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 …

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 …

More Than Facebook: Mutual Aid Organizing in Ottawa During COVID-19

Thousands of people around Ottawa connected on social media to request help and offer assistance to strangers during the first spike of COVID-19 in March, 2020. They were forming COVID-19 support groups, mutual aid networks, and “caremongering” groups. Membership in these Facebook groups grew to over 4,000 within weeks, and they have remained active since then, with daily posts, comments, news, and updates. Read More …

Hamilton: Banner Drop in Solidarity with Freedom Camp

One week ago today, the 14 day occupation of Hamilton City Hall known as Freedom Camp came down voluntarily. For two weeks, Black and Brown youth organized the tent city and gathering place to demand a 50% reduction in the Hamilton Police budget and to have that money reallocated towards free housing for houseless folks who have been left out in the cold during a pandemic. Meals and shelter were provided to any houseless folks who came to find some help, until of course the city came in and ripped down all of their tents as is their disgusting mission these days. But those youth stayed strong and held out, helping folks come down from drugs in a gentle way, keeping people warm, and pressing the limits of what Sad Fred (the mayor) could handle. At one point, they even brought a coffin to his front yard. Read More …

Coast-to-coast Call to Action – Compilation of submissions

While North Shore was down in late November and early December, we received three submissions from BC and Quebec about actions taken there in solidarity with the Coast to Call Call to Action being circulated by Wet’suwet’en land defenders involved with Gidim’ten checkpoint. The three are below, all were received anonymously.

BC: Power Lines Feeding LNG Facility Sabotaged — A statement from a few who aim to shut down Canada
BC: Update on Recent Direct Action Against the Coastal GasLink Pipeline
MTL: Solidarity Disruption and Experimentation on the CP and AMT railroad Read More …