Prison

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. ...

On New Year’s Eve, for the sixth year in a row, a noise demonstration was held in front of the Laval prisons. Despite the freezing cold, this year was marked by the greatest participation since the beginning of this tradition. More than a hundred people walked chanting “Everybody hates the police!” and “For a world without prisons or detention centers!”, the whole thing accompanied by percussion, banners, whistles and fireworks in large quantities. ...

Join us this New Year’s Eve to send loud messages of solidarity to those spending the holidays behind bars, as we celebrate ongoing prisoner resistance, and renew our commitment to fighting for a world without prisons!

The Gazette’s opinion pages recently provided space to the lawyer for Montreal police officer Giovanni Stante who was charged in the death of Jean-PierreLizotte in 1999. The lawyer takes offense to a Gazette report, subsequent to the police killing of Freddy Villaneuva in Montreal-Nord in August this year. He feels that the report gives the “false impression that Lizotte was a victim of police brutality.” ...

From Toute détention est politique For the fifth consecutive year, a noise demo was held in front of the detention centers in Laval to wish prisoners a happy new year and show them our solidarity. The group of about 60 people accompanied by musical instruments and fireworks gathered in front of Leclerc penitentiary, the Immigration Center, the transitional residences B16 and the Federal Training Center (FTC). The rally was also an opportunity to remember Arash Aslani, a former detainee at the Immigration Detention Center who died this year. He began a hunger strike in 2005, which led to his release after almost a month. He since continued to be involved in struggles for migrants (To know more, click here ). The migrants’ detention conditions in Canada are particularly alarming, often being held for indefinite periods without charges or trials. It should also be mentioned that at least two migrants died during their detention in these centers this year. ...

Download and Listen Here This show featured news and a pre-recorded interview from Kingston’s Prison Radio with Sherri from Saskachewan about the December 14th riot in Saskachewan Pen in Prince Albert. We also had a live phone interview with Claude Marks, a former political prisoner and organizer with the Freedom Archives project. We talked to Claude about political prisoner and former Black Panther Jalil Muntaqim. Jalil is currently facing time in long term segregated housing for teaching his Black history class about the Black Panther Party. More info about Jalil is available at freejalil.com. ...

On the night of December 31, a small group of people went to the Joliette federal prison for women, with a banner, casseroles (pots and pans) and fireworks, in order to continue the tradition of celebrating New Years with those locked up behind the walls of the State. When we arrived, two women inmates were in the yard of the prison, and asked us to leave. One of them left running to potentially alert someone to our presence, while the other explained that if we don’t leave, their visits the next day will be canceled. Unlike last year, the women stayed inside the housing units while looking out the windows. We shot off some fireworks while leaving, not knowing how to react. We believe that the authorities punished the inmates last year for our presence and their enthusiasm by perhaps blocking their visits and putting them in lock-down. We don’t find this surprising on their part, given that they maintain their authority by imposing fear, and in this way, repressing desire for freedom. ...

It hardly seems necessary to summarize what has gone down inside U.S. prisons since September 9th. Hunger strikes, work stoppages, and riots have spread throughout the country on a scale that we likely aren’t even fully aware of yet. Some uprisings appeared took us by surprise, such as in several Florida prisons , while others presumably grew from recent organizing endeavors on the inside, such as at Kinross in Michigan or Holman in Alabama. By rough estimates , over 20,000 prisoners were involved in some way. That’s huge. ...

A Letter in Support of Prisoners in the US who are striking against prison slavery First, we want to tell you that you are not alone! We are keeping our eyes on your struggles. We support you! In your call for a strike on September 9th you evoke the uprising in Attica that began on September 9, 1971. You write about ending prison slavery by ceasing to be slaves yourselves. We see you. We hear you. We support you. ...

This is a challenge to anyone who is supportive of the September 9th prisoners’ strike but who has remained on the sidelines until now. In order for this strike to not be snuffed out by a handful of prison censors and violent guards, it needs to spread uncontrollably beyond their reach. And because prisons strictly forbid communication between prisoners, it is our responsibility on the outside to facilitate this contagion. Spreading the call to prisons in Canada will further this contagion, and give an opportunity to link our struggle against prison and the world that needs it, through prison walls and across borders. ...

“We are not beasts and we do not intend to be beaten or driven as such… What has happened here is but the sound before the fury of those who are oppressed.” – L. D. Barkley, participant in Attica rebellion On September 9, 1971, the inmates of Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York seized control of the prison. The Attica uprising, which lasted for five days, was not the first and certainly not the last prison rebellion. And yet its importance is indelibly marked within the history of the struggle against white supremacy and the prison society we still inhabit today. ...