Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information
Montréal Contre-information

Banners Dropped in Alma

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Oct 072019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Alma, September 26th, 2019. Two banners were dropped this morning in downtown Alma near the offices of Economic Development Canada. They read: “Industrial development is killing us! We don’t want a job, we want a life!”. The government body that recently gave out $2 million in funding to the metallurgy sector was symbolically targeted. The action, signed by the living waters committee, takes place in the context of the climate strike movement and aims to denounce industrial and extractive projects in the region.

The anonymous committee denounces the Gazoduc (gas pipeline) project which would cross the regions of Abitibi, Mauricie, and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, the GNL Québec natural gas liquifaction terminal in Saguenay, the Lac-à-Paul mine, and the deep-water port of Ariane Phosphate in Ste-Rose-du-Nord, as well as BlackRock Metals’ mine and rail transport between Chibougamau and Saguenay. According to one of the action’s instigators, “these projects are a nuisance to the environment and to all the populations of the region. The argument of well-paying jobs is worthless. The price to pay is the destruction of marine life, breathtaking landscapes, fragile ecosystems, and vulnerable species. We need to stop the extraction of ‘natural resources’ as soon as possible and understand that we’re in a relation of interdependence with the ecosystems surrounding us. We need to stop relations of domination over our environment now.”

The committee makes a call for action, in a diversity of tactics, to put an end to the environmental massacre as quickly as possible! “We must mobilize immediately against every new industrial development and invest the time, energy, and money necessary to develop sustainable local initiatives that don’t come at a cost to other species of flora and fauna.”

In conclusion, the living waters committee announces that other targeted actions are in preparation.

– The Harlequin Duck

Nighttime Visit to Lemay’s Installations in Parc Frédéric-Back

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Oct 052019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

As part of a series of actions targeting migrant prison profiteers, around 12 of the spherical shaped biogas-capturing wells designed by Lemay and installed in Parc Frédéric-Back were tagged with the words ‘fuck lemay’. Many of these wells also had their unique identifiers blacked-out. Some park benches and one large map of the park, also designed by lemay, were tagged with anti-lemay, anti-cop, anti-authoritarian, and antifascist slogans and symbols. These much needed modifications will no doubt add to the park’s “unique environmental layout”, enhancing the “landscape’s feeling of otherworldliness”.

A Report-back from Montreal’s Climate Strike

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Oct 052019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

“The struggle against climate change can’t exist in a vacuum. It must also be a fight against the border system that values some lives over others. It must overthrow capitalism which always strives to produce more.”
– Call for the anti-racist and anti-capitalist contingent

“L’air, la terre et les rivières
Ont besoin de révolutionnaires”
(“The air, the land, and the rivers
need revolutionaries”)
– Chant heard in the streets

“Manif zéro-déchet : police dehors!”
(Zero-waste demo : police out!)
– Chant heard in the streets

On Friday, September 27, in Montreal, between 300,000 and 500,000 people marched in a climate demonstration, and anarchists and other radicals decided not to sit this one out. Amidst the sheer mass of citizenry and their disciplined procession from Mt. Royal Park to Old Montreal, it was difficult to meaningfully shift the tone towards active confrontation with the systems of power and institutions that are making the planet uninhabitable. Nevertheless, thousands of copies were distributed of Toward a Revolutionary Environmental Movement and Climate of Revolt, which both present arguments against reformism, with the latter linking to a map of weak points to the Canadian extractive economy. And in the anti-racist, anti-capitalist contingent, there were glimpses of a climate struggle that doesn’t content itself with pleas to the government for an imposed solution, but instead obstructs the operations of the colonial, capitalist, and white supremacist order that depends on ecocide.

Several hundred people responded to the call for this contingent that invited people to wear masks and expand the struggle in liberatory directions. We also heard that many people who were trying to join the contingent couldn’t, because the crowd was so big and dense. Early on, it was extremely difficult to move in the packed crowd, especially for a group or for people holding a banner; combined with the knowledge that you’re surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, the feeling tended towards something apocalyptic more than empowering or liberating. After a claustrophobic hour of waiting for the demo to leave and then inching south as the massive crowd filtered into Parc Avenue, the contingent decided to start a break-off demo eastward on des Pins. Close to a thousand people followed us (the cops reportedly warned demo-goers not to join les antifas).

Setting our own pace and with black flags, green smoke bombs, and high-quality music, banners, and chants, it felt like we could breathe again. People started joyfully ripping down federal election signs, and a TD Bank was hit with green paint bombs. Around the same time in the main demo, a brave individual threw an egg at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was booed and heckled throughout the monumental absurdity of his heavily police-protected #ClimateMarch photo-op. Riot police buses appeared behind us only about twenty minutes later, keeping their distance, as we neared the corner of Ste-Catherine and St-Laurent where we rejoined the main demo.

Moving south on St-Laurent, graffiti went up reading “fuck le capitalisme” and “Miguel Peralta libertad” (calling for freedom for the Indigenous anarchist, prisoner of the Mexican state). After turning west on Boulevard René-Lévesque, the contingent took the left side of the street, with the rest of the demo on the right, separated from each other by a tall, fenced median. More paint bombs hit an HSBC branch. Soon after, people used them to redecorate the offices of Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, which were also tagged with “Migrants Welcome”, “Fuck CBSA”, and “queer and trans resistance” in gold paint. [A communiqué published the next day explained the connections between climate change and border enforcement]. The contingent crowd cheered, while those on the other side of the street seemed curious or unfazed. We’re curious what would have happened if this attack in broad daylight on an institution of border enforcement had escalated.

Instead of lingering around the main demo endpoint on Robert-Bourassa to listen to hours of speeches, the contingent diverged east towards Square Victoria, where we found people occupying the space around the statue of Queen Victoria with plenty of food to be given for free, a banner reading “Temporary Autonomous Zone” draped over the statue, and crowd-control barriers being repurposed to block the road running through the square. It felt great to be able to lie down in the grass after so many hours on our feet – a welcome departure from the end-of-demo experiences we’re used to. Over the course of the afternoon, the statue was progressively defaced with graffiti, people danced around a trustworthy sound system, and a wooden structure of some kind was built in the street. There were many cops keeping watch, but it never seemed likely that they would attack the festive gathering, considering it was a block away from where tens of thousands of people from the main demo were still congregating, and that its disruptive impact inevitably paled in comparison to the massive demo’s.

An anti-capitalist night demo had been called for 6:30pm, leaving from Square Victoria. The burning of our wooden structure in the middle of the street attempted to set the mood. Unfortunately, the overall vibe did not feel strong. Hundreds of cops mobilized for the main demo had been able to focus on the square for the past couple hours, just waiting for 6:30 by which time they could expect the larger crowds to have left. People were also masking up in ineffective ways, with a prevalence of bandanas, often pulled down around necks (bandanas aren’t a safe mask in any case and shouldn’t be encouraged). Poor masking practices, which draw risk that multiplies when the cops have had hours to set up surveillance on a static gathering place, diminish our capacity to act and act over long hours in the streets. The demo lasted about three minutes, a nice firework and a volley of rocks hit a group of bike cops, riot cops shut down a metro station by getting pepper spray in the ventilation system, and two people were arrested.

The questions of where, when and how to participate and intervene in climate strike mobilizations still demand reflection and experimentation. However, the 27th showed that anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian initiatives during a large demo, inside it and on its margins, have strong potential to bring new dimensions to the struggle. The ability to break off and rejoin the main demo in unpredictable ways jumbles the calculations of the police respective to an attack on the demo. A sizeable, clearly marked contingent allows for a separation of space between confrontational tactics and demo-goers who are looking to participate in a lower-risk way, and for people who want to act to find each other in such enormous crowds. And the sheer numbers in the streets mean that many people are being directly exposed to different ways of struggling rather than through media reports and other misrepresentations.

Sovereign Likhts’amisyu Action Camp October 1-11th

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Sep 302019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

(see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odLUEQsqJqI)

Do you want to do your part to defend Mother Earth from the ravages of the oil and gas industry? Do you want to support the indigenous people who have been on the front lines of the fight against pipelines for the past decade? Do you want to learn about decolonization, the sovereignty movement, and the campaign to prevent the Coastal GasLink (CG)L) pipeline from being built?

If so, you are invited to the first ever Sovereign Likhts’amisyu Action Camp. From October 1-11th, 2019, the Likhts’amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation will be hosting its first-ever action camp on traditional territory recently reclaimed from the Canadian state.

Following the RCMP invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory this past January, the Likhts’amisyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation re-occupied one of their traditional territories in so-called Northern B.C. Since May, we have been hard at work building a new village.  We are now requesting that volunteers come to make a major push to get everything done before the snow flies.

If this is the first you are hearing about the Sovereign Likhts’amisyu, please visit our website at www.likhtsamisyu.com.

Who are the Likhts’amisyu? What is this all about?

The Likhts’amisyu is one of the five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation. For the last ten years, the Wet’suwet’en have been resisting an  array of pipelines through which industry intends to ship diluted bitumen and fracked gas to the Northwest Coast for export. The focal point of these efforts have been the Unist’ot’en Camp, a long-standing territorial re-occupation which was built directly in the path of the proposed pipeline corridor. Years of resistance have caused multiple multi-billion-dollar projects to be delayed and/or cancelled. Things
came to a head this winter, when the Coastal GasLink pipeline corporation obtained a court injunction against the camp. In response, a
blockade was established on a neighbouring territory by members of another Wet’suwet’en clan, the Gidimt’en.

For three weeks, the Gidimt’en blocked pipeline workers and police from entering the territory. Then, on January 7th, 2019, militarized federal police raided the Gidimt’en camp, arresting 14 people and setting off a Canada-wide wave of protests. Two days later, the RCMP breached the gate of the Unist’ot’en Camp, and pipeline workers entered the territory, where they began destroying a vast swath of forest to make way for the pipeline right-of-way, as well as a large man camp to house pipeline workers.

It is important that people realize that this fight is far from over. Although preliminary work has begun on the pipeline, as well as on an LNG export terminal in the coastal city of Kitimat, no pipe has yet been laid. The events of December and January should be regarded as one phase in a struggle that has been going on for a decade.

Seen in this light, the Likhts’amisyu village represents a continuation and an expansion of the Wet’suwet’en people’s efforts to assert their
rights as a sovreign nation. Whereas at the beginning of December, there was one camp resisting ongoing colonialism on Wet’suwet’en territory, there are now three – the Unist’ot’en, the Gidimt’en, and the Likhts’amisyu. The three clans stand in solidarity with one another, as shown ceremonially in a recent Unification Rally (link). We encourage people who come to our action camp to also visit the other camps.

In the wake of the events of the winter, the Likhts’amisyu decided that the time was right to assert their sovereignty, and in May of this year, they began the process of building a new village on an ancient Wet’suwet’en village site. They received a donation of a significant
number of logs to use for building. As things currently stand, two log cabins have been built (both of which await the addition of a roof) and a third is well underway. The plan is to have all three cabins fully built, furnished, and move-in ready before the snow comes this Fall. In addition to this, a Summer kitchen has been built.

It will also be necessary to build several wood sheds and cut enough firewood to last the winter, so several days will be spent meeting this
need.

We encourage all people who are inspired by this project to come participate. Don’t be shy to come if you don’t have experience working construction. We will find a way for you to contribute. This is a great place to pick up some new skills.

Although we are requesting that volunteers come ready to work, this isn’t just a work camp. We are hoping that activists who are serious
about land defence and indigenous solidarity will see this as an opportunity to build and strengthen relationships, to share information, and to strategize about how best to wage a multi-faceted, multi-year campaign combining different approaches and sites of struggle. With
ecological struggle set to intensify in the near future, it is important that the people on the front lines are connected to the support of a
wider movement. Working together, as well as spending time around the fire, is a great way to build relationships rooted in mutual respect and trust. We believe that such strong-bond relationships are the stuff that resilient movements are made of.

There will also be other activities, such as tracking, hunting, fishing, foraging, berry-picking, paddle-boarding, kayaking, hiking, music,
workshops, story-telling, strategy discussions, and various kinds of skill-sharing. We will be inviting land defenders and knowledge-keepers from neighbouring nations to speak about the issues affecting their territories as well, as well share stories. If you would like to lead an activity, please email us with your idea.

We are also specifically reaching out to academics, researchers, scientists, and university faculty, inviting them to visit the camp during this time of heightened activity. We are doing this because we have plans to build a climate change research centre here. We want to connect with people working in the fields of biological, environmental science, anthropology, and archaeology.

Likhts’amisyu chief Dtsa’Hayl (a.k.a. Adam Gagnon), who is a professional contractor, has been leading the construction efforts at the village site. . We also welcome donations of goods such as building supplies, non-perishable food, and firewood. We are also currently fund-raising for building supplies, and encourage folks to check out the links below for ways to donate.

We understand that many people who might like to come do not own their own vehicles. If you are interested in coming, please email us telling us where you are located and we will do our best to find you a ride. Alternatively, you could post on the Facebook page and request a ride there. . Lastly, for people who do want to come, but who can’t come for the action camp, we encourage you to visit when you can. This is a multi-year project in an early phase. In the long run, we want to build up a strong network of people willing to support us on an ongoing basis.

So to all you beautiful freedom fighters (and future freedom fighters) out there in the world, come! The experience may well change your life…

Please share this invitation throughout your networks, and please do not hesitate to write us at likhtsamisyu@gmail.com (for the chiefs directly) or likhtsamisyu@riseup.net if you have any questions. If you leave a number, we will a call to answer any questions you have, as we realize that the dates of the camp are rapidly approaching and time is of the essence.

Thank you!

Likhts’amisyu Solidarity

******************************************************************************

Here are some useful links:

1. The Go Fund Me page is at: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/likhtsamisyu2019

2. The promotional video is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odLUEQsqJqI

3. The Likhtsamisyu website is at: www.likhtsamisyu.com

4. The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/likhtsamisyu

Please write us at likhtsamisyu@gmail.com (for the chiefs directly) or likhtsamisyu@riseup.net (for the supporter collective) if you have any questions.

*******************************************************************************

***FIRST IMPORTANT ADDENDUM***

We encourage folks who are traveling long distances to come to Wet’suwet’en territory to also visit and support the other camps. The Unist’ot’en Camp has also recently put out a call for volunteers for an upcoming construction camp. Details can be found here:

https://itsgoingdown.org/strengthening-the-front-lines-on-wetsuweten-territory/

From their call for volunteers:

“During the last week of October and early November there will be a concerted push to complete the Healing Lodge. This beautiful and functional building has become the key embodiment of the Wet’suwt’en fight for sovereignty and against industrial destruction. The Healing Lodge is about 95% complete – it would be a great achievement to be able to declare this project finished this fall. Over the last several months good progress has also been made on other Village structures including a root cellar, tool shed and green house. These projects also require some additional work.”

***SECOND IMPORTANT ADDENDUM ***

We have just learned that the Gidimt’en Camp has also just announced dates for an Fall Work Camp. For details, see:

https://itsgoingdown.org/call-for-gidimten-work-camp-october-10th-21st/

“The cold is quickly approaching at the Gidimt’en Checkpoint and Costal Gaslink is preparing for construction activities in Gidimt’en territories this fall and winter – including the construction of another man camp and clearing the right of way on Gidimt’en yintah. We are preparing for the cold, hard battle ahead – and we invite you to join us.

In an era of attempted pipeline development across co-called “North America” the capitalist and colonial processes which displace Indigenous peoples from their land destroy the planet must be stopped! Working alongside the Gidimt’en checkpoint is concrete way to support resistance to the state along with colonial and capitalist projects which are destroying our territories and the planet more broadly.

Folks with carpentry, framing, logging, cooking and camping skills are encouraged to come to camp and work, ideally folks commit to ten days of work beginning October 10th, 2019. However supporters are needed before and after camp.”

 

How to find and take action against border infrastructure anywhere in Canada

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Sep 282019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Construction has begun on a new prison for migrants and refugees in Laval, QC, a suburb just outside of Montreal. As the project has advanced, the struggle to stop it has ramped up as well, with a wide variety of actions being taken to stop its construction. The prison is part of a $138 million plan called the National Immigration Detention Framework (NIDF), announced in 2016 by the governnment of Canada following a period of resistance against the imprisonment of migrants. The NIDF expands and strengthens the government’s capacity to surveil, imprison, and deport migrants, creating two new migrant prisons as well as new forms of surveillance & control such as mandatory ankle bracelets, voice biometric scans, and halfway houses for migrants.

In the midst of this it can be hard to figure out how to intervene in what’s happening, either as an individual or group. In the spirit of spreading all forms of resistance to Canada’s border and prison regimes we’ve brainstormed a list of (just some of) the ways people might contribute to this fight.

Border and detention infrastructure can be found in most cities in Canada. Read on for some ways to identify it in your context (and a few ideas for what to do with that info).

IDENTIFYING BORDER INFRASTRUCTURE IN YOUR AREA

In the US, an extended and fierce struggle againt ICE has been ongoing, with most major cities in the country showing up to shut down ICE offices, hold noise demos outside of detention centers, and take other creative measures to counter the US detention and deportation regime. The government has been feeling the heat, and, while there’s still quite a ways to go, we think it’s both possible and necessary to bring resistance to the border in so-called Canada to this level!

Check if any of the following organizations have locations in your area:

Government:

  • Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) – The main enforcement for the detention, surveillance and deportation of migrants in Canada. Offices, staff, and infrastructure located all over Canada.

Did you know that in 2017, an access to information request resulted in the release of the names and positions of hundreds of CBSA employees? You can read those documents at this link and figure out if there’s anyone in your area whose responsibility for the deportation and detention of migrants should be revealed. https://mtlcounterinfo.org/doxxing-the-canadian-border-services-agency/

  • CBSA migrant detention centres – there are currently three federal migrant prisons – one in Toronto, one in Laval, and one inside the Vancouver airport. Construction on a new one in Surrey, BC, was recently completed, and a new one is being built in Laval, QC.
  • Provincial jails – The CBSA pays millions of dollars to provincial governments each year, as part of deals that allow the agency to imprison migrants in provincial jails. In Ontario, most migrants detained by the CBSA are held in provincial jails.

NGOs profiting from and enforcing the “Alternatives to detention” portion of the NIDF: https://communemag.com/the-same-prison-with-a-nicer-facade/

  • John Howard Society – a non-profit which was awarded almost $5 million to implement the new “Community Case Management and Supervision” program, essentially a regime of programming and halfway houses for migrants that mirrors the existing parole system in Canada. Locations in all provinces across Canada, no location in Yukon or Nunavut. http://johnhoward.ca/services-across-canada/
  • Toronto Bail Program – A recipient of approximtely $7 million to implement the “Community Case Management and Supervision” program, located in Toronto.
  • The Salvation Army – A recipient of over $1 million to implement the “Community Case Management and Supervision” program, locations in most Canadian cities.

Profiteers from the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval

Miscellaneous:

  • GardaWorld – This private security company, contracted as prison guards at the current migrant prison in Laval, and as security at the construction site for the new one, has locations all over Canada. There is no shortage of heinous projects they’re connected to. Check their website to see if they have a location in your area.
  • G4S – Contracted as prison guards at the migrant prison in Toronto.

Once you know the organizations and companies in your area that are profiting from border enforcement, consider trying to find out the names and locations of individuals involved. Try finding out where the executives of the company live, and put up posters in their neighbourhood, or hold a surprise demo outside of their home. You can also send them emails, faxes, and letters from an anonymous computer.

With a trusted friend or friends, take action against the companies or implicated agencies directly!

You can find a collection of communiques from actions that have taken place against the construction of the new migrant prison at this link: https://www.stopponslaprison.info/en/news-and-analysis/

If you’re considering taking direct action against border infrastructure in your area, take a look at this “Recipe for nocturnal direct actions”, which covers a lot of useful information for planning and executing effective direct actions while keeping eachother as safe as possible in the process! https://mtlcounterinfo.org/a-recipe-for-nocturnal-direct-actions/

Still not sure whether there is border infrastructure in your area? Reach out to a nearby No-One Is Illegal chapter or other migrant justice organization and see if they can point you in the right direction. Or, get together with friends for a research night!

There are of course still things you can do even if you live in a small community without any border infrastructure:

1. Share materials and information

Check out the materials page of stopponslaprison.info. You can share and print zines, posters, flyers and stickers with those in your network.

Get a group of friends together, and put up some posters in your neighbourhood, or near a bus stop. You can find instructions on how to make wheatpaste, which makes posters hard to remove, at this link. https://mtlcounterinfo.org/how-to-wheatpaste/

Spend a couple hours putting up stickers in the transit system, in your school, workplace, or in your neighbourhood.

Do a banner drop in a visible location in your area that shares a message against borders and prisons! Here is some information on how to do a banner drop: http://destructables.org/node/56

Plan an information picket or flyering day. Print out some flyers, or make your own! Get a few friends together and hang out at the subway/metro/skytrain or bus station for a few hours, giving people information about the project.

2. Spam the companies

Send spam faxes or flood the phone lines, email accounts, and social media accounts of the companies and their employees.

It’s easy to make temporary email accounts with protonmail or guerrilamail.

You can send faxes for free online at https://www.gotfreefax.com/ or https://faxzero.com/. Sending faxes with a lot of black ink can waste all of the ink on their machine or jam up the machine, making it less possible for them to recieve real faxes.

If you’re thinking of spamming the companies online, keep in mind that you may not want to do so from your own social media account, or IP address. Take a look at the EFF guide to safer online communications, and check out tools such as Tor and TAILS to use to create your temporary anonymous email account and for sending faxes.
https://ssd.eff.org/
https://www.torproject.org/
https://tails.boum.org/

3. Share this call with friends and family, and meet with them to talk about how you might organize something in your area!

Why Stantec and the Guy-Favreau Complex got targeted at the climate march and why the climate movement should fight the border regime

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Sep 282019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Canada is a major contributor to the climate crisis, playing an active role in displacing people from their homes around the world. Canada hosts over 70% of the world’s mining companies, which sow environmental and economic devastation on a global scale. Canada creates more greenhouse gas emissions than any other G20 country, contributing to the creation of climate refugees. And within its borders, the federal government continues to push through pipeline project after pipeline project, despite sustained resistance by Indigenous communities.

As the climate crisis continues to escalate, pushed along by the extractive forces of capitalism and colonialism, this has led to an acceleration of the global migration crisis. In response, we see Canada further fortifying its borders in an attempt to prevent those it has displaced from seeking refuge.

This buildup of border infrastructure is not limited to the border itself. Over the past two decades, migrant detention has been one of the fastest growing forms of incarceration in Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has three prisons just for migrants and rents space to detain migrants in jails across the country. In 2016, the government invested an additional $138 million to strengthen and expand this system, leading to the construction of two new migrant prisons (one in Laval, QC) as well as new systems of surveilance and control such as mandatory ankle bracelets and voice biometric scans for migrants.

As Canada responds to climate change by fortressing its borders, those championing the white supremacist politics behind this decision will continue to become more mainstream. In Quebec, we’ve already seen the mainstreaming of anti-islam groups like La Meute, the success of the CAQ’s anti-immigrant election campaign, as well as the violent consequences of its Law 21. As the charade that is the federal election begins, we have already seen a further mainstreaming of white nationalism, as politicians sow fear and hatred of migrants crossing into Quebec at Roxham Road.

Borders and prisons are colonial impositions on these territories, systems fundamentally about domination and control. As Canada continues to invest billions into extraction, those feeling the brunt of the crisis here continue to be Indigenous peoples. Whether its pipelines forcibly installed across Indigenous territories, mining or logging companies operating in Indigenous territories without consent, or the envrionmental devastation caused by refineries built right next to reserves, Indigenous communities are consitently on the frontlines, experiencing the harmful effects of extractivism, as well as leading the resistance to it.

It is for these reasons and more that Stantec and the Guy-Favreau Complex were targeted by people participating in the climate march. The buildings were hit with green paintbombs and spraypainted with “Bienvenue aux migrants” (Welcome migrants). In the Guy-Favreau Complex, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada holds detention review hearings daily, often resulting in the prolongation of a migrant’s imprisonment. Stantec is an engineering consulting firm involved in the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval.

This new prison is part of Canada’s false solution to the threat posed by climate change, an attempt to further intensify its border infrastructure, to keep out those it continues to displace. The real threats to the earth and the people who live on it are capitalism, the destruction of the environment, and the politicians who, without fail, will continue to defend these systems while scapegoating those displaced by them.

We believe it is necessary to push far beyond making requests of politicians, and toward directly challenging the role Canada is playing in the global crisis. We hope that the climate struggle can broaden its tactics, deepen its analysis, and continue to build links with ongoing struggles against white supremacy, settler colonialism, and border imperialism.

Strengthening the Front Lines

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Sep 182019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

Respectful greetings.

Construction work is ongoing to strengthen the various Wet’suwet’en front lines. Meanwhile Coastal GasLink continues to push ahead with its fracked gas pipeline. The following are various opportunities for people with construction and other skills to stand with the Wet’suwet’en:

Unist’ot’en Healing Lodge and other Village structures

During the last week of October and early November there will be a concerted push to complete the Healing Lodge. This beautiful and functional building has become the key embodiment of the Wet’suwt’en fight for sovereignty and against industrial destruction. The Healing Lodge is about 95% complete – it would be a great achievement to be able to declare this project finished this fall. Over the last several months good progress has also been made on other Village structures including a root cellar, tool shed and green house. These projects also require some additional work.

All levels and varieties of skills (construction and other) are needed.If you can join us during this time, please:
1. Reply to this email, and
2. Go to https://unistoten.camp/come-to-camp/camp-registration/ to apply to attend the Unist’ot’en Village

Of course, volunteers are needed at all times at the Unist’ot’en Village, so please apply to come whatever your availability is.

Other Wet’suwet’en Clans also need construction help.

Likhts’amisyu

There will be a Sovereign Likhts’amisyu Action Camp from September 25th to October 4th. This is its first-ever action camp on traditional territory recently reclaimed from the Canadian state. The Likhts’amisyu is building a community on the site of an ancient village. The focus is on creating a Climate Change Research Centre – a complement to the healing focus of the Unist’ot’en Village.

The Action Camp will be multi-faceted with many activities besides construction going on. And, as with all the front lines, allies are needed at all times – not just during the Action Camp. For more information and to apply to attend, go to https://likhtsamisyu.com

Gidimt’en

The Gidimt’en Clan has established a substantial presence on its Territory. Work is ongoing to strengthen this place – which was the location of the largest recent confrontation in the Wet’suwet’en stand to protect its land. As you will recall, it was here in January of this year that the militarised RCMP arrested and brutalised 14 members and allies of the Gidimt’en Clan. Work is ongoing to strengthen this assertion of Gidimt’en sovereignty.

For more information and to apply to come to Gidimt’en Territory, go to
https://www.yintahaccess.com/

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Coastal GasLink, and its allies in government and the RCMP, tramples on Indigenous sovereignty, ignores the environmental consequences of its actions and thinks only of dollars to be made. But, the Wet’suwet’en Nation has defended its lands for thousands of years. Never defeated in battle, never signed a treaty, never negotiated away its land, the Wet’suwet’en live by their longstanding principles.

With good will and determination, this fight can be won.

Stand with the Wet’suwet’en! Stand with those protecting our ability to live on this Earth!

“Heal the Land; Heal the People”

“You’re Not Tough Now”: Two Off-duty Cops Get Wrecked (Video)

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Aug 302019
 

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

The video being unfortunately already in the possession of the SPVM, we decided to create a little remix.
 
August 24th, 2019. Downtown Montreal. A crowd spots two off-duty cops from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal outside a bar. From the nearby Station 21, they spend their shifts harassing and brutalizing poor and marginalized people in the area. Off-duty, they have no guns, no tasers, no radios to call for backup. Let’s see what happens when they have no badge to hide behind.

“It isn’t simply an attack against these police officers — it’s an attack on the entire justice system.”

— SPVM Spokesperson

ACAB.

Stay tuned for updates.

Tisseur Turns to Courts in Bid to Silence Critics of New Migrant Prison

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Aug 282019
 

From Solidarity Across Borders

Info-picketMontreal, 27 August 2019 — The Superior Court of Quebec has granted Construction Tisseur Inc. a legal injunction against the migrant justice network Solidarity Across Borders. Tisseur was awarded the federal contract to build the new migrant prison in Laval in June. The temporary injunction was sought in response to a festive information-picket, featuring live Klezmer music, outside Tisseur’s headquarters in Val-David last Thursday.

“This sets a very disturbing precedent. It is a huge concern for everyone in Quebec when a company uses the courts to silence critics. We remember Barrick Gold’s legal harassment of Éco-societé for publishing Noir Canada. And we see a clear connection: Canadian mining companies like Barrick Gold contribute to displacing people who then end up in immigration detention centres. We won’t be silenced, there is far too much at stake,” said Jane Doe of Solidarity Across Borders.

Solidarity Across Borders received notice at 6:26 pm on Thursday, 22nd August of a court hearing the following morning. Solidarity Across Borders’ legal representative requested a postponement to allow time to prepare a defence, but the postponement was denied. The temporary injunction, prohibiting Solidarity Across Borders, Jane Doe, and John Doe access to Tisseur’s property at 1670 Route 117 in Val-David, remains in place until September 1st. The injunction could be renewed this week.

“We organized the picket last week to reach out to the workers involved in this project. We believe that detention centres for migrants and refugees, and the immigration system they are part of, undermine labour rights. We wanted to engage with Tisseur workers about this during their lunch hour,” said John Doe of Solidarity Across Borders.

“Tisseur complained that we put up posters on their walls. We taped up silhouettes of friends who had been detained and deported, such as Lucy Granados, a single mother and worker from Guatemala who came to Canada after the US-owned factory she was working at moved to Asia, where labour was cheaper, and “Daniel,” a 17-year old boy who was detained at a Montreal high school and deported alone to Mexico,” said Doe.

“We don’t think Yannick Tisseur was afraid of our temporary posters or non-stick tape, but he is clearly scared of these stories reaching his workers. One of the signs read, ‘Tisseur, would you imprison your kids?’ He doesn’t want his workers to know that this prison will be used to imprison children.”

Tisseur began construction of the new prison, located beside the current Laval Immigration Holding Centre, on 5 August 2019. Scheduled to open in 2021, it is part of a $138 million investment into Canada’s capacity to indefinitely detain and deport migrants, including children. Former detainees report serious mental health problems such as nightmares, depression, suicidal thoughts, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, and other symptoms related to post-traumatic stress syndrome.

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