Gastown Riots

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The Gastown Riots occurred in Vancouver, Canada, in 1971. Following weeks of arrests by undercover agents in Vancouver as part of a special police operation directed by Mayor Tom Campbell, police attacked a small protest demonstration in Gastown against the use of undercover agents and in favour of the legalization of marijuana. Tom Campbell later attempted to invoke the War Measures Act against hippies and draft-dodgers.

This demonstration involved a four-foot long false spliff. Police were accused of heavy-handed tactics including indiscriminate beatings with their newly-issued riot batons. They also used, for the first time, horse-backed charges on crowds of onlookers and tourists.

An inquiry (The Gastown Inquiry) followed in which police agents who had infiltrated civic groups testified that the entire incident was organized by professional revolutionaries including local poets Richard Rathwell, Michael Boughn and others. Rathwell was also later named in the Houses of Parliament by the Solicitor-General as one of Canada's most dangerous revolutionaries, following the invasion of the United States by anti-war protesters at Blaine, Washington which occurred soon after the Gastown Riots