Press Release: Eric Alcock, President of Vote Life, Canada! Pursuing Human Rights Complaint against RSAC and Local Police

Further to the incident last month involving the arrest of Eric Alcock.

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Monday, October 1, 2007

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Eric Alcock, President of Vote Life, Canada! Pursuing Human Rights Complaint against Religious Social Action Coalition and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary

Issued by:
Vote Life, Canada!
NL Provincial Directorate
4 Hickey’s Rd.,
Paradise, NL A1L3J3

Contact: Eric Alcock, President and NL Provincial Director, Vote Life, Canada! 709-773-0700

St. John’s, NL October 1—As a result of the despicable actions of the Religious Social Action Coalition (RSAC) and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary against the person of Eric Alcock on September 5, 2007 at The Lantern in St. John’s, Mr. Alcock is moving forward with a human rights complaint against both parties.

On that date, Alcock was arrested and detained by police almost immediately after arriving at the RSAC Press Conference without having said a word. The Conference was advertised as being open to all interested members of the public and Alcock in fact had personally received a forwarded email message originating from the Religious Coalition inviting individuals to attend.

Police had already been called to the building before Alcock even arrived and were summoned from the hallway immediately when organizers had confirmed Alcock’s presence through a phony handshake and identity check. He was straight away removed by officers from the building, escorted to a paddy wagon and locked up for an hour until the conference was over.

Organizers of the event, as well as media, had been alerted to the concerns of Vote Life, Canada! by a press release the day before and were also informed that Alcock would be in attendance. Alcock went to the conference with no intention other than to express a viewpoint, given the opportunity. He had hoped to go on record as saying that when the RSAC was seeking to address the issue of poverty that it was in fact completely neglecting the Unborn who are the poorest in our community, not being granted the right to live, let alone the right to food, clothing and housing.

Alcock is charging human rights violations through harassment by both the Religious Social Action Coalition and the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary who served as their henchmen. Alcock claims the RNC simply rubber-stamped the wishes of the RSAC and failed to exercise due diligence and impartiality in this incident, further contributing to the harassment and possibly violating other aspects of the law by having him locked up in a paddy wagon cage already on site.

Furthermore Alcock is considering what charges can be laid against the CBC for the skewed, biased nature of their coverage on the evening television news hour which introduced a serious element of defamation of character. The CBC news identified Alcock as an unknown “protestor” who “disrupted” the press conference. It was reported in the same broadcast that “police had to be called in.” On two successive evening news broadcasts the CBC featured full video of Alcock being taken away from the building, arm in arm, by two police officers, yet made no efforts to provide the public with the truth of the events, despite being called upon through press releases to do so. Alcock’s reputation after this CBC television coverage, for anyone who knew him or knew of him, immediately went from pro-life advocate to unruly disruptive protestor who needed to be physically removed from a press conference and confined in a cage in order to be restrained.

The painting of such a picture significantly threatened Alcock’s public image and his ability to work with community leaders throughout NL to advance the pro-life goals of Vote Life, Canada! This represents an extremely distressing outcome for simply showing up at a Press Conference with a viewpoint.

Alcock has had conversations with the Human Rights Commission office, has submitted details of the incident and has initiated a formal complaint.