COVID Update: Know Your Rights & Police Powers

On April 17, 2021, facing the highest COVID-19 case counts and a slow roll out of vaccines especially in the hardest hit neighbourhoods, the Premier of Ontario and Ontario conservatives expanded police powers, choosing to address a public health crisis through individualized enforcement. These expanded police powers accompany an April Stay at Home order.  Read More …

Ottawa: R.I.P. Matt Cicero – Anarchist Militant, Journalist, and Community Organizer

On March 16, 2020, our comrade Matt departed for the spirit world. We have lost one of the most committed anarchists in our part of the world, and the loss is felt intensely due to the tragic circumstances of his death.

Many people who did not know Matt well will probably remember him as the guy that bombed the bank back in 2010. At this time, there was a major mobilization of anarchists preparing for the G20 summit in Toronto. Several months prior to the summit, a group calling itself FFF (Fighting For Freedom) released footage of the firebombing of an RBC branch in Ottawa. The footage was dramatic – a black-clad figure runs out of the bank minutes before it explodes in flame. Read More …

Hamilton: Fuck the Covid Cops!

Like millions of other people in Ontario, I woke up this morning in a world where the police had been given the authority to stop you at any time, question you, demand information without any reason, and make orders which have to be followed. In practice, a lot of this stuff already happens, but formalizing what is usually an abuse of power is a huge blow.

The government claims this is to try to stop the spread of covid. They are banning us all from sitting outside in the park with friends at a distance while factories and prisons are still operating full steam, prioritizing profits over relationships. Giving the police enhanced power to enforce these kinds of rules is just unbelievably fucked.

I was pretty upset so I made a bunch of posters and put them up around my neighbourhood in East Hamilton. Would they have been better if I’d taken more time? For sure. Should I have put “Covid is real” or something on them so it’s more clear I’m not an anti-masker or denialist? Probably. But I would say it’s more important to act, to make visible some opposition to these authoritarian measures, so that we don’t all feel scared and alone. Read More …

Hamilton: The Tower is Closing… For Now

From The Tower’s Facebook As of April 2021, The Tower is temporarily closed and will be moving. One of the key goals of the project from the beginning has been to provide infrastructure explicitly useful to support and further radical organizing in Hamilton for free. Over the course of the last year we have struggled with ongoing questions of how to best operate within a pandemic when so much of Read More …

Blockade DefenseCharges dropped for all 15 Lennoxville QC Defendants! (en/fr)

We are a group of people who, back in february 2020, held an all-day railroad blockade in so-called Lennoxville, Quebec, on stolen Abenaki land, in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders and against the ongoing violence of colonialism. We have recently learned that the criminal accusations that had been laid against us have finally been withdrawn and that our case has been closed.

On the one hand, it brings us joy to avoid the stress and hassle of a criminal trial, and even moreso considering how the Sherbrooke police shamelessly lied to us and broke their own protocols in order to arrest us on that sunny winter day.

Le français suit l’anglais Read More …

Blockade Defense: Call to organize letter-writing nights!

Remember during Shut Down Canada, when so many of were together disrupting Canada’s rail network, attending marches ten thousand strong, seeing communiques of pipeline and critical infrastructure sabotage and supporting the Wet’suwet’en frontline? That was a powerful upswell in a long-term movement and we need to continue the fight, including supporting people dealing with charges.

It has been an isolating year for so many people because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Facing repression for political action is also often a very isolating experience. From the … and …short explain

We want to remind the people facing charges that they are not alone and the movement still has their back. We are inviting you to host letter writing events. Read More …

Settlers on the Red Road: A Conversation on Indigeneity, Belonging, and Responsibility

This zine is not going to be comfortable for some people to read. It is likely to personally challenge a few of you out there who may yourself be dipping a toe in the pond of indigeneity, trying it out to see how it feels. This zine is not going to beat around the bush, because the bush has been thoroughly beaten around.

This is the start of a larger discussion on indigeneity, belonging, and responsibility in our anarchist community. But there is something here for everyone, even if you don’t call yourself an anarchist. At the time of it’s writing, it is already long overdue. In the past two years in southern Ontario, there have been multiple incidents of settlers claiming indigeneity within our intersecting anarchist circles, incidents which caused great harm to relationship and undermined solidarity with Indigenous communities. In Quebec, the rise of the “Eastern Métis” threatens to bleed over into radical spaces. In this era of state-sponsored reconciliation, the line between settlers and Indians is being purposefully blurred by Canada in an attempt to gently complete the assimilation initiated long ago and, try as anarchists might to keep ourselves separate, the dominant culture has a way of creeping in. Read More …

Toronto IWW Statement on Trans Day of Visibility

Trans Day of Visibility celebrates the trans community and brings awareness to the trans struggle against discrimination faced daily under class society. The IWW wants to strengthen and embolden our trans, non-binary and genderqueer comrades by bringing visibility to their struggle. We stand in solidarity with the trans community; the working class struggle is the trans struggle, no one can be free when others are oppressed.

The capitalist state, police and military will always be a force of oppression against marginalized groups and the entire working class. We stand in solidarity with our trans comrades, a united working class defeats capitalist oppression. An injury to one is an injury to all! Read More …

Call for Solidarity! Contact the Hamilton Crown’s Office on March 25th to ask for Blockade Charges to be Dropped!

Le français suit l’anglais

Out of the charges laid for the 2020 Shut Down Canada blockades, some of the most serious are the ones against defendants in Hamilton. These charges stem from a 24 hours shutdown of the CN and CP tracks through the city on February 24th to 25th, which was a direct response to the OPP’s attack on Tyendinaga territory that morning and in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en.

Initially, six people were charged for this action, but we are pleased to announce that charges against two of them were withdrawn in the past couple of months. Each remaining defendant is charged with four counts of indictable Mischief over $5000, each of which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. Read More …