The long hot summer at Tent City on Toronto’s waterfront ended today with a police raid. Home Depot, owner of the land, moved in aggressively and by surprise. A hired security firm came with dogs, bulldozers, banks of spotlights and an army of police (on cycles, horses, in cars and paddy wagons) for backing.
By sunset the residents and supporters were protesting outside. Cops lined the fence, security people and a lot of cops roamed the property, and a huge goon was setting all the surrounding fencing with barbed wire toppings. Some evicted residents had puppies and dogs. Cats and kittens remained locked in some of the small houses while a huge bulldozer remains parked until tomorrow. A security chief told me that any remaining animals would be turned over to the humane society if found. Otherwise they will be bulldozed under with the tiny houses.
Under a deal with the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, residents were allowed in to claim some belongings. Councillor Olivia Chow announced arrangements to move the people to shelters and hotels for the time being.
Some of the squatters were weeping
over the loss of their homes. And it really looks bad on the city, province
and the feds, that people find tents on contaminated land preferable to
the overcrowded city shelters. The message really is that people squat
because they want housing. None is being created by the feds, rents are
out of control and the province hasn’t come through with its promise to
provide rent aid. All of it meaning that the issue is really only beginning,
and not ending through this cruel eviction … they can’t bulldoze all of
us under yet … though they would if they could.
Photos by Gary Morton
Before Raid:
(Aug 2002 - Visitor Poses in Front of Tent
City House
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent.jpg
During Raid:
At the Gate
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent1.jpg
Bulldozer and Cops Wait to begin Demolition
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent2.jpg
Security Guard Inside Tent City
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent3.jpg
Police Line and Spectators
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent4.jpg
Police Horses
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent5.jpg
Pope Squat Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent6.jpg
Cops Behind Fence
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent7.jpg
Homeless Man and Dog
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent8.jpg
Homelessness is a National Disgrace Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent9.jpg
Homeless Dog
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent10.jpg
Big Security Guy Setting the Fence for Barbed
Wire
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tent11.jpg
---------
Stop Bush’s War on the World –
Sept.9.2002
Protesters were out in Toronto as Jean Chretien and George Bush met in Detroit to discuss Bush's plans for war on Iraq. The USA appears to be ready to move with Britain in a new military campaign against Iraq.
Americans used to demand proof of a just war. But that was yesterday. Today Bush wants United Nations approval for a war of convenience. Knocking out Saddam would put Iraqi oil fields under American corporate control, put the squeeze on Iran, boost the US economy and rescue Bush’s sinking popularity.
To frighten us Bush says Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction. Yet he doesn’t actually have them, while nations like India, Pakistan and Israel do have them and threaten to use them. Scarier still is the fact that the USA has the largest supply of weapons of mass destruction, and will use them whenever it is convenient to do so.
Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/iraqw1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/iraqw2.jpg
protest info e-mail: dropthesanctions@hotmail.com
--------
Reclaim Goes Off as an Easy Street Party -
Sept.1.2002
Photos by Gary Morton
* I messed up most of my photos but here are
a few.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/rclaim5.jpg
Other Photos at Indy Media
http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=11853&group=webcast
Reclaim the Street peaked with
a street dance as marvelous as the sunny weather we’ve had all summer
in Toronto. As the long slow snake march reached Yonge and Dundas in the
heart of the city, spirits rose, young people began to dance in a circle,
and the rest of the crowd streamed around the corner, creating a car-free
zone on the street.
Drummers clicked out their steady
beat of celebration, balloons popped in the air – dancing and chalking
of the street began … going on for a long time after the DJs set up with
a cool portable record machine that blasted dance music through a few large
speakers.
Some top dancers were shaking it
up around that while others were moving with the drummers a brick toss
to the north. I twirled on roller blades on the road out front of
the Hard Rock Café … kind of like being in one of those old roller
halls where you revolve to the music … only the street is much better.
Police on horses made a menacing
silhouette in the background, and though they had made a couple charges
during the march over from Kensington and Denison Park, they backed off
on Yonge and let the party happen. They actually came off better than some
of the Neanderthals from the dull side of the activist community, who a
day earlier were arguing with me, saying the streets are made for cars
and people that unite to reclaim the street are a nuisance.
Those are probably the same guys
that say we shouldn’t breathe the air because the sky was made for plane
pollution.
When you’re at Reclaim the Street,
you get the feeling that streets are for people … you wish thousands more
would come out and bottleneck all of the ugly speedways.
Every party has to start somewhere
… the small 5th Toronto Reclaim the Street was a good one. It should
be a lot bigger … bigger than say, the police department, car engines and
the fat mouths of its critics.
So if you’re sitting around in your
yard or at the Pope Squat, that can get boring … make it better, reclaim
yourself on a green street.
Gary Morton http://CitizensontheWeb.com
Related Links:
http://www.reclaimthestreets.org
http://rts.gn.apc.org/
http://www.reclaimthestreets.net/
--------
Prisoners’ Justice Day
– Aug.10.2002
The 27th Annual PRISONERS' JUSTICE
DAY vigil took place today at Riverdale Park and the Don Jail.
Prisoners’ Justice Day is “… the
day to remind people that the criminal justice system and the psychiatric
system are mutually reinforcing methods that the state uses to control
people…
… August 10th is the day prisoners
have set aside as a day to fast and refuse to work in a show of solidarity
to remember those who have died unnecessarily – victims of murder suicide
and neglect.
From the Banner…Until All
are Free, We are All Imprisoned.
Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/prison.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/prison1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/prison2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/prison3.jpg
info (416) 972-9992
ritten@interlog.com
www.interlog.com/~ritten
-------
Protesters Oppose the War on Iraq
– Aug.5.2002
Demonstrators protested George Bush’s
plan for a war on Iraq today in Toronto. NDP MPP Peter Kormos and others
addressed the crowd.
Photos
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/iraq1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/iraq3.jpg
info Email dropthesanctions@hotmail.com
--------
Road Rage at Car Free Kensington
– July.22.2002
Folks blocking a Kensington Market
Street for a Sunday Car Free celebration got a surprise taste of road rage
when a muscular gorilla pulled in and tried to drive through. It turned
into a case of road rage when he got blocked by the people and jumped out
to storm about threatening certain individuals. A drum corp playing on
the street up nearer to Presto suddenly turned and marched with the rest
of the people to the car … leaving the angry motorist in rising anger as
drums and chants drowned out his yelling. One woman jumped in his car,
he ran around it and tried to pick a fight with another man … and it continued
for some time till he finally gave up and backed out to leave.
Photo
Angry Motorist (in sleeveless T-shirt) threatens
locals
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kenc1.jpg
People gather for Car Free celebration
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kenc2.jpg
* In congested Toronto TTC fares
have doubled, yet there are 10 percent less buses and 20 percent less streetcars.
http://www.carfreeday.ca
Report by Gary Morton
--------
Oppresto on Fire
- Thursday July 18th 2002
Nike is funding Presto, a club in
Kensington Market as part of a marketing campaign for their new line of
Presto sneakers. Teams of Nike-clad youth generate Presto hype on the streets,
and participating artists and musicians sign agreements stating that they
will not display competitors’ logos onstage or in their art.
Countering Nike’s campaign to make
Presto cool is an organizing group in Kensington that is staging counter
concerts on Augusta Ave. This first one had speakers like Ian Thomson of
the Maquila Solidarity Network and Dave Meslin of the Toronto Public Space
Committee.
This first concert filled the street
with local residents as music blared from a third floor balcony. People
mingled and danced and drummed on the asphalt and others in costume carried
the party closer to Presto’s doorway.
Things got a little ugly when folks
began throwing stuff at the Presto building. Then a mob gathered at the
front. I was inside with a friend of mine, a Vietnamese girl, touring Presto,
when the crowd began to chant, Burn Nike Down, Burn Nike Down! Which sort
of cut the tour short as we decided to exit quickly.
Police moved in and took stations
behind the Presto windows. Later I found that it wasn’t only folks on the
left that oppose Presto, as a more right wing type of person fumed about
Nike’s funding of a soup kitchen in the community center across the road.
Report by Gary Morton http://CitizensontheWeb.com
Contact Oppresto
info: Rod Caballero (onecaballero@futurerhetoric.com)
www.futurerhetoric.com
www.maquilasolidarity.org
--------
Molson Indy Protesters Strip to Underwear–
July.4.2002
Instead of the Indy it was called
the WHOLESOME UNDIE! In response to the pollution, noise and grime
of Toronto’s Molson Indy, protesters stripped to their underwear and hit
the Indy track on bikes for a Critical Mass Ride.
As media and race car drivers paced
the track, cyclists ran their own race with Tooker Gomberg as flag man.
Prizes went to the slowest rider and the rider with the sweetest undies.
After the races the protest gang
hit the Indy Street Festival downtown, and called on people to oppose Indy
by showing their undies. Not everyone was amused. Fervent Indy supporters
hollered (nearly all men) a defense of the race from the packed rooftop
patio at Hooters. Police moved in to kick us off the road. And one angry
man shouted, “You’re hippies! I believe in pounding out hippies!”
So will this style of protest catch on? Let me say that I hope so. It would be the perfect sort of thing to stage for the pope’s visit this summer.
Photos by Gary Morton
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy0.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/indy7.jpg
--------
Protest Notes on Toronto NEO-NAZI CONCERT
SHUT THEM DOWN Demo! Sat June 8.2002
… So news came in from Anti-Racist
Action Toronto saying … Neo-nazis are planning a racist rock concert
this weekend in the city area, with bands like Angry Aryans and Blue Eyed
Devils.
Concerts are a chance for racist
youth to network and organize … let’s shut them down.
--------
Digital Photos: Sorry I screwed up most of the
photos – these are okay
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/araa6.jpg
Depressing news it certainly was and that’s probably why it’s four in the morning and I’m completely intoxicated. I remember taking a bus from the 519 Community Centre and heading out to some hotel in Scarborough. This was the rendezvous point for the racists. The idea for them was that they meet there and pass on the info about the concert location … hoping that their brains aren’t as bugged as their phones.
Bands to play were the Angry Aryans, Vinland Warriors and Stonehammer. At least it would’ve been that way if it hadn’t all fizzed out for them. We got off the bus and picketed the hotel. There was this chick with us doing a film feature on her tits, and she had camera people along to film a long four hour sequence of them … in the long grass and on the road and so on … and just where are the Nazis in this story. Guess it has to be that they showed up to run the picket line. One car zooming in on the west entrance, looping in a dead end parking lot and then careering around to take us by surprise and run up to the hotel. People chased those racists into the hotel grounds, where they got protected by cops and undercover cops and horses.
There was this other car full of young racist types that got stopped by the picket line … or was it that they wanted to play games with us? And people were saying and wondering … how do you recognize a racist or a carload of them?
I don’t know but I had a sure feeling that the young woman driving was doing a confrontation game to practice her acting skills in dealing with ARA people. She probably thought she was cool but wasn’t real enough to be more than a clever child.
Our people were saying nasty things and the skinheads inside were probably genuine recipients of the ugly truth … but facts are that at that point and maybe some other ones, too … a sense of deep and rising love overtook me. You got all these people in the world saying Motherfucker this and Motherfucker that … at a meeting later Mumia’s lawyer was saying something about a phantom Motherfucker somewhere that fucked up the case or helped it or whatever. So I got this feeling of love for everyone. And when I say love I mean fuck the bastard Motherfuckers …………… but love them, too.
You know that there’s hate and suspicion everywhere and couldn’t we just win big if we broke free of it all. Do I have the right to believe so big that it beats you up and cripples you? Even racists want to laugh … and could get it right if the hurt somewhere inside didn’t turn them into ugly motherfuckers.
I wish I could take a picture of the reasons why, but I was never much of a photographer. Sorry about all those pictures I fucked up … dear mother.
But so what, eh?
You wouldn’t be here if you believed in me … or in any other motherfucker ... there is no tomorrow and yesterday never happened. It’s a nightmare when the music’s over and you’ve become a neo-Nazi.
We can see our own bad dreams … yet our society is full of kind compensation for the cruel and the racist.
Tracy, I loved you so long ago … still do, and now I love the freedom and innocence no one would allow you to have.
Why is it that when freedom and innocence are gone, only neo Nazis are left?
Gary for CitizensontheWeb.com
Contact
ARA can be reached at <ara@web.net>.
--------
Guerilla Gardening in a Chemtrail Jungle–
May.27.2002
* Notes on a Guerilla Gardening expedition. (Be aware that the names have been changed in this article, to protect the innocent.)
Imagine a city with endless kilometers of concrete ... big roaring trucks, spiteful motorists and nasty locals with lawnmowers and leaf blowers … sending out a blue miasma that rolls and seeps everywhere … choking the homeless in every alley … killing you, too … if you aren’t homeless and half dead already.
Then open your eyes and find yourself in Toronto on a spring day and say … Geeze, I was imagining things like they are now.
It’s the reason people show when
the call comes out from the public space committee for Guerilla Gardening.
Secret message as follows:
Guerilla Gardening - Every Sunday
night
Under the cover of darkness, we
plant seeds and seedlings in all those neglected corners of public space.
Join us as we vandalize the city with nature …
----
Sunny skies and Sunday’s can sometimes end in twilight, chemtrails and tears … I saw some of that as I got around the corner to join the guerilla gardening crew.
This was a special location. People were already gathered in a circle in the grass, with one woman weeping and showing other signs of upset and confusion.
I wondered what it was about as I sat. Briefly I considered panicking, too. Then I decided against it and listened to an argument that went like this. Carla (let’s name her that) a person in the public space committee, was upset over the planning and nature of the Guerilla Gardening expedition. There were a number of grievances … one the day being Sunday and a Buddhist holiday. Another was the use of the word guerilla (some people think that’s too radical).
The key complaint was our apparent callous attitude toward plants. We were going to go out there with spades and water cans to a pre selected rubble-filled vacant lot and plant things … possibly killing lichens on rocks we overturned. Not only that but we planned on gardening without first consulting the community at large as to its opinions on our actions. Worst of all we weren’t going to take care of the delicate green stuff we planted. As a Buddhist, this upset her principles to the point that she took guerilla action against guerilla gardening.
As I listened with the rest of the rather amazed group, I learned that she’d chalked the selected property with messages against our gardening, got the property owner up to threatening to call police … and if more people weren’t showing it was because she’d managed to fool the e-list person into sending out a notice saying the event was cancelled.
As Dan (let’s call him that) tried to calm her down and address her concerns, people in the circle passed a small spade and introduced themselves. Following that we immediately went into discussion and planning. In spite of the obstacles, the guerilla gardeners remained unperturbed.
The gardening on the planned vacant property ended up cancelled and scouts were sent out on bicycles to find another location. Discussion continued till they returned and others arrived. Planting materials arrived and finally we were ready for action.
We marched off in the descending darkness to do a planting around the edge of a parking lot. And yes … in the secret shadows of night, we did plant … and water with cans, constantly refilled at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. We left Toronto a tiny bit greener … and ourselves a tiny bit happier at having done something. During the planting the police did crawl by in a cruiser … but the staring officers were unable to figure out what guerilla gardening was or whether it was illegal. They ended up driving off without questioning us.
I found that people had gone guerilla gardening for various reasons. Some were attracted to anarchist public space action. Others wanted green action. I like anything that has something to do with freedom and an escape from a rotten society. Julie (let’s call her that) simply wants to learn and practice gardening.
The person with the most interesting reason was Kevin (let’s call him that). To him gardening is a spiritual thing. He’s studied religion deeply and can tie your head in knots when he talks about it. Take those thick texts aside and he’s got a few things that release his spiritual side. One is yoga, but the key one is gardening. He feels best when he’s out building nature with gardening groups.
Wouldn’t Guerilla Gardening as a religion be great? Instead of sitting around in dull churches, temples, mosques and synagogues … the masses would go under cover of darkness and plant on Sunday nights. We’d green the world and defeat the forces of evil … and we could howl at the moon and plant even more without the police stopping us … because freedom of religion is a Charter right.
It’s too bad we haven’t done that already, and I recall one critic of Guerilla Gardening saying – Dan has really gone too far with this radical stuff. The public is not going to tolerate people that tear up concrete and plant stuff there!
But are those concrete lovers the public or the forces of Beelzebub?
Perhaps the answer is in what happened later. Our Guerilla Gardening crew went for beer and in the late night as I stepped out of the place, feeling spiritual and staggering … I looked up and saw George Bush driving a big mother of a rig across the sky. He was laying a monster of a chemtrail up there.
Next day I found one of our tiny gardens destroyed, with a big tire track on top of the crushed plants.
So perhaps we have to keep up the fight. George Bush isn’t going to give up easily.
This report for http://CitizensontheWeb.com
by (let’s call me Jerry).
--------
Guerilla Gardening - Every Sunday night
Under the cover of darkness,
we plant seeds and seedlings in all those neglected corners of public space.
Join us as we vandalise the city with nature.
Gather at the streetcar
loop on Bathurst, just north or Queen. Meet at 8 pm, departure at 9 pm.
Bring a shovel, some
seeds, some water and some friends!
http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm
info@publicspace.ca
or Lisa K <aio@linuxmail.org>
--------
Marijuana March – Grass Makes You Green–
May.5.2002
Digital Photos by Gary Morton
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass7.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass8.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass9.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass10.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass11.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass12.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/grass13.jpg
The young turned out by the thousands for Toronto’s yearly marijuana march and celebration. As always smoke was in the air … with music and different approaches to cannabis.
Some people want to push it as a medical miracle, others a recreational drug. Most think smoking is a right … and then you can make food, fuel and clothes from hemp. Not to mention hemp ice cream.
As a senior person there (being over 25 makes you a senior at the grass march) with past dealings with government, my advice is to run a Grass Makes you Green Campaign.
Green being the color you turn before you die … and let me explain … I am supporting legalization … but I take a realistic view of what gets legalized.
The latest reports are that North America is a land of fatsos. People are a mess from enjoying the wonderful things government legalizes. Booze and pills and Big Macs, plus processed crap and GMO junk food.
We’ve likely all got orange interiors and green-lined intestines. In parts of the States 60 percent of the people are certified as obese. So let’s say that grass will make them even fatter and uglier. They’ll get the munchies. The slobs will eat Whoppers till their faces are goo pies. Then they’ll have heart attacks and die … but only after costing Medicare a fortune.
Grass will make them lazy, and in those remaining communities that still have sidewalks and places to go on foot, these lazy people will resort to auto use and produce even more fat and pollution.
Memory loss, too. Let’s say that grass makes you forgetful … these slobs will forget to turn on their air conditioners on hot days and die … thus saving Osama bin Laden a lot of planning and work.
In some ways grass is lacking. It tends to make folks peaceful and that’s not the way to please our warlike government … so let’s say that kids that smoke up want to kill, kill, kill and join the army.
And how about animal cruelty? There’s none of it in grass growing, which is too bad from a political standpoint. I mean look at the Canadian government right now. All sorts of politicians speaking against a new bill to punish animal torturers, on the basis that factory farmers might get sued for cruelty. Wouldn’t it be a shame if animals weren’t on the receiving end of unbelievably gross caging and cruelty in that industry? If processed meat and other garbage production got stopped we wouldn’t be able to fill our bellies with hot dogs, pepperoni and other packaged filth that immediately turns into a swill of cancer causing nitrates and steroids in our intestines.
Yes, it’d be best to say that grass is cured in the blood of tormented animals, and that it goes great with beef pies. Then there’d really be government support for legalization.
So some day maybe the cannabis lobby will get it right. But for now and today they’re saying We’re Here! We’re High! Get Used to It!
Links
http://cannabisclub.ca/
http://cannabisclub.ca/links.html
--------
Peace Action Coalition Marches in Toronto
-
Sat Apr 27 2002
Digital Photos by Gary Morton
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tpac6.jpg
The 44 political action and citizens’
groups composing the Toronto Peace Action Coalition staged an action
for global peace today. Themes of the rally and march were Canadian Troops
Out of Afghanistan; End the Israeli Occupation of Palestine; No U.S. Nuclear
Blackmail; No to U.S. intervention in Columbia; No New War on Iraq; End
the Sanctions; Defend Civil Liberties; Stop the Racist Backlash, Another
World is Possible!
NDP MPP Peter Kormos, Hanadah Loubani
of Palestine House and others addressed the crowd at Queen’s Park. They
called for an end to the violent Israeli occupation and illegal settlement
of the West Bank.
A long march took the demonstrators
around downtown Toronto through U of T to the Israeli Consulate and down
to the US Consulate on University.
The diversity of the groups and
chants was obvious to residents as they watched the march pass. One reason
for such a long public march may have been the refusal of the corporate
media to report in any depth on peace protests and dissent. As rallies
and marches on peace and poverty issues are ignored this spring, organizations
continue to increase street visibility to make up for the lack of media
exposure.
It is not necessary for Canadians
to die in Afghanistan, killed by reckless American bombers in a war that
is not a war, so armchair bullies here can cheer for bloodshed and a Canadian
combat role. Yet TPAC and the Independent Media are the only forces in
society informing the public fully on these issues.
Similar protests were held in Halifax,
Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Contact TPAC
Info: Paul 416-406-8645/978-8741
toanti_war@hotmail.com
(Toronto Peace Action Coalition)
--------
Toronto - Concerned People march for Palestinian
Rights - April.21.2002
Photos by Gary Morton
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales7.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pales8.jpg
Today's Rally- report back- Sun, 21 Apr
2002
From: Max Silverman <joeyjoejoe@rogers.com>
Hello, this is Max Silverman with a report back from today's Muslim-organized rally for peace in the Holy Land.
Today in downtown Toronto close to 10,000 people marched. The largest march we've ever had was 3,000. Today was 10,000.
The leadership of the march was EXCELLENT. Before the march started, they made NUMEROUS announcements that "Any signs with any hate should be taken down". Thus all Zionism=Nazism or Magen David= Swastika signs WERE removed. Most signs spoke of Ending the Occupation, questing for peace, and stopping the bloodshed.
The problem for me started, however, when I pulled out my Jewish Youth Against the Occupation sign and a number of people made strange faces, some whispered things, and some just stared at it. Only about 3 people thanked me. I was then told by Marshalls that it was "For my own safety to take down the sign". This kind of off-put me, but I understand and appreciate the Marshall's efforts. I did take down the sign, and am happy for doing it. At a number of points throughout the rally I heard non-Arabs (white non-Arabs that is) being yelled at because "this isn't their issue, it's an Arab issue". Imagine if they had known I was Jewish?
On the one hand, there were the reactionary, non-progressive elements of the demonstration. There were 5 Hizbollah flags. CONSTANT shouting of "Allah ouh Akhbar" (my apologies for spelling) and a number of references (in Arabic) to God helping the Muslims defeat the Jews again.
On the OTHER hand, I saw some very touching things. I saw families united for peace. One girl, around 7, touched my heart. She was standing with a sign that said simply "Friends" and had an Israeli and Palestinian flags. I went over and thanked her and her mother for coming and being so peace friendly. I explained that I was from Jewish Youth Against the Occupation, and they seemed delighted. I gave the girl some peace-friendly stickers and I was on my way.
I think that definitely there were problems with the demo, mainly that it will go down in the media (I'm guessing) as "Muslims March for Palestine" not "Concerned People march for Palestinian Rights". But I also think that it is AMAZING that nearly 10,000 people marched for Palestinian rights in Toronto, where numbers have NEVER been so high since the Vietnam War (so I'm told).
Anyhow, Cudos to ALL the organizers
--------
Facts on the Occupation and the Palestinian
Cause
(from flyers distributed at the Demonstration.)
Condensed by Gary Morton
Israel and Palestine:
In 1917 the British intended to
create a Jewish State in Palestine. At that time the population was 90
percent Arab and 97.5 percent of the land was owned by Muslims and Christians.
The British created Israel in 1947, partitioning Palestine into two states.
Israel was given 54 percent of historic Palestine and immediately conflict
broke out. 800,000 Palestinians fled their homes.
In 1967 Israel occupied the rest
of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza).
At 5 million, the Palestinians are
the largest and oldest group of refugees in the world. They accuse Israel
of having used war and terror to take their land.
The Cause:
Canadian Palestinians believe the
Israeli occupation is the root of suffering and violence in the holy land.
Israel’s occupation has been declared
illegal under international law. Israeli settlements in the West Bank and
Gaza are illegal under international law.
Israel has become the world’s fourth
most powerful military nation, using a large chunk of 95 billion dollars
in US aid (1949 to 2001) to buy weapons.
The Palestinian State:
In 2,000 a Palestinian State was
offered by Israel at the Camp David Accords. It was to be composed of homeland
areas, similar to those is apartheid South Africa. Israeli settlements
would remain intact and Israel would control the water, maintain Jewish-only
roads and a military presence. Since the offer was weak it was rejected.
As the violence continues, the Israelis use heavy weapons like tanks and F-16 fighter planes against civilians. Though Israel says it is fighting a war on terror, 84 percent of those killed are civilians, including children.
Water is rationed to Palestinians,
and they can’t go on Jewish-only roads. Though all Jews that migrate to
Israel are given automatic citizenship, 5 million Palestinians are denied
the right to return. Discrimination against Palestinians is widespread
and systematic even though they are citizens of Israel proper. They are
denied democratic rights and most basic of legal and human rights.
--------
Palestinians Protest in Toronto–
Sat.March.30.2002
(On Easter Sunday World moves toward WWIII)
* This report by Gary Morton
Palestinian Canadians and supporters held a rally and march at Queen’s Park today. It reflected continued opposition to Israel's military occupation of Palestinian land that has continued since March 30th, 1976. At that time six Palestinian Arab Israelis were killed during protests against massive land confiscations by the Israeli government.
The Toronto march included some Jewish citizens and went to the US and Israeli Consulates. An Israeli flag was burned and one man got charged with breach of the peace.
Photo: Freedom Fighters are not Terrorists
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/pala1.jpg
Similar protests took place world wide, with the theme being the volatile conflict in the Middle East. The UN has expressed grave concern, at both recent suicide bombings and the military attack against Arafat's headquarters. The Security Council has called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities including Ramallah and for both parties to move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire.
In Ramallah on the West Bank, Israeli troops have rounded up hundreds of Palestinian men for questioning. Five Palestinian police officers are thought to have been executed by the troops. A curfew has been imposed and Yasser Arafat remains penned up and under fire in his office.
Like past Israeli actions engineered by Ariel Sharon, this one is supposed to end terrorism and suicide bombings … and like the others it will fail and only cause an increase in the daily terror. As always, reprehensible Israeli military attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians and children will be met by equally reprehensible suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.
Though Sharon is demanding that Arafat end the suicide attacks, Arafat does not have the power to do it. Militant groups like Hezbollah, based outside of the West Bank, are promising vengeance for Israeli raids. They are increasingly taking over in the suicide campaign. Many observers say that Sharon will get the war he deserves if he executes Arafat and puts the militants in control.
Due to Sharon’s policies in the West Bank and his new raid on Syria, the Arab world is now uniting behind the militants. Combined with US President George Bush’s desire for a new war on Iraq at a most inopportune time, total war could break out in the Middle East and explode further into a WW3 situation.
In the West and elsewhere the tendency is to side with either the Palestinian or Israeli regimes and not with peace and the innocent people being killed. The photo above is a good example. It shows a Palestinian protester in Toronto expressing feelings that suicide bombers are really freedom fighters. On the other side of the coin are supporters of Israel that claim that country’s violent military excursions into the West Bank are necessary actions to prevent terrorism. It is a classic example of no justice, no peace. Persecution of the Palestinians must end for peace to be possible, and that can’t happen as long as Sharon controls Israel with the backing of George Bush.
The Palestinian and Israeli leaderships are engineering reprehensible violence and war on civilians. Only a serious peace plan enforced by the West and the UN can begin to wind down both the suicide attacks and Israeli military violence.
A strong attempt for peace is not being made, meaning the violence will spin out of control further and we’ll likely see hatred and terrorist attacks expand to the West, Canada and Toronto.
At today’s rally Palestinians demanded an end to the Israeli occupation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and immediate protection for civilians and refugees from Israeli military and settlers’ violence. They also want an end to settlements and movement toward their complete dismantlement.
Details - email Campaign to End Occupation at:
PRRC_Canada@yahoo.ca,
no_to_occupation@hotmail.com
---------
Free Tibet in 2002 – Rally Notes and Photos
(March.10.2002)
Digital Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tibet1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tibet2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tibet3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/tibet4.jpg
Flurries sailed in icy winds. Gusts tore at the faces, flags and signs of protesters gathering at Queen’s Park. In the shifting sun and cloud it was so cold that Toronto felt like the peaks of Tibet.
Voices, songs and messages for a Free Tibet carried over the grounds, and during the moments of silence the racing snap of the flags carried me with the others to an older Tibet. It was a beautiful land and now it has been ruined by the Chinese invasion.
Tibetans have many reasons to be angry. A purpose when they march and chant in the hundreds to the Chinese embassy in Toronto.
Here are some of the Evils of China’s takeover in Tibet:
Genocide:
- Since China invaded 1.2 million Tibetans have
perished thru torture, starvation and execution.
- China’s Final Solution on resettlement has
Chinese outnumbering Tibetans in Tibet.
- Tibetan youth are ruined thru the sale of cheap
alcohol and cigarettes.
World Bank Resettlement:
- The World Bank is pushing a China Western Poverty
Reduction Project to move Chinese into traditional Tibetan areas.
Denial of Human Rights:
- Forced sterilization of Tibetan women inside
Tibet.
- Political trials fall far short of international
standards.
- Local police control administrative detention
where prisoners are re-educated through forced labour.
- Freedom of religion curtailed.
- Lhasa now has more prisons than monasteries.
Military Invasion:
- 300,000 Chinese troops in Tibet in control
of nuclear missiles planted there.
Extermination of Endangered Animals:
- Trophy hunting in Tibet encouraged by the Chinese
with 81 endangered species on the Tibetan plateau.
Environmental Damage:
- Old growth forests clear-cut.
- Hydro-electric projects have caused fresh water
to dry up.
- Large scale mining has resulted in soil erosion,
pollution.
This year the Canada Tibet Committee has launched a cross-Canada Campaign. For information about Campaign 2002 and how you can help, e-mail C2002@tibet.ca
Links:
http://www.tibet.ca/
http://www.tibet.ca/toronto/
Students for a Free Tibet
http://www.tibet.ca/~sft/index_en.html
* These notes and photos by Gary Morton for http://CitizensontheWeb.com
--------
Notes and Photos on INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S
DAY 2002
Unite for Peace & Global Justice - Sat Mar
2.2002
Organized by Women Working with Immigrant Women
Digital Photos of the 2002 Toronto March:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend1.jpgThe continuous struggle for justice by women is honoured on International Women's Day. It began when German socialist activist Clara Zetkin suggested commemorating the struggle of the textile and garment workers of New York. These workers went on strike in 1908 to demand an end to child labour. They also demanded better wages and working conditions, a shorter work week and the right to vote.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend7.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/womend8.jpg
The Toronto event usually gets little coverage in the big media. Mainly because of corporate media control and its desire to put forward only a few issues as women’s issues. The big picture of discrimination that is addressed by radical feminists is something newspapers and TV can’t cope with.
Marginalization is something Sandra Douglas addressed at the podium. She said the women’s movement is being forced to the margin, so that women can’t fight.
As executive coordinator of NAC and a member of many other groups, Sandra sees the big picture our government wants to hide. And she began by moving the audience in a chant – What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!
Sandra heatedly notes that women are bearing the brunt of the health care crisis. When we talk about homelessness and poverty we are talking about a majority of women that are suffering with their children. Domestic workers and immigrants are exploited, and since Sept 11th 2001, marginalization, inequality and oppression are increasing.
A neo-liberal agenda of trade liberalization, deregulation and privatization is decimating civil liberties. It is a structured agenda of government that is victimizing women, and Sandra says it must be challenged, countered and resisted by the masses. The women’s movement must stand up against oppression. It cannot stand back.
Following Sandra, Asa Ibrahim of Afghan Women took the podium and gave us a view of war and peace the media does not present. She says we must listen to the voices … the despair and fear of Afghan women … for a solution to the conflict. The plight of women – rape, starvation, pain and suffering - does not receive the attention it deserves.
Human rights violations have been tolerated in the past by the International Community. The truth of the bombing is that poor and disabled children suffer the most. Hundreds of thousands have died in the bombing of homes, schools and playgrounds. Many are left crippled and limbless and they suffer further from collapsed education and health systems. Currently Afghans make up the largest refugee community in the world, and it is mostly women and children.
Regeneration of Afghan society requires trained professionals. Aid must foster income generation and self sufficiency, not dependence. Aid that is attuned to the needs of those it is intended to serve.
In the end Asa agrees with the UN view that the world can never be at peace unless people have security in their daily lives.
Sherrie MacDonald followed Asa and told us whose interests our government protects.
She noted that the Harris government is docking the cheques of many welfare recipients, claiming they were overpaid. Yet that same government won’t pay back overpayments it received.
In Toronto the city government is putting major funds into World Catholic Youth Day and its anti Women agenda.
My own comment on IWD is that the rest of the year is getting to be a lot like an International Corporate Men’s Day. We need a better society, so though I’m a man, I always attend IWD.
Things are different this year … much worse in the USA where George Bush has announced that he is spending billions on a social campaign to force women to marry. According to the Bush people the solution to every woman’s problem is a man. A lot of women probably see it the other way and feel that the cause of nearly every problem has been a man.
Bush calls it morality and embraces a right wing theory that sees single women, single moms and women in living poverty as immoral beings in need of correction. It never occurs to these people that it would be immoral for a woman to keep herself and her children locked into a bad relationship with a man.
In the end I think they are trying to marginalize women and perhaps marginalize all intelligent people by expecting us to accept Stone Age morality and discrimination in 2002.
Contact Women Working With Immigrant Women
489 College St. Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 963-4420
email: iwdtoronto@hotmail.com
2001
WOMEN'S DAY website
This report by Gary L. Morton
--------
Notes on the Ontario Health
Coalition Save Medicare Action Plan
By Gary Morton Feb.3.2002
The premiers and the feds
would have us believe we are in a health care crisis. But are we really
running out of money in Ontario when Mike Harris just gave 2.2 billion
dollars in tax cuts to big corporations? Health care spending has actually
shrunk in Ontario despite the aging population, and many people believe
the health care crisis has been manufactured so cutbacks in care can fund
tax cuts. And of course privatization will benefit the large health care
corporations that give generously to politicians.
Ontario’s Health Coalition has decided
to intensify the struggle for full public health care. During a series
of public meetings across the province they have decided to go door to
door with a personal appeal. The campaign will begin at the end of February
with the opening of a number of campaign offices and it will lead to a
national Medicare for Life Day in spring. The day will feature pro Medicare
lawn signs, ribbons, and window signs and so on.
Tied to this are other committees
and actions – women’s initiative, student essay contest, testimonials,
campus campaigns, community forums and tours.
Contact: Ontario Health Coalition
(416) 441 2502 e-mail ohc@sympatico.ca
web http://www.web.net/ohc
A number of health care fact flyers
you can distribute now reveal that the solutions governments are proposing
for Medicare are non answers.
- User Fees: Penny wise and pound foolish. No
money is saved and the rich still see their doctors while the poor and
low income must cut back.
- Public Private Partnerships: Hospitals owned
by the private sector thru these deals are far more costly and deliver
lower quality service. They are a problem not a solution.
- Medical Savings Accounts: User fees for the
sick. Each person gets an allowance to spend on health care. When the allowance
runs out you must pay fees. This system victimizes the sick, rewards the
healthy with rebates and it is costly as it requires an expensive administration
to run it.
--------
Notes on the Canada for Argentina Solidarity
March – Feb.3.2002
Photos:
The Canadian government has been a long time supporter of the International Monetary Fund, and Argentina is the latest of a long list of countries destroyed by its policies. Again we have evidence of our government acting in the worst interests internationally, while the citizens of the nation wish to act for the well being of peoples in other nations.
Contact Canada for Argentina
can4arg@hotmail.com
By Gary Morton
--------
Photos - Bloor West for Peace Protests Canada Sending Combat Troops to Afghanistan - Jan.12,2002
Photos:
During the holiday week at least two homeless deaths occurred in a three day period. These deaths could have been prevented as the TDRC and other groups have lobbied the Mayor's office for years with recommendations for more shelter beds, warming centres, health measures and harm reduction shelters.
Tuberculosis is spreading at the crowded shelters as the city fails to heed health warnings. Though space is available at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital and the Armory the city is again playing a game of rationing shelter, acting on a questionable emergency basis and rules that leave people on the streets in freezing temperatures or in disease-ridden shelters.
After a talk on the deaths at the Coroner’s building, angry protesters marched across downtown to the Princess Margaret Hospital to demand that it be opened for shelter space … and later found that it wasn’t completely empty as a gang of police officers emerged through the doors. Horseback police and a number of cruisers were also present to hinder the protest.
We have a city that doesn’t want to pay for more shelter space yet has plenty of cash for unessential policing and heating an empty building … which seems to be part of a general trend toward a misguided form of security. Billions are being spent to prevent terrorism in a federal security budget, though there haven’t been any terrorist attacks in Canada … and likely won’t be.
Believers in security should perhaps consider that genuine security arises from a person first having a home. Homelessness is really a form of economic terrorism where those that fall through the cracks of the rat race are left to the mercy of the streets, to be victimized by harsh conditions and ignorant social forces that thrive on using or bashing the poor.
Housing really has to be part of social policy and programs. People are homeless and dying now when the economy is fairly strong, and the lack of affordable housing grows each year in so-called prosperous times.
For many people insecurity is growing, and elected officials need to change their outlook. Working people lack stable housing solutions and the unemployed quickly hit the streets. The roots of our fears and suffering aren’t foreign terrorists. Stupid or stupefied city, provincial and national governments are the source.
Contact the TDRC
http://www.tao.ca/~tdrc
steve@v-r.net
cathy.crowe@sympatico.ca
--------
Protesters March to Reclaim Civil Liberties
as the War Rages On –
Dec.15.2001
Photos:
There were a number of speakers that attacked government anti terrorist bills like C36, and the incredible cruelty of the war in Afghanistan … a war in which 3,500 civilians have been directly killed, and the rights of prisoners of war abandoned … rights that took more than 200 years to win.
The protest ended with people illegally taking over University Avenue and chanting as they marched to liberal party headquarters.
Though there haven't been any terrorists attacking in Canada our government has the public surrendering to fear and granting them dictatorial powers to spy on, arrest and imprison people. Immigrants and people with brown skin now find themselves suspects and not citizens. They are isolated from free society.
Protest may fail to reverse the legislation in the short term, but it serves another purpose as organizing continues that includes all social groups in one protest body. So if equality can't be found in the law or in society in Canada, we can find it in protest.
Many people think anti terrorist legislation was unneeded but got passed to please the US. With the questionable election of George Bush we are seeing a US Administration that is indistinguishable from its Intelligence Community. Since Sept 11th and maybe before, the US has in my opinion been run from the George Bush Center for Intelligence, which is the HQ of the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia. The powers in control are President Bush, CIA Director George J. Tenet and representatives from the State Department, Energy Department, Treasury, the Military and FBI. Together they form the official US Intelligence Community.
Note that the Energy Department and Treasury have a key voice. With players like that in control, can it be any surprise that civil liberties are being removed or that US foreign policy is one of oil/economic war wherever it can be made. Corporate bigwigs are also involved, forming an advisory body to the CIA.
Their Achilles' heel is the truth, but not much of that is getting out. Today the fear mongering continues with reports that bin Laden was prepared to bomb London and that an al Qaeda biological, nuclear, and chemical site has been found.
What we really should fear is unstable US allies like Pakistan that do have nuclear weapons … and there should be nervousness over the fact that all evidence in the terrorist attacks and war on terror has been suspect to a degree. Much has been hidden regarding the World Trade Center attack. Recent evidence like the bin Laden confession video also seems odd. A former director of Pakistan's Intelligence says it was probably a bin Laden look-alike in the tape. Convicting people via corporate television media while offering them no opportunity of defense is another new twist we are expected to accept. Osama is probably guilty, but that is no reason for portraying him as a larger than life threat when he has no real military capability he can use to challenge the West.
The plans to bomb London, found in Tora Bora, are for some reason written in clear English and were found in a cave by a journalist after US Special Forces were there. A suspected al Qaeda nuclear site has now appeared right beside US Camp Rhino in Afghanistan.
Facts on the war are also hard to get or verify. What seems certain now is that the largest bombing attack in history has hit Tora Bora. At the end of Ramadan the Afghan soldiers weren't fighting so the US dropped continual blasts to make sure bin Laden forces could neither surrender nor escape.
Now the report is that they have escaped and are traveling through dense mountain forest into Pakistan. To halt that the US is blast burning the entire forested region with incendiary bombs that are illegal under the Geneva Accords.
They think Osama bin Laden may be there, yet the magnitude of the attack does not measure up with a plan to win a small war or to capture him. Clearly they are desperate to kill this Frankenstein monster they created, and to the point that they will bomb and burn anything to try and get him. If all they really want is to shut him up they must be hiding something.
Perhaps to win the war for civil liberties at home we have to get out the truth that this isn't an ordinary war. The supposed enemy is not even attacking. What we are getting is the endless flogging of a dead boogie man as corporatized government and media seek support through inducing fear.
Automobiles crush and kill people daily, yet there isn't a war on them. Cigarettes and pollution probably kill even more. Terrorists aren't killing anyone here so it's time to stop the panic and the rush to a police state. Governments don't deserve respect if they are legislating out of fear, and they deserve contempt if they are using this scare to build their own power and further a corporate global agenda.
Notes by Gary Morton
--------
Protest Begins Against Canada's Severe Anti
Terrorist Legislation – Sat.Dec.8.2001
Photos of Demonstration:
Not so many years ago Toronto police broke up all street gatherings of Italian men in that area of Toronto. Nearly every ethnic community and group has experienced harassment from police, using the powers they already have. Now anti terrorist bills like C36 give police incredible new powers to spy on and jail us all … and though the government says this is for security many people feel that the security of Big Brother is another form of terror. People suddenly jailed under anti-terrorist legislation will be as hard to find as Osama bin Laden, and the record of arrests under current law has been terrible. Nearly all of the hundreds arrested across North America are completely innocent.
Opposition continues tomorrow with a Science for Peace forum and teach-in at the Medical Sciences Building of the University of Toronto from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Rocco Galati will address civil liberties and the anti-terrorism Bill C36.
On Thursday December 13, 7pm an evening of speakers, song & solidarity on the erosion of Human Rights in the name of Anti-Terrorism takes place at OISE, 252 Bloor West.
A rally and march addressing the Attack on Civil Liberties happens next Saturday Dec 15, noon in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square.
Activists have also occupied Justice Minister Anne Mclellan's
office in Edmonton beginning at 8pm on Friday, December 7 and will be there
throughout the weekend or longer. They have a list of demands regarding
"anti-terrorist" legislation (bills c-36, c-35, c-42).
1) nation-wide public education campaigns.
2) a binding national referendum.
3) dissolving CSIS in favour of a kick-ass Mariachi band.
Contact phone number inside the office - (780) 982-5829
For Bloor West For Peace Info contact: Michelle
bw4peace@yahoo.ca
Bill C36 page at http://CitizensontheWeb.com
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/c36.htm
--------
Abdul the Dangerous
– Nov.11.2001
The Toronto Muslim community held
a demo today against the war. This rally of mostly families from mosques
drew an army of cops. There were rafts of motorcycle cops, red unmarked
vans, paddy wagons, all sorts of uniforms and undercover men and the media
was nearly all police media.
Camera guys at the front of the
rally were cops with 10-thousand-dollar zoom attachments. While I took
photos of the banners with my 99-dollar digital camera, one cop gave a
cameraman instructions. "That's Abdul there putting on the blue jacket.
Make sure you get solid footage of him."
Abdul appeared to be one of the
organizers of the rally. I took his photo but deleted it. Now I wonder
if he knows he's under constant police surveillance.
So much for the claim that political
organizers won't be harassed under anti terrorism legislation. They are
already under heavy surveillance and the bill hasn't even gone through
yet.
Here are a couple photos of the
rally
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/afghan1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/afghan2.jpg
---------
Human Need Not Corporate Greed
(Toronto Nov 9th Protest Against the World Trade
Organization)
Photos
A couple photos of the march
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/wtoto1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/wtoto2.jpg
WTO Kicking the World Around
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/wtoto3.jpg
A couple of the radical cheerleaders
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/wtoto4.jpg
The World Trade Organization (WTO)
picked
Doha, Qatar as this year's meeting site to avoid public participation,
scrutiny and protest … but they didn't avoid protest as that happened against
the WTO/IMF/World Bank world wide.
In Toronto protesters from labour,
social justice groups and the general public met at City Hall and marched
to Citibank for a rally. The rally included a choir, speakers, radical
cheerleaders and a ball game. A ball with a map of the world on it was
kicked over the Mobilization for Global Justice banner and around by protesters
in business suits, representing the way the WTO kicks the people of the
world around with policies of corporate greed.
Corporate greed was also denounced
at City Hall where the mayor and his backers are trying to sneak through
a plan to privatize the city's water supply. Plans to privatize other city
services are also in the works in smoky back rooms.
As the WTO seeks a new round, it
is attempting to include many items that are not trade and that would kill
local democracy and the sovereignty of nation states. Public services for
example, would be handed over to the private sector, making it impossible
for citizens to guarantee themselves basic necessities like clean water.
In the absence of genuine economic growth, the private sector has been
cannibalizing public services to grow. Though it is called privatization,
examples like the recent privatization of an Ontario nuclear reactor show
that the public is left to pay off all debt and losses, while large corporations
operate the services and skim off any profits.
Next up is the International Monetary Fund/World
Bank/G20 protest in Ottawa Nov 16th to 19th 2001
The Mobilization for Global Justice has opened
with Four key demands.
1. Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the
media and the public.
2. Cancel all impoverished country debt to the
World Bank and IMF, using the institutions' own resources.
3. End all World Bank and IMF policies that hinder
people's access to food, clean water, shelter, health care, education,
and right to organize. (Such "structural adjustment" policies include user
fees, privatization, and economic austerity programs.)
4. Stop all World Bank support for socially and
environmentally destructive projects such as oil, gas, and mining activities,
and all support for projects such as dams that include forced relocation
of people.
This report by Gary Morton
---------
The Other Side of Policing-
Oct.28.2001
(Toronto Alternative to the International Police
Convention)
By Gary Morton
Photos:
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc1.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc2.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc3.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc4.jpg
The Saturday march was exiting Grange Park when I arrived. Catching the tail end I noticed people frowning from cars as it crossed Queen St. Obviously most locals view policing critics and protesters as misfits, rebels without a cause, feminist crazies or friends of criminals.
That view is incorrect. The groups behind the weekend actions had a detailed agenda that is impossible to cover in a short article. It adds up to a mini convention of public groups on policing, running counter to the Police Chiefs' meeting.
A Friday night public forum featured a few speakers. Most memorable was Pierre George's complete story of the shooting of his brother Dudley by police. Not only did police raid the park and shoot Dudley, they also worked to delay his medical treatment. Pierre recounts driving many kilometers on a flat tire, trying to get to the hospital, only to be grabbed and charged by police before he got Dudley into emergency. Dudley had been alive on the drive to the hospital, but delays due to police may have led to his death.
Events continued Saturday morning at Grange Park and the march headed out for the Police Convention. Though we never got anywhere near Front Street. A wall of police met us at King Street so we turned and gathered in the park behind the CBC building. At that location a line of police stood behind a ribbon, and beyond them were more riot cops and teams of horseback officers. Plainclothes officers looked on as the rally began.
The show of police force was in place for the 11,000 chiefs, sheriffs and other police personnel at Skydome and the Metro Convention Centre. Also receiving protection were Smith and Wesson, Glock, and Humane Restraint, which had complete weapons shows for the police.
I had to delay this article due to a fever virus that came on suddenly. In memory the rally took place under a chilly sky of early winter with protesters often taking amazed glances at the police army on the other side of the ribbon. The vision of police still seems like another hallucination of the fever … the windy towers and parks of that segment of downtown holding nothing but roaming columns of police and horses, like social cleansing had finally been completed and no one was left.
We were on the free side and there were some fine speeches at the rally. Don Weitz and the Dope Poets Society did poetry. We heard from police critics and those close to victims of police shootings. A flyer had photos of ten shooting victims, and speakers mentioned how hard it is to fight police on shootings. One example is the Committee for Justice for Otto Vass. They have only 200 dollars while the police association is spending money in wads of hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid the officers that beat Otto to death.
Anna Willats' speech on policing issues should be made to the Chiefs. It won't be because people seen as critics aren't wanted. The authorities want to define the limits of the debate, keeping certain ideas out of the discussion.
The debate police want to entertain is of mechanisms for delivering a law and order agenda on behalf of the state and corporate interests. Usually it is between community policing (police on foot and cycles) and the standard cops making calls in fast cruisers. High tech is also a facet with police now wanting to militarize with helicopters, super surveillance and weapons.
If a message got across to me it is that most police critics favour a different kind of policing. Cops in fast cruisers often don't arrive when women beaten in their homes make 911 calls … and when they do they still tend to treat women as the property of men. Community policing is seen by many as harassment. Police on foot go out from mini stations and ticket and jail everyone they see as undesirable … meaning they tend to go after the poor, youth and people of color.
Activists see policing as something that should rise out of a general social justice agenda or a world that works for all. Give us affordable housing, childcare, commitment to addressing racism and homophobia … the list goes on … and there'll be very little crime. Nowadays we must also say give us peace and not war.
Anna Willats had a list of the police workshops, and read them out. Social justice was not on the police agenda. It was more a law and order agenda. - criminalization as opposed to liberation. No workshops on violence against women, racism and so on. But stuff like Fighting Terrorism at the Olympics, Every Police Chief has Role in the Fight Against Terror, Street of Madness, policing the mentally ill, etc.
In response the coalition followed up the rally with its own workshops at the University of Toronto, addressing the issues the police want to ignore.
The new focus on terrorism is also a concern, with many people opposing Bill C-36, which grants the police incredible powers. Things like breaking into your house without telling you or placing you in arbitrary detention. Though the RCMP chief says the new laws won't be used against protesters and activists, most people think they will. There has already been a movement in the media to label Canadian groups as terrorists. A number of media outlets have called the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty/Ontario Common Front terrorists and a special meeting was held between the mayor and police officials to find ways of breaking up the group. You can be sure that they didn't suggest eliminating poverty as a way of getting rid of OCAP.
In the National Post the Canadian Columbian Association, which held a recent peace mission to Columbia, has been labeled a terrorist group. Most unlucky are Animal Activists as a Toronto Star columnist has given all animal defenders a blanket label of terrorist, regardless of the group.
I wish visions of a police state were the fever and not the reality. But the police powers are in place and the tendency is going to be to expand their use. Especially when the media is pushing new panic buttons every day.
For poetry from the protest see
http://www.justusleaguerecords.com
The Rally, Forum and Workshops included the
following groups:
Anti-Racism Media Education Group / Black Action
Defence Committee / Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty / Coalition
for a Public Inquiry Into Ipperwash / Committee for Justice for Otto Vass
/ Committee to Stop Targeted Policing / CUPE (Canadian Union of Public
Employees) local 1281 / CUPE local 3903 / Digital Praxis / Free Mumia
Now Coalition / International Socialists / June 13 Committee / Maggies
/ Metro Network for Social Justice / New Socialist Group / Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty / OPIRG-Toronto / People Against Coercive Treatment / Toronto
Action for Social Change / Toronto Friends of MOVE / Toronto Mobilization
for Global Justice / Toronto Rebuilding the Left / Toronto and York Region
Labour Council
For info call 416-656-2232
e-mail oct27protest@hotmail.com
--------
Joe Clark Dogged by Animal Rights Protesters
- Oct.23.2001
By Gary Morton
Photo
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/jdogs.jpg
Federal Tory leader Joe Clark
got embarrassed by protesters and their dogs as he attended a fundraising
dinner tonight in Toronto.
Folks from the International Fund
for Animal Welfare, Toronto Coalition For Bill C-15 and Freedom for Animals
picketed at City Hall, across from the hotel and drew more media attention
than Clark.
Clark has been attacking Liberal
Bill C-15, which would increase penalties for animal abuse. Some Tories
have been listening to corporate farming and other interests that want
exemptions put in the bill. Should that happen the bill would become a
bill of cruelty rights, enshrining rights for researchers, pharmaceutical
companies, factory farms and so forth to be as cruel as they wanted to
animals.
Though protesters did not confront
Clark, I went across the street with a friend and entered the reception
at the Grand Ballroom. We walked thru a thick crowd of mostly white males
in expensive suits. These were nearly all famous Tories … and being a usual
Tory opponent the scene had a nightmarish feeling for me. At one point
Bill Davis and Hal Jackman were passing, Tony Clement and some Harris Tories
were to the left, John Nunziata and friends to the right and so on.
Finally Clark appeared, coming down
the escalator. I stepped out in front of the cameras, gave him a flyer
and asked him to support animal rights. He said he'd take a look at it
then plunged into the waiting crowd.
contact Rebecca Aldworth at:
raldworth@ifaw.org
http://www.dontbecruel.ca
http://www.anticruelty.ca
--------
Terror vs. Terror and the Peace March in Toronto
– Sat.Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton
War and bigotry are the first casualties of truth. Canada's police are worried about that and stationed a paddy wagon near the speakers' podium at Saturday's Queen's Park peace rally.
Horseback and other officers ringed the park, and there's little doubt that this military presence was put in place to discourage people from attending and speaking out. It also worked to make the people of peace appear to be criminals.
In spite of that a large crowd showed and Sid Ryan delivered a fiery speech about terrorism, his background in Ireland and peace. It seemed to shrink the paddy wagon behind him to the size of a toy. The demonstration also defied authority, becoming a long march to liberal headquarters and then down to the US Consulate.
Photos:
Avy Go Speaks at Liberal Headquarters
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct20a.jpg
Three March Photos
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct20b.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct20c.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct20d.jpg
At a recent forum Paul Hellyer said, "You can't be at peace with people that hate you." Paul's insight on war seems to be the insight that our international leaders don't have. It is only the public that gets this message and takes it to the streets. Recently 150,000 people marched in Italy, 100,000 protested in Calcutta and 50,000 demonstrated in London and Berlin.
This week the war on terrorism has taken on an unreal appearance, being a disaster movie, adventure movie and comedy movie all at the same time. The media is featuring reports of US secret or super commandos beginning their raids into Afghanistan to establish a foothold for a high casualty ground war. Most of these casualties are going to be innocent Afghani citizens that die of starvation and lack of medicine. 7.5 million civilians may die.
The comedy is at the APEC Summit where leaders dressed in Chinese shirts are to issue a statement that will tell us what the war on terrorism is about. Let's hope it isn't going to be about world wide persecution of the Falun Gong or other harmless meditation societies the Chinese don't like … or a North American security perimeter that is really a new form of racist free trade agreement.
Continuing the comedy is Senator John McCain. Appearing on David Letterman he said, "You know what Osama bin Laden's gonna be this Halloween? Dead."
In Shanghai Prime Minister Jean Chretien has joined Bush in thinking that we have already won the war. He is calling for the United Nations to set up a new government in Afghanistan once the Taliban is crushed.
In New York David Bowie, Elton John, Jagger and others held a mammoth concert for the Trade Center victims and rescue effort. They sang America and Heroes, and I think we were heroes before we decided to roar off to Afghanistan with bombs and troops. We look tarnished now. Jagger's an old man. He goes to one of those bars where you pay to have five young gals sit with you. Elton looks like an old lady and if David Bowie isn't outa sight he should be.
Still it was a nice gesture by some old men.
Lost in the media war speak, our leaders can't get past the idea that they have to make war on the "cowards" that want to blow themselves and others to pieces. In order to destroy these cowards we must become "heroes" that punish ourselves while bombing innocent refugees.
Endless tears are be shed for those that have died in the USA, yet our hearts must remain cold as ice when considering those who suffer and die as we attempt to retaliate against the ENEMY.
Here are some clever techniques the mass media has come up with for destroying these terrorists.
- Removing many of our freedoms, racial equality
and the right to privacy in the West.
- Urging Vladimir Putin to enlist the Russian
mafia to rub out Bin Laden.
- Using hit men to kill off terrorists and foreign
leaders we don't like.
- Punishing and silencing those who raise questions
about US foreign policy.
- Using coercive power in the Middle East.
- Using tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan.
- Having news anchors wear American flags on
their lapels.
- Eliminating the right to protest.
- Pulling advertising revenue from any media
that criticizes Bush or the War.
- Launching a full scale ground war in Afghanistan.
- Shutting down web sites.
- Attacking nearly every nation that might hold
terrorists.
- Masking a racist North American Free Trade
deal under the guise of a Security Perimeter.
- Scaring people to death, yet punishing severely
those that put in false terrorism reports.
And what are Afghani civilians saying?
This is what a farmer said after
the massacre in Khorum, a bombed Afghani village where people got buried
alive and mutilated by bombs.
* Web video at http://www.channel4.com/news/home/20011014/4afg.ram
"We don't have bread to eat, we don't have anything, and they pour bombs on our heads,'' said Fazel Ahmed, 37, a farmer from Farah. "What sins have we committed? Tell me, what did we do to deserve to have hell pouring down on us? All this for a couple of terrorists. Go and catch them in their caves instead of killing the poorest of the poor,'' he added, breaking into tears.
And will this killing prevent
terrorism?
Probably not. Here is one
reason why.
Bio-terrorism: edited clip
from a US source.
"In my worst nightmares I can imagine
a scenario where terrorists willingly infected with germs go traveling,
spitting, coughing, hacking their way from airport to airport. One or two
infected individuals could inoculate 200 or more people via the air system
in a 3 or 4 hour flight and those 200 or more people would deplane at their
stops and carry the germs into 200 different places. They could also do
the same thing with hand held mechanical dispensers or they could simply
dip their hands in some lethal lotion and walk around the plane touching
things."
Even if you take terrorists out of the equation there is still a bio-terror problem. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently said that the human race will have to move people to space stations to survive. That is because eventually germs will escape from sloppy corporate or government labs and kill us all.
Probably the key reason why war won't stop terrorism is that it is a social and political problem. In spite of people that want to prohibit talk of foreign policy, it is what we must discuss to end terrorism.
Analogy of a Palestinian Suicide Bomber.
In the West Bank the Israelis have settlements and the Palestinians have their areas. It is all connected by roads but only Israelis have the right to use the roads. Palestinians live in poverty, are constantly bombed and moved from their houses. The cycle of violence is growing to war again due to a policy of assassinating suspected enemies. There is a Palestinian suicide attack followed by an Israeli hit or bombing followed by a suicide attack in an endless circle of violence.
The root of the problem is that the Palestinians live in a state of apartheid. Young Palestinian men feel they have nothing to live for other than continued poverty and oppression, so they sign on for death missions. It has become institutionalized in the fact that after you die your family will get some social benefits and care.
There is oppression across the world and terrorists have risen or will rise from it. War conducted by the West will only magnify this problem, it will not end it.
So another root of the problem is Western attitude and foreign policy. For decades we've believed in some rights, civil liberties and economic well being for people here, while denying it to people in the poorer nations. It's a total denial of equality, and a belief that it's okay for others to suffer, starve and die so long as our corporations and consumer interests prosper.
Now things have changed and the world is shared space. We will not prosper unless we eliminate our attitudes and policies of oppression. We can either change or we will die through terrorism and war.
War is not a system of justice in
our high tech nuclear/germ/genetically modified world. It will bring final
justice for us all. International mechanisms are needed to deal with terrorists
… combined with patience and an understanding that the innocent masses
shouldn't be punished for the actions of a few.
--------
Media Democracy (Died) Day–
Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton
A gang of Toronto alternative media people protested at outlets of media conglomerates Friday, and later held a panel discussion, film night and social at Bar Code.
A bigger crowd attended the social.
Protest locations were at the Toronto Sun, CTV, Rogers and the CRTC.
Jan Pachul and friends of Star Ray Community TV protested at the federal
regulatory body (CRTC). The regulator has been trying to shut Star Ray
down for some time, labeling Pachul a pirate and doing other things to
humiliate him.
* Details at http://www.srtv.on.ca/
I protested with people from Catch da Flava - http://www.catchdaflava.com/ at the Toronto Sun. The Sun is the little fascist paper that grew to become under the control of media giant Quebecor. Slick security guards in suits were out front when we got there and they watched us closely. Police were also present.
The Sun location on King West is best described as dull and dead end … more so in salty autumn light. A terrible spot for a protest. The Catch da Flava people clowned around with cameras and a microphone. Standing by the entrance with a racist/fascist media sign I heard reports come over the guard's radio. The Sun had someone stationed in an upper window saying things like," One of them is on the corner with a video camera so watch him."
The Sun box outside had an Anthrax/Terrorism headline and a big photo of a guy in a bio suit holding a dish of pills. Helen Choi chalked a message on the sidewalk with an arrow to it, and that caused a security guard to come out later carrying a bucket of water to wash it off.
Large scale layoffs are taking place. They've hit the Sun, the Star and CTV at a time when they are making a killing on war profits. Workers out for a smoke mentioned a union trying to get in at the Sun.
Interesting is the fact that the Sun and the Catch da Flava people are located in that same area. The Sun is big corporate media while da Flava folks are young people from the rough Regent Park area, putting out a community paper and web site.
The local Sun's latest editorial is one calling for politicians and police to crack down on protest action by a group called OCAP or the Ontario Common Front. Other corporate papers and TV are about the same in their view on protesters. Even the liberal Star ran a couple columns last week to associate animal activists with terrorists. My observation is that the Sun likes OCAP. They gave them all kinds of news coverage and now a Sunday editorial. But what did media democracy people get for protesting peacefully at the Sun? The answer is no coverage at all. We should have kicked out a few windows.
In January I attended a radical writing day put on by the New Socialists. I'm not schooled and technically shouldn't be able to write anything. I remember staring open mouthed as Naomi Klein told us not to give up on the corporate media. Things have sure changed since then.
At the panel discussion Jan Pachul said Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own a press. In Canada five media giants own the press. Though the air waves belong to the public, our government apportions them out to the giants as a sort of license to print money. Obviously there will be no freedom of the press or media democracy until that changes.
As far as democracy goes, big media outfits aren't any example of that. The very structure of newspapers with the dictatorial publishers and editors is in opposition to democracy.
Panel discussions included Barrie Zwicker, Barry Duncan, Judy MacDonald, Tara Atluri, Adonis Huggins and Paul Boin. It was either Zwicker or Duncan that congratulated us for being the adversarial culture … which I didn't particularly like. I saw it as a way of relegating us to the fringe.
Talking heads and media giants that repeat the same pro state ideas have become a fringe that holds power. Perhaps the heart and soul of media exists in alternatives now that the head of the body has been lobotomized.
Being fringe of the fringe, I've never cared much for panel discussions, talks or presentations. Though I attend forums and so forth I've never agreed with that structure. It's not democratic, but reinforces our societal model of celebrities and the chosen ones lording over the little people.
So I ended up leaving and going to free space outside a theatre where some people from the free university of Toronto gather in a circle on Friday nights to discuss bridging the gap between the sexes. In a circle everyone is equal. Some nutty ideas were exchanged. One guy took off his shirt and said the gap between the sexes might be bridged if we all did the same.
You can guess whether we did it or not
… and that's what democracy looks like to me.
* Media Democracy Day:
http://www.mediademocracyday.org
--------
Autumn Fur Protests-
Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton
Fur Photos:
- I'm
Not a Coat
- Fur
is Murder
- Stop
the Bloody Fur Trade
Autumn colors are spinning in the gusts, inspiring Freedom for Animals and friends as they continue with a series of protests against the Halloween ghouls of the fur industry. The second demo happened today at the Bay and a small group showed to leaflet, picket, do handouts, chalk the sidewalk and talk to the public via the horn. There is some variety here as a few people regularly show and get complemented by others sprinkling in from the animal rights movement. Some people couldn't make it today due to animal emergencies, others from Hamilton did show. Downtown Toronto, believe it or not, is without humane society animal services … due to corrupt assholes on city council and the humane society board of directors. Council should immediately fund the animal rescues that are working outside of the humane society.
The Bay's historical background is as a trapping company. 3.5 million fur-bearing animals are killed each year by trappers in the US. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on cruel factory fur farms.
This is a case where corporations and consumer society are saying that an end product justifies any means of creating it – no matter how cruel. Trapping wasn't bad enough for them so they had to go a step further with factory fur torture farms where animals are deprived and killed by gassing, suffocation or electrocution thru the anus. If we can't shut them down altogether, we can at least continue to get the message out and stigmatize the use of fur. More people educated on the issue means more people seeing that fur coat as something wretched … and you don't want to look wretched do you?
Contact: Candice, email lucy518@hotmail.com
see http://www.furisdead.com/
Protests continue EVERY OTHER SATURDAY at the
southwest corner of the Bay's Queen & Yonge store from noon-1:30 p.m.
(Sat., November 3, Sat., November 17, Sat., December 1)
--------
Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media–Sat.Oct.13.2001
By Gary Morton
Photos of demo:
Sallmah Valiani of the coalition noted that the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has agreed to President Bush's demand to screen messages from Osama Bin Laden and the Middle East. She says the CBC should probably screen the messages of Bush and some of the leaders. In agreement with her is the Belgian foreign minister, as he was in the news today attacking the war-mongering speeches of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Surprises came when a thug showed up to pick a fight with anti war folks, and later when uniformed and horseback police blocked the march, leading to a standoff that went on for several minutes. A second thug showed briefly when the march got to the CBC. He loudly denounced the speakers as Terrorists. Police, present in large numbers, simply watch such occurrences, apparently hoping violence will break out.
There is some question as to whether the first troublemaker was genuine. While taking photos I heard two CTV reporters talking about creating a news story. Shortly after that a loud and profane thug arrived, circling to the back of the demo to scare some Islamic people also arriving. Cameras rushed in to do a feature on him.
The media has turned the coverage of the War on Terrorism into a new form of racist terror that several speakers denounced … and if the media doesn't directly send in racist thugs, they do a good job of creating them through their biased and paranoid coverage.
Anthrax is the current scare and as Sallmah noted in her talk, it is big corporations that are really behind the germ scare. She didn't mention it but outfits like Monsanto and Novartis that aid the war machine have also sponsored out of control genetic engineering in university, hospital and private labs. Jeremy Rifkin has a post out on the net describing how anyone with ten thousand dollars can build their own bio-terror lab. Groups like GeneAction – see www.geneaction.org – have protested dangerous genetic engineering for a long time and the government has paid little attention. Now politicians are exploiting fear to pass legislation (some of it racist) that removes civil liberties.
Private companies are also exploiting fear. Today I got a post called Protect yourself against CRIME and TERRORISM! By buying things like Hidden Cameras, Pepper Spray, Blowguns, Crossbows, Handcuffs, Throwing Stars, Stun Guns and Tasers.
So has the War on Terrorism succeeded?
We know George Bush fears new TERRORIST Attacks. His fears and news reports on them happened to occur when a bill to give police expanded powers was before the senate.
Of course there are legitimate reasons to fear new attacks. Bush's war coalition has succeeded in killing the Taliban leaders' ten-year-old son and grandfather. Following those deaths a little bird informed Bush that there may be retaliation. Sort of like a mafia thing where we kill their children and they strike back.
Overall the bombing of Afghanistan is killing and crippling innocent civilians by the hundreds. Today a residential area was hit in Kabul. There are riots in Pakistan and across the Middle East people are rising up with thoughts of revolution and vengeance against the USA. Our brilliant foreign policy of war has created an entire army of new enemies that could resort to terror.
Instead of winning Afghanistan, we might lose Pakistan (a nuclear power) to rioting and unrest. Even Tony Blair admits that support for the war is waning in the Islamic and Arab nations and elsewhere.
So to put it bluntly, the war on terrorism is a total failure. We've created more terror, destabilized the Middle East, murdered innocent people, stirred up hatred and racism and removed civil liberties.
It's time to talk about peaceful solutions while there is some peace left.
Next demo Sat Oct.20 I pm North Side of Queen's
Park
info: CAWR_Toronto@yahoo.ca
--------
Demonstration at the US Consulate in Toronto
as Cruise Missiles hit Kabul – Oct.7.2001
Report by Gary Morton
The USA and Britain attacked Afghanistan with cruise missiles today, and Prime Minister Chretien appeared on TV to tell Canadians to keep living normal lives. Those words were ignored as a crowd gathered to protest at the US Consulate shortly after the bombing began. This time protesters face media, police and governments that do not want to tolerate dissent or allow the freedom that used to belong to the West.
Though the missile attacks on Afghanistan are billed as surgical strikes against terrorist bases, the attacks are massive and against cities like Kabul.
Osama Bin Laden appeared via tape on TV in the Middle East before the bombs flew. He confirmed that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were to punish the USA for its foreign policy. Osama noted that people in the West ignore mass killing in other parts of the world … like the 500,000 children that died due to sanctions against Iraq, and the bombing of Lebanon and so forth. Calling on his people to rise up he promised that there will be no peace in the West until there is peace in Palestine.
After Osama Bin Laden's taped message some media pundits were openly worried about news coming out by satellite TV in the Middle East. It can't be slanted or censored much by Western media. This could mean that viewers in the West will be presented with the truth, which is something our governments and media don't want.
Canada is to play a support role in a growing invasion that is certain to fail in the long run. And the television news said there is no dissent in Canadian parliament.
If not there should be because this is not a battle on the flat sands of Iraq. George Bush has gone to the mountain, and it may well erupt and fall on all of us. There will be no winners in this one.
Photos of demo:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct701.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct702.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/oct703.jpg
--------
Genetically Modified Food Issue a Step Up
on the Political Agenda – Oct.8.2001
By Gary Morton
The Council of Canadians held a national day of action in support of the mandatory labeling of GM foods on Saturday. Organizers Brent Patterson and Kim Phillips plus members and supporters passed out leaflets outside Loblaws' superstore at Bathurst/St. Clair Toronto.
Public support for GM food labeling is strong and some politicians are now catching onto that. Federal NDP environment critic Joe Comartin is out in support of the campaign for labeling and liberal leadership candidate Allan Rock is now a strong supporter. Liberal MP Charles Caccia has a private member's bill before Parliament to amend the Food and Drug Act to require mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically altered materials.
In Europe you must label if there is anything genetically modified in the food. Rules come into effect in January in Japan and in December in Australia and New Zealand.
Canada has been on the wrong track, using tax dollars in support of Genetic Engineering. Ottawa spent $2.8 million last spring on a door-to-door brochure extolling the virtues of GM foods. Industry Canada is a member of BioteCanada, bestowing corporate welfare on huge companies like Monsanto. An American company, Monsanto just sucked a million dollars from the government to aid in the development of GE wheat that Canadian farmers and industry do not want.
Monsanto, Novartis and other large genetic engineering firms are also coming under scrutiny in the wake of the Sept.11th terrorist attack in the United States. They have made the technology for dangerous techniques that can alter plant and animal species too readily available.
Photo from past demonstration
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/c287b.jpg
--------
The Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds - Notes and
Links on AFGHANISTAN… Oct.4.2001
War on Terror becomes Terror
Notes By Gary Morton
The Ontario Council for International Cooperation and the Afghan Women's Organization held a special public forum on Afghanistan this evening. It addressed the unfolding humanitarian crisis involving starvation, persecution of women and terrorism in one of the poorest countries in the world.
Speakers included human rights activist Sally Armstrong, Tommi Laulajainen of Doctors Without Borders and Dr. Amir Hassanpour of the University of Toronto.
They noted that mountainous Afghanistan is composed of four tribes that have been at war for centuries. Modern wars have blasted the nation 250 years into the past. All infrastructure and organizations of society have been leveled.
Not so long ago Afghanistan was progressing and the monarchy began working on rights for women through schooling and education. There was a decade of democracy that deteriorated when universities and educational institutions grew into organs of the left and right. The left staged a Soviet backed coup that did not have public support. A long war for liberation followed with the US backing the freedom fighters. President Jimmy Carter financed the exporting of an extreme Saudi form of Islam into Pakistan where religious schools were created that produced hundreds of thousands of holy warriors. They beat the Soviets and went on to become the oppressive Taliban regime controlling Afghanistan, and the backbone of a world wide network of fanatical terrorists.
Before September 11th only women's groups opposed the Taliban and their campaign of persecution against women. World leaders and the United Nations would not listen.
Currently Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban are not supported by the Afghan population, which is composed mostly of civilians that have been reduced to refugee status. These citizens are in great danger as the war continues between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. The threat of war from West worsens the situation.
The population inside Afghanistan desperately needs aid, but relief workers can't get in due to the political climate that has developed after the Sept.11.2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The bulk of the terrorists identified are of Saudi or other backgrounds and not Afghanis, but in spite of that Afghanistan has been targeted. This is mainly due to the presence of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.
Any war from the West will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. The people of Afghanistan need a common vision and a plan for peace and society. War from the West will not create that.
Our Western media seems to want war and its reaction to the terrorism and the crisis in Afghanistan is now under scrutiny. During the first ten days following the bombing, media launched a War of the Worlds type propaganda campaign. Though it is possible to criticize the Taliban and US foreign policy, the media bought into the idea that anyone speaking a line different from that of George Bush is with the enemy. Rather than seek peace and solutions to terrorism, our media seeks to terrorize us and support every new mechanism recommended for the removal of our civil liberties and right to association and free speech in the West.
* Here is the Afghan Women's Organization's
Recommended Steps to solve the crisis in Afghanistan
- That the United States and its allies take
every precaution to protect the lives of innocent Afghan civilians, who
have already suffered under past regimes, and most recently under the Taliban.
- That the United States and its allies use their
advanced technology to bring to justice only to those directly responsible
for the attacks.
- That the Canadian government maintain its humanitarian
policies by continuing to provide asylum to refugees resettled to Canada,
particularly as crises in countries such as Afghanistan worsen.
- That Pakistan and Iran open their doors to
Afghan refugees, who are kept hostage by the Taliban, so they find a safe
haven in those countries.
- That the alliance between Western and Islamic
countries against terrorism be strengthened to ensure that the implementation
of the human rights of the women and children of Afghanistan is a top priority
in any intervention in relation to Afghanistan.
For information contact Adeena Niazi at
the Afghan Women's Organization aniazi@afghanwomen.org.
See http://www.yorku.ca/iwrp/afghan/
Also Read
Special Message from the Feminist Majority on
the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and Afghan Women
http://www.yorku.ca/iwrp/afghan/news-fem.htm
-----------------------
The New Canadian Peace Movement Grows
– Sept.29.2001
Toronto report by Gary Morton
Though it got called on short notice today's Walk for Peace
& Global Solidarity became the largest demonstration of the year. People
from numerous social justice and anti-racism groups chose to show.
Sunshine and warmth filled the day. At the beginning I
tried to find a spot where I could photograph the full length of the march
as it circled to head off for the US Consulate. That wasn't possible as
it was too big. While trying to get that photo I discovered that the event
could have been even bigger. People passing through the park complained
that they hadn't seen any announcement of it in the media.
Digital Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/sept2901.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/sept2902.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/sept2903.jpg
Part of a pan-Canadian Day of Action Against War And Racism that included rallies in Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal, the demo didn't get much media coverage. With their War on Terrorism banners, the mainstream press has left the concept of peace out of the equation and out of the news. It might even be said that a reason for marches is that so many people are sick of the lies, bullshit and propaganda filling the daily news.
This new peace movement represents an educated culture existing in parallel with the culture of brainwashed warmongers that the pollsters tap. Authorities are treating this movement as illegitimate and began by attempting to provoke a confrontation. The rally was to go down Yonge Street, where it would have been visible to a larger crowd. Police prohibited that and openly threatened to jail the organizers and make mass arrests if demonstrators did not follow a route chosen by them. We had the numbers to disobey police, but organizers were left with little choice other than to avoid an ugly scene that would grant a propaganda opportunity to Toronto's mainstream War Media.
Terrorism is linked to suffering caused by the policies
of globalization and arms manufacturing, and though the Mobilization for
Global Justice and students made up a large portion of the crowd, none
of the other groups thought that peace was a simple matter of avoiding
a war in Afghanistan. There are definite links to the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank. Hostility and Terror are not products solely produced
by a variety of Islamic extremists. The West is breeding suffering, unrest
and terrorism through the implementation of foreign policy designed to
allow the rape of the planet by
global corporations. And this means that any War on Terrorism has to
begin at home.
At Queen's Park Hajera Rostam said that Afghani-Canadians are being targeted, and her talk reflected the concerns of most of the people. One picket sign said Taliban do not equal Afghanistan. Which is true as most Afghanis don't support the oppressive Taliban. They are impoverished victims caught between the Taliban and the angry West.
This war is not against visible nations, but against terrorism. At the American Consulate, Tariq Ali attacked the use of that concept. "You do not fight terror with terror," Ali said. "…The rule of the West is to punish the crimes of our enemies but reward the crimes of our friends." Tariq is also concerned about the way these events are being used to attack our civil liberties and to introduce more restrictions for people of the "wrong colour".
The march ended at the City Hall Peace Garden. It proved that we have a large culture of peace in Toronto … and that the challenge is to get the message to the rest of society. The larger media conglomerates are a formidable foe working to magnify the terror so it can be used by corporate and government forces to remove civil liberties and grow the same oppressive global agenda that created oppression and terrorism in the first place.
Protest Info:
Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice
http://www.mob4glob.ca
--------
Peace on a Cloudy Afternoon -
Sept.22.2001
By Gary Morton
Three events that
point to a lack of peace took place in Toronto today. One was titled
A Call for Non-Violence! The others were Car Free Day and an anti-Fur Demonstration
at the Bay.
A Call for Non Violence
I feel as powerless as you do
when it comes to changing the world. In spite of that I went down to Queen's
Park to see what was up on the peace front.
Lauren Carter and Roberto Verdecchia
organized this demo for the Humanist Movement Centre of Cultures … and
people gathered wearing clothing with a white touch to symbolize a commitment
to non violence. Signs in the crowd conveyed various peace messages.
Photo: Child with sign – Imagine a Universal
Human Nature
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/cloudy1.jpg
Mike Kelly had a table up with a
peace petition that will be received by 13 members of parliament when it
is done. The web site with the online petition is at
www.crosscanadapeaceproject.ca
The march went to the local HQ of
the governing Liberal Party at Yonge and St. Mary. We gathered in a circle
and Lauren Carter spoke against US President George Bush's recent rallying
cry. Bush says that we are either with his coalition or with the terrorists.
Lauren feels the real message should be that we are either Against Violence
or for Violence.
Photo: Lauren Carter addresses crowd at
Liberal HQ
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/cloudy2.jpg
Carolyn Basset of the Canadian Peace Alliance was up next and she criticized President Bush for his use of manipulative language. She especially dislikes his talk of sustained violence and good and evil. Carolyn wants our leaders to talk in terms of justice … and take that to mean genuine justice and not the current government messages of vigilante justice that will allow NATO leaders to blow people up without evidence or public consultation.
After Carolyn, Shabir Ally arrived
and became the light of the cloudy day. Taking the horn he informed us
that it is nonsensical to go to war today and that people who go to war
over religion are idiots. We should really be working for human welfare.
Shabir follows Islam in a
progressive way and sees terrorists and warmongers as practicing a regressive
form of the religion. They are 1400 years behind the times.
He notes three religious wrongs.
- It is wrong to commit suicide.
- It is wrong to attack civilians.
- It is wrong to provoke war.
Photo: Shabir Ally addresses crowd
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/cloudy3.jpg
Shabir did make his point and after
he spoke I looked up into the cloudy afternoon and saw our government as
the slow moving gloom. Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Defence Minister Art
Eggleton, the Liberals and other parties think we have the capacity to
fight a war … and that it's okay to massacre innocent civilians and call
it an attack on terrorism.
In this war our enemies are mostly
dictators and our new allies mostly dictators, too. I really have to wonder
if it is us against them or us becoming them? What has happened to our
former status as a peacekeeping nation? Nearly all of our military personnel
signed up on the basis that we are for peace.
A relief agency notes that 35,365
children died of starvation in poor countries on September 11, 2001. There
were no special TV programs, newspaper articles, messages from the president,
solidarity acts, minutes of silence or declarations of war.
In the West we care only when well-to-do
people die … and if war begins we'll have a lot more caring to do because
many more of us will be dead.
While terrorism continues to grow
and live.
Peace is a necessity like food.
Without it kindness starves and we all slowly die … and when we're dead
there will be no special TV programs for anyone.
info, contact: Lauren Carter 416.203.3573
or Roberto Verdecchia 416.535.2094
War with Animals
We’re tossing coins these days
over who to go to war with … and perhaps we tossed a coin the day we
decided to go to war with animals.
Today Anti-Fur protesters began
a series of Fall protests against The Hudson Bay Company. Suzanne, Susan,
Dave, Tom, Candice and Candace and others petitioned and held signs with
various graphics and anti-Fur messages.
Photo - Stop the Bloody Fur Trade
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/cloudy4.jpg
I suppose another message would be
that if we could be at peace with animals we might be at peace with ourselves.
The use of animal fur is not necessary in an age of cheap fake fur, yet
in spite of that we still have cruel trapping going on and factory fur
farming that is grotesquely inhumane.
If we bombed fur bearing animals
we'd likely kill far fewer of them and their lives would be better than
on a factory farm. Our war on animals is meaner than our wars on civilians.
I guess we aren't that peace loving
when it comes to nature.
Contact "Freedom
for Animals" <free_animals@hotmail.com>
Next demo at the southwest corner of the Bay's
Queen & Yonge store from noon-1:30 p.m. Sat., October 20
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
http://www.banfur.com/farming/general%20facts.html
http://www.furisdead.com/
Car Free Kick-Off
Premature death is often related
and if we aren't stopping at MacDonalds to kill ourselves with corporate
sponsorship, factory-farmed meat and mad cow disease, then we're off racing
in cars to accidentally run over helpless animals and other people.
Cars maim and kill a couple hundred
thousand people a year and we haven't declared war on them yet. In Toronto
they are choking us and freezing up the streets.
To oppose the damage St. George
from Bloor to College became a car-free zone today. This was a kickoff
to a larger event next year. It included road games, street performances,
a fashion show, grass-covered pavement and so forth.
My camera ran out of battery power
so my photos of the event came out as black squares … and I think it is
relevant as black squares are probably all you see after being run down
or choked by smog.
Ask any cyclist. With cars we have
declared war on ourselves … people drive around Toronto like road warriors
forcing cyclists and pedestrians aside … but not many people care and most
are simply willing to accept the collateral damage of this undeclared war.
Most of the wreckage is in the form
of bodies, and that isn't peace.
Info: http://www.carfreeday.ca
Ending
So it's a cloudy day in
early autumn. We don't have to worry because we'll rationalize our
junk lifestyle and violence again tomorrow. We'll fill up on air waves
thick with media meanness and do the same rotten things again.
The leaves will change to brown
and like them our souls will go crisp and dead. Ready to burn in the fires
of a war we started by mistake.
Of course we'll hope to be lucky
and see it all on TV. The collateral damage will be other poor saps and
the refugees that die will be bad guys.
News is that you don't have to care
when you don't have to care.
--------
Threats of Violence Disrupt Toronto Vigil for
Mourning – Sept.16.2001
By Gary Morton
Photos:
- Child
with Flowers at US Consulate in Toronto
-
Banner - We Mourn for all Victims of War and Terrorism
A vigil for mourning at the US
Consulate went a bit sour at the outset when police forced mourners
across the road. Officers seized Laurel Smith of Toronto Action for Social
Change and dragged her over to a traffic island on University Avenue.
There have been people mourning
at the consulate all weekend, placing flowers, candles and teddy bears
on the grass and steps. Today some of them had little tolerance for people
arriving with peace banners. They tried to pick fights and generally expressed
their support for war not peace. These folks were of the patriotic sort
that have been brainwashed by the mainstream media. One man was dressed
in an American Flag.
People like Laurel came to mourn
all victims of terrorism and most believe that working for peace, economic
justice and education can reduce terrorism.
Bombing can create more victims
of terror, and the child in the photo listed above was probably another
victim … as it did not help her to see that adults wanted to fight rather
than to mourn.
-----------
Democracy Shut Down at US Consulate Sept.
16
From: TASC <tasc@pop.web.ca>
It was supposed to be a day of mourning and
a call for reconciliation and peace, but Toronto police would have none
of it this afternoon in front of the United States consulate. A variety
of Quakers, Unitarians, Anglicans, and members of groups such as Homes
Not Bombs and the International Socialists came to mourn as well, and to
call for nonviolence, peace, and social justice.
RCMP
had informed the group they could stand in the first lane of University
Avenue, but while demonstrators awaited the 1 o'clock officialstart time,
the police told a group of some 10-12 people holding incendiary signs such
as "War is not the Way: Nonviolence Now" and "There is no way to peace,
peace is the way" that they had to move across the street. While most cops
gave no reason, some stated that our presence was "not a good mix" with
those laying flowers at the consulate in remembrance of the victims of
the Tuesday terror attacks in the U.S.
Police,
frustrated that citizens were exercising their democratic rights to stand
silently on the sidewalk and plead for peace while their
government whips up the fervour for war, violently
ripped the Homes not Bombs banner out of the hands of two individuals and
took it across the street. Then, Laurel Smith, a member of Homes not Bombs
who was holding a sign reading "Nonviolence Now," was bumped from behind
by one police officer, so she sat down. When told to move, Laurel asked
for one valid reason, which was not forthcoming. She was then roughly manhandled
and dragged across the four lanes of traffic and thrown onto the concrete
island dividing University Avenue. She is now nursing a large bruise on
her right arm.
After
everyone gathered on the island and set up banners and began leafletting,
police again moved to clear the area, stating we should stand way across
the street near the University Ave. courthouse. Again, a small group refused
to move, as there was clearly no legal or safety reason to do so. We wondered
whether we would be moved if we instead had held signs calling for the
bombing of Afghanis.
Again,
officers refused to provide a legitimate reason, and pushed people around.
Smith, again holding her sign, had it violently ripped from her hands,
at which point she again sat down.
Ironically,
the police appeared to be acting, in their usual heavy handed fashion,
against the wishes of many who had simply shown up at the consulate to
express condolences, many of whom supported our plea for no escalation
of the violence, no retaliatory strikes.
It
is clear that the war atmosphere being whipped up by so-called political
"leaders" is being reflected in a local level on the streets of our cities,
as we saw in today's police actions and as we continue to see in the escalating
racist attacks being carried out against Muslims, Hindus, anyone in this
country who seems "suspect," just weeks after Canada proclaimed before
the world that it was not a racist nation.
--------
Eight Arrested at Clear the Air Demonstration–
Aug.20.2001
report by Gary Morton
* Three reports – reports on jail conditions from Tooker Gomberg and TASC are below this one.
Eight people were arrested at today's anti-smog demonstration at Ontario Power Generation in Toronto. They will appear for bail at 9 am at College Park, Room 501 on Tuesday August 21. Arrestees held are Greg Bonser, Mary Hutchinson, Angela Bischoff, Shane Sarsfield, Kirsten Romaine, Sue Breeze and Matthew Behrens. They are charged with mischief and Angela Bischoff got taken into custody for singing an anti smog song through a horn.
Digital Photos:
Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air1.jpg
Demo's Air Filter Fashion Show
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air5.jpg
Kiddie Venusians
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air6.jpg
from the Lorax
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air7.jpg
Arrests
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air8.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air9.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/air10.jpg
The Issue:
Smog is the issue that sends ordinary
people out to risk arrest these days. Air pollution costs Ontario 10 billion
dollars a year in health care costs and kills 2,000 Ontarians each year.
OPG's Nanticoke station is Canada's largest source of air pollution and
though we the public are the shareholders, the corporate chieftains and
Harris supporters on its board plan to increase coal fired pollution rather
than reduce it.
Deadly metals pumped into the air
by Nanticoke harm children and it will get worse with more coal power.
Conversion to natural gas would solve the problem, but since OPG is producing
this dirty power mostly for fast sale to the USA, they intend to continue
sacrificing citizens on the fires of profit.
This is also a poverty issue as
the poor are least able to escape to air conditioned environments and cottages
where the air is a little better.
The Demonstration:
Ontarians for the Public Good (the
REAL OPG), an initiative of Hamilton Action for Social Change and Toronto
Action for Social Change sponsored the demonstration and people from across
Southern Ontario attended. It was organized as a Festival of Earth-friendly
Energy Alternatives and was to include Venusians, an Air Filter Fashion
Show and die-ins representing the lethal effects of smog.
Problems arose when police showed
early in the morning with uniforms and undercover men at the church housing
people from out of town. Police followed the march to OPG and took an interest
in three large red sawhorse/barricades carried to serve as a backdrop for
the fashion show and to protect protesters from traffic during a die-in
on the road. It might be said that the red sawhorses caused the police
to see red and become determined that we wouldn't get them out onto University
Ave.
The demo went quite well with a
couple hundred people showing. Jara West did the announcements and things
continued smoothly through the fashion show, songs and a presentation by
the Lorax. It was only when the die-in was about to happen that things
turned sour. There had been little planning as to how we would take the
road and police approached us, saying we would be arrested if we tried
to take the sawhorses into traffic.
Police moved in hard when we headed
off the sidewalk and a period of chaos and arrests followed. Greg Bonser
moved out with the front end of his barricade and was jumped by police.
He is charged with mischief though his only intent was to protect protesters
doing a die in on the road. Mathew Behrens also got grabbed as he went
out onto the road. I had one of the sawhorse barricades myself and was
nearly at the road when I turned and noticed that the person assisting
me on the other end had been pushed away and an undercover cop had taken
his place. I believe his name is Steve Irwin. He maliciously ripped the
legs off one side of the sawhorse as I pulled hard to get it away. I did
get free and got it out on the road, minus legs on one side. Another barricade
got out intact and because police rushed in to whisk away the barricades,
they missed arresting us.
Our group of peaceful protesters
was no match for police, and they showed strange preferences as to who
they arrested on the road. Dave from GeneACTION carried a barricade and
was dragged off the road twice. Yet he says police for some reason did
not want to arrest him. This worked the other way around for Angela Bischoff
as she was grabbed for singing on the road and taken away in a paddy wagon.
Even though there were arrests,
the Venusian thing went ahead on the sidewalk, and later we marched down
to 52 Division for a support rally. We expected those arrested to be released
by mid afternoon, then found that the police want to be nasty and are holding
people for bail.
Call them the pro smog police. But
it isn't over yet. Some of those arrested knew they would be arrested and
plan to pursue the issue in the courts, doing things like subpoenaing officials
from the board at OPG to testify.
Contacts:
Ontarians for the Public Good (416) 651-5800
tasc@web.ca
Hamilton: (905) 627-2696
Guelph: (519) 836-2409
Windsor: (519) 258-1555
Kitchener-Waterloo: (519) 886-2759
--------
Come Support the Clear the Air Eight, Including
Ange! -
Aug.20
Clear the Air Protest results in Eight Arrests
including Angela Bischoff
************************************************
by Tooker Gomberg
Gomberg and Greenspiration <tooker@web.ca>
The police are being heavy-handed
and keeping the seven peaceful protestors they arrested at this morning's
Clear the Air protest in custody until tomorrow morning.
Come show your support when they
appear in court:Tues. Aug. 21, 9 a.m. College Park (Yonge and College)
Courtroom 501
We were hundreds of people fed up
with Ontario's poisonous air. We paraded to the headquarters of Canada's
#1 toxic polluter and environment destroyer, OPG (Ontario Power Generation),
at the corner of College St. and University Ave. There we rallied, sang
songs, and watched a performance of the Lorax.
We distributed leaflets that began
with: "Imagine a burn on your skin. If it's mild, the burning area will
turn red. More severe and it'll swell and even start oozing. Every time
you breathe in smoggy air, that's what you're doing to the tissue in your
lungs" (from the Hamilton Spectator).
There was a Gas Mask Fashion Show,
showing how one could be stylish and lung-smart at the same time.
The plan was to take over the street,
and have a die-in to mark the fact that 1900 people die annually from air
pollution in Ontario, with OPG and cars being the main sources of the toxic
air. We wanted to put pressure on OPG and our governments, to move quickly
in the transition towards energy efficiency, renewable energy like wind
and solar power, and investing in good urban design, bicycle transportation,
and good public transit.
The police never let us take over
the street. Their sacred duty seems to be to keep the car traffic moving,
and people who tried to go on the road were arrested. Seven people were
arrested and charged with mischief. Angela Bischoff was singing songs into
a megaphone when she was arrested.
Come down to the courthouse if you
can and show support for our right to breathe clean air, and to protest.
Also come show support for those being held arbitrarily overnight.
tooker@web.ca
---------------------
* here's another report on today's Clear the Air
Protest:
Toronto Action for Social Change
Making the world a better place for all isn't
without its risks.
At this time 7 people are being
held at 52 Division, arrested for their role in a peaceful protest outside
the Ontario Power Generation offices at College and University.
This protest was an effort
to draw attention to the role of Ontario Power Generation as a major source
of pollution. In a summer with high smog levels, it was a timely
protest.
Street theatre, including
a gas mask fashion show and a reading of an adaptation of The Lorax, made
this event more of a festival than a traditional demonstration. For
passers-by and the media, however, the message was clear---Air Pollution
is Killing Us.
An effort to hold a die-in
on University Avenue, in the spirit of Reclaim the Streets, was quickly
broken up by police. Some reports indicate that individuals were
arrested while trying to cross University Avenue on a green light.
Currently in custody at 52
Division are: Greg Bonsar, Mary Hutchinson, Angela Bischoff, Shane Sarsfield,
Kirsten Romaine, Sue Breeze, Matthew Behrens
Complaints of minor harassment
of those in custody have been reported. Glasses have been taken from a
person prone to migraines. The cells are cold and people are being
denied a blanket. The one vegetarian in custody has been told he'll
not be able to get a vegetarian meal when the others are fed.
Surprisingly, they have been
told they will be held overnight. A bail hearing is scheduled for
tomorrow at College Park Court Courtroom 501 at 9:00 a.m.
At the time of writing, the
charges the people are facing is mischief.
If possible, please come down
to the courtroom tomorrow and watch the justice system grind its way through
the bail hearings.
for more info Toronto Action for Social Change,
P.O. Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West,Toronto, Ontario M6C 1C0
416-651-5800
tasc@web.ca
--------
Hamilton - CAGED Pickets the Wonderful World of Animals – Aug.12.2001
* Editor's note – The author criticizes http://news4hamilton.com/ and their coverage of the circus protest, but he seems unaware that the news4 article is standard corporate media journalism. They use a formula to provide fair coverage that gives a voice to both sides on an issue. Generally it works to give a big voice to corporate or powerful interests and a small meow to the forces of animal justice.
Fairness can't be created through
a formula and attempts at it kill genuine insight and in-depth coverage.
Human journalists in their present evolutionary state could do a bit better,
but not much better. That's why this page is edited by a cat.
PJ the Cat
--------
The Big Lie Under the Big Top
Report by Gary Morton for PJ the Cat's Animal Rights Page:
Is the Wonderful World of Animals really all that wonderful? Well, let's begin with some Photos and Signs:
Shari says - Teach Your Children
a Lesson in Kindness. Don't take them to the Circus,
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus1.jpg
because Elaine knows that – These Animals
are Dying for you to Visit.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus2.jpg
Don't Support Cruelty
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus3.jpg
or Dan will ask you to Explain the Whips and
Chains to your Kids
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus4.jpg
while a mysterious woman in dark glasses tips
you to the fact that Animals Hate the Circus.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus5.jpg
Yes - Don't be accused of Enjoying the Abuse
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus6.jpg
inflicted upon Performing Prisoners
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus7.jpg
as part of an Education in Cruelty.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hcircus8.jpg
--------
We arrived at the Mountain Arena to find the protest
underway, and had barely said hello when news4hamilton.com/ arrived.
Later I checked their coverage on the Internet and in the public interest
I include their text report at the bottom of this post.
Though the News4 written report paints a kindly picture of animal trainers, their video report mentions that they weren't allowed into the circus with a camera.
A couple of the younger women from Caged did get in with a camera and eventually got kicked out. They noted that some animals were held on chains that were far too short, and perhaps they would have discovered more had they been in there longer.
I feel that way because animal circuses are not drawing huge crowds and animal rights protesters are reducing the crowds even more. On such a low budget, trainers could not possibly have the money to properly care for the animals. Most profits would in fact come from squeezing money out of their care costs.
The Garden Brothers, owners of Wonderful World of Animals, have been hostile to protesters recently. At an initial protest in Welland they sent a belligerent drunk out to harass two young female protesters. It really does give the impression that they have something to hide.
Picketers did much better at the Mountain Arena. Elaine handed out free videos that detail the animal rights side of the story and they were gone quickly. We also managed to flyer many of the cars going in and out and got into the parking lot to ticket all of the vehicles with more leaflets.
The leafleting worked so well one little boy emerged shouting, "They only killed four animals today!" A woman exiting said she understood how the training was cruel after watching the dancing bears perform while reading our flyer.
It appears that public attitudes can be changed if enough dedicated people make an effort. Animal circuses can probably be put out of business completely if actions continue against them.
In Hamilton I didn't encounter many of the hostile sorts of people that feel animal rights activists are nuts. Instead I got that argument back in Toronto at a poverty protest event. Some of the guys at it came forward with the argument that animal activists are not progressive like they are … so I replied that animal rights groups from Toronto up to Niagara have a majority of women members while many of the usual Toronto activist groups have a surplus of shouting, fist-waving men … that do very little other than that.
Some males even try to humiliate other men over their involvement in animal rights stuff. Dan - in the photo listed above - had to endure a verbal assault from circus goons that called him a sissy and fairy and so on as they attacked his masculinity.
People that think animal activists aren't progressive should
take a close look at some of the creepy people that run circuses and marine
worlds. Circus trainers think it's progressive to beat, shock, stab and
tie animals for trick training. They have no problem making animals travel
in rail cars that can be smoggy, freezing or boiling hot … and they don't
care when chained animals are forced to stand in their own excrement or
beat their heads against their cages.
Gary Morton
-------
Here is a copy of the text from the Hamilton
news. They also have video coverage at the site.
http://news4hamilton.com/
email info@news4hamilton.com
Circus Under Attack - 6:00 p.m. August
12, 2001.
By Leah Borkwood
Kids lined up to see the lions,
tigers and bears while the circus was in town. But CAGED picketers lined
the streets in protest of the exploitation of circus animals.
"We're protesting the cruel life
of these animals," says action co-ordinator Elaine Marion.
"These animals have been defeated
by brutal training and are left in small cages that aren't suitable for
their size or take into consideration the pack behaviour they have."
But workers from the Wonderful World
of Animals say animals at this circus are treated extraordinary well. One
of the bear trainers, Derrick Rosire has worked with animals all his life
and treats them like his personal pets. He says an animal the size of his
bear would not be so friendly if it had been mistreated.
"These animals are part of our lives
not just a hobby," says Rosire. "I've spent thousands of hours with them."
Part of the agreement with the city
was for the SPCA to check in on the animals daily and it appears that everything
is fine. In these types of situations the SPCA looks at living conditions
and the availability of food, water and shade.
"The conditions were fine," says
animal control officer Joseph Lamantia. "All had fresh water and shade
with feeding schedules and regular cleaning of the cages."
The "Wonderful World of Animals"
spent four days in Hamilton at the Mountain Arena on Hester Street and
moves on Sunday to the next city.
--------
Contact CAGED animal rights group
info 905 526 8188
Email "E.M. Marion" <macinnem@muss.cis.mcmaster.ca>
==========
Email the Wonderful World of Animals (Garden Brothers)
Richard W. Garden
rgarden@gardenbrothers.com
Ian M. Garden Jr.
igarden@gardenbrothers.com
--------
Climate Change, and Bonn.
Which deal will set the world on fire? Tues.Aug.7.2001
* Notes on the public report from
Peter Tabuns of Greenpeace, activist Tooker Gomberg, and Christine Elwell
of the Sierra Club.
Climate change initiated by manmade air pollution has become a burning issue here in Toronto during the first heat emergency in history.
The world community signed an accord on greenhouse gases in Bonn, and Peter, Christine and Tooker covered some pros and cons of it.
On the negative side countries can sell emissions credits if they have reduced their emissions output. Due to economic decline, Russia did decrease its emissions and is selling credits. This means that some countries can fulfill their Kyoto target by purchasing credits from Russia, without any genuine reduction.
On the positive side, countries like Canada can no longer gain credits by selling nuclear reactors to Third World nations. In the past nuclear was pushed as clean energy, when the facts are that the costs of health care and cleanup run into the billions when nuclear disasters like Chernobyl occur.
Also positive is 400 million dollars going to developing countries and the fact that the Bush league USA has been isolated politically.
Returning to the sour side of things, we have a weak deal that involves a total commitment of 1.8 percent of emissions, with overall greenhouse pollution still going up over 5 percent. Tooker mentioned that we need reductions to the tune of 60 to 80 percent over the next 25 years to bring the Earth back in climate balance. Otherwise the planet, like an overblown stock market will make a correction. That correction will be to destroy us with searing heat and violent weather.
There are some penalties for those that fail to live up to agreement targets. A country that fails to reduce emissions has to make up for it. For each ton they are short during the target period, they must do a 1.3 ton reduction in the 2nd period. And they can't take part in emissions trading if they are not in compliance.
Air travel, the fastest growing source of emissions, is not covered. Credits for natural gas production are considered unrealistic and Carbon Sinks included in the agreement are a big question mark. Scientific study is needed to see how much greenhouse gas is really sucked up in carbon sinks. It is also possible that old growth forest could be cut down in favour of plantations that swallow more gas, and the government could start favouring Genetically Modified (GMO) grains that suck up more carbon dioxide.
Governments and non governmental organizations are saying Kyoto is a good start. Yet others paint a different picture. Some scientists believe that global warming will bankrupt the world economy within fifty years. Yet the pollution scenario continues because Big-Fossil corporations and oil companies are doing well. They are profiting as they expand operations to the Arctic and many other sensitive environments.
According to Tooker, Kyoto is like using a cup of water to put out a huge fire. He favours targeting large corporations like ESSO with protest and boycotts, as they are instrumental in getting governments to embrace bad climate policies. Some others at the meeting felt that attitudes have to change – people have to stop worshipping cars and air conditioners, etc.
Currently our tax system subsidizes
the old fossil fuels and fossil corporations, but not sustainable green
energy.
Though the public, NGOs and protest
groups want change, no one really addresses the democracy issue. Corporations
have too much power in the system … and that is because all candidates
get funded by corporations. When the race gets underway for a new liberal
leader each candidate will need a million or two in corporate donations.
Meaning they are bought before they even get started. And that's only the
federal level. At the provincial level 400 corporate bigwigs own the Harris
government and control policy.
The Kyoto solution will almost certainly be no solution. We are going to burn in climate change hell. Though there is a tiny rainbow because by then our brains will be rotted with GMO junk foods and we likely won't be able feel pain or anything else.
If we do suddenly clean up our act
on greenhouse gases that still won't save us. With the government heavily
funding genetic engineering technologies like gene therapy and genetically
modified foods we haven't much of a chance. Corporations and scientists
are playing Russian roulette with the human species, plant and animal species
and the entire balance of nature. Their slow moving bullet is coming down
the chamber to exterminate us.
As a species we aren't intelligent
enough to make it, so if you want death with dignity think about biting
your own bullet before another twenty-five years go by.
Perhaps it's better to die out anyway – they had planned to keep us alive forever through selling us animal organ transplants and other hideous medical technology. With the vile human race headed into extinction some animal species and marine species will probably live on.
By Gary Morton
--------
They Belong in the Wild–
Aug.5.2001
Report on the Niagara Action for Animals MarineLand
Protest
By Gary Morton
The August sun blazes in a blue
sky above MarineLand … sometimes heat and the sight of tourist crowds
can leave animal lovers at a loss for words.
Do you know that MarineLand distributes
glossy brochures with a cover showing a pretty woman kissing an orca? Perhaps
you do, and I bet you also know that our hearts can be broken by people
who lie about their love.
That has happened at MarineLand.
The orcas and dolphins are dying and have been dying all along … and it's
not just their hearts, their spirits have also been broken by the lies,
cruel training and mistreatment.
Believe me, it's true. But if you
don't trust me then read the signs and maybe you'll believe others.
Signs and Photos: * Clicking photo links will open the photo in a separate browser window.
Five Dead Whales in Two Years
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland1.jpg
March 2000 – Orca Malik Dead
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland2.jpg
June 2nd 2001 – Baby Dolphin Died
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland3.jpg
Natalie's Sign says - Ask MarineLand about
their Warehouse?
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland4.jpg
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland4a.jpg
And Here is the Answer
IN MEMORIAM
Junior was a male Icelandic orca
whale who languished in a tiny tank inside a "warehouse" at Marineland
for more than four years, cut off from outside air, sunlight and normal
companionship. Junior died at Marineland in 1994.
According to whale expert Erich
Hoyt, other orcas who have died there include Kandu II, Kandy, No name
and No name.
Duke, Skipper, Bubbles, Schooner,
Sonny, Flipper and Doobie, seven of the original ten dolphins in 1989,
are presumed dead. There are no public records indicating their sale or
transfer, and Marineland refused recent requests to provide information
on their fate.
Info from Zoocheck
http://www.zoocheck.com/programs/marine/mland/mem4.shtml
Rob thinks Wild Animals Belong in the Wild
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland5.jpg
and Jennifer agrees
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland6.jpg
Captivity Does kill
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland7.jpg
So Think about Putting Animals in a Tank
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland8.jpg
Because you will be Killing the Whales
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland9.jpg
And in Captivity they lead a Depressing and
Lonely life
Often they Die Due to Neglect
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland10.jpg
So in the end we know that there
isn’t any love at MarineLand. You wouldn't want to go there. It's best
to stay away.
Stay away and believe in freedom,
because whales believe in it, too.
--------
Climate Change Caravan Hits Toronto and ESSO– July.30.2001
Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/caravan1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/caravan2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/caravan3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/caravan4.jpg
The Climate Change Caravan is
a group of youth cycling across Canada to educate Canadians on how
they can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Their bus rolled into Queen's
Park this Monday and some local residents joined them for a free cycle
and flyer handout through the downtown streets.
About 60 cyclists remained when
the ride ended with a blockade of a downtown ESSO station. ESSO, the world's
largest oil company is a target as it opposes international efforts to
reduce greenhouse gases and global warming. A key supporter of George Bush,
ESSO got the USA out of Kyoto and does nothing to promote any form of green
energy. ESSO, Bush and other greenhouse polluters are terrorists turning
the planet into a gas oven that will harm or kill nearly everyone that
lives in the future.
Protesters cheered as many motorists
voluntarily drove away from ESSO. Passersby and cars stopped at the lights
were leafleted as the blockade went on for an hour and a half.
Public support was strong, the only
nasty incidents being some harassment from police that showed in force
and a thug that broke a video camera belonging to independent media.
ESSO remained a scene of chaos as
protesters acted on their own, (leafleting, drumming, chanting, holding
signs and banners, talking to motorists, blockading). It took police a
long time and a few threats of arrests before cars were again able to get
into ESSO.
Climate Change Caravan http://www.thebet.ca
call Kelly McGee at 416-960-9202
Stop Esso - http://www.stopesso.com
---------
Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice Protests
G8 Violence –July.22.2001
Photos of Toronto Demo
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gdemo1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gdemo2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gdemo3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gdemo4.jpg
A few hundred mob4glob people
hit the Italian Consulate with a demonstration against the G8 violence
in Genoa.
Graphic photos and reports on the
police shooting of 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani have outraged and sickened
many people. Carlo was shot in the head and backed over by a police jeep,
and just left there as riot cops and tear gas smoked by him.
Toronto protesters drummed and marched
in a circle. The street was chalked and the death was represented by a
protester playing dead on the road. Chants and drumming became furious
– people shouting - From Dudley George to G8, People will Retaliate and
This is What Democracy Looks Like, This is what Hypocrisy Looks Like.
A march ended at the US consulate,
Steve Kerr and others spoke and entertainment came from radical cheerleaders.
Latest reports from Genoa indicate
increasing police violence, including many beatings and a raid on independent
media as police move to destroy media records of the events.
Genoa Summit News
(young man murdered by police, hundreds injured) - July.22.2001
- Click
here to read a full news digest with photos
--------
Council of Canadians protests GMO Foods –July.22.2000
The Council of Canadians protested
nationwide at Loblaws superstores today in support of Bill C-287.
This federal bill introduced by MP Charles Caccia would bring about the
labeling of Genetically Engineered foods.
GE plants have entered the food
supply without evidence of human and environmental Safety. Mandatory
labeling would allow us to avoid eating GE foods if we so choose.
93 percent of Canadians want mandatory labeling, as do a large number of
citizens groups.
GE crops are also disliked by groups
opposing control of world agriculture by Transnational Corporations. Such
control has led to starvation as other crops and small farmers are squeezed
out by corporations seizing land and financial powers.
Loblaws and members of the Canadian
Council of Grocery Distributors oppose mandatory labeling and support GE
foods. They blot out GMO-free labeling on products, which is a key reason
for protest there.
Here are three photos of today's Loblaws demo in Toronto.
Protester holds Support Mandatory Labelling Picket
Sign
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/c287a.jpg
Peter Skira at work on the picket line
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/c287b.jpg
Council of Canadians Organizer Kim Phillips,
and Candace Ptolemy of Freedom for Animals talk to Loblaws security police
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/c287c.jpg
Write, email or call your local MP, urging support
for Bill C-287.
* Fax your MP automatically online at: http://www.canadians.org
* Encourage people to sign on to the petition
to support this bill, available at: http://www.fishtomato.com
* Distribute leaflets about Bill C-287 - available
through mailto:aaronk@isn.net
The text of Bill C-287 is available at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/private/C-287/C-287_1/C-287_cover-E.html
--------
Psyche Survivor Pride Week Begins
– July 14.2001
Psyche Survivor Pride Week kicked off today with
A Rant In Trinity-Bellwoods Park! put on by The Committee To Stop Targeted
Policing. This event took the form of a picnic with a skit under the banner
and trees. Don Weitz wore a judge's robes while others dressed as police
officers and the public laid charges … Anna Willats directed as the Toronto
Police were put on trail by the crowd for such things as the deaths of
Edmond Yu and Wayne Williams and the brutal treatment of people with and
without psychiatric problems.
A couple small photos of the survivor judge and a survivor cop
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/psurviv1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/psurviv2.jpg
Committee To Stop Targeted Policing (416)760-2133
--------
Protest Presentations on GMOs issue
– July.15.2001
Eight GENEaction people did some in store leafleting and
public presentations on the GMO labeling issue today. Picking up cereal
boxes with labeling Loblaws has covered with markers they scattered among
the aisles of the Victoria Park Loblaws superstore to demonstrate these
products to the customers.
Photo http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gene1.jpg
This went on for some time before Loblaws plainclothes
shoplifting police figured out what was happening and began evicting people.
In the photo below three GENEaction people are being asked to leave by
security people that are unware that another member (Larch) is doing a
product demonstration a couple aisles away.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gene3.jpg
GENEaction supports the mandatory labeling of Genetically Modified content in food. A bill on the issue is before the federal government this fall. The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors supports voluntary labeling standards and currently blots out GMO-free labels with markers. Though Loblaws wants to push its own organic lines to consumers informed on the issue, they want to keep the GMO issue hidden from the rest of the public. Organic food is a specialty line these pro biotech grocers want to profit from while working to expand acceptance of genetically modified foods.
You can help by asking your MP to support the mandatory labeling bill, and by informing others on genetic modification issues. The regular media spends most of its time with complete misinformation, usually promoting the idea that individual genes control various traits. An example would be a ridiculous article in the New Scientist today called "Divorce is written in the DNA."
On the food issue they usually push genetically modified foods as an answer to starvation and vitamin deficiencies when the crops actually cause starvation and lack vitamins or contain vitamins that can't be digested. Currently they are looking to create GM coffee beans that would ripen at the same time, and threaten to put 65 million low wage coffee plantation workers on the unemployment lines, where they would starve as they wouldn't have an income to buy food.
Biotech will also be protested in Toronto next year when the world biotech convention hits here on June 9th.
By Gary Morton
------
Labels on Armageddon
- July.13.2001
(News on GMOs and Loblaws Protests)
Photos
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gmo1.jpg
info on upcoming demos below this article
Not With Our Genes You Don't, a group of protesters from Toronto Action for Social Change and GENEaction ran a second Corporate Hypocrite Picket and flyer evening against Loblaws this July 12th. This time it was at the Bathurst/St Clair store in Toronto … and there will be more actions as listed below. Including a nationwide protest by the Council of Canadians, which I think is July 21rst.
The issue is Genetically Modified Organisms plus Loblaws' ban on GMO-free labeling on food products in its stores.
After the first demo last week Geoff Wilson appeared in
an Eye Weekly article
( http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_07.12.01/news/labels.html
)
on behalf of Loblaws saying that it was the Canadian Council of Grocery
Distributors that killed GMO-free labeling. Nick Jennery of the CCGD says
there's no standard for GMO-free, and no way to evaluate claims.
Loblaws is the biggest player in the CCGD. This group has
a board of directors (all wealthy white males) that appears on the Internet
wearing kilts. They hold numerous events and Monsanto and Loblaws are key
sponsors. They are also big on biotech as in 1999, CCGD through the Food
Biotechnology Network, launched a toll free service (1 877 366 3246 or
1 800 foodbio) for consumers. This service allows consumers to pose questions
to a registered health professional relating to biotechnology.
information website www.foodbiotech.org
The website posts articles with titles like "Anti-GM
forces guilty of "scientific apartheid" and the whole deal is generally
a Monsanto-style brainwash put forth as public education.
Loblaws plans to open its own line of Organic/GMO-free products in special sections of its stores. A new voluntary labeling standard should be out in the fall, and you can be sure that Loblaws wants its new line to be the most recognized labeling.
75 percent of shoppers are likely to choose GMO-free products over GM products. Smaller competitors Loblaws knocks out now through refusal to accept their labeling could be forced to beg to sign on to the Loblaws Organic line of products. Plus Loblaws is also positioning itself to battle the large health food giants moving in from the States, and gain control of the Organic market.
It is not desirable for an outfit like Loblaws that promotes Organic foods as a specialty to be in control. It leads the consumer to accept it as fact that most foods should be genetically modified.
No GMOs is the best option as genetically modified foods promote world wide starvation and species damage. So far the modified crops go extinct when humans don't manage them – meaning we could all starve at some future time if everything gets GM contaminated. Small farmers and workers lose their jobs with GMOs eating up farms and farmland, and that means they have no money to buy food and shelter. Currently starvation stems from people not having money to buy food.
Genuine promotion of organic farming, birth control, peace and a world wide guaranteed annual income through the United Nations and other bodies would be the best way to fight poverty, oppression and starvation.
Ethics in Science must also be brought back quickly. It used to be that in the scientific method you would make moral research choices. In an experiment that called for randomly blasting the genes of a spider into a grasshopper, you would decide not to go ahead on the premise that you might create something dangerous. Like a bug that eats up all the crops or poisons everyone or has some negative effect on the environment that appears unexpectedly like a time bomb at a future date.
Under corporate funded science the method is the madness and you do go ahead, everyday, with the most dangerous experimentation ever done in the history of science. On the idea that the risk is worth it because a cosmetic company or food giant might somehow profit from a lucky freak randomly created.
So fight for a GMO labeling law, and that way when the end comes we'll have the approved labels we need to stick on our local Armageddon.
PJ the Cat, July.2001
President's Choice President at Not With Our Genes You Don't
--------
Upcoming Corporate Hypocrite Pickets at Loblaws
- Sat July 14 - Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws - Picket Danforth/Victoria
Park Loblaws at 10.30 am
- Thurs July 19 - Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws - Picket
Christie/Dupont Loblaws Thursday, July 19 at 7 pm.
For more info contact Not With Our Genes You Don't at
(416) 248-5519 (ask for Dave)
- Sat July 21rst the Council of Canadians has a nationwide demo planned
against Loblaws.
--------
Report on the first Corporate Hypocrite Picket
Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary
http://www.interlog.com/~command/action6.htm
---------
Article from Eye - eye - 07.12.01
Memories of food labels
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_07.12.01/news/labels.html
BY KRISTIANA CLEMENS
--------
Shrine Circus Picketed
- Sun.July.8.2001
(Shiners' Circus funds Privatized Health Care
in the USA)
Today in Etobicoke, Freedom for Animals protested the Shrine Circus and their cruel use of animals as entertainment. The Shrine Circus is running shows across Canada, and like other circuses they don't inform the public of the dismal life of domination, confinement and violent training their animals endure. Basic needs to roam, exercise and forage are taken from them and cruelty is well documented on web sites like http://www.zoocheck.com/ and http://www.circuses.com/
Photos:
Make a compassionate choice. Say no to the circus.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus1.jpg
Of course the Shriners disagreed
with our picket message, and when they weren't drowning out our megaphone
spokesperson with music and barking or calling in the police, they shouted
to the crowd that proceeds would go to a Shiners Hospital in the USA.
So Canadians attending are supporting
poor quality privatized health care in the USA.
An Elephant Speaks
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus2.jpg
We had to know if the Shriners were
telling the truth so Dave jumped a back fence and went in to talk to the
elephants. The big fellow in the photo says that Shriners are not very
honest. They are really a bunch of drinkers and put the money into a general
fund that also supports their yearly convention antics. They also aren't
nice to elephants as the animals spend most of their time cooped up in
transport and breathing heavy doses of smog in endless parking lots. Then
of course the hooks are used on them to force them to do tricks.
Circus Animals Dying to Entertain You
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus3.jpg
And it is true that animals die.
Our elephant friend says that in 1994 an elephant named Tyke freaked out
and was shot after trying to escape from the Shrine Circus. Tyke broke
loose and got several blocks before being shot.
These animals are stressed, but
in spite of that the Shiners put baskets on their backs and use them for
kiddie rides at the circus.
Like the last picket sign photo says, circuses are no fun for animals. And they aren't educational either as they teach kids that animals are toys and not creatures to be respected and treated with proper care.
More photos:
Big Top and a couple Elephants
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus4.jpg
Working the lineup with signs and flyers
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus5.jpg
Signs for the people and cars
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/circus7.jpg
-------
Protest at the Canadian Association for Laboratory
Animal Science Conference
Photos – July 7.2001
Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary: More Demos
Planned
From: TASC <tasc@pop.web.ca>
Photos of GMO Picket at Loblaws courtesy of Gary Morton
Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary
Heavy Police Presence Marks Peaceful Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws Group Pledges to Picket Bathurst/St. Clair Loblaws Thursday, July 12 at 7 pm, and return to Christie/Dupont Loblaws Thursday, July 19 at 7 pm. Join us!
Although the issue was focused on Loblaws' refusal to stock its shelves with products marked "GMO-free" (GMO stands for genetically modified organisms), members of Not With My Genes You Don't who picketed the Christie-Dupont Loblaws tonight were happy that the homeless in 14 police division were harassed by at least 10 fewer police officers than on a normal night.
In what is likely a new community policing plan-sending out between 1 and 1.2 cops per demonstrator-a crowd of leafletters which at times numbered as high as seven was met by a squadron of more than 10 different police officers, who stood in both doorways of Loblaws, and watched the scene from numerous cruisers parked on the street. The police were not allowed to leave until we did, so with a leisurely pace, we handed out flyers for over 90 minutes.
At the beginning of the demo, sponsored by the Corporate Hypocrite Division of Toronto Action for Social Change, a Loblaws representative came over to us to make sure we "knew the rules." When we seemed not to understand, he pointed out that stepping a centimetre on to Loblaws property would result in arrest. In a classic case of "if only Loblaws would have ignored us, we would have been ignored by Loblaws customers," this forced us to call out from the sidewalk to grocery shoppers going in, asking whether they were concerned that Loblaws did not provide proper labeling for their products. We also focused on the profit Loblaws makes from poverty during store-sponsored food drives in which the items that are donated to the food bins are bought in the store at retail, not wholesale, prices. What was remarkable was the fact that so many shoppers seemed to have a major beef with Loblaws-either on the issue of GMOs, massive plastic packaging, the grocery chain's support of the Harris regime, or the food drive issue-and yet continued to shop here, when there were independent stores within walking distance.
As we held aloft picket signs mocking the Presidents Choice brand, and held posters saying "Memories of Mutations--only at Loblaws" and GMO= Greedy Malicious Organization=Loblaws," among others, many customers were curious enough to come over, take a flyer, and read it thoroughly. On three separate occasions, shoppers took dozens of flyers in with them to spread around the store Many were happy to see us-they had heard in the media reports that Loblaws was refusing to stock any product which had a label reading "GMO-free," and were glad someone was encouraging action on this issue.
Perhaps the public health and safety ramifications of Loblaws' decision struck a chord with shoppers and with police, many of whom read the flyer and some of whom discussed the issue at length with leafletters. One officer, who seemed well-read on the issue of multinational corporate dominance of the planet, even confided his personal dislike of Loblaws because a friend of his, an independent grocer, was forced out of business in Etobicoke when Loblaws moved into the neighbourhood and started applying its muscle.
Until the end of the picket, passersby were startled at the number of police in the area, and kept wondering, as five or six of us walked up and down the length of sidewalk handing out flyers "Where's the demonstration these cops are supposed to be here for?" One enraged woman, upon hearing the history of Loblaws arresting the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus for taking part in similar pickets, went up to a group of officers to give them apiece of her mind.
When we explained that we could not walk on Loblaws property without being arrested, another woman held her daughter close, thanked us for doing this, and remarked to her child, "See honey, it's true they don't allow peaceful protests to occur in this country without harassment."
Because Loblaws has refused to bow to the public's concern regarding labeling of GMOs-poll after poll reveals over 90% of Canadians want to know what is in their food-numerous Thursday evening pickets beginning at 7 pm at a variety of Loblaws locations are planned. Who knows, if our numbers grow, and the police continue to respond with greater numbers to the horrid threat of truth being told at Loblaws, we might really take some heat off the homeless in a variety of police divisions for at least a few hours a week.
For
more info. on joining upcoming corporate hypocrite pickets, contact Not
With Our Genes You Don't at (416) 248-5519 (ask for Dave) or (416) 651-5800.
----------
Canada Day Star Wars Action
- July 1.2001
Two Reports and Photos
1. Canada Day or Independence Day
by Gary Morton (Canada Day Essay and notes on the Star Wars action)
2. Canada Day at CFB Downsview
from TASC (Report on the Protest Action and Canada's military involvement)
Digital Photos - Star Wars Action:
Today's Canada Day action against Star Wars involved a 2 km peace walk in a rush of wind and bright sunshine. We went to CFB Downsview then on to the Canada Day fair at the park.
We passed military people on the road to the park and one woman soldier smiled, waved and shouted hello to us. At the fair we stood next to a military display where soldiers in combat gear with a tent and jeeps were dressing kids in war outfits and camouflage greases.
We put a banner on either side of the tent. Matthew and others handed out flyers on the Star Wars issue and we ended up talking with soldiers. One wanted us to move as he felt the banner would scare off the kids by causing them to equate the military with Star Wars, Darth Vader and evil stuff. He went on to tell us that Canada's role is as a peacekeeper with observers in the Congo, Bosnia, etc.
Since I grew up in a military town, I'm aware that most Canadian soldiers see Canada as a peacekeeper. It is unfortunate that Canada's policies have abandoned peacekeeping. We tied ourselves to the New World Order war machine in Iraq/Yugoslavia and are now developing a dangerous space warfare capacity through involvement with President Bush and his Star Wars plan.
The Homes Not Bombs news release points out that Defence Minister Art Eggleton is a major booster of Star Wars. He has stated that Canada is ready and willing to go to war even if it violates international law. So our soldiers want peace when we've in fact gone a long way from it.
On Canada Day this year we have also gone a long way from Canada. There really should be a Canada Day award for the most American Canadian. As well as Star Wars, we have Mike Harris calling for a Niagara Free Trade Zone and an advisor to the Prime Minister calling for the dismantling of the border with the US and the elimination of Canadian sovereignty through adoption of the American dollar.
Environment Minister David Anderson wants a NAFTA deal for disposing of hazardous wastes, which would mean our environmental policies would be set by Bush in the USA. And U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, agrees. He is calling for a NAFTA-plus relationship to harmonize border controls, law enforcement, energy, environmental and immigration policies.
This absolute abandonment of the Canadian people, our beliefs, democracy and culture is so bold that it has shocked right-wing fanatics from the Fraser Institute. They feel we should sell out softly, and that our neo-liberal government is going to provoke a backlash by making the Canadian people aware of what is going on.
July 4 is Independence Day in the USA so I suppose that by next year our government will be proposing harmonizing Canada Day with the US holiday to create a new Canada Independence Day that will celebrate our takeover by transnational corporations and George Bush.
Since nothing is really taught at the Canada Day fairs, it would be easy to do. Chretien could replace our flag with the harmonized American version and feed the people with the same junk hotdogs, popcorn and silly games.
The real question is whether we as
Canadians will allow it. We could rise in revolution and create genuine
independence and a Canada without Star Wars, Nike and George Bush.
-------
Canada Day at CFB Downsview
(a report from Toronto Action for Social Change)
Despite gale-force winds that started out the day, a hardy band of 15 souls paraded with banners and placards along the Sheppard Ave. West boundary of Canadian Forces Base Downsview in a protest against Canadian participation in Star Wars July 1.
The clear messages-"Canada: Get Out of Star Wars" and "Homes not Bombs" in brightly coloured banners-visited the guard booth at DCIEM—one of five War Research and Development Canada branches currently working on better and more economical ways of killing people.
The
group then walked on to the base and began flyering visitors to the Canada
Day Celebrations. Most of "security" was provided by air and sea cadets,
a form of child soldiers which Canada has yet to acknowledge violates its
commitment to a convention prohibiting child soldiers. Our
group from Toronto Action for Social Change was
pleased to provide Canada Day Peace Quizzes which allowed the children
to test their skills when it comes to the truth about Canada and space
warfare.
After wondering where, exactly, to set up shop and hand out their 500 flyers, the answer came quite suddenly near the main entrance to the festivities. Under the orange banner "Soldier For a Day," there was the Canadian Armed Forces dressing up babies and really small youngsters in full army gear-the olive drab outfits and camouflage facepaint. The kids could get their face painted and have a picture taken between two grown-up, fully camouflaged Canadian soldiers, for all of three bucks.
Figuring this is where we were meant to be, we set up our banners and began flyering with our peace quizzes on Canada and space warfare. Responses ranged from slight interest and some really positive responses from those who did not know Canada was involved in Star Wars to those who told us we were essentially a bunch of copulating posterior exit tunnels (to put it delicately). As a half dozen members of Metro police looked on from their strategically positioned command post next door to the armed forces tent, we stood for a few hours completing our task, engaging passersby. The police seemed uninterested in responding to Canada Day organizers' attempts to have us removed.
The protest took place a shy two days after the Canadian Forces launched a massive new recruiting drive. $15 million that could be going to affordable housing to ease the homelessness crisis in this country has instead been earmarked for a year-long propaganda campaign of 60 and 90 second military recruitment ads aimed at kids that will air in Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players and AMC theatres for the rest of the year (another reason to avoid the big box cinemas).
According
to a War Dept. press release, the ad campaign is part of a larger psychological
war operation to increase acceptance of killing as a career choice. In
addition to a new website-www.forces.ca, "there will be Canadian Forces
recruiters at many pubic events across the country this
summer. Visits to schools will be carried out
through the school year [and more info] is available by calling (800) 856-8488.
Since the majority of theatregoers over the summer are kids, you might ask why the military is recruiting child soldiers. It's a free call.
Anyone
interested in presenting the ugly side of war which such recruiting events
are likely to ignore should contact Homes not Bombs, which will only be
too delighted to remind folks that beneath the fuzzy images of soldiers
handing out blankets, there is, as former Canadian General Lewis Mackenzie
reminds us, only one purpose for having soldiers:
In
the Globe and Mail, he wrote: "As much as Canadians would like to ignore
the fact, the role of a soldier is to kill as efficiently as possible with
the resources available once he is ordered to do so by his government.
There are many sidelines to his profession that make us all feel warm and
fuzzy...But they are all subordinate to one overriding responsibility,
and that is to kill on demand."
One of the soldiers present today, who refused to take the peace quiz, was asked how he felt about bombing hospitals, bridges, daycares, apartment buildings, and other civilian infrastructure in Iraq and Yugoslavia. He replied, " Damned proud. I was there both times, and I'd do it again if I had to."
RSVP: Toronto Action for Social Change and Homes
not Bombs Toronto (416)
651-5800 or tasc@web.ca
--------
BioDevastation - Protests over the BIO 2001
International Convention –
June.2001
photos/reports from San Diego and Toronto
* Organizing begins a year in advance against next year's world biotechnology conference. BIO 2002 will run from June 9 to 13 in Toronto, Canada.
SAN DIEGO, June 24 - Massive Banner
Delivers Biotech Protest Message
In front of the Convention Center where
the Biotechnology Industry Organization is meeting, activists sail a giant
1500 square-foot banner on several large weather balloons. The banner is
being flown like a kite by several organizers from Biojustice and the Ruckus
Society.
1,500 protesters, some dressed
as ears of corn and genetically engineered tomatoes, staged a colorful
and peaceful protest Sunday on the opening day of the BIO 2001 International
Convention in San Diego.
Demonstrators are concerned that
businesses are introducing genetically modified crops and seeds into the
food supply without knowing the long-term consequences.
''The biotech industry is conducting
a real-time experiment with our biosphere,'' said 26-year-old Shannon Service
of Boulder, Colo., who was dressed as a monarch butterfly. ''They don't
know
the results, they can't possibly know the
results. The monarch butterfly represents that well.''
Research has suggested that pollen
from genetically engineered corn can be toxic to the butterflies, whose
favorite food, milkweed, grows in and around corn fields. The altered corn
produces its own pesticide to kill an insect pest.
Police ''drummed up a tremendous
amount of paranoia and hysteria,'' said Han Shan, spokesman for the Ruckus
Society. ''The whole downtown of San Diego has been militarized,'' Shan
said. ''There are a lot of people out here who feel we're being criminalized
for simply expressing concern with biotechnology.''
http://www.biodev.org
Toronto BioJustice 2001 Demonstration
As the giant gene corporations gathered
in San Diego June 24th, citizens opposed to their unethical practices rallied
outside the convention centre and at other locations around the world.
In Toronto Freedom for Animals and
GeneACTION sponsored a protest/information picket at Queen's Park,
home of the Ontario Government.
The City of Toronto and the Ontario
Government are supporters without ethics of out-of-control genetics and
both want to draw more large scale biotech research here. Premier
Mike Harris paid 50,000 dollars to place Ontario in a sponsor's seat of
privilege in San Diego. His government advertised Ontario like a corporation
with a flying web banner at the official Biotech Industry web site. Ontario
was also listed beside Monsanto in the sponsors list and had a huge ads
at the convention centre.
Few citizens are aware that the
City of Toronto has signed on as a member of the Biotech Industry Organization
and is paying large sums of tax dollars in dues to this corporate organization.
Freedom for Animals has been protesting
dangerous animal to human organ transplant trials soon to be underway here
in Toronto.
See The Skewed Ethics of Animal
to Human Organ Transplants - http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/cat.htm#skew
Other groups like GENEaction are
worried about the redesigning of nature for profit. The biotech industry
is busy genetically engineering fish, insects, animals and trees based
on the profit motive and with no idea of the long-term consequences.
Genetically modified crops are not
tested for health hazards, they kill off insect, animal and plant life
and contaminate the rest of the food supply. In farming, genetically engineered
crops have handed control of the industry and seed supply to giant corporations
like Monsanto while the incomes of farmers have dropped dramatically. In
much of the world, biodiversity and the balance of nature is threatened
as GMO crops replace many smaller plant species that locals rely on for
their needs and income.
International pharmaceutical companies
are channeling research funds toward expensive genetic approaches to health
and disease at the expense of more fundamental medical and health needs.
There are also the frightening possibilities that come with super weeds,
invincible bugs and bacteria, genetically altered animals, factory farming,
etc.
Toronto photos
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/bio1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/bio2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/bio3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/bio4.jpg
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Swedish Police Violence
Protested in Toronto – Thurs.June.21
A protest took place at the Swedish
Trade Office in Toronto today. The issue being the police attack
on protesters at the EU meeting in Gothenburg Sweden. Three people were
shot by the police in Sweden where demonstrators were opposing the idea
of Fortress Europe, neo-liberalism and the presence of George Bush and
his scrapping of Kyoto and selling of the new Star Wars Militarization
of Space Plan (NMD).
Toronto Photos:
Protester chalks out body mark
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gothen1.jpg
And lies shot on the pavement
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/gothen2.jpg
The Toronto protest was an information
picket. People signed a petition, spoke through a horn and handed info
to passersby.
Info on Swedish Police Violence
– In Sweden police targeted a high school that was legally being used as
an organising centre for the protests. Hundreds of protesters were trapped
inside and many arrested.
The next morning 5,000 people attempted
to march to the European leaders' summit, which was sealed off behind giant
steel walls. Police halted the march with a barricade and started batoning
people. Among the first victims was Knut Jensen, convenor of the print
workers' union at one of Norway's main newspapers. He fell with blood pouring
from his head.
After the baton assault a snarling
pack of police dogs and their handlers appeared. They tore into the march
and dozens of protesters needed treatment for bite wounds. Seconds later
baton-wielding mounted police charged into the rear of the demonstration.
Only after these assaults did some protesters start throwing stones. Some
went on to vent their rage at shops along the city's main street, mainly
hitting symbols of the global system like McDonald's.
The Shooting - People were dancing,
enjoying themselves. Then the police started charging. As police kept charging,
some people started fighting back, throwing stones. The police then fired
leaving a young man on the ground.
Three people were shot by police
in the square and the next morning some 30,000 people joined an already
planned demonstration. Some of them accepted the entirely false government
claims that the police acted in self defence.
Others condemned the police, but
also accepted media tales of violent protesters. Many others understood
that the police alone were responsible for the violence.
--------
Queer Alternatives to
the Gay Pride Parade –
June.2001
There were Anti Capitalists at the
Toronto Pride March, but that didn't change the nature of it. This sucker
is a corporate extravaganza that has little to do with gay rights and more
to do with corporations using gays as entertainers or a circus to advertise
their products. Corporate logos festoon the floats, and when the first
drag queen came out in a wedding dress for a photo op he flipped up a plaque
with info on his corporate sponsor.
I didn't get any photos as I was
chased off the road by marshals for not having a pink media pass. Moving
along was terrible as the entire street was blocked off by metal barricades.
Organizers said there were a million people, and in the heat it felt like
they were standing on top of me.
In contrast the Dyke March a day
earlier had no corporate sponsors, the streets were open, anyone could
join in and take photos, etc. It was like a dance party that moved down
the street, and the event that folks should attend if they don't like the
Corporate Pride March. Perhaps the Anti Capitalists should work on it and
forget about saving Pride. It can't be saved.
Another better event on Sat and
Sun was the Queer by Nature gathering in Grange Park. They had a solar
powered stage and lots of local entertainment, musicians and poets in a
green environment. It was done as an alternative to Corporate Pride. People
should look to doing more of that sort of thing.
http://www.queerbynature.org
Photo of solar powered stage.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/qn1.jpg
Photo of solar panel
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/qn2.jpg
Digital Photos - June 23 Toronto Dyke March
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem5.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem6.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem7.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/dykem8.jpg
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Notes & Photos on the June 16-17 Festival
of Life and Nonviolent Resistance to the Hamilton War Show
June 16.17.2001
Photos:
Juggler
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars1.jpg
Celebrate Life
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars2.jpg
Puppet
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars3.jpg
Clown
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars4.jpg
Fly a kite
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars5.jpg
Food not Bombs Troops
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars6.jpg
Grannies and Puppet
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars7.jpg
Thou Shalt not Kill
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars9.jpg
People Forming Circle
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars10.jpg
Food not Bombs Troops
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/hwars11.jpg
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Here are a few notes - The
Fathers Day Coalition for Peace in conjunction with Homes not Bombs Ontario,
stages a yearly protest against the air show in Hamilton.
The air show or war show is one
of the largest displays of military warplanes in North America and little
more than a trade show (publicly-subsidized) for the U.S. Military-industrial
complex.
For the children the war show has
Kiddie Commando, which dresses up 3- and 4-year-olds in camouflage and
war paint, and runs them through a military obstacle course as real soldiers
shoot water pistols at them.
Though this is a two-day demonstration, the local paper and TV station won't cover it. They are war show sponsors. The city is also involved, granting 700,000 dollars in subsidies to the show since the mid nineties, and that is really money being taken from social programs
Media attention at the demo comes mainly from police as they videotape everything … so if you want to be a movie star but haven't been able to make it, this is the place to be.
One scene the police shot today was me walking across the street toward the camera. A person assisted me in cutting a banner down with a thumbnail knife, which caused the police to announce that the tiny knife was a dangerous weapon. And these are the same cops who earlier said that war planes are not really weapons.
Near the end we all gathered in a circle and held hands. The police smirked and laughed, thinking that to be hilarious. But aside from the police, this was a colorful demo with creative banners, puppets and costumes. The nicest touch came from the Food not Bombs soldiers marching up and down the road and saluting. Their uniforms with helmets made of melons and bullet belts of peanuts gave them that special look of authority. These soldiers know that peace is organic, and want to get in touch with the green earth
We can scrap the loud bombers and their violent pollution.
Homes not Bombs will be staging an
anti-Star Wars demo November 9 at the DREO facility in
Ottawa. This will be in conjunction with protests
against the WTO meeting in Qatar.
contact:
hasc@tao.ca
tasc@web.net
--------
Protest Photos – Kimy Pernia Domico -
June 15th
There was a protest and march
to the Columbian Consulate in Toronto yesterday evening. It was on
behalf of kidnapped Columbian Indigenous leader Kimi Pernia Domico.
It is believed that he was kidnapped
by paramilitary forces backed by the Columbian military and business interests.
Protesters chanted against plan
Columbia and Free Trade with chants like He was taken alive, we want him
back alive and Free Kimy not Free Trade.
Here are some digital photos anyone can use.
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kimi1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kimi2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kimi3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kimi4.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/kimi5.jpg
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June.15th in Toronto – Economic Disruption
Meeting
Photos:
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/j151.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/j152.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/j153.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/j154.jpg
* June 15th 2001 is the anniversary of the June 15 Harris Can Be Stopped March that ended in a battle between police, homeless people and poverty activists at Queen's Park Toronto.
Late last night I was standing on the corner talking to a couple people.
I've got a warrant out for my arrest said one friend ... that's because I failed to appear for a court date over the June 15th.charges.
It's a good thing he didn't say that too loudly because a police car had pulled up to the curb behind him and the officers were glancing around.
We got to discussing what happened on June 15th this year, and the 2nd friend said that he had been at Ryerson as a delegate earlier in the day with others from community organizations, first nations, students, and labour unions to discuss tactics and strategies for province-wide economic disruption this fall.
There wasn't any discussion of what happened at that Ryerson meeting. Instead I went on with a personal impression of June 15 this year.
Since I live around the corner I walked over to Central Technical School where the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty province-wide meeting was to happen. The school is huge with large grounds and on arriving on the back street I encountered an army of police. Uniforms, horsebacks, riot cops and undercover guys in white golf shirts and jeans had flooded the grounds. There must have been hundreds of them and I walked through toward a few people holding an OCAP Sun Splash flag on the far side.
At that point I noticed school trustee Kathleen Wynne. She used to be the main speaker at Citizens for Local Democracy meetings back in '97 when thousands of citizens met weekly to oppose transforming Toronto into a megacity. In 2001 she appears to be using a cell phone and aiding the police army in fending off OCAP. She is also a liberal now and is pissing people off with her veiled support for public funding of private schools – another issue drawing protest in Ontario.
The OCAP people told me the meeting had been moved up to Christie Park so I walked around. At the front I noticed a frightening police army on the steps and everywhere else. It looked like the police academy. And off from the army was the track field, surrounded by a 7 foot high fence. Apparently some of the trustees like Kathleen Wynne had wanted officials to allow the OCAP meeting to take place there, where we would have been trapped and possibly crushed if the riot cops advanced.
That was a no go. Christie is a large park and as it happened I bumped into my affinity group from Quebec and walked up there. Hundreds gathered in the open air and the meeting went on with talks at the mike from various forces involved in the economic disruption plans. There was a fair bit of drumming and excitement. A small army of cops and intelligence agents gathered to stare us down. They arrested a guy wearing a surgical mask and later grabbed OCAP leader Sue Collis at the subway station, falsely claiming that she had violated bail conditions by appearing.
The Dote Poet's society did some rousing numbers. It all went well, but not like it was portrayed in the Canadian media. CP made it sound like there were only a few cops and they were playing soccer with the protesters. Sun media on a different tack, decided that the meeting had been killed because police had swept up OCAP organizer John Clarke earlier.
Facts are that there was a huge and sinister police presence, and David McNally took over for Clarke. We were far from leaderless – nearly all of the participating groups and activists could be called leaders of a sort.
I walked around a lot and was one of the last to leave. We were getting to be surrounded by cops so we went off down the street to a Korean restaurant and sat in there talking till it closed up.
We discussed the economic disruption thing and I said that some of less radical groups in the protest movement were turned off by the trashing of politician Joe Flaherty's office. That was earlier in the week when OCAP folks showed up and evicted him, to show the Tories how it feels to be cast out.
Some ordinary people like the trashing of Flaherty's office. They've been victimized by Harris' policies and want revenge. Personally I remember a single mother weeping as she called a while ago, trying to figure out how to fight her own economic eviction.
Mostly our little group in the restaurant would be identified as people who cross boundaries, participating with peaceful groups, green and animal rights groups and direct action groups. We're not necessarily worried about poor old Flaherty, but wish some poverty activists would be more supportive of things like stopping smog and building a green city.
Think of how great it would be for the homeless if we had green, smog free, car free streets downtown.
On economic disruption, Tooker came up with an example of a little economic disruption he did, that was creative and didn't lead to his arrest.
Tooker doesn't like genetically modified food, so he went down to Loblaws and went shopping, stacking his cart with things to do with corn. At the checkout he let the stuff get ringed up then asked the cashier – By the way, these products don't have anything mutated or modified genetically in them, do they?
Then when she couldn't answer that properly he said – Let me speak to the manager. And of course the manager came out and got hassled and Tooker refused to pay.
If a number of people did that they could shut down Loblaws, economically disrupting them while also getting the point across on GMOs. And now that Loblaws is using markers to blot out labels that actually list GMO content, you could hold up that box and say – something has been marked off here. You're hiding something! I demand to know what's in this product! It may be bad for my childrens' health!
So as you see, economic disruption doesn't have to mean
jail and bail and the inability to travel that comes with a police record.
You can get creative and do it in ways where they can't charge you. More
of us should do that.
…..
Note - OCAP members John Clarke and Gian Mura, along with Ewin Gibb
of the CAW, will appear in court in Oshawa this Monday morning.
Sean-Lee Popham appears in Oshawa on Thursday morning, June 21st.
Sue Collis' bail hearing has been put over until Monday morning June
18, when she will appear at College Park at 10 am, Courtroom 501.
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
416-925-6939
ocap@tao.ca
http://www.ocap.ca
---------
OCAP'S Picnic and Condo Disruption
(Ontario Coalition Against Poverty at Allan Gardens
June.9.2001)
Photos:
Going down the road
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag1.jpg
Inside Noble Star Condo Sales
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag2.jpg
At Radio City
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag3.jpg
Inside Radio City Condo Sales Office
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag4.jpg
Fight to Win Banner
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag5.jpg
Strange Characters
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag6.jpg
Undercover Cops Study Faces at Picnic
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/ocapag7.jpg
OCAP held a picnic for the homeless today and later decided to do a surprise march and economic disruption action … the sort of event that will happen across Ontario in the Fall.
At the picnic John Clarke and Shawn Brant spoke on the bad situation for the poor and homeless in Toronto. John said the local community centre has been shut for the last five weeks, the homeless shelter at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital has been closed, the Street City shelter is set to close in the fall and another homeless person just died on the street.
At the same time local property is being converted to condos that poor and low income people can't afford. Rents are also high – almost as costly as buying a condo.
Marching thru the park, people took over the road and chanted … and the first destination wasn't all that far. It was Noble Star Condo Sales – one of those cheap sales trailers you see everywhere in the city.
The inside was spacious and had nice couches. There was a model of the condo development and a skylight allowing sunlight to highlight it. Some people felt it would make fine housing for some homeless people.
Once the chanting died down Shawn Brant addressed the crowd on the housing and welfare cuts issue. He said there is a visibly bad situation in the city, and out of the city on native lands as many as 15 or 16 people must often live together in the same small house.
Noble Star's sales lady went so far as to interject from the back while Shawn Brant was speaking. She claimed that even homeless people can afford condos. And perhaps we should take her up on the offer.
Leaving Noble Star the march continued over to the old CBC headquarters where the rusted tower rises above Radio City – another condo sales outfit with a huge trailer and model.
Radio City became a different story altogether. People chanted and drummed on the walls and walk outside while others went in and were confronted by a salesman and his assistant. These chaps did not want to sell us condos, but saw us as a group of unglamorous outcasts. They got in scuffles with people and the guy in charge ran around in a state of general hysteria that became amplified when he discovered that people would fight back and not be bullied out. At one point he was screaming, "We're under attack! Call the police! Call the fire department!"
When we finally did leave I noticed Henry using graffiti in an educational manner on the wall. He notes that "Radio City was promised for 100 units of Social Housing. So where are They?"
Probably the guy at Radio City didn't care. He was wondering where the police were … and we were on our way back to the park by the time they came racing around the corner.
Police used to send a lot of uniforms to all OCAP events. This time they sent two spotters in civilian clothes. Their photo is listed above. Apparently they study all of the faces, document who is present and do identification if police want to make arrests after the event.
This is to protect condo people that might be under protest attack. But what about the homeless, the poor, tenants? We are under attack every day in Mike Harris' Ontario for the wealthy. We can't call the police or the fire department … and there aren't any undercover people at large, spotting affordable housing for us.
Report by Gary Morton
Links
The OCAP Web Site is
http://
http://www.OCAP.ca/
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Public Rallies Against Harris' Funding of Private Schools – June.2001
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/edu1.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/edu2.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/edu3.jpg
http://photos.citizensontheweb.com/edu4.jpg
There was a strong turnout Thursday for a rally against Mike Harris' education tax credit for private schools.
Many speakers addressed the crowd … beginning with Irene Atkinson. Irene noted that an earlier incarnation of the Tories under Frank Miller went down in flames over the funding of Catholic schools.
All of the speakers shared Atkinson's belief that the Harris tax credit is taking money out of a weakened public education system, where kids are losing things like libraries and music classes. Major protestant churches such as the United Church have also come on board to oppose funding private schools.
Money for public education benefits everyone and Kathleen Braithwaite of the Organization of Parents for Black Children called it the delivery of inclusive schooling.
NDP leader Howard Hampton said that pubic education is being underfunded, undervalued and undercut by a government that doesn't share our commitment for public education. Underfund, undervalue, undercut and then privatize, that's the agenda.
The Tories are to hold 8 days of hearings in 5 communities and speakers at the rally called for 80 days of public hearings, which is what the Tories wanted on the same issue back when they were in opposition.
Of course the Tories are in power now and a speaker from the Canadian Federation of Students asked the crowd, "What next?" Meaning will there ever be an end to the destructive policies coming out of Queen's Park?
My own conclusion is that there won't be an end to the policies until there is an end to the government. In the absence of a workers revolution, modern times and politicians like Harris get the strongest opposition from people undergoing a long personal revolution. And out of the daily opposition the ideas for building a better society arise or are kept alive
On the education issue a key point is that Harris is working to encourage parents not to fight for education. His policy is to teach parents that if the local public school is deteriorating, then what they must do is take a tax credit and run off with the kids to a private school. In the long run we all learn to run from the issues and not to fight for a better society. Perhaps turning us all into chickens is the ultimate goal of the Tories.
Report by Gary for citizensontheweb.com
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