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Report-back on the March 16 Solidarity Vigil/Counter-demo

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Apr 082019

From Montréal Antifasciste

On March 16, the day after the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, Montréal Antifasciste organized a rally in solidarity with the victims, which was simultaneously an antiracist counter-demonstration, given the presence on the site of notorious Islamophobes, one of whom publicly “thanked” the terrorist responsible for the attack.

Here’s a report back:

The day after the white supremacist and fascist terrorist attack in New Zealand found us in a state of shock. Besides the absolutely despicable nature of the attack—the killer filmed and live streamed the murders of fifty people at two different mosques—two things jumped out at us. First, the terrorist’s manifesto indicated the influence of an “ecofascist” discourse, which calls to mind ideas advanced by Atalante Québec and other neo-fascists. Second, he paid homage to Québec terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette by inscribing Bissonnette’s name on one of his cartridge clips.

We were also shocked by what was being published by the Québec fascist scene, which at best claimed the attack was a false flagaction and at worst celebrated it. Adding insult to injury, we soon found out that a number of Islamophobes were planning one of the weekly demonstrations of the (phoney) “Yellow Vests” outside of the Montréal offices of TVA television on Saturday, March 16.

Wishing both to honour the memory of the people who had been murdered and to prevent racists who were celebrating the event from gathering outside of the TVA building we decided to hold a solidarity rally at their usual meeting point. Time was short, and we didn’t know that approximately ten other solidarity events would follow ours, with hundreds of people in attendance. We had hoped that our gathering would make the Islamophobes think twice about showing up outside of TVA out of a basic and obvious respect for those who were in mourning.

We had underestimated their lack of basic decency…

By 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, about a hundred people from different scenes had responded to the Montréal Antifasciste callout to gather outside the doors of TVA behind a banner reading “Contre le racisme et la haine” [Against Racism and Hatred]. The people present were taking turns leading chants, when, at 11:30 a.m., people sporting yellow vests arrived on the sidewalk across the street from us. We were (disagreeably) shocked to discover that the leading the packwas none other than Pierre Dion, the Islamophobic militant recently banned from social media following a series of threats and a pattern of verbal aggression. Eventually, the “Yellow Vests” numbered a few less than twenty. We know that there were people among them who had no idea they were surrounded by Islamophobes, and we don’t hold them in any way responsible. We do, however, believe that this article should be a wake-up call for them.

Here’s a list of the far-right militants who were present:

Pierre Dion, homophobe, and conspiracy theorist who aspires to be the leader of a motley crew of nationalist whack jobs who make La Meute look like diplomats par excellence.

Michel Meunier, aka Mickey Mike, Mickey Mayer or Mickey Myers, Islamophobe and apologist for terrorism (for example, he has called for another Islamophobic attack at a Québec mosque and expressed his “gratitude” for the terrorist attack in Christchurch).

Michel Ethier, aka “Le Piratriote” [roughly, the Pirate Patriot], a vulgar Islamophobe, a fan of ALL CAPS insults, and a member of the Front patriotique du Québec.

Mario Dallaire, an Islamophobe regularly spotted at Storm Alliance rallies and on the “security”team at far-right demonstrations.

Robin « Le prophète » Simon, member of the Front patriotique du Québec and its securityteam, the GSP, now associated with the III % militia.

Claude Roy, an Islamophobic tinkerer known for his Styrofoam creations of questionable taste (and repeated complaints that nobody wants his shit).

André Boies, Islamophoboic propagandist and conspiracy theorist, owner of the Les Manchettes disinformation website, and the translator into French of the manifesto released by the terrorist responsible for the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Boies says he was there by mere happenstance, but we are highly skeptical.)

Without really having to work at it, we identified seven known Islamophobic and racist militants in a group of at most twenty people, which raises some serious questions about the Québec “Yellow Vests” pseudo-movement!

Obviously, as antifascists and antiracists, we couldn’t either just sit around twiddling our thumbs or limit ourselves to a silent vigil. From 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the time set for the “Yellow Vests” rally, we drowned out their chants and their diatribes with our own slogans and prevented them from crossing the street twice, in spite of a muscular police presence.

We were astonished to discover what this “Yellow Vest” movement actually is and who it is made up of. Honestly, up to this point, we hadn’t paid all that much attention to them, but we must say, we did learn some interesting things. . .

Four years of experience tells us that the Islamophobic far-right groupuscules in Québec (first and foremost, PEGIDA Québec, as well as La Meute, Storm Alliance, the Front patriotique du Québec,and all their sad little spinoffs) have a consistent need to demonstrate to justify their existence and disguise their lack of significance, a sort of mad plunging ahead that grows increasingly laughable. They are calling their upcoming ritual demonstration, called for May 4, the“Vague bleue” [Blue Wave]. . .Once again, outside of the TVA offices. It’s obviously an obsession! All of the Islamophobic groups—real and virtual—with the exception of La Meute, are apparently calling for people to join this“Vague bleue.”

Another thing we’ve noticed in this four years is that every time we prevent the far right from demonstrating it grows weaker…

Critical Balance Sheet

We are aware that our gathering on Saturday, March 16, had more of the flavour of a counter-demonstration than of a memorial vigil. We would have liked to hold a memorial, but the presence of Islamophobes across the street made that impossible. Thankfully, in the following week, numerous gatherings reflected the true nature of Montréal: a dignified and diverse city.

In spite of everything, we came out of the experience feeling stronger. We mobilized rapidly (in less than twenty-four hours) and in good numbers (more than one hundred people turned out),including some our closest allies, as well as members of many of Montréal’s diverse communities.

Also notable and encouraging was the obvious popular support we received, even though the chosen site—outside of TVA on Maisonneuve—is in a low-traffic and unappealing area: for example, the group of joggers who passed by middle finger erect in Pierre Dion’s direction, the cyclists and taxis that gave us regular shout-outs, the neighbours who brought us gallons of coffee and hot chocolate, those who came to thank us, infuriated by the weeks of Islamophobic and racist comments on their doorsteps, and the occasional passerby who stopped for a few minutes to talk and share their thoughts with us or to shout a few choice words at Pierre Dion and his gang. We are grateful for everyone’s support. Solidarity is also a matter of small gestures.

– Montréal Antifasciste

///

P.S. Things fall apart for the “Yellow Vests”

When we were outside of TVA on March 16, it was impossible not to notice the silly antics of Anderson Dufresne, who spent the day flailing about in all directions on his “hoverboard,” dancing, singing, not infrequently falling down… and providing a useful foil in the face of accusations of racism (Dufresne is black). The phoney “Yellow Vests,” with Pierre Dion at their head, repeated at least fifty times in three hours: “We can’t be racist; we have our black friend with us!” However, in the few weeks since that gathering, things have gotten tense between Anderson Dufresne and that racist piece of shit Michel Meunier, whom we mentioned above. Things have heated up, with Meunier calling multiple times for Dufresne to be purged from the “Yellow Vests.” Meunier finally let loose with a stream of racism of the vilest kind, egged on by a few other “Yellow Vests,” shining the light of day on the internal contradictions that plague this pseudo-movement. Read Xavier Camus’ report for more details.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete: AI Development in Montreal

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Apr 052019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Our lives are increasingly characterized by algorithms that mediate our relationships to each other and to the world around us. By analyzing our behaviors, our preferences, our networks, and many other aspects of our lives, those who exert power over us manage to stay one step ahead. What’s at stake here is our capacity to have secrets, to resist, to agitate, to attack what destroys everything we love and protects everything we hate. It’s a fight against the new panopticon.

Montreal has become a hub for Artificial Intelligence (AI) development. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to several companies that now offer tons of specialized yuppie jobs in the domain. At the end of 2018, a document of principles surrounding AI development in Montreal was drafted. These principles were written up by some of the biggest players in AI in an effort to address public concerns about the potential of these new technologies. The document, now known as the Montreal Declaration, lists 10 unattainable and ridiculous principles such as: “The development and use of artificial intelligence systems must permit the growth and well-being of all sentient beings”. Such pitiful public relation stunts by the engineers of social control are no longer surprising. AI will soon be integrated into nearly all spheres of society, from finance and the extractive economy to healthcare and policing. From now on, in a multitude of domains, any entity that wishes to be competitive will need to integrate AI into its operations. States will apply these technologies to expand their capacity for social control, surveillance, and military intervention. We think that it can be useful to shed some light on different projects in the city to demonstrate the intentions of some key players. In order to start a conversation and develop ideas for intervention, we decided to map out Montreal’s AI industry and its allies.

The AI milieu in Montreal is extremely interconnected. Dozens of companies work together to simultaneously develop AI systems for a variety of economic, social, and political goals. The Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms (MILA), operating out of the University of Montreal (UDM), is one of the leading institutions in terms of research and coordination of projects. According to Valerie Pisano, the president of MILA, “today, there is a buzz around Montreal and artificial intelligence, we are one of the world leaders in terms of creation, production, and inspiration of talents”. MILA’s mission, according to their website, is to federate researchers in the area of Deep Learning and Machine Learning (see FAQ for definitions). They want to share their infrastructure, knowledge and skills with a pool of companies that could benefit from opportunities opened up by their research.

“The machine learning laboratory at the University of Montreal is led by seven professors, Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Aaron Courville, Prof. Pascal Vincent, Prof. Roland Memisevic, Prof. Christopher Pal, Prof. Laurent Charlin, and Prof. Simon Lacoste-Julien, all of whom are leading world experts in machine learning, especially in the rapidly growing field of deep learning.” MILA also has offices in the O Mile Ex building located in the Parc Extension neighborhood, at 6666 Saint-Urbain Street. O Mile Ex is a part of MILA’s effort to provide a platform for collaboration, share infrastructure, and provide access to their research to a pool of companies. The space hosts numerous companies specialized in research and development for deep-learning, defense, security, and transportation work. Institutions such as Thales, QuantumBlack, the Institute For Data Valorization, and Element AI all have offices at O Mile Ex. Designed by the Lemay architecture firm (known for designing police headquarters, a migrant prison, etc), this tech hub is a hostile force for the residents of Parc-Ex. Not only are these projects likely to negatively affect the lives of the people living there, but they also contribute to gentrifying this largely immigrant neighborhood to accommodate the developers and students working there.

Yoshua Benjio, professor and director at MILA, is one of the pioneers of AI research worldwide, and his expertise has been sought after by various institutions throughout the years. Although Benjio and his team claim to be firmly opposed to the weaponization of AI systems, MILA seems to be working closely with Thales. Thales Canada develops and provides information systems for defense and security, aerospace, and transportation markets in Canada and internationally. It offers command, control, communications and computer-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance products, force protection products, and radar and night vision systems. Thales has opened its own private lab at the O Mile Ex building.

MILA has also accepted 4.5 million dollars over three years from Google, which brings us to our next players in Montreal’s AI industry: Hugo Larochelle, Shibl Mourad, and Aaron Brindle. Hugo is Google’s AI research director in Montreal and works at the Google Brain Lab, Shibl is the tech engineering director at Google’s Montreal offices, and Aaron is responsible for communications at Google Canada. Google is planning to double its capacity to operate in Montreal by 2020, when they will move from their current offices at 1253 McGill College to a space twice the size at 425 Viger Street West.

Google has been providing AI technology for drone strike targeting to the Defense Department of the United States. Google tried to obscure this relationship by routing this collaboration through a northern Virginia tech company called ECS Federal. They use deep learning tools to help drone analysts interpret the vast array of image data from the military’s fleet of drones in countries like Syria and Iraq.

Whether it’s the US Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work talking about working with ECS/Google on algorithmic warfare designed to “accelerate [the Department of Defense’s (DoD)] integration of big data and machine learning” and “turn the enormous volume of data available to DoD into actionable intelligence and insights at speed,” or Google devices normalizing the use of forensics like voiceprint, GPS location, search histories and preferences, and so much more, these kinds of developments and future Google projects should be recognized as what they are: tools of social control meant to reconfigure the way that capital flows and the world is governed. It is unclear which projects are being developed in Montreal specifically, but technological advances made in one field can easily be re-purposed and adapted to many other fields.

This arsenal of domination is being pushed forward by companies and people working here in Montreal. Such developments are being used internationally to police communities, silence dissent, and limit people’s capacity to attack the existing order.

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is so ubiquitous that it has become part of our language as a verb. But behind its cool, friendly, 21st-century tech image lies a business model based on surveillance capitalism. Examples include:

“Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers—even when location services are disabled—and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals’ locations and their movements that go far beyond [user’s] expectation of privacy.”

“In Toronto Google is part of the ‘smart city’ project. Its sister- company ‘Side Walk Labs’ is specialized on the matter. This cool name stands for a city where equipment can detect, analyze and collect data in real time, being present at every street corner, installed in the ground and attached to the walls . Everyone will be monitored, for the sake of ‘efficiency’ or saving costs.”

“Machines are increasingly making decisions that influence every aspect of our life. People are being turned into mere series of numbers: Who gets access to credit, how much does insurance cost, who has the right to board a plane, who gets killed by a drone. This is only possible through the harvesting of data by companies like Google.”

(from FuckoffGoogle.de, website from the fight against Google in Germany)

All of the usual suspects are also very active in Montreal. For instance, Facebook’s artificial intelligence research program or FAIR directed by Joelle Pineau is actively working on Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and Microsoft owned lab Maluuba specializes in deep learning and is trying to double its size by 2020 to have 80 engineers. Microsoft President Brad Smith “is excited to engage with faculties, students and the broader tech community in Montreal, which is becoming a global hub for AI research and innovation.” Several lesser-known but similarly fucking huge companies are also working in Montreal. CGI is a company headquartered in Montreal with hundreds of offices worldwide. Founded in 1976 by Serge Godin and André Imbeau as an IT consulting firm, they soon began branching out into new markets and acquiring other companies. They have customers in a wide array of industries, with many in financial services, public safety (police forces), and defense. CGI also develops products and services for markets such as telecommunications, health, manufacturing, oil and gas, posts and logistics, retail and consumer services, transportation, and utilities. On their website, CGI says it works on developing deep learning, the Internet of Things, augmented reality, smart cities, and automated data analysis tools.

Another firm, Deloitte, has offices in Montreal, and has clients from San Diego to Buenos Aires to India. They are inspired by disturbing case studies in predictive policing and crowd-sourced repression. Here are a few examples from their website:

“The 2011 riots in London were an incredibly chaotic time. There were more than 20,000 emergency calls to police, a 400 percent increase from a normal day; and almost 2,200 calls to the London Fire Brigade, which is 15 times the normal amount. To help catch those involved, the London Metropolitan Police crowd sourced the identities of 2,880 suspects using a smart-phone application. The police asked citizens to download the Face Watch ID app and help identify the persons through images taken from CCTV footage. If an image was known to them, citizens entered the name or address of the person, which was sent to the police immediately and confidentially. This enabled the police to effectively apprehend suspects and led to charges being filed against 1,000 perpetrators.”

“In a city of over four million, and with a crime rate that rose in all categories in 2015, the Los Angeles Police Department knew that it needed to take action. To help tackle crime, Los Angeles piloted a new tool incorporating some of the top Smart Security thinking: PredPol. The mission of PredPol is simple: place officers at the right time and location to give them the best chance of preventing crime. The tool, which has been piloted in the Los Angeles and Santa Cruz police departments, uses three data points – past type, place, and time of crime – to predict criminal behavior. These data points are fed into a unique algorithm, which incorporates criminal behavior patterns. Law enforcement then receive customized crime predictions, automatically generated for each shift in their jurisdiction. These predictions are highly specific and lay out the places, mapped to 500 by 500 feet squares, and times where crimes are most likely to occur. While still only a pilot, PredPol has already brought down property crimes by 13 percent in one of the divisions.”

“Risk Assessment and Sentencing Tool or RAST is a sophisticated data analytics engine that helps classify offenders as low-, medium-, and high-risk and makes targeted sentencing recommendations based on a host of case-specific factors. The RAST canvasses large data repositories across multiple states and jurisdictions, accounting for both static and dynamic factors. Static factors are unchangeable circumstances related to crimes and offenders, such as offense type, current age, criminal history, and age at first arrest. Dynamic factors, sometimes called criminogenic factors, can be mediated by interventions and include attitude, associates, substance use, and antisocial personality patterns. The RAST is more advanced and more useful to judges, juries, and parole boards in three specific ways. First, since the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice administers it at the federal level, it relies on an exceptionally large, nationwide data set. Second, the data is continually reassessed for its predictive validity: It is reviewed annually to determine how often RAST correctly classifies offenders, accounts for static and dynamic factors, and makes effective sentencing decisions as measured by the rate of recidivism. Finally, RAST differs from traditional risk assessment tools because it takes into account more than answers to questionnaires. Static and dynamic factors are used in combination with specific, real-time data such as an offender’s behavior and location.”

The Canadian Bar Association is also talking about implementing AI in the justice system here. Karim Benyekhlef, the expert on the matter, is responsible for the cyberjustice lab at UDM.

Fujitsu has also been making waves in the city. Montreal is planning to sign a 2-million-dollar contract with the Japanese company to make the city “smarter”. Fujitsu is supposed to develop systems that will help direct traffic in order to improve emergency response time. The company would link all of the city’s traffic cameras into a single network to analyze the flow of traffic in order to increase efficiency and monitor traffic.

So why are all of these institutions choosing Montreal? Partly because of ongoing research and a skilled workforce that was established over a decade ago, but also because of incentives created by the state. In September 2016, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund allocated $84 million to McGill University for their Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives (HBHL) initiative and $93.5 million to Université de Montréal for Optimization of Deep Learning and Knowledge Sharing (IVADO). In March 2017, $40 million was allocated to Montreal from the Government of Canada’s $125M Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, administered by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). In spring 2017, $100 million was allocated by the Quebec government for the creation of a province-wide cluster and institute for Artificial Intelligence. In March 2018, the Quebec government announced a grant of $5 million toward the establishment of an international organization on artificial intelligence and $10 million to NEXT.AI and CDL, initiatives of HEC Montreal, over the next five years. SCALE.AI, now partnered with NEXT.AI, is part of a new consortium that will form an international platform of logistical chains that integrate AI. In December 2018, the government of Canada gave 280 million dollars to this new giant managed by Hélène Desmarais, wife of Paul Desmarais – President of Power Corp. She is also executive president at IVADO.

Moving Forward

This research on the network of AI players in Montreal is by no means complete. The list keeps getting longer and the scope of the industry is not about to stop expanding. Others can take this as a starting point and dig deeper.

Although the scope of these projects seems to be all-encompassing, odds are that a lot of the development and applications of these technologies are still in their infancy and quite vulnerable. However, the possibility that these projects will reach their completion in the near future is very likely. We like to think that through our actions, we can inspire others to attack these developments on which systems of domination and social control will increasingly depend. Through conversations and research, we can find the weaknesses of these architects of complacency, and strike.

– some individuals against authority

April 2019, Montreal // Tio’ti:ake

FAQ

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence in the field of computer science that often uses statistical techniques to give computers the ability to “learn” with data, without being explicitly programmed. While ML is often described as a sub-discipline of AI, it’s better to think of it as the current state-of-the-art – it’s the field of AI which today is showing the most promise at providing tools that industry and society can use.

What is Deep Learning?

Deep learning is a particular subset of machine learning. While this branch of programming can become very complex, it started with a very simple question: “If we want a computer system to act intelligently, why don’t we model it after the human brain?” That one thought spawned many efforts in past decades to create algorithms that mimicked the way the human brain worked—and that could solve problems the way that humans did. Those efforts have yielded increasingly competent analysis tools that are used in many different fields.

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things (IoT) comes down to the concept of connecting any device with an on/off switch to the Internet (and/ or to each other). This includes everything from cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. This also applies to components of machines, for example a jet engine of an airplane or the drill of an oil rig. The point is that data moves in a web of interconnected items to make everything ‘smart’.

Example:

You come home at night. Your smart home recognizes you, and automatically adjusts lighting, temperature, ambient sound. Your domestic items chatter among themselves. “What’s up?”, your computer asks your mobile phone, camera, and all your smart mobile devices, which provide it with daily data. Your smart fridge notes that you eat the last yogurt, and orders more immediately on the Internet.[…] A glance to one of your screens reassures you of your old mother who lives alone: the sensors securing her smart home do not report anything unusual about her blood pressure and medication consumption. She does not need help. In short, without you, your life unfolds just as it should. It’s such a convenience.

(IBM & the Society of Constraint)

Unist’ot’en Camp Gearing Up for Spring Construction Camp

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Apr 042019

From the Unist’ot’en Camp

UPDATES FROM THE FRONTLINES

HEAL THE PEOPLE – DEFEND THE LAND

6TH ANNUAL SPRING CONSTRUCTION CAMP

Volunteers Needed for Cabin Building Projects in May!

Spring camp runs from May 6 to 31

With spring coming early to the north, plans are underway for new projects across WET’SUWET’EN TERRITORY, including cabin construction for WET’SUWET’EN PEOPLE. Following the invasion of our territories by RCMP and industry, we are continuing to reoccupy our lands – helping our people reconnect with, reclaim, and protect our homelands

We need people with CARPENTRY, COOKING, AND CAMPING SKILLS, or a good attitude and a willingness to learn. “Many hands make quick work!”

The UNIST’OT’EN CAMP is not a blockade, a protest, or a demonstration – it is a permanent, non-violent occupation of UNIST’OT’EN TERRITORY, established to protect our homelands from illegal industrial encroachments and to preserve a space for our community to heal from the violence of colonization. This year, UNIST’OT’EN volunteers will be working with other WET’SUWET’EN clans to support WET’SUWET’EN sovereignty.

We prefer volunteers who are able to spend two weeks or more supporting us, but welcome any contribution of time and effort.

Please be prepared to work under the leadership and protocols of the Indigenous stewards of the YINTAH. Supporters are asked to register here in advance: http://unistoten.camp/come-to-camp/camp-registration/

Our spring camp will run from MAY 6 TO MAY 31. Supporters are needed prior to and following the work camp as well, so if your schedule conflicts with our work camp dates, please apply regardless.

If you are not able to make it in person, consider sending a financial contribution to help cover our operational costs.

DONATE TO UNIST’OT’EN CAMP

To maintain safety and security we prefer volunteers to either have previous experience at the Unist’ot’en Camp or be able to provide references from one or more persons who have been to the Camp or are known within the movement.

If you meet that criteria and are physically fit for the hard work of supporting the camp and checkpoints, prepared to commit at least one week or more and are prepared to work under the leadership and protocols of the Indigenous stewards of the Yintah then register HERE.

… AND ONE MORE SPECIAL REQUEST TO SUPPORTERS IN THE LOWER MAINLAND AREA OF BC:

Please reply to this email if you can possibly billet volunteers passing through the Vancouver area and needing a place to stay – usually for just one night – in order to connect with their ride to Camp.

The Bunkhouse was built in the summer of 2014 followed by the Healing Centre constructed in stages over the next 3 years.

THE PROTECTION OF INDIGENOUS SOVEREIGNTY AND MOTHER EARTH MUST BE FOUGHT BOTH ON THE LAND AND IN THE COLONIAL COURTS. WE NEED YOUR FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO SUCCEED IN BOTH. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE GENEROUSLY, WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD.

DONATE TO UNIST’OT’EN LEGAL FUND

DONATE TO GIDIMT’EN ACCESS POINT

STAY UP-TO-DATE WITH LATEST DEVELOPMENTS AS THEY HAPPEN

It began with the UNIST’OT’EN CAMP in 2010. Then as the RCMP prepared to assault the Healing Centre checkpoint at the Wedzin Kwah bridge the GIDUMT’EN CLAN stepped up with their own Access Point at KM 44 of the Morice River Forest Service Road. Now other WET’SUWET’EN clans have joined the effort to protect the entire territory of the Nation. Things are moving quickly on both sides of this pivotal confrontation between present-day colonialism and still vibrant Indigenous sovereignty so we urge you to bookmark these links to stay informed and be prepared to respond on a “real-time basis”:

Unist’ot’en Camp
Wet’suwet’en Access point on Gidimt’en territory
Sovereign Likhts’amisyu and Namoks
Tsayu Land Defenders
Unist’ot’en Website
Gidimt’en Website

ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT UPDATES FOR SUPPORTERS

If you are planning a fundraising event or campaign make sure to read
the newly released fundraising protocols.:

Unist’ot’en

Gidimt’en

SIGN THE PLEDGE

Join hundreds of organizations and 13,843 individuals in signing the pledge to support UNIST’OT’EN and the WET’SUWET’EN:
https://goo.gl/forms/GE5bfm5ITDTyNPy12

#UNISTOTEN #WETSUWETENSTRONG #WEDZINKWA #NOPIPELINES #NOTRESPASS

Collaborators of the CAQ

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Apr 042019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

** To be shared widely in teaching milieus and beyond **

The Coalition Avenir Québec is moving forward with its ban on the wearing of religious symbols by many public sector workers.

No matter the party in power, we’re against the government telling people how to dress, as well as feeding fear and hatred of Muslims, and Muslim women in particular, under the pretext of “secularism”.

Any government policy takes effect only through those who apply it and collaborate. For this reason we are making a call to identify those who participate in the enforcement of this law in public institutions. For example, someone who calls the police on an employee in their workplace for wearing a religious symbol, who harrasses them, who denounces them to their superior, who fires them, or who refuses to hire them for this reason.

We invite you to send the information you have about the person who is applying the law (name, organization, job title, photo, etc.) with a description of their actions and their consequences to doxxlescollabos@riseup.net. We’ll do our own research so that we can then publish as much information as possible about the person enacting state-sanctioned racism.

We’re aware that the law will also apply to cops of various types. Cops are the guard dogs of this rotten system based on colonialism and racism, so we have to say that we really don’t care about a cop’s job security, regardless of their religion. As a consequence, let us clarify as a matter of form that any information received about a police service or prison guard will only be used to support research into the links between these agencies and far-right groups in Quebec.

We won’t calm down. If you collaborate with the government by policing religious symbols in a workplace, we’re watching you!

Call to Disrupt the Nature Champions Summit

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Apr 012019

From Printemps tout le temps [Facebook page]

April 24th and 25th, Montreal will host a “Nature Champions Summit” bringing together “major philanthropists, business leaders, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, Indigenous leaders and environment ministers from around the world”.

While the planet burns, the poorest populations suffer the violent consequences of ecological disasters, and animal species rapidly disappear, politicians hope to gather peacefully for one more congress. We don’t need yet another summit organized by the Canadian state, known for its extractivist economy, and which just bought a pipeline for 4.5 billion dollars, telling us that a “new partnership” between a handful of ministers and major capitalists will save us from the climate crisis. These “Nature Champions” are responsible for the catastrophe in progress. There is no way we can let them continue to administer disaster with their hollow promises.

April 24 and 25, 2019, let’s disrupt their summit! Let’s multiply actions and demonstrations to show that the “Nature Championship” will be won by those who defend the water, the land, and all that lives on it, not by those that exploit them.

Sodexo Attacked

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Apr 012019

Suzanne Bergeron, présidente de Sodexo Canada

Suzanne Bergeron, president of Sodexo Canada

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

In the early morning of March 29th, the president of Sodexo Canada was visited at her home in Brossard. All the tires of the two cars in her driveway were slashed, their windshields were smashed in, and FUCK SODEXO and (A) were written on their hoods.

Sodexo profits from imprisonment around the world. They offer among other things management services for private prisons and migrant detention centers, and cafeteria services for prisons.

In Canada more specifically, they profit from the extractive economy by offering security and cafeteria services for extraction sites.

This action is in solidarity with anarchist prisoners everywhere.

Prison profiteers must not sleep peacefully. The companies considering taking contracts for the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval should think twice.

Migrant Prison: Attacks on Lemay Condo Developments

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Mar 262019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

On the night of March 19th, the sales office of Humaniti had its windows smashed and two Lowney towers were redecorated using paint-filled fire extinguishers. What do these condo developments have in common? They were both designed by the Lemay architecture firm, which is helping to build a new migrant prison in Laval, Quebec.

Why not disturb the peace and quiet of the citizens occupying these luxury condos, whose wealth and comfort are founded upon the dispossession, exploitation, and imprisonment of those who have been here since before the colonization of this continent, those newcomers seeking a better life, survival, or pushed here by empire, and everyone who resists the prevailing order?

Lemay, we hope you enjoy informing your future potential clients that their projects will be sabotaged if they hire you. Should you choose not to inform them, we will enjoy giving them a costly surprise.

To all those struggling against borders in so-called Quebec and Canada: let us relentlessly attack the companies and agencies involved in any way in the construction of this migrant prison, so that it can’t be built!

Fire to the prisons! Sabotage borders, their enforcers, and collaborators!

Anticapitalist MayDay 2019 – Cabot Square – 6:30PM

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Mar 262019

From the Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes

On Wednesday May 1st, at 6:30pm, in Square Cabot, the anticapitalist caravan is back at it again to say fuck your borders and fuck your prisons!

For people fleeing miserable living conditions, what are borders if not fences around prisons? After all, what’s the difference between forcing people to live inside arbitrary perimeters against their will and imprisoning them?

Being forced to work for a Canadian company in Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, or elsewhere isn’t much better than being detained. These companies produce all of the useless junk that forms the basis of our modern comfort. The fact that the factories are so far away from Canada makes the exploitation less visible for westerners, though it is clear that slavery has not vanished; it’s only been given a different label. Exploited people pick our fruits, sew our clothes, catch our fish, and die for the rich to get richer, day after day, after day, after day…

When those exploited try to rebel, imperialist states are always happy to sell corrupt governments, armed groups, local prison guards all the weapons and tools to repress anyone who wishes to change the system. Police officers in Central America, guns in Africa, funds in Asia… everything needed to keep local populations under control. Everything needed to support the shaky pyramid of capitalism.

Under these circumstances, how can we not see migrant caravans as people fleeing prisons of poverty and misery? Escaping endless exploitation? This escape is however unacceptable for an imperialist state. States finance complex networks to kidnap freedom seekers and take them back to their original cells where they can waste away working; a network made up of border agents, prisons for migrant families, and immigration police. An entire chain running from Canada to international neo-colonies. A chain made up of imprisoned children, families torn apart, abused women, dead men, and assassinated hopes.

Capitalism is the accumulation of wealth up North at the expense of the global South. It’s the construction of a padded fortress destined for a privileged handful, at the expense of all human decency. Capitalism is the eternal exploitation of three quarters of humanity. This Mayday, let’s attack the sinister agents of capital, the bloodied hands of slave masters: the border infrastructure, the companies gaining wealth building prisons, the inhuman deportation machine. This Mayday, we say fuck borders, prisons, and all who continue to build fences between peoples.

This Mayday, let’s march for freedom! Let’s march for the death of a system that spits on humanity! Let’s march against Capital!

Main Starting Point

Meetup at 6:30 in Cabot square (Atwater metro station).
To follow the state of the protests on Twitter
Legal Support (in French)

Other Demonstrations and Starting Points

IWW demonstration (détails to come soon)

On the same day as the Christchurch massacre, an Islamophobic Québécois propagandist translates and publishes the terrorist’s manifesto

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Mar 262019

From Montréal-Antifasciste

On Friday, March 15, 2019, less than 24 hours after the Islamophobic massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, a Québec internet site published a French translation of the killer’s manifesto.

Why would someone be in such a rush to translate this document and amplify the killer’s message? This wasn’t a just some error that we can chalk up to a serious journalistic blunder: it was the intentional signal boosting of an Islamophobic manifesto. The translator’s online Islamophobia is extensive and well-documented.

Let’s not forget that what we’re talking about is a seventy-four-page document published by the killer as a part of a propaganda and public relations operation meant to explain why he did what he did, and that in it he pronounces his allegiance to fascism and calls on white supremacists the world over to imitate his actions.

So who was it that published the manifesto in French?

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to read the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

A tweet from Lesmanchettes.com encouraging people to download the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto.

It appeared on the Les Manchettes website, a website that has existed since 2017 and that specializes in sharing and spinning fake news, conspiracy theories, and nationalist, conservative, and Islamophobic texts. Everything points to Les Manchettes being the work of one person, who maintains the site and signs most, if not all of the articles André Boies, who goes by the alias Bo Bois on Facebook.

The Lesmanchettes.com website is registered to André Boies.

André Boies posts the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to his Twitter account.

There is no doubt that Boies is the French translator of the manifesto and that he posted it. For one thing, he was quick to brag about it on Facebook:

André Boies admits to having translated the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto to French.

If that weren’t enough evidence that he was the translator, Boies either did not know how or forgot to remove the metadata from the pdf of the document posted online, which identifies the owner of the software used in its production:

Metadata extracted from the pdf file of the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto show “André Boies” as author.

In a discussion with some fellow Islamophobes, Boies says he made a copy of the video of the attack “au ka qu’on (le) censure” (sic) [in case it is censored]:

Who Is André Boies?

André Boies is a graphic designer who lives in Montréal. He is very active in Québec’s nationalist fascistic milieu on Facebook and Twitter and publishes at least one article a week on the Les Manchettes website. He owns a web design company called “Graphixab,” which is just one in a long list of ephemeral companies connected to him. He hopes to be of service to the Québec nationalist milieu, offering his skills to design stickers for far-right militants.

Boies, like most of the legion of goofs who make up the Québec far right, is obsessed with Islam, as he indicates in a number of ways, including in his online comments (Coudonc, tout le monde la [sic] dit que l’islam c’est de la grosse marde!) [Come on, everyone says that Islam is a pileof shit!]. He also uses his various company façades, including his “Sticker Deal” Twitter account, to advance conspiracy theories, e.g., that the action was a “false-flag attack”(Sondage: Pensez-vous que l’attentat survenu en Nouvelle-Zélande soit un possible false flag?) [Poll: Do you think that the New Zealand attack might have been a false flag?].

On line for only a few years now, his website includes dozens of bluntly and unrestrainedly Islamophobic articles of the kind that resonate with the vast majority of right-wing and far-right nationalist circles in Québec, and which are becoming increasingly normalized in Western society. Boies also uses his website to advance absolutely absurd and slanderous conspiracy theories, such as the idea that halal certification in Canada is used to finance terrorism! One only has to make a summary Google search to realize how obsessed he is with Islam and Muslims.

An example of the Islamophobic headlines found on André Boies’ website.

Here is a sample of his Islamophobic and xenophobic posts (including a graph supporting the “great replacement” theory, which is at the core of the Christchurch killer’s manifesto):

Boies’ tumultuous criminal history shows that he is no stranger to slander! He even had a pissing contest with the SQ in 2012 about which of them was the worst of slanderer. This obviously wound him up, because it remains an obsession of his even today…

André Boies is concerned with slander.

A Québecois de souche who even the Parti Québécois finds embarrassing

Boies is clearly part of the hard core “patriot” movement of the variety that finds La Meute insufficiently radical and too federalist. In the summer and autumn of 2018, when internal splits within the far-right were multiplying and an election was forthcoming, Boies decided to campaign aggressively for the PQ.

André Boies, Parti Québécois activist.

André Boies campaigns for the PQ…

He was even pathetic enough to cover his car with PQ themed stickers when he went to intimidate Québec Solidaire volunteers in Rosemont! (VICE documented his humiliation when, in August 2018, the Parti Québécois demanded that he remove their logo and party colors from his car.)

André Boies’ car covered with the Parti Québécois’ colours.

André Boies recounts his encounter with police after he allegedly harassed people around a private Québec Solidaire event in Rosemont.

Why would he publish the killer’s manifesto?

Boies may claim to have translated and published the manifesto for purely journalistic reasons, but any professional or specialist in information technology will tell you that a signal boosting gesture of this sort is ethically challenged in the extreme and doubtless motivated by other concerns.

André Boies spins the Christchurch terrorist’s manifesto with the Lesmanchettes.com Twitter account.

From our point of view, publishing this manifesto in French is more than a simple error in judgement. Given Boies’s Islamophobic history, we can be forgiven for thinking that his incentive was a desire to spread as broadly as possible the killer’s message and his motivations for a terrorist act that cost the lives of fifty members of Muslim communities in New Zeland.

It is also no coincidence that on the day after the action André Boies was seen sniffing around the (phoney) Islamophobic Yellow Vests outside of TVA, across the street from a gathering honoring the victims of the massacre. He obviously wasn’t there to join either gathering, because he only stayed at a distance for a few minutes taking photos of the antiracist and antifascist militants. He published an article the same day bemoaning the waste of public resources that this solidarity gathering led to.

A call for vigilance and for action against Islamophobia

At this point, Islamophobia has been so trivialized in Québec that on the day fifty people were massacred a far-right nationalist militant could rapidly translate —albeit poorly— and diffuse a terrorist manifesto on social media platforms without a single comment in the mainstream media or, for that matter, without anyone denouncing it. (At the same time, in Ontario, the authorities “launched an investigation” of a notorious neo-Nazi who posted the manifesto on his website and of another who published a list of proposed targets for lone wolf attacks.)

It’s about time that we collectively address the depth of the problem with Islamophobia in Québec and Canadian society and that antiracist forces combine their efforts to counter by any means necessary the increasing normalization of hate and intolerance, particularly against Muslim communities.

One of the simplest things we can do that is to identify and denounce those like André Boies who actively promote Islamophobia.

P.-S. Boies also came sniffing around the Manifestation contre le racisme et la Xénophobie, in Montréal, Sunday March 24. He was baffled when antifascists called him by name and asked him to leave stat. He even wrote an article about the encounter for his site…

« Je n’ai vraiment aucun commentaire négatif contre ces antifas, ils ont été quand même sympathiques, ils m’ont quand même demandé très poliment de quitter les lieux. »
[I don’t have anything negative to say about the antifas, they were friendly, they politely asked me to leave.]

Thanks, André. Now you’ll know that we’ve highlighted your name in our little book of scumbags to keep an eye out for.

Updated Call! Deadline extended until April 1st

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Mar 242019

From Stoppons la Prison

The government has announced that they are extending the bidding period until April 1, 2019. We hope this means that the companies have received many calls and are refusing to bid on the contract! Regardless, even a small delay of the construction calendar is welcome. We encourage people to keep calling until April 1st to make our message clear! See revised details below, including contact information for one additional company.

Call in, email, and fax campaign background

The Canadian government is attempting to construct a new migrant prison in Laval, QC. The building, set to be built by 2021, would hold 158 people, including children, increasing the government’s capacity to control and deport migrants in a context of rising xenophobia and racism across Canada and in Quebec specifically. Though the prison is being billed as “more humane” than the current detention centre, it’s clear that aesthetic improvements will not stop this from being a prison: it will still rip people from their families and communities and be an integral part of the deportation machine.

The land at the site of the proposed new migrant prison has been readied for construction, and the bidding process for the General Contractor has begun. On February 20th, a group of people shut down a planned visit to the construction site for interested companies. They talked to company representatives about the nature of the project and why they should not participate in building this prison. Many companies are unfortunately still bidding for the contract.

Let’s show these companies that there is widespread disapproval for this project, and that there will be resistance if construction begins! WE HAVE UNTIL APRIL 1st, the deadline for bids, to get these companies to pull out of the process.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Join the campaign to let these companies know that what they’re doing is reprehensible! Get together with friends and family, send some emails, make some calls, or send some faxes between now and APRIL 1st.

Free faxes can be sent using any of the following websites:
https://www.gotfreefax.com
https://faxzero.com

When you get in touch with these companies, here’s a sample script you can draw on if you want:

Hello,
I’m [calling/e-mailing] you today to tell you that you should drop your bid for the Laval immigrant detention centre. It’s a morally reprehensible project, and it faces widespread opposition – being involved with it will reflect badly on your company. It’s designed to imprison and deport people who are trying to immigrate here, and it will rip apart families and violently take people out of their communities. That’s part of a racist approach to migration on the part of Canada that we need to challenge rather than support. It’s not something I stand for, and I’m far from alone in that position. Make the right choice and drop your bid for this project.

Groups

If you’re a community organization or activist group, we encourage you to ask your members to call/e-mail/fax. Invite people to your space to make calls & send e-mails and faxes together!

THE COMPANIES

These companies want to build a new migrant prison in Laval. Contact them to tell them to drop out of the bidding process!

1. COMPANY: Corporation de construction Germano
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Richard A. Germano
TITLE: Président
EMAIL: info@germanoconstruction.com
PHONE: 450 668-7807
FAX: 450 668-5002

2. COMPANY: Construction SOCAM ltée
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Richard Paradis
TITLE: Estimateur Senior
EMAIL: r.paradis@socam.ca
PHONE: 450 662-9000 #223 or 450 662-9000
FAX: 450 662-9838

3. COMPANY: Groupe Geyser
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Lina Tremblay
TITLE: Estimateur
EMAIL: ltremblay@groupegeyser.com
PHONE: 450 625-2003
FAX: 450 625-2883

4. COMPANY: Tisseur Inc.
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Jacques Hosson
TITLE: Estimateur
EMAIL: estimation@tisseur.com
PHONE: 819 322-1523 #258
FAX: 819 322-6766

5. COMPANY: Construction CYBCO
EMAIL: info@cybco.ca
PHONE: 514 284-2228

6. COMPANY: VCI Contrôles inc.
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Joseph Jacob
TITLE: Chargé de projet
EMAIL: jjacob@vcicontrols.ca, pcraig@vcicontrols
PHONE: 450 442-3555 poste 101
FAX: 450 442-3337

7. COMPANY: Bruneau électrique Inc.
EMAIL: info@bruneauelectrique.com
PHONE: 514 353-4343, 450 759-6606
Fax: 450 759-2653

8. COMPANY: Standard Building Contractors
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Shane Ross
TITLE: President
EMAIL: shane@standard.builders
PHONE: 613 847-7258

9. COMPANY: Securassure
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Matthew Poplaw
TITLE: Sales
EMAIL: matthew@securassure.ca
PHONE: 514 373-3131
FAX: 1 855 439-9500

10. COMPANY: ALTEL inc. a Convergint Company
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Jean-Hugues Thibault
TITLE: Sales Director
EMAIL: jean-hugues.thibault@altel.ca
PHONE: 4389907791
GOOGLE+: http://www.altel.ca/en/home/

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