Three years ago, the Canadian state invested $138 million to expand its migrant detention system, including plans for a new migrant prison in Laval. Since then, a multiform struggle has arisen to stop the construction of this prison. Companies such as Lemay, Loiselle, and Englobe have been continuosly reminded that anyone who chooses to implicate themselves in this project can expect major delays at every stage of the project. ...
In the past few weeks, the state has once again revamped its war on queers. A few days before Hamilton police targeted Cedar for arrest, Quebec city police bragged online about using plainclothes cops to entrap 11 queer men who were consensually cruising. These targeted attacks will not be tolerated. Fuck the police. Solidarity with Cedar and with all queers facing repression.
For at least the 8th time in less than two years, the racist and colonial John A. Macdonald Monument (1895) in Montreal has been vandalized by anti-colonial artists. Between the two nationalist holidays in Quebec - St-Jean Baptiste Day on June 24 and Canada Day on July 1 - the #MacdonaldMustFall group in Montreal once again targeted the controversial statue, this time with blue paint, for an anti-colonial message. ...
On June 15th, 2019 in Hamilton, “Ontario”, Pride was attacked by a group of far-right homophobes, christian fundamentalists, neo-nazis, and queer bashers. As they did in 2018, they arrived with massive homophobic signs and banners, and immediately began to scream insults and slurs. They aggressively harassed individuals, made jokes about rape, and threatened physical violence. Things quickly escalated as the bigots violently confronted people who were holding a fabric barrier in an attempt to block them from disrupting Pride. Initiated by the far-right activists a brawl broke out – queers who refused to allow their presence to go unchallenged were attacked, but fought back. Several friends were injured and required medical attention. The police did nothing during this hour-long conflict, and only stepped in at the end when there was nothing left to do. The haters knew they couldn’t sustain their presence any longer, and welcomed the police escort out of the park. After being kicked out of Pride, this same group chased and assaulted queer youth in the neighbourhood, and then went on to attack people at Toronto Pride the following week. ...
In the early morning of Monday June 10th, the Montreal police shot a man. A neighbour was having a crisis. Instead of doing anything helpful, they harassed him for hours. They had guns pointed at his head. They finally shot him in the leg through hs own apartment door early monday morning. On Sunday June 17th anarchists in the St-Henri neighbourhood of Montreal put up posters reminding our neighbours to think twice before calling the cops. ...
On the day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners, the BMW belonging to André Cardinal, parked in front of his private residence in NDG, was set on fire. André Cardinal is the Vice President of Lemay, the architecture firm designing the migrant prison in Laval. May fires burn for all that the worlds of prison and borders have stolen from us.
As we all know, the Canadian government decided to invest more than 56$ million into locking up hundreds of people in a brand-new prison in Laval, slated to open in 2021. On June 7th, we decided to take back this site of suffering and grief and transform it into a place of life and hope. Thanks largely to a donation of organic seeds by a Quebec-based cooperative farm, we sowed the 377,500 square meter construction site with 490kg of oats, peas and fava beans. This action builds on the work of other community members and aims to encourage further efforts to stop the construction of the prison. We also see it as a way of preparing the ground for other projects to collectively reappropriate this land for the common purposes. No prisons, no borders! ...
A warm greeting to our companions, It seems our meetings get warmer every year. We write to you as our planet reaches record breaking degradation and heads of industry make further plans still. We write to you as the canadian government engages in low-intensity warfare on Wet’suwet’en communities from the raid on Gidumt’en, the invasion of Unist’ot’en, surveillance, police checkpoints, armed patrols, to the perpetuation of murdered and missing indigenous women. Slow genocide without a name. ...
A few nights ago we stumbled upon an Englobe work vehicle. Englobe is an environmental engineering company subcontracted to perform site evaluation for the migrant prison in Laval. We smashed out the windshield, slashed all the tires, and spray-painted “No Migrant Prison” on the side. This was a spontaneous and easy expression of our anger towards all those involved with building this prison. We hope it prevented at least one worker from getting to their job the next day. ...
As the Victoria Day weekend begins, the Macdonald Monument and the Queen Victoria Statue at McGill have once again been vandalized. Montreal May Anarchists (MMA) sprayed the Macdonald Monument in anti-colonial green, and the Queen Victoria statue in anti-imperialist red. In the words of the #MacdonaldMustFall group: “John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist. He directly contributed to the genocide of Indigenous peoples with the creation of the brutal residential schools system, as well as other measures meant to destroy native cultures and traditions. He was racist and hostile towards non-white minority groups in Canada, openly promoting the preservation of a so-called “Aryan” Canada. He passed laws to exclude people of Chinese origin. He was responsible for the hanging of Métis martyr Louis Riel. Macdonald’s statue belongs in a museum, not as a monument taking up public space in Montreal”. ...
On May Day 2019 in Montreal there were four different demonstrations at different times and locations across the city. The CLAC (Convergence des Luttes Anti-Capitalistes) called for their annual anti-capitalist May Day demonstration to be held in the theme of “No borders”, in the context of the rise of the xenophobic far right in Quebec and the ongoing attept to construct a new migrant prison in Laval, QC. We attended the CLAC’s No Borders May Day, which gathered at 6:30pm at Square Cabot in the west end of downtown Montreal. ...
Earth Day, 2019: floods spread across southern Quebec, federal police protect fossil fuel companies against indigenous land defenders from coast to coast of so-called Canada, climate refugees are held at gunpoint by right-wing gangs in Arizona , 150 species go extinct on an average day, while people in different parts of the world brace for record-setting forest fires, hurricanes, and typhoons. And a handful of environmental nonprofits and their paid activists bankrolled by elite philanthropists beholden to big corporations expect us to believe that we’ll convince governments to enact the change needed to save the planet if only we march in orderly circles enough times with enough people, handing ourselves over to the police if we temporarily disturb anyone’s daily routine. ...