Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

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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!

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 15th 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 15th 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 15th, 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

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!

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@constructiontisseur.ca
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

Migrant Prison: noise demo blocks site visit, and an update on implicated companies and the ongoing bidding period

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Feb 212019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Much of the ground may be covered in a thick sheet of ice right now, and piles of snow have been growing around the construction site for the new migrant prison in Laval for weeks, but that doesn’t mean the Canadian government isn’t hard at work preparing the next stages of construction for this monstrosity, nor that we should turn our attention away until after the spring thaw.

Early in February, it became public that the bidding period for the General Contractor contract had opened for the project, and that there would be a site visit held on February 20th at 10am for all interested bidders. So, early in the morning on February 20th, a group of people gathered to take a bus out to the construction site in Laval.

The group quickly made their way to the road leading to the security check-in for the bidders, and set up a picket, blocking the bidders’ vehicles from getting to the site. People there to pick up loved ones from the neighbouring prisons were welcomed through, and responded in kind with cheers and honks of support for the demo. Those present loudly communicated the deplorable nature of the prison project, and registered to all those considering working on it that there would be people standing in the way of the project at every stage.

People shouted, banged pots and pans, and blew on horns for over an hour, and had banners and signs against prisons and borders, as well as silhouette posters with the names of people deported in recent years. Company representatives present were personally called out, to let them know opponents of the project are aware of who they are. Some of the company representatives, sent by their bosses to attend the visit, expressed support for the demo following conversations with those in attendance. Over the course of an hour, most of the bidders had turned their cars around and left, accepting that they would not be allowed through. By 11am, an hour after the visit had been scheduled to begin, the group packed up their banners and left the area, leaving behind only a couple of cars – mostly Laval police.

With a month of bidding left, it’s time to assess what we know and what we can do next to disrupt the project. Read on for important updates on the state of the prison project, and newly public information about other companies involved.

What’s happened so far

Since the summer of 2017, Montreal based Lemay and Quebec City based Groupe A have been working on the architectural plans for the prison. In December 2018, Englobe Corporation and Excavation Loiselle completed their environmental remediation work on the sprawling CSC grounds that may become home to an additional prison on Montee St-Francois, already host to the current migrant prison, the minimum and medium federal men’s prisons, and the provincial Leclerc institution. For quite some time, the timeline for construction to begin in earnest on the project has been unclear.

On January 31, 2019, however, Public Works and Government Services Canada posted their call for tenders for who will be in charge of the largest chunk of work on the prison – the General Contractor. The documents provided to interested bidders provide important information about the next phases of work, and offer ideas about where to intervene.

The ongoing bidding period

January 31st marked day one of the six-week bidding period for the General Contractor position. Bidding will be open until March 20th, at which time the company with the lowest bid will get the contract.

During the bidding period, companies interested in bidding on the project are invited to post their information on the publicly available “List of interested suppliers”. On this list, accessible on the government buy and sell website, one can find the company name, contact person, email, and phone number for each company who publicly discloses their interest in the project, though some companies do not publicly state their interest using this list. Many more tried to attend the site visit on February 20th.

As of February 20th, the following information is available for six interested bidders. :

1. Contact Shane Ross, President
Company Standard Building Contractors
Email shane@standard.builders
Phone 6138477258

2. Contact Richard Paradis, Estimateur Senior
Company Construction SOCAM ltée
Email r.paradis@socam.ca
Phone 450-662-9000 #223

3. Contact Matthew Poplaw, Sales
Company Securassure
Email matthew@securassure.ca
Phone 5143733131

4. Contact Lina Tremblay, Estimateur
Company Groupe Geyser
Email ltremblay@groupegeyser.com
Phone 4506252003

5. Contact Richard A. Germano, Président
Company Corporation de construction Germano
Email info@germanoconstruction.com
Phone 450-668-7807

6. Contact Jacques Hosson, Estimateur
Company Tisseur Inc.
Email estimation@constructiontisseur.ca
Phone 8193221523 #258

Also present for the site visit were representatives of the following companies:

Company Bruneau électrique Inc.
Email info@bruneauelectrique.com
Phone 514 353-4343, 450 759-6606

Company Construction CYBCO
Email info@cybco.ca
Phone 514 284-2228

Whoever gets this contract, they will be involved in the project until the projected end of construction (the end of March, 2021). They will be responsible for subcontracting out smaller parts of the construction work – these contracts will likely not be made public.

Other companies involved in the project

Included in the documents released with the call for tenders is a list of other companies with contracts related to the prison, as well as the person responsible for the contract at each company. Some, like Lemay and Groupe A, are names we’ve seen before, as their contracts have been public for a long time already.

Lemay and Groupe A

Lemay and Groupe A are jointly listed as in charge of architecture for the project, with architect Pierre Larouche representing Lemay and architect Patrice Beauchemin representing Groupe A.

Mylène Carreau, a landscape architect with Lemay, represents her firm on the documents for their additional role in charge of the landscape architecture for the project.

LEMAY
3500, rue Saint-Jacques
Montréal (QC) h4c 1h2
t. (514) 932-5101
f. (514) 935-8137

Groupe A
819, avenue Moreau
Québec (QC) g1v 3b5
t. (418) 653-8341
f. (418) 653-1989

Other companies listed are new names – possibly members of a collection of firms with whom the government has what’s called a “standing offer” to work.

KJA Consultants Inc.

Engineer Louis Beauchemin, from the Montreal office of KJA Consultants Inc., features on the documents representing his elevator and escalator design company in their work on conveyor systems for the prison.

KJA CONSULTANTS INC .
1410, rue Stanley, bur. 1003
Montréal (QC) h3a 1p8
t. (514) 284-3119

BPA (Bouthillette Parizeau)

The engineering consulting firm BPA, otherwise known as Bouthillette Parizeau, will be involved in food services and commissioning for the prison. For food services, engineer Sylvie Savoie is representing the company, and for commissioning engineer Dalia Ramy appears to be in charge.

BPA
6655, boul. Pierre-Bertrand
Bureau 250
Québec (QC) g2k 1m1
t. (514) 383-3747

Stantec

Stantec, a huge design, consulting and engineering firm with an office in Longueuil, appears to be heavily involved in many aspects of the project.

For their roles related to electrical and fire alarm work, and fire protection, engineers Alexandre Manseau-Nguyen and Bruno Lehoux are in charge, respectively.
For their telecommunication work, engineer Jonathan Hallee is listed.

Stantec is also involved in many aspects of the engineering work, with the following representatives related to different subsections. Louis-Stephane Racicot’s role is as Engineering Project Manager. Engineer Alexandre Jean is in charge of mechanical, Michel Gendron in charge of electrical, Patrick Bourgeois is listed for structure, and for civil Martin Charron.

STANTEC
400-375, boul. Roland-Therrien
Longueuil (QC) j4h 4a6
t. (514) 281-1033

Work schedule and site security

While it may not be clear what specific work will be happening when, the bid documents indicate that when the construction begins, work will be occurring until 9pm maximum from Monday to Saturday, with noise-generating work happening only 7am to 6pm these days, and no work at all occurring on Sundays or statutory holidays.

There will be offices on site to securely store documents, as well as two site cameras which will be constantly livestreaming work and the site to a private website accessible to a government representative at all times.
Fences obscuring the view into the site will be erected. The documents mention that all workers will have to pass security clearance and will be prohibited from speaking to any Leclerc Detention facility prisoners (who are held just beside the site).

What to expect in the near future

It is reasonable to expect re-excavation and foundational work to begin very quickly following the awarding of the contract to the General Contractor at the end of March. This means that those opposed to the construction of yet another piece of infrastructure solely designed to bolster the government’s capacity to detain and deport migrants must be hard at work as well, as construction may start in earnest in the next month.

Companies considering involving themselves in this entirely unacceptable project, serving only to rip apart families and communities, would do well to stay far away from this project. They may risk their reputation, their clients, and their money by choosing to lend their expertise to this unambiguously racist and violent project in a moment where it is extremely important for everyone to pick a side: against white supremacy and xenophobia. Companies providing materials for the construction, or interested in being subcontracted to work in a more limited role should also think long and hard before making an unethical and indefensible choice.

For a world without prisons or borders.
For freedom of movement and freedom to live for all.

For more background information on the migrant prison project, and to download materials and research documents related to the struggle against it, visit stopponslaprison.info.

To read the documents summarized in this piece, you can download them directly from the government website using these links. We recommend using TorBrowser to avoid giving your IP address.

From Embers: Unsettling the Commons

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Feb 202019
 

From From Embers

An interview with Craig Fortier, who is an organizer and academic based in Toronto. Among other things, Craig is involved with No One Is Illegal and helps coordinate the Field of Dreamers Cooperative Softball Association, which was featured on a recent episode of Talking Radical Radio. Craig is the author of the short book Unsettling The Commons: Social Movements Within, Against and Beyond Settler Colonialism which was published in 2017 by Arbeiter Ring. In it, Craig draws on more than 50 interviews with organizers within what he calls the “anti-authoritarian current” across Canada and the United States, and discusses what it means to “struggle for the commons” in the context of settler colonialism.

Craig’s book recommendations include Undoing Border Imperialism, Red Skin White Masks & Mohawk Interruptus.

Music is by LAL and Test Their Logik.

Athan Zafirov: The Montreal Nazi Scumbag Who Thought He Could Get Away With It…

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Feb 182019
 

From Montréal-Antifasciste

(Content warning: many of the links included in this article lead to extreme racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic content. Proceed with care.)

In May of 2018, Montreal anti-fascists leaked the contents of a private neo-Nazi chat room called “Montreal Storm” (short for Montreal Stormer Book Club*), which was active from August 2016 to January 2018, and included 55 users.

The leak made it possible to identify several members of the chat room, including Shawn Beauvais MacDonald, Vincent Bélanger Mercure and Gabriel Sohier Chaput, alias Zeiger. The latter was revealed by the Montreal Gazette to be a prolific propagandist for the most radical wing of the Alt-Right and a frequent contributor to The Daily Stormer, arguably the most influential Alt-Right/neo-Nazi website in the world in the 2016-2017 period, and to this day.

Partly through their unfortunate (and unplanned) participation in a Vice report on the now infamous white supremacist “Unite The Right” rally, the three activists named above were also shown to have traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, to join forces with assorted fascists, Nazis and ultra-nationalists to protest the removal of a stupid fucking statue. Tragically, Anti-racist activist Heather Heyer was killed and several more people were gravely injured in the afternoon of August 12th when white supremacist James Alex Fields plowed his car into a group of counter-protestors.

> The full contents of the Montreal Storm Chat Room have been accessible on Unicorn Riot since May 2018.
(Content warning for extreme racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny.)

Several more members of the Montreal Storm chat room (and adjacent “Book Club”) have been identified by anti-fascists, including its likely initiator and main moderator, Date, aka DateOfLies, aka LateOfDies, real name Athanasse “Athan” Zafirov,

Meet Athan Zafirov, the Montreal Nazi scumbag who thought he could get away with it…

“Date” was featured prominently in a National Post article published on May 14th, 2018, where his role in the Montreal Storm chat room and local Stormer Book Club was detailed. Zafirov’s name, however, was never mentioned.

>> Zafirov, aka Date’s posts to the Montreal Storm chat room
(Content warning for extreme racism, anti-Semitism and misogyny.)

A few months later, in July 2018, as part of a larger callout to identify members of ID Canada (a European-style, neo-fascist, “identitarian” organization trying to get off the ground in Canada), the good folks at Anti-Racist Canada put together a more complete exposé on DateOfLies.

The ARC exposé first establishes that Date is a central figure of ID Canada (formerly Generation Identity Canada), since Date himself bragged about his role in episode #65 of now defunct Alt-Righ/neo-Nazi podcast “This Hour Has 88 Minutes”. ARC and their anonymous source go on to show, from some messages posted by Zeiger to the Montreal Storm chat room, that “Athan” (misspelled “Athen”) is the organizer of a secret Facebook group called “Alt-Right Montreal”.

A subsequent post by Date from July 2017 reveals that he helped organize a Canadian delegation to the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville:

Right after the post above, Date proceeds to list his various Alt-Right credentials and ongoing projects, including organizing an “Alt-Right Canada” event in Ontario with Alt-Right mentor Jared Taylor, and arranging for University of New-Brunswick ultra-conservative professor, Ricardo Duchesne, to speak at Ruby Foo’s, in Montréal, in June 2017 (a video of that talk was formerly available on Zeiger’s YouTube channel, which has been de-activated since his doxx). He also brags about running the “local bad goy group”.

ARC’s anonymous source goes on to provide detailed evidence, from Zafirov’s own online activity going back several years, that Athanasse Zafirov and Date (and various other aliases) are one and the same.

A key piece of this convincing demonstration is that Athan Zafirov was found to be one of the “manosphere” activists who had arranged a Montreal visit for Roosh V. Valizadeh, a notorious misogynistic scumbag, “pick up artist” guru and rape apologist, back in February 2016. (Amusingly, Zafirov was trapped by local feminists and showed up, befuddled, to a compromised meeting spot shortly before the Roosh V. event. The video below documents the ensuing farce.)

Additionally, Zafirov made the fatal mistake of coming out in real life on July 1st, 2017, to heckle an anti-colonial protest in Old Montréal, alongside other members of the Montreal Book club, including Shawn Beauvais MacDonald, Alex Boucher, Sergej Schmidt and other chuds.

We know from from various sources that Zafirov lived until fairly recently in an apartment building located on Saint-Urbain street, in Montréal, where he hosted at least one Book Club meeting. His whereabouts were unknown following the May 2018 Discord leak.

Until now.

Zafirov has recently re-emerged at the other end of the continent, no doubt hoping that his online presence would escape the gaze of anti-fascists. Quite to the contrary, we believe that his academic comeback is the perfect opportunity to give this little Nazi piece of shit the attention he fully deserves.

Meet the new avatar of Athanasse Zafirov, “Dimitri”:

Zafirov, proven white supremacist activist, is now enrolled as a PhD student at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, which is in line with his previous academic course at Montreal’s John Molson School of Business (Concordia University).

Evidently, his picture was recently removed from the students’ roster page on Anderson-UCLA’s website. Could it be that Athan is feeling the heat? Unfortunately for him, we made the screen capture above a little while ago, and his smug-ass face still pops up in the Google image search page, as well as UCLA’s internal search engine. He also seems to have recently shifted his area of study from Global Economics and Management to Accounting.

If you would like to drop a line at Zafirov’s supervisors and flag his (very) recent white supremacist activities, we’re sure they will be interested to learn about their clean-cut Canadian student’s dubious extracurricular activities. You will find a number of addresses by visiting the School’s directory, as well as the Faculty listing and the students’ roster page.

https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/about/whos-who

ms.phd.admissions @ anderson.ucla.edu (PhD Program)
al.osborne @ anderson.ucla.edu  (Interim Dean)
john.mamer @ anderson.ucla.edu (Faculty Chairman)
heather.caruso @ anderson.ucla.edu (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)

Faculty:
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/meet-the-faculty

And fellow students in the Accounting Phd program:
https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty-and-research/accounting/meet-the-students

 

 

 

 

* Stormer Book Clubs are regionally specific “in real life” meetings, sort of like “social clubs” for followers of the hard-line, neo-Nazi wing of the Alt-Right (white males only need apply…) The original idea for Book Clubs came from The Daily Stormer founder, Andrew Anglin, in 2016. You may also have heard about TRS Pool Parties, which are essentially the same thing, but sprung from The Right Stuff, another Alt-Right platform of the same general tendency.

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