This is the last of a series of five articles about the persecution of Karen Harrison by the secret police system in Toronto. To see the first four and related articles, go to the links at the bottom.
We started this story with the idea that Canadians have, even recent immigrants from totalitarian states, that there is a democracy here. They do not know what a real democracy looks like. We have here a military-colonial regime which has not been successfully challenged since the earliest settlement of this country. We have the kind of society this creates.
The courts in this country are drum head courts. The police are an occupation and surveillance force. Only in recent years have there been serious challenges to this. While a few people are working very hard for progress, Canada is at a very early stage of developing a proper judicial system that meets the needs of an modern society.
This progress is being resisted by all elements of the judicial system, from the civil service down to the cops and jail guards. These people have been doing what they want for two centuries and are astonished and enraged at the idea they should be accountable. More than accountable, they should be made punishable for their abuses.
It is still impossible to even get a coherant explanation of how people come to be judges, cops, and court staff in Canada. Many people talk about 'The Masons' in this regard. No doubt the mechanics of social control are working through structures much like how the Masons are described, but that is the effect rather than the cause. The cause is the lack of real civil liberties and democracy.
What has been done to Karen Harrison was organised among many players and over a long time. But they did it because they could get away with it. It is not that they had total control of the legal process, but that they had no fear of any consequences to themselves for abusing it. Even if they fail to destroy their victim once, they can keep trying. And even if exposure of their evil acts makes it impossible for them to continue, nothing will happen to them.
The Harrison case demonstrates the enormous harm done not just to the targetted individual, but to the whole society, when police and courts set themselves as separate and above society. Karen's Buddhist congregation or 'sanga' is very real. They are about one hundred recent immigrants to Canada, mostly from Southeast Asia.
Like most recent immigrants, they are having a much harder time getting established in Canada than earlier immigrants. Karen was their pathway into Canadian society, their intermediary with the incomprehensible Canadian system. She helped them get housing, jobs, and access to government services.
Karen's jailing was devastating to this group in several ways. It put an end to several community enterprises she was developing to create an economic base. And if they were frightened when the police flatly refused to protect them when Meslin and his thugs started harassing Karen, and when the gang of Marxists and Chinese nationalists supported by the Chinese embassy forced their temple to move twice, they are utterly terrified now.
In some ways it would be easier for Karen if she simply forgot about these people and focussed on her own legal problems. Being gang stalked with police backing and then rail roaded, and having to somehow raise money for her defense, is hard enough to deal with without having also taken on a vow of poverty. This means that her personal income is decided by the sanga council and everything she makes above that goes into the common pool.
Most westerners would look askance at this arrangement, and ask if she is being exploited by a cult. But nobody is making money from her; everyone in this sanga is as poor as her. I seems these people fill a need in Karen to belong to something, after her bad experiences with her own family and other relationships.
They are more dependant on her than she is on them. She is very capable and resourceful. She has got things going again, especially the computer school which will open next month. There is a need for this school; private schools are charging exorbitant fees, and the red tape of government run schools is becoming impossible.
It is unlikely the attack machine will ever throw in the towel against her. Her parole officer says she does not give a damn what any judge said about Karen's mental stability; Karen cannot be a Buddhist because she is a 'Canadian' and all Buddhists are from the orient. This idea of being a Buddhist is a sickness which must be cured because it is going to keep getting Karen into trouble, therefore she should be taking anti-psychotic drugs.
The 'political intelligence' cop Terkstra has not been at these latest proceedings, and heavy handed surveillance has stopped. She no longer has grubby, 'street' looking people coming up to her in public places, trying to buy drugs or solicit sex, or just plopping themselves down within earshot when she is talking to other people. Whenever this happens, a quick look around discloses a plain clothes cop observing from a distance.
This is the stage when the victim comes under pressure to 'forgive and forget'. Some one who had supported Karen has been coopted into that. That is not how 'forgiveness' works, in Buddhism or Christianity.
Meslin and Behrens have made no apologies or restitution. Meslin continues to turn up where he knows Karen will be, to stare her down. He is now denying that Karen was really in jail.
It is hard to get this story into the media, even the so called independant media. Great effort has been made to suppress this series of articles. But the dam is starting to crack. Karen is talking to people about writing a book, and making a documentary film.
Publicity is the only real defence, because Karen is still convicted twice for 'criminal harasment'. There are very strong grounds for appeal in both cases, and one wonders if her lawyer's passivity during the case was so that his partner can make money doing the appeals. But meanwhile, the secret police have only to come up with another loser who will swear that he or she feels 'threatened' by Karen, to put her through the wringer again.
They could find one even in the Buddhist community. Like every other community in Toronto, it is watched over. There are 'white' Canadians who have appointed themselves as 'leaders' of, or spokespeople for, the Buddhist community. One has even become a Buddhist nun. They do not seem to really practise Buddhism. Karen is a problem for them.
One of these people has already tried to set Karen up. Karen asked her to write a letter of support. "No, I am too busy. Write it for me and I will sign it". Then it was; " No, I did not write this, Karen did".
And, there are people leaving messages for Karen which are intended to provoke an angry response, which they will no doubt record.
Some of the foreign born members of Karen's sanga cannot beleive this really happened to her. She must have done something bad to go to jail and is not being truthful about it. "No happen Canada. Canada have democracy".
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