Montreal, 29 August 2017 — This morning, August 29, Montreal activist Jaggi Singh was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and taking another person’s identity, for having jokingly given his name to police as former Nordiques’ player Michel Goulet on August 20. He is being transferred to Quebec City, where he is to appear Wednesday morning at 9 am in Municipal Court. This arrest came in the context of a far right hate campaign targeting Jaggi, including a petition promoted by the notorious racist group La Meute, demanding his arrest; a campaign that has been taken up by right-leaning political figures and members of the media over the past week. ...

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The buzz has become impossible to escape. Business associations speak of “renewal”, while expensive restaurants celebrate “revitalization” and local politicians promote “redevelopment” as the city gives large grants to Toronto entrepreneurs to set up shop in town. This is all accompanied by a media blitz presenting Hamilton as a land of opportunity for the rich. With every passing day the meaning of these words becomes painfully obvious – in practice they really just mean increased misery, hardship, and displacement. Real estate agents, property management firms, investors, and business owners amongst others, reap huge profits as many of us who have called Hamilton home struggle to get by in the changing city. This is a fundamental reality of capitalism and is not surprising. What is surprising, is that those who celebrate and profit off gentrification continue to do so openly without regularly feeling the anger of those who their narrow self-interest harms. ...

Several groups are currently fighting against the exploitation of hydrocarbons in Gaspesie in order to prevent Junex, Petrolia, Squatex and others industries from sacking the peninsula. The moment is opportune to put an end to their bullshit because our balance of power is growing and because the petroleum industry is not yet entrenched in people’s mentalities. With this in mind, we are calling for the organization of actions through September 4-10 in support of the blockade of the Junex oil wells, the river camp in Gaspe and in solidarity with the municipality of Ristigouche Sud- Est . On September 5, Ristigouche’s lawsuit will be launched by Gastem for $ 1.5 million for a regulation to protect the drinking water sources of its 168 citizens. ...

While participating in the counter demonstration to the failed mobilization of la meute in Quebec City, several comrades positively identified a bus used by Montreal based la meute members to travel to Quebec City. The comrades worked together to watch each other’s backs, let the air out of several tires, and removed the license plate from the bus, with the goal being to create further hardships in the lives of these privileged racists. ...

In ’ The religion of green anarchy’, the author continually refers to their ideas of what “green anarchism” is about without referring to where exactly these ideas are stated. There is not a single quote from a green anarchist journal or book in the essay, nor is there any reference to what texts the author has or has not read dealing with green anarchy. If the author’s idea of green anarchy is based on conversations with individuals at land defense camps, it would be good to say so – in this case the critique becomes more about “how some people interpret green anarchy” then about green anarchy in its totality. This essay takes a large and complex tangle of ideas that have been evolving since at least the 80’s[1.For example, the Earth First Journal characterizes EF as having had multiple stages, and characterizes their evolution as realizing the inter-relationship between social and ecological struggles. See 25th anniversary special issue.], and simplifies them into a caricature (‘the morality of pure wilderness’) that neglects most of the theory that makes green anarchist thought and its associated currents worth reading in the first place. I would also suspect that this may be why Green and Black review did not respond to the essay. ...

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I was not at the counter-demonstration last Sunday in Québec City, but the media wave that followed it has made want to double-lock the doors and let copies of Le Devoir accumulate on the front steps until a winter storm takes them. By force. In effect, on all platforms, politicians were quick to do their favourite thing, namely to denounce “violence”, a term deployed so often that we don’t know much about what it really even means. What violence? That of the police? Of those who throw things in the streets? Of those who think that some people deserve more than others to live in wealthy countries? ...