Toronto: Protesting is Now Illegal
On Saturday, January 16th, the Toronto Police Service tweeted the above image.
So, it’s official. The government has declared that protesting is now illegal in Toronto, and, probably in all of Ontario. Read More …
Thou Shalt Not Question Public Health! Censorship in the Age of COVID-19
Something has been gnawing away at me for months. Why have anarchists been so silent in the face of increasing state repression? Aren’t radical Leftists historically the defenders of civil liberties such as the freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press? Yet until recently, there seemed to be a taboo against criticizing measures justified in the name of Public Health.
Thankfully, that is now changing. In Quebec, home to a fierce anarchist tradition, it took the imposition of a curfew before anarchists reached the point of mobilizing, but I am happy to report that radical Leftists in Quebec are now taking to the streets. Today, on Saturday, January 16th, 2021, the first anti-curfew demonstration will take place in the neighbourhood of Hochelaga.
This is an encouraging sign, and I hope that it will lead to further dialogue about what the best way for the Left to respond to the new challenges of organizing a resistance movement in the age of COVID. I, for one, am hoping that to see more critical analysis emerge, as I think that we, as a movement, need to orient ourselves to the new political landscape. Read More …
Gidimt’en Territory: Solidarity is inclusive: We are one
It has been almost one year since the call went out for peoples across so called canada for solidarity; to respect Wet’suwet’en laws and jurisdiction to our lands and to fight together against colonization, industrial genocide, and to stop CGL and RCMP from invading our yintah.
As we asserted full control over access to our yintah and brought industry to a halt, many others rose up with us. From large demonstrations to rail blockades to clandestine sabotages against the infrastructures of colonization, many nations, groups and people fought alongside us. These actions gave us strength in the face of the looming buildup of militarized police. Read More …
We will lift each other up: Day 177 update from 1492 Land Back Lane
Back in court again today. Many of the 40 arrestees are up in a Cayuga court room facing a vast array of charges. The continuation of the criminalization of land defenders and settler allies.
It is absolutely infuriating that we are talking UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action while jailing our people for simply standing up for lands that the government has admitted they had taken unjustly. The perpetuation of this centuries old agenda of land theft. Read More …
After a Winter of Blockades: Updates on criminal charges from #ShutDownCanada (en/fr)
It’s been almost a year since the wave of blockades in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders known as Shut Down Canada. Since then, there has been no shortage of urgent issues, and public attention has moved on. However, for both those on the front lines and those still facing charges, moving on has not been an option.
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Presque un an est passé depuis la vague de blocages en solidarité avec les défenseurs de la terre wet’suwet’en. Par la suite, de nombreuses questions urgentes ont fait que l’attention du public est passé à autre chose. Toutefois, pour celleux en première ligne aussi bien que pour celleux avec des accusations en justice, il n’y a aucune possibilité de passer à autre chose.
Includes posters in English and French — Il y a des posters en anglais et en français Read More …
Toronto: Organized Tenants Stop Eviction
From Parkdale Organize Today organized tenants successfully stopped an eviction from being carried out in Little Portugal. Timbercreek/Hazelview took ownership of the building less than two months ago and while this eviction was started before they bought the building, they now have a clear decision to make: will they try to drag a single mom and her children out into the cold during a pandemic? Tenants in the building, the Read More …
Books that enable child abuse do not belong in the library
From Blue Heron Books & Zines In the last few days, we’ve seen calls on social media to request that the Kingston Frontenac Public Library remove a recent addition to their collection for blatant transphobic hate speech. The book is Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier. It’s written for parents, in particular “progressive” parents who support gay rights and vote left, but who are not Read More …
A Critique of Emergency Measures that Remove Freedom of Assembly
A lot has changed in the past year. If you would have told me a year ago that the government would ban gatherings in private homes, and given police special powers to forcibly enter people’s homes without a warrant *, I would have assumed that you were a paranoid conspiracy kook. Yet such is the reality in 2021. Read More …
Always Against Prison — From Hamilton to Minneapolis
This evening, we dropped a banner over highway 403 going towards Toronto in solidarity with the five people in Minneapolis facing serious felony charges in connection to a New Year’s eve noise demo in that city. Although we’re glad all five are out on bail, the arrests and charges mark a significant escalation of repression against an international anarchist tradition.
In our region, New Year’s noise demos started in 2009 in response to a hunger strike campaign by anarchist prisoners, and we have kept doing them every year since. These demos let us a share a moment of celebration with prisoners, breaking the alienation through direct action. As an international tradition, they are also a thread that connects us to anarchists elsewhere, allowing us to exchange ideas and tactics with people whose contexts are quite different than ours. Read More …
Hamilton New Years Noise Demo
For the 12th* year in row, folks in Hamilton rung in the new year with a noise demo outside the Barton jail. COVID has changed a lot of our organizing context this year, and made a lot of traditions harder to keep, but was too important to miss.
If anything, COVID has exacerbated many of the existing horrors of prison. Barton prisoners saw the loss of visits for big chunks of this year, only winning them back for a period of time through a series of courageous hunger strikes. There is the constant threat of the pandemic spreading through the jail, as we’ve seen at countless other institutions. The administration’s response to the pandemic has been to further erode prisoner’s basic “rights”. Read More …