We started North Shore Counter-Info in 2018 with the intention of encouraging written reflection, principled debate and public communication for anarchists across so-called southern ontario. In the context of a growing dependence on corporate social media platforms, we wanted (and still want) to provide an anonymous alternative that prioritizes thoughtful and dangerous contributions over throwaway takes and media jargon.

In the seven years since, we have noticed a change in how people in our circles relate to the site (and the internet in general). It is hard to say anything with certainty since we have disabled tracking and analytics across the site as much a possible. But we can take an educated guess and say, for example, the vast majority of our users probably no longer use RSS feeds or bookmarks to regularly check the site, but are instead directed to specific articles via social media or signal groups.

While we oppose the shift to social media for many reasons, we are taking the opportunity to worry less about our publishing frequency and refocus our editorial policy on a more qualitative approach. This involves two changes: accepting content from across Canada and covering unclaimed actions that are of interest to anarchists.

Following some internal reflections on the role this site can play in a changing virtual landscape, we have decided to take submissions from across Canada, effective immediately. The site will remain a counter info site explicitly based in southern Ontario – we are not trying to “include” or “represent” all anarchists in the large and diverse territory claimed by the Canadian state.

We encourage people in every area of the country to establish or use regional counter info sites, such as Montreal Counter-Info and BC Counter-Info, and we will occasionally be republishing articles from those sites. But if you don’t have an anarchist platform in your area, North Shore has got you covered.

As well, we are soliciting submissions of news coverage of unclaimed actions that are of interest to anarchists. When an action intervenes in an existing social tension, is significant in scope, and uses interesting means, then we are open to republishing it (especially with added editorial content putting it in context). This isn’t to attribute anarchist politics to an action, but is in recognition that sometimes it isn’t safe or practical to write a communique and that it is not only anarchists who take actions of interest to anarchists.

We hope this reorientation allows North Shore to continue being useful as a platform for anarchist news and analysis. As we said when we started this project, “We hope to contribute to building a decentralized and creative force capable of meaningfully pushing back against the state and capital in this area” — we hope this will be another small step in that direction.