Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
On the evening of the 25th in Montreal, we sabotaged two rail lines in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Land Defenders. We were inspired by the communique “Glorious Rage: Rail Sabotage in Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en” and its instructions on how to easily disrupt CN’s and CP’s rail infrastructure.
We did it, so can you.
Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info
There’s lots of smack to be said about Santa and, as anarchists, we aren’t big cheerleaders for the bearded guy; but we can appreciate that his sneaking game is on point. So a few of us celebrated this year by doing some sneaking of our own.
Late into the night on Christmas 2021, a call was answered to attack the banks and funding sources of the CGL pipeline that is being forced on the Wet’suwet’en people. Banks – like RBC – are very easy targets as they have many branches across the cities we live in that are relatively unguarded at night. A Hamilton branch, on Upper James, was one such branch visited and redecorated.
We entered the first doors of the bank and filled their three ATM card slots with glue. We then additionally superglued the lock on the door into the bank. On the way out we left a message “NO PIPELINES ON STOLEN LAND” on the doors for all to see. This was a very easy and replicable action that we encourage others to take up. It is possible that the continued attack against banks like RBC will begin to eat into their pipeline profits (if we can cost them enough money) and convince them to withdraw financial support for the project. And, if not, it’s a real cathartic “fuck you” against the institutions destroying everything good in this world.
As we head into this liminal space between Christmas and New Years, some of the darkest days of the year, we are reminded to take stock of what still matters to us and what we hope to bring into our lives in the coming trip around the sun. As we head into what might be another COVID winter, we encourage all our comrades to look into the warmest parts of their hearts where we all still want prisons and banks to burn and for our friends to hold our hands and dance around the flames. For as long as we keep those sparks alive in our eyes, everything is still possible.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
We went out last night to do a fire extinguisher paint job on the facade of the RBC branch located at the corner of Mont-Royal and Papineau in so-called “Montreal”. In the context of the call by the Gidimt’en clan for an international week of action to defund Coastal GasLink, we acted in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en who continue to defend their Yintah and who recently re-established Coyote Camp. Our solidarity will not be interrupted by the new lockdown in progress here.
Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en, Coyote Camp, and land defenders.
Fuck CGL, fuck the RCMP, fuck RBC, down with Canada!
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
This flyer contains information on transportation infrastructure in Canada, vulnerable infrastructure bottlenecks by province, and the 20 worst traffic bottlenecks. We put it together for distribution at demonstrations, in the hope that it can help to spread action beyond these moments.
From Gidimt’en Checkpoint
On the week of December 20, we are hosting an International Week of Action to Defund Coastal GasLink. Banks and private equity corporations are bankrolling Indigenous rights violations and destroying our shared climate.
Their lack of accountability in financing colonial violence and land theft from Indigenous people is unacceptable. We are all in this together! We all have a responsibility to stand up to big financial institutions that invest and keep the fossil fuel industry going full force.
With no green sustainability transition in the foreseeable future, all of humanity and our kin are at dangerous risk. With the fires and floods that happened recently in the south of so-called British Columbia we can’t let any more time pass while big banks are fueling our demise.
Hold an action in your city or your town, we know it’s close to the end of the year, we need to make sure RBC doesn’t slip through the cracks and slither away!
Banner drop, hold a Rally/March at the RBC headquarters/building, have a sit-in, jam up phone lines, spread the awareness!
See this Google Doc for the week of action toolkit and to join us for a mobilization call to take action.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
On Saturday, more than sixty people acting in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders blocked the CN main line in Saint-Lambert south of Montreal for over six hours. It was the longest rail blockade in Quebec since the winter of 2020, interrupting Via Rail service and immobilizing six freight trains. These notes reflect the experience of a couple participants in Saturday’s blockade.
Nostalgia mixed with anticipation as we arrived at the tracks where they cross rue Saint-Georges, with banners ready to hang across the rail crossing and no police in sight. It was a bright morning, temperatures just below freezing and the ground snowless, a contrast with that first night in February 2020, when temperatures sunk to 25 below and snow could be piled into mounds atop the rails.
On Wet’suwet’en territory, 4000km to the west, land defenders continue to fight the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Weeks after raids on the Gidimt’en Checkpoint and Coyote Camp saw 30 arrests, calls to come to the Yintah have been renewed and supporters already refuse to accept the latest invasion as defeat, setting fires on roads and blocking CGL work. Their actions inspire ours.
The police want a dialogue
The Service de police de l’agglomération de Longueuil (SPAL) counts 546 officers and has jurisdiction over the fifth largest city in Quebec by population, of which Saint-Lambert is part. Fady Dagher, chief of the SPAL since 2017, has made the news for “trying to change the face of policing” in the south shore suburb. His efforts have been described as “humanizing” and even “revolutionizing” the police. The SPAL recently received $3.6 million from the Quebec government for developing a “police de concertation“, through training programs that focus on prevention, a better understanding of social issues, and constructive dialogue.
What does this have to do with our rail blockade? While on the Island of Montreal, we would have had SPVM holding tear gas launchers and threatening us somewhere within the first hour, we were instead greeted by unarmed negotiators telling us they respected what we were doing and that, furthermore, a city bus had been commissioned and brought to the rail blockade to allow us a place to warm up. While the offer was declined and it became obvious that the negotiators’ real mission was intelligence-gathering, the light police presence (and music!) allowed the mood to stay cheerful and gave people time to set up dozens of small barricades along a 500-m stretch of the train tracks with railroad ties and tree branches, which would take CN workers time to clear once we left. The thin line of police even retreated off the railway when the crowd advanced on them and demanded they return to the sidewalk.
A de-arrest
The masks fell at lunchtime. Two kind comrades had arrived with a box of samosas, but the police were denying them entry to the train tracks, cutting them off from the blockaders. Our complaints did not sway the dozen cops present, so a team exited the tracks to escort the comrades and their food offerings into the blockade. That is when an employee of the SPAL tackled a blockader to the ground, choking him and punching him in the head. Demonstrators quickly surrounded the cop, de-arrested the comrade, and pushed the cop back. Though some samosas had fallen onto the street during the melée, all were recovered, and the box was carried onto the railway, where all comrades regrouped safely and the blockade continued. Those were without a doubt the best-tasting samosas we can remember.
Stopping trains
The sky clouded over, and snow was falling by early afternoon. A handful of SPAL reinforcements arrived. Journalists climbed the ridge on one side of the tracks to get pictures from a different angle. Half an hour or so after lunch, the police liaison officers re-entered the blockade to inform us that we were committing a crime and breaking federal rail safety laws. They said the Sûreté du Québec (provincial police) were on their way. Chants of “Shut Down Canada” drowned out some of their words; cheers went up when they informed us that six freight trains were stalled. We watched trains come to a halt and retreat into the train yard to the south of us throughout the day, but we weren’t counting. The blockade went on.
Trying to leave Saint-Lambert
Around 3pm, it was clear that our numbers would soon be dropping, while the police would soon have better-equipped reinforcements. With the tracks still barricaded and requiring careful inspection, we left in a demo into the town of Saint-Lambert. SPAL cruisers followed closely, trying to drive through the crowd at least twice. We reached Victoria avenue, the main commercial street of Saint-Lambert, which is where we would disperse.
The violence that police would soon target us with does not compare to the violence of being removed from your land by RCMP pointing assault rifles at you, but we think it is still important to document. Shortly after the demonstration was no longer a cohesive group holding the street, cops began several chases targeting individuals they believed to have taken part. Four violent arrests were witnessed in the area of the dispersal, in each case the person targeted was significantly outnumbered by cops. A SPAL officer tasered one person prior to arresting them.
Until next time
In the future, we hope we can be inventive and unpredictable in our dispersals and come into actions with several possible departure plans that account for different levels of escalation that may occur during the action. Recently in Quebec City, a rail blockade left in a demo along the tracks, exited through a hole in a fence next to a university campus and was immediately able to blend into crowds of students.
Despite the arrests, we left with renewed confidence in our capacity to hold down a blockade for longer than an hour or two and energized for upcoming solidarity actions. We’re impressed by how we collectively handled the different forms of police pressure we faced and refused to play the cops’ game of “dialogue”.
Let’s keep shutting shit down!
From the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC)
This November 27th, 2021, the Convergence des luttes anticapitalistes (CLAC) called for a demonstration in front of the RCMP offices near the Atwater metro in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en people. This call was supported by over twenty Montreal organizations. Thus, despite the cold and the huge police presence, there were more than 750 demonstrators who responded to the call with breathtaking energy, allowing to defend the right to protest in the face of an out of proportion police force.
Marlene Hale and Eve Saint, two Wet’suwet’en activists, gave speeches at the beginning of the demonstration, both highlighting the violence of RCMP interventions they have witnessed for years on their Yintah. Marlene Hale’s brother and his wife, both Wet’suwet’en elders, were arrested on November 18th during an RCMP raid in the Yintah. The two elders had to be sent to hospital because the RCMP confiscated their medication. Eve Saint, who was arrested in 2020 during the police raid that shut down the Canadian economy for several weeks, saw her sister victimized earlier this week and criminalized for defending her territory. The criminalization of indigenous people claiming territorial sovereignty must stop. Nothing else can be expected from a colonial state that lives only on mining, both here and abroad.
As usual, the CLAC deplores the brutality of the SPVM, which has once again beaten protesters, used pepper spray and made baseless arrests. The SPVM also systematically blocked the streets leading to the ultra-rich Westmount neighborhood, forcing us to change our route several times. The slogan “The police, at the service of the rich and the fascists”, chanted repeatedly, took on its full meaning. The message of the SPVM is clear: it will do everything it can to prevent us from defending the land and put an end to these colonial pipelines. One more reason to get rid of the police! Down with the SPVM! Fortunately, despite all the attempts of the police to prevent us from going north, then south, then east, the demonstrators managed to repeatedly thwart the police lines. As usual, without the efforts of each and every one of you, the police would have been able to maintain political control over the authorized demonstrations, and for that we warmly thank you.
The call of the CLAC to take to the streets on November 27th was in response to the many calls from the various Wet’suwet’en clans — including the Gidimt’en clan — for anyone who could not come to support the Wet’suwet’en locally to organize solidarity actions from coast to coast.
Since the violent arrests in the Yintah, many indigenous and non-indigenous communities have held demonstrations, blockades of railroads, bridges and ports to demand the removal of the RCMP and Coastal GasLink from Wet’suwet’en territory. Today, the CLAC and all the organizations endorsing the protest have joined our voices to theirs. Solidarity actions will continue as long as the RCMP and CGL continue to illegally occupy Wet’suwet’en territory.
Solidarity with the people who resist! Down with the colonial state! The struggle has just begun! The pipelines will not pass!
PS: A message sent to us from @landbackskyler of 1492 LandBackLane to all the people who are currently organizing in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en. Listen to the end!
Given the efforts (or lack thereof) of the mainstream media to ignore the actions in solidairty with the Wet’suwet’en people, it is important to outline that the resistance is active everywhere in Quebec against Coastal GazLink for many months!
October 2nd: Attack on an RBC branch: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/rbc-targeted-in-solidarity-with-wetsuweten-land-defenders/
October 3: Banner drop in solidarity with the Gidimt’en clan: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/banner-drop-in-solidarity-with-gidimten/
October 8: Call to action from the Gidimt’en camp: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/alloutforwedzinkwa-call-for-a-week-of-action-october-9th-15th/
October 9: Rail blockade in Pointe St. Charles: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/rail-lines-blockaded-in-solidarity-with-gidimten-week-of-action/
October 15: Railway blockade in St-Édouard-de-Maskinongé: https://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2021/10/st-edouard-de-maskinonge-blocage-de.html
October 26: Night attack on five RBC branches: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/rbc-fucks-around-rbc-finds-out/
October 29: Creative action in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation: https://www.facebook.com/events/597222391408154/
October 29, 10AM: Rally and demonstration in Rimouski: https://www.facebook.com/events/959337418324282/?ref=newsfeed
November 16: Road block of Notre-Dame Street during rush hour: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/rush-hour-traffic-blocked-in-montreal-in-solidarity-with-gidimten-and-likhtsamisyu/
November 19: Fires lit on railroads in Point Saint-Charles: https://mtlcounterinfo.org/shutdowncanada-tire-fires-on-tracks/
November 19: Railway blockades in Lanaudière: https://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2021/11/communique-dans-launaudiere-des.html
November 22: Railway blockade in Mile End: https://mtlcontreinfo.org/blocage-des-voies-ferrees-en-solidarite-avec-les-defenseurs-des-terres-wetsuweten/
Night of November 22 to 23: Rail sabotage at the Port of Matane: https://contrepoints.media/fr/posts/sabotage-ferroviaire-au-port-de-matane
November 24: Road blocks during the afternoon in Kahnawake: https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/montreal/2021/11/24/1_5680145.html
November 24, 11AM, Rimouski: Rally in support of the Wetsuwet’en in front of the Rimouski MP’s office: https://www.facebook.com/events/429317545519501
November 27, noon, Gaspé: Solidarity rally – From the Wet’suwet’en to the Kurds, Cradle of Canada (179 Montée Wakeham): https://www.facebook.com/events/440130890857892
November 27, 1PM, Rimouski: Demonstration in support of the Wetsuwet’en in Rimouski, Cégep de Rimouski: https://www.facebook.com/events/999156030631342
November 27, 1PM, La Pocatière: Solidarity rally with Wet’suwet’en, Cégep de Lapocatière: https://www.facebook.com/events/233884522179279
December 1, noon, Quebec City: Solidarity rally with the Wet’suwet’en nation, Place Limouloise, Limoilou, Quebec: https://www.facebook.com/events/260558849433179
Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info
There is nothing left unsaid.
RCMP Out.
CGL off the Yintah.
Defend the Wedzin Kwa.
This is an act of genocide. An active genocide.
An armed invasion by the colonial state.
There is nothing left to say: they do not listen to words.
So just do; that is what we have done.
One recent evening, allies/accomplices went out into the night to pick up where others may have left off in the spring of 2020: targeting rail infrastructure.
Using various methods (detailed below for your reference, education and delight!) we disrupted rail all over so-called southern Ontario throughout the night, hitting nearly a dozen different spots on both CN and CP rail lines. We did this in heartfelt solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en defending their Yintah from destruction, and fuelled our actions with the justified rage we feel towards the RCMP and state for once against invading their territory on behalf of a private corporation.
Rail was a harbinger of colonized settlements and the genocide of Indigenous peoples across so-called Canada, and also an indefensible way to target the kkkanadian economy, so we find it an ideal target as people unable to be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders.
While some crews opted for the copper wire method, others found inspiration in other means of targeting railway circuits – including severing low voltage track circuits and the arson of railway signal bungalows.
Each method used will have tripped the automatic block signalling system into its failsafe setting of “occupied track” – meaning all rail traffic on the impacted track comes to a stop until checked out and in some cases repaired. This also means interferences were safer than any of the militarized RCMP’s three unjustified raids on Wet’suwet’en people.
We encourage others to join us in action. Use your words to inspire others to action – not to beg for change from government bodies complicit in an active genocide.
Shut it down. That’s all there is left to do.
Never Cede
Never Surrender.
Burn it to the ground if that’s what it takes.
As promised; an educational.
Rebels have long since targeted railway infrastructure through the use of the copper wire method. That is – to securely connect two parallel rails with conductive copper wire. This method is meant to simulate the short-circuit that happens when train axels enter railway blocks. The wire can be attached to cleaned rail heads or fishplates, but more ideally to the joint wires on fishplates. The latter method requiring a small gauge of copper wire, and having the most secure connection.
But there are many elements of track circuits and rail protocol that can be targeted.
Fishplate Wires
On modern tracks, rails are welded together at their joint ends, and secured to each other with fishplates and bolts to form designated blocks. The blocks are monitored through various sensors for interruptions in electric frequencies, which trigger relay signals in certain situations. The welding of joint ends interferes with conductivity in some instances, and wires are added to increase the current. If the current is interrupted by poor conductivity, the block defaults into its failsafe of “occupied”.
The wires can be found at many rail joints, and appear either as one wire joining the rails at the top of a fishplate, or two wires coming out each side of the fishplate. Cutting one of more of these wires at various joints interferes with the circuit, and will default the signal block into an “occupied” status. It requires no acquirement of copper wire – just a handy pair of good snips or small bolt cutters.
Signal Bungalows
Signal bungalows relay information collected by various elements of track circuitry to rail conductors and central traffic control areas. They are often found at road crossings, and sometimes between sections, depending on what sensor equipment is installed on that particular stretch. They are often grey or steel and look like small sheds on pillars, with the electric cables running up into the bottom through plastic or metal housing.
Interference with these signal relays is immediately detected and initiates a track shutdown. Most bungalows have secure locks – don’t bother trying to use bolt cutters on the locking stem, but they can be accessed by using an angle grinder, or by using cutters to target the metal tabs which the locks are threaded through, with the use of prybars. Some bungalows are known to have external cameras – so careful scouting and careful doing.
Exploiting Rail Protocol
As allies/accomplices/dissidents, one of our greatest strengths against the state or organized bodies is our own flexibility and adaptiveness – often a quality hierarchical systems or organizational bodies don’t have. Rail safety protocols mandate decisions for train engineers, and can be exploited where a specific situation can be replicated.
One such protocol for railway conductors and engineer staff is mandated protocols to emergency flagging. In the daytime emergency flagging can be literal red flags at the trackside, which are an indicator to conductors to stop or slow. In the rail blockades of 2020, we saw this protocol exploited in order to secure track sections for occupation. Similarly, at nighttime, red fusees or flares between the affected rail track mandates the engineer to reduce speed or stop under the railway safety act. The vigorous/violent waving of any object trackside also mandates the conductor to immediately stop.
While these disruptions are impermanent, they do slow down, stop, and disrupt rail movements and are yet one more way to engage in rail disruptions.
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
This morning in Tiohtia:ke, a large banner reading “ALL OUT FOR WET’SUWET’EN” was installed on the 720 Westbound. It was insured that the banner be secured with rope and that no road signs be blocked to make sure the highway is safe for drivers.
We act in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation and Gidimt’en clan. On November 19th, 2021, RCMP violently raided unceded Gidimt’en territory, removing unarmed Indigenous women from their land at gunpoint on behalf of TC Energy’s proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline. Among other land-defenders, spokesperson Sleydo’, Corey Joyahcee Jocko, and Jocey Alec (Chief Woos’ daughter) were illegally removed from their own Cas Yah Yintah where they are protecting the sacred headwaters Wedzin Kwa. They were illegally and brutally detained for four nights and five days, where they were denied access to water and food.
These unlawful and brutal actions further prove that the C-IRG and the RCMP must be abolished. The injunction under which they act has no jurisdiction on unceded Wet’suwet’en land. It is nothing but an inadequate piece of law that has been used to violate Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, and Wet’suwet’en Law.
Reconciliation is dead. Time’s up, Canada.
#ShutDownCanada #AllOutforWedzinKwa #WetsuwetenStrong
Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info (January 2019)
“Observant individuals can easily identify many such critical bottlenecks across Canada. They share several common characteristics:
For more info on the weak points, check out:
Transportation Infrastructure in Canada
