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. ...
On the icy morning of Friday the 13th, we awoke at dawn to venture into the winds and cold, where we were met by the beautiful full moon in Cancer setting towards the horizon, as a hazy sun rose in the east. Together, we blocked the morning’s rush hour traffic headed downtown along Notre-Dame Est in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, with discarded Christmas trees and a pile of flaming tires. Above the street, a banner was hung from the railway bridge between the port and the wasteland. Jumping through the snow, dragging heavy things, watching out for one another, nurturing new skills, developing a multiplicity of tactics together, and building caring and meaningful relationships of struggle. Once the blockades were set and the fires lit, we quickly and carefully dispersed to get to warmth and safety. ...
On the night of December 31, a small group of people went to the Joliette federal prison for women, with a banner, casseroles (pots and pans) and fireworks, in order to continue the tradition of celebrating New Years with those locked up behind the walls of the State. When we arrived, two women inmates were in the yard of the prison, and asked us to leave. One of them left running to potentially alert someone to our presence, while the other explained that if we don’t leave, their visits the next day will be canceled. Unlike last year, the women stayed inside the housing units while looking out the windows. We shot off some fireworks while leaving, not knowing how to react. We believe that the authorities punished the inmates last year for our presence and their enthusiasm by perhaps blocking their visits and putting them in lock-down. We don’t find this surprising on their part, given that they maintain their authority by imposing fear, and in this way, repressing desire for freedom. ...
This year, Canada is celebrating its 150th year of colonial existence, and Montreal its 375th. Throughout the next year, we’re going to be celebrating the histories of resistance to the colonial project of Canada, by continuing to bring them into our struggles in the present. This is a call for anarchists across the territory of so-called Canada, and everyone fighting against colonial society, to combine our diverse capacities to fight this ongoing nightmare in all the ways that we can. ...
On the night of December 13, 2016, three branch locations of banks invested in pipelines were sabotaged in different Montreal neighborhoods by coordinated groups. We glued locks and ATM card slots at branches of Toronto Dominion and the Royal Bank of Canada. We painted #NODAPL and ‘Solidarity with all land defenders’ on the walls outside. TD and RBC are among the largest Canadian investors in the Dakota Access Pipeline. RBC is also a major investor in Enbridge’s Line 3, which was just approved by the federal government of Canada, and an investor in Kinder Morgan, whose Trans Mountain pipeline was also just approved by the federal government here. There has been resistance to Enbridge and Kinder Morgan for years. We are continuing it here and we expect it will keep happening. Fuck all the pipelines. ...
Trains are one of the main ways that oil is transported across Turtle Island. Physical blockades of the tracks have been used effectively many times to hamper ecocidal projects of “resource extraction”. We can also block the rails in a sneaky way: by tricking the signalling system into thinking there is a train on the tracks. This trick will force train traffic to come to a halt until the signal blockage is cleared. It can be done in under a minute, and repeated many times to have a significant impact on train circulation. It can take hours to find and remove this blockage, stopping all train traffic in the meantime. ...
Over the last few months, friends have been playing Camover in the neighbourhood of Hochelaga. We’ve destroyed around twenty security cameras. For your pleasure (and certainly for our own as well!), here’s a photo in which we see a friend sporting a necklace of optical trophies. In response to the recent smashings of gentrifiers in the neighbourhood, and in the context of twenty-two businesses being vandalized in the last year, the city and the police have publicly announced a renewed collaboration. They’re desperately trying to reassert control, faced with people who “aren’t afraid of the police”, and their initiative to install more cameras shows it. Of course, the police know that it’s impossible to be everywhere all of the time. There will always be loopholes that allow those who are creative and well-prepared to attack. That’s where cameras come in: to make us feel powerless and watched. But our masks will continue to give us power against any camera. No face, no case. And so, to keep up morale, we’ve decided to see this increase in the presence of cameras in the neighbourhood as an occasion for more CamOver and increased sabotage of the mechanisms of control that the authorities put in place. ...
On Monday October 31, about 75 people assembled in Hochelag’ with costumes and candy for a Halloween demonstration against gentrification. In a carnivalesque mood, the small crowd took the streets and put up graffiti on the walls of the neighbourhood. In the wake of the demo’s path, one could read: “fuck homa”, “genre = cauchemar” (gender = nightmare), “tout le monde déteste la police” (everyone hates the police), “junkies contre la gentrification” (junkies against gentrification), etc. This gave a bit of colour and life to Hochelag’, a neighbourhood which is undergoing sterilization so that, slowly but surely, all that can thrive are condos, yuppie grocery stores and high-end clothing stores. ...
About a year ago, the good citizens of the neighborhood were indignant about an attack against Electric Kids, whose front window was sprayed with purple paint which we can still see traces of today. Tonight, we decided to attack other businesses on rue Sainte-Catherine – three furniture design boutiques, a real estate office, and a yuppie hair salon. If this is the strategy we use, it’s not just to make those who support and participate in the gentrification of Hochelaga talk about it. We want to do more than just raise our voices, to be more than indignant when faced with this movement that slowly chases us from the neighborhood. Rather than being satisfied with just smashing their windows, we decided to spray the interior of the design businesses with paint to ruin their merchandise. It’s a matter of directly effecting these owners, and not just the facades that protect them. ...
In the early hours of November 11th, red paint was dumped onto James McGill’s burial monument on McGill University’s downtown campus. In front of his memorial, near a plaque dedicated to Canadian soldiers killed in WWII, “Fin à McGill” was stenciled. James McGill, the founder of McGill University, is widely known to have owned enslaved Black and Indigenous people, and his lucrative earnings in this economy allowed him to finance the establishment of the university. ...
Last Tuesday, August 16, a widespread power failure plunged Hochelaga into darkness. No more light in the streets, no more functioning cameras… When we realized what was happening, we quickly exchanged knowing looks and smiled under the glow of candles. We gathered our rain jackets and several tools, then left to play in the night. The torrential rain had disrupted the stifling machine of the city and its system of surveillance. The storm offered us a respite, a moment of chaos to not be missed. Completely drenched, with joyous hearts, we strolled in the streets, improvising our targets with excitement. We took several precautions: planning an exit route for each location, and having lookouts. Darkness was our accomplice. We hurried to play until electricity returned, then headed to our homes without any problems. ...
Friday, March 18, 2016 a few individuals crossed the fences surrounding Leclerc penitentiary to make an action in solidarity with the prisoners who had just been transferred to Tanguay. The eastern facade of the old prison was redecorated with yellow, blue and pink paint eggs and the inscription «Feu aux prisons, Fin aux systèmes d’oppressions!» (Fire to the prisons, end to the systems of oppression!) was written with spray cans. ...