mtlcounter-info

Notes on Our March 15th

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Mar 182019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

I want to remember how it felt to be shook by the beauty of the crowd. Fear and anxiety dissipate as a hundred-strong black bloc takes the street, realizing its collective power that compels police units to maintain a safe distance. It’s happening. We can do this.

Attacking luxury cars, hotels, and banks when the police have been made unable to defend them is an attack on the police, which depends on the perception that it can maintain law and order to be respected by good citizens and feared by the excluded. A call-and-response of shattering glass echoes down Peel Street, as projectiles fly at bank windows in quick succession. Not to worry, several rocks, flares, and at least one decent firework are reserved for the SPVM.

Spontaneity works pretty well sometimes, and it’s cool when people roll a dumpster out of an alley, someone else drops a flare in it to start a small fire, an “ACAB” gets tagged on the front, and others decide to charge with it at some cops up ahead, all in the span of sixty seconds, as though carefully choreographed. Our time together is limited, yet expansive.

Riot cops arrived from behind on Maisonneuve and quickly shot tear gas, which had its usual effect on such a relatively small demo. Two people were arrested, and some people were hurt. This brings us to the requisite tactical suggestions for next time:

Making dispersal dangerous (for the cops): when a demo splits into multiple directions after the police attack, we could try to keep our composure, check in with our friends and new surroundings, and see if we can regroup with the others who turned the same corner. We may be smaller in number, but the cops’ attention is divided, and they are unlikely to be positioned to attack us again right away. We might even come across isolated groups of police that are unprepared for a hostile crowd. The state is using chemical weapons and blunt force to cut short a joyous departure from the devastating routine of a prison society, and it might be injuring our friends: let’s respond to the height of their aggression.

Accelerant: let’s bring some/use it? The aforementioned dumpster would have made a better battering ram if it was more fully on fire.

Review of Black Bloc Manual 13th Edition, Chapter 12: choosing the right tool for the job. Not everything is a substitute for a good hammer. Secondly, covering your face isn’t enough to be anonymous. If your mask or something else about your attire stands out amongst the crowd, it could help the cops track you (via undercovers, livestream, or video footage after the fact), which could put you in greater danger as the demo is ending or afterwards.

The rear of the demo: the dispersal tactics on Friday and in the election night demo last October were identical: riot cops arrive about a block away behind the demo and shoot tear gas. The panic that circulates can allow them to drive vehicles straight into the running crowd, accelerating the dispersal. What could a combative crew of people holding down the rear of the demo accomplish? No specific proposals to make here, but we think this is an area for improvement.

Warm greetings to all the other crews and individuals who came out, and to everyone who was there in spirit. Let’s take care of each other and destroy all authority. We would like to hear how you experienced this March 15th.

Sending love to all the rebels behind bars. Fire to the prisons.

We also remember the sacrifice of Anna Campbell, an anarchist who fought with the YPJ in Rojava, who was killed along with four comrades by the fascist Turkish army one year ago, on March 15, 2018.

See you on May Day, or sooner! Fuck the police.

Montréal Antifasciste: Statement of Solidarity With the Victims of the Islamophobic Attack in Christchurch

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Mar 162019

From Montréal-Antifasciste

We from Montréal Antifasciste extend our solidarity to all Muslims and to all people of color and antifascists in Christchurch and across Aotearoa.

It was with horror that we learned of the massacre that took place in Christchurch on March 15th. Horror that only deepened with every new detail, as we read the assassin’s manifesto, as we learned that racists around the world – including in Aotearoa, including in Quebec – were shamelessly sharing his diy snuff film and cheering his acts.

An unbearable feeling, as we recalled the massacre in Quebec City in January 29, 2017, when another young racist entered that city’s Islamic Cultural Centre with the intention of killing as many people as possible.
Six people died that night; at least 49 died today in Christchurch.

Words fail us.

We recognize the name of the Quebec City killer, Alexandre Bissonnette, scrawled along with others on the ammunition cartridge that Brenton Tarrant photographed and uploaded before his attack. We recognize the ideas in Tarrant’s manifesto; we’ve come across them before, too many times. The mix of fear of a clampdown and admiration for the killer and laughs at his humour on 4chan and facebook and other social media networks have come from around the world, including our own backyard. We remember just last year as you provided us all with a positive example in resisting as two of “our” racists, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, traveled to your country to spread their poison. We recall, too, that one of “your” far-rightists, Trevor Loudon, has been welcomed in Canada at events organized by “our” Islamophobes. And of course we have all heard about how far-right zillionaires à la Peter Thiel have decided New Zealand is just the right place for them to relocate to, to ride out their accelerating nightmare, and perhaps to try out some of their own dystopian ideas.

Clearly, your situation and our situation are not foreign to each other; addressing them is part of the same deeper and broader struggle for a world without exploitation or racism.

We already knew this, as we’re sure you did too. We didn’t need this latest reminder, but we got it anyway.
With anger and sorrow, we honour the memory of those who died in Christchurch, as we renew our pledge to resist the rising tide of far-right, racist, and misogynist violence around the world.

Solidarity with Wheao ā-Ihirama
Solidarity to all targets of Islamophobic, racist, and far right violence, in Aotearoa and everywhere
Solidarity with antifascists in Aotearoa and around the world

Kia kaha.

Stop The Prison, Open The Border

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Mar 152019

From From Embers

This week’s episode features two interviews with people involved in the struggle to stop a new migrant prison from being built in Laval, Quebec. Topics discussed include:

-the project and how the government is trying to frame it as a “nice” cage.

-senses of strategy and what might work to actually stop a project like this.

-actions that have taken place against the prison, how they’ve gone, and what actions might be on the horizon.

Stop The Prison

Ni Frontières, Ni Prisons (facebook link!)

Solidarity Across Borders

Open Letter to Climate Strikers

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Mar 152019

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

Preface: We wrote this text to distribute at a climate strike demo on Friday, March 15th. It’s a work in progress, but we wanted to share it ahead of time in case it inspires others to steal some or all of these words for cities elsewhere. Change it to fit your context.

First of all, thank you. Thank you for giving a shit. For deciding that there are futures worth fighting for, even when the future being imposed on us looks increasingly bleak. The good news is that you are here, with your body, along with so many others around the world. Today we have a chance to acknowledge that we are connected to each other and to the living and non-living beings on this planet, in ways that are far more complex and beautiful than any #hashtag could express.

Every few days, another horror story, or another prediction, reminds us that we’re facing an existential threat. Experts no longer study how to prevent climate change, instead they discuss how we might mitigate its effects. We already know that everything is going to change. The question for 2019, for this generation, is: change towards what?

The vultures are already circling.

Corporations ask, “How can we profit?” Whether it’s tapping new oil reserves under the melting glaciers or marketing a ‘green’ product to make us feel comforted, their goal is always profit.

Governments ask, “How do we stay in control?” Whether it’s expanding surveillance programs, or encouraging ‘democratic dialogue’ so long as nothing gets out of hand, their goal is always to consolidate power. The most advanced governments today will do this in the name of combatting climate change. Here in Canada, the government isn’t quite so sophisticated, and still pushes for massive expansions of fossil fuel infrastructure and mining projects, forcing them on indigenous people at the barrel of a gun if they can’t be bought.

Politicians, including some aspiring ones who call themselves ‘activists,’ ask how the growing fear and discontent might be exploited for personal gain. History clearly demonstrates that if we allow these people to lead our movements, they will pull the plug at precisely the moment that we become a real threat to the existing order. Those in power rely on funneling our rage towards dead ends. Let’s get organized, but not behind politicians trying to sell us the latest Hope™.

We don’t know exactly what a ‘better world’ could look like. But like you, we feel that we have to try. We don’t want to just feel like we’re on “the right side of history,” a narcissistic trap. We want to be effective, within an ethical framework that values freedom, autonomy and solidarity. Let’s start taking seriously the idea we might actually have an impact. To that end, we propose a joyful, strategic, and fierce resistance that might include these ingredients:

Transformation, not reform. Capitalism is killing the planet. It is a system based on endless growth, and only serves the rich and powerful. No lifestyle change or government reform is going to touch that. It’s gotta go. Those in power will not simply be persuaded to change their ways and give up the wealth and power they have accumulated through centuries of patriarchy, colonial plunder, and mass exploitation.

The police stand in our way. Maybe you already hold your breath when a cop drives by. If not, remember that even the friendliest cops have to follow orders or get fired. Police are the violent defenders of this rotten system. To even make a dent, many people will have to break a lot of laws, and not just in the “arrest me for the cameras” kind of way.

Let’s build lives worth living. We’re cynical, but we are not hopeless. When we refuse to resign and instead build lives worth living now, we see glimpses of a different future, and start to feel compelled to defend ourselves. We want collective lives rife with empathy, creativity, and openness.

Thank you, again, for showing up. This is the beginning of a long road, or maybe a tightrope. Let’s walk it together, trying to avoid the traps that lay ahead.

– some anarchists

Banner Drop in Solidarity with Unist’ot’en

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Mar 152019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

14th of March, 2019
Tiohtiá:ke, so-called Montréal

This morning at 7:34 AM at the intersection of Papineau and St-Grégoire streets, a banner with the writtings “Solidarity with Unist’ot’en” was erected on a viaduc.

This action is a symbolic gesture in relationship to the 15th of march, on this day two importants protests are to be held, the student protest in defense of climate and the protest against police brutality.

It is important to remember that day in and day out, native peoples find themselves everyday on the frontlines defending against environmental colonialism defended by the police and state institutions.

On the 7th of January of this year, RCMP agents dismantled by force the access point Gidumt’en of the unsuceeded territory of the Wet’suwet’en nation, where is located the Unist’ot’en camp. The native peoples protecting the access point were brutally removed from their territory by the armed forces of the RCMP in order to allow the start of the construction work of the pipeline (Costal GasLink project) of the TransCanada company.

The Unist’ot’en camp, established on the Wet’suwet’en territory since 2009, is an important living environment, that holds a healing center by reconnection to the environment. One of the camps roles is to assure a presence on the territory in order to protect it from the many high-environmental-risk projects that are planned without the consent of the first-nation peoples. Up until now, the presence of the camp has lead to the abandonnement of many pipeline projects.

This banner drop is also a denouncing the hypocrisy of the Trudeau government. The prime minister feigns reconciliation with the first nations, while remaining silent when faced with the recent events in Unist’ot’en. Moreover, his support for the numerous environmentally damaging projects demonstrate an opportunistic immobilism that defies all logic in the current environmental crisis.

“The invasion of the Wet’suwet’en territory by TransCanada is but one example among many that proves the proximity between climate violence, police brutality and native struggles. This banner is a reminder of the convergence between theses struggles as well as a message of solidarity with the peoples who are currently fighting in Wet’suwet’en territories” cries a participant of this action.

Callout for the March Against Police Brutality 2019

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Mar 062019

From the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality

As is the case each year, the COBP organizes a week against police brutality which starts on March 8th and ends on March 16th, 2019.

State brutality must be denounced, whether this brutality is coming from police, politicians or judges. Especially considering the massive over reach of the criminal injustice system this year alone.

Was there any justice for Nicholas Gibbs, assassinated in broad daylight? By those so-called “peace officers?”
Is there any justice for the migrants? For which we refuse to give the quality of life that was stolen from them by canadian companies abroad?
Is there any justice for the people of Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en? Taken away yet another time from their ancestral lands?
Is there any justice for environmental activists? Imprisoned for blockading projects leading to our own destruction?
Is there any justice for all minorities, whether racial, religious, queer and/or native, which are constantly profiled and imprisoned by a system trying to erase their very existence?

Because the judiciary system, the political system, and their state agent lapdogs (RCMP, SQ and SPVM, etc.) have nothing to do with protecting minorities. Their role is to answer to the needs of the better off: the rich and privileged. Their role has nothing to do with justice, and all with the defence of the castle of the privileged. A castle which is, every day, less sustainable, and less acceptable.

There cannot be peace in a system who keeps acting unjustly and refuse to admit it. It is a sanpshot of justice built as a system. And an unjust society cannot be peaceful.

This is why we invite you to the activities of the week against police brutality along with the one of March 15th. The March 15th event takes place at Norman-Bethune Square and starts at 6PM with food organized by Food Against Fascism, along with speeches. The annual protest against police brutality will start at 7PM at the same place.

NO JUSTICE? NO PEACE!

* As an organization, we recognize that all the events of the Week against police brutality take place on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory of Tio’tia:ke, here on Turtle Island. As an organization, we express our solidarity with local and global native communities in their struggles for their right and we honor the guardians of this territory.

**Sexual abusers are not welcome to the activities*

Owner at the beach, workers on the street: Former workers at M. Mme claim over $20,000 in unpaid wages

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Mar 062019

From the Montreal IWW

In addition to our organizing campaigns, the Montreal IWW also organizes Claim Your Pay campaigns, where our members help workers who have been robbed of their wage after being fired. These campaigns mostly happen in the restaurant business and involve a few hundred dollars. When a worker came into contact with us about some unpaid wages in a restaurant that had just closed, we were not expecting such an important case.

Currently, the Montreal IWW is on a huge Claim Your Pay case: more than $20,000 in unpaid wages and tips and 11 people remain unpaid since at least December, more for some. Some of the workers were unable to pay their rent, others had to ask for help from food banks or had accumulated debt because of bounced cheques from the bosses. All of these people worked at the M.Mme wine bar located at 244 Laurier West in Montreal, which closed suddenly on January 26th.

The bosses and what happened:

The owners are John Hovannes Kalanjian, Asbed (or Aspid) Istanboulian and Sevan Istanboulian. The last two are also owners of Café Mystique, a distributor of coffee products around the world and present in several stores in Quebec. They also own the Toi, moi & café coffee chain, which is trying to set up shop in several subway stations in Montreal. Based on the workers’ testimonies, we would like to tell you more about how Asbed works with his employees. Asbed was the most present boss of the two brothers at the M.Mme and Toi, moi & café nearby.

As these two businesses share a back hall connecting them, it was easy for employees to learn more about the bad habits of Asbed Istanboulian: other stories of wage theft, tip theft, late pay cheques and bounced cheques… Asbed would also take advantage of the precarious working conditions of migrants by underpaying or simply not paying them.

In addition, Asbed Istanboulian has a history of negligence in the management of his businesses. In order to save on health-related costs, he preferred to use cheap mouse traps instead of using an exterminator, which is not in compliance with regulations. Employees and clients would end up hearing the dying mice. He sometimes did not pay suppliers and bills which meant several bailiffs even came to the restaurant. The inability of employees to reach him meant they did not have the necessary means to run the restaurant smoothly. He, for example, neglected to place orders at important moments of the restaurant (such as high booking times and office parties). He was also used to accusing employees of being the cause of the restaurant’s financial problems.

It is not the first time Asbed Istanboulian steals wages. We found out that a former team member of the M.Mme restaurant had filed complaints. We found a 4-year old testimony on the Toi, moi & café on Laurier’s Facebook page stating that a worker had their wages stolen. We also learned that other employees of Toi, moi & café had not been paid.

The present situation:

The union has already taken action against the owners of the M.Mme. Two out of 11 workers were paid! The kicker? We also learned that Asbed is off on a trip to the South for the week! The happiness of the few is evidently at the cost of the misery of the many. The union does not intend to let the boss get away with it.

To conclude, know that the Mystique Coffe, owned by Asbed Istanboulian, prides itself on being the largest fair trade coffee distributor in Canada, while it is not at all equitable with its employees. Also know that he and his partners are planning to open 26 new Toi, moi & cafés in metro stations and at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. We urge you to boycott Toi, moi & café and Mystique Coffe products and to denounce the actions – especially wage and tip thefts – of the owners on the businesses’ Facebook pages and other promotional sites.

We are appealing to everyone: if you too have worked for Asbed Istanboulian in the past – at Toi, moi & Café, at the restaurant M.Mme or another one – and you have been the victim of wage theft, contact the Montreal IWW. We offer you our solidarity and are ready to help you.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

March 15th Against the Police

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Mar 052019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Because a less brutal police isn’t the point whatsoever, here’s a poster that better reflects the intentions of many among us.

To print (French only) | PDF 11 x 17

WTF Their March 15th and Ours!?

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Mar 052019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

We’re asking ourselves if we want to go to the March 15th climate demo. We tried to go to a reformist demo for the planet a couple months ago. It felt like crap. We’ve been in demos before where we weren’t feeling it, where we didn’t feel in our place (like in a union demo). But there it was really of an entirely different order. Like total incommunicability between our bodies and theirs (or something like that). Like, we didn’t even feel like we were on the same side of the barricade.

The thing is, we came to realize, in that struggle there is no barricade whatsoever.

It’s a struggle without conflict, without antagonism (moreover, it isn’t a struggle). These citizens see themselves as all in agreement and all guilty (as is proper to citizenship, we might add). So we don’t hold it against this movement that it isn’t going far enough, as we reproach so regularly syndicalism’s remaining elements of class struggle. We hold against it what it prevents, by mobilizing people as interior to the system, therefore amputating the negativity of their struggles. We take issue with it for spreading so widely the myth of entirely positive action, where “initiatives” are not corollaries of the destruction of that to which they claim to be alternatives.

That said, as weak as these foundations appear to us, one really gets the impression that people seem to be doing shit. They’re becoming zero-waste, they’re refusing to eat pork roast in their family dinners, they’re dropping out of social sciences to go study agriculture in VICTORIAVILLE (?!?)

Maybe it doesn’t only suck.

We ought to think through the fact that anxious anticipation in the face of the present environmental disaster is an affect widely shared by our generation. And ask ourselves why a certain atemporal anti-capitalism doesn’t succeed in resonating with this affect. We should maybe consider our contemporaries’ obsession with modifying their behaviors and individual lives not only as a variant of their obsession with the construction of their own personal identities, but also as the neoliberal disarming of a rage of which they’ve been dispossessed. To see the compulsive agitation around environmental concerns as not just another fashion, but as the system’s last chance for channeling a panic that traverses our generation. A panic that we feel too, even if, when we think about it for more than 15 seconds, we deal with it by telling ourselves that capitalism is the problem.

In any case, this panic doesn’t start the first time we learn whatever catastrophic statistics on climate change: it is felt, it circulates, it exists between us. The endless awareness campaigns targeting us don’t set it off: they pacify it. Because it’s indeed an unprecedented achievement in pacification that a generation that has been told since a very young age of the coming collapse of the world it inhabits is not already in armed struggle.

Their March 15^th and ours shouldn’t prudently ignore one another. Because, you know, our infinite capacity for disinterest in what’s going on outside of our milieus maybe isn’t among our best qualities. Maybe, in fact, it’s interesting that mainstream environmentalism is seeing the possibility for a certain offensivity opened up (offensivity that of course exists already in land defense struggles and among radical environmentalists).

Guys! We really don’t want to be the 50 dumbasses just doing their annual March 15^th demo, believing we’re experimenting with the actions of their civil war, and not even able to feel concerned by the fact that people who have never gone on strike have begun saying that the climate is a structural question. How about we admit that environmental concerns are one of the rare things right now that are pushing people to make changes in their lives. Perhaps we shouldn’t let this momentum pass us by completely, even if sometimes it seems driven solely by the winds of neoliberalism. We could work to return to it the conflictual dimension that should in all logic be its foundation.

The night of March 15^th, we’ll be happy to find ourselves amongst one another. But we’ve got to remember that when something really goes down, we’re always the first to be surprised, so let’s keep on the lookout for what could surpass us.

General Contractors: Don’t bid to build a migrant prison!

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Mar 012019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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 MARCH 20TH, the deadline for bids, to get these companies to pull out of the process.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Individuals

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 MARCH 20TH.

Free faxes can be sent using any of the following websites:

accueil

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, sign up to host a call-in day!

We encourage you to ask your members to call/e-mail/fax on a day that you choose. Invite people to your space to make calls & send e-mails and faxes together!

With many groups signing up, we can have continued engagement with these companies over the month.

Your organization or group can sign up for a particular day using this calendar, and we’ll get in touch over email to see how we can help spread the word: https://framadate.org/rxAzKaJGOlXJkGzx

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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