Mtlcounter-Info

I, Madonna Bernard, as a Mi’kmaq, of the Unamaki territory, and as a land / water protector, stand in solidarity with the people of Gaspesie for standing up again Junex to prevent them from drilling for oil on Mik’maq territory, land of the 7th district in Gespegawagi. We will support any defenders of Mother Earth. It is our inherent right and duty to protect Mother Earth as indigenous people. We cannot leave it up to the INAC system and the government to protect the environment, because it is a corrupt system. Their only goal is to make money no matter the cost to the environment and future generations. ...

The transphobic, far-right, anti-Muslim Students in Support of Free Speech (SSFS) group from Toronto had a disastrous evening today in Montreal. Their planned recruitment event, a Montreal Pub Night, never happened. Instead, the Toronto SSFS President, Mari Jang, and the wannabe Montreal President, Oliver Marshall, spent several hours in a downtown police station filing a police report regarding their cancelled event. There were no arrests or injuries. Just hours before their scheduled pub night, SSFS had to move their event away from Grumpy’s Bar because the staff and management at Grumpy’s, a Concordia lefty hangout, clearly indicated to SSFS that they were not welcome (instead, Grumpy’s organized their annual fundraiser in support of community group Head and Hands Sex Ed For Youth Project, which is queer and trans inclusive). ...

Heavy machinery of the oil company Squatex was set aflame in the middle of Thursday night in Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc. The company has already carried out drilling in the area. The equipment was parked on the grounds nearby. Emergency services were dispatched to the site of a fire around 8:30 Friday. The fire, which is now under control, is considered suspect by police. It would have started during the night. An inspector and arson technician were called to the site. ...

May 18 is an important day for me. On May 18 the FFFC[1. Don’t ask me what FFFC stands for, because I don’t know.] firebombed a Royal Bank of Canada branch in a wealthy ottawa neighbourhood. One month later, on June 18, I was arrested, along with Roger Clement and one other person. It was alleged that I had thrown the firebomb that started the fire at the RBC, and I was charged with three counts of arson to property. The charges were ultimately dropped due to a lack of evidence against me. ...

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On July 24, 2016, Somalian refugee Abdirahman Abdi was brutally beaten to death by two Ottawa police officers. His death caused outrage, and drew attention to the issue of police brutality towards Black people in Ottawa. Anti-Black racism, and police violence towards Black people has been one of the central political issues of the past two years. This is a short essay that analyzes policing, and some thoughts about what to do to end the violence of policing. ...

GARAM MASAMA (Groupe d’Action Révolutionnaire sud-Asiatique de Montréal / Montreal Alliance of South Asian Leftists and Allies) had a successful intervention at this weekend’s misnamed and offensive “Festival of India”. We exposed it as a Hare Krishna and caste-Hindu sect event that does not represent India in any way. We passed out almost two-thousand flyers, had dozens of conversations with supportive and curious folks, but also had to deal with hostile and violent Hare Krishnas and their right-wing caste-Hindu accomplices (as these videos from the Saturday intervention attest). Nonetheless, our anti-caste message of “Hindutva must fall, an India for all” was heard loud and clear all weekend, raising awareness about grassroots and pluralistic movements in opposition to chauvinism and bigotry in South Asia and here. ...

We are calling for a Week of Solidarity with the J20 defendants from July 20 to 27, 2017. July 20 marks six months from the initial actions and arrests during Donald Trump’s inauguration, and on July 27, a motion to dismiss the charges will be argued in court. The case has finally begun to receive the media attention it warrants; with this court date approaching and the cases underway, this is a crucial time for a second Week of Solidarity. Send reportbacks, photographs, and inquiries to J20solidarity@protonmail.com . ...

The media has begun commenting on a short racist youtube video, shot at Parc Safari (a zoo 45 minutes outside of Montreal) on July 2nd [i] . The video, seemingly shot by a woman who just happened to be innocently visiting the zoo that day, is in fact not easy to make out – one sees a crowd of people milling around of the grass, a woman in a headscarf walking by, and one hears something difficult to make out coming through a sound system. Nothing in fact out of the ordinary to anyone who spends any amount of time out in public in most big cities in North America. ...

On Wednesday morning this week, the butcher shop Boucherie Grinder was struck with two bricks. The display windows which house the shop’s ornately-hung meats in full view were not broken, only receiving marks, due to the strength of the glass. A message was attached to the projectiles: “This is a vegetarian act. We consider that your hideous and infectious establishment requires a long and ostensible intervention. Cease the mutilation and sale of non-human animals. Starting today, June 27th, 2017, more and more speciesist institutions like yours will be vandalized in Montreal. Thank you for understanding that animals, like humans, are not for sale. Together for a 100% vegetarian future." ...

This week, between the nationalistic displays of June 24 (Quebec holiday) and July 1st (Canada holiday), a group called Le Collectif No Borders in Montreal has covered various areas of the city with anti-colonial, anti-nationalist and migrant justice stencils and images. Among the messages shared on the stencils, images and graffiti: 375+150 = Bullshit Construisons une ville sans frontières Arrêtez les déportations Open The Borders Refugees Welcome Réfugié-e-s bienvenu-e-s Ils construisent des murs, nous bâtissons des ponts Ni Canada, Ni Québec. Fuck le 150e Ni Québec, ni Canada. Quebec, Canada … same shit, different piles. Canada 150: Fake News ...

This year Canada is commemorating it’s 150th anniversary. But for indigenous people there’s nothing to celebrate and have called for nationwide actions . In honour of Art Manuel and the integrity with which he always began with the land and honoured the grassroots people, the #Unsettling150 crew are proud to launch this video filled with Art’s words, read by his daughter Kanahus Manuel, to launch the final lead-up to the national day of action, education, and reflection.