ryan rainville

On Tuesday November 9th 2010, G20 defendant Ryan Rainville was released today from prison today nearly 3 months his arrest.

He was re-arrested on Aug. 5, 2010 — and had remained incarcerated since that date — for his alleged G20 involvement on charges of 1) Assault Peace Officer with a Weapon, 2) Mischief Over, 3) Intimidation of Justice System Participant by Violence, 4) Failure to Comply with Undertaking.

Waterloo Regional Police, working in collaboration with officers from the Toronto Police Service, arrived where Rainville’s was currently staying in Waterloo on August 5, 2010, to re-arrest the Indigenous Rights activist. He was already out on bail at the time for other G20 related charges after originally spending six days in jail. At his arrest, he was taken to 52 Division and is now charged with causing mischief over $5,000 and for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

The young Indigenous man from Sackimay Nation was released to the home of interim sureties, while applying to the Sagatay First Nations Bail Program. Rainville was released on strict conditions including non associations with a number of other G20 defendants who are not his co-accused including a those charged with conspiracy, as well as non-associations with a number of other community organizers. Rainville continues to face G20 related charges, which will proceed to trial in early 2011.

Ryan’s close friend Luke Stewart explained some reasons as to why Ryan participated in the week-long convergence against the G20 in Toronto: “We dare to dream of a world with freedom, justice, and equality; without tanks and prisons and borders and other oppressive institutions that steal sustenance from the world’s majority. In solidarity with the people of Seoul who are on the streets this week, we will continue to organize against the G8 and G20 leaders and their corporate villains that pillage the earth with industrial projects and profit from war.”

One week prior to Rainville’s release, he was visited by G20 Integrated Security Unit investigators at Maplehurst, where he was being held. The investigators offered Rainville guaranteed release on bail and a reduced sentence if he agreed to cooperate in identifying individuals in photographs. In the presence of his legal counsel, Rainville refused to
cooperate. He told the law enforcement officials that he would rather spend time in jail till trial then turn on his friends and allies in the social justice movement.

Upon his release, with a warm smile from ear to ear, Ryan stated “Though I have spent nearly three months in jail, my spirit has not been broken by this system.”

“While criminalizing voices of dissent is part of the ongoing post-G20 crackdown, the repression of Indigenous resistance is part of the ongoing legacy of colonization for 500 years across Turtle Island,” Rainville continued.

According to Indigenous supporters of Ryan: “As native people, our bodies and our minds are constantly under attack from the state. Their power rests on our degradation. Their violent exploitation of the land and water feeds and profits the colonization of every poor and oppressed person. We denounce the ongoing state repression of all people resisting the austerity measures which are designed to force our relations, friends and allies into enslavement to a faltering system, to assimilate us into submission, and exterminate those of us who refuse to bend to colonial terms.”

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...