The Battle of the Cowshed
by Tavis Dodds, Work Less Party Candidate for Councillor

I left a phone message for the people producing a play based on Orwell's Animal Farm performed in a prison. I asked for a ticket so I could write a review.

 

As it turns out, however, I was arrested on the morning of opening night on Hallowe'en for demonstrating at City Hall. 

 

 

I went to the holding cells for Hallowe'en night in the dungeon of the police station and from my cell I could watch everyone being brought in.

 

I saw a group of police verbally abusing a 17 year old, like sadists, saying "there's a big boy" and other nastinesses like high school bullies. I saw a young lady dressed as a honey bee, weeping quietly the whole time and then, when she was locked up, she lost it and truly freaked. Two really nasty cops decided to play games with David Johnston and said really nasty things to him about his family, making the claim that he wasn't homeless and that he has a martyr complex. The only way to tell the difference between these officers and the worst of the inmates was their uniforms.

There was a homeless guy whose dog was taken. In the end, it felt like I was a character in Animal Farm, perhaps the horse, watching the pigs claiming to be more equal than others.