end to the persecution of Julian Ichim.
Right to Exist! Right to Resist!
Activism is Not a Crime!
End the persecution of Julian Ichim!
I expect that I have actually only met and chatted briefly with Julian on one occasion outside Superior Court in Kitchener several years back. I have however carefully followed articles about him in the Waterloo Region Record (K-W Record) over the decades and been impressed with his character, stubbornness and focus on those in the community needing help.