Category: News and Analysis

Fuck the Parole Board, Fuck Hate Crime Policy, and As Always Fuck the Police

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info After waiting close to five days, we finally got news on the outcome of Cedar’s parole hearing. At about 4:56pm today, after days of deliberation, we got the news that the revocation their parole stands. After submitting over a dozen affidavits to the parole board; after hundreds of community members spoke out and took action against the criminalization of pride defenders; after a day Read More …

The Saga Continues: Updates on Queer Resistance and Repression in Hamilton

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info It’s been an incredibly hectic few weeks in Hamilton, and the situation here has been constantly evolving. Things have been beyond enraging and occasionally heartbreaking, but also quite inspiring and frequently heartwarming. For all the bullshit, stress, and violence, folks in the city have been radicalizing, conversations have been shifting (suddenly it’s not so controversial to hate the police or to condemn city council!), Read More …

Gidimt’en Access Point Solidarity Statement with Pride Defenders

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On June 15 participants at Hamilton’s Pride celebrations were attacked by members of the far-Right. This is a statement we’re releasing to the Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ community of Hamilton. To the Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ community of Hamilton: It was with sadness and feelings of encouragement that we heard about the events at Hamilton’s Pride celebration on June 15th and about what has happened since then. Sadness that some people would Read More …

From Embers: New Content in June 2019

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From Embers is a regular anarchist podcast produced in Kingston, Ontario. We produce a few episodes each month about actions and projects going on in so-called Canada that inspire us, or about topics that we think will be relevant to anarchists living north of the border. We are a proud member of the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network. This month we produced three original episodes… Read More …

Legal Aid Board Chair Serves Landlord Class

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Last week Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) made front page news when it announced a major attack on Parkdale, cutting 45% of its funding to Parkdale Community Legal Services (PCLS). What wasn’t reported was LAO’s Board Chair Charles Harnick’s connections to Toronto real estate interests. We think they go a long way to explaining the decision to target PCLS.  Read More …

Signal Fails

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Signal is an encrypted messaging service that has been around in different forms for about 10 years. Since then, I have seen the software widely adopted by anarchist networks across Canada and the United States. More and more, for better and for worse, our interpersonal and group conversations have moved onto the Signal platform, to the extent that it has become the dominant way anarchists communicate with each other on this continent, with very little public debate about the implications. Read More …

From Embers: New Content in May 2019

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From Embers is a regular anarchist podcast produced in Kingston, Ontario. We produce a few episodes each month about actions and projects going on in so-called Canada that inspire us, or about topics that we think will be relevant to anarchists living north of the border. We are a proud member of the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network. Read More …

On Subculture

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A defense of anarchist subcultures and a proposal for one we could build

I’ve been thinking a lot about subculture the past two years, and had intended that this month (May, 2019) be a deadline for getting out a piece of writing about it. I didn’t do that, because writing gets harder and harder as years go by, because online projects felt more immediate, more urgent, more like a living conversation, because I just didn’t get to it. But since part of what I had wanted to propose was that we have more intentional conversations as an anarchist milieu/community/movement/culture, and that we return somewhat to writing and printing as a means of doing that, it felt wrong to not put something on paper. I would rather this were a finished document with punchy, certain proposals. I suspect I’d get more response if it was. But it’s not. Consider it more of a published draft. Read More …

Answering Back: Teaching Kids the “Art of the Deal”

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Do you ever read your local paper and wonder why there aren’t more articles favourably comparing school children to Donald Trump? Well, the Waterloo Region Record’s got you covered. Yesterday, May 13, they ran an article called “Waterloo Region Youth Learn the Art of the Deal”; so lying, bravado, and sexual harassment, right? It described children as young as 4 gathering to highlight their businesses and sell each other stuff at the Children’s Business Fair: “They hope it will help children learn about the entrepreneurial spirit from a young age — something they don’t get in most classrooms.”

Are we actually expected to believe that a lack of “entrepreneurial spirit” is a problem with schools? And that we should be grateful that Catalyst 137, a space for venture capitalists and developers of the creepy “Internet of Things”, has stepped in to fill the gap? There are a lot of things that kids don’t get in most classrooms that would actually be beneficial, like time in nature, accurate sex education, or conflict resolution. Or (why not?) anti-capitalism. “[These kids] aren’t even 12 years old yet, but they know how to close” — I’m sure that’s exactly what we all need. Read More …