Oct 05
Yesterday some interesting (though not totally unexpected) news came out on Undercover Kitty’s blog. While attending a debriefing with the leaders from the Quebec student strike, Kitty learned the at the strikes were not as spontaneous as we’ve been led to believe. According to the testimonies of the speakers, the student strikes were two years in the making. They …
Oct 01
Someone shared an interesting video with me on Friday- it brings together a lot of my research on Canada’s problem with Black Bloc anarchists. It’s about George Horton, one of the vandals from the Toronto G20 who got caught kicking in the door of a police car. Horton was sentenced on Friday to ten months …
Sep 30
One of the best moments in Occupy Toronto’s history was on May 1st. About 30-40 Occupiers showed-up at Queen’s Park, behind the Ontario Legislature, and ‘peasfully’ planted a communal vegetable garden that day. The Toronto police were very well-restrained, they stood back quietly while Occupiers poured out the soil and planted the seeds. When it …
Sep 18
The Toronto Media Co-Op put out a rather humorous story today, claiming that Occupy Toronto saved the city of Toronto $83,440 during it’s encampment. First, the story is a day late and a dollar short- Eric Hamilton-Smith did this at Occupy Vancouver last November. But, at least, they admit that his work is the motivation for theirs. …
Sep 18
A couple weeks ago I wrote about Take Canada Back– an initiative to get Occupiers to travel to Ottawa for ‘the mother of protests’. I left a warning for people that the entire tone of the event seemed a bit dodgy- perhaps the NDP and the unions were going to use Occupy or their own …
Sep 17
Never in my existence would I have expected to tell a story about being attacked by a union. The worst thing that ever happened to me was that I was hit with a tomato while entering the building of a client who was in a labour dispute. But, then came my involvement in the Occupy …
Sep 15
There have been a lot of bizarre and unlikely characters who came to Canadian Occupations- people of every type. Some were innocent, and some more sinister. We had people coming from feminist and anarchist groups who tried to hijack the movement. Then, we had Kevin Annett- a man who brought a magical story about imprisoning …
Sep 13
There were two things one was attacked for criticising at Occupy Toronto & Occupy Vancouver- Black Bloc anarchists and the group’s relationship with the unions. At first, when I was in Vancouver, I thought that the two subjects were unrelated. But, once I was in Toronto, it quickly became apparent both groups are closely related. …
Sep 13
I’ve always been a bit pensive about the Occupy Canada page on Facebook. When I was in Vancouver, I knew one person who was an admin, but didn’t know much about the others. When I got to Toronto I learned that the page was setup by Derek Soberal. I’ve written about Derek before when he …
Sep 07
Oh, apologies, that was the wrong screenshot- silly me! I meant to share a screenshot of what’s been the big buzz in Occupy Toronto circles the past couple of weeks. Here it is: