Category: News and Analysis

Ottawa People’s Commission final report on Convoy Occupation omits the anarchists

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info On April 4 the community-led Ottawa People’s Commission released the second part of its final report. The first part documented what local residents experienced during the winter 2022 occupation of downtown Ottawa by the ‘Freedom Convoy’ – the second part consists of the official recommendations from the Commission. The title of this post is based on the fact of the recommendations being almost solely Read More …

What is the Safe Third Country Agreement?

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From Solidarity Across Borders A sudden extension: Without any warning, at 12:01am last Saturday, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) was extended to cover the entire 9,000 kilometer border between the US and Canada. Deportation without any process: Under the STCA, any migrant caught crossing on foot or via waterway without a visa can be deported without any processing. Those who were coming via Roxham Road in Quebec are now Read More …

Hamilton: Letter Writing Night in Solidarity with Atlanta Arrestees

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Anonymous Submission to North Shore Counter-Info On Saturday, we brought some friends together to write letters to the people accused of domestic terrorism and held without bond in Georgia. We talked about the case and about cop city and sent out as many letters as we could. It’s a small thing, but small gestures of solidarity like this are happening all over and we thought it might be worth saying Read More …

Bailing on Justice and Rearranging the Chains: Fuck Prison

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So-called Canada’s 13 premiers recently signed a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging stricter bail requirements. “The time for action is now, our heroic first responders cannot wait”. Hopefully, this short analysis can shed some light on the recent preparations made by the state to strengthen their security-apparatus. Hopefully, this will help us make our own preparations. Read More …

Ottawa: The “Battle” of Billings Bridge

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A year ago now, on February 13, 2022, Ottawa residents blocked convoy vehicles on Billings Bridge and held it for hours. Since then, much has been written about this mass mobilization from left and liberal commentators. This generally celebrates it as an immense, glorious victory over the convoy, and the beginning of the tide turning in the convoy’s occupation of Ottawa—and don’t get me wrong, it was. But in speaking to friends outside of Ottawa, it feels more and more necessary to complicate this narrative by adding some of my and my comrades’ experiences on that day. Read More …

Practical Abolition from the Inside Out: Reflections on Prisoner Solidarity Organizing

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In the US and Canada, it doesn’t get that much lower than the prisoner. Excluded in every way, stripped of their most basic rights, exposed to humiliation and violence regularly, deprived of basic necessities, prisoners are at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, scorned and blamed by all the other classes. Prison crystalizes all forms of oppression and also props them up, and so organizing around prison can be a way of getting at the core of exploitative power relations in a community.

In Hamilton, our local prison is right in middle of the city, in between the cheap grocery store and the beer store. We pass it all the time, and it literally casts it shadow over us. Our goal in starting the Barton Prisoner Solidarity Project (or BAPSOP) in 2018 was to “thin the walls” and make it so we could hear the voices of our neighbours on the inside, make them feel a little less alone. Read More …

Escaping Tomorrow’s Cages: Winter Update on New Prisons

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Since our last update, EllisDon has started work on the new prison in Thunder Bay, the so-called Thunder Bay Correctional Complex (TBCC). They started work in early November, and the pictures in this post show the status of the site.

Of course, this feels terrible to everyone who understands prison to be an insult to the human spirit, but work won’t be complete until 2026. There is also quite a bit of new info available that could be of interest to those of us who do not intend to just let these prisons get built. Read More …

Drag Defenders Won 4-0 At Weekend Protests

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The far-right movement is coming hard for the 2SLGBTQ+ community right now, fueled by the anti-trans narratives of accounts like Libs of Tiktok and white supremacists like Tucker Carlson. They’re redoing the lavender scare of the 1950s – in which gay men were portrayed as dangerous pedophiles – and saying the same things about trans and 2SLGBTQ+ people today.

As a result of a growing and dangerous anti-trans narrative and movement, both globally and with significant Canadian elements, all-ages drag events are being targeted. Four of them were protested against this weekend alone, but at every one they were vastly outnumbered by the 2SLGBTQ+ community and allies who drowned them out with chants of “our love is louder than your hate!” Read More …

Cult Recruiter, Neo-Nazi, Personal Trainer: Meet Ottawa’s Ben Mockler

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A Canadian fascist organizer and live streamer has been recruiting men into fascism for the past two years — all under the cover of anonymity.

A new investigation by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network has revealed that the man who hid under the name “Aquila the Eagle” is Ben Mockler, a personal trainer and owner of the Nova Signum gym on Ottawa’s Rideau Street. Read More …

From Embers: The Public Order Emergency Commission

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Interview with an anti-fascist observer about insights gained from the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings, a public inquiry into the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to repress the so-called Freedom Convoy in February 2022.

We discuss why governments invoke emergencies, OPP’s Project Hendon, how the Convoy was funded, the relationship between convoy organizers and police, comparisons with #ShutDownCanada, liberal conspiracy theories, the scale of economic disruption during the Convoy, and more. Read More …