April 2012 - Page 2 of 2 - Occupy Toronto

May 1st Day of Action and Reoccupation! Join us!

*No Work *No School *No Shopping *No Banking *No Housework The winter slumber is over. Time to take the streets! First, take the day off work (if you can get away with it), get together with friends and affinity groups, and engage in smaller direct actions and assemblies around the city during the day! (Let us know what you’ve planned at [email protected]) THEN, at *4:00pm* gather at Nathan Phillips Square for a big rally and march! Finally, Join us at Alexandra park at 9:00pm as we march to an undisclosed location for a 24 hour reoccupation! Documented or undocumented. Paid or unpaid. We are Workers. We are Students. We are Families. We are the 99%. The 1% carry out war, throw us in prisons, make us poor, destroy public services, attack unions, and poison the environment. They deny us freedom and dignity. So We Fight and We Resist. On May 1st, 2012, inspired by 126 years of workers’ struggles, the Arab Spring, the Indignados of Spain, the global fights against austerity, and the Occupy movement, we take to the streets again! On International Workers Day, join us and our allies No One is Illegal Toronto, the May 1st Movement, and dozens of community groups in the city for a rally and march to respect Indigenous sovereignty, insist that no one is illegal, for international workers solidarity, to defend and expand public services, to stop prison expansion and corporate handouts, to end imperialist wars and aggression, to build peoples’ power, and to move beyond capitalism. They are few, we are many. Join us. Media Sponsor: rabble.ca Endorsed & Supported by: Afghans for Peace, CAMP Sis, Canadian Auto Workers Union, Centre for Social Justice, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Committee for the Defence of the Iranian Peoples Rights (Canada Organization), Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians, Communist Party of Canada, DAMN, Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly, Health for All, International Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women in Canada, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, International Socialists, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Law Union of Ontario, Maggie’s: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, Metro Toronto Labour Council, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Movement Defence Committee, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Ontario Federation of Labour, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 12, OPIRG Toronto, OPIRG York, ProtestBarrick, Rhythms of Resistance, Socialist Project, Stop the Cuts, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, Toronto Socialist Action, Trans Film Screenings, Tudeh Party of Iran – Canada Organization, United May Day Committee, Unity Against Unemployment in Iraq, Women’s Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto], Workers Action Centre, Workers Community Party of Iran and more… JPEG poster | bw version | Facebook event...

Occupy Toronto – Activist Training Weekend!

***** A WEEKEND OF FREE WORKSHOPS GALORE FOR EVERYONE ***** On the weekend of April 20-22nd, we invite you to participate in an Activist Training Weekend. This is the last chance to attend a group event and participate in some workshops before the big mobilization in May! The Activist Assembly back in January was (more then anything) a recruitment oriented weekend, bringing in 300ish folks from the periphery, giving them a basic rundown of “occupy issues” and a really basic training, and then encouraging them to get involved in committee work. This weekend is a more serious attempt at training the core people who are actively involved in Occupy Toronto right now. Hopefully, when we have our resurgence in the spring, we will have a group of core people who can then share those skills as far and wide as possible! Each workshop presented at this conference will be geared towards providing some kind of practical training. In other words, each workshop will be about teaching attendees some skills that are important in activist work. COST: The event will be free but we will be accepting donations to help cover the cost of the event and to put toward future Occupy TO events! LOCATION: Steelworker’s Hall – 25 Cecil street FOOD: Lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday as well as lunch on Sunday! Free CHILD CARE provided all weekend. SCHEDULE: FRIDAY the 20th 6:30 – 7:00 : Introduction _______________________________________________________ 7:00pm – 9:00pm Room 1 – Independent Journalism for Activism (Krystalline Kraus/Megan Kinch) Room 2 – Political Intervention Theatre (Laine Newman) Room 3 – Effective Group Dynamics for Activism (Luisa de Amaral /Laura Hetherington) _______________________________________________________ 9:00pm-10:00pm Room 1 – Knowing Your Legal Rights and Beyond (Meaghan Daniel) Room 2 – Filming Interactions with Police (Kristina Mcguire) Room 3 – Don’t Panic: Grounding Techniques for Activists (Carmen Marti) _______________________________________________________ SATURDAY the 21st 11:00am – 1:00 pm Room 1 – Privilege and Intersectional Oppression- Strategies for Moving Froward (Chris Cavanagh) Room 2 – Planning and Executing Accessible Events and Actions(Frank) Room 3 – How To: Non-Violent Social Action Strategies for the Occupy Movement (Lyn Adamson/Sunni) _______________________________________________________ 1:00pm-1:30pm : Lunch _______________________________________________________ 1:30pm – 3:30pm Room 1 – Anti-Oppression Training: Engaging with Racialized Communities (Grace Edwards/Kalmplex) Room 2 – Spreading the Good Word: Street Team Training (Taylor Flook/Sakura Saunders) Room 3 – Marshal Training (Brandon Gray/Ian Smart) _______________________________________________________ 3:30pm – 4:30pm : Group March to Queens Park to join rally against Drummond Commission and provincial job and service cuts. Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/events/303248099739343/ Those who wish to stay at the Steelworkers hall can work on an Art Build for the May Day Rally. _______________________________________________________ 4:30pm – 6:30 pm Room 1 – CONTINUED – Anti-Oppression Training: Engaging with Racialized Communities (Grace Edwards/Kalmplex) Room 2 – Hacktivism Self-Defense: Part 1- Basic (Trey/Kim Crawley/Sean Rooney) Room 3 – Medic Training: Part 1-Basic (Trish Mills/Meaghan) Room 4 – Human Rights as an Organizing and Messaging Strategy for Occupy (Josephine Grey) _______________________________________________________ 6:30pm – 7:00pm : Dinner _______________________________________________________ 7:00pm – 9:00pm Room 1 – How to Stay Peaceful in Solidarity: Individual and Group Strategies (Sunni/Lyn Adamson) Room 2 – Hacktivism Self-Defense: Part 2- Advanced (Trey/Kim Crawley/Sean Rooney) Room 3 – Medic Training: Part 2- Advanced (Trish Mills/Meaghan) Room 4 – Facilitation Training (Norman Taylor/Laurel McCorriston) _______________________________________________________ SUNDAY the 21st: Room 1 – ALL DAY DIRECT ACTION TRAINING (please try to show up at the beginning, and stay for whole training: 11am – 7pm) (Dave Vasey) _______________________________________________________ Room 2 – ALL DAY ART BUILD FOR MAY DAY – making signs, puppets, etc… _______________________________________________________ Room 3 – 11:00am-1:00pm – Livestream Training (Dee Shanger) 1:00pm – 2:00pm – Lunch 2:00pm – 4:00pm – How to Speak to the Media (Dan Speerin) 4:00pm – 6:00pm – Strategic Communications (Syed Hussan) 6:00pm – 7:00pm – Knowing Your Legal Rights and Beyond (Meaghan Daniel)...

What is CAPA? The COALITION AGAINST PSYCHIATRIC ASSAULT

Formed in 2003, CAPA is a coalition of people committed to dismantling the psychiatric system. Radical and visionary, we are comprised of psychiatric survivors, social justice and human rights activists, dramatists, academics, graduate students, and health professionals. We see problems in living, which are currently pathologized as largely created by capitalism, sexism, racism, ableism, sanism, and other systemic oppressions. We see the very concept of “mental illness” as unscientific, fraudulent, and stigmatizing. We strongly object to incarceration (involuntary committal), electroshock, forced drugging, and the vast array of brain-damaging drugs – particularly the antidepressants and neuroleptics. We oppose many human rights violations, which are endemic to psychiatry. We see a connection among globalization, bigotry, homelessness,poverty, iatrogenic disease (treatment-caused), and the mass marketing of the mental health industry including the multinational drug companies (‘Big Pharma’). CAPA has successfully organized several public educational events and strategic nonviolent resistance. For example, in 2005 we successfully organized public hearings on psychiatric drugs and electroshock. Since 2007, we organized three anti-shock rallies and protests on Mother’s Day in Toronto. And in 2010, we organized PsychOUT, an international conference for organizing resistance against psychiatry. The world which we strive to co-create is one where people and their problems are not pathologized, where care is neither commodified nor professionalized, where choice and integrity are respected, and where we are all joined in a caring and creative community to each other and to the planet earth. On May 6, 2012 at 1:00pm, the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault is organizing Occupy Psychiatry: A nonviolent action during which survivors and activists will occupy the front grounds of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Ontario’s shock shop located at 250 College St (near College and Spadina). Please join us in the fight to end fraudulent diagnoses, forced drugging, forced electroshock, and psychiatric incarceration....

Photo Journals from Occupy Toronto

Hi Occupy! Much love and respect. Some of you have been asking where you can see my pictures are from past events. If you want to use any of them, or want your face blurred out for anonymity feel free to contact me. -Loretta 52 Division Blockade http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157629356454258/ March Against Police Brutality http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157629341698122/ Solidarity Sunday – Solidarity with Occupy Oakland! http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157629109495439/ Dead-in Against U.S. Military Aid in Egypt http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157629045822845/ Occupy Toronto – Activist Assembly – Weekend of Jan 20, 21, 22 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628996118029/ Stop The Cuts: Final Budget Showdown: Toronto vs Rob Ford! http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628922546139/ Occupy Toronto – Regrouping Weekend http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628784130245/ Occupy Toronto Homes for the Holidays/Rebelcity Fundraiser http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628523033275/ Occupy Toronto Eviction, 11/23/11 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628133019967/ Occupy Toronto Evict Ford March, 11/19/11 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157628061208425/ Occupy Toronto Camp, 11/15/11 http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorettalime/sets/72157627863260735/...

The 99 Percent Spring

Since Occupy Wall Street emerged last September, debates over its impact have roiled both liberals and conservatives confused by the fact of a (successful yet) leaderless movement lacking concrete demands. But something seems to be working. The 99 Percent Spring is just the latest recent example of OWS’s influence. An impressive coalition of liberal-left groups and organizations, led by MoveOn.org and including the AFL-CIO, Greenpeace, the Working Families Party, 350.org, Campaign for America’s Future, United Students Against Sweatshops, CodePink, Global Exchange and Color of Change aims to recruit and train 100,000 Americans “to tell the story of what happened to our economy, learn the history of non-violent direct action, and use that knowledge to take action on our own campaigns to win change.” A cross-section of the country—from carpenters and stay-at-home moms to business people, students and farmers—has signed up for hundreds of sessions so far, according to an AP report. To me, the simple fact that the cream of the liberal-left establishment is promoting direct action trainings in the six-months before a presidential election rather than focusing all its energies on the electoral horse race is dramatic testimony to Occupy’s impact. After the trainings, a series of actions—referred to as “Shareholder’s Spring”—are planned to disrupt the shareholder meetings of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and thirty or so other leading multinationals along with a series of student-lead actions against Sallie Mae and other corporations that have profited off the student debt crisis. Full story at: www.thenation.com/blog/167211/99-spring...

Statement and Principles on Decolonization Passes at New GA! On April 3, 2012

On April 2, 2012 Occupy Toronto’s Monday night New General Assembly passed a proposal to adopt a statement and principles on Decolonization. Please find below the Proposal that passed with the amendments made as proposed at the General Assembly. Thank you and congratulations on a very fruitful and productive GA! April 2nd, 2012 Proposal: For the Monday GA to adopt the following statement and principles on decolonization as a framework for organizing our work through the new GA. Propose that we adopt these principles as a working statement, recognizing we need to seek input from our allies in the city to help build this living document. Decolonizing ‘Occupy’ Toronto Following the rich tradition of Indigenous people and people of colour who have fought for self-determination, decolonizing ‘Occupy’ Toronto means aspiring to win struggles for liberation by placing Indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, psychiatric survivors, homeless people, low income or working class people, immigrants, gender non-conforming persons, women, and queers at the center of our collective struggle. In addition, we commit to creating political structures and community events that welcome Toronto’s residents, 47% of whom are people of color. Further, we commit to respecting the lands upon which we organize in our thoughts, planning and messaging to others. We will acknowledge the lands we stand upon before meetings, GA’s and/or public events. As a place of unity, we adopt the following statements as part of a living document upon which we base our struggle against the 1%, corporate greed, colonialism and the exploitation of Mother Earth. 1) We acknowledge that Canada is a colonial and capitalist country, a country of settlers, built upon the land of Indigenous nations; 2) We acknowledge that systemic racism exists in Canada, where Indigenous people and people of colour are disproportionately jailed and impoverished by policies – deliberate or not – that are enforced and enacted by the Canadian State; 3) We demand that the colonial government of Canada honor all treaties signed with all Indigenous nations whose lands are now collectively referred to as “Canada” and that the government respect the right of Indigenous nations to self-determination, with or without Treaty signatures. 4) We recognize that oppression and colonization are systemic, they are a product of histories and contexts that go far beyond individuals and their specific histories; 5) We recognize that oppression and colonization are structural, in that it is not just the hurt feelings of individuals affected but rather the daily grind of lack of housing, of policing, of joblessness, of immense material impacts; 6) We recognize that oppression and colonization are intersectional – that is there isn’t a hierarchy of oppression that any one individual feels but complex structural and systemic inequities that affect an individual and peoples differently; 7) We seek decolonization through transformative processes, rather than through the attainment of reforms; 8 ) We recognize that people are individually traumatized differently, be it through intergenerational trauma or direct experience and require different supports in terms of healing and transformation; 9) We believe that, for us, decolonizing our communities and ourselves requires a collective effort rooted in compassion, wisdom, humility and collective consciousness. 10) We will take direction from impacted communities when organizing around issues that impact those communities directly and respect the sovereign right and knowledge of the individual nations on Turtle Island....

Wash Trade

Canada’s largest bank & investor in the Dirty Tar Sands has been benefitting from our tax system by moving money from one institution to another. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-sues-royal-bank-canada-massive-fraud-224048570.html...

Rally Together Against Police Brutality

Yesterday court hearings were heard for the Occupiers who were arrested during the eviction from Osgoode Hall. One occupier was brought into the court and was black and blue, face swollen and stitches above her brow. Two of them were taken to the hospital after the arrests and another stated in court that they had been injured during the arrest. The violence against all of these occupiers was completely unnecessary and shameful. We cannot accept this violence against our brothers and sisters. Two of the arrested were released on bail and banned from associating with each other along with other conditions including not coming with 25 meters of Osgoode Hall. The others arrested are still being held. A huge thank you to the lawyers who helped Occupiers through the hearing. They did an incredible job and we cannot thank you enough for your hard work! Yesterday Occupiers blockaded the streets in front of 52 division. Today Occupiers will continue to blockade 52 division and demand 1. Unconditional Release of three Occupiers still being held in Toronto Jails. (Now 5) 2. All charges dropped against all those arrested on Friday. 3. A Public Inquiry into Toronto Police Violence on Friday. 4. The officers involved must be tried in civilian court. Ways you can help: 1. Come on down and join the blockade! 2. Bring food and warm blankets, toques, gloves, drinks, & chairs, couches, tents, furniture, etc. 3. Spread the word to your friends and via social media. 4. Be creative! Police violence in Toronto has to end now! https://www.facebook.com/events/358181370894441/#!/events/358181370894441/ Twitter accounts to follow: @Krystalline_k @occupybaystreet @q_e_d @OccupyToronto @OccupyTO @OccupyTOMedia UPDATE 1: What to Bring This not a residential area, so bring 1. noisemakers 2. musical instruments 3. bicycle horns 4. pot lids 5. anything else that will make a ton of noiseSee More * Write PostWrite Post * Add Photo / VideoAdd Photo / Video * Ask QuestionAsk Question https://www.facebook.com/events/358181370894441/#!/events/358181370894441/ ...

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