Newsmakers of the week: May 7
WHEN WORDS SPEAK LOUDER THAN ACTION
America’s war on terror is being used to muzzle all manner of domestic protest, persecuting American citizens for their ideas, not their actions. That’s the alarming picture that emerges from new documentaries showing this week at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival. In one, Your Mommy Kills Animals, director Curt Johnson documents the ordeal of a group of animal rights activists who end up being slapped with conspiracy sentences of up to six years each — for running a website advocating civil disobedience. “It’s got to the point,” says Johnson, “that you have to watch what you say.” Johnson said he began to shoot his film after learning that the FBI declared animal rights activists America’s No. 1 domestic terrorist threat in 2005. “I knew nothing about the movement. I thought, ‘What, the bunny huggers?’ It was kind of odd. The KKK and anti-abortion movement have never been on a terrorist list.”
