Police & Prisons

General Contractors: Don’t bid to build a migrant prison!

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Mar 012019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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.

The land at the site of the proposed new migrant prison has been readied for construction, and the bidding process for the General Contractor has begun. On February 20th, a group of people shut down a planned visit to the construction site for interested companies. They talked to company representatives about the nature of the project and why they should not participate in building this prison. Many companies are unfortunately still bidding for the contract.

Let’s show these companies that there is widespread disapproval for this project, and that there will be resistance if construction begins! WE HAVE UNTIL MARCH 20TH, the deadline for bids, to get these companies to pull out of the process.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Individuals

Join the campaign to let these companies know that what they’re doing is reprehensible! Get together with friends and family, send some emails, make some calls, or send some faxes between now and MARCH 20TH.

Free faxes can be sent using any of the following websites:

accueil

When you get in touch with these companies, here’s a sample script you can draw on if you want:

Hello,

I’m [calling/e-mailing] you today to tell you that you should drop your bid for the Laval immigrant detention centre. It’s a morally reprehensible project, and it faces widespread opposition – being involved with it will reflect badly on your company. It’s designed to imprison and deport people who are trying to immigrate here, and it will rip apart families and violently take people out of their communities. That’s part of a racist approach to migration on the part of Canada that we need to challenge rather than support. It’s not something I stand for, and I’m far from alone in that position. Make the right choice and drop your bid for this project.

Groups

If you’re a community organization or activist group, sign up to host a call-in day!

We encourage you to ask your members to call/e-mail/fax on a day that you choose. Invite people to your space to make calls & send e-mails and faxes together!

With many groups signing up, we can have continued engagement with these companies over the month.

Your organization or group can sign up for a particular day using this calendar, and we’ll get in touch over email to see how we can help spread the word: https://framadate.org/rxAzKaJGOlXJkGzx

THE COMPANIES

These companies want to build a new migrant prison in Laval. Contact them to tell them to drop out of the bidding process!

COMPANY: Corporation de construction Germano
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Richard A. Germano
TITLE: Président
EMAIL: info@germanoconstruction.com
PHONE: 450 668-7807
FAX: 450 668-5002

COMPANY: Construction SOCAM ltée
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Richard Paradis
TITLE: Estimateur Senior
EMAIL: r.paradis@socam.ca
PHONE: 450 662-9000 #223 or 450 662-9000
FAX: 450 662-9838

COMPANY: Groupe Geyser
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Lina Tremblay
TITLE: Estimateur
EMAIL: ltremblay@groupegeyser.com
PHONE: 450 625-2003
FAX: 450 625-2883

COMPANY: Tisseur Inc.
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Jacques Hosson
TITLE: Estimateur
EMAIL: estimation@constructiontisseur.ca
PHONE: 819 322-1523 #258
FAX: 819 322-6766

COMPANY: Construction CYBCO
EMAIL: info@cybco.ca
PHONE: 514 284-2228

COMPANY: VCI Contrôles inc.
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Joseph Jacob
TITLE: Chargé de projet
EMAIL: jjacob@vcicontrols.ca, pcraig@vcicontrols
PHONE: 450 442-3555 poste 101
FAX: 450 442-3337

COMPANY: Bruneau électrique Inc.
EMAIL: info@bruneauelectrique.com
PHONE: 514 353-4343, 450 759-6606
Fax: 450 759-2653

COMPANY: Standard Building Contractors
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Shane Ross
TITLE: President
EMAIL: shane@standard.builders
PHONE: 613 847-7258

COMPANY: Securassure
REPRESENTATIVE NAME: Matthew Poplaw
TITLE: Sales
EMAIL: matthew@securassure.ca
PHONE: 514 373-3131
FAX: 1 855 439-9500

Migrant Prison: noise demo blocks site visit, and an update on implicated companies and the ongoing bidding period

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Feb 212019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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.

Early in February, it became public that the bidding period for the General Contractor contract had opened for the project, and that there would be a site visit held on February 20th at 10am for all interested bidders. So, early in the morning on February 20th, a group of people gathered to take a bus out to the construction site in Laval.

The group quickly made their way to the road leading to the security check-in for the bidders, and set up a picket, blocking the bidders’ vehicles from getting to the site. People there to pick up loved ones from the neighbouring prisons were welcomed through, and responded in kind with cheers and honks of support for the demo. Those present loudly communicated the deplorable nature of the prison project, and registered to all those considering working on it that there would be people standing in the way of the project at every stage.

People shouted, banged pots and pans, and blew on horns for over an hour, and had banners and signs against prisons and borders, as well as silhouette posters with the names of people deported in recent years. Company representatives present were personally called out, to let them know opponents of the project are aware of who they are. Some of the company representatives, sent by their bosses to attend the visit, expressed support for the demo following conversations with those in attendance. Over the course of an hour, most of the bidders had turned their cars around and left, accepting that they would not be allowed through. By 11am, an hour after the visit had been scheduled to begin, the group packed up their banners and left the area, leaving behind only a couple of cars – mostly Laval police.

With a month of bidding left, it’s time to assess what we know and what we can do next to disrupt the project. Read on for important updates on the state of the prison project, and newly public information about other companies involved.

What’s happened so far

Since the summer of 2017, Montreal based Lemay and Quebec City based Groupe A have been working on the architectural plans for the prison. In December 2018, Englobe Corporation and Excavation Loiselle completed their environmental remediation work on the sprawling CSC grounds that may become home to an additional prison on Montee St-Francois, already host to the current migrant prison, the minimum and medium federal men’s prisons, and the provincial Leclerc institution. For quite some time, the timeline for construction to begin in earnest on the project has been unclear.

On January 31, 2019, however, Public Works and Government Services Canada posted their call for tenders for who will be in charge of the largest chunk of work on the prison – the General Contractor. The documents provided to interested bidders provide important information about the next phases of work, and offer ideas about where to intervene.

The ongoing bidding period

January 31st marked day one of the six-week bidding period for the General Contractor position. Bidding will be open until March 20th, at which time the company with the lowest bid will get the contract.

During the bidding period, companies interested in bidding on the project are invited to post their information on the publicly available “List of interested suppliers”. On this list, accessible on the government buy and sell website, one can find the company name, contact person, email, and phone number for each company who publicly discloses their interest in the project, though some companies do not publicly state their interest using this list. Many more tried to attend the site visit on February 20th.

As of February 20th, the following information is available for six interested bidders. :

1. Contact Shane Ross, President
Company Standard Building Contractors
Email shane@standard.builders
Phone 6138477258

2. Contact Richard Paradis, Estimateur Senior
Company Construction SOCAM ltée
Email r.paradis@socam.ca
Phone 450-662-9000 #223

3. Contact Matthew Poplaw, Sales
Company Securassure
Email matthew@securassure.ca
Phone 5143733131

4. Contact Lina Tremblay, Estimateur
Company Groupe Geyser
Email ltremblay@groupegeyser.com
Phone 4506252003

5. Contact Richard A. Germano, Président
Company Corporation de construction Germano
Email info@germanoconstruction.com
Phone 450-668-7807

6. Contact Jacques Hosson, Estimateur
Company Tisseur Inc.
Email estimation@constructiontisseur.ca
Phone 8193221523 #258

Also present for the site visit were representatives of the following companies:

Company Bruneau électrique Inc.
Email info@bruneauelectrique.com
Phone 514 353-4343, 450 759-6606

Company Construction CYBCO
Email info@cybco.ca
Phone 514 284-2228

Whoever gets this contract, they will be involved in the project until the projected end of construction (the end of March, 2021). They will be responsible for subcontracting out smaller parts of the construction work – these contracts will likely not be made public.

Other companies involved in the project

Included in the documents released with the call for tenders is a list of other companies with contracts related to the prison, as well as the person responsible for the contract at each company. Some, like Lemay and Groupe A, are names we’ve seen before, as their contracts have been public for a long time already.

Lemay and Groupe A

Lemay and Groupe A are jointly listed as in charge of architecture for the project, with architect Pierre Larouche representing Lemay and architect Patrice Beauchemin representing Groupe A.

Mylène Carreau, a landscape architect with Lemay, represents her firm on the documents for their additional role in charge of the landscape architecture for the project.

LEMAY
3500, rue Saint-Jacques
Montréal (QC) h4c 1h2
t. (514) 932-5101
f. (514) 935-8137

Groupe A
819, avenue Moreau
Québec (QC) g1v 3b5
t. (418) 653-8341
f. (418) 653-1989

Other companies listed are new names – possibly members of a collection of firms with whom the government has what’s called a “standing offer” to work.

KJA Consultants Inc.

Engineer Louis Beauchemin, from the Montreal office of KJA Consultants Inc., features on the documents representing his elevator and escalator design company in their work on conveyor systems for the prison.

KJA CONSULTANTS INC .
1410, rue Stanley, bur. 1003
Montréal (QC) h3a 1p8
t. (514) 284-3119

BPA (Bouthillette Parizeau)

The engineering consulting firm BPA, otherwise known as Bouthillette Parizeau, will be involved in food services and commissioning for the prison. For food services, engineer Sylvie Savoie is representing the company, and for commissioning engineer Dalia Ramy appears to be in charge.

BPA
6655, boul. Pierre-Bertrand
Bureau 250
Québec (QC) g2k 1m1
t. (514) 383-3747

Stantec

Stantec, a huge design, consulting and engineering firm with an office in Longueuil, appears to be heavily involved in many aspects of the project.

For their roles related to electrical and fire alarm work, and fire protection, engineers Alexandre Manseau-Nguyen and Bruno Lehoux are in charge, respectively.
For their telecommunication work, engineer Jonathan Hallee is listed.

Stantec is also involved in many aspects of the engineering work, with the following representatives related to different subsections. Louis-Stephane Racicot’s role is as Engineering Project Manager. Engineer Alexandre Jean is in charge of mechanical, Michel Gendron in charge of electrical, Patrick Bourgeois is listed for structure, and for civil Martin Charron.

STANTEC
400-375, boul. Roland-Therrien
Longueuil (QC) j4h 4a6
t. (514) 281-1033

Work schedule and site security

While it may not be clear what specific work will be happening when, the bid documents indicate that when the construction begins, work will be occurring until 9pm maximum from Monday to Saturday, with noise-generating work happening only 7am to 6pm these days, and no work at all occurring on Sundays or statutory holidays.

There will be offices on site to securely store documents, as well as two site cameras which will be constantly livestreaming work and the site to a private website accessible to a government representative at all times.
Fences obscuring the view into the site will be erected. The documents mention that all workers will have to pass security clearance and will be prohibited from speaking to any Leclerc Detention facility prisoners (who are held just beside the site).

What to expect in the near future

It is reasonable to expect re-excavation and foundational work to begin very quickly following the awarding of the contract to the General Contractor at the end of March. This means that those opposed to the construction of yet another piece of infrastructure solely designed to bolster the government’s capacity to detain and deport migrants must be hard at work as well, as construction may start in earnest in the next month.

Companies considering involving themselves in this entirely unacceptable project, serving only to rip apart families and communities, would do well to stay far away from this project. They may risk their reputation, their clients, and their money by choosing to lend their expertise to this unambiguously racist and violent project in a moment where it is extremely important for everyone to pick a side: against white supremacy and xenophobia. Companies providing materials for the construction, or interested in being subcontracted to work in a more limited role should also think long and hard before making an unethical and indefensible choice.

For a world without prisons or borders.
For freedom of movement and freedom to live for all.

For more background information on the migrant prison project, and to download materials and research documents related to the struggle against it, visit stopponslaprison.info.

To read the documents summarized in this piece, you can download them directly from the government website using these links. We recommend using TorBrowser to avoid giving your IP address.

Migrant Prison: Excavation Company Loiselle’s Offices Redecorated

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Feb 072019

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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.

FUCK LOISELLE, FUCK THE CANADIAN BORDER SERVICES AGENCY, FUCK PRISONS.
SOLIDARITY WITH MIGRANTS WITH OR WITHOUT PAPERS

RCMP FUCK OFF: Hamilton in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en

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Feb 042019

Anonymous submission to North Shore Counter-Info

Late last night as many had their eyes glued to screens cheering on the Patriots in the Superbowl, a small crew of pals got busy taking on one symbol of so-called Canada’s nationalism: the RCMP. Within just minutes a handful of determined folks had destroyed all electronic keypad entries to the building, filled the manual locks with superglue and toothpicks, and dismantled the entry and exit systems to their gated police vehicle lot. Along the west windows we left what we came to say: “RCMP OFF WET’SUWET’EN LAND”.

It has been 21 days since the violent invasion of RCMP into unceded Wet’suewet’en territory, but the armed siege has not ended. This action was intended to bring the battle a little closer to home, so we targeted the Stoney Creek detachment. It’s easy to de-prioritize the many struggles taking place across continents, but it’s always worthwhile to trace the roots of broader struggles closer to home. The RCMP continue to enforce a court order that has no legitimate standing, allowing TransCanada and Coastal GasLink to begin pre-construction for a 670km pipeline through unsurrendered homelands and a healing centre. While the initial spectacle begins to fade urgency remains; people are being removed and kept from their homes at gunpoint, traditional traplines are being destroyed, medicine and berry gathering areas bulldozed, and the pristine land and waters are becoming contaminated with diesel. The RCMP are doing their job as per usual, protecting state and capital. By having the audacity to set up a temporary detachment and checkpoint, they are only further criminalizing those trying to live on and protect their own territories.

Things cannot go on like this: let this action serve as a reminder of the importance of taking action – no matter how small – in the face of colonial capitalist exploitation. The Wet’suwet’en being forced to open their gates to industry under threat from the state was not consent, it is merely an opportunity for allies and accomplices to take action.

Get your friends together, stay up all night scheming, and even when you’re tired GET EVEN!

Call for submissions of texts and activities: NO JUSTICE? NO PEACE!

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Jan 292019

From the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality

This year’ s March 15th will be the 23rd annual demonstration against police brutality. State brutality must be denounced, whether this brutality is coming from police, politicians or judges. Especially considering the massive over reach of the criminal injustice system this year alone.

Was there any justice for Nicholas Gibbs, assassinated in broad daylight? by the so-called “peace officers?” Is there any justice for the migrants? for which we refuse to give the quality of life that was stolen from them by canadian companies abroad? Is there any justice for the people? of Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en, taken away yet another time from their ancestral lands? Is there any justice for environmental activists? imprisoned for blockading projects leading to our own destruction? Is there any justice for all minorities, whether racial, religious, queer and/or native, which are constantly profiled and imprisoned by a system trying to erase their very existence?

As is the case every year, the COBP is organizing an anti-police week this year focusing on the theme of” No justice? No peace!” We invite everyone (groups and individuals) that wishes to contribute to the cause to do so by co-organizing events or submitting articles, essays, comic books, drawings or poems that will be published in the annual edition of our collective’s newspaper, État Policier.

This year, the anti-police week will be happening from Sunday, March 10th to Friday, March 16th.You can contact us at cobp@riseup.net before February 22nd, 2019, to announce your anti-police activities. Mark your calendars!

All submitted texts will need to be a maximum of 2 pages and can be written in English, French or Spanish. The authors that wish to get their texts translated into another of these three languages must do so on their own. We also invite you to provide images or pictures that illustrate or relate to your text, if you wish to do so. The 2 pages maximum, however, includes the use of images. Please contact us as soon as possible if you plan to submit an essay or a drawing for the journal. Your essays and drawings must be submitted at cobp@riseup.net by February 15th 2018 at the latest.

The active fight against the police represents first and foremost a stand for anti-colonialism, anti-racism, feminism, queer rights and intersectional equality. The material chosen for the journal will aim to underline the importance of giving visibility to individuals and groups that are systemically oppressed by the police on a daily basis. Because the judiciary system, the political system, and their state agent lap dogs) RCMP, SQ and SPVM, etc.) have nothing to do with protecting minorities. Their role is to answer to the needs of the better off: the rich and privileged. Their role has nothing to do with justice, and all with the defence of the castle of the privileged. A castle which is, every day, less sustainable, and less acceptable. An injust society is a society which cannot be peaceful. No justice? No peace!

The COBP

Reportback from the 2018 Montreal New Year’s Eve Noise Demo

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Jan 132019

Anonymous Submission to MTL Counter-info

On New Years Eve 2018, a crowd of around 150 people gathered near Henri Bourassa Metro on the island of Montreal to take three school busses out to Laval, Quebec. Every year since 2014, and intermittently in the years prior to 2014, people gather outside prisons in the Montreal area to set off fireworks, wish people in prison a Happy New Year, and show our opposition to prisons, borders, and the industries and governments that sustain them.

After a brief bus ride, we stood together outside our first stop, the Federal Training Centre’s Minimum Security prison at 600 rue Montée Saint-Francois. Stretched out along Montée Saint-Francois with nothing but a regular chain link fence separating the living units from the road, the Federal Training Centre Minimum is the only stop on our route where we can see people’s faces in the windows. This year was no exception. Dozens of people stood in their cell windows waving and shouting back to us as we set off fireworks, played music, and yelled greetings. We showed off our banner, which read “Happy New Year! Free all prisoners!” and chanted “Pour une monde sans patrons, ni flics, ni prisons!” (For a world without bosses, cops, or prisons).

Our second stop was at Leclerc, a provincial prison for women. This year we were able to get closer to the gates than last year and after setting off fireworks and blasting music, we noticed lights flickering on and off in the windows of the prison! This prison is set far back from the road and we were excited to know that people inside could hear us and see us. Leclerc has been denounced over the years for having horrendous conditions, most recently in early December 2018 by a coalition of groups in Quebec. The cells are so cold that prisoners have to sleep with their coats on and the water is undrinkable. While we wouldn’t settle for nicer prisons in our fight for a better world, we think it’s horrible that prisoners in Leclerc have to deal with such shitty conditions!

Next we stopped at the construction site for the new migrant prison that is currently being built. We pointed out the construction site to the crowd and filled them in on the plans for the new prison. Overseen by architecture and engineering firms Lemay and Groupe A, the new migrant prison is part of a government overhaul to spiff up the deportation machine. The government claims the new building will have a warm wood interior and be designed to “not feel like a prison” despite plans for just as many security cameras and fences as one would expect. We think these plans are all bullshit and fully expect the new prison to turn out the same as the regional federal prisons for women built in the 90s and 00s with high security units, cameras everywhere, and no budget left for programming because the security costs ran so high. That is, if we don’t manage to stop the construction first!

Then we walked up the road to the migrant prison that is currently in operation. We set off fireworks and shouted to folks (including the kids!) inside. Some drummers in the crowd kept a good beat going. The MC’s reminded us of the hunger strike against the government’s “alternatives to detention” plan that imprisoned migrants in Ontario carried out in September of this year. This plan includes introducing an electronic monitoring program and contracting the John Howard Society and the Salvation Army to create “parole-type” programs for migrants. We think it’s all a way to control and monitor more and more migrants who come to this country, who are often fleeing situations of violence that Canadian imperialism helped create. Shame on the John Howard Society and the Salvation Army for taking these contracts! And fuck the government’s plan to increase deportations by 30% in the coming years! For a world without borders or prisons!

Our fifth stop was at the Federal Training Centre – Multi level. This prison has a wall and two fences around it, so it’s always hard for us to get close and always hard to tell if anyone inside can see or hear us at all. Despite that, we set off fireworks and shouted to folks inside. Our sound system battery had died by this point, so we meant to read out a statement from our imprisoned friend Cedar in Ontario, but didn’t have the lung power to do it with no sound system. Solidarity to Cedar and everyone else who has to spend this holiday behind bars! We’re thinking of you all and fighting to make it so no one ever has to spend New Years inside!

Finally, we walked back up the road to pass the Federal Training Centre Minimum one last time and say our goodbyes. On this second trip by the prison, a few people had come out of the buildings to stand in the yard despite the cold and they waved and yelled to us from across the fence and line of cops. A hearty fuck you to the cops who insist on standing between us. Some folks in the crowd sang the Helicopter Song and tried to teach everyone some new lyrics to Ke$ha’s We R Who We R. We set off the last of our fireworks and headed to the buses.

This New Years Eve Noise Demo tradition feels super important to us! Thanks to everyone who came out, we were thrilled with the number of people that showed up this year. Solidarity to folks inside fighting the system from in there!

Out With A Bang – Making Noise For Prisoners on the Last Night of the Year

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Dec 302018

From From Embers

This episode features two interviews with organizers of New Years Eve noise demonstrations in Hamilton and in Montreal. We talk about the rage and sadness we feel about the existence of prisons, noise demonstrations, building traditions and rituals, and our favourite New Years Eve stories.

Links:

Seven Years Against Prison (2015)

Montreal Against Prisons

International Call For New Year’s Even Noise Demonstrations (English, 2018)

Cedar Updates! New Mailing Address

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Dec 302018

From Hamilton Anarchist Support

Cedar has been transferred from Barton Jail in Hamilton to Vanier Centre for Women in Milton where they will serve the duration of their sentence. While there, they would love to receive mail from people (friends and strangers alike!). Mail can be sent to the following address:

Peter “Cedar” Hopperton
Vanier Centre for Women
655 Martin Street
Milton, Ontario
L9T 5E6

They’d be happy to receive letters and would be interested in corresponding with people, and would also appreciate photocopies of things to read (news, articles, zines, books etc.) – just make sure there are no staples. You can also send them books if they are shipped directly from the publisher.

They’re currently most interested in books on Eastern Europe and the Middle East regional histories, and social movements history/histories of uprisings, revolutions etc., but would be interested in pretty much any general history, and anything anarchy related – theory, analysis, reportbacks, callouts, interviews etc. They are also interested in Italian language learning and any books that would help with that. Texts can be in English or French, or Arabic if an English translation accompanies it.

Tomorrow is far away: An anarchist intervention against the construction of the migrant prison in Laval

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Dec 172018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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.

The state has been deporting more people in recent years and is currently expanding its capacity to do so. Hiring more Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) personnel, finding various ways to monitor undocumented folks, and building new detention centers are ways the state is increasing its ability to effectively deport people. In Laval, a city on Montreal’s north shore, the government wants to build a so-called “more humane” detention center next to a detention center that already exists. However, we all know that a golden cage is still a cage. This is a provocation, a confrontational act, an attack on undocumented folks, on our communities, on all of us. The current migrant crisis will only intensify, considering climate change, war, and widespread conflict in many countries. Migrants risk brutal rejection from the western world, which scrambles to reinforce its borders against the others, the barbarian enemy invasion. The media has recently said that the federal government wants to increase the number of annual deportations by 30%. A project of domination like the migrant prison brings the state of Canada closer to achieving its colonial mission of controlling every aspect of people’s lives and the land it is situated on. By reinforcing its own legitimacy and the category of others, the fascistic ideal of “purity” seems ever more possible.

It’s important to note that the authors of this text are white and were born in Canada. That being said, we are not threatened by deportation, or being locked up in the migrant prison. We still choose to struggle against the construction of this new prison in solidarity with those who risk their lives looking for a better life elsewhere. Not only are we against the policing of non-status people and detention centers, but our objective is also to destroy domination in all its forms, including states and borders. Even though we have the privilege of having citizenship, we are not proud Canadians. We have no feelings of belonging to the national identity. The struggle we want to build doesn’t hope to be recognized by the state or get its approval. Instead of asking the government to stop deportations, we choose to subvert our privilege. We have the ability to opt into struggle and throw a wrench into the gears of the deportation machine. Those responsible for detention should sleep with one eye open.

Intervention

We want to try to coordinate our energy in an informal and decentralized way to focus on stopping the construction of the migrant prison. If we focus on this specific struggle, it’s in order to obtain effective results. This prison is one of many tools in the state’s arsenal, an important aspect in the preservation of Canada and its borders. That being said, we are opposed to all prisons, all forms of detention, though this time we choose to focus on this particular element. We hope that others will contribute in multiplying offensive endeavors that cause tension to rise. That being said, we refuse to wait for mass participation to act. The time is now.

What can it look like to fight the state and its projects? There is no single answer to this question and no magic formula for success. However, there are certain principles that can help us make coherent choices and can prevent eventual recuperation by politicians and the Left. For us, these principles are applicable to all of our struggles. Some of them, such as the golden no snitching rule, are more obvious. But let’s dig a little deeper.

First, we refuse to make demands to the state. Making demands is often a reflex for people who struggle against specific projects. Demands put forward a narrative in which only those who exert power over others –those in positions of authority-can create change. This reflex is a negation of our own agency and our capacity to act in the world by delegating our power to politicians and bosses. We want to move away from this method of organizing and towards a struggle that can subvert power dynamics and create change without waiting for permission. We want to destroy the state, not reinforce its legitimacy.

Negotiation can also be tempting when we don’t think we have the power to create change. Liberals would want us to believe that we always have to make concessions, to give in a little. However, in a situation like this one, no alternative is acceptable. No nicer prisons, no friendlier CBSA agents, and no alternative monitoring or policing of undocumented communities should be tolerated.

An alternative to demands and negotiation is direct confrontation. We think that attacks are an integral part of preventing the construction of this migrant prison. Attacking those who want to build the prison, those who are drawing up the plans, those who are pouring the cement, those who are intending to lock people up. Forms of attacks can vary according to people’s abilities, trust, etc.

Direct confrontation does not require centralization or hierarchy. In fact, we think that it is necessary to organize in a decentralized and informal way. This means no formal identity, no membership, no orders. People should organize themselves with individuals they share affinity with, meaning ideas, practice, and trust.

Using these methods, we see a way to better adapt to contexts and the relationships between those who struggle. Informal organizing prioritizes the content rather than container. Not waiting for a party, committee, or group’s approval allows our interventions to be more effective. For trust to be established among those who struggle, a certain level of engagement is necessary. There is a difference between personal engagement and formal organizing in terms of accountability. In the first, one is accountable to their ideas, in the second, they are accountable to a formality that is bigger than them in which the organization becomes more important than relationships and individual analysis. To meet periodically in larger numbers to share information and perspectives without making centralized decisions is desirable to us. We recognize the tendency that people have to engage in a variety of struggles, without continuity, with actions that remain symbolic insofar as they have minimal impact on their targets. This kind of involvement tends to prevent expansive conflictuality. The importance of identifying and targeting those responsible (and their collaborators) for domination and detention, and to share analysis regarding medium to long term perspectives is clear. However, all of these energies must remain in motion and should not be trapped in formal organizations under the pretext of maintaining better continuity.

To create a larger context for struggle, several individuals, identifying as anarchists, revolutionaries, or other “autonomous forces”, have a tendency to fall in the trap of the masses and public opinion by organizing alongside the Left and by communicating with mass media. But at what price? It is already obvious that all reforms, as socializing as they may be, contribute to strengthening the chains that bind us to the state. We want to use our own means (zines, independent media, posters, graffiti, infrastructure that supports undocumented people) and build the basis for our struggles according to our anarchist principles that are in rupture with institutions. To subvert social dynamics and destroy domination, we refuse to follow leftist movements and organizing.

Realistically, the only way that we can stop Canada’s deportations and new prisons, its exploitation, domination, and support for the worst kinds of atrocities, its propagation of authoritarian, racist, and colonial endeavors, is to destroy the colonial project altogether. The state needs to be confronted with insurrection, the sabotage of its structures, and permanent revolt. Cracks are everywhere – let’s find them.

Callout for autonomous actions against the Laval Migrant Prison

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Nov 242018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

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.

We know that borders are conflict zones. The global upswing of far-right fascist movements sets the stage for intense violence and repression against migrants. Currently, a migrant caravan of between 5,000 to 7,000 people has been making its way through the Americas. People facing dire conditions have had no other choice but to leave home for the uncertainty of elsewhere. This movement of people has whipped up reactionary imaginations amongst white nationalists and the far-right. Trump has deployed troops to the US-Mexico border and has vowed to use military force should one migrant so much as throw a rock at military personnel. Meanwhile, Canada continues to incarcerate migrants indefinitely, while purporting to build more “humane” detention centres. Many have died in Canadian migrant prisons, and Canada plans to soon increase its deportation rate by 25% to 30%.

We can’t separate the new migrant prison from the role of Canadian penitentiaries in imprisoning Indigenous people resisting colonization for centuries. We can’t separate it from the early jails that imprisoned Black people resisting slavery, that continue to imprison Black people at high rates today. We think of all those who have died in prison and who continue to die in prison and those resisting prisons around the world. Inspired by those crossing borders in the migrant caravan, by the migrant hunger strikers in Lindsey, Ontario resisting the National Immigration Detention Framework, by prisoners rioting against immiserating conditions in the Eastern Arctic Baffin Correctional Centre, by the recent prison strike of 2018 and the solidarity it saw across the continent, we make a call for autonomous actions from November 23rd to December 7th to stop this migrant prison from being built.

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