On Wed. Feb 8th at 8:30 am, supporters of Julian Ichim will be gathering on the front steps of Old City Hall to demand political prisoner status for political prisoners in Canada, as well as all those charged in relation to the G20.
Ichim is in court for a judicial pretrial, which will be done in camera at 9:30 am.
Three days after starting to blog about his experience at the G20 and with undercover infiltration, activist Julian Ichim was ordered by the OPP to take down a blog post about his personal relationship with one of the undercover cops who infiltrated community organizations across the country in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics and the G20 Summit in Toronto.
Ichim is currently charged with three counts of disobeying a court order arising from his refusal to comply with OPP order to significantly alter or take down his blog, with threat of arrest for non-compliance.
When Ichim refused to comply with the order, he told the police that he would remain at his home until arrested, and would go on hunger strike if taken into custody. “I considered this decision carefully, but the issue is that they are trying to silence us from telling people what happened,” commented Ichim. “It's not just a technical argument over a blog, it's a fight over speaking the truth about policing,” he said.
Ichim is the second activist to be charged for blogging about the
undercover cops whose testimony was central to the prosecution of the G20 Main Conspiracy Group, of which Ichim had been a part of until late 2010. Activist Dan Kellar was also charged in relation to a blog post prior to the publication ban about the same undercover police officer. Ichim’s charges are for violating a temporary publication ban that has since been lifted since he was charged. Neither Ichim’s nor Kellar’s charges have been dropped since the publication ban was removed.
Ichim says that he is glad that he is going to get his day in court. “I want to go to trial,” he said. “I wanted to face these accusations head on and set the record straight.” If taken into custody, however, he said that “the hunger strike is still on”.
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Ichim's blog can be found atwww.julianichim.wordpress.com
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