Category: News and Analysis

Critical Reflections on Solidarity and Recent Rail Disruptions

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Over the past weeks since the call-out for railway disruptions appeared, there have been a half dozen actions targeting train lines in Ontario. These have been diverse, with most involving the use of copper wire to trip the sensor system. One such communique described the added impact of doing multiple, coordinated actions of this kind; another emphasized that this action can safely and easily be done alone; and another reflective one talked through some of the difficulties of preparing and making sure it’s effective, showing the potential for the action to be taken up widely. There was also a surprise demo that blocked the rails, and an incendiary attack on the power supply of a signal station. Read More …

Call in Campaign! Telkwa and Houston Community Centres to house RCMP during Gidim’ten and Unist’ot’en raid attempt

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On January 4th, Wet’suwet’en members delivered an eviction notice to the CGL mancamp known as “site 9A” on Unistʼotʼen territory. CGL complied with the eviction notice, and employees and security forces completely withdrew from the territory. Shortly thereafter, there were reports of over 100 felled trees and piles of tires and accelerants blocking Morice West Forest Service Road, effectively protecting the area from industry and RCMP incursion. This unceded Wet’suwet’en land has now been liberated from Canada.  Read More …

From Embers: New Content in January 2020

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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.

After a break in December, we hit the ground running in 2020 and published four episodes in January. Read More …

Dream Big: a call to action for the Wet’suwet’en

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Where have you gone?

Last January there were so many of you. Of us!

In the streets. Shutting down bridges, ports, highways, railways, centres of capital, fuel terminals, and even storming TC Energy facilities. We were rushing office buildings, hanging banners, harassing politicians, police, courts and more. Informing, engaging, inciting. Undoubtedly meeting late into the nights, kept awake by our dreams. Strategizing. We were angry, passionate, strong, and determined. It was beautiful! Inspiring – hopeful!

What happened?

We’re not done – this is still happening! Force is not consent. The RCMP – the same commanders who argued for lethal oversight – are still in Wet’suwet’en territories harassing people. They’ve had the audacity to set up a temporary detachment in a place they don’t belong, aren’t welcome, and have no jurisdiction over. Read More …

Nothing (much) Changes: an analysis of changes in ownership of the Coastal Gas Link pipeline

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TC Energy recently sold 65% of their 100% stake in their Coastal Gas Link Project.

But does it mean anything?

Is the project struggling? Is TC Energy? Is there a chance this project will just fall by the wayside? After reading too many industry news sites and pompous press releases, interviews and share reports I have bad news.

It’s unlikely this indicates anything significant – and it doesn’t seem to be a sign of a flailing project or company.

In short; corporations buy and sell investments in projects all the time – and TC Energy has been doing a lot of this. TCE also announced back in 2018 that they intended to reduce its shares in the project, and hired RBC to help do it in January 2019, so it’s not a new or recent development. Project messaging has stayed consistent, and since the project is still in early stages new buyers must have a lot of faith it will proceed as planned. Read More …

Hamilton LRT cancellation: A Christmas Fucking Miracle!

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Working class Hamilton families breathed a collective sigh of relief Monday afternoon, when the Province announced they were killing the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project.  After 10+ years of living in the shadow of the Hamilton renaissance monster, with the housing walls closing in, this is the best holiday news many have heard in over a decade.

Hamilton has been wracking up some seriously shitty stats the last while.  In 2016, the CMHC named Hamilton one of 4 ‘red-flag’ cities with “dangerously overvalued” property, as ECDEV forced our way aboard Toronto’s SS Titanic housing bubble. This year we landed on the list of Top 10 most unaffordable cities for minimum wage workers (folks now working 55-60+ hours/week to afford a basic apartment).  And for the shit cherry on top of this hot shit sundae: we took the top prize this year for the highest one-year rent increase in all of Canada, at 24%. 

So when the announcement came that Metrolinx’s LRT project – the engine that’s been driving this community-wrecking shitmobile – was being shelved?  The joy was impossible to contain.  The joy overfloweth.  It was a Christmas fucking miracle.  Read More …

From Embers: Climate Mobilizations in Vancouver

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Submitted by From Embers From Embers is a regular show about anarchist and anti-authoritarian politics in so-called Canada based in Kingston, Ontario. We are part of the Channel Zero Anarchist Podcast Network. This episode features an interview with two anarchists from Vancouver about their efforts to intervene in the climate strike and extinction rebellion actions in that city. We talk about the context in Vancouver, their critique of Extinction Rebellion, Read More …

Honouring Dave Vasey on his birthday

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We are members of Rising Tide Toronto, a grassroots group dedicated to Indigenous solidarity work in Toronto. It has taken us a while to write something about one of our members, Dave Vasey, because in addition to being our co-organizer and co-conspirator, he was also our friend. We are still devastated by his sudden death in January 2019. Today Dave would have turned 41 years old. On this occasion we want to reflect upon his contributions to our collective movements and mourn his passing. Read More …

20 Years in the Matrix: Escaping the Prison of Surveillance Capitalism

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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Wachowski’s pioneering film The Matrix, a 1999 sci-fi masterpiece that seems more prophetic than ever. Here in 2019, machine learning and surveillance capitalism are increasingly feeding off of the raw material of human lives, simultaneously enslaving and entertaining us – and mirroring the film’s premise.

‘Surveillance capitalism’ is a term coined by social psychologist Shoshana Zuboff, which she expounds upon at length – for nearly 666 pages – in her 2019 tome The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. For Zuboff, our economy is increasingly built around corporation’s relentless drive to digitize and monetize our personal lives. 

This should sound eerily familiar to anyone who’s a fan of The Matrix. The film presents a vision of a dystopian future, where the natural world has been scorched by human action into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. People cannot recognize this truth because their senses have been filled since birth by a placid artificial reality that enslaves them, enabling machines to feed off them. Read More …

Squeezing Profits: Landlord and Tenant Board Grants Timbercreek 7.2 Percent Rent Increase

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A couple dozen Ottawa residents braved the dipping temperatures and frigid downtown winds to rally at the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) on Albert Street on Nov. 13.

Tenants of Sunset Heights Apartments at 2880 Carling Avenue and their supporters with ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) were challenging an application filed by their landlord Timbercreek Asset Management. Timbercreek wanted an above guideline rent increase (commonly referred to as an AGI) of 5.4 percent above the provincially mandated 1.8 percent maximum. Read More …