A cheap, crude, anti-Islamic film entitled The Innocence of Muslims, produced and promoted by reactionary Christian fundamentalists in the United States and posted on the internet in July, has led to demonstrations in many countries around the world, including attacks on US embassies and in the case of Libya to the killing of four US diplomats at the US Consulate in Benghazi. We look into why all this is happening.

As part of their agenda of austerity and attacks on working-class people, the Conservative government is attempting to bring in major “reforms” to Canada’s system of immigration. During the last federal election campaign, Stephen Harper and his minister of immigration, Jason Kenney, tried hard to woo ethnic communities’ support to the Conservatives.  But now that the elections are over for a while, the Tories feel safe in attacking these same communities as part of the general war against workers.

The use of police terror and violence against protesters, trade unionists, and community activists reached a high point in 2010, incomparable to past years and perhaps the last couple decades in Canada. The routine harassment of working class youth and minorities, particularly in Canada’s working class districts, has also intensified. How do working people defend themselves in the coming period?

October 23, 2010 marked a peculiar day in labour history. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 shut down all the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area ports. The eight-hour strike’s demands were unrelated to increased wages, benefits, or the like. Rather, workers left their posts for one reason: to protest the persistence of police violence against the working class, particularly Black and Latino youth.

On 5th May 2010, Junior Alejandro Manon, a Dominican youth living in Toronto, was pronounced dead after police officers pulled him over near the Keele Campus of York University. The story given by police, and repeated the next day uncritically by the corporate press, was that Manon, having been pulled over and his vehicle being impounded, ran away from the police and suddenly suffered a heart attack.  However, it is clear that Manon is only the latest victim of police brutality against working class people.

The media love to portray Canada as a country that welcomes all immigrants and gives them an opportunity to succeed.  The truth, however, is that as many as 500,000 live and work without "legal" status in Canada, meaning that they are subjected to even more abuse and exploitation than other workers.  In addition to this, they are under constant threat of being arrested and deported, such as with the Conservatives' recent raids.

Last month we reported on the murder of an 18-year old Latino in Montreal by the police which provoked an angry reaction among the immigrant communities. Here we provide an analysis which gives background information outlining the social and economic conditions that have led to this situation.

For a week now, Montreal has been boiling with rage. The unprovoked murder of 18-year-old Freddy Villanueva, by agents of the Montreal Police Service, catalyzed an explosion that has been building for years. Within hours of Sunday’s killing, residents of the victim’s neighbourhood responded with a spontaneous march against the “assassin police.” Police attacks on the peaceful demonstrators sparked a riot - in which businesses were looted, cars and streets were doused in propane and set ablaze, and a police officer took a bullet in the leg.