mtlcounter-info

US Consulate Shut Down, Call for Continued Direct Action to End Canadian Complicity in Racist Violence

Comments Off

Feb 032017

No wall, no hate! Fuck racism (and white supremacy!) Open the borders

On Monday in Tiohtia:ke (aka Montreal in occupied Kanien’kehá:ka territory), hundreds of people outraged and sorrowed by the horrifying intensification of Islamophobic violence on both sides of the border shut down the US consulate.

Standing front of the consulate doors with banners and signs, first in silent sorrow and anger, protesters then began spontaneously chanting together- not only against Trump’s Muslim ban, but also against the racism that runs rampant across the Quebec political spectrum, against Canada’s exclusionary immigration policies, and against white supremacy. The ad-hoc group demanded the immediate opening of the US-Canadian border, an end to the safe the safe third country agreement and designated country of origin list, and an ongoing, comprehensive regularization program for undocumented people already in Canada (for more information on these demands see www.solidarityacrossborders.org).

The consulate doors were locked from the inside, and for the duration of the demonstration no one was able to enter or leave, effectively shutting down business as usual.

This action was not difficult to organize, and did not require a huge crowd to be successful. We believe it offers hope that, from our different starting points, in our different ways and capacities, many of us may be able to find ways of working with other community members to defend ourselves against and disrupt the institutions furthering racist and Islamophobic violence. We hope that such actions can be undertaken in a spirit of pushing the borders out of our city and transforming our communities into spaces of mutual aid and support- our vision of a Solidarity City. Not only is it possible, the current situation is forcing it on us.

While Canadian politicians contort themselves to avoid denouncing Trump, while the media, caught in the racist stereotypes it helps perpetuate, fumbles with the difference between a shooter and a witness, and while the same public figures who yesterday insisted that Muslims do not belong in our communities, today express disbelief at the tragedy, we should not expect and cannot wait for these same accomplices to protect out communities. This is a threat we must face head on. Many among us have no choice but to face it – having already been harmed by its violence. Those who do have a choice, have all the more responsibility to stand in solidarity and fight back, according to our different capacities and means, and in our different contexts.

After the success of today’s action, we encourage everyone to join together, be creative, try new things, and above all to take concrete action to disrupt racist violence!

For an end to repression: let’s multiply the actions!

Comments Off

Feb 022017

FOR AN END TO THE REPRESSION: LET’S MULTIPLY THE ACTIONS!
21ST INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!

For more than a decade, the COBP has denounced, through the International Day against Police Brutality, several themes of police: social cleansing, militarization, impunity, social / racial / political profiling, the slide towards more total social control, etc. We are seeing more and more that no matter what aspect of police work is denounced, there is absolutely nothing that changes. The recommendations of the Ménard commission, following the spring of 2012, sleep in an office drawer, the coroner’s inquest following the death of Alain Magloire, that is probably also sleeping in an office drawer, the 36 women’s complaint files from Val d’Or against the cops of the SQ that were rejected. In short, the more we advance in time, the more it is the same: the cops give themselves permission to do everything and get away with impunity.

The COBP underwent several changes during 2016 and decided this year to leave this core of denunciation and to move towards a unitary and constructive call for the annual demonstration against police brutality 2017. We therefore chose as theme: FOR AN END TO THE REPRESSION: LET’S MULTIPLY THE ACTIONS! Several events that occurred in 2016 motivated the choice of the theme: for the first time the demonstration of March 15, 2016 took place without seeing the urban brigade and the anti-riot police, the May 1 demonstration was tolerated more than two hours before the people of the demonstration were disgusted and attacked a police station, multiple demonstrations during 2016 that managed to take the street (let’s remember here that for two years we were starting mousetrap demonstrations), direct actions against pipelines were realized, the Montreal North riot on the day of commemoration of the death of Freddy Villanueva and Bony Jean-Pierre during which a police station was ransacked and a bank was set on fire, multiple attacks in Hochelaga and southwest of Montreal, sabotage of cameras, different occupations of land for diverse claims, and the victories in court to invalidate municipal by-laws. In short, as much as in demonstrations as in everyday life, people unite, struggle and quietly begin to find alternatives to act in all the struggles that the police that rejoice to repress: the anti-police struggle, anti-capitalist, anti-gentrification, against the prison environment, pipelines, the struggle to get the homeless off the street, the feminist, union, antifascist, indigenous, queer, and trans struggles, etc. A good fight-back is imminent and must be done not only by protests but equally by direct actions in everyday life.

2016 was marked by a “reshuffling” of police repression. Despite the pseudo mini relaxation of the repression in our protests with, for example, the end of mass arrests, ticket traps are getting worse and worse for the motorists, cyclists, subway users and the homeless. In addition, journalists are being watched by the SPVM! Naturally, the infighting of the SPVM is getting worse by the moment. We know very well that this “relaxation” is not due to the fact that we have a new chief of police but more because there have been multiple victories against tickets and invalid municipal by-laws which the cops love to use to repress us. Increasingly, more people are making the effort to contest their tickets, while others are developing, in their own way, new tactics of public disturbance.

We are young people and old people that are disgusted by this system, which feeds on prisons and its armed wing, the police. We must stop talking about the balance of power and put it into practice now! We must once and for all unite and face this repression. It is for all these reasons that the COBP invites you to the 21st annual event that will take place on March 15th at 7pm at Valois Place (corner of Ontario and Valois).

The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality

11 x 17″ | PDF

Emergency Demonstration against Donald Trump and the Far-Right

Comments Off

Jan 262017

Open the Borders! Support Indigenous Sovereignty! No One Is Illegal!
Emergency Demonstration against Donald Trump and the Far-Right
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 12PM
Bethune Square, Guy & De Maisonneuve West (métro Guy-Concordia)

Donald Trump has announced, or is imminently planning, various executive measures that will attack refugees and migrants, increase violent and racist immigration enforcement, target sanctuary cities, and fund the extension of the Clinton-era wall at the US-Mexico border. His measures are racist, Islamophobic and violent. Earlier, Trump announced approval for the Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), despite sustained resistance from Indigenous communities, particularly at Standing Rock, North Dakota.

This a moment to take to the streets, to denounce Trump’s actions, to show solidarity with communities under attack, and to articulate our radical alternatives, without compromise.

We will gather and march this Saturday in support of Open Borders, and for the regularization of all undocumented people. We declare: No One Is Illegal.

Solidarity Across Borders has campaigned for years to build, via our grassroots networks and communities, a Solidarity City in Montreal, inspired in part by sanctuary cities in the USA. Let’s defend and build the vision of cities and communities that are welcome and open to all seeking justice and dignity. Let’s build from Solidarity Cities into Rebel Cities. We need more defiance, disobedience and rebellion, in the streets and in our communities.

While we resist Trump’s wall extension, we should organize to support all those who will tear down the existing walls and fences. We should take direct action ourselves, to make the more than thousand-mile borders between Canada and the USA, and Mexico and the USA, effectively open to migrants.

While we defend open borders, and support efforts to disobey border imperialism and to support people migrating, we also demand the immediate cancellation by Canada of the “Safe third country agreement” with the USA. Trump’s recent measures make it clear that the USA is not a “safe third country” and migrants should be allowed to pass into Canada without impediment.

The actions of seemingly more “progressive” politicians needs to be denounced. The Trudeau government supports the Keystone Pipeline, and still refuses to regularize the close to 1 million undocumented migrants living on this side of the Canada-US border. Trump’s US-Mexico border wall is a continuation of sections of wall already built during the Clinton-era.

Let’s build our alternatives beyond the narrow scope of hypocritical politicians whose real allegiance is to the ruling class. Let’s root our resistance in support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
—–

We will gather at Bethune Square in downtown Montreal to hear speeches and music; we will then march in downtown Montreal. We encourage wide participation, including parents and kids. Bring placards, banners and noisemakers.

Initiated by Solidarity Across Borders. Supported by the Montreal Resist Trump & the Far-Right Network

Info:
solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com
www.solidarityacrossborders.org
www.facebook.com/CiteSansFrontieres
438-933-7654

Montreal Throws Down Against Trump

Comments Off

Jan 252017

From subMedia.tv

Montreal’s activists came out in force to #DisruptJ20, burning a Trump effigy in front of the American consulate, taking over an upscale shopping mall, and smashing up the city’s main commercial drive.

If you love these reports support us! submedia.tv/donate

People are already organizing an un-welcoming committee for Trump’s upcoming visit to Canada. For more info go to trumpunwelcoming.org

Demonstration of solidarity in front of the prisons in Laval for the New Year and return on the situation in Leclerc’s prison

Comments Off

Jan 242017

From Toute détention est politique

For the fifth consecutive year, a noise demo was held in front of the detention centers in Laval to wish prisoners a happy new year and show them our solidarity.

The group of about 60 people accompanied by musical instruments and fireworks gathered in front of Leclerc penitentiary, the Immigration Center, the transitional residences B16 and the Federal Training Center (FTC). The rally was also an opportunity to remember Arash Aslani, a former detainee at the Immigration Detention Center who died this year. He began a hunger strike in 2005, which led to his release after almost a month. He since continued to be involved in struggles for migrants (To know more, click here). The migrants’ detention conditions in Canada are particularly alarming, often being held for indefinite periods without charges or trials. It should also be mentioned that at least two migrants died during their detention in these centers this year.

About Leclerc’s transfer – One year later

The women’s transfer from Tanguay’s Prison to Leclerc last February brought many problems and violence against prisoners, already in a position of vulnerability imposed by a sexist, racist and capacitist prison system. The transfer carried out in a completely disorganized way created tensions related to the mixity in the prison among others in the case of strip search. The absurd time limit for the provision of basic services, the inaccess to personal effects and failure to respect the health conditions of women prisoners are serious violations that the State allows itself to perpetrate with impunity.

It should also be mentioned that the correctional officers in the prison are mostly men and that the only effort made in this direction is a simple 4 hours training on the women’s reality in prison. The League of Rights and Freedoms and the Fédération des Femmes du Québec (FFQ) asked for an observation mission to the prison in May, which was rejected by the government and the FFQ subsidies were cut due to Austerity measures. In result, half of the team was laid off, letting them unable to continue the pressures.

Currently, the Minister of Public Safety says that the opening of three new prisons in Amos, Sept-Îles and Sorel-Tracy will help transfering the 84 male prisoners of Leclerc by June 2017. He also suggested in October that he was considering the construction of a new prison adapted for women in western Quebec. This general approach of the government doesn’t seek to tackle the core of the problem and is part of a general idea of strengthening the prison system. Creating more prison isn’t a solution, it’s necessary to reduce the number of people in prison. The least would be to revise sentences for minor offenses and to explore other solutions, especially in indigenous communities who are the most affected. The actual situation creates the fragmentation of their communities, remoteness and subjects them to colonial institutions which are not recognized in their traditions (alternative justice, spiritual justice, etc.).

WE DON’T WANT BETTER PRISONS, WE WANT THE END OF PRISONS!

TRUMP, YOU’RE NOT WELCOME! A Call to Resist & Disrupt Trump’s State Visit to Canada

Comments Off

Jan 242017

From Trump Unwelcoming Committee

This is a callout for anti-capitalist and anti-colonial resistance, rooted in a spirit of solidarity and mutual support, respecting a diversity of tactics.

Canada is usually the first foreign visit of a newly-elected US President and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invited US President-elect Donald Trump to visit Canada “at the earliest opportunity,” probably in early 2017.

We won’t wait for the details. In solidarity with the ongoing, massive anti-Trump protests in the USA, we’re calling for resistance and disruption of Trump’s visit to Canada, in Ottawa and elsewhere. Wherever and whenever Trump arrives in Canada, we’re organizing now to resist and disrupt his racist, sexist, far-right, xenophobic and anti-immigrant politics.

We also reject the attempts to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canadian colonialism by a government that continues to negotiate devastating corporate trade agreements, clears the way for pipelines, and refuses to regularize the status of the more than 500,000 undocumented people living in Canada.

Both Trump and Trudeau are products of a system that continues to devastate and attack human beings and the Earth. We are not putting any hope into politicians or political parties, but rather using and building the collective, autonomous power of our grassroots networks and movements. We resist deportations and Muslim bans, call for open borders and cross-border alliances, and support peoples’ struggles, from the water defenders at Standing Rock to the Black Lives Matter movement.

We are calling for large-scale, decentralized actions to take place, no matter where you are in the country. We can create spaces for people to act and demonstrate with fewer relative risks, but we also support spaces where people can actively confront and disrupt the Trump-Trudeau meeting. We reject collaboration with the police and anyone else who seeks to divide us.

A “Donald Trump Unwelcoming Committee” has formed in Ottawa. If your organization agrees with this callout, and intends to mobilize in whatever way you can, contact blocktrump@gmail.com to endorse this callout, and also share this callout widely in your networks.

Endorsing organizations (updated November 20, 2016):
– Donald Trump Unwelcoming Committee (Ottawa)
– Solidarity Across Borders / Solidarité sans frontières / Solidaridad sin fronteras (Montréal)

Fuck Trump, Fuck Toute

Comments Off

Jan 202017

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

In Montréal, a night demo turned into a clash with police. 200 protesters first gathered at Square Phillips, one block from the US consulate. When they started marching, they did not make it to the consulate building, but rather marched against traffic on the main street, Rue Sainte-Catherine, mostly beautifying the city by putting up graffiti against patriarchy and calling for the city to burn.

There was a black bloc presence as well, carrying a banner reading “Fuck Trump” that was soon altered to read “Fuck Toute” (Fuck Everything).

As they reached the downtown west police station the demonstrators clashed with cops, who were pelted with plenty of rocks. Cops threw rocks back at the crowd which finally dispersed them all around the city. But they did not leave before the police station’s window got properly smashed.”
– Crimethinc J20 Live Updates

We’d like to add a few words to the above report-back, fully inspired by the days events – from the ongoing clashes in Washington to our experience in Montreal hours ago.

Props on how across milieus, many people came together in the streets, wore masks, and had each other’s backs. How every time people went on the sidewalk to put up graff or smash windows, there were double the amount of comrades pushing (and in the case of corporate media, punching) cameras down and keeping us safe. How when the bike police tried to get close on the sidewalk, stones were lobbed at them until they backed off. And how, reminiscent of last May Day, when the demonstration passed the downtown west police station, people didn’t miss the opportunity to offensively attack the station and the police guarding it, without ‘provocation’.

Because we don’t have to wait for them to snatch or pepper spray us to know that our favorite way to interact with police is in the language of projectiles. When police can’t come close to our demos without risking bodily harm, it makes the whole demo safer and opens up otherwise unrealizable possibilities.

Whether faced with blatant Trump-style domination, or the normalized genocidal project of Canada, let’s continue to combine our creative and destructive capacities to act against democracy, the capitalist economy, and its police!

Southern Ontario NYE Noise Demos

Comments Off

Jan 162017

From It’s Going Down

For the eighth consecutive year, anarchists in Southern Ontario gathered to ring in the new year with a series of noise demos outside prisons in the area. We do this to demonstrate our opposition to the prison system and the world that maintains it, and to remind those on the inside that they are not forgotten.

We started our night off at the Niagara Detention Centre – an institution known for extreme overcrowding, inmate suicide, and hunger striking migrants. In the pouring rain, a crowd of 35 people gathered and marched along the perimeter of the prison. A full marching band in balaclavas played, while others set off fireworks and chanted. A handful of screws tried rushing us off the property but were met with insults and disregard as we finished our loop and left without incident.

From there we headed to Hamilton’s downtown Barton Jail, where our numbers doubled. Infamous for particularly egregious conditions, the prison was recently in the news for losing its heat for weeks in the middle of a cold spell. Stories circulated of temperatures dropping so low that water was freezing in the cells and inmates were forced to wear socks on their arms in attempts to stay warm.

An annual stop for our noise demo tradition, this year we wanted to make more of an effort to communicate with those on the inside. We produced a short video and using a handheld projector played it on loop on the side of a building visible from inside the jail. Prisoners were seen cupping their eyes, looking out their windows to read the messages on the wall.

Balaclavas, fireworks, and paint bombs were distributed before we started, and year after year people have come to expect this and join in on the fun. The prison and prisoner transport vans were covered in paint, people chanted and held banner that said “Turn up the Heat” and after a ton of fire works were lit, we left on our own terms.

Against prisons and its world,
The Anarchists

Prison Radio Show – The Saskatchewan Penitentiary Riot

Comments Off

Jan 162017

From Prison Radio Show
Download and Listen Here

This show featured news and a pre-recorded interview from Kingston’s Prison Radio with Sherri from Saskachewan about the December 14th riot in Saskachewan Pen in Prince Albert. We also had a live phone interview with Claude Marks, a former political prisoner and organizer with the Freedom Archives project. We talked to Claude about political prisoner and former Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim. Jalil is currently facing time in long term segregated housing for teaching his Black history class about the Black Panther Party. More info about Jalil is available at freejalil.com.

From Kingston Prison Radio: This week we bring you an exclusive interview that tells the inside story of the riot on December 14, 2016 that “completely destroyed” the medium security unit at Saskatchewan Penitentiary and resulted in the stabbing death of Jason Leonard Bird and several other injuries from gunshots. We spoke with Sherri who runs Beyond Prison Walls Canada and a Facebook group for prison wives. She has been in touch with several prisoners and their families who were present for the massive riot, and shared with us what she’s been able to find out.

About

Prison Radio has been on the air in Montreal for more than a decade. The show seeks to confront the invisibility of prisons and prisoner struggle, by focusing on the roots of incarceration, policing, and criminalization, and by challenging ideas about what prisons are and who ends up inside.

Prison Radio is dedicated to programming that is directly collaborative with people who are currently incarcerated. This is in the interest of forging stronger ties between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people, ensuring that prisoners have direct control over their representation, and that our understandings of prisons be informed by those who live inside their walls.

If you wish to inform prisoners about this show, it can be heard at the following prisons:

Montreal:
Tanguay (women’s prison provincial) (now closed)
Bordeaux (men’s prison provincial)
Rivière-des-Prairies (men’s provincial prison)

Laval:
Centre de formation fédéral (Federal Training Centre – men’s multi-level medium and minimum security federal prison);
Leclerc (co-ed provincial prison);

Montée St-Francois (men’s Minimum Security federal prison – aka B-16);
Centre de détention pour les immigrants (Immigration Detention Centre)

Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines:
Archambault (Medium Security federal prison)
Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines (Minimum Security federal prison)

Cowansville:
Cowansville (Medium Security federal prison)

USA
Malone, NY:
Franklin State (Medium Security prison)
Upstate (Supermax prison)
Bare Hill Prison (medium security state prison)

If you wish to suggest something for the show, feel free to send an email to: prison@ckut.ca . Or you can call us at 514-448-4041 extension 6788.

Prisoners can reach us by writing to:
Prison Radio Show (or simply write: PRS)
c/o CKUT 90.3 FM
3647, University St.
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
H3A 2B3

Call for a week of actions by the COBP

Comments Off

Jan 162017

For over a decade, the COBP, through the International Day Against Police Brutality, has been denouncing police-related phenomena such as social cleansing, police militarisation, impunity, social/racial/political profiling, and the authoritarian turn. More and more, despite reports of such things carried out by police, nothing significant seems to change.

However, more and more people are engaging in some alternatives to the protests; affinity and allied groups organise themselves, shared struggles thrive and let’s not forget several court victories of tickets and bylaw invalidations etc… The COBP believes therefore that in 2017, we must continue through not only the protests but also through direct actions in daily life. Now, we must put into practice a new balance of power! We must once and for all pool our resources to deal with this repression.

This is why we have chosen – as this year’s theme: END THE REPRESSION: MULTIPLY THE ACTION!

We shall do so through groups/collectives/organisations that would like to organise events through the week against police brutality that shall take place from 9 to 17 March 2017! We also shall encourage autonomous actions that week. We are also looking for articles/comics/reviews for our newspaper “Police State” 2017 edition.

The articles are limited to two pages each and may be written in French, English, or Spanish. The authors concerned about their translations must translate it themselves. Also, we invite you to send us pictures to accompany your articles. However, the images are part of the two-page limit. You can communicate your article and activity proposals as well as drawings to cobp@riseup.net before FEBRUARY 1, 2017!

We look forward to your collaboration!
Our fear shall become theirs.

The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality

Older Entries Newer Entries

FOR AN END TO THE REPRESSION: LET’S MULTIPLY THE ACTIONS! 21ST INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!

Open the Borders! Support Indigenous Sovereignty! No One Is Illegal! Emergency Demonstration against Donald Trump and the Far-Right SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 12PM Bethune Square, Guy & De Maisonneuve West (métro Guy-Concordia)

FOR AN END TO THE REPRESSION: LET’S MULTIPLY THE ACTIONS!
21ST INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!

Open the Borders! Support Indigenous Sovereignty! No One Is Illegal!
Emergency Demonstration against Donald Trump and the Far-Right
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 12PM
Bethune Square, Guy & De Maisonneuve West (métro Guy-Concordia)