For May Day this year, despite the current limitations on some of our traditional activities, we wanted to safely take to the streets. It was a perfect opportunity to do a demonstration we’d been thinking about at Toronto South Detention Centre. Toronto South, nicknamed “Guantanamo South”, is a horrific place, and an especially dangerous place to be during a pandemic. Read More …
In response to the call for decentralized May Day actions, some Toronto anarchists went for a delightful ride on a clear night in late April to let banks know that we are watching and that we are ready and willing to act. Despite most branches being closed due to Covid-19, we managed to find a few branches that were continuing to open for customers. We visited several banks, gluing the locks, and spray painting messages on the concrete or exterior facade as appropriate. Our messages centred around their abysmal failure to show even a modicum of compassion amid widespread income loss among its clients. Read More …
It was a picture snapped by a friend of a friend, spotted on a walk, passed around on signal and shared on an anarchist facebook page. A banner waving in the breeze off a rail bridge, proclaiming “Genocide is not an essential service – Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en”. A few kilometers down from the spot where the banner was hung, just a few months ago hundreds of us gathered on the rails. We were part of a wave of actions stopping rail traffic across the country, demanding the RCMP get off Wet’suwet’en territory, and declaring that the Canadian economy couldn’t continue as usual while Indigenous land was invaded in the name of greed and environmental destruction. This banner echoes that moment and to me, is a small spark of hope about moments to come. Read More …
Anonymous submission to North Shore While we don’t know what the coming months will look like, we are excited to announce and invite you to mark your calendars for the Toronto Anarchist Bookfair on October 24, 2020. While there is much uncertainty in the world right now, it is our hope and intention to host a bookfair this year. The need for many of our ongoing projects hasn’t stopped, and Read More …
Across Ontario, many tenants across the region will withhold rent from their landlord. Even though we are constantly told we are all in this together, the social impact of the virus will be hugely uneven and intensify existing inequalities. Whether tenants still have the means to pay this month or not, this movement shows solidarity with those who can’t and recognizes that few people can last long without the income they’re counting on.
Alongside this, people across the region have organized to help out their neighbours autonomously.. We are highlighting mutual aid projects that try to go beyond a social media page to build lasting independent strength in their neighbourhoods. Read More …
On Wednesday March 11, hours before the student walkout for Wet’suwet’en, fellow supporters continued to disrupt the Canadian economy by holding “Ghost Blockades” at the time of the morning commute. Activists in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous Land Defenders have planted harmless signals on train tracks in various parts of the GTA, forcing rail traffic to halt while officials investigate. Trains were stopped, but this time there were no visible activists on the tracks for the police to arrest and intimidate. As police forces escalate their responses to peaceful demonstrations on rails, land defenders and allies are finding ways to send their message without risking police aggression. Railway police and other workers will need to investigate each blockade to deem the tracks safe for further traffic. In the mean time, the message is clear: RCMP and CGL must leave Wet’suwet’en territory. Read More …
It seems worth sharing that we have managed to shut down, (if only for a few to several hours), different rail lines in Southern Ontario using the ol’ copper wire technique. We did this three separate times targeting a junction in Milton, on lines that connect Kitchener-Waterloo to Toronto and Burlington. Using paper maps to follow where lines go, we had fun finding places to act with most impact. We learned more about how this was done following some of the other informative and inspiring posts here on North Shore. Read More …
On Saturday February 15 about 400 people showed up in Vaughn, ON to blockade the tracks in and out of MacMillan Yard – Canada’s second-largest rail yard – for 7 hours. This action was just one amongst a wave of solidarity actions in response to Canada’s invasion and violence towards the Wet’suwet’en people on behalf of private industry.
Around 10am 50 trusted folks converged in a parking lot nearby. As the first wave of people to blockade the tracks, they made a phone call to CN rail and had crews 1.5kms east and west to put red flagging on the tracks. Red flags are a univeral indicator for rail crews to stop. After calls and flags were confirmed, folks cut through fencing and threw down large woodens boards so people could easily cross deep ditches filled with icy water and made their way past a (previously) stored train onto the rails. This first wave of people effectively shut down traffic on CN lines headed west out of Macmillan to Kitchener, London, Hamilton, New York and Michigan. Read More …
Moved by the momentum of rail blockades and actions across the country, we set out last night to stop some trains. Toronto has seen a couple of well-attended and inspiring one-day blockades over the past week. Sustaining the numbers and energy for these kinds of blockades can be hard, and we want to experiment with ways to keep pressure on the rail system without expending that energy constantly. Luckily, there are many ways to disrupt the rails – see previous callouts! Read More …
Following RCMP raids on Wet’suwet’en Territory this week, indigenous people, land defenders and accomplices have been taking up the call to Shut Down Canada with ongoing actions across the country targeting urban centres, highways, ports and railways. Here is an update on some actions across southern Ontario thus far and some notes on what’s to come. Something incomplete or missing? Send us a reportback! Read More …
