(The following article is from the April 16-30, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

(Our regular "Youth Fightback" contributor, Johan Boyden, is on holiday. This issue, he turns his column over to another writer. This anonymous account of the arrest of a member of the Toronto 18 is a shortened version of an article originally published in the Toronto Star.)

It's been nearly two years since the raid on our house, since the day they took my brother and another relative. Since that day, my family and I have lived in silence. It's an emotional topic for me and talking about it means reliving that pain all over again. But I feel obliged to let Canadians know about our experience and what we continue to experience each and every single day.

     It was June 2, 2006 - around 11 p.m. That night was a nightmare for me and my family. Earlier that day, a relative was arrested while coming home after grocery shopping. We sat at home, in shock, wondering what had just happened. None of us shed a tear, I guess out of sheer disbelief. It was getting late, and my other brother wasn't home yet.

     He'd been out with his friends. So my mother and I went out looking for him. We were just around the corner of our house when a pack of cars stopped at the end of the street and the SWAT team came running towards our house pointing guns at us. As soon as we got inside, they broke in, all the while yelling at us, asking us all to come down to the front door.

     One by one they called us out of the house to be searched. My dad was the first to go. He had been in such a shock that after he'd heard about our relative's arrest, he'd gone back to his room and started working on his business files. And when he came down, he'd brought his papers and pen with him to the door. One of the officers glanced at the papers and pen in his hands and yelled at him: "DROP YOUR WEAPONS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS RIGHT NOW!" They pulled my dad by his collar and he tripped. I asked them to go easy on my father because he was already in a state of shock. Their reply made me feel sick to my stomach. They said: "We know that already, that's what we have the ambulance for."

     Then they handcuffed him and took him for questioning, and we didn't see him for the next couple of hours. They searched us all and then had us wait outside in the rain with babies in our arms. They waited for my brother to come home, and when he did they put him in a car and took him. We didn't know where he was taken and what had happened to him. They finally told us that they had actually arrested him. We spent the night at our neighbours'.

     My brother shared with me his anguish on his first night. He said:

     "When I got out of the car I was surrounded by police dogs, SWAT team, and the bright camera flashes and the reporters screaming. I went inside and I was strip-searched. For the first time in my life I felt so humiliated. Then I was put in a cell for about five hours or so till it was early morning and the whole night I couldn't sleep because of the cold concrete bench, and there was no water so I was really thirsty. But when I'd ask for water or my sweater back so that at least I could sleep or something, they'd just say, `Its not a f---n' hotel.'"

     He was kept in solitary confinement for almost three months until he was released on bail under strict conditions. The authorities ruined my brother's future, his reputation and abused him physically and psychologically - all for, according to them, absolutely no reason.

     My other relative continues to suffer in solitary confinement along with two of the other accused. According to a study by the Correctional Services of Canada, those who went through enforced segregation for 60 days suffered from "poorer mental health and psychological functioning." The three detainees at the Don Jail have now spent more than 600 days in solitary confinement. These men deserve the same rights as every other inmate. They deserve the right to be presumed innocent.