Protest Against Guelph Police Sexual Assault

On Friday April 7th at 9:00pm, about 80 people gathered outside of city hall. People gathered to protest the sexual assault of a GUTS (Guelph Union of Tenants and Supporters) member by officer Brian Welsh (Badge #107) as well as police brutality in general. Protesters were heard chanting, "burn Brian Welsh!" as an effigy of Welsh burned brightly in the middle of a busy intersection in the downtown core.

The police have taken another step in the wrong direction. Over the past week GUTS members’ homes have been under surveillance, phones have been tapped, individual’s followed, and an enormous amount of police came to monitor the protest. At the end of the demonstration, the police followed people trying to leave the protest and attempted to intimidate them.

In addition, as protesters dispersed on Friday evening, two people witnessed a police car stop outside of the back entrance of Nicole Freeborn’s apartment. The two then fled out the front entrance. This is how Guelph police respond to a protest about one of their members committing sexual assault.

Excerpts From: Protesters fill downtown streets
MAGDA KONIECZNA
GUELPH (Apr 8, 2006)

It was a jarring scene. A group of 50 or 60 marching protesters, many with bandanas tied around their faces, gathered downtown last night yelling anti-police slogans and being escorted by police cars and followed by officers on foot.

The irony peaked when the protesters stopped at the intersection of Macdonell and Wyndham streets -- which were closed off by police cars -- and burned a police officer in effigy.

Despite the strong symbolism and sharp words, the situation managed to avoid boiling over.

The protest was organized by an anti-poverty group called GUTS, or Guelph Union of Tenants and Supporters. The group was protesting an alleged sexual assault by a police officer against one of its members. The allegation is being investigated by the province's Special Investigations Unit, which gets involved whenever circumstances involving police and civilians result in sexual assault, death or serious injury.

GUTS wants to keep the issue of the alleged sexual assault in the public eye.

"It's important to show there's still a lot of public support and everyone's still thinking about what happened," GUTS member Andrea Bennett said at yesterday's protest.

"There's a critical mass of people who are really disgusted about what happened and continues to happen."

The protest started at city hall, with drummers and speakers talking about police brutality and poverty. Police were out in large numbers, with cruisers parked all over the downtown. Two officers in an unmarked van filmed the event from the train station, and several officers stood near the train tracks behind the city hall building.

The protesters, joined by supporters from Kitchener, left City Hall and headed down Wyndham Street, curved onto Wellington and came back into the downtown.

They walked in the middle of the road as police tried to direct traffic in other directions. They sometimes surrounded cars and explained to people inside why they were protesting.

Later in the night, after the effigy had been burned and the protesters moved on, police responded to two calls of broken windows in the downtown, one at a pharmacy at St. George's Square and another at the Ontario Works office further up Wyndham Street, Sergeant Ron Lord said.

By that point, the protest had dispersed, he said, and officers had no suspects.