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COVID-19 – Solidarity Across Borders Community Advisory

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Mar 182020

In light of the pandemic of COVID-19, a rapidly spreading flu-like virus affecting the respiratory system, public health officials are increasingly calling for people to work from home, for self-isolation, and for social distancing (maintaining distance both between individuals and collectively, by cancelling large events and closing down busy public places). We felt it important to take this opportunity to speak to our friends, family and neighbours with precarious immigration status: those who can’t stay home from work; those who have no paid sick leave or who work at jobs with no health and safety precautions; those whose immigration status complicates their access to healthcare; those who are often employed in the cleaning and sanitary positions that are so crucial in this moment of crisis; and those locked in the cages of the immigration detention centre. We are also thinking of our Indigenous community members who are similarly facing layers of discrimination both in the healthcare system and everyday life.

We are thinking and caring about all of you, your health and well-being, and we put these few words forward to combat fear and call for love and solidarity in a moment that no doubt might worsen already existing feelings of stress, isolation, and fear. Today, we are sharing some practical information about getting tested and treated if you are non status. We also want to suggest some simple ways that we can all look out for one another. In the days to come after conversations with our allies across the country, we will be sending a release concerning our political demands. We will continue to update you the best we can as the situation evolves.

Healthcare Access (Can I get tested? How can I get treated?)
Public health officials have announced that everyone is able to access free COVID-19 testing whether or not they have public healthcare and whatever their status. At the moment, to get free testing,

1) You first have to call 1-877-644-4545. If you are asked for your RAMQ card and you don’t have one, just say you don’t have one and they should continue with the preliminary screening. The nurse doing the phone evaluation will evaluate if there is a significant risk that it’s coronavirus. If they believe there is, they will refer you for a test at a special clinic.

2) If you have been referred after a phone evaluation, you can go to the special clinic. Again, if anyone at the special clinic asks you for a RAMQ card, you can simply say you don’t have one. People who have no health coverage should be accepted in the special clinic for everything related to COVID-19, whatever their status. If you would like to be accompanied, please let us know and we will arrange accompaniment. We will continue to send updates as the situation evolves.

Here are a couple of additional tips for keeping yourself, our community and loved ones safe:

If you do not have status and have symptoms such as a fever, a cough, or difficulty breathing, please get in touch immediately with us at solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com so we can support you in whatever way possible. We are organizing to accompany people to access health services and will also work on public fundraising for sick non-status community members who risk being fired from their jobs without compensation.
Watch out for your friends and loved ones. Let’s all take care of each other and stay in touch.
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
If you use public transit, make sure to wash your hands before and after.
When coughing or sneezing, cover your mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or a tissue.
Avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, etc.
When possible, try social distancing (maintaining 2 metre or 6 feet distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing). Try using alternative modes of greetings (a wave or a nod for example).
Finally, please take special precautions if you are older or have a serious chronic medical condition as you are particularly at risk.
Keep track of public health notices and other ways to reduce risk here: https://www.quebec.ca/sante/problemes-de-sante/a-z/coronavirus-2019/

What should I do if I start to feel ill?

Self-isolate. This means staying in a separate room from other people, and avoiding any direct contact with them wherever possible.
If you live with others, disinfect your washroom with a bleach based cleaning product every day.
If your symptoms get worse, or you start to feel difficulty breathing, contact 1-877-644-4545.

How will this impact Solidarity Across Borders’ Events?

We have started to have conversations about how COVID-19 will impact our organizing. This email is a first step towards greater awareness in the SAB network. We will make sure to communicate any changes to our regular events as we start to have more conversations about COVID-19 internally.

Here are some more resources if you would like to read more about COVID-19:

WHO Advice for the Public
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

A handy flyer to give to your neighbours about COVID-19 if you want to connect and you want to encourage mutual aid during quarantine
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kMQP8CvkAxSwYrxOdB1wzipEqEf9yWhr/view?usp=sharing

For allies and those who want to help, here are some of the solidarity actions being carried out in the community. Please write us at solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com. if you are able to help out with any of the below. If you feel comfortable, you can also sign up here (link).

– Food drop offs;
– Running any errands;
– Accompanying someone to a health appointment;
– Taking kids to any appointment they might have;
– Walking someone’s dog;
– Providing moral support / social support (for people who would like to talk to someone in person or by phone while in self-isolation);

Again, if you do not have status and have symptoms such as a fever, a cough, or difficulty breathing, or are self-isolating and need any of the above services offered by the allies, please get in touch immediately with us at solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com so we can support you in whatever way possible.

We will be in touch soon. Sending love and solidarity to everyone.

From Embers : Reflections from Kanonhstaton

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Mar 132020

From From Embers

Talking with a non-native anarchist who spent time at Kanonhstaton in 2006, a land reclamation led by members of Six Nations blocking the development of a private subdivision on their territory.

We discuss his experience at Six, dynamics on the ground before and after the police raid, and the possibilities and complexities of anarchist-indigenous solidarity with the current wave of Wet’suwet’en solidarity in mind.

With music from Tru Rez Crew and Lee Reed.

Ontario: Three Railway Sabotage Actions in Solidarity with Land Defenders

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Mar 082020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

It seems worth sharing that we have managed to shut down, (if only for a few to several hours), different rail lines in Southern Ontario using the ol’ copper wire technique. We did this three separate times targeting a junction in Milton, on lines that connect Kitchener-Waterloo to Toronto and Burlington. Using paper maps to follow where lines go, we had fun finding places to act with most impact. We learned more about how this was done following some of the other informative and inspiring posts here on North Shore.

These have been quick, successful, and gleeful ways to contribute to the efforts behind Shut Down Canada. Clandestine sabotages are meaningful tactics to popularize and normalize for many reasons:

-repression easily takes an upper hand in public protest

-it takes very little time out of one’s life to sabotage a line with copper wire, (once at a site, maybe 15 minutes or a bit more if the connection is not ideal at first)

-you can do this alone or with just one trusted person. This fact alone makes risk really very low

-social media posts and populating a google map of actions are not the end goal of settler solidarity The goal is to align with land defenders in actions that are strategic and that send fear into the hearts of the immensely powerful industries they are up against

-it is good for our hearts to strike back in these ways

towards the many beautiful possibilities!

Spring of Action launched with Disruption of Lemay Offices

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Mar 082020

From Solidarity Across Borders

On Friday, community members entered the offices of Lemay, architects of the new prison for migrants in Laval. Chanting slogans, distributing flyers, and carrying silhouettes of friends and neighbours who had been detained and deported, they disrupted business as usual.

The new prison, located at 400 Montée Saint-François in Laval, will replace the current one. Like all prisons in Canada, it will be filled with poor, brown, Black, and Indigenous people colonized by European powers. This prison is an essential part of Canada’s border strategy, keeping poor people from the global south out and wealth in the hands of a few.

Tisseur, a construction firm located in Val-David, has worked through the winter with the result that the new migrant prison is beginning to take shape despite widespread, concerted community opposition (to see photo from last month, click here).

This is a call to stop any further construction of this prison. Take action! Work with others, thoughtfully, strategically, in love and determination. This prison must not be built!

Contact (for coordination, flyers, media points, petition, information, toolkit, backgrounders, etc.): solidaritesansfrontieres [at] gmail [dot] com

For more about immigration detention in Canada and the new migrant prison, click here.

For more about the companies involved in constructing the new Laval migrant prison, click her e.

To sign our statement against the prison, click here.

Solidarity Action with Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders Blocked Access to Port of Montreal

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Mar 082020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

A group of around 100 protesters blocked the Viau entrance of the Port of Montreal Saturday afternoon for about 30 minutes. The group arrived at the port at around 2:15pm today and erected a barricade and several banners in front of the port entrance, blocking incoming and outgoing traffic. The group then held a demo through the streets of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

This action took place in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en who are fighting against the continued occupation of their unceded territories by Coastal GasLink (“CGL”) and the RCMP. This action comes on the heels of multiple rail blockades which have taken place in so-called Montreal in recent weeks.

We are here to show our solidarity with Indigenous people all over “Canada” who have been blocking ports, government offices, roads, and railways to create economic disruption and force an end to the occupation of Wet’suwet’en land.

On March 2nd, the Gidimt’en checkpoint published a video calling for continued solidarity actions, asking allies everywhere to keep the pressure on and clarifying that no agreement had been reached regarding the CGL pipeline.

We are here in support of the Wet’suwet’en and inspired by the firekeepers who kept a rail blockade going for more than three weeks in Kahnawake. While this blockade was dismantled voluntarily on March 5th, the firekeepers have moved their fire and acknowledged that they are ready to take more action as is necessary, given that CGL and the RCMP are still in the territory.

This is a crucial time for all of us to act. We are here to send a clear message out west that people all over Canada have their eyes on Wet’suwet’en, and that we know that the tentative agreement reached between the government and the hereditary chiefs last week doesn’t include the removal of CGL from their territory, which is a principle demand of theirs. Places like Tyendinaga, Kahnawake, and Listuguj have been holding it down for so long. We understand this is also a time to gather energies and prepare for the struggles to come. To settlers living in Tiotià:ke and elsewhere, this is a moment where our solidarity is needed more than ever.

CP Rail’s Secret Injunction – and what it tells us

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Mar 062020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

Sometime on Friday March 6^th, 2020 in a secret courtroom on University Ave in Toronto, CP Rail will make a motion to have their interim injunction be extended to an interlocutory one. Didn’t know CP had an injunction just like CN Rail’s? Neither did anyone but CP Rail & Justice Myers – until they decided to serve recent Hamilton arrestees at their homes after 9pm last night.

We spent too much time thumbing through several hundred pages of documents today, and grace you with the highlights here.

The Superior Court of Justice (Ontario) heard the motion for an interim injunction on February 25^th before Justice Myers. It was granted, and then varied on the 26^th. There’s a hearing on March 6^th to extend the injunction. That said, evidence sheets were captures and printed in early February, so they’ve been preparing for awhile.

The injunction itself has an enforcement order, directing police to enforce it immediately. Upon arrest, one would sign a condition stating they’ll abide by the injunction and released, or be brought before the court to be proceeded against for contempt of court.

The injunction not only includes an order to stay 50 feet away from the outside rails of the tracks, and to not trespass, obstruct or block, but also “directly or indirectly intimidating any of CPR’s employees, contractors, agents…”. It also includes interfering with deliveries and contractors to a site, as well as “aiding, abetting, counseling, procuring or encouraging in any fashion any person or entity to commit or attempt to commit the actions mentioned”.

Very thought-crime esque.

But also nearly an exact replica of the CN injunction overall.

Things get slightly more interesting when it comes to the section that includes the evidence needed to file for the injunction – namely to prove or affirm that blockades will irreparably harm their business.

Most of it is still boring, but here are the clif notes:

William Law, who is the district inspector in charge of Ontario and Quebec within the CP Rail police confirmed that red flags and flares on tracks indicate operators must stop immediately. Crews observing them are not permitted to pass beyond them.

General Impacts of Blockades

Rails lines run high value, time sensitive shipments
CPR operates a schedule based railway. Ever wake up a few minutes late and it ruins the flow to your entire day? That’s what blockades do to rail lines.
There is “often no way around a blockade on the main line”
- Train delays will cause backlog on tracks and in some yards, while causing car shortages in other years which compounds disruption.
- Additionally, once the blockade lets up train crews can’t just continue on – the trains must be re-crewed because of service hour limits
In their words, blockades cause “significant economic damage”
24 trains pass on the CP mainliner per day in the Toronto area. Half of them are intermodal (long distance consumer products) and half are mixed manifest.

“The Hamilton Blockade” (their words, not ours)

The Hamilton blockade, while only lasting two days, interrupted rail traffic between Buffalo-Toronto, Chicago-Buffalo-Montreal, Montreal-Chicago, and London-Buffalo.
Tarps strung across the rails successfully blocked the view of officers and photographers from afar
Hamilton Police had a meeting on February 25^th at 9am with the Public Order Unit to discuss and decide a course of action to end the protest. The POU takes approximately 3 hours to convene.
Based on the heavy and increasing police presence, leaving at 5pm on the second day of the blockade saved a lot of people from arrest.

That’s it. We did say only slightly more interesting.

Now mask up, get out there, and get away with it.

Alberta: Reportback on Pipeline Sabotage Behind Enemy Lines

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Mar 062020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

before the sun rose in the early early morning of 02/20/2020 we took direct action against pipeline infrastructure in Acheson AB
outraged by the Reactionary Colonial Mounted Pigs invasion of sovereign Wet’suwet’en territory and in solidarity with the Secwepemc we decommissioned a section of pipe that the klanadian state (financers of this project) had left sitting in the open air with little defense
solidarity means attack

“smile for the camera, boys” shouted the security guard after us
even though the camera could not capture it we were smiling beneath our masks
“joy is arming itself”

we hope to discourage a lot of the fear that currently surrounds resistance
it has now been weeks after a direct attack on a large corporation with no sign of police repression
there are many others living in this colony ready and willing to act
neither the pigs nor reactionary gangs can stop sabotage
do not wait for permission
strike hard while your enemy is unprepared
find your friends and act with joy!
Kenney said we are in a state of anarchy, prove him right!
there are online field guides teaching sabotage

Act spontaneously, but do your homework
we broke our drill bit while eating through the steel pipe these companies publish comprehensive engineering reports which can be found on their own websites
study these and use proper materials
it is worth noting the existence of perimeter-monitoring technology
there was a thick black cable lining the top of the fenced perimeter around the material storage site
it is also possible for these sensor cables to be under topsoil
this perimeter sensor may have tipped off the guard or maybe he found us by the noise we made or by chance but the response was immediate and impotent

This action was done in support of all land defenders
Mohawks who consistently assert their autonomy
Zapatistas and other indigenists in southern Mexico
democratic forces of Rojava
pirates of Somalia
countless tribes of the Amazon
Mapuche in Chile
Standing Rock Sioux Nation
Quechua, Guarani, Aymara of Bolivia
Anishinaabe of Minnesota
feminists in Mexico
redneck coal miners in the Appalachian mountains
rebels of Haiti
farmers of la Z(A)D
to the many nations that inhabit the beaver hills meeting grounds

Many have put effort into reconciling with klanada
consistent colonialism has given only disrespect in return, reconciliation is now dead
to #shutdowncanada colonial land claims must be disputed everywhere alongside the current struggles in so-called BC
the entirety of klanada is illegitimate and there should be insurrection everywhere

Another world is possible!

– your friends in amiskwaciywaskahikan

Allies Against the Colonial State

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Mar 042020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Chambord, route 155, CN bridge
Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Tardigrades Cell

Hamilton Update: News About Arrests and Tips for Staying Safe at the Blockades to Come

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Mar 032020

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

Several arrests in Hamilton have been made in relation to the recent blockade action that saw rail lines shut down in response to the OPP raid in Tyendinaga early this week. Police took people from their homes and workplaces, for a total of 4 arrests at this time. These people are currently all still in police custody and will be appearing in court for bail in the next couple days. While unfortunate and enraging, none of this is surprising. Over the course of the last month, wave after wave of blockades and other actions have swept across the country causing incalculable economic damage and throwing Canada and its treatment of indigenous communities into the global spotlight. It was only a matter of time until the state responded with force and began to target those involved. This week appears to have been a tipping point in this regard, with police increasingly making arrests in different cities.

With resistance comes backlash, repression is a standard tactic used by the state when it is threatened. The history of social movements and liberation struggles is scattered with countless examples of this. Arrests and police harassment are used not only to target specific individuals, but more critically, to instill fear in people more broadly and in doing so, quell action. It is important that we do not let this happen. The best response to state repression is working to make it as unsuccessful a strategy as possible. This is not the time to let intimidation hinder action, rather this is a time to push ourselves and those around us to be brave and continue to act. Some people may choose to continue taking the same actions they have been doing, and others may choose to shift and try different things in response to changing contexts. In any case, the key is continuing to struggle and not allowing the flame of rebellion to be extinguished.

Related to the topic of action, we wanted to say a few things about risk. While risk is an ever-present reality, it is nowhere near a universal thing and different people face very different levels of risk. Tens of thousands of people have participated in actions across the country, and in proportion only a small handful of people have been arrested. There is strength in numbers, and the scope of this struggle has created a context in which it would be difficult (and likely very unpopular from a public opinion standpoint) for there to be large-scale arrests. In the case of Hamilton, only very particular people have been arrested. The people who have been arrested are by and large ‘the usual suspects’ to police in the city. These are people who are highly visible in their antagonistic politics and activities, are already known to (and regularly surveilled and harassed by) Hamilton Police, are currently facing other criminal charges and have conditions and/or just recently concluded other court matters. All of this is to say, if you are someone who participated in the blockade and are worried, the arrests of these people is not an indication at this time that police will be conducting sweeping arrests across the city. That said, this is a good moment to reflect on practices and think about how to reduce risks.

When taking part in these type of activities, we highly encourage folks to consider masking up. Covering your face and concealing your identity to the greatest extent possible does a lot to both decrease your own personal risk and help in keeping others around you safer. The more people who are masked, the harder it is to identify people in crowds. This is not only a matter of state repression. In addition to police taking photos and videos of the action, there were a variety of far-right individuals (and this is not uncommon) who also showed up and attempted to get photos of people involved. Being doxed online is as big of threat as being arrested, and it sucks in its own right. So cover up, you’ll thank yourself later!

Lastly, if others are targeted and do get arrested – know that we have your back. Do not talk to the police under any circumstances, ask to call a lawyer, and wait. You will not face repression alone and will be supported throughout the process. For better or worse we’ve got a fair bit of experience with this stuff, and are good at dealing with. We are a resilient bunch and will help you through any difficult times. Repression isn’t fun, but it is totally survivable and something that in the long run can actually make you stronger, rather than weaker.

See you at the next blockade ;)

Helpful Resources

On masking up and concealing your identity:

https://crimethinc.com/2008/10/11/fashion-tips-for-the-brave

On security culture:

https://north-shore.info/2019/11/05/confidence-courage-connection-trust-a-proposal-for-security-culture/

On lots of things:

https://the-tower.ca/

The Tower (your friendly neighbourhood anarchist social centre) regularly hosts free public events and workshops that cover topics such dealing with arrest, navigating the legal system, and other relevant topics. If you are contacted by the police, and/or want tips on how to prepare for all things repression related you can contact The Tower at thetower@riseup.net and folks involved in that project can provide support.

Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en from France

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Feb 292020

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Last Saturday the 22nd of February, during a great autonomous and popular boxing gala in France, the boxers and spectators showed their solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en who face the assault of the so called BC state, Canada and the RCMP.

We send a message of peace and a message of love to all those who fight to preserve their way of life againt oppression and thus against the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.

May you be strong and victorious in your struggle. We follow it carefully from our side of the ocean.

#WetsuwetenStrong #RCMPoffPlanetEarth #ACAB #shutdowncanada

Note:

We advocate for a multiplication of solidarity actions across the world to show our support and increase presure on the so-called Canada and the colonists.

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