Protesters’ Guide to the Law of Civil Disobedience in British Columbia
Take Back our Community Edition September 23-24, 2011
Author: Leo McGrady Q.C., McGrady & Company
This paper was written to inform you of your rights when dealing with police at public demonstrations. It is designed to help you exercise your right to engage in non-violent civil disobedience, and avoid committing any criminal offence. It is also designed to assist you in the event you are arrested.
The original Protesters’ Guide was written in 1968-70, to assist those demonstrating in opposition to the Vietnam War, revised for the War Measures Act in September of 1970, and then revised again in 1973 to address protests against U.S. sponsoring of the Chilean military coup.
It has gone through many revisions over the intervening years. Much of this current update was done in 2009, and was intended to assist those who opposed the loss of many of our basic freedoms during the Olympics and wished to express that opposition in the form of non-violent civil disobedience.
