May 05
Vancouver’s May Day celebrations have had a history of violence over recent years. Things started to heat up in 2013 when Vancouver Police allowed a group of masked thugs to march through downtown with flaming torches and swarming the entrance to the PIDGIN restaurant- a couple of days later anarchists burned down and East Vancouver …
Feb 14
In early January Vancouver activist Dan Wallace announced a potentially exciting protest called #ShutDownCanada. The organizer’s goal was to get people to join in from coast-to-coast-to-coast, block critical infrastructure, and “severely impact: the country’s economy”. Adding to the anouncement, Wallace declared the event would “respect diversity of tactics”- activist code that means it’s acceptable if …
Oct 22
I had a long night on Monday working early into Tuesday morning finishing off my story analysing Toronto city councillor’s expense reports. It was nearly daybreak when I got into bed- exhausted, I slept like a log. I was awakened by someone telling me the police were at the front door- quickly throwing on my …
Aug 15
Introduction: In Part I of Line 9 Protests Unmasked we explored the history of direct actions against Enbridge’s pipeline reversal from the original #SwampLine9 protest in 2013 to the most recent occupation of a construction site near Innerkip, Ontario. The protests started off with a bang but quickly faded out as the media and public …
Jul 08
The Ontario Trillium Foundation is a provincial government agency whose purpose is to build “healthy and vibrant communities” by “strengthening the capacity of the voluntary sector”. Causes they support include arts & culture, environment, social services and recreation. Trillium promote themselves on their website as “Ontario’s leading grant-maker”. Trillium grant recipients get more than just …
Dec 17
UPDATE: The story originally identified the person in the beige jacket feeding the fire as Chelsea Flook of the Sierra Club. Flook has written and said that it was not here. Your Humble Narrator apologizes for any misconceptions as a result of this error, but still points out that Flook promoted this event- behaviour that’s …
Aug 20
Update/Correction: Dan Beaudoin is not a member of the Indignants, but is very close with them. The Ontario Common Front describes itself as “a coalition of over 90 community groups and labour unions that represent millions of Ontarians”. Looking at their list of endorsing organizations one will see many Ontario unions- but, also, some of …
Jun 21
Some breaking news on the pipeline hijacking in Flamborough. New videos were released by the Hamilton Spectator that give more insight into the hijackers and their lack of respect for civil society- things are getting very interesting. But equally, things are looking potentially dangerous- some of Ontario’s most notorious militant cop haters now have control of …
May 06
Rob Chamberland is the president of the CUPE 2073, a Toronto based local for people who are hearing impaired. He’s an Anarcho-Syndicalist, a branch of anarchism/socialism that believes the future demands a violent revolution after which we should all be led by the unions. For most Canadians, this is the stuff that nightmares are made of. One …
May 03
Anyone who saw the news about Wednesday night’s incident in Seattle is now aware it was May Day. The violence that occured reminds us that May Day originated out of a terrorist incident. It was 1886 when a group of unionists and police clashed in Chicago’s Haymarket square and someone threw a bomb into the …