Marble Falls Constitutional are charter rights are foundational safeguards in principle, but state power is fundamental in reality. This is especially true when it comes to freedoms of speech and assembly, both here and abroad.
ACORN Canada mourned the passage of an anti-protest ordinance that was passed by the Toronto City Council, historically a bastion of liberalism, by a vote of 16-9. The bylaw is not unlimited at this point, but restricts protests at schools, childcare centers, and places of worship. Once the door is open, who knows whether it will ever be closed or allow more and more restrictions. Originally, the measure created an anti-protest “bubble” 20 meters away that an institution could apply for if they had experienced protests within the previous 90 days. Despite all the opposition and controversy, it was even worse by the time it passed, stretching the bubble to 50 meters and eliminating the need to prove they had been the target or obstructed by protests. Unsurprisingly, this action has been triggered by extensive pro-Palestinian, anti-Gazan War protests in the city, but that may be as much an excuse as a reason, since several other Canadian cities had already passed such bylaws. The penalty for protesting in the bubble after a warning is $5000 Canadian dollars, so it’s not a slap on the wrist and a ticket. This is where it starts. Once begun, who knows where it will stop.
Looking at the experience in the United States should be a warning, because these and similar conservative assaults on speech and assembly are even more chilling, and there seems to be no end to them. Measures passed during the Standing Rock pipeline fights in the Dakotas, ensnared Greenpeace, which had been a minor participant and one of many, in an existential claim now totaling $600 million in damages from a case brought by the pipeline company.
In the wake of these extensive pipeline disputes, a fair number of red states passed laws restricting protests of any kind of infrastructure development or projects. There have been reports of similar federal legislative efforts that are pending. In 2018, Louisiana passed an amendment to its Critical Infrastructure Law. The matter is still in appeals court, questioning whether this restriction is only about private property or more extensive. The other question involving pipelines, given that so many miles are underground, raises the issue of how would a protesting group even know if they were trespassing? The penalties are severe making “it a felony punishable by up to five years in prison to be on or near any of the state’s 125,000 miles of pipelines without permission.”
Is this chilling other protests? Absolutely, but that’s the point, isn’t it? There’s a New Orleans area campaign led by ACORN affiliate, A Community Voice, and the newly formed coalition, Louisiana Grassroots United, questioning the plans for an additional port south of the city in Violet, Louisiana in St. Bernard Parish. One of the main objections centers on the back and forth of 1700 trucks expected to serve the proposed port going through neighborhoods nearby and through New Orleans, while creating huge toxic emissions. According to organizers, many environmental groups who are also opposed to the port project are hesitating to join the coalition’s protests “until they get liability insurance” in the wake of the Greenpeace decision in North Dakota and the lack of clarity on the state law as well.
The Rolling Stone headline on Greenpeace had paired the $600 million claim against them with the fact that the organization had also “saved its soul.” True, but despite the fact that constitutional rights should be sacrosanct, deep corporate pockets, enabled by state power, have shifted the burden of defending these rights to outmatched and underfunded nonprofits trying to exercise these basic freedoms. Where citizens and their organizations should have been able to expect state and federal justice departments to be protectors of such rights, on all levels these agencies are being weaponized to restrict them punitively.
This should not be, but it is the way it is now. The real question now becomes whether we can stand together to oppose these conditions in Toronto, Louisiana, or wherever they emerge, or whether we try to hunker down and watch one organization after another be attacked and campaigns for justice be stillborn?