Gary Douglas Freeman is imprisoned in Canada, fighting extradition to the United States where he would face charges stemming from a 1969 confrontation with a police officer in Chicago's South Side.
CKLN News
intro:
March 23, 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the coming into force of an important international treaty: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The ICCPR makes it legally binding for the signing nation to promote and protect individual rights -- and states that the protection and defence of human rights is that nation's first international obligation. Canada is a State party to the ICCPR.
But today that rings hollow for the friends and supporters of Gary Douglas Freeman, who is fighting extradition to the United States.
Gary Freeman was born Joseph Coleman Pannell. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where he briefly attended Howard University. From an early age he had a passion for African-American liberation history. He refused to serve with the US military and by 1969 he was living in Chicagoâ