Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Canadian Tire Fire #40: HBC Workers’ Victory, Tenants Organize in Toronto, Radical Pride and Queer Community Defense

photo: @XjusticeXpeace

Following the celebrations of another year of Canada’s sorry existence, it feels important, if redundant, to say that Canada is a violent colonial state that must be destroyed. The possibility of world in which we can all be free lies beyond states, beyond capital, and beyond borders, and only through fighting to end the oppressive state of Canada will we create that possibility.

This week brought the news of a few heartwarming nighttime actions: in Calgary, equipment owned by the company contracted to drill under the Wedzin Kwa was sabotaged. A report back states:

Even with increased police patrols and a busy neighbouring lot, we were able to sabotage various pieces of equipment, including the pipe-thrusters used to place piping under river beds. The entire operation took less than an hour, and we left some major damage in our wake. Now they know we can reach them anywhere, at any time.

In Montreal, folks also successfully paint-bombed an RBC ATM into an unuseable state.

Read on for the rest of the news!

HBC Workers Hold the Line to Victory

During a warm morning in Scarborough, ON, over 100 people gathered to block the entrance to the Hudson’s Bay Company’s logistics center for online orders. Two days earlier they had begun a strike to get a bigger cut of the profit they create for Hudson’s Bay.

Just like the day before, these workers and supporters turned back the scab busses and transport trucks. Through rain and shine this continued for 8 days, until the company presented an offer 80% of the workers would accept. Great work to all who showed up and stood together!

Radical Pride and Queer Community Defense

June is Pride month, and alongside mainstream Pride festivals, queer and trans folks have found ways to show up for their community and create the kinds of pride celebrations that reflect Pride’s radical history.

In Calgary, about 25 people showed up to support a drag storytime program at a local library after threats were circulated online about the program. Recent disruptions by the far-Right of drag storytime events for children in the U.S. raised fears that similar actions could happen locally. Drag storytime events are typically intended to create a space for children where queerness and gender diversity are celebrated. The crowd at the Calgary event dressed up, waved flags and handed out stickers, extending the event to the outside of the library and ensuring the storytime could go as planned. In the end, haters online didn’t follow through on their threats, and folks in Calgary showed that they will stand up for each other.

In Toronto, on the same day as the heavily corporatized Pride parade, an abolitionist pride march also took the streets. The march focused on connecting with Pride’s radical history, defunding police and prisons, and decolonization.

RCMP Conduct Raids Looking for Nazis in Quebec

In the continuing saga of the colonial state attempting to control state destabilization from fascists, the RCMP in Quebec raided properties in two small towns 200km north east of Montreal. The properties are supposed to belong to member of the National Socialist Order, a rebrand and reformation of the collapsed Atomwaffen Division. The RCMP said the raid was part of a two year old investigation but did not provide much information otherwise.

Elizabeth Simons, deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, classifies the group as accelerationist: “They want to advance the collapse of civilization and society and they will do so through militant, violent means” Atomwaffen’s propaganda is recognizable by their wearing of skull masks and carrying automatic weapons. Accelerationist groups base their ideology on a collection of essays by James Mason. Mason’s writing center around lone actors engaging in violent acts of terror in an effort to destabilize governments and bring about race wars. These writings were digitized by Montreal neo-Nazi Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, know as Zieger; heavily active online until he was outed by Montreal anti-fascists.

Tenant Organizing in Toronto

Tenants in Toronto have been busy in the last few weeks standing together to challenge greedy landlords. Residents at 130 Jameson Avenue, a large apartment building owned by Myriad Group, were recently instructed to remove their air conditioning units or pay extra rent. Long-term residents say they have used their units for years, and that the action from the landlord feels like a ploy to push residents out of the building in favor of new tenants who can be charged higher rent. Residents gathered outside their building this week to build a strategy for fighting back against their landlord together.

Residents at 1570 Lawrence Avenue West, another large apartment building, have been facing evictions since their building was bought out by Pulis Investments in February of this year. A dozen residents received N13 notices, which aim to evict the tenant on the basis of the landlord converting, renovating or demolishing the units. Last week, a crew of residents traveled together to Pulis’s office in Brampton and forced a meeting with the company’s CEo Kyle Pulis. They notified him that they are organized and standing together, and refuse to be pushed out of their homes.

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by Canadian Tire Fire via It's Going Down
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