Jaggi Singh - G-20 & The Quebec City Summit of The Americas

G-20 & The Quebec City Summit of The Americas

Singh would continue to attend Canadian rallies and protests, and continued to face arrests. In October 2000, he was arrested at a G-20 protest in Montreal, and charged with "participation in a riot", and illegal assembly and mischief. Police claimed that Jaggi’s speech against the International Monetary Fund incited the crowd, and that he announced the availability of medical help while riot police were charging at the crowd. In April 2003, he was acquitted of the riot charges.

Singh gained widespread notoriety as the longest-detained demonstrator arrested by police at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas. Witnesses reported that, "he was grabbed from behind by police masquerading as protesters" and "dragged away in a beige van". Singh was held for a total of 17 days, and charged with breaking conditions from previous arrests and with weapons charges - for a mock catapult that launched teddy bears that was actually constructed and operated by an unrelated group from Edmonton.

During his imprisonment, "Free Jaggi Singh" protests took place in Montreal, and as far away as the Czech Republic, France, Germany and the United States. He was released on $3,000 bail with conditions that prohibited him from leading or organizing any demonstrations or using a megaphone.

In a telephone interview conducted while he was in the Orsainville jail near Quebec, Singh explained his view that legal action against him and other political activists was designed to intimidate them into silence, and split them off from mainstream public opinion:

"Everybody is an idealist. Everybody has this idea that things should be better and that's really a non-ideological thing. The fear is that those idealists will become radicals and start questioning the roots of the system, start questioning the power structure. People in power don't like that. You have to turn these idealists into realists, because once they're realists, they can accept the compromises that opportunists make; those being the politicians.

And how do you turn an idealist into a realist instead of a radical? Well, a baton blow to the head is one way. Getting wafts of tear gas is another. Yet another is making the radicals seem crazy and criminal. Give the distinct impression through the media that you will be jailed. You will be treated differently and it's not worth the trouble. As long as idealists stay that way, or even better become realists or opportunists, that's great."

During the lengthy pre-trial process, the weapons charge was dropped, and Singh’s request in November 2003 for a stay of proceedings based on "unreasonable delay and abuse of process," was accepted two months before the case would have gone to trial in January 2004. In his ruling, Judge Beaulieu of the Quebec Superior Court agreed with Singh’s position that: "… the bail conditions imposed on May 2001 have restrained his right to freedom, opinion, expression and the right of freedom of association as protected by article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."