[Squat!net]

From Montreal Counter-Info

A balade for de-gentrification took to the streets of Saint-Henri on the evening of May 28, 2016. About 30 people, all in black bloc, strolled down rue Notre-Dame and looted the yuppie boutique grocery store “Le 3734”. As most of the crowd held down the street outside the store, a few people went inside and filled duffel bags with fresh and dry sausages, cheese, maple syrup, and other items. Meanwhile, the storefront was redecorated with graffiti reading ‘Fuck Empire’ and wheatpasted posters that communicated some of the intentions behind the action. After throwing smoke bombs ahead of and behind the crowd on Notre-Dame, people dispersed via the train tracks before police could arrive, and no arrests have been made. In the days that followed, we re-distributed the food to people in the neighborhood who wouldn’t regularly have had access to it. The poster left behind read as follows:

With the arrival of the condos in Saint-Henri, a multitude of expensive businesses, hipster restaurants, and bourgeois grocery stores followed. Nevertheless, despite this affluence of food, the neighborhood remains practically a food desert for people with little money. Such a paradox it is to live in a world that produces so much food, but that isn’t accessible for those who are hungry!

May 28^th, we tried to recalibrate things a bit, to the extent of our means. We put on masks to protect our identity, we entered one of these extravagant businesses, we took everything we could and we left to redistribute the goods joyously in the neighborhood. Inspired by the recent actions against the police in different neighborhoods and knowing that they were going to show up to protect the property owners, we brought what we needed to protect ourselves.

Everyone deserves to eat well and there is enough food for everyone! It is with great pleasure that we organized this pillaging, which is a slap in the face to the forces that impoverish and starve us. We invite everyone to do the same!

Long live de-gentrication!

Tonight is the great banquet, we celebrate complicity and abundance!

From The Hamilton Institute

Introduction

For the past several years, we’ve been talking quite a lot about gentrification here in Hamilton. In the current moment, as the vanguard of art galleries decisively give way to boutique shops and condos, as sections of town are repurposed into bedroom communities for people who work in Toronto but can’t afford to live there, what do we mean when we talk about gentrification? Two years ago, even the arts industry fucks could claim, without feeling too dishonest, that they were creating something local and durable. Now we watch their flagship galleries and favourite restaurants close while a Starbucks and McMaster satellite campus open in Jackson Square, with condos going up on all sides. You were the footsoldiers of gentrification – don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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For several years, the St. Henri neighbourhood has been undergoing many changes: a walk along any part of rue Notre Dame will bring you face to face with the new foodie restaurants, high-end boutiques, art galleries, and “drinkeries” catering to the residents of all the canal-side condos, replacing the dollar stores and flea markets.

Although gentrification of a neighbourhood is more than just new businesses and nice-looking storefronts, we decided to render some of our disgust with gentrification by vandalizing two such examples with fire extinguishers filled with paint. [Read More]

Monday September 9th, at 6 pm, Metro Prefontaine

On the morning of Friday, Sept 6th, the people occupying the lot next to the Moreau lofts were evicted by the Montreal police, acting on the landlord`s request. The lot, also belonging to the same landlord, was squatted to denounce the eviction of the hundred or so people living in the lofts of 2019 Moreau street. The city had ordered the eviction after safety inspectors judged the building to be dangerous for its occupants.

The building has been unsafe for twenty years while the landlord has allowed the situation to deteriorate. But now that the neighborhood is becoming hip and its no longer just poor people living in it, the situation has changed. That`s why the landlord announced that, after the eviction of the renters, he had the intention to renovate the lofts and to put them up for rent, but this time much more expensive. [Read More]

Published in “Brisbane From Below” n°1 (Brisbane, 2011).

Justice, Dignity, Resistance: An Interview with John from Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became involved with OCAP?

I was a worker at a factory in Ontario in the 1980s and, after being made unemployed, I helped form a union of the unemployed. In 1990, this organization helped out in the campaign that led to the formation of OCAP. [Read More]

It was a sweltering afternoon in late July 2002 when the armoured vehicles of the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force pulled up in front of our building. Quickly we started barricading the door with an old desk, if they were coming to kick us out we weren’t going to make it easy for them. We waited tensely as the cops approached the door with submachine guns drawn.

Our crime? We dared to take over an abandoned building in the middle of a housing crisis.

We all survived that early raid and were eventually allowed back into the building where we lived for the next three months — dubbing it the “Pope Squat” as we occupied it during the pontiff’s visit to Toronto.
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“Woodsquat” – a special issue of West Coast Line (240 pages, $12) Info: 604.682.3269 ext. 7567 / free [at] woodsquat [dot] net / http://www.woodsquat.net

Who popped Woodwards on September 14th 2002? Why? What happened on the inside? Who were The Woodwards 54? How did they defend a street encampment for 92 days & nights in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver? Who stayed? Who left? Who ended it? What happened afterwards? Will Vancouver ever be business-as-usual again? Which buildings are next?

Writing & interviews on daily life at the squat. Poems, speeches, statements & reports by residents, witnesses & supporters. Call-outs from affinity groups & support organizations. Police reports & the confidential city government memo planning the quiet final eviction. Reproductions of video stills, posters, flyers, graffiti, linocuts, photographs & an 11-page comic. Critical essays on squatting as a tool, gentrification & social housing, electoral politics, addiction & class war, media distortion, legal strategies, the use of demands, and the ongoing struggle.

[Read More]

** check end of report for details of election night action **

More information and Photos: http://www.ocap.ca/ocapnews/gatekeeper.html

OCAP takes ‘Gatekeeper’ Squat, MP vows conversion to social housing

On Saturday, November 8th in the heart of downtown Toronto’s east end, All Saint’s Church was packed with people who came to eat a hot meal and to rally for a demonstration called by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. We had put out a call to take over an abandoned building in a community well aquainted with living in poverty. Over 500 people then took to the streets in a spirited march that made its way through a neighbourhood dense with homeless shelters, low income housing, and parks where people live and die with the reality of how serious the housing crisis in this city really is.

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Note: The one other arrested person is a member of the Steelworkers. In total four people, all trade union members, were arrested yesterday.

Report on OCAP Squat Victory

40 members of CUPE 3903 were among the 500 people who participated in the victorious march and occupation of an abandoned building at 558 Gerrard St. E., securing its conversion into social housing. The action was a victory on two counts: in addition to transforming an empty building into social housing, demonstrators forced the state to respond politically by negotiating with the demonstrators instead of unleashing its uniformed goons. Unequal and inhumane distribution of housing is a political issue that politicians should address through negotiation and dialogue rather than through police violence on unarmed civilians, and this victory should be recognized as a breakthrough in that regard.

[Read More]

Corporate media:

OCAP Thunders Into Mayoral Campaign With March (City TV) * Video footage too* http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/20031108-007/page.asp

Mills puts career on line (Toronto Sun) http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2003/11/09/251344.html

MP’s vow ends protest (Toronto Star) http://thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1068336306004&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

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MONTREAL, July 6, 2003 (2:57am) Riot police evicted hundreds of participants at Montreals Tent City inside Parc Lafontaine shortly after 12:30am this morning. At least 40 riot police were already placed inside the large park, and using floodlights in the dark, they proceeded to push back Tent City participants with shields and batons. Many people scrambled to gather their belongings, including their tents and tarps, while others maintained a line in front of the riot police, chanting defiant slogans in defence of the Tent City. At least four people were arrested inside the park. According to one legal team member, at least 12 people were arrested in total.

In one reported incident, two members of an activist video collective were arrested as they intervened as police attempted to arrest a mother sleeping in a car with her sleeping young child.

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LONG LIVE THE ROBBIE GUEST SQUAT
y KW Youth Collective

On Wednesday July 2nd, the KW Youth Collective announced at the City Council meeting that they liberated the Robbie Guest Squat. The squat, an abandoned building on the corner of Cortland and Benton was held for approximately one hour before youth were kicked out. Named after Robbie Guest who died in the custody of Family and Children Services this latest action serves to show that we will not give up our struggle for housing, shelter and against gentrification even under severe repression from the state. The action started at 7pm with Youth Collective members Mark Corbiere and Romeo Montague announcing that youth have occupied the Arrow Factory stating:

Given that housing is a right, given that people are sleeping on the street while many buildings are abandoned – we are taking it upon ourselves to solve the housing problem.. At this time we have taken a squat at the Arrow Factory. This building has been abandoned for over a year and is an eyesore. We will fix it this building – We are tired of these buildings being torn down and not used for affordable housing – we hope the city will support us in our task to solve the housing crisis and serve the interests of all people as opposed to corporate and business interests – We are going to continue taking squats, if you don’t give them you better guard them.

[Read More]