Police & Prisons

A Criminal’s Guide to Bill C-75: Understanding the Liberals’ Crime Bill (Part 1 of 2)

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Jun 272018

Submitted anonymously to North Shore Counter-Info.

This is the first in a two-part series. The second part is available here.

It’s the Colton Boushie bill and the #MeToo bill. It’s the bill that wants to speed trials up and change how people are impacted by bail while waiting. It’s a bill that frees the state’s hand to treat minor crimes more seriously or to use serious crimes more lightly. It’s a bill that talks about having fewer youth in the system but makes it easier to charge them as adults. It’s the bill that lets cops avoid cross-examination, sends you to court by video, and formally decriminalizes anal sex. It’s a 300 page omnibus bill from the party that spent years promising to never use omnibus bills.

Bill C-75 is currently in committee federally and it aims to make major changes to the justice system across Canada. For a bill of such sweeping scope though, it hasn’t been much discussed outside of political and legal spheres. However, the legal system, and the cops and prisons that come with it, are the backdrop of so many choices we make every day, structuring what we think possible in both big ways and small. It affects all of us. And if you’re like me and you sometimes find yourself getting dragged through the courts and maybe ending up in jail, there’s tons of stuff in here that is immediately and materially relevant to you.

This bill is too vast to properly discuss in a text short enough for people to actually read. I hope this text will be a starting point for more critical conversation about this bill, getting beyond the cherry-picked provisions held up by the Liberals to appeal to certain groups. The cynical garbage from the government (“It has more protections for victims of domestic violence! It’s a feminist bill!”) shouldn’t be where our analysis stops. And full disclosure, I’m an anarchist and don’t consider the justice system legitimate, no matter what laws they pass, and I think a judge is a disgraceful thing to be. But I also think a broad critique like that doesn’t exempt us from actually understanding changes like those in Bill C-75, forming an opinion on them, and preparing ourselves to resist them or to endure them.

Broadly, there are three categories of Bill C-75’s measures that I want to discuss. I’ll get into more detail on each below, trying to highlight distinct ideas with bold type so you can just skip to parts you care about if you want. I’m dividing the categories by what motivates these measures rather than by their content, since it’s interesting what government thinks its job is:

Respond to supreme court rulings that restrict how long cases can take to get to trial and that seek to reform the bail system to reduce pretrial detention and the use of harsh bail conditions; these rulings are considered progressive by those who follow such things, but how specifically the House of Commons is taking them up raises big questions.
Respond to social movements, notably those around the trial for Colton Boushie’s murder and those calling for an end to sexual violence; these parts of the bill are particularly shallow and pandering, limited to jury selection for the former and harsher treatment of the accused for the latter.
Give the prosecution more flexibility in determining the seriousness of crimes, which gives them more power to secure deals, makes certain laws easier to apply, and allows them to punish minor crimes more severely.

First of all, Bill c-75 is responding to a couple of Supreme Court rulings, most importantly ones known as Jordan and Antic. The House of Commons has a responsibility to ensure that the criminal code and related legislation (Bill C-75 changes a whopping 12 acts) fit with rulings by Canada’s courts. However, the political nature of their response is important, since the Liberals try to present themselves as at once humane reformers and also close to the mainstream consensus on crime (that people accused of crimes deserve anything that happens to them).

The Jordan ruling deals with how long it takes for trials to happen. The Supreme Court ruled inadequate the existing provisions for deciding when delays in getting to trial had violated a defendant’s rights. The judges imposed a solid deadline where none existed before: 18 months for cases being tried in provincial court and 30 months if it went to superior court with a preliminary inquiry.

This led to a bunch of cases being thrown out across the country because of delays. Typically, it’s in the crown’s favour to drag things out as much as possible: because of how many people wait for trial in prison and because of the restrictive bails that are the default in most of Canada (more on that later), the process is the punishment. More time waiting for trial means more people plead guilty.

Addressing the challenge of Jordan appears to be the main goal of C-75, and much of the bill tries to eliminate steps and speed things up to meet the deadlines. I’m not going to list every way, but here are a few important ones and briefly why I care.

Bill C-75 will get rid of preliminary inquiries. Prelims are trials-before-the-trial, where the crown has to actually argue their case and deal with push-back for the first time. It’s also where the defense can feel out what arguments the crown will make in order to prepare for trial or decide if it’s worthwhile. Prelims make up about 3% of all trials.

Those opposed to prelims say that since 1991 the crown has been required to disclose their case before trial anyway; those in favour say the prelim allows courts to focus on the issues and leads to speedier trials. Brilliant time savings or false economy? Depends who you ask.

Land defenders and all who resist take note: the charges against the person accused in the Junex anti-fracking occupation in Quebec were dropped following a prelim because the inflated, political charges didn’t hold up. This saved the accused land defender another year and a half of uncertainty and life under shitty bail conditions. In the G20 Main Conspiracy case, the pressure the prelim put on the crown and the police made it possible for the defendants to strike a deal they could live with rather than spend additional years awaiting trial.

Bill C-75 seeks to save time by allowing police to avoid cross-examination by giving their evidence in writing instead of appearing in court. This means it will no longer be assumed that the defense will question police on their evidence, so if a cop is saying some shit about you, your lawyer doesn’t automatically have the chance to challenge what was said. You’re going to have to ask the judge to order the cop to appear and the whole thing will get put over to a different day, probably weeks away. If you’re in custody, showing up to court means missing meals, multiple violating “searches”, and spending the day in leg shackles, in addition to how each delay keeps you in prison longer; and since the court always believes cops anyway, it’s that much easier to just say why bother.

Though it’s not yet clear exactly how, Bill C-75 will expand the use of video court for people in jail, possibly by making it mandatory in some situation. When I’m in for pretrial, I always try to go to my court dates in person, even though it’s a horrible experience. Being able to actually provide direction to your lawyer or intervene directly if you have to is a key piece of not getting railroaded by the system, even though the experience of attending court as a prisoner is so awful.

Lots of other pieces of this bill are also being sold as helping to deal with Jordan and delays, but these are three measures geared entirely towards that and they will make a big difference to those going through the system.

The second supreme court case, Antic, deals with a problem that is obvious to anyone who has seen themselves or anyone close to them charged with a crime: the way the bail system works. The second you are charged with an offense in Canada, you risk immediately going to jail for months or years, and if you are lucky enough to get out while waiting for trial, it will be with very strict conditions that are often hard to follow, and that trap people in the system.

At any given time, about 60% of everyone locked up in Canada is waiting for trial (the figure in provincial jails is much higher). There is a lot worth saying about this and how it happens: like how bail is decided by Justices of the Peace (JP) [Ed. note: in Quebec, this role is played by a regular judge] who have no accountability and don’t need to know the laws in question; how appealing a bail decision costs thousands of dollars and takes months; how most harm caused by incarceration happens in the first few days, as you lose your job and housing and experience trauma in prison. But I’ll swallow how angry bail court makes me and focus on the bill.

Bill C-75 aims at encoding in the criminal code some of the principles from Antic that would in theory restrain the ability of JPs to fill all the jail cells that they do. These are the ladder principle and the principle of restraint. To quote Bill Blair, a sadistic former police chief turned politician: “The principle of restraint’s starting point is that accused persons will be released at the earliest reasonable opportunity on the least onerous conditions appropriate in the circumstances.” If anything, it’s shocking that wasn’t already the case. The ladder principle provides a tool for meeting the principle of restraint: If the crown is asking for a more restrictive condition (for instance, house arrest), they must demonstrate why less restrictive conditions (a curfew or ‘reside at’ condition) wouldn’t meet the purpose of bail, namely ensuring that the accused shows up for trial and guaranteeing public safety.

A further element is to instruct JPs and judges overseeing bails to consider whether the defendant is from a marginalized group and specifically extends Gladue hearings for indigenous people to the bail stage. This is in recognition of the fact that indigenous people are 4% of the total population but make up a quarter of people in jail, and that other groups are similarly disproportionately locked up.

The most common reason for people being denied bail is that they don’t have a surety [Ed. note: the requirement of a surety is less common in Quebec]. Sureties are like co-signers for a loan but who agree to supervise you and who pledge a significant portion of their savings to the court should you breach your conditions. Generations of oppression manifest themselves today (among other ways) as indigenous and black people being significantly poorer than other groups, especially white people. Add in how the long-term criminalization of those communities means more people have records, routinely insisting on suretiesfor almost everyone is one big way that the over-incarceration of these groups happen.

Something like 1/5th at least of all court cases are dealing with breaches of conditions. C-75, in the interest of clearing cases out of the court, invents a judicial review process as an alternative to criminal charges should a person be caught breaching a court-ordered condition. Breaches are a whole separate criminal charge that stay even if you’re found innocent of the original charge, and since JPs can assign whatever they want as a conditions, breaching is very common. This traps people in cycles of re-offense and nominally Bill C-75 wants to make that a bit less common by reducing criminal convictions for them.

Generally, anything that results in fewer people in jail is a good thing in my eyes. Not because I don’t think we need ways of dealing with unacceptable behaviour, but because locking people up solves nothing. That said, with these reforms the power stays in the hands of JPs who, in Ontario, have so far mostly ignored the Antic ruling and continue to hand out among the harshest bails in the country. Anyone who has ever watched one of those robe-wearing assholes pass judgement on someone they love without even pausing to reflect can’t have much faith that new rules will make much difference. Further, cops love bail conditions, they love having that additional power over people beyond what the law usually provides: sure, they may use their new found discretion not to charge in some cases, but the power is still theirs.

So far we’ve seen the broad strokes of what bill C-75 intends to accomplish and dug in more detail into how it will deal with two major legislative challenges, addressing the Supreme Court rulings in Jordan and Antic. In both these situations, the state is less concerned with limiting harm done to people charged with crimes than with keeping things moving as quickly as possible and protecting the legitimacy of the system. In part 2, we’ll look at how the Liberals are moving to appear responsive to the demands of feminist and anti-racist social movements without meaningfully changing anything at all and how what some call being “soft on crime” may actually lead to more people being convicted and given longer sentences.

Continue to Part 2

Hamilton: Keeping our Guard Up and Moving Ahead

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Jun 272018

From North Shore Counter-Info

Submitted anonymously to North Shore

With The Tower about to reopen at its new location, it seems like a good moment to take stock of our situation. The weight of repression in Hamilton has not gotten any lighter, but we have gotten more used to and maybe even more skilled at carrying it. That said, it’s too soon to say the storm has passed and we face challenging times ahead. As we navigate these next days, weeks, and months, there are a couple of things worth keeping in mind to help us all stay safe.

1. Don’t Talk to The Police

The police have still been sniffing around, trying to approach people they believe to be connected to anarchist projects in the city, showing up at homes and workplaces. While it is common for police to claim that it is in your best interest to talk them, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Whether they’re friendly or threatening, remember that you have nothing to gain by talking with them at all. They will likely lie or exaggerate and attempt to manipulate you. You can be polite or not, but it’s best to just say that you aren’t interested in talking with them. If they continue to ask questions, you can just reply: “I have nothing to say”. If they threaten to take you to the police station or ask you to go there, you do not have to go with them unless you are under arrest. You can ask, “I’m not interested in meeting with you, am I free to go?” If they say yes, great, close the door and/or get out of there. If they say no, ask if you are under arrest. If you are arrested, you can insist to talk to a lawyer and will be referred to duty council if you don’t have someone in mind. Once arrested, you are required to give your name, birthdate, and address, and that’s all. At this point, being polite to the cops is out the window – just keep your mouth shut, you don’t have to answer or acknowledge them, and it’s easier to never start talking than it is to realize you’re about to go too far and need to stop. The phrase, “I’m not answering any questions” is a good friend in those times.

2. Be Weary of Rumours, The Devil Really is in the Details

Although there are few details yet, there is an informant of some kind in this case. Beyond that, not much is known, so if you’re hearing more than that, be cautious because rumours move quickly in times like these. Work is being done around this and more details will be announced when they are available. Until then, be smart and keep in mind basic security culture principles and practices, but be careful of jumping to any conclusions, making any accusations, or fueling any public speculation. Paranoia is debilitating, spreads tension, and breeds conflict. Suspicion can be counterproductive and make our spaces unwelcoming to anyone outside of our immediate networks, and false accusations can push good people away. Turning on each other, isolating our projects, and/or closing ourselves off weakens rather than strengthens us. As soon as we have more information about the informant we will make sure that it is widely spread.

3. Don’t Give Into the Hype, Work Through the Fear

House raids, arrests, media stunts, and police visits are scary — they’re meant to intimidate. State repression is intended not only to publicly penalize some, but to scare others into submission and tear movements apart. That’s why it’s important to keep things in perspective and not give in to the hype, to talk about the situation with people you trust, and prepare for it without letting fear take over. The forces we’re up against are powerful, but they are not everywhere and they are not omnipotent. Staying solid is most important when it’s under pressure and we all depend on each other to hold the line against the cops, the far-right, and the rich, while also keeping our priorities clearly in sight. These charges are aimed at individuals who openly and persistently advocate for ideas that run counter to the powerful in this society, arguing against the ability of capitalists to control our basic needs, against the politicians and the visions they impose, against misogynists and racists and the hierarchical nightmare world they represent. Those charged are dealing with this situation with a courage that makes it a little easier for the rest of us to stand up too.

4. Be Defiant, Continue to Struggle and Define the Terms

The justice system and its accomplices want to portray anarchists as criminals, to rob the struggles we engage in of their substance and context, and reduce them to certain acts that they choose to consider crimes. For myself, I am no more interested in being innocent than guilty; those who are charged and those who aren’t all participate in a shared struggle against authority and against the rich and their world. Our best defense now is to continue those struggles on our own terms and to refuse to let them be defined by the courts or the media. Charges, conditions, and police threats might make this harder, but our ideas and projects are no different than they were before these attacks by the powerful.

5. Show Solidarity, Support Anarchist Projects Here and Elsewhere

Support from anarchists and other radicals both within Hamilton and beyond has been very important and will definitely continue to be. One great way to show solidarity over the next little while is to help the new Tower space thrive. Do you live out of town? Consider coming to give a talk on what’s happening in your town, a movement or situation you’re interested in, or a favourite text, or bring a film and some discussion questions. Don’t like being the centre of attention? Just come out to events at the space. Meeting people and participating in discussions is a powerful way of pushing back against the fear and isolation the state seeks to spread.

A previous update encouraged people to invite their friends together to discuss repression and gentrification, using a collection of texts about Locke St and its aftermath as a starting point. Taking steps to clarify our perspective on the situation is important: if you organize a discussion in your town, consider posting it publicly (and anonymously) on North Shore Counter-Info.

-An anarchist in Hamilton

Beyond Support: Update on Locke St Defendants and a Proposal for Beginning to Organize Solidarity

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Jun 052018

From North Shore Counter-Info

Before giving updates on the Locke St defendants, it’s worth taking a moment to put things in their context and to remember that these seven people are accused of participating in a struggle against gentrification in the city. This struggle has taken countless different forms over the years, from mass meetings, to stickers and posters, to broad-based organizing, to counter-demonstrations and pressure campaigns. The reason so many people have chosen to dedicate their energy to this issue for so long is that it’s one of vital importance — people are losing their homes at an ever–increasing rate as housing is treated more as a commodity or investment than as a basic need that everyone deserves to have met.

The broad, vague charges brought against these defendants are a way of silencing the increasingly urgent voices speaking and acting out against this attack on our ability to live in this city with dignity. The message of the police and legal system here is that there is no circumstance in which our deteriorating living conditions would ever justify any threat to property. And yet for over a decade developers, speculators, and their boosters have been easily able to ignore all opposition behind a wall of feel-good platitudes about renewal and culture. To now approach the struggle against gentrification as simply a matter of crime is an attempt to strip it of its content, concealing the larger struggle between the class that profits from rising housing prices and those who are displaced.

When dealing with the hugely disproportionate violence of the state, it can be easy for us to lose track of these larger issues. Yes, we’re opposed to all forms of political repression, and we also don’t see that repression as separate from all the ways the police and government protect those who benefit from gentrification (business owners, landlords, investors) at the expense of those who don’t. Yes, we will support these defendants in beating their charges and getting through the incarceration and bail conditions they will have to endure in the meantime, but we will also keep finding ways to act against the dominant interests in this city. We can’t let ourselves be so swallowed by the support work that we give the rich a break.

In terms of support though, the three people who were wanted by police turned themselves in last night (Sunday, June 3), and were released on bail today. The person who fought her conditions and stayed in over the weekend has also been released without the particular conditions she had refused. The person from Montreal will be up for his hearing tomorrow morning, and we are hopeful he will be released on consent and allowed to return to Montreal. More updates on his situation tomorrow. So far, all the recent arrestees are able to remain in their homes without having to deal with house arrest.

Although personal and financial support for the defendants remains important (https://fundraising.the-tower.ca for the Hamilton Community Defence Fund), a case of this importance requires solidarity that goes further than that. In the next week or so, we would like to encourage you to bring people together in your town to talk about issues of repression and gentrification, to talk about the details of this case and how it’s relevant to you elsewhere in the territory controlled by the Canadian state, and to clarify your basis of support for those accused. This might be a useful step in preparing to act in solidarity over the long term as this case drags on.

To help get discussions going, we’ve compiled a hastily laid-out zine of various texts that have circulated about the Locke St actions and these charges to far that can be downloaded here: https://north-shore.info/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/discussion-zine.pdf And if you do decide to organize an event, if it’s public, consider posting on North Shore Counter Info’s events listing so others can find out about it: https://north-shore.info/submit-event/

Regardless of innocence or guilt, solidarity with the Locke St defendants and let’s keep pushing back against the power of capitalists.

New Arrests in Hamilton and Montreal: Updates and Call for Support

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Jun 022018

From Hamilton Anarchist Support

We write this just to give a quick update on the rapidly changing situation in Hamilton (traditional territory of the Chonnonton, Anishinabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples). Since yesterday, May 31 2018, three more people have been arrested in connection to the so-called Locke St riot: one was picked up by the SPVM in Montreal and was flown to Hamilton, where they are in custody awaiting a bail hearing, and the other two were arrested in Hamilton. One of these people is already out on bail and another will appear again on Monday. Further, the police released an additional three names of people against whom they have laid charges and are seeking to arrest. Charges against all six include mischief against property, unlawful assembly while masked, and variations of conspiracy and counseling to commit those things.

As anarchists, we want to be clear that we oppose all acts of repression aimed at those who resist oppression and exploitation. Police and prisons do nothing to address the fundamental injustices of this society and locking people in cages is a horrible thing to do. These systems continue to value property over people’s bodies. Solidarity to all those accused, regardless of their charges, and we call on everyone to show their support for these six people.

This is a large number of charges and a huge burden on our material and emotional resources. Our priority right now is getting everyone out on bail, which has so far been costing about $2000 per person (because justice, right?). We hate to be asking for donations again so soon, but the backlash against anarchists and their projects in Hamilton just keeps going on and we’re pretty tapped out. If you can, please make a donation at https://fundraising.the-tower.ca and encourage your friends and comrades to as well.

We’ll keep posting updates as they appear. Check out https://north-shore.info as well for a good source of up to date information about events and conversations in the region.

That said, we’re a pretty determined bunch and aren’t going to abandon our ideas or projects in the face of these attacks by the state. Of course, seeing your friends get arrested is scary, but watching people pull together to organize and defend each other and seeing how those charged hold themselves with courage and integrity is a powerful reminder of our individual and collective strength.

Anti-construction Crew Releases Thousands of Crickets into Immigration Prison Architecture Headquarters

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May 192018

Lemay’s head office, 3500 rue Saint-Jacques

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

One morning in April 2018, our amateur construction crew released thousands of crickets into the newly built headquarters of the Montreal architecture company Lemay. We pulled a sheet of plywood off the side of the building and funneled the crickets into a recently completed office space. Lemay, along with Quebec-City based company Groupe A, has been awarded a contract to build a new immigration detention centre in Laval, a suburb of Montreal. It is slated to open in 2020. We oppose borders, prisons, and immigration detention centres. We struggle for a world where people are free to stay and free to move; a world without white supremacy, capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy.

We see the release of these crickets as merely the beginning of a concerted effort to stop the new immigration detention centre from being built. Crickets are known to reproduce quickly and are difficult to exterminate. Their constant noise and quick proliferation through any space they have access to makes them much more than a nuisance to have around. The crickets will multiply inside Lemay’s new headquarters in the gentrifying neighbourhood of St. Henri, even after the wall we deconstructed has been replaced. Meanwhile, we will get even more organized in our resistance to this new immigration detention centre and all that it represents.

The new immigration detention centre in Laval has been proposed as part of a Liberal government “overhaul” of the immigration system. The bulk of the overhaul is focused on infrastructural changes: $122 million of the $138 million overhaul project will be spent on building two new immigration detention facilities (in Laval and in Surrey, BC) and upgrading an already existing detention centre in Toronto. The stated reason for this change is that the current detention centres are not up to international standards. The government claims they also want to move away from detention and towards alternatives to detention.

The new facilities are being pitched as “nicer” prisons. They are supposed to be “non-institutional in design,” and have easy access to outdoor spaces and meeting spaces for family and NGO representatives, but still prioritize state security and keeping people locked up inside. The companies who have been awarded the contracts are known for designing LEED certified court houses and prisons as well as libraries and university spaces. So, it’s hard to imagine that this new prison won’t have an “institutional” feel. Much like the overhaul of the federal women’s prison system in Canada in the 90s and the current attempt by the Ontario provincial government to soften their prison system, this “overhaul” of the immigration detention centre aims to put some pretty curtains on a building that people can’t leave and pretend that it’s okay to lock people up.

The new prison in Laval seems like it will have the same or slightly more capacity to imprison people than the current immigration detention centre (current capacity is between 109 and 144 people, while the new centre would supposedly hold 121 people). This is strange in a context where the numbers of immigrants being detained is down in recent years and the government claims to plan to reduce these detentions even further. It wouldn’t surprise us if they’re just talking more bullshit. As someone said, “if you build them, they will fill them.” A reduction in the number of folks detained seems unlikely.

In fact, let’s talk about that a bit more. As part of the overhaul to the immigration system, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced the government’s intention to explore “alternatives to incarceration.” In the report that was written about the overhaul, the government said that alternatives to detention included “the ability to report by phone through voice recognition technology to minimize the need to report to the CBSA in person, maximize freedom of movement, facilitate compliance and optimize efficiencies.” Sounds like it’s about making border cops’ jobs easier and saving money.

More commonly known alternatives to immigration detention include electronic bracelets and halfway houses, or a parole-like system run by NGOs willing to act as prison guards. In some ways, these options are better than sitting in a prison. In other ways, these options will act as a carrot, with prison as the stick. In the end, these “alternatives to detention” will reinforce the legitimacy of the detention centre as an option at all (“we gave you a chance to use the phone system and, even though we gave you no option to regularize your status and, in fact, gave you a deportation date instead, you went MIA, so now we have to put you in detention”). Alternatives to detention are more sophisticated forms of controlling migrants that allow the state to seem benevolent, while still deporting and detaining people who don’t submit to the more sophisticated controls.

The strategy of pursuing alternatives to detention would likely lead us further down a road where NGOs collaborate with the government in detaining migrants, in exchange for funding for their staff salaries. In 2017, the government signed a new contract with the Red Cross to monitor conditions in immigration detention centres. However, the Red Cross has technically been monitoring immigration prisons since 1999, this is just the first time they’ve gotten “core funding” for the program from the government. In exchange for $1.14 million over two years, the Red Cross will keep “monitoring” detention centres and telling the government that everything is a-ok; rubber stamping the continued practices of imprisoning migrants. Don’t you just love it when NGOs step in to make government repression look good?

So what do we make of this overhaul in the end? It means more money for more repressive prisons, some money for some slightly less heinous ways of controlling people’s movement, and some money for the Red Cross. In a context where people are walking across the border from the US to flee Trump’s America, a context where most of those people won’t be granted refugee status and they could very well end up in immigration detention, we want to stop this new immigration detention centre from being built. We see this as the perfect time – in fact the only time – to intervene in order to keep this from happening. We mobilize against this new prison, without forgetting that we also want to see the old one closed. We see the prevention of construction on this new prison as just one part of a much larger fight to tear down the others already standing.

In addition to understanding this struggle in the context of a global “migrant crisis,” we understand that this is also happening in a context of a rise of activity in the far right. Storm Alliance, a far right racist anti-immigrant group, has organized a handful of anti-migrant demonstrations at the border, often joined by La Meute, Quebec’s home-grown populist far right group. Influenced by anti-migrant and far-right rhetoric on the internet, Alexandre Bissonnette shot and killed six people in a mosque in Quebec City a year and a half ago. TVA and the Journal de Montreal publish far-right fake news to popularize these sentiments.

With all this in mind, we understand a fight to stop this new detention centre from being built as a fight based in anti-fascism, as part of the fight against white supremacy. We seek to connect our actions to those of other people in our communities, both near and far, who are also fighting white supremacy and the rise of the far right. Even as we fight the liberalism of the current governing party in Canada, we also fight the rise of the far right and their violent visions for the future.

We are inspired, recently, by the campaign to try and stop the deportation of Lucy Granados. We are inspired by the everyday bravery of people living without status and by those who get organized and get together to protect each other and our shared communities. We are inspired by all the people who are standing up against borders, prisons, and other forms of domination. We are inspired to struggle for their freedom to stay and freedom to move, and to call on others to join us.

Lemay is not the only company involved in the design and construction of the prison, and thus not the only possible point of pressure. From the architectural plans of Lemay, to the contributions of Groupe A, to the materials and construction crews, it takes many hands and many parts to build a prison. This is a call for more research, discussion, and action around Lemay’s involvement specifically, but also all the other firms and groups invested in the project. We hope to see other anti-construction crews take action in the future, and we hope that this project can become the target of a sustained campaign, capable of bringing together many people to support an end to prisons and borders.

We hope that the resistance to this prison continues to proliferate, faster and further than thousands of crickets.

Report-back from the 2018 CLAC May Day Demo

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May 092018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

CLAC organized its annual May Day demonstration on the theme of the G7 this year. The planet’s most powerful will gather June 8th and 9th for a major meeting in the Charlevoix region.

This year, May Day saw the unions agreeing to accommodate the bosses’ calendar by holding a march Saturday April 28th, gathering several thousand people.

On the first of May, three demonstrations were called in Montreal: CLAC’s at Parc Lafontaine, the Revolutionary Communist Party’s in the Golden Square Mile, and the IWW’s in Parc-Extension.

About 200 people gathered towards 6pm at the southwest corner of Parc Lafontaine for the CLAC demo. Lots of police were deployed all around with bike cops as well as numerous buses of riot police. The SPVM had made up its mind to let no one demonstrate on this May Day. The crowd growing gradually, one noticed the presence of about forty individuals putting on black clothing, looking to form a black bloc more consequential than in recent demos in Montreal. The riot cops chose to move in closer to leave the small crowd no room to maneuver.

Just before the departure, some speeches were given on the ravages of capitalism locally and elsewhere. The demo then took the street towards 6:30pm on Sherbrooke, going west. The cops then decided to take the sidewalk on the north side to begin forming a kind of moving kettle around the demo. A small but very determined black bloc did not want to allow them this space prized by the Urban Brigade which gains considerable tactical advantage from it. By taking the sidewalk, the Urban Brigade is able to control the whole of the demo, in that it can decide where to direct the crowd. This greatly limits attacks on symbols of capitalism, such as banks. Taking the sidewalk should be a collective reflex of the demo, because having a demo encircled by the SPVM is a problem for everyone. If removing the cops from the sides remains the work of a small part of the demonstration, it will remain very difficult to hold the street in Montreal in a more combative way.

Protected by banners the black bloc decided to empty a fire extinguisher, throw bricks and rocks, and shoot fireworks at the cops, to force them to make a retreat. While the cops backed up a bit, a number of them choosing to hide behind parked cars in fear, the strategy was not as effective as hoped, as the demo found itself split in two with the arrival of a second Urban Brigade on the other side, which pushed the rear of the demo back east and made one arrest. At this moment the police rapidly regained control of the situation, deploying riot cops on the streets north and south of Sherbrooke. People had no choice but to disperse or return to Parc Lafontaine just five minutes after the start. It wasn’t the clash with the cops that forced the dispersal, but rather the arrival of cops from all sides in large numbers.

The dispersal was also facilitated by the lack of closer links between people in the demo. Being able to keep a much more compact unity could have limited the damage caused by the cops’ intervention. Keeping a slower pace and ensuring that no one is isolated at the front or the back could have possibly allowed the demo to go on for longer. The cops prepare for annual demos like May Day months in advance, and they seek to disperse us as quickly as possible. Finding ways to unite the intentions of every person who shows up is difficult, but it remains the key to continuing to hold the street.

This is a text that calls for others: how did you experience this May Day, and what could be done so that we continue to find each other in the street?

May Day 2018 Montreal: Anarchists Attack Police

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May 042018

From subMedia

On May Day, the CLAC, or anti-capitalist convergence, started their demo at Parc LaFontaine in Montreal. People took the sidewalks to prevent the cops from flanking the demo. About 5 minutes in, shit kicked off! Anarchists attacked police with rocks, bricks, flags, and fireworks.

As it Stands Today: Cedar’s Arrest

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Apr 202018

From Hamilton Anarchist Support

Donate to the Hamilton Community Defence Fund here

This has been a big month for Hamilton. To contextualize Cedar’s arrest, we can start with the Anarchist Bookfair in early March, our first bookfair here in 7 years. The event was a smashing success, and brought together people from all over the continent to explore possibilities for radical change, to envision a world without enforced hierarchies and domination, to simply meet each other and learn from each other. The weekend was particularly marked by a small riot through one of Hamilton’s most affluent neighborhoods and down one of its most noxious commercial streets. The “Locke Street Riot” was a collective expression of rage, not only against the rapid gentrification of Hamilton, but against capitalism and the violent world of alienation it fosters. It led to a lot of productive conversations about the inevitability of discomfort in fighting for new worlds, and the importance of clarifying and articulating our politics. The riot also kicked up some toxic Hamilton sediment, including a mass spillage of sentimental tears for small businesses, shrieks of “terrorism” from city councillors, and anti-anarchist fervor from local alt-right trolls who saw this as an opportunity to step into the limelight.

In the weeks that followed many of these reactions were channeled into Hamilton’s only anarchist social space, The Tower, which became the defacto target before they even had a chance to come out in support of the riot. First its windows were smashed, then the door was kicked down and the library got trashed, then the locks got glued, and more recently we’ve seen an ongoing wave of amateur graffiti, including the word “gay” written in crumbling wheat paste on the new plexiglass windows. In late March, while supporters of the tower were busy cleaning up after the break-in, a coalition of white-nationalist, misogynistic, homophobic trolls organized a rally in support of the businesses on Locke Street. Their sad rally was confronted and largely foiled, but not before a few of them had a chance to mingle with Locke Street business owners and chit-chat over a lemon-pistachio donut. Information was leaked revealing that the Soldiers of Odin and The Proud Boys were hoping to head over to The Tower after the rally in order to confront the “120 lbs beta males” they hoped to find there. The first time they showed up they found 40 anarchists ready to defend the space. They screamed about their democratic rights and ended up utilizing a police escort to get to the other side of the street. A few hours later a smaller group of them showed up drunk looking for a fight, and despite noble efforts to deescalate we ended up sending them home that day with bloodied and broken noses.

Meanwhile, public pressure to find those responsible for the riotous action on Locke street built. The police had been unable to apprehend anyone on the night of the action, and had responded to public outcry with promises of justice and desperate pleas for public cooperation. Finally on April 6^th, one month after the riot, the police put on a show for the bloodthirsty public. Warrants in hand, they smashed down the door of a collective house at dawn and lobbed a flash grenade into the living room. With assault rifles drawn they stormed through the house putting people in cuffs, and arrested Cedar (Peter) Hopperton charging them with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence (unlawful assembly while masked). The others were released and made to spend hours in the driveway while the cops turned the house inside out looking for anything that might help their investigation. They seized computers, phones, loose papers, zines and books, which will inevitably take years to recover from their greasy hands.

Cedar’s bail hearing, which itself only occurred five days after the arrest and after one particularly sneaky maneuver by the Crown to delay it, was a painstaking ordeal. Four hours of blathering drivel in which it became clear that not only Cedar, but all of anarchism was on trial. In the end Cedar was denied bail and sent back to the hellscape of Barton jail where hordes of abducted people wait in wretched conditions for trial. They will potentially remain in Barton for a year or more while the state drags its heels in making a case against them.

We in Hamilton have organized a solid support team to make sure that Cedar has reliable legal defense and as much advocacy and communication as possible. We want to continue the projects they hold dear, and support any forms of organizing they might pursue in jail. We’ve launched this blog as a space where we can provide updates on Cedar’s whereabouts, their legal situation, and how they’re doing. Should there be any more arrests in connection with the Locke Street riot this site will offer similar outlet for those support efforts. Prison isn’t the end of the road for anarchists, it’s merely one dimension of the world we stand against. We will do everything in our power to resist the isolation they attempt to impose on those they capture, and continue to fight together against the world of police, courts and prisons.

Another Day, Another Broken Door

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Apr 102018

From Northshore Counter-Info

Statement from The Tower, Hamilton’s anarchist social centre

Early Friday morning, Hamilton police raided a home associated with some of those involved with organizing The Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair. The door was kicked in, a flash grenade was thrown into the house, and a full swat team entered. With their assault rifles drawn, the swat team proceeded to pull everyone out of bed some of whom were naked, and with one exception, put everyone in handcuffs. Three people were detained and one person arrested. Cedar, a member of The Tower Collective and our cherished friend, was arrested, taken away, and currently remains in custody.

Those who weren’t arrested were forced to wait outside for close to five hours, while cops “searched” the home. Similar to the fascists who attacked The Tower last month, the police thoroughly trashed the space and even messed with the bookshelves. All three floors of the house were ripped apart and many things were damaged, including a collection of framed feminist postcards that were broken into several pieces and thrown into the bathroom toilet. Police are misogynist pigs, plain and simple, without exception. A long list of items were seized, including all electronics (phones, computers, cameras, external hard-drives etc.), books, posters, zines, and a pretty random assortment of documents (academic journal articles, translated texts from a book project, hand written notes, event programs, pamphlets etc.).

In terms of the arrest, Cedar is facing conspiracy charges in relation to the so-called “Locke St. Riot”. We have no desire to engage with the politics of innocence. The concept of innocence and its flipside criminality obscure more than illuminate – no one is innocent and the most “criminal” amongst us run the economy and government. Beyond that, these notions perpetuate the logic of a colonial legal system rooted in white supremacy. That said, it is worth noting that conspiracy charges are notoriously dubious and flimsy, and have a legacy of being used as a tool of political persecution. They are an act of desperation intended to cast a wide net and scare people. Such charges are *not* a matter of engaging in a particular activity, but rather a matter of possibly encouraging a particular activity.

The Tower is an openly anarchist project that from its inception has promoted ideals of mutual aid and solidarity, equality, and community autonomy, as well as direct action, class war, and fighting back. Our politics have always included *both* gardens and riots. We want to see people building beautiful alternatives of liberation, just as much as we want to see people attacking structures of domination. Nothing about this is going to change, and despite recent challenges, our project will continue to push these ideas. We still have no tears for Locke St. and we remain unapologetically supportive of the activities that took place last month. It’s actions like these that can impel conversations that no one wants to have (in this case, intensifying gentrification throughout the city), and we see this as positive.

As things continue to unfold, it is important for people to remember that it is never okay to cooperate with the police – do not talk to them and do not share any information (however big or small) with them. This isn’t a question of agreeing or disagreeing with particular tactics, but of refusing to take actions that help facilitate state violence and repression. Aside from discussions about Locke St., local media has been dominated by stories of police corruption, misconduct, brutality, and most recently murder. Less than a week ago, the Hamilton police shot and killed Quinn MacDougall, an unarmed nineteen-year-old who had called 911 in distress looking for help. Cops are not and will never be our allies. We gain safety and strength by sticking together and staying silent.

Demonstration Against the Police in Maniwaki

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Mar 282018

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

As part of the week against police brutality, the Outaouais region mobilized like every year to create a series of events denouncing the violence of the Gatineau police and the SQ. This year, community organizations from the region and activists also decided to rent a bus to go to Maniwaki in support of two families that have faced the violence of SQ officers. In 2015, Brandon Maurice was killed, shot by an SQ cop, and in 2018, a friend of the Maurice family, Steven Bertrand, was shot in the dead by a courthouse guard who refused to let him leave to smoke a cigarette.

We chose to say loud and clear that the police is nothing but an instrument of the state that abuses its power, all while protecting the rich and fascists.

In Maniwaki, as in many regions patrolled by SQ pigs, it’s young men just out of police school that end up in these postings they don’t want. These assholes show up in these regions, knowing nothing of their reality, which doesn’t interest them. As a result, in Maniwaki as elsewhere, the cops are cloaked in impunity when they murder, bully, and systematically profile the most oppressed. We refuse the colonial attitude of these cops just as we refuse silence on the disappearances and assaults on indigenous women.

All we have left is to defend ourselves against the police. We have no confidence in them, nor the justice system, nor their fraternalist deontology.

Fuck the police state that represses poor and marginalized people and political activists. Fuck these armed pigs that enforce a climate of social insecurity. Fuck the guard dogs of the state, the bourgeoisie and the capitalist system. Antifascist as long as necessary, and until they have disappeared absolutely: NO JUSTICE NO PEACE, FUCK THE POLICE!

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