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Apr 25, 22

Canadian Tire Fire #35: More Actions Against Pipeline Profiteers, The Fight For Old Growth, Neo-Nazi Training Group Exposed

cover image: @SaveFairyCreek

This week we present updates about ongoing struggles across so-called Canada, a roundup of May Day events, news from the struggle against Coastal Gaslink, and share some information on the far-Right.

We have a lot to cover this week, so let’s get started!

Fighting for Old-Growth & Against Evictions

Members of the group Save Old Growth staged two more actions this week. On April 20th, protesters blocked rush hour highway traffic near Langford, BC for about four hours. After police arrived, two people held down the blockade by attaching themselves to a barrel filled with concrete. Both were arrested and are now facing charges. On April 21st, protesters blocked commuter traffic on a bridge between Vancouver and North Vancouver. The group is calling for an end to old-growth logging in BC.

Folks fighting to save old growth forest at Fairy Creek erected their first tripod of the season this week: “Industry workers have been turned away for the day, so that they cannot continue building a road into the watershed also known as Fairy Creek—nor can they haul the fallen ancient trees out of the cutblock known as Heli. Local police eventually showed up and declared that there was nothing they could do to remove the tripod.”

Residents in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) are speaking out after learning that Canada Post is suspending mail delivery to four blocks of the neighbourhood due to “safety concerns.” Residents have emphasized that as a low-income neighbourhood, mail is especially crucial for those residents waiting for welfare and disability payments. Members of the Our Homes Can’t Wait (OHCW) coalition of DTES residents reached out to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to urgently invite them to discuss the issue. OHCW is planning a demonstration for Tuesday, April 26.

Tenants in Toronto learned this week that their organizing efforts have paid off: the residents of a 23-unit building successfully pressured their landlords into dropping eviction notices against the entire building. Tenants proactively began organizing as soon as new landlords bought the building in 2020, and, once they were issued renovicition notices in early 2022, upped their tactics to include banner drops from the building, speaking to media, and pressuring the landlords’ non-profit partner to stop working with them.

In Kemptville, ON, the Coalition Against the Proposed Prison rallied against the construction of a 235-bed prison that is planned to be constructed in their community in the coming years. The rally took place ahead of a public consultation on the use of the provincially-owned lands surrounding the proposed prison.

May Day!

This coming Sunday is International Workers Day – May Day! Public events are planned in cities including:

 

Check if something is happening near you, or even better, make plans of your own!

Updates from the Struggle Against Coastal Gaslink

As always, resistance against the Coastal Gaslink pipeline slated to run through Wet’suwet’en territory continues. While solidarity actions are not happening at the constant, country-wide pace as they have been at various points in the past couple of years, the fight is by no means over.

In Montreal, on April 11th, a group of anarchists snuck into an RBC office building and vandalized its interior. According to their communique:

In the early afternoon, a small group of anarchists snuck into the RBC offices at Place Ville-Marie. Armed with flyers, stickers and spray paint cans, they left a message for the bank: DIVEST FROM CGL. Since the Fall of 2021, the Wet’suwet’en have been actively campaigning for RBC to stop funding the destruction of their land, but RBC continues to ignore them.

As long as RBC is funding pipeline projects, they will find us in their way.

Then, on the night of April 20th, some anarchists visited the home of RBC Quebec president Nadine Renaud-Tinker, and covered the front of her home in paint. Their communique reads:

We believe that active solidarity is always important, even more so when our comrades are facing repression. This solidarity can be expressed through easy attacks, which break the isolation and fear that the state tries to trap us within. Those involved in funding the pipeline have names and addresses. They might not always be easy to find, but usually, they are the ones trying to protect their peace and tranquility tucked safely away in big houses, far from the social war they are a part of.

On the yintah, police harassment continues to escalate. Three arrests have been made at Gidimt’en Checkpoint in the past week during incursions into camp by RCMP.

On April 23rd, RCMP once again intruded multiple times. On their third visit, they interrupted a ceremony and were escorted out by Sleydo’, who was later followed home and ticketed.

Neo-Nazi Training Group Exposed, Far-Right Legal Updates

A neo-Nazi group, the Vinland Hammerskins, has had their athletic training club exposed by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. The club’s training included strength exercises, marches and boxing. The Anti-Hate Network reports that chapters of these clubs exist across Europe, Australia and Canada, and that they are independent and decentralized. The Hammerskins, like the neo-Nazi group Volksfront, are a less public and more secretive organization which allows them to avoid a lot of attention and generally last longer then more public groups. Check out the linked article for more history and profiles on the most involved members.

Over two years ago, members of the Quebec fascist group, Atalante, entered the office of VICE to “send a message” to a reporter that had covered some activities of that group. The initial trial for the leader resulted in an acquittal for breaking and entering, mischief, criminal harassment an intimidation. But recently that acquittal was overturned and Raphael Levesque was convicted of breaking and entering and mischief.

A Canadian Proud Boy has taken a plea deal in the US for his role in an attack on a Palestinian man during a protest around 5 years ago. Brandon Vaughan avoided a possible hate crimes charge in the case by taking the plea deal and admitting to simple assault. Vaughan was sentenced to time served, which was the two months he spent waiting for extradition.

Convoy organizer and white nationalist Pat King was recently discovered to have had perjury and obstruction of justice added to his existing list of 10 other charges. During the bail review hearing King asked for, the prosecutors added 3 charges each of perjury and obstruction. The details of the charges are under a publication ban so not much more is known about them. While we do not feel that these cases will change the canadian far-right movement in any significant way, we do find it interesting to observe state judicial responses to violent or economically disruptive fascist activity.

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A weekly roundup of anarchist and anti-authoritarian news from so-called Canada. Email us at: [email protected]

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