NOW Magazine Publishes Dangerous Propaganda Against The RCMP (Feat. Sakura Saunders)

Why? Because of people like Sakura Saunders…

Earlier this week Greenpeace released a document they acquired from the RCMP. The paper warns that certain elements of the environmental movement pose a “realistic criminal threat to Canada’s petroleum industry, its workers and assets, and to first responders”. As expected, the news has caused quite a stir in the environmentalist world- with many supporters using it as a example of how the “totalitarian Harper government” has been “criminalizing dissent” in an effort to further their “evil plans”.

Of all the propaganda written by the country’s environmental movement, the most blatant was published yesterday by NOW Magazine. Professional protester Sakura Saunder’s article Why Is The RCMP So Afraid Of Enviro Activists argues that “The real threat to oil and gas industry is not the so-called ‘anti-petroleum movement,’ but growing public support for Indigenous land defense [sic] across the country”- there’s a problem though, Saunders is completely full of shit.

Who Is Sakura Saunders

Sakura Saunders at the Line 9 protest…

Sakura Saunders is an American anarchist who travelled up north to Canada to fight against our country’s industry and organize anti-police protests. Saunder’s official story is that she was married to Darius Mirshahi, a Toronto based anarchist rapper who was arrested during the 2010 G20 and charged with conspiracy, counselling others to commit an indictable offence and wearing a mask with intent (like many cases, the charges were later dropped).

Saunders and Mirshahi were married in an “anarchist wedding” that was covered by Now Magazine- people in attendance included Dave Vasey (who is currently going through the courts for his part in a Line 9 protest), and Taylor Flook (an anarchist who spent last summer at the violent Unist’ot’en Camp in BC). But, as Undercoverkity uncovered in November, there’s a problem with Sakura’s story- she was forced to leave Canada after (in her own words) “my visitor visa ran out”. Mirshahi is banned from entry in the US, so the two are unable to see each other any longer- so, was their marriage a sham? A foreign national married to a Canadian doesn’t get a “visitors visa” (whatever that is, perhaps an employment visa?), they get permanent residence status.

During her time in Canada, Sakura worked with closely with many of the people convicted for organizing the violence during the Toronto G20. This week’s Now article makes no mention of her close relationship with several convicted criminals- nor does it mention that she’s publicly cheered pipeline sabotage on her Facebook page. It also neglects to mention that Sakura is a person of interest to several law enforcement agencies including the US Department of Homeland Security and the RCMP.

The RCMP is worried because of people like Sakura Saunders…

What’s Wrong With The Unist’ot’en Camp?

Masked thugs at the Unist’ot’en Camp

Sakura begins her story with a video about the Unist’ot’en Camp, an “action camp” in northern BC occupied by a couple of First Nations protesters and a lot of militant anarchists. The video she includes was filmed by Franklin Lopez, a.k.a. The Stimulator, a man whose work quite likely fits proposed Bill C-51’s definition of terrorist propaganda.

Despite the fact the local First Nation has voted in favour of natural gas pipelines, the militants at the Unist’ot’en Camp have been chasing down and threatening any pipeline workers who cross their paths. The RCMP have been tracking the Unist’oten campers as an extremist group since 2010- documents released by the RCMP indicate that they have the same concern about Sakura’s friends Dave Vasey and Clayton Thomas-Muller.

One of the challenges with the Unist’ot’en Camp is that it’s received significant support (people and fundraising) from the pro-violence militants at the Deep Green Resistance. How scary are they? All one has to do to understand this is watch this video from their charismatic leader Derrick Jensen- the way he promotes that it’s okay for people to “blow up dams and power lines” is downright chilling.

What Happened In Sarnia?

Anarchists Sakura Saunders, Darius Mirshahi, Dave Vasey & Lana Goldberg at the Sarnia blockade

Next, Sakura writes about the he challenges people of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation have faced as a result of living near several oil refineries. In this section she mentions the rail blockade held there in 2013, except Sakura leaves an important part out- she and her anarchist friends organized the blockade in the background. Also present was Davin Ouimet- one of the most racist people you’ll ever meet (who, curiously, Saunders has no problem working with).

Looking closely at the organizers, they all work with the Ontario Common Front, a protest group led by the Ontario Federation of Labour. One of the OCF members present, Mike Roy, used the occasion to tamper with the train line’s signalling. And she wonders why the RCMP would be worried about activists? (hint: train sabotage is a crime)

Mike Roy and Sid Ryan of the OFL at a 2013 Common Front meeting…

What About The New Brunswick Anti-Fracking Riots?

The next part of Sakura’s story discusses the New Brunswick anti-fracking riots of 2013, a violent set of protests where activists assaulted the media and later set several police cars on fire. Sakura frames the riots as being the fault of the RCMP, saying that they caused the violence by showing up with “with guns, Tasers, and dogs”. What she neglects to mention is that the RCMP showed up with strong reinforcements that day because they knew the protesters had guns and improvised explosives- several have now been convicted on weapons charges.

One of the examples Sakura gives to discredit the RCMP’s behaviour at the riots is the story of how a protester named Tyson Peters was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet- sharing an emotional story by Miles Howe of the anarchist led Media Co-Op (Howe published many outright lies during the riots). What Sakura neglects to mention is that Peters was charged (and later convicted) for the crimes of mischief, intimidation and uttering threats after he assaulted several members of the media.

Why would the RCMP be worried about that? (This is a rhetorical question of course).

Now Magazine’s Highly Charged Anti-Police Propaganda

Sakura closes-off her article accusing the RCMP of publishing “highly-charged rhetoric and pro-industry propaganda”. In reality, the opposite is true, Sakura and Now Magazine have continually put out highly charged anti-police propaganda. Take for example when Sakura led her “Disarm the Police” campaign- Now Magazine covered it, but neglected to mention how many of it’s participants were virulent anti-police campaigners, and how many were arrested during violent protests.

The best example of Sakura’s special brand of hate came in December 2013 when she and fellow activists (including Trish Mills, mentioned in yesterday’s story) marched down Yonge street chanting “f##k the police” shortly before they set fire to an effigy of a pig on Queen Street. Curiously, Now contributor Zach Ruiter was on the scene participating as several masked thugs attacked a fire truck. Convicted G20 ringleader Alex Hundert was there acting as protest “security”.

There’s a big lesson to be learned here. Whenever one reads a story about the police in Now Magazine, one should take it with a grain of salt- now is a completely unreliable source for the truth on these matters…

I’ll leave you today with a chart outlining several of the people/organizations mentioned in the RCMP’s document release- and the violent, violence promoting, thugs in their networks. There will be more to come on this story soon- stay tuned…

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