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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. ...

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. ...

According to this article in a local Salaberry-de-Valleyfield newspaper from January 29th, the building facade of the excavation company Loiselle, located at 280 Pie-XII Boulevard in Saint-Timothée, was redecorated. The words “NO TO THE MIGRANT PRISON” can be read. The article indicates that this crime was committed with racist intentions, specifying that the company has no idea why it would have been targeted. We do not know the intentions of the vandals, but we know that a new prison for migrants is supposed to be constructed in Laval, and that this company received the contract for decontamination and excavation for this project. Is it not the fact of imprisoning and deporting more migrants that is racist? It’s only logical that the companies involved in the construction of this prison would be targeted. ...

Last night and the one before, different crews bombarded the colonial-themed advertising billboards for the new condo project OSHA with paint. The OSHA Condo project is simple: the destruction of Hochelaga. How? With the arrival of more than 200 condo units (selling for between $200 000 for a 2 and a half and more than $500 000 for a 4 and a half). Meaning 300 to 500 more yuppies in our neighborhood, and in a particularly sensitive location home to many of those tossed aside in recent decades by different real estate developments. The arrival of opulence, where misery reigns. Raising the number of cops and patrols, of expensive eco-ethico-responsible-biodegradable stores, of chic restaurants daring to name themselves “Les AffamÉes” (“the starving”) in one of the largest food deserts in Montreal. A social cleansing in every respect. ...

“Observant individuals can easily identify many such critical bottlenecks across Canada. They share several common characteristics: they are of immediate and significant value to businesses and governments; they concentrate valued resources or essential economic functions; they are located at the intersection of related transportation systems, thus allowing protesters to use their scarce resources efficiently; most are far from major national security resources and forces, thus complicating the deployment and maintenance of these forces; most are close to First Nations communities that would likely be neutral if not active supporters of insurgents and would provide safe-havens and logistical support to main participants; all are high profile assets the disruption of which would attract (for governments) troublesome national and international political and media attention; and all are vulnerable (i.e., value multiplied by the ease of disruption).” – Canada and the First Nations: Cooperation or Conflict? For more info on the weak points, check out: ...

Access a PDF for printing here. Not only can blockades “shut down the world”, they also open up space for a new one to be built, or in the case of colonized peoples, a world restored. We can look to many of the indigenous blockades or occupations of the last several decades for the examples of ceremonial, culinary, and other socially reproductive practices that point toward new ways of living which are themselves produced through resistance. Similarly, we see the revitalization of warrior culture being expressed at Standing Rock and other moments of indigenous revolt to be indicative of a broader possibility of life without the state or capitalism.[…] We hold evident that blockades are a crucial tactic in our war against planetary annihilation. […] With this tactical imperative, we call on all warriors and revolutionaries around the world to immediately orient themselves around blockading infrastructure. Collectives must research infrastructure to find the most vulnerable chokepoints and get organized to block them in effective ways. Those without fighting comrades can still contribute by engaging in lone wolf acts of sabotage. – Disrupt the Flows: War Against DAPL and Planetary Annihilation ...

At this very moment a standoff is unfolding, the outcome of which will determine the future of Northern BC for generations to come. Will the entire region be overtaken by the fracking industry, or will Indigenous people asserting their sovereignty be successful in repelling the assault on their homelands? ...

Citizenship can only exist and be valued if there is also a category of others, those without status. For this distinction to exist, it must be enforced by the state, which has a number of tools to do so. Deportation is one such tool. Deportation is a violent process in which the state removes all agency from an individual in order to exclude them from the territory over which it asserts its authority. To accomplish this task, the state uses different tactics, one of which is detention centers or migrant prisons. Migrant prisons are used as holding centers prior to deportation. People without status can be arrested and imprisoned while they wait to be flown out of the country, sometimes to far-away lands that they have no relationship to. ...

Between November 23rd and Dec 7th, we are calling for autonmous actions to block the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval. Under the pretext of improving detention conditions for migrants, the CBSA has been given a huge government budget to develop “alternatives” to detention and to build two new migrant prisons. While the state uses words like “humanized” and “alternatives” to describe their project, we know this is merely an expansion of the prison and border systems. The so-called “alternatives” and the new prisons serve the same purpose: to expand the CBSA’s capacity for border enforcement and immigration policing, to imprison and deport migrants and to rip people away from their families and communities. One of these prisons will be built in Laval on land owned by the Correctional Services of Canada, ostensibly replacing the existing migrant detention center. Two architectural firms have been contracted to build this project: Lemay (based in St. Henri, Montreal) and Groupe A (Quebec City). Work has already begun on the site of the future prison. ...

This series is an attempt to acknowledge and reflect on the history of militant resistance throughout the territories of so-called Canada. While the events we’ll be exploring do not necessarily involve anarchists, we think they’re important – as cultural markers or reference points from which we can be exposed to ideas or tactics. As the old saying goes, we learn from the past to prepare in the present and defend the future. The following text is on the Computer Riot, which took place in 1969 at Sir George Williams University (present day Concordia University). In an attempt to provide context for the story, we start with a (very) short history of anti-black racism in eastern Canada. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, tens of thousands of black slaves escaped from American plantations and headed north in search of liberation. Many crossed into Canada, where slavery had been formally abolished in 1834. They settled throughout the eastern provinces – in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia – forming small, tight-knit communities in urban centres. ...

Here’s a simple way to complicate the lives of Gardas and other security guards. During their night rounds, security guards are equipped with a scanner to ensure they complete a number of tasks. They have to scan barcodes, QR codes and magnetic chips to prove to their superiors that they’ve done their rounds. You’ll find these codes on exit doors, in bathrooms, some classrooms, at the ends of hallways and other places. ...

The evening of the 15th, we redecorated a few installations at Parc Maisonneuve. In 2013, this park had been the site of Operation Narcisse, a police operation during which plainclothes cops placed charges of “indecency” against men, after having seduced them. Some placards against “indencency” - which have, for the most part, been stolen or vandalised - were installed in the context of this operation with the purpose of intimidating us. Through our actions, we want to denounce the role that undercover cops play in the absurd and useless production of “crimes” implicating queer people. We also wish to denounce the recent installation of a camera at the entrance of the bathrooms in the basement of the Parc Mausonneuve chalet. Sooner or later, they will meet their sad fate.