Tag: G20

Bindo Showan (aka Khalid) Charged in Connection to the Tow Truck Wars

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Woke up this morning to some truly heart-waming news: the cop Bindo Showan of the OPP has a warrant out for his arrest. You might remember Bindo from the name he used while he was pretending to be an activist in the leadup to the G20, ‘Khalid’. His undercover work, pretending to be a friend and comrade to people throughout the region for years, was a crucial part of the G20 Main Conspiracy case. 20 people were initially charged, 17 were pursued, and 6 ultimately did jail time in this case. Read More …

10 years ago ~ reflections on the state’s utilization of shame: #MyG20Story

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10 years ago today I was just waking up in Toronto, after a day of the largest mobilization I have ever been a part of to this day. What power it felt to be out in those streets. There were SO MANY COPS and also SO MANY OF US. And now on this morning, 10 years ago, so many of us were in jail. Yet the streets continued to be alive with resistance, and we had another demo that afternoon. Somehow until that moment I had evaded arrest. That later demo, (which was going to be a prison demo) did not end up happening, the area was streaming with cops. Me and some pals were stopped, searched, and arrested, like so many. Read More …

The time we spent talking about violence: #MyG20Story

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Back in the leadup to the 2010 G20 summit, the debate around violence-nonviolence felt so important – both externally to other group or the public, and within ourselves as individuals. You couldn’t open your mouth in 2010 without talking about violence, but now that debate doesn’t feel at all relevant to my life. It doesn’t at all feel like a sticking point. The issue still comes up, but the illusory divide around it doesn’t seem real now. Maybe watching the endless series of bodies killed by police, watching all the victims as capitalism has conquered the world has made the debate seem trivial. Read More …

Ambitious Times: On Decentralized regional organizing for the 2010 G20 summit

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I’m based in Hamilton was involved in Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance, SOAR, in the leadup to the 2010 G20 summit. In the years since, a lot of our conversations about that organizing experience since focus on repression – the undercovers, the mass arrests, the prison time – but lately what stands out to me most about it is how ambitious the whole mobilization was. Read More …