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Photos:

  STORY: People from the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and the ranks of the homeless met in bitter cold outside the coroner’s building this morning to continue actions for shelter and housing programs.

   During the holiday week at least two homeless deaths occurred in a three day period. These deaths could have been prevented as the TDRC and other groups have lobbied the Mayor's office for years with recommendations for more shelter beds, warming centres, health measures and harm reduction shelters.

    Tuberculosis is spreading at the crowded shelters as the city fails to heed health warnings. Though space is available at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital and the Armory the city is again playing a game of rationing shelter, acting on a questionable emergency basis and rules that leave people on the streets in freezing temperatures or in disease-ridden shelters.

   After a talk on the deaths at the Coroner’s building, angry protesters marched across downtown to the Princess Margaret Hospital to demand that it be opened for shelter space … and later found that it wasn’t completely empty as a gang of police officers emerged through the doors. Horseback police and a number of cruisers were also present to hinder the protest.

   We have a city that doesn’t want to pay for more shelter space yet has plenty of cash for unessential policing and heating an empty building … which seems to be part of a general trend toward a misguided form of security. Billions are being spent to prevent terrorism in a federal security budget, though there haven’t been any terrorist attacks in Canada … and likely won’t be.

   Believers in security should perhaps consider that genuine security arises from a person first having a home. Homelessness is really a form of economic terrorism where those that fall through the cracks of the rat race are left to the mercy of the streets, to be victimized by harsh conditions and ignorant social forces that thrive on using or bashing the poor.

   Housing really has to be part of social policy and programs. People are homeless and dying now when the economy is fairly strong, and the lack of affordable housing grows each year in so-called prosperous times.

   For many people insecurity is growing, and elected officials need to change their outlook. Working people lack stable housing solutions and the unemployed quickly hit the streets. The roots of our fears and suffering aren’t foreign terrorists. Stupid or stupefied city, provincial and national governments are the source.

Contact the TDRC
http://www.tao.ca/~tdrc
steve@v-r.net
cathy.crowe@sympatico.ca
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Protesters March to Reclaim Civil Liberties as the War Rages On – Dec.15.2001
Photos:

  Toronto residents gathered at City Hall Saturday to oppose the loss of civil liberties contained in government anti terrorist measures. A freak snowstorm and the nearness of Christmas reduced the numbers at this event. That loss got compensated by the diversity of the crowd. It included Arab and Muslim protesters, Jewish youth, anarchists, peace groups, queers, opponents of the bombing of Palestine and so on.

    There were a number of speakers that attacked government anti terrorist bills like C36, and the incredible cruelty of the war in Afghanistan … a war in which 3,500 civilians have been directly killed, and the rights of prisoners of war abandoned … rights that took more than 200 years to win.

   The protest ended with people illegally taking over University Avenue and chanting as they marched to liberal party headquarters.

   Though there haven't been any terrorists attacking in Canada our government has the public surrendering to fear and granting them dictatorial powers to spy on, arrest and imprison people. Immigrants and people with brown skin now find themselves suspects and not citizens. They are isolated from free society.

   Protest may fail to reverse the legislation in the short term, but it serves another purpose as organizing continues that includes all social groups in one protest body. So if equality can't be found in the law or in society in Canada, we can find it in protest.

   Many people think anti terrorist legislation was unneeded but got passed to please the US. With the questionable election of George Bush we are seeing a US Administration that is indistinguishable from its Intelligence Community. Since Sept 11th and maybe before, the US has in my opinion been run from the George Bush Center for Intelligence, which is the HQ of the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia. The powers in control are President Bush, CIA Director George J. Tenet and representatives from the State Department, Energy Department, Treasury, the Military and FBI. Together they form the official US Intelligence Community.

   Note that the Energy Department and Treasury have a key voice. With players like that in control, can it be any surprise that civil liberties are being removed or that US foreign policy is one of  oil/economic war wherever it can be made. Corporate bigwigs are also involved, forming an advisory body to the CIA.

   Their Achilles' heel is the truth, but not much of that is getting out. Today the fear mongering continues with reports that bin Laden was prepared to bomb London and that an al Qaeda biological, nuclear, and chemical site has been found.

    What we really should fear is unstable US allies like Pakistan that do have nuclear weapons … and there should be nervousness over the fact that all evidence in the terrorist attacks and war on terror has been suspect to a degree. Much has been hidden regarding the World Trade Center attack. Recent evidence like the bin Laden confession video also seems odd. A former director of Pakistan's Intelligence says it was probably a bin Laden look-alike in the tape. Convicting people via corporate television media while offering them no opportunity of defense is another new twist we are expected to accept. Osama is probably guilty, but that is no reason for portraying him as a larger than life threat when he has no real military capability he can use to challenge the West.

   The plans to bomb London, found in Tora Bora, are for some reason written in clear English and were found in a cave by a journalist after US Special Forces were there. A suspected al Qaeda nuclear site has now appeared right beside US Camp Rhino in Afghanistan.

    Facts on the war are also hard to get or verify. What seems certain now is that the largest bombing attack in history has hit Tora Bora. At the end of Ramadan the Afghan soldiers weren't fighting so the US dropped continual blasts to make sure bin Laden forces could neither surrender nor escape.

   Now the report is that they have escaped and are traveling through dense mountain forest into Pakistan. To halt that the US is blast burning the entire forested region with incendiary bombs that are illegal under the Geneva Accords.

   They think Osama bin Laden may be there, yet the magnitude of the attack does not measure up with a plan to win a small war or to capture him. Clearly they are desperate to kill this Frankenstein monster they created, and to the point that they will bomb and burn anything to try and get him. If all they really want is to shut him up they must be hiding something.

   Perhaps to win the war for civil liberties at home we have to get out the truth that this isn't an ordinary war. The supposed enemy is not even attacking. What we are getting is the endless flogging of a dead boogie man as corporatized government and media seek support through inducing fear.

   Automobiles crush and kill people daily, yet there isn't a war on them. Cigarettes and pollution probably kill even more. Terrorists aren't killing anyone here so it's time to stop the panic and the rush to a police state. Governments don't deserve respect if they are legislating out of fear, and they deserve contempt if they are using this scare to build their own power and further a corporate global agenda.

Notes by Gary Morton
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Protest Begins Against Canada's Severe Anti Terrorist Legislation – Sat.Dec.8.2001
Photos of Demonstration:

   It's Christmastime and the federal government has not been generous. Like Scrooges living in fear of terrorism they have repossessed our civil liberties through a number of anti terrorist bills. Today the Bloor West for Peace group kicked off protest opposition to Bill C36 with a picket at liberal MP Tony Ianno's office in the Italian neighbourhood of Toronto.

   Not so many years ago Toronto police broke up all street gatherings of Italian men in that area of Toronto. Nearly every ethnic community and group has experienced harassment from police, using the powers they already have. Now anti terrorist bills like C36 give police incredible new powers to spy on and jail us all … and though the government says this is for security many people feel that the security of Big Brother is another form of terror. People suddenly jailed under anti-terrorist legislation will be as hard to find as Osama bin Laden, and the record of arrests under current law has been terrible. Nearly all of the hundreds arrested across North America are completely innocent.

    Opposition continues tomorrow with a Science for Peace forum and teach-in at the Medical Sciences Building of the University of Toronto from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Rocco Galati will address civil liberties and the anti-terrorism Bill C36.

   On Thursday December 13, 7pm an evening of speakers, song & solidarity on the erosion of Human Rights in the name of Anti-Terrorism takes place at OISE, 252 Bloor West.

   A rally and march addressing the Attack on Civil Liberties happens next Saturday Dec 15, noon in Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square.

   Activists have also occupied Justice Minister Anne Mclellan's office in Edmonton beginning at 8pm on Friday, December 7 and will be there throughout the weekend or longer.  They have a list of demands regarding "anti-terrorist" legislation (bills c-36, c-35, c-42).
1) nation-wide public education campaigns.
2) a binding national referendum.
3) dissolving CSIS in favour of a kick-ass Mariachi band.
Contact phone number inside the office - (780) 982-5829

For Bloor West For Peace Info contact: Michelle bw4peace@yahoo.ca
Bill C36 page at http://CitizensontheWeb.com
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/c36.htm
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Abdul the Dangerous – Nov.11.2001
   The Toronto Muslim community held a demo today against the war. This rally of mostly families from mosques drew an army of cops. There were rafts of motorcycle cops, red unmarked vans, paddy wagons, all sorts of uniforms and undercover men and the media was nearly all police media.
   Camera guys at the front of the rally were cops with 10-thousand-dollar zoom attachments. While I took photos of the banners with my 99-dollar digital camera, one cop gave a cameraman instructions. "That's Abdul there putting on the blue jacket. Make sure you get solid footage of him."
   Abdul appeared to be one of the organizers of the rally. I took his photo but deleted it. Now I wonder if he knows he's under constant police surveillance.
   So much for the claim that political organizers won't be harassed under anti terrorism legislation. They are already under heavy surveillance and the bill hasn't even gone through yet.
   Here are a couple photos of the rally
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/afghan1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/afghan2.jpg
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Human Need Not Corporate Greed
(Toronto Nov 9th Protest Against the World Trade Organization)

Photos
A couple photos of the march
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/wtoto1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/wtoto2.jpg
WTO Kicking the World Around
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/wtoto3.jpg
A couple of the radical cheerleaders
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/wtoto4.jpg

   The World Trade Organization (WTO) picked Doha, Qatar as this year's meeting site to avoid public participation, scrutiny and protest … but they didn't avoid protest as that happened against the WTO/IMF/World Bank world wide.
   In Toronto protesters from labour, social justice groups and the general public met at City Hall and marched to Citibank for a rally. The rally included a choir, speakers, radical cheerleaders and a ball game. A ball with a map of the world on it was kicked over the Mobilization for Global Justice banner and around by protesters in business suits, representing the way the WTO kicks the people of the world around with policies of corporate greed.
   Corporate greed was also denounced at City Hall where the mayor and his backers are trying to sneak through a plan to privatize the city's water supply. Plans to privatize other city services are also in the works in smoky back rooms.
   As the WTO seeks a new round, it is attempting to include many items that are not trade and that would kill local democracy and the sovereignty of nation states. Public services for example, would be handed over to the private sector, making it impossible for citizens to guarantee themselves basic necessities like clean water. In the absence of genuine economic growth, the private sector has been cannibalizing public services to grow. Though it is called privatization, examples like the recent privatization of an Ontario nuclear reactor show that the public is left to pay off all debt and losses, while large corporations operate the services and skim off any profits.

Next up is the International Monetary Fund/World Bank/G20 protest in Ottawa Nov 16th to 19th 2001
The Mobilization for Global Justice has opened with Four key demands.
1. Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and the public.
2. Cancel all impoverished country debt to the World Bank and IMF, using the institutions' own resources.
3. End all World Bank and IMF policies that hinder people's access to food, clean water, shelter, health care, education, and right to organize. (Such "structural adjustment" policies include user fees, privatization, and economic austerity programs.)
4. Stop all World Bank support for socially and environmentally destructive projects such as oil, gas, and mining activities, and all support for projects such as dams that include forced relocation of people.

This report by Gary Morton
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The Other Side of Policing- Oct.28.2001
(Toronto Alternative to the International Police Convention)
By Gary Morton

Photos:
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc1.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc2.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc3.jpg
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/polc4.jpg

   The Saturday march was exiting Grange Park when I arrived. Catching the tail end I noticed people frowning from cars as it crossed Queen St. Obviously most locals view policing critics and protesters as misfits, rebels without a cause, feminist crazies or friends of criminals.

   That view is incorrect. The groups behind the weekend actions had a detailed agenda that is impossible to cover in a short article. It adds up to a mini convention of public groups on policing, running counter to the Police Chiefs' meeting.

   A Friday night public forum featured a few speakers. Most memorable was Pierre George's complete story of the shooting of his brother Dudley by police. Not only did police raid the park and shoot Dudley, they also worked to delay his medical treatment. Pierre recounts driving many kilometers on a flat tire, trying to get to the hospital, only to be grabbed and charged by police before he got Dudley into emergency. Dudley had been alive on the drive to the hospital, but delays due to police may have led to his death.

   Events continued Saturday morning at Grange Park and the march headed out for the Police Convention. Though we never got anywhere near Front Street. A wall of police met us at King Street so we turned and gathered in the park behind the CBC building. At that location a line of police stood behind a ribbon, and beyond them were more riot cops and teams of horseback officers. Plainclothes officers looked on as the rally began.

   The show of police force was in place for the 11,000 chiefs, sheriffs and other police personnel at Skydome and the Metro Convention Centre. Also receiving protection were Smith and Wesson, Glock, and Humane Restraint, which had complete weapons shows for the police.

   I had to delay this article due to a fever virus that came on suddenly. In memory the rally took place under a chilly sky of early winter with protesters often taking amazed glances at the police army on the other side of the ribbon. The vision of police still seems like another hallucination of the fever … the windy towers and parks of that segment of downtown holding nothing but roaming columns of police and horses, like social cleansing had finally been completed and no one was left.

   We were on the free side and there were some fine speeches at the rally. Don Weitz and the Dope Poets Society did poetry. We heard from police critics and those close to victims of police shootings. A flyer had photos of ten shooting victims, and speakers mentioned how hard it is to fight police on shootings. One example is the Committee for Justice for Otto Vass. They have only 200 dollars while the police association is spending money in wads of hundreds of thousands of dollars to aid the officers that beat Otto to death.

   Anna Willats' speech on policing issues should be made to the Chiefs. It won't be because people seen as critics aren't wanted. The authorities want to define the limits of the debate, keeping certain ideas out of the discussion.

   The debate police want to entertain is of mechanisms for delivering a law and order agenda on behalf of the state and corporate interests. Usually it is between community policing (police on foot and cycles) and the standard cops making calls in fast cruisers. High tech is also a facet with police now wanting to militarize with helicopters, super surveillance and weapons.

   If a message got across to me it is that most police critics favour a different kind of policing. Cops in fast cruisers often don't arrive when women beaten in their homes make 911 calls … and when they do they still tend to treat women as the property of men. Community policing is seen by many as harassment. Police on foot go out from mini stations and ticket and jail everyone they see as undesirable … meaning they tend to go after the poor, youth and people of color.

   Activists see policing as something that should rise out of a general social justice agenda or a world that works for all. Give us affordable housing, childcare, commitment to addressing racism and homophobia … the list goes on … and there'll be very little crime. Nowadays we must also say give us peace and not war.

   Anna Willats had a list of the police workshops, and read them out. Social justice was not on the police agenda. It was more a law and order agenda. - criminalization as opposed to liberation. No workshops on violence against women, racism and so on. But stuff like Fighting Terrorism at the Olympics, Every Police Chief has Role in the Fight Against Terror, Street of Madness, policing the mentally ill, etc.

   In response the coalition followed up the rally with its own workshops at the University of Toronto, addressing the issues the police want to ignore.

   The new focus on terrorism is also a concern, with many people opposing Bill C-36, which grants the police incredible powers. Things like breaking into your house without telling you or placing you in arbitrary detention. Though the RCMP chief says the new laws won't be used against protesters and activists, most people think they will. There has already been a movement in the media to label Canadian groups as terrorists. A number of media outlets have called the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty/Ontario Common Front terrorists and a special meeting was held between the mayor and police officials to find ways of breaking up the group. You can be sure that they didn't suggest eliminating poverty as a way of getting rid of OCAP.

    In the National Post the Canadian Columbian Association, which held a recent peace mission to Columbia, has been labeled a terrorist group. Most unlucky are Animal Activists as a Toronto Star columnist has given all animal defenders a blanket label of terrorist, regardless of the group.

   I wish visions of a police state were the fever and not the reality. But the police powers are in place and the tendency is going to be to expand their use. Especially when the media is pushing new panic buttons every day.

For poetry from the protest see
http://www.justusleaguerecords.com

The Rally, Forum and Workshops included the following groups:
Anti-Racism Media Education Group / Black Action Defence Committee / Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty / Coalition for a Public Inquiry Into Ipperwash / Committee for Justice for Otto Vass / Committee to Stop Targeted Policing / CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) local 1281 / CUPE local 3903 / Digital Praxis / Free  Mumia Now Coalition / International Socialists / June 13 Committee / Maggies / Metro Network for Social Justice / New Socialist Group / Ontario Coalition Against Poverty / OPIRG-Toronto / People Against Coercive Treatment / Toronto Action for Social Change / Toronto Friends of MOVE / Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice / Toronto Rebuilding the Left / Toronto and York Region Labour Council

For info call 416-656-2232
e-mail oct27protest@hotmail.com
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Joe Clark Dogged by Animal Rights Protesters - Oct.23.2001
By Gary Morton
Photo
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/jdogs.jpg

   Federal Tory leader Joe Clark got embarrassed by protesters and their dogs as he attended a fundraising dinner tonight in Toronto.
   Folks from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Toronto Coalition For Bill C-15 and Freedom for Animals picketed at City Hall, across from the hotel and drew more media attention than Clark.
   Clark has been attacking Liberal Bill C-15, which would increase penalties for animal abuse. Some Tories have been listening to corporate farming and other interests that want exemptions put in the bill. Should that happen the bill would become a bill of cruelty rights, enshrining rights for researchers, pharmaceutical companies, factory farms and so forth to be as cruel as they wanted to animals.
   Though protesters did not confront Clark, I went across the street with a friend and entered the reception at the Grand Ballroom. We walked thru a thick crowd of mostly white males in expensive suits. These were nearly all famous Tories … and being a usual Tory opponent the scene had a nightmarish feeling for me. At one point Bill Davis and Hal Jackman were passing, Tony Clement and some Harris Tories were to the left, John Nunziata and friends to the right and so on.
   Finally Clark appeared, coming down the escalator. I stepped out in front of the cameras, gave him a flyer and asked him to support animal rights. He said he'd take a look at it then plunged into the waiting crowd.

contact Rebecca Aldworth at:
raldworth@ifaw.org
http://www.dontbecruel.ca
http://www.anticruelty.ca
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Terror vs. Terror and the Peace March in Toronto – Sat.Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton

   War and bigotry are the first casualties of truth. Canada's police are worried about that and stationed a paddy wagon near the speakers' podium at Saturday's Queen's Park peace rally.

   Horseback and other officers ringed the park, and there's little doubt that this military presence was put in place to discourage people from attending and speaking out. It also worked to make the people of peace appear to be criminals.

    In spite of that a large crowd showed and Sid Ryan delivered a fiery speech about terrorism, his background in Ireland and peace. It seemed to shrink the paddy wagon behind him to the size of a toy. The demonstration also defied authority, becoming a long march to liberal headquarters and then down to the US Consulate.

Photos:
Avy Go Speaks at Liberal Headquarters
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct20a.jpg
Three March Photos
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct20b.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct20c.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct20d.jpg

   At a recent forum Paul Hellyer said, "You can't be at peace with people that hate you." Paul's insight on war seems to be the insight that our international leaders don't have. It is only the public that gets this message and takes it to the streets. Recently 150,000 people marched in Italy, 100,000 protested in Calcutta and 50,000 demonstrated in London and Berlin.

   This week the war on terrorism has taken on an unreal appearance, being a disaster movie, adventure movie and comedy movie all at the same time. The media is featuring reports of US secret or super commandos beginning their raids into Afghanistan to establish a foothold for a high casualty ground war. Most of these casualties are going to be innocent Afghani citizens that die of starvation and lack of medicine. 7.5 million civilians may die.

   The comedy is at the APEC Summit where leaders dressed in Chinese shirts are to issue a statement that will tell us what the war on terrorism is about. Let's hope it isn't going to be about world wide persecution of the Falun Gong or other harmless meditation societies the Chinese don't like … or a North American security perimeter that is really a new form of racist free trade agreement.

    Continuing the comedy is Senator John McCain. Appearing on David Letterman he said, "You know what Osama bin Laden's gonna be this Halloween? Dead."

   In Shanghai Prime Minister Jean Chretien has joined Bush in thinking that we have already won the war. He is calling for the United Nations to set up a new government in Afghanistan once the Taliban is crushed.

   In New York David Bowie, Elton John, Jagger and others held a mammoth concert for the Trade Center victims and rescue effort. They sang America and Heroes, and I think we were heroes before we decided to roar off to Afghanistan with bombs and troops. We look tarnished now. Jagger's an old man. He goes to one of those bars where you pay to have five young gals sit with you. Elton looks like an old lady and if David Bowie isn't outa sight he should be.

   Still it was a nice gesture by some old men.

   Lost in the media war speak, our leaders can't get past the idea that they have to make war on the "cowards" that want to blow themselves and others to pieces. In order to destroy these cowards we must become "heroes" that punish ourselves while bombing innocent refugees.

   Endless tears are be shed for those that have died in the USA, yet our hearts must remain cold as ice when considering those who suffer and die as we attempt to retaliate against the ENEMY.

   Here are some clever techniques the mass media has come up with for destroying these terrorists.

- Removing many of our freedoms, racial equality and the right to privacy in the West.
- Urging Vladimir Putin to enlist the Russian mafia to rub out Bin Laden.
- Using hit men to kill off terrorists and foreign leaders we don't like.
- Punishing and silencing those who raise questions about US foreign policy.
- Using coercive power in the Middle East.
- Using tactical nuclear weapons in Afghanistan.
- Having news anchors wear American flags on their lapels.
- Eliminating the right to protest.
- Pulling advertising revenue from any media that criticizes Bush or the War.
- Launching a full scale ground war in Afghanistan.
- Shutting down web sites.
- Attacking nearly every nation that might hold terrorists.
- Masking a racist North American Free Trade deal under the guise of a Security Perimeter.
- Scaring people to death, yet punishing severely those that put in false terrorism reports.

   And what are Afghani civilians saying?
   This is what a farmer said after the massacre in Khorum, a bombed Afghani village where people got buried alive and mutilated by bombs.
* Web video at http://www.channel4.com/news/home/20011014/4afg.ram

   "We don't have bread to eat, we don't have anything, and they pour bombs on our heads,'' said Fazel Ahmed, 37, a farmer from Farah. "What sins have we committed? Tell me, what did we do to deserve to have hell pouring down on us? All this for a couple of terrorists. Go and catch them in their caves instead of killing the poorest of the poor,'' he added, breaking into tears.

    And will this killing prevent terrorism?
    Probably not. Here is one reason why.

   Bio-terrorism: edited clip from a US source.
   "In my worst nightmares I can imagine a scenario where terrorists willingly infected with germs go traveling, spitting, coughing, hacking their way from airport to airport. One or two infected individuals could inoculate 200 or more people via the air system in a 3 or 4 hour flight and those 200 or more people would deplane at their stops and carry the germs into 200 different places. They could also do the same thing with hand held mechanical dispensers or they could simply dip their hands in some lethal lotion and walk around the plane touching things."

   Even if you take terrorists out of the equation there is still a bio-terror problem. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently said that the human race will have to move people to space stations to survive. That is because eventually germs will escape from sloppy corporate or government labs and kill us all.

   Probably the key reason why war won't stop terrorism is that it is a social and political problem. In spite of people that want to prohibit talk of foreign policy, it is what we must discuss to end terrorism.

   Analogy of a Palestinian Suicide Bomber.

   In the West Bank the Israelis have settlements and the Palestinians have their areas. It is all connected by roads but only Israelis have the right to use the roads. Palestinians live in poverty, are constantly bombed and moved from their houses. The cycle of violence is growing to war again due to a policy of assassinating suspected enemies. There is a Palestinian suicide attack followed by an Israeli hit or bombing followed by a suicide attack in an endless circle of violence.

    The root of the problem is that the Palestinians live in a state of apartheid. Young Palestinian men feel they have nothing to live for other than continued poverty and oppression, so they sign on for death missions. It has become institutionalized in the fact that after you die your family will get some social benefits and care.

   There is oppression across the world and terrorists have risen or will rise from it. War conducted by the West will only magnify this problem, it will not end it.

   So another root of the problem is Western attitude and foreign policy. For decades we've believed in some rights, civil liberties and economic well being for people here, while denying it to people in the poorer nations. It's a total denial of equality, and a belief that it's okay for others to suffer, starve and die so long as our corporations and consumer interests prosper.

   Now things have changed and the world is shared space. We will not prosper unless we eliminate our attitudes and policies of oppression. We can either change or we will die through terrorism and war.

   War is not a system of justice in our high tech nuclear/germ/genetically modified world. It will bring final justice for us all. International mechanisms are needed to deal with terrorists … combined with patience and an understanding that the innocent masses shouldn't be punished for the actions of a few.
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Media Democracy (Died) Day– Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton

   A gang of Toronto alternative media people protested at outlets of media conglomerates Friday, and later held a panel discussion, film night and social at Bar Code.

   A bigger crowd attended the social. Protest locations were at the Toronto Sun, CTV, Rogers and the CRTC.  Jan Pachul and friends of Star Ray Community TV protested at the federal regulatory body (CRTC). The regulator has been trying to shut Star Ray down for some time, labeling Pachul a pirate and doing other things to humiliate him.
 * Details at http://www.srtv.on.ca/

   I protested with people from Catch da Flava - http://www.catchdaflava.com/ at the Toronto Sun. The Sun is the little fascist paper that grew to become under the control of media giant Quebecor. Slick security guards in suits were out front when we got there and they watched us closely. Police were also present.

   The Sun location on King West is best described as dull and dead end … more so in salty autumn light. A terrible spot for a protest. The Catch da Flava people clowned around with cameras and a microphone. Standing by the entrance with a racist/fascist media sign I heard reports come over the guard's radio. The Sun had someone stationed in an upper window saying things like," One of them is on the corner with a video camera so watch him."

    The Sun box outside had an Anthrax/Terrorism headline and a big photo of a guy in a bio suit holding a dish of pills. Helen Choi chalked a message on the sidewalk with an arrow to it, and that caused a security guard to come out later carrying a bucket of water to wash it off.

   Large scale layoffs are taking place. They've hit the Sun, the Star and CTV at a time when they are making a killing on war profits. Workers out for a smoke mentioned a union trying to get in at the Sun.

   Interesting is the fact that the Sun and the Catch da Flava people are located in that same area. The Sun is big corporate media while da Flava folks are young people from the rough Regent Park area, putting out a community paper and web site.

    The local Sun's latest editorial is one calling for politicians and police to crack down on protest action by a group called OCAP or the Ontario Common Front. Other corporate papers and TV are about the same in their view on protesters. Even the liberal Star ran a couple columns last week to associate animal activists with terrorists. My observation is that the Sun likes OCAP. They gave them all kinds of news coverage and now a Sunday editorial. But what did media democracy people get for protesting peacefully at the Sun? The answer is no coverage at all. We should have kicked out a few windows.

   In January I attended a radical writing day put on by the New Socialists. I'm not schooled and technically shouldn't be able to write anything. I remember staring open mouthed as Naomi Klein told us not to give up on the corporate media. Things have sure changed since then.

   At the panel discussion Jan Pachul said Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own a press. In Canada five media giants own the press. Though the air waves belong to the public, our government apportions them out to the giants as a sort of license to print money. Obviously there will be no freedom of the press or media democracy until that changes.

   As far as democracy goes, big media outfits aren't any example of that. The very structure of newspapers with the dictatorial publishers and editors is in opposition to democracy.

   Panel discussions included Barrie Zwicker, Barry Duncan, Judy MacDonald, Tara Atluri, Adonis Huggins and Paul Boin. It was either Zwicker or Duncan that congratulated us for being the adversarial culture … which I didn't particularly like. I saw it as a way of relegating us to the fringe.

   Talking heads and media giants that repeat the same pro state ideas have become a fringe that holds power. Perhaps the heart and soul of media exists in alternatives now that the head of the body has been lobotomized.

    Being fringe of the fringe, I've never cared much for panel discussions, talks or presentations. Though I attend forums and so forth I've never agreed with that structure. It's not democratic, but reinforces our societal model of celebrities and the chosen ones lording over the little people.

    So I ended up leaving and going to free space outside a theatre where some people from the free university of Toronto gather in a circle on Friday nights to discuss bridging the gap between the sexes. In a circle everyone is equal. Some nutty ideas were exchanged. One guy took off his shirt and said the gap between the sexes might be bridged if we all did the same.

    You can guess whether we did it or not

   … and that's what democracy looks like to me.

* Media Democracy Day: http://www.mediademocracyday.org
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Autumn Fur Protests- Oct.20.2001
By Gary Morton

Fur Photos:
- I'm Not a Coat
- Fur is Murder
- Stop the Bloody Fur Trade

   Autumn colors are spinning in the gusts, inspiring Freedom for Animals and friends as they continue with a series of protests against the Halloween ghouls of the fur industry. The second demo happened today at the Bay and a small group showed to leaflet, picket, do handouts, chalk the sidewalk and talk to the public via the horn. There is some variety here as a few people regularly show and get complemented by others sprinkling in from the animal rights movement. Some people couldn't make it today due to animal emergencies, others from Hamilton did show. Downtown Toronto, believe it or not, is without humane society animal services … due to corrupt assholes on city council and the humane society board of directors. Council should immediately fund the animal rescues that are working outside of the humane society.

   The Bay's historical background is as a trapping company. 3.5 million fur-bearing animals are killed each year by trappers in the US. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on cruel factory fur farms.

   This is a case where corporations and consumer society are saying that an end product justifies any means of creating it – no matter how cruel. Trapping wasn't bad enough for them so they had to go a step further with factory fur torture farms where animals are deprived and killed by gassing, suffocation or electrocution thru the anus. If we can't shut them down altogether, we can at least continue to get the message out and stigmatize the use of fur. More people educated on the issue means more people seeing that fur coat as something wretched … and you don't want to look wretched do you?

Contact: Candice, email lucy518@hotmail.com
see http://www.furisdead.com/
Protests continue EVERY OTHER SATURDAY at the southwest corner of the Bay's Queen & Yonge store from noon-1:30 p.m. (Sat., November 3, Sat., November 17, Sat., December 1)
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Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media–Sat.Oct.13.2001
By Gary Morton

Photos of demo:

   Sallmah Valiani of the coalition noted that the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has agreed to President Bush's demand to screen messages from Osama Bin Laden and the Middle East. She says the CBC should probably screen the messages of Bush and some of the leaders. In agreement with her is the Belgian foreign minister, as he was in the news today attacking the war-mongering speeches of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

    Surprises came when a thug showed up to pick a fight with anti war folks, and later when uniformed and horseback police blocked the march, leading to a standoff that went on for several minutes. A second thug showed briefly when the march got to the CBC. He loudly denounced the speakers as Terrorists. Police, present in large numbers, simply watch such occurrences, apparently hoping violence will break out.

   There is some question as to whether the first troublemaker was genuine. While taking photos I heard two CTV reporters talking about creating a news story. Shortly after that a loud and profane thug arrived, circling to the back of the demo to scare some Islamic people also arriving. Cameras rushed in to do a feature on him.

   The media has turned the coverage of the War on Terrorism into a new form of racist terror that several speakers denounced … and if the media doesn't directly send in racist thugs, they do a good job of creating them through their biased and paranoid coverage.

   Anthrax is the current scare and as Sallmah noted in her talk, it is big corporations that are really behind the germ scare. She didn't mention it but outfits like Monsanto and Novartis that aid the war machine have also sponsored out of control genetic engineering in university, hospital and private labs. Jeremy Rifkin has a post out on the net describing how anyone with ten thousand dollars can build their own bio-terror lab. Groups like GeneAction – see www.geneaction.org – have protested dangerous genetic engineering for a long time and the government has paid little attention. Now politicians are exploiting fear to pass legislation (some of it racist) that removes civil liberties.

   Private companies are also exploiting fear. Today I got a post called Protect yourself against CRIME and TERRORISM!  By buying things like Hidden Cameras, Pepper Spray, Blowguns, Crossbows, Handcuffs, Throwing Stars, Stun Guns and Tasers.

   So has the War on Terrorism succeeded?

   We know George Bush fears new TERRORIST Attacks. His fears and news reports on them happened to occur when a bill to give police expanded powers was before the senate.

    Of course there are legitimate reasons to fear new attacks. Bush's war coalition has succeeded in killing the Taliban leaders' ten-year-old son and grandfather. Following those deaths a little bird informed Bush that there may be retaliation. Sort of like a mafia thing where we kill their children and they strike back.

   Overall the bombing of Afghanistan is killing and crippling innocent civilians by the hundreds. Today a residential area was hit in Kabul. There are riots in Pakistan and across the Middle East people are rising up with thoughts of  revolution and vengeance against the USA. Our brilliant foreign policy of war has created an entire army of new enemies that could resort to terror.

   Instead of winning Afghanistan, we might lose Pakistan (a nuclear power) to rioting and unrest. Even Tony Blair admits that support for the war is waning in the Islamic and Arab nations and elsewhere.

    So to put it bluntly, the war on terrorism is a total failure. We've created more terror, destabilized the Middle East, murdered innocent people, stirred up hatred and racism and removed civil liberties.

   It's time to talk about peaceful solutions while there is some peace left.

Next demo Sat Oct.20 I pm North Side of Queen's Park
info: CAWR_Toronto@yahoo.ca
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Demonstration at the US Consulate in Toronto as Cruise Missiles hit Kabul – Oct.7.2001
Report by Gary Morton

   The USA and Britain attacked Afghanistan with cruise missiles today, and Prime Minister Chretien appeared on TV to tell Canadians to keep living normal lives. Those words were ignored as a crowd gathered to protest at the US Consulate shortly after the bombing began. This time protesters face media, police and governments that do not want to tolerate dissent or allow the freedom that used to belong to the West.

   Though the missile attacks on Afghanistan are billed as surgical strikes against terrorist bases, the attacks are massive and against cities like Kabul.

   Osama Bin Laden appeared via tape on TV in the Middle East before the bombs flew. He confirmed that the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were to punish the USA for its foreign policy. Osama noted that people in the West ignore mass killing in other parts of the world … like the 500,000 children that died due to sanctions against Iraq, and the bombing of Lebanon and so forth. Calling on his people to rise up he promised that there will be no peace in the West until there is peace in Palestine.

   After Osama Bin Laden's taped message some media pundits were openly worried about news coming out by satellite TV in the Middle East. It can't be slanted or censored much by Western media. This could mean that viewers in the West will be presented with the truth, which is something our governments and media don't want.

   Canada is to play a support role in a growing invasion that is certain to fail in the long run. And the television news said there is no dissent in Canadian parliament.

   If not there should be because this is not a battle on the flat sands of Iraq. George Bush has gone to the mountain, and it may well erupt and fall on all of us. There will be no winners in this one.

Photos of demo:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct701.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct702.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/oct703.jpg

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Genetically Modified Food Issue a Step Up on the Political Agenda – Oct.8.2001

By Gary Morton

  The Council of Canadians held a national day of action in support of the mandatory labeling of GM foods on Saturday. Organizers Brent Patterson and Kim Phillips plus members and supporters passed out leaflets outside Loblaws' superstore at Bathurst/St. Clair Toronto.

   Public support for GM  food labeling is strong and some politicians are now catching onto that. Federal NDP environment critic Joe Comartin is out in support of the campaign for labeling and liberal leadership candidate Allan Rock is now a strong supporter. Liberal MP Charles Caccia has a private member's bill before Parliament to amend the Food and Drug Act to require mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically altered materials.

   In Europe you must label if there is anything genetically modified in the food. Rules come into effect in January in Japan and in December in Australia and New Zealand.

   Canada has been on the wrong track, using tax dollars in support of Genetic Engineering. Ottawa spent $2.8 million last spring on a door-to-door brochure extolling the virtues of GM foods. Industry Canada is a member of BioteCanada, bestowing corporate welfare on huge companies like Monsanto. An American company, Monsanto just sucked a million dollars from the government to aid in the development of GE wheat that Canadian farmers and industry do not want.

   Monsanto, Novartis and other large genetic engineering firms are also coming under scrutiny in the wake of the Sept.11th terrorist attack in the United States. They have made the technology for dangerous techniques that can alter plant and animal species too readily available.

Photo from past demonstration
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/c287b.jpg
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The Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds - Notes and Links on AFGHANISTAN… Oct.4.2001
War on Terror becomes Terror
Notes By Gary Morton

   The Ontario Council for International Cooperation and the Afghan Women's Organization held a special public forum on Afghanistan this evening. It addressed the unfolding humanitarian crisis involving starvation, persecution of women and terrorism in one of the poorest countries in the world.

   Speakers included human rights activist Sally Armstrong, Tommi Laulajainen of Doctors Without Borders and Dr. Amir Hassanpour of the University of Toronto.

   They noted that mountainous Afghanistan is composed of four tribes that have been at war for centuries. Modern wars have blasted the nation 250 years into the past. All infrastructure and organizations of society have been leveled.

   Not so long ago Afghanistan was progressing and the monarchy began working on rights for women through schooling and education. There was a decade of democracy that deteriorated when universities and educational institutions grew into organs of the left and right. The left staged a Soviet backed coup that did not have public support. A long war for liberation followed with the US backing the freedom fighters. President Jimmy Carter financed the exporting of an extreme Saudi form of Islam into Pakistan where religious schools were created that produced hundreds of thousands of holy warriors. They beat the Soviets and went on to become the oppressive Taliban regime controlling Afghanistan, and the backbone of a world wide network of fanatical terrorists.

   Before September 11th only women's groups opposed the Taliban and their campaign of persecution against women. World leaders and the United Nations would not listen.

   Currently Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban are not supported by the Afghan population, which is composed mostly of civilians that have been reduced to refugee status. These citizens are in great danger as the war continues between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. The threat of war from West worsens the situation.

   The population inside Afghanistan desperately needs aid, but relief workers can't get in due to the political climate that has developed after the Sept.11.2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The bulk of the terrorists identified are of Saudi or other backgrounds and not Afghanis, but in spite of that Afghanistan has been targeted. This is mainly due to the presence of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.

   Any war from the West will lead to a humanitarian catastrophe. The people of Afghanistan need a common vision and a plan for peace and society. War from the West will not create that.

   Our Western media seems to want war and its reaction to the terrorism and the crisis in Afghanistan is now under scrutiny. During the first ten days following the bombing, media launched a War of the Worlds type propaganda campaign. Though it is possible to criticize the Taliban and US foreign policy, the media bought into the idea that anyone speaking a line different from that of George Bush is with the enemy. Rather than seek peace and solutions to terrorism, our media seeks to terrorize us and support every new mechanism recommended for the removal of our civil liberties and right to association and free speech in the West.

* Here is the Afghan Women's Organization's Recommended Steps to solve the crisis in Afghanistan
- That the United States and its allies take every precaution to protect the lives of innocent Afghan civilians, who have already suffered under past regimes, and most recently under the Taliban.
- That the United States and its allies use their advanced technology to bring to justice only to those directly responsible for the attacks.
- That the Canadian government maintain its humanitarian policies by continuing to provide asylum to refugees resettled to Canada, particularly as crises in countries such as Afghanistan worsen.
- That Pakistan and Iran open their doors to Afghan refugees, who are kept hostage by the Taliban, so they find a safe haven in those countries.
- That the alliance between Western and Islamic countries against terrorism be strengthened to ensure that the implementation of the human rights of the women and children of Afghanistan is a top priority in any intervention in relation to Afghanistan.

For information contact Adeena Niazi at the Afghan Women's Organization aniazi@afghanwomen.org.
See http://www.yorku.ca/iwrp/afghan/
Also Read
Special Message from the Feminist Majority on the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and Afghan Women
http://www.yorku.ca/iwrp/afghan/news-fem.htm
-----------------------

The New Canadian Peace Movement Grows – Sept.29.2001
Toronto report by Gary Morton

   Though it got called on short notice today's Walk for Peace & Global Solidarity became the largest demonstration of the year. People from numerous social justice and anti-racism groups chose to show.
   Sunshine and warmth filled the day. At the beginning I tried to find a spot where I could photograph the full length of the march as it circled to head off for the US Consulate. That wasn't possible as it was too big. While trying to get that photo I discovered that the event could have been even bigger. People passing through the park complained that they hadn't seen any announcement of it in the media.

Digital Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/sept2901.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/sept2902.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/sept2903.jpg

   Part of a pan-Canadian Day of Action Against War And Racism that included rallies in Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal, the demo didn't get much media coverage. With their War on Terrorism banners, the mainstream press has left the concept of peace out of the equation and out of the news. It might even be said that a reason for marches is that so many people are sick of the lies, bullshit and propaganda filling the daily news.

   This new peace movement represents an educated culture existing in parallel with the culture of brainwashed warmongers that the pollsters tap. Authorities are treating this movement as illegitimate and began by attempting to provoke a confrontation. The rally was to go down Yonge Street, where it would have been visible to a larger crowd. Police prohibited that and openly threatened to jail the organizers and make mass arrests if demonstrators did not follow a route chosen by them. We had the numbers to disobey police, but organizers were left with little choice other than to avoid an ugly scene that would grant a propaganda opportunity to Toronto's mainstream War Media.

   Terrorism is linked to suffering caused by the policies of globalization and arms manufacturing, and though the Mobilization for Global Justice and students made up a large portion of the crowd, none of the other groups thought that peace was a simple matter of avoiding a war in Afghanistan. There are definite links to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Hostility and Terror are not products solely produced by a variety of Islamic extremists. The West is breeding suffering, unrest and terrorism through the implementation of foreign policy designed to allow the rape of the planet by
global corporations. And this means that any War on Terrorism has to begin at home.

    At Queen's Park Hajera Rostam said that Afghani-Canadians are being targeted, and her talk reflected the concerns of most of the people. One picket sign said Taliban do not equal Afghanistan. Which is true as most Afghanis don't support the oppressive Taliban. They are impoverished victims caught between the Taliban and the angry West.

    This war is not against visible nations, but against terrorism. At the American Consulate, Tariq Ali attacked the use of that concept.  "You do not fight terror with terror," Ali said. "…The rule of the West is to punish the crimes of our enemies but reward the crimes of our friends." Tariq is also concerned about the way these events are being used to attack our civil liberties and to introduce more restrictions for people of the "wrong colour".

   The march ended at the City Hall Peace Garden. It proved that we have a large culture of peace in Toronto … and that the challenge is to get the message to the rest of society. The larger media conglomerates are a formidable foe working to magnify the terror so it can be used by corporate and government forces to remove civil liberties and grow the same oppressive global agenda that created oppression and terrorism in the first place.

Protest Info:
Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice
http://www.mob4glob.ca
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Peace on a Cloudy Afternoon - Sept.22.2001
By Gary Morton
     Three events that point to a lack of peace took place in Toronto today. One was titled A Call for Non-Violence! The others were Car Free Day and an anti-Fur Demonstration at the Bay.

A Call for Non Violence
   I feel as powerless as you do when it comes to changing the world. In spite of that I went down to Queen's Park to see what was up on the peace front.
   Lauren Carter and Roberto Verdecchia organized this demo for the Humanist Movement Centre of Cultures … and people gathered wearing clothing with a white touch to symbolize a commitment to non violence. Signs in the crowd conveyed various peace messages.
Photo: Child with sign – Imagine a Universal Human Nature
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/cloudy1.jpg

   Mike Kelly had a table up with a peace petition that will be received by 13 members of parliament when it is done. The web site with the online petition is at
www.crosscanadapeaceproject.ca

   The march went to the local HQ of the governing Liberal Party at Yonge and St. Mary. We gathered in a circle and Lauren Carter spoke against US President George Bush's recent rallying cry. Bush says that we are either with his coalition or with the terrorists. Lauren feels the real message should be that we are either Against Violence or for Violence.
Photo: Lauren Carter addresses crowd at Liberal HQ
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/cloudy2.jpg

   Carolyn Basset of the Canadian Peace Alliance was up next and she criticized President Bush for his use of manipulative language. She especially dislikes his talk of sustained violence and good and evil. Carolyn wants our leaders to talk in terms of justice … and take that to mean genuine justice and not the current government messages of vigilante justice that will allow NATO leaders to blow people up without evidence or public consultation.

   After Carolyn, Shabir Ally arrived and became the light of the cloudy day. Taking the horn he informed us that it is nonsensical to go to war today and that people who go to war over religion are idiots. We should really be working for human welfare.
    Shabir follows Islam in a progressive way and sees terrorists and warmongers as practicing a regressive form of the religion. They are 1400 years behind the times.
    He notes three religious wrongs.
- It is wrong to commit suicide.
- It is wrong to attack civilians.
- It is wrong to provoke war.
Photo: Shabir Ally addresses crowd
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/cloudy3.jpg

   Shabir did make his point and after he spoke I looked up into the cloudy afternoon and saw our government as the slow moving gloom. Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Defence Minister Art Eggleton, the Liberals and other parties think we have the capacity to fight a war … and that it's okay to massacre innocent civilians and call it an attack on terrorism.
   In this war our enemies are mostly dictators and our new allies mostly dictators, too. I really have to wonder if it is us against them or us becoming them? What has happened to our former status as a peacekeeping nation? Nearly all of our military personnel signed up on the basis that we are for peace.
   A relief agency notes that 35,365 children died of starvation in poor countries on September 11, 2001. There were no special TV programs, newspaper articles, messages from the president, solidarity acts, minutes of silence or declarations of war.
   In the West we care only when well-to-do people die … and if war begins we'll have a lot more caring to do because many more of us will be dead.
   While terrorism continues to grow and live.
   Peace is a necessity like food. Without it kindness starves and we all slowly die … and when we're dead there will be no special TV programs for anyone.

info, contact: Lauren Carter 416.203.3573
or Roberto Verdecchia 416.535.2094

War with Animals
   We’re tossing coins these days over who to go to war with … and perhaps we tossed a coin the day we decided to go to war with animals.
   Today Anti-Fur protesters began a series of Fall protests against The Hudson Bay Company. Suzanne, Susan, Dave, Tom, Candice and Candace and others petitioned and held signs with various graphics and anti-Fur messages.
Photo - Stop the Bloody Fur Trade
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/cloudy4.jpg

   I suppose another message would be that if we could be at peace with animals we might be at peace with ourselves. The use of animal fur is not necessary in an age of cheap fake fur, yet in spite of that we still have cruel trapping going on and factory fur farming that is grotesquely inhumane.
   If we bombed fur bearing animals we'd likely kill far fewer of them and their lives would be better than on a factory farm. Our war on animals is meaner than our wars on civilians.
   I guess we aren't that peace loving when it comes to nature.

Contact "Freedom for Animals" <free_animals@hotmail.com>
Next demo at the southwest corner of the Bay's Queen & Yonge store from noon-1:30 p.m. Sat., October 20
Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade
http://www.banfur.com/farming/general%20facts.html
http://www.furisdead.com/

Car Free Kick-Off
   Premature death is often related and if we aren't stopping at MacDonalds to kill ourselves with corporate sponsorship, factory-farmed meat and mad cow disease, then we're off racing in cars to accidentally run over helpless animals and other people.
   Cars maim and kill a couple hundred thousand people a year and we haven't declared war on them yet. In Toronto they are choking us and freezing up the streets.
   To oppose the damage St. George from Bloor to College became a car-free zone today. This was a kickoff to a larger event next year. It included road games, street performances, a fashion show, grass-covered pavement and so forth.
   My camera ran out of battery power so my photos of the event came out as black squares … and I think it is relevant as black squares are probably all you see after being run down or choked by smog.
   Ask any cyclist. With cars we have declared war on ourselves … people drive around Toronto like road warriors forcing cyclists and pedestrians aside … but not many people care and most are simply willing to accept the collateral damage of this undeclared war.
   Most of the wreckage is in the form of bodies, and that isn't peace.

Info:http://www.carfreeday.ca

Ending
    So it's a cloudy day in early autumn. We don't have to worry because we'll rationalize our junk lifestyle and violence again tomorrow. We'll fill up on air waves thick with media meanness and do the same rotten things again.
   The leaves will change to brown and like them our souls will go crisp and dead. Ready to burn in the fires of a war we started by mistake.
   Of course we'll hope to be lucky and see it all on TV. The collateral damage will be other poor saps and the refugees that die will be bad guys.
   News is that you don't have to care when you don't have to care.
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Threats of Violence Disrupt Toronto Vigil for Mourning – Sept.16.2001
By Gary Morton

Photos:
- Child with Flowers at US Consulate in Toronto
- Banner - We Mourn for all Victims of War and Terrorism

   A vigil for mourning at the US Consulate went a bit sour at the outset when police forced mourners across the road. Officers seized Laurel Smith of Toronto Action for Social Change and dragged her over to a traffic island on University Avenue.
   There have been people mourning at the consulate all weekend, placing flowers, candles and teddy bears on the grass and steps. Today some of them had little tolerance for people arriving with peace banners. They tried to pick fights and generally expressed their support for war not peace. These folks were of the patriotic sort that have been brainwashed by the mainstream media. One man was dressed in an American Flag.
   People like Laurel came to mourn all victims of terrorism and most believe that working for peace, economic justice and education can reduce terrorism.
   Bombing can create more victims of terror, and the child in the photo listed above was probably another victim … as it did not help her to see that adults wanted to fight rather than to mourn.
-----------
Democracy Shut Down at US Consulate Sept. 16
From:   TASC <tasc@pop.web.ca>
It was supposed to be a day of mourning and a call for reconciliation and peace, but Toronto police would have none of it this afternoon in front of the United States consulate. A variety of Quakers, Unitarians, Anglicans, and members of groups such as Homes Not Bombs and the International Socialists came to mourn as well, and to call for nonviolence, peace, and social justice.
        RCMP had informed the group they could stand in the first lane of University Avenue, but while demonstrators awaited the 1 o'clock officialstart time, the police told a group of some 10-12 people holding incendiary signs such as "War is not the Way: Nonviolence Now" and "There is no way to peace, peace is the way" that they had to move across the street. While most cops gave no reason, some stated that our presence was "not a good mix" with those laying flowers at the consulate in remembrance of the victims of the Tuesday terror attacks in the U.S.
        Police, frustrated that citizens were exercising their democratic rights to stand silently on the sidewalk and plead for peace while their
government whips up the fervour for war, violently ripped the Homes not Bombs banner out of the hands of two individuals and took it across the street. Then, Laurel Smith, a member of Homes not Bombs who was holding a sign reading "Nonviolence Now," was bumped from behind by one police officer, so she sat down. When told to move, Laurel asked for one valid reason, which was not forthcoming. She was then roughly manhandled and dragged across the four lanes of traffic and thrown onto the concrete island dividing University Avenue. She is now nursing a large bruise on her right arm.
        After everyone gathered on the island and set up banners and began leafletting, police again moved to clear the area, stating we should stand way across the street near the University Ave. courthouse. Again, a small group refused to move, as there was clearly no legal or safety reason to do so. We wondered whether we would be moved if we instead had held signs calling for the bombing of Afghanis.
        Again, officers refused to provide a legitimate reason, and pushed people around. Smith, again holding her sign, had it violently ripped from her hands, at which point she again sat down.
        Ironically, the police appeared to be acting, in their usual heavy handed fashion, against the wishes of many who had simply shown up at the consulate to express condolences, many of whom supported our plea for no escalation of the violence, no retaliatory strikes.
        It is clear that the war atmosphere being whipped up by so-called political "leaders" is being reflected in a local level on the streets of our cities, as we saw in today's police actions and as we continue to see in the escalating racist attacks being carried out against Muslims, Hindus, anyone in this country who seems "suspect," just weeks after Canada proclaimed before the world that it was not a racist nation.
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Eight Arrested at Clear the Air Demonstration– Aug.20.2001
report by Gary Morton

* Three reports – reports on jail conditions from Tooker Gomberg and TASC are below this one.

   Eight people were arrested at today's anti-smog demonstration at Ontario Power Generation in Toronto. They will appear for bail at 9 am at College Park, Room 501 on Tuesday August 21. Arrestees held are Greg Bonser, Mary Hutchinson, Angela Bischoff, Shane Sarsfield, Kirsten Romaine, Sue Breeze and Matthew Behrens. They are charged with mischief and Angela Bischoff got taken into custody for singing an anti smog song through a horn.

Digital Photos:
Banner
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air1.jpg
Demo's Air Filter Fashion Show
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air4.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air5.jpg
Kiddie Venusians
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air6.jpg
from the Lorax
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air7.jpg
Arrests
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air8.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air9.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/air10.jpg

The Issue:
   Smog is the issue that sends ordinary people out to risk arrest these days. Air pollution costs Ontario 10 billion dollars a year in health care costs and kills 2,000 Ontarians each year. OPG's Nanticoke station is Canada's largest source of air pollution and though we the public are the shareholders, the corporate chieftains and Harris supporters on its board plan to increase coal fired pollution rather than reduce it.
   Deadly metals pumped into the air by Nanticoke harm children and it will get worse with more coal power. Conversion to natural gas would solve the problem, but since OPG is producing this dirty power mostly for fast sale to the USA, they intend to continue sacrificing citizens on the fires of profit.
   This is also a poverty issue as the poor are least able to escape to air conditioned environments and cottages where the air is a little better.

The Demonstration:
   Ontarians for the Public Good (the REAL OPG), an initiative of Hamilton Action for Social Change and Toronto Action for Social Change sponsored the demonstration and people from across Southern Ontario attended. It was organized as a Festival of Earth-friendly Energy Alternatives and was to include Venusians, an Air Filter Fashion Show and die-ins representing the lethal effects of smog.
   Problems arose when police showed early in the morning with uniforms and undercover men at the church housing people from out of town. Police followed the march to OPG and took an interest in three large red sawhorse/barricades carried to serve as a backdrop for the fashion show and to protect protesters from traffic during a die-in on the road. It might be said that the red sawhorses caused the police to see red and become determined that we wouldn't get them out onto University Ave.
   The demo went quite well with a couple hundred people showing. Jara West did the announcements and things continued smoothly through the fashion show, songs and a presentation by the Lorax. It was only when the die-in was about to happen that things turned sour. There had been little planning as to how we would take the road and police approached us, saying we would be arrested if we tried to take the sawhorses into traffic.
   Police moved in hard when we headed off the sidewalk and a period of chaos and arrests followed. Greg Bonser moved out with the front end of his barricade and was jumped by police. He is charged with mischief though his only intent was to protect protesters doing a die in on the road. Mathew Behrens also got grabbed as he went out onto the road. I had one of the sawhorse barricades myself and was nearly at the road when I turned and noticed that the person assisting me on the other end had been pushed away and an undercover cop had taken his place. I believe his name is Steve Irwin. He maliciously ripped the legs off one side of the sawhorse as I pulled hard to get it away. I did get free and got it out on the road, minus legs on one side. Another barricade got out intact and because police rushed in to whisk away the barricades, they missed arresting us.
   Our group of peaceful protesters was no match for police, and they showed strange preferences as to who they arrested on the road. Dave from GeneACTION carried a barricade and was dragged off the road twice. Yet he says police for some reason did not want to arrest him. This worked the other way around for Angela Bischoff as she was grabbed for singing on the road and taken away in a paddy wagon.
   Even though there were arrests, the Venusian thing went ahead on the sidewalk, and later we marched down to 52 Division for a support rally. We expected those arrested to be released by mid afternoon, then found that the police want to be nasty and are holding people for bail.
   Call them the pro smog police. But it isn't over yet. Some of those arrested knew they would be arrested and plan to pursue the issue in the courts, doing things like subpoenaing officials from the board at OPG to testify.

Contacts:
Ontarians for the Public Good (416) 651-5800
tasc@web.ca
Hamilton: (905) 627-2696
Guelph: (519) 836-2409
Windsor: (519) 258-1555
Kitchener-Waterloo: (519) 886-2759
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Come Support the Clear the Air Eight, Including Ange!  - Aug.20
Clear the Air Protest results in Eight Arrests including Angela Bischoff
************************************************
by Tooker Gomberg
Gomberg and Greenspiration <tooker@web.ca>
   The police are being heavy-handed and keeping the seven peaceful protestors they arrested at this morning's Clear the Air protest in custody until tomorrow morning.
   Come show your support when they appear in court:Tues. Aug. 21, 9 a.m. College Park (Yonge and College) Courtroom 501
   We were hundreds of people fed up with Ontario's poisonous air. We paraded to the headquarters of Canada's #1 toxic polluter and environment destroyer, OPG (Ontario Power Generation), at the corner of College St. and University Ave. There we rallied, sang songs, and watched a performance of the Lorax.
   We distributed leaflets that began with: "Imagine a burn on your skin. If it's mild, the burning area will turn red. More severe and it'll swell and even start oozing. Every time you breathe in smoggy air, that's what you're doing to the tissue in your lungs" (from the Hamilton Spectator).
   There was a Gas Mask Fashion Show, showing how one could be stylish and lung-smart at the same time.
   The plan was to take over the street, and have a die-in to mark the fact that 1900 people die annually from air pollution in Ontario, with OPG and cars being the main sources of the toxic air. We wanted to put pressure on OPG and our governments, to move quickly in the transition towards energy efficiency, renewable energy like wind and solar power, and investing in good urban design, bicycle transportation, and good public transit.
   The police never let us take over the street. Their sacred duty seems to be to keep the car traffic moving, and people who tried to go on the road were arrested. Seven people were arrested and charged with mischief. Angela Bischoff was singing songs into a megaphone when she was arrested.
   Come down to the courthouse if you can and show support for our right to breathe clean air, and to protest. Also come show support for those being held arbitrarily overnight.
tooker@web.ca
---------------------

* here's another report on today's Clear the Air Protest:
Toronto Action for Social Change
Making the world a better place for all isn't without its risks.

    At this time 7 people are being held at 52 Division, arrested for their role in a peaceful protest outside the Ontario Power Generation offices at College and University.
    This protest was an effort to draw attention to the role of Ontario Power Generation as a major source of pollution.  In a summer with high smog levels, it was a timely protest.
     Street theatre, including a gas mask fashion show and a reading of an adaptation of The Lorax, made this event more of a festival than a traditional demonstration.  For passers-by and the media, however, the message was clear---Air Pollution is Killing Us.
    An effort to hold a die-in on University Avenue, in the spirit of Reclaim the Streets, was quickly broken up by police.  Some reports indicate that individuals were arrested while trying to cross University Avenue on a green light.
    Currently in custody at 52 Division are: Greg Bonsar, Mary Hutchinson, Angela Bischoff, Shane Sarsfield, Kirsten Romaine, Sue Breeze, Matthew Behrens
    Complaints of minor harassment of those in custody have been reported. Glasses have been taken from a person prone to migraines.  The cells are cold and people are being denied a blanket.  The one vegetarian in custody has been told he'll not be able to get a vegetarian meal when the others are fed.
    Surprisingly, they have been told they will be held overnight.  A bail hearing is scheduled for tomorrow at College Park Court Courtroom 501 at 9:00 a.m.
    At the time of writing, the charges the people are facing is mischief.
    If possible, please come down to the courtroom tomorrow and watch the justice system grind its way through the bail hearings.

for more info Toronto Action for Social Change, P.O. Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West,Toronto, Ontario M6C 1C0
416-651-5800
tasc@web.ca
--------

Hamilton - CAGED Pickets the Wonderful World of Animals – Aug.12.2001

* Editor's note – The author criticizes http://news4hamilton.com/  and their coverage of the circus protest, but he seems unaware that the news4 article is standard corporate media journalism. They use a formula to provide fair coverage that gives a voice to both sides on an issue. Generally it works to give a big voice to corporate or powerful interests and a small meow to the forces of animal justice.

   Fairness can't be created through a formula and attempts at it kill genuine insight and in-depth coverage. Human journalists in their present evolutionary state could do a bit better, but not much better. That's why this page is edited by a cat.
PJ the Cat
--------

The Big Lie Under the Big Top
Report by Gary Morton for PJ the Cat's Animal Rights Page:

   Is the Wonderful World of Animals really all that wonderful? Well, let's begin with some Photos and Signs:

   Shari says - Teach Your Children a Lesson in Kindness. Don't take them to the Circus,
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus1.jpg
because Elaine knows that – These Animals are Dying for you to Visit.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus2.jpg

Don't Support Cruelty
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus3.jpg
or Dan will ask you to Explain the Whips and Chains to your Kids
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus4.jpg
while a mysterious woman in dark glasses tips you to the fact that Animals Hate the Circus.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus5.jpg

Yes - Don't be accused of Enjoying the Abuse
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus6.jpg
inflicted upon Performing Prisoners
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus7.jpg
as part of an Education in Cruelty.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hcircus8.jpg
--------
   We arrived at the Mountain Arena to find the protest underway, and had barely said hello when news4hamilton.com/ arrived. Later I checked their coverage on the Internet and in the public interest I include their text report at the bottom of this post.

   Though the News4 written report paints a kindly picture of animal trainers, their video report mentions that they weren't allowed into the circus with a camera.

   A couple of the younger women from Caged did get in with a camera and eventually got kicked out. They noted that some animals were held on chains that were far too short, and perhaps they would have discovered more had they been in there longer.

   I feel that way because animal circuses are not drawing huge crowds and animal rights protesters are reducing the crowds even more. On such a low budget, trainers could not possibly have the money to properly care for the animals. Most profits would in fact come from squeezing money out of their care costs.

   The Garden Brothers, owners of Wonderful World of Animals, have been hostile to protesters recently. At an initial protest in Welland they sent a belligerent drunk out to harass two young female protesters. It really does give the impression that they have something to hide.

   Picketers did much better at the Mountain Arena. Elaine handed out free videos that detail the animal rights side of the story and they were gone quickly. We also managed to flyer many of the cars going in and out and got into the parking lot to ticket all of the vehicles with more leaflets.

   The leafleting worked so well one little boy emerged shouting, "They only killed four animals today!" A woman exiting said she understood how the training was cruel after watching the dancing bears perform while reading our flyer.

   It appears that public attitudes can be changed if enough dedicated people make an effort. Animal circuses can probably be put out of business completely if actions continue against them.

   In Hamilton I didn't encounter many of the hostile sorts of people that feel animal rights activists are nuts. Instead I got that argument back in Toronto at a poverty protest event. Some of the guys at it came forward with the argument that animal activists are not progressive like they are … so I replied that animal rights groups from Toronto up to Niagara have a majority of women members while many of the usual Toronto activist groups have a surplus of shouting, fist-waving men … that do very little other than that.

   Some males even try to humiliate other men over their involvement in animal rights stuff. Dan - in the photo listed above - had to endure a verbal assault from circus goons that called him a sissy and fairy and so on as they attacked his masculinity.

   People that think animal activists aren't progressive should take a close look at some of the creepy people that run circuses and marine worlds. Circus trainers think it's progressive to beat, shock, stab and tie animals for trick training. They have no problem making animals travel in rail cars that can be smoggy, freezing or boiling hot … and they don't care when chained animals are forced to stand in their own excrement or beat their heads against their cages.
Gary Morton
-------

Here is a copy of the text from the Hamilton news. They also have video coverage at the site.
http://news4hamilton.com/
email info@news4hamilton.com
Circus Under Attack - 6:00 p.m. August 12, 2001.
By Leah Borkwood
   Kids lined up to see the lions, tigers and bears while the circus was in town. But CAGED picketers lined the streets in protest of the exploitation of circus animals.
   "We're protesting the cruel life of these animals," says action co-ordinator Elaine Marion.
   "These animals have been defeated by brutal training and are left in small cages that aren't suitable for their size or take into consideration the pack behaviour they have."
   But workers from the Wonderful World of Animals say animals at this circus are treated extraordinary well. One of the bear trainers, Derrick Rosire has worked with animals all his life and treats them like his personal pets. He says an animal the size of his bear would not be so friendly if it had been mistreated.
   "These animals are part of our lives not just a hobby," says Rosire. "I've spent thousands of hours with them."
   Part of the agreement with the city was for the SPCA to check in on the animals daily and it appears that everything is fine. In these types of situations the SPCA looks at living conditions and the availability of food, water and shade.
   "The conditions were fine," says animal control officer Joseph Lamantia. "All had fresh water and shade with feeding schedules and regular cleaning of the cages."
   The "Wonderful World of Animals" spent four days in Hamilton at the Mountain Arena on Hester Street and moves on Sunday to the next city.
--------
Contact CAGED animal rights group
info 905 526 8188
Email "E.M. Marion" <macinnem@muss.cis.mcmaster.ca>
==========
Email the Wonderful World of Animals (Garden Brothers)
Richard W. Garden
rgarden@gardenbrothers.com
Ian M. Garden Jr.
igarden@gardenbrothers.com
--------

Climate Change, and Bonn. Which deal will set the world on fire? Tues.Aug.7.2001
* Notes on the public report from Peter Tabuns of Greenpeace, activist Tooker Gomberg, and Christine Elwell of the Sierra Club.

   Climate change initiated by manmade air pollution has become a burning issue here in Toronto during the first heat emergency in history.

   The world community signed an accord on greenhouse gases in Bonn, and Peter, Christine and Tooker covered some pros and cons of it.

   On the negative side countries can sell emissions credits if they have reduced their emissions output. Due to economic decline, Russia did decrease its emissions and is selling credits. This means that some countries can fulfill their Kyoto target by purchasing credits from Russia, without any genuine reduction.

   On the positive side, countries like Canada can no longer gain credits by selling nuclear reactors to Third World nations. In the past nuclear was pushed as clean energy, when the facts are that the costs of health care and cleanup run into the billions when nuclear disasters like Chernobyl occur.

    Also positive is 400 million dollars going to developing countries and the fact that the Bush league USA has been isolated politically.

   Returning to the sour side of things, we have a weak deal that involves a total commitment of 1.8 percent of emissions, with overall greenhouse pollution still going up over 5 percent. Tooker mentioned that we need reductions to the tune of 60 to 80 percent over the next 25 years to bring the Earth back in climate balance. Otherwise the planet, like an overblown stock market will make a correction. That correction will be to destroy us with searing heat and violent weather.

   There are some penalties for those that fail to live up to agreement targets. A country that fails to reduce emissions has to make up for it. For each ton they are short during the target period, they must do a 1.3 ton reduction in the 2nd period. And they can't take part in emissions trading if they are not in compliance.

   Air travel, the fastest growing source of emissions, is not covered. Credits for natural gas production are considered unrealistic and Carbon Sinks included in the agreement are a big question mark. Scientific study is needed to see how much greenhouse gas is really sucked up in carbon sinks. It is also possible that old growth forest could be cut down in favour of plantations that swallow more gas, and the government could start favouring Genetically Modified (GMO) grains that suck up more carbon dioxide.

    Governments and non governmental organizations are saying Kyoto is a good start. Yet others paint a different picture. Some scientists believe that global warming will bankrupt the world economy within fifty years. Yet the pollution scenario continues because Big-Fossil corporations and oil companies are doing well. They are profiting as they expand operations to the Arctic and many other sensitive environments.

   According to Tooker, Kyoto is like using a cup of water to put out a huge fire. He favours targeting large corporations like ESSO with protest and boycotts, as they are instrumental in getting governments to embrace bad climate policies. Some others at the meeting felt that attitudes have to change – people have to stop worshipping cars and air conditioners, etc.

   Currently our tax system subsidizes the old fossil fuels and fossil corporations, but not sustainable green energy.
   Though the public, NGOs and protest groups want change, no one really addresses the democracy issue. Corporations have too much power in the system … and that is because all candidates get funded by corporations. When the race gets underway for a new liberal leader each candidate will need a million or two in corporate donations. Meaning they are bought before they even get started. And that's only the federal level. At the provincial level 400 corporate bigwigs own the Harris government and control policy.

   The Kyoto solution will almost certainly be no solution. We are going to burn in climate change hell. Though there is a tiny rainbow because by then our brains will be rotted with GMO junk foods and we likely won't be able feel pain or anything else.

   If we do suddenly clean up our act on greenhouse gases that still won't save us. With the government heavily funding genetic engineering technologies like gene therapy and genetically modified foods we haven't much of a chance. Corporations and scientists are playing Russian roulette with the human species, plant and animal species and the entire balance of nature. Their slow moving bullet is coming down the chamber to exterminate us.
   As a species we aren't intelligent enough to make it, so if you want death with dignity think about biting your own bullet before another twenty-five years go by.

   Perhaps it's better to die out anyway – they had planned to keep us alive forever through selling us animal organ transplants and other hideous medical technology. With the vile human race headed into extinction some animal species and marine species will probably live on.

By Gary Morton
--------

They Belong in the Wild– Aug.5.2001
Report on the Niagara Action for Animals MarineLand Protest
By Gary Morton
   The August sun blazes in a blue sky above MarineLand … sometimes heat and the sight of tourist crowds can leave animal lovers at a loss for words.
   Do you know that MarineLand distributes glossy brochures with a cover showing a pretty woman kissing an orca? Perhaps you do, and I bet you also know that our hearts can be broken by people who lie about their love.
   That has happened at MarineLand. The orcas and dolphins are dying and have been dying all along … and it's not just their hearts, their spirits have also been broken by the lies, cruel training and mistreatment.
   Believe me, it's true. But if you don't trust me then read the signs and maybe you'll believe others.

Signs and Photos: * Clicking photo links will open the photo in a separate browser window.

Five Dead Whales in Two Years
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland1.jpg
March 2000 – Orca Malik Dead
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland2.jpg
June 2nd 2001 – Baby Dolphin Died
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland3.jpg
Natalie's Sign says - Ask MarineLand about their Warehouse?
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland4.jpg
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland4a.jpg

And Here is the Answer
IN MEMORIAM
   Junior was a male Icelandic orca whale who languished in a tiny tank inside a "warehouse" at Marineland for more than four years, cut off from outside air, sunlight and normal companionship. Junior died at Marineland in 1994.
   According to whale expert Erich Hoyt, other orcas who have died there include Kandu II, Kandy, No name and No name.
   Duke, Skipper, Bubbles, Schooner, Sonny, Flipper and Doobie, seven of the original ten dolphins in 1989, are presumed dead. There are no public records indicating their sale or transfer, and Marineland refused recent requests to provide information on their fate.
      Info from Zoocheck
     http://www.zoocheck.com/programs/marine/mland/mem4.shtml

Rob thinks Wild Animals Belong in the Wild
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland5.jpg
and Jennifer agrees
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland6.jpg
Captivity Does kill
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland7.jpg
So Think about Putting Animals in a Tank
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland8.jpg
Because you will be Killing the Whales
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland9.jpg
And in Captivity they lead a Depressing and Lonely life
Often they Die Due to Neglect
http://www.eol.ca/~command/mland10.jpg

   So in the end we know that there isn’t any love at MarineLand. You wouldn't want to go there. It's best to stay away.
   Stay away and believe in freedom, because whales believe in it, too.
--------

Climate Change Caravan Hits Toronto and ESSO– July.30.2001

Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/caravan1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/caravan2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/caravan3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/caravan4.jpg

   The Climate Change Caravan is a group of youth cycling across Canada to educate Canadians on how they can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Their bus rolled into Queen's Park this Monday and some local residents joined them for a free cycle and flyer handout through the downtown streets.
   About 60 cyclists remained when the ride ended with a blockade of a downtown ESSO station. ESSO, the world's largest oil company is a target as it opposes international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and global warming. A key supporter of George Bush, ESSO got the USA out of Kyoto and does nothing to promote any form of green energy. ESSO, Bush and other greenhouse polluters are terrorists turning the planet into a gas oven that will harm or kill nearly everyone that lives in the future.
   Protesters cheered as many motorists voluntarily drove away from ESSO. Passersby and cars stopped at the lights were leafleted as the blockade went on for an hour and a half.
   Public support was strong, the only nasty incidents being some harassment from police that showed in force and a thug that broke a video camera belonging to independent media.
   ESSO remained a scene of chaos as protesters acted on their own, (leafleting, drumming, chanting, holding signs and banners, talking to motorists, blockading). It took police a long time and a few threats of arrests before cars were again able to get into ESSO.

Climate Change Caravan http://www.thebet.ca
call Kelly McGee at 416-960-9202
Stop Esso - http://www.stopesso.com
---------

Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice Protests G8 Violence –July.22.2001
Photos of Toronto Demo
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gdemo1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gdemo2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gdemo3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gdemo4.jpg

   A few hundred mob4glob people hit the Italian Consulate with a demonstration against the G8 violence in Genoa.
   Graphic photos and reports on the police shooting of 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani have outraged and sickened many people. Carlo was shot in the head and backed over by a police jeep, and just left there as riot cops and tear gas smoked by him.
   Toronto protesters drummed and marched in a circle. The street was chalked and the death was represented by a protester playing dead on the road. Chants and drumming became furious – people shouting - From Dudley George to G8, People will Retaliate and This is What Democracy Looks Like, This is what Hypocrisy Looks Like.
   A march ended at the US consulate, Steve Kerr and others spoke and entertainment came from radical cheerleaders.
   Latest reports from Genoa indicate increasing police violence, including many beatings and a raid on independent media as police move to destroy media records of the events.
Genoa Summit News  (young man murdered by police, hundreds injured)  - July.22.2001
- Click here to read a full news digest with photos
--------

Council of Canadians protests GMO Foods –July.22.2000
   The Council of Canadians protested nationwide at Loblaws superstores today in support of Bill C-287.  This federal bill introduced by MP Charles Caccia would bring about the labeling of Genetically Engineered foods.
   GE plants have entered the food supply without evidence of  human and environmental Safety. Mandatory labeling would allow us to avoid eating GE foods if we so choose.  93 percent of Canadians want mandatory labeling, as do a large number of citizens groups.
   GE crops are also disliked by groups opposing control of world agriculture by Transnational Corporations. Such control has led to starvation as other crops and small farmers are squeezed out by corporations seizing land and financial powers.
   Loblaws and members of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors oppose mandatory labeling and support GE foods. They blot out GMO-free labeling on products, which is a key reason for protest there.

Here are three photos of today's Loblaws demo in Toronto.

Protester holds Support Mandatory Labelling Picket Sign
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/c287a.jpg
Peter Skira at work on the picket line
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/c287b.jpg
Council of Canadians Organizer Kim Phillips, and Candace Ptolemy of Freedom for Animals talk to Loblaws security police
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/c287c.jpg

Write, email or call your local MP, urging support for Bill C-287.
* Fax your MP automatically online at: http://www.canadians.org
* Encourage people to sign on to the petition to support this bill, available at: http://www.fishtomato.com
* Distribute leaflets about Bill C-287 - available through mailto:aaronk@isn.net
The text of Bill C-287 is available at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/private/C-287/C-287_1/C-287_cover-E.html
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Psyche Survivor Pride Week Begins – July 14.2001
   Psyche Survivor Pride Week kicked off today with A Rant In Trinity-Bellwoods Park! put on by The Committee To Stop Targeted Policing. This event took the form of a picnic with a skit under the banner and trees. Don Weitz wore a judge's robes while others dressed as police officers and the public laid charges … Anna Willats directed as the Toronto Police were put on trail by the crowd for such things as the deaths of Edmond Yu and Wayne Williams and the brutal treatment of people with and without psychiatric problems.
A couple small photos of the survivor judge and a survivor cop
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/psurviv1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/psurviv2.jpg
Committee To Stop Targeted Policing (416)760-2133
--------

Protest Presentations on GMOs issue – July.15.2001

   Eight GENEaction people did some in store leafleting and public presentations on the GMO labeling issue today. Picking up cereal boxes with labeling Loblaws has covered with markers they scattered among the aisles of the Victoria Park Loblaws superstore to demonstrate these products to the customers.
Photo http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gene1.jpg

   This went on for some time before Loblaws plainclothes shoplifting police figured out what was happening and began evicting people. In the photo below three GENEaction people are being asked to leave by security people that are unware that another member (Larch) is doing a product demonstration a couple aisles away.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gene3.jpg

   GENEaction supports the mandatory labeling of Genetically Modified content in food. A bill on the issue is before the federal government this fall. The Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors supports voluntary labeling standards and currently blots out GMO-free labels with markers. Though Loblaws wants to push its own organic lines to consumers informed on the issue, they want to keep the GMO issue hidden from the rest of the public. Organic food is a specialty line these pro biotech grocers want to profit from while working to expand acceptance of genetically modified foods.

   You can help by asking your MP to support the mandatory labeling bill, and by informing others on genetic modification issues. The regular media spends most of its time with complete misinformation, usually promoting the idea that individual genes control various traits. An example would be a ridiculous article in the New Scientist today called "Divorce is written in the DNA."

   On the food issue they usually push genetically modified foods as an answer to starvation and vitamin deficiencies when the crops actually cause starvation and lack vitamins or contain vitamins that can't be digested. Currently they are looking to create GM coffee beans that would ripen at the same time, and threaten to put 65 million low wage coffee plantation workers on the unemployment lines, where they would starve as they wouldn't have an income to buy food.

   Biotech will also be protested in Toronto next year when the world biotech convention hits here on June 9th.

By Gary Morton
------

Labels on Armageddon - July.13.2001
(News on GMOs and Loblaws Protests)

Photos
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gmo1.jpg

info on upcoming demos below this article

   Not With Our Genes You Don't, a group of protesters from Toronto Action for Social Change and GENEaction ran a second Corporate Hypocrite Picket and flyer evening against Loblaws this July 12th. This time it was at the Bathurst/St Clair store in Toronto … and there will be more actions as listed below. Including a nationwide protest by the Council of Canadians, which I think is July 21rst.

   The issue is Genetically Modified Organisms plus Loblaws' ban on GMO-free labeling on food products in its stores.

   After the first demo last week Geoff Wilson appeared in an Eye Weekly article
( http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_07.12.01/news/labels.html ) on behalf of Loblaws saying that it was the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors that killed GMO-free labeling. Nick Jennery of the CCGD says there's no standard for GMO-free, and no way to evaluate claims.

   Loblaws is the biggest player in the CCGD. This group has a board of directors (all wealthy white males) that appears on the Internet wearing kilts. They hold numerous events and Monsanto and Loblaws are key sponsors. They are also big on biotech as in 1999, CCGD through the Food Biotechnology Network, launched a toll free service (1 877 366 3246 or 1 800 foodbio) for consumers. This service allows consumers to pose questions to a registered health professional relating to biotechnology.
information website www.foodbiotech.org
   The website posts articles with titles like  "Anti-GM forces guilty of "scientific apartheid" and the whole deal is generally a Monsanto-style brainwash put forth as public education.

   Loblaws plans to open its own line of Organic/GMO-free products in special sections of its stores.  A new voluntary labeling standard should be out in the fall, and you can be sure that Loblaws wants its new line to be the most recognized labeling.

   75 percent of shoppers are likely to choose GMO-free products over GM products. Smaller competitors Loblaws knocks out now through refusal to accept their labeling could be forced to beg to sign on to the Loblaws Organic line of products. Plus Loblaws is also positioning itself to battle the large health food giants moving in from the States, and gain control of the Organic market.

   It is not desirable for an outfit like Loblaws that promotes Organic foods as a specialty to be in control. It leads the consumer to accept it as fact that most foods should be genetically modified.

   No GMOs is the best option as genetically modified foods promote world wide starvation and species damage. So far the modified crops go extinct when humans don't manage them – meaning we could all starve at some future time if everything gets GM contaminated. Small farmers and workers lose their jobs with GMOs eating up farms and farmland, and that means they have no money to buy food and shelter. Currently starvation stems from people not having money to buy food.

   Genuine promotion of organic farming, birth control, peace and a world wide guaranteed annual income through the United Nations and other bodies would be the best way to fight poverty, oppression and starvation.

   Ethics in Science must also be brought back quickly. It used to be that in the scientific method you would make moral research choices. In an experiment that called for randomly blasting the genes of a spider into a grasshopper, you would decide not to go ahead on the premise that you might create something dangerous. Like a bug that eats up all the crops or poisons everyone or has some negative effect on the environment that appears unexpectedly like a time bomb at a future date.

   Under corporate funded science the method is the madness and you do go ahead, everyday, with the most dangerous experimentation ever done in the history of science. On the idea that the risk is worth it because a cosmetic company or food giant might somehow profit from a lucky freak randomly created.

   So fight for a GMO labeling law, and that way when the end comes we'll have the approved labels we need to stick on our local Armageddon.

PJ the Cat, July.2001
President's Choice President at Not With Our Genes You Don't
--------
 Upcoming Corporate Hypocrite Pickets at Loblaws

- Sat July 14 -  Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws - Picket Danforth/Victoria Park Loblaws at 10.30 am
- Thurs July 19 -  Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws - Picket  Christie/Dupont Loblaws Thursday, July 19 at 7 pm.
   For more info contact Not With Our Genes You Don't at (416) 248-5519 (ask for Dave)

- Sat July 21rst the Council of Canadians has a nationwide demo planned against Loblaws.
--------
Report on the first Corporate Hypocrite Picket
Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary
http://www.interlog.com/~command/action6.htm
---------
Article from Eye  - eye - 07.12.01
Memories of food labels
http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_07.12.01/news/labels.html
BY KRISTIANA CLEMENS
--------

Shrine Circus Picketed - Sun.July.8.2001
(Shiners' Circus funds Privatized Health Care in the USA)

   Today in Etobicoke, Freedom for Animals protested the Shrine Circus and their cruel use of animals as entertainment. The Shrine Circus is running shows across Canada, and like other circuses they don't inform the public of the dismal life of domination, confinement and violent training their animals endure. Basic needs to roam, exercise and forage are taken from them and cruelty is well documented on web sites like http://www.zoocheck.com/ and http://www.circuses.com/

Photos:
Make a compassionate choice. Say no to the circus.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus1.jpg
   Of course the Shriners disagreed with our picket message, and when they weren't drowning out our megaphone spokesperson with music and barking or calling in the police, they shouted to the crowd that proceeds would go to a Shiners Hospital in the USA.
   So Canadians attending are supporting poor quality privatized health care in the USA.

An Elephant Speaks
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus2.jpg
   We had to know if the Shriners were telling the truth so Dave jumped a back fence and went in to talk to the elephants. The big fellow in the photo says that Shriners are not very honest. They are really a bunch of drinkers and put the money into a general fund that also supports their yearly convention antics. They also aren't nice to elephants as the animals spend most of their time cooped up in transport and breathing heavy doses of smog in endless parking lots. Then of course the hooks are used on them to force them to do tricks.

Circus Animals Dying to Entertain You
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus3.jpg
   And it is true that animals die. Our elephant friend says that in 1994 an elephant named Tyke freaked out and was shot after trying to escape from the Shrine Circus. Tyke broke loose and got several blocks before being shot.
   These animals are stressed, but in spite of that the Shiners put baskets on their backs and use them for kiddie rides at the circus.

    Like the last picket sign photo says, circuses are no fun for animals. And they aren't educational either as they teach kids that animals are toys and not creatures to be respected and treated with proper care.

More photos:
Big Top and a couple Elephants
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus4.jpg
Working the lineup with signs and flyers
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus5.jpg
Signs for the people and cars
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus6.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/circus7.jpg
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Protest at the Canadian Association for Laboratory Animal Science Conference
Photos – July 7.2001

Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary: More Demos Planned
From: TASC <tasc@pop.web.ca>

Photos of GMO Picket at Loblaws courtesy of Gary Morton

Loblaws Calls out the Constabulary

      Heavy Police Presence Marks Peaceful Protest Against GMOs At Loblaws Group Pledges to Picket Bathurst/St. Clair Loblaws Thursday, July 12 at 7 pm, and return to Christie/Dupont Loblaws Thursday, July 19 at 7 pm. Join us!

        Although the issue was focused on Loblaws' refusal to stock its shelves with products marked "GMO-free" (GMO stands for genetically modified organisms), members of Not With My Genes You Don't who picketed the Christie-Dupont Loblaws tonight were happy that the homeless in 14 police division were harassed by at least 10 fewer police officers than on a normal night.

        In what is likely a new community policing plan-sending out between 1 and 1.2 cops per demonstrator-a crowd of leafletters which at times numbered as high as seven was met by a squadron of more than 10 different police officers, who stood in both doorways of Loblaws, and watched the scene from numerous cruisers parked on the street. The police were not allowed to leave until we did, so with a leisurely pace, we handed out flyers for over 90 minutes.

        At the beginning of the demo, sponsored by the Corporate Hypocrite Division of Toronto Action for Social Change,  a Loblaws representative came over to us to make sure we "knew the rules." When we seemed not to understand, he pointed out that stepping a centimetre on to Loblaws property would result in arrest. In a classic case of "if only Loblaws would have ignored us, we would have been ignored by Loblaws customers," this forced us to call out from the sidewalk to grocery shoppers going in, asking whether they were concerned that Loblaws did not provide proper labeling for their products. We also focused on the profit Loblaws makes from poverty during store-sponsored food drives in which the items that are donated to the food bins are bought in the store at retail, not wholesale, prices. What was remarkable was the fact that so many shoppers seemed to have a major beef with Loblaws-either on the issue of GMOs, massive plastic packaging, the grocery chain's support of the Harris regime, or the food drive issue-and yet continued to shop here, when there were independent stores within walking distance.

        As we held aloft picket signs mocking the Presidents Choice brand, and held posters saying "Memories of Mutations--only at Loblaws" and GMO= Greedy Malicious Organization=Loblaws," among others, many customers were curious enough to come over, take a flyer, and read it thoroughly. On three separate occasions, shoppers took dozens of flyers in with them to spread around the store  Many were happy to see us-they had heard in the media reports that Loblaws was refusing to stock any product which had a label reading "GMO-free," and were glad someone was encouraging action on this issue.

        Perhaps the public health and safety ramifications of Loblaws' decision struck a chord with shoppers and with police, many of whom read the flyer and some of whom discussed the issue at length with leafletters. One officer, who seemed well-read on the issue of multinational corporate dominance of the planet,  even confided his personal dislike of Loblaws because a friend of his, an independent grocer, was forced out of business in Etobicoke when Loblaws moved into the neighbourhood and started applying its muscle.

        Until the end of the picket, passersby were startled at the number of police in the area, and kept wondering, as five or six of us walked up and down the length of sidewalk handing out flyers "Where's the demonstration these cops are supposed to be here for?" One enraged woman, upon hearing the history of Loblaws arresting the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus for taking part in similar pickets, went up to a group of officers to give them apiece of her mind.

        When we explained that we could not walk on Loblaws property without being arrested, another woman held her daughter close, thanked us for doing this, and remarked to her child, "See honey, it's true they don't allow peaceful protests to occur in this country without harassment."

        Because Loblaws has refused to bow to the public's concern regarding labeling of GMOs-poll after poll reveals over 90% of Canadians want to know what is in their food-numerous Thursday evening pickets beginning at 7 pm at a variety of Loblaws locations are planned. Who knows, if our numbers grow, and the police continue to respond with greater numbers to the horrid threat of truth being told at Loblaws, we might really take some heat off the homeless in a variety of police divisions for at least a few hours a week.

        For more info. on joining upcoming corporate hypocrite pickets, contact Not With Our Genes You Don't at (416) 248-5519 (ask for Dave) or (416) 651-5800.
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Canada Day Star Wars Action  - July 1.2001
Two Reports and Photos
1. Canada Day or Independence Day by Gary Morton (Canada Day Essay and notes on the Star Wars action)
2. Canada Day at CFB Downsview from TASC (Report on the Protest Action and Canada's military involvement)

Digital Photos - Star Wars Action:

   Today's Canada Day action against Star Wars involved a 2 km peace walk in a rush of wind and bright sunshine. We went to CFB Downsview then on to the Canada Day fair at the park.

    We passed military people on the road to the park and one woman soldier smiled, waved and shouted hello to us. At the fair we stood next to a military display where soldiers in combat gear with a tent and jeeps were dressing kids in war outfits and camouflage greases.

   We put a banner on either side of the tent. Matthew and others handed out flyers on the Star Wars issue and we ended up talking with soldiers. One wanted us to move as he felt the banner would scare off the kids by causing them to equate the military with Star Wars, Darth Vader and evil stuff. He went on to tell us that Canada's role is as a peacekeeper with observers in the Congo, Bosnia, etc.

   Since I grew up in a military town, I'm aware that most Canadian soldiers see Canada as a peacekeeper. It is unfortunate that Canada's policies have abandoned peacekeeping. We tied ourselves to the New World Order war machine in Iraq/Yugoslavia and are now developing a dangerous space warfare capacity through involvement with President Bush and his Star Wars plan.

   The Homes Not Bombs news release points out that Defence Minister Art Eggleton is a major booster of Star Wars. He has stated that Canada is ready and willing to go to war even if it violates international law. So our soldiers want peace when we've in fact gone a long way from it.

   On Canada Day this year we have also gone a long way from Canada. There really should be a Canada Day award for the most American Canadian. As well as Star Wars, we have Mike Harris calling for a Niagara Free Trade Zone and an advisor to the Prime Minister calling for the dismantling of the border with the US and the elimination of Canadian sovereignty through adoption of the American dollar.

   Environment Minister David Anderson wants a NAFTA deal for disposing of hazardous wastes, which would mean our environmental policies would be set by Bush in the USA. And U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, agrees. He is calling for a NAFTA-plus relationship to harmonize border controls, law enforcement, energy, environmental and immigration policies.

   This absolute abandonment of the Canadian people, our beliefs, democracy and culture is so bold that it has shocked right-wing fanatics from the Fraser Institute. They feel we should sell out softly, and that our neo-liberal government is going to provoke a backlash by making the Canadian people aware of what is going on.

   July 4 is Independence Day in the USA so I suppose that by next year our government will be proposing harmonizing Canada Day with the US holiday to create a new Canada Independence Day that will celebrate our takeover by transnational corporations and George Bush.

   Since nothing is really taught at the Canada Day fairs, it would be easy to do. Chretien could replace our flag with the harmonized American version and feed the people with the same junk hotdogs, popcorn and silly games.

   The real question is whether we as Canadians will allow it. We could rise in revolution and create genuine independence and a Canada without Star Wars, Nike and George Bush.
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Canada Day at CFB Downsview
(a report from Toronto Action for Social Change)

   Despite gale-force winds that started out the day, a hardy band of 15 souls paraded with banners and placards along the Sheppard Ave. West boundary of Canadian Forces Base Downsview in a protest against Canadian participation in Star Wars July 1.

        The clear messages-"Canada: Get Out of Star Wars" and "Homes not Bombs" in brightly coloured banners-visited the guard booth at DCIEM—one of five War Research and Development Canada branches currently working on better and more economical ways of killing people.

        The group then walked on to the base and began flyering visitors to the Canada Day Celebrations. Most of "security" was provided by air and sea cadets, a form of child soldiers which Canada has yet to acknowledge violates its commitment to a convention prohibiting child soldiers. Our
group from Toronto Action for Social Change was pleased to provide Canada Day Peace Quizzes which allowed the children to test their skills when it comes to the truth about Canada and space warfare.

        After wondering where, exactly, to set up shop and hand out their 500 flyers, the answer came quite suddenly near the main entrance to the festivities. Under the orange banner "Soldier For a Day," there was the Canadian Armed Forces dressing up babies and really small youngsters in full army gear-the olive drab outfits and camouflage facepaint. The kids could get their face painted and have a picture taken between two grown-up, fully camouflaged Canadian soldiers, for all of three bucks.

        Figuring this is where we were meant to be, we set up our banners and began flyering with our peace quizzes on Canada and space warfare. Responses ranged from slight interest and some really positive responses from those who did not know Canada was involved in Star Wars to those who told us we were essentially a bunch of copulating posterior exit tunnels (to put it delicately). As a half dozen members of Metro police looked on from their strategically positioned command post next door to the armed forces tent, we stood for a few hours completing our task, engaging passersby. The police seemed uninterested in responding to Canada Day organizers' attempts to have us removed.

        The protest took place a shy two days after the Canadian Forces launched a massive new recruiting drive. $15 million that could be going to affordable housing to ease the homelessness crisis in this country has instead been earmarked for a year-long propaganda campaign of 60 and 90 second military recruitment ads aimed at kids that will air in Cineplex Odeon and Famous Players and AMC theatres for the rest of the year (another reason to avoid the big box cinemas).

        According to a War Dept. press release, the ad campaign is part of a larger psychological war operation to increase acceptance of killing as a career choice. In addition to a new website-www.forces.ca, "there will be Canadian Forces recruiters at many pubic events across the country this
summer. Visits to schools will be carried out through the school year [and more info] is available by calling (800) 856-8488.

        Since the majority of theatregoers over the summer are kids, you might ask why the military is recruiting child soldiers. It's a free call.

        Anyone interested in presenting the ugly side of war which such recruiting events are likely to ignore should contact Homes not Bombs, which will only be too delighted to remind folks that beneath the fuzzy images of soldiers handing out blankets, there is, as former Canadian General Lewis Mackenzie reminds us, only one purpose for having soldiers:
        In the Globe and Mail, he wrote: "As much as Canadians would like to ignore the fact, the role of a soldier is to kill as efficiently as possible with the resources available once he is ordered to do so by his government. There are many sidelines to his profession that make us all feel warm and fuzzy...But they are all subordinate to one overriding responsibility, and that is to kill on demand."

        One of the soldiers present today, who refused to take the peace quiz, was asked how he felt about bombing hospitals, bridges, daycares, apartment buildings, and other civilian infrastructure in Iraq and Yugoslavia. He replied, " Damned proud.  I was there both times, and I'd do it again if I had to."

RSVP: Toronto Action for Social Change and Homes not Bombs Toronto (416)
651-5800 or tasc@web.ca
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BioDevastation - Protests over the BIO 2001 International Convention– June.2001
photos/reports from San Diego and Toronto

* Organizing begins a year in advance against next year's world biotechnology conference.  BIO 2002 will run from June 9 to 13 in Toronto, Canada.

  SAN DIEGO, June 24 - Massive Banner Delivers Biotech Protest Message
  In front of the Convention Center where the Biotechnology Industry Organization is meeting, activists sail a giant 1500 square-foot banner on several large weather balloons. The banner is being flown like a kite by several organizers from Biojustice and the Ruckus Society.
   1,500 protesters, some dressed as ears of corn and genetically engineered tomatoes, staged a colorful and peaceful protest Sunday on the opening day of the BIO 2001 International Convention in San Diego.
   Demonstrators are concerned that businesses are introducing genetically modified crops and seeds into the food supply without knowing the long-term consequences.
   ''The biotech industry is conducting a real-time experiment with our biosphere,'' said 26-year-old Shannon Service of Boulder, Colo., who was dressed as a monarch butterfly. ''They don't know
 the results, they can't possibly know the results. The monarch butterfly represents that well.''
   Research has suggested that pollen from genetically engineered corn can be toxic to the butterflies, whose favorite food, milkweed, grows in and around corn fields. The altered corn produces its own pesticide to kill an insect pest.
   Police ''drummed up a tremendous amount of paranoia and hysteria,'' said Han Shan, spokesman for the Ruckus Society. ''The whole downtown of San Diego has been militarized,'' Shan said. ''There are a lot of people out here who feel we're being criminalized for simply expressing concern with biotechnology.''
http://www.biodev.org

Toronto BioJustice 2001 Demonstration

   As the giant gene corporations gathered in San Diego June 24th, citizens opposed to their unethical practices rallied outside the convention centre and at other locations around the world.
   In Toronto Freedom for Animals and GeneACTION  sponsored a protest/information picket at Queen's Park, home of the Ontario Government.
   The City of Toronto and the Ontario Government are supporters without ethics of out-of-control genetics and both want to draw more large scale biotech research here.  Premier Mike Harris paid 50,000 dollars to place Ontario in a sponsor's seat of privilege in San Diego. His government advertised Ontario like a corporation with a flying web banner at the official Biotech Industry web site. Ontario was also listed beside Monsanto in the sponsors list and had a huge ads at the convention centre.
   Few citizens are aware that the City of Toronto has signed on as a member of the Biotech Industry Organization and is paying large sums of tax dollars in dues to this corporate organization.
   Freedom for Animals has been protesting dangerous animal to human organ transplant trials soon to be underway here in Toronto.
   See The Skewed Ethics of Animal to Human Organ Transplants - http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/cat.htm#skew
   Other groups like GENEaction are worried about the redesigning of nature for profit. The biotech industry is busy genetically engineering fish, insects, animals and trees based on the profit motive and with no idea of the long-term consequences.
   Genetically modified crops are not tested for health hazards, they kill off insect, animal and plant life and contaminate the rest of the food supply. In farming, genetically engineered crops have handed control of the industry and seed supply to giant corporations like Monsanto while the incomes of farmers have dropped dramatically. In much of the world, biodiversity and the balance of nature is threatened as GMO crops replace many smaller plant species that locals rely on for their needs and income.
   International pharmaceutical companies are channeling research funds toward expensive genetic approaches to health and disease at the expense of more fundamental medical and health needs. There are also the frightening possibilities that come with super weeds, invincible bugs and bacteria, genetically altered animals, factory farming, etc.

   Toronto photos
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/bio1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/bio2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/bio3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/bio4.jpg
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Swedish Police Violence Protested in Toronto – Thurs.June.21
   A protest took place at the Swedish Trade Office in Toronto today. The issue being  the police attack on protesters at the EU meeting in Gothenburg Sweden. Three people were shot by the police in Sweden where demonstrators were opposing the idea of Fortress Europe, neo-liberalism and the presence of George Bush and his scrapping of Kyoto and selling of the new Star Wars Militarization of Space Plan (NMD).
Toronto Photos:
Protester chalks out body mark
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gothen1.jpg
And lies shot on the pavement
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/gothen2.jpg
   The Toronto protest was an information picket. People signed a petition, spoke through a horn and handed info to passersby.
   Info on Swedish Police Violence – In Sweden police targeted a high school that was legally being used as an organising centre for the protests. Hundreds of protesters were trapped inside and many arrested.
   The next morning 5,000 people attempted to march to the European leaders' summit, which was sealed off behind giant steel walls. Police halted the march with a barricade and started batoning people. Among the first victims was Knut Jensen, convenor of the print workers' union at one of Norway's main newspapers. He fell with blood pouring from his head.
   After the baton assault a snarling pack of police dogs and their handlers appeared. They tore into the march and dozens of protesters needed treatment for bite wounds. Seconds later baton-wielding mounted police charged into the rear of the demonstration. Only after these assaults did some protesters start throwing stones. Some went on to vent their rage at shops along the city's main street, mainly hitting symbols of the global system like McDonald's.
   The Shooting - People were dancing, enjoying themselves. Then the police started charging. As police kept charging, some people started fighting back, throwing stones. The police then fired leaving a young man on the ground.
   Three people were shot by police in the square and the next morning some 30,000 people joined an already planned demonstration. Some of them accepted the entirely false government claims that the police acted in self defence.
   Others condemned the police, but also accepted media tales of violent protesters. Many others understood that the police alone were responsible for the violence.
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Queer Alternatives to the Gay Pride Parade – June.2001
   There were Anti Capitalists at the Toronto Pride March, but that didn't change the nature of it. This sucker is a corporate extravaganza that has little to do with gay rights and more to do with corporations using gays as entertainers or a circus to advertise their products. Corporate logos festoon the floats, and when the first drag queen came out in a wedding dress for a photo op he flipped up a plaque with info on his corporate sponsor.
   I didn't get any photos as I was chased off the road by marshals for not having a pink media pass. Moving along was terrible as the entire street was blocked off by metal barricades. Organizers said there were a million people, and in the heat it felt like they were standing on top of me.
   In contrast the Dyke March a day earlier had no corporate sponsors, the streets were open, anyone could join in and take photos, etc. It was like a dance party that moved down the street, and the event that folks should attend if they don't like the Corporate Pride March. Perhaps the Anti Capitalists should work on it and forget about saving Pride. It can't be saved.
   Another better event on Sat and Sun was the Queer by Nature gathering in Grange Park. They had a solar powered stage and lots of local entertainment, musicians and poets in a green environment. It was done as an alternative to Corporate Pride. People should look to doing more of that sort of thing.

http://www.queerbynature.org
Photo of solar powered stage.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/qn1.jpg
Photo of solar panel
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/qn2.jpg

Digital Photos - June 23 Toronto Dyke March
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem4.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem5.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem6.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem7.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/dykem8.jpg
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Notes & Photos on the June 16-17 Festival of Life and Nonviolent Resistance to the Hamilton War Show
June 16.17.2001
Photos:
Juggler
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars1.jpg
Celebrate Life
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars2.jpg
Puppet
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars3.jpg
Clown
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars4.jpg
Fly a kite
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars5.jpg
Food not Bombs Troops
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars6.jpg
Grannies and Puppet
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars7.jpg
Thou Shalt not Kill
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars9.jpg
People Forming Circle
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars10.jpg
Food not Bombs Troops
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/hwars11.jpg
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   Here are a few notes - The Fathers Day Coalition for Peace in conjunction with Homes not Bombs Ontario, stages a yearly protest against the air show in Hamilton.
   The air show or war show is one of the largest displays of military warplanes in North America and little more than a trade show (publicly-subsidized) for the U.S. Military-industrial complex.
   For the children the war show has Kiddie Commando, which dresses up 3- and 4-year-olds in camouflage and war paint, and runs them through a military obstacle course as real soldiers shoot water pistols at them.

   Though this is a two-day demonstration, the local paper and TV station won't cover it. They are war show sponsors. The city is also involved, granting  700,000 dollars in subsidies to the show since the mid nineties, and that is really money being taken from social programs

   Media attention at the demo comes mainly from police as they videotape everything … so if you want to be a movie star but haven't been able to make it, this is the place to be.

   One scene the police shot today was me walking across the street toward the camera. A person assisted me in cutting a banner down with a thumbnail knife, which caused the police to announce that the tiny knife was a dangerous weapon. And these are the same cops who earlier said that war planes are not really weapons.

   Near the end we all gathered in a circle and held hands. The police smirked and laughed, thinking that to be hilarious. But aside from the police, this was a colorful demo with creative banners, puppets and costumes. The nicest touch came from the Food not Bombs soldiers marching up and down the road and saluting. Their uniforms with helmets made of melons and bullet belts of peanuts gave them that special look of authority. These soldiers know that peace is organic, and want to get in touch with the green earth

   We can scrap the loud bombers and their violent pollution.

   Homes not Bombs will be staging an anti-Star Wars demo November 9 at the DREO facility in
Ottawa. This will be in conjunction with protests against the WTO meeting in Qatar.
contact:
hasc@tao.ca
tasc@web.net
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Protest Photos – Kimy Pernia Domico - June 15th
   There was a protest and march to the Columbian Consulate in Toronto yesterday evening. It was on behalf of kidnapped Columbian Indigenous leader Kimi Pernia Domico.
   It is believed that he was kidnapped by paramilitary forces backed by the Columbian military and business interests.
   Protesters chanted against plan Columbia and Free Trade with chants like He was taken alive, we want him back alive and Free Kimy not Free Trade.

Here are some digital photos anyone can use.
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kimi1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kimi2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kimi3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kimi4.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kimi5.jpg
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June.15th in Toronto – Economic Disruption Meeting
Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/j151.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/j152.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/j153.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/j154.jpg

* June 15th 2001 is the anniversary of the June 15 Harris Can Be Stopped March that ended in a battle between police, homeless people and poverty activists at Queen's Park Toronto.

   Late last night I was standing on the corner talking to a couple people.

   I've got a warrant out for my arrest said one friend ... that's because I failed to appear for a court date over the June 15th.charges.

   It's a good thing he didn't say that too loudly because a police car had pulled up to the curb behind him and the officers were glancing around.

   We got to discussing what happened on June 15th this year, and the 2nd friend said that he had been at Ryerson as a delegate earlier in the day with others from community organizations, first nations, students, and labour unions to discuss tactics and strategies for province-wide economic disruption this fall.

   There wasn't any discussion of what happened at that Ryerson meeting. Instead I went on with a personal impression of June 15 this year.

   Since I live around the corner I walked over to Central Technical School where the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty province-wide meeting was to happen. The school is huge with large grounds and on arriving on the back street I encountered an army of police. Uniforms, horsebacks, riot cops and undercover guys in white golf shirts and jeans had flooded the grounds. There must have been hundreds of them and I walked through toward a few people holding an OCAP Sun Splash flag on the far side.

   At that point I noticed school trustee Kathleen Wynne. She used to be the main speaker at Citizens for Local Democracy meetings back in '97 when thousands of citizens met weekly to oppose transforming Toronto into a megacity. In 2001 she appears to be using a cell phone and aiding the police army in fending off OCAP. She is also a liberal now and is pissing people off with her veiled support for public funding of private schools – another issue drawing protest in Ontario.

   The OCAP people told me the meeting had been moved up to Christie Park so I walked around. At the front I noticed a frightening police army on the steps and everywhere else. It looked like the police academy. And off from the army was the track field, surrounded by a 7 foot high fence. Apparently some of the trustees like Kathleen Wynne had wanted officials to allow the OCAP meeting to take place there, where we would have been trapped and possibly crushed if the riot cops advanced.

   That was a no go. Christie is a large park and as it happened I bumped into my affinity group from Quebec and walked up there. Hundreds gathered in the open air and the meeting went on with talks at the mike from various forces involved in the economic disruption plans. There was a fair bit of drumming and excitement. A small army of cops and intelligence agents gathered to stare us down. They arrested a guy wearing a surgical mask and later grabbed OCAP leader Sue Collis at the subway station, falsely claiming that she had violated bail conditions by appearing.

   The Dote Poet's society did some rousing numbers. It all went well, but not like it was portrayed in the Canadian media. CP made it sound like there were only a few cops and they were playing soccer with the protesters. Sun media on a different tack, decided that the meeting had been killed because police had swept up OCAP organizer John Clarke earlier.

    Facts are that there was a huge and sinister police presence, and David McNally took over for Clarke. We were far from leaderless – nearly all of the participating groups and activists could be called leaders of a sort.

   I walked around a lot and was one of the last to leave. We were getting to be surrounded by cops so we went off down the street to a Korean restaurant and sat in there talking till it closed up.

   We discussed the economic disruption thing and I said that some of less radical groups in the protest movement were turned off by the trashing of politician Joe Flaherty's office. That was earlier in the week when OCAP folks showed up and evicted him, to show the Tories how it feels to be cast out.

   Some ordinary people like the trashing of Flaherty's office. They've been victimized by Harris' policies and want revenge. Personally I remember a single mother weeping as she called a while ago, trying to figure out how to fight her own economic eviction.

   Mostly our little group in the restaurant would be identified as people who cross boundaries, participating with peaceful groups, green and animal rights groups and direct action groups. We're not necessarily worried about poor old Flaherty, but wish some poverty activists would be more supportive of things like stopping smog and building a green city.

   Think of how great it would be for the homeless if we had green, smog free, car free streets downtown.

   On economic disruption, Tooker came up with an example of a little economic disruption he did, that was creative and didn't lead to his arrest.

   Tooker doesn't like genetically modified food, so he went down to Loblaws and went shopping, stacking his cart with things to do with corn. At the checkout he let the stuff get ringed up then asked the cashier – By the way, these products don't have anything mutated or modified genetically in them, do they?

   Then when she couldn't answer that properly he said – Let me speak to the manager. And of course the manager came out and got hassled and Tooker refused to pay.

   If a number of people did that they could shut down Loblaws, economically disrupting them while also getting the point across on GMOs. And now that Loblaws is using markers to blot out labels that actually list GMO content, you could hold up that box and say – something has been marked off here. You're hiding something! I demand to know what's in this product! It may be bad for my childrens' health!

   So as you see, economic disruption doesn't have to mean jail and bail and the inability to travel that comes with a police record. You can get creative and do it in ways where they can't charge you. More of us should do that.
…..

Note - OCAP members John Clarke and Gian Mura, along with Ewin Gibb of the CAW, will appear in court in Oshawa this Monday morning.
Sean-Lee Popham appears in Oshawa on Thursday morning, June 21st.
Sue Collis' bail hearing has been put over until Monday morning June 18, when she will appear at College Park at 10 am, Courtroom 501.

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
416-925-6939
ocap@tao.ca
http://www.ocap.ca
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OCAP'S Picnic and Condo Disruption
(Ontario Coalition Against Poverty at Allan Gardens June.9.2001)
Photos:
Going down the road
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag1.jpg
Inside Noble Star Condo Sales
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag2.jpg
At Radio City
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag3.jpg
Inside Radio City Condo Sales Office
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag4.jpg
Fight to Win Banner
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag5.jpg
Strange Characters
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag6.jpg
Undercover Cops Study Faces at Picnic
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/ocapag7.jpg

   OCAP held a picnic for the homeless today and later decided to do a surprise march and economic disruption action … the sort of event that will happen across Ontario in the Fall.

   At the picnic John Clarke and Shawn Brant spoke on the bad situation for the poor and homeless in Toronto. John said the local community centre has been shut for the last five weeks, the homeless shelter at the empty Princess Margaret Hospital has been closed, the Street City shelter is set to close in the fall and another homeless person just died on the street.

   At the same time local property is being converted to condos that poor and low income people can't afford. Rents are also high – almost as costly as buying a condo.

   Marching thru the park, people took over the road and chanted … and the first destination wasn't all that far. It was Noble Star Condo Sales – one of those cheap sales trailers you see everywhere in the city.

   The inside was spacious and had nice couches. There was a model of the condo development and a skylight allowing sunlight to highlight it. Some people felt it would make fine housing for some homeless people.

   Once the chanting died down Shawn Brant addressed the crowd on the housing and welfare cuts issue. He said there is a visibly bad situation in the city, and out of the city on native lands as many as 15 or 16 people must often live together in the same small house.

   Noble Star's sales lady went so far as to interject from the back while Shawn Brant was speaking. She claimed that even homeless people can afford condos. And perhaps we should take her up on the offer.

   Leaving Noble Star the march continued over to the old CBC headquarters where the rusted tower rises above Radio City – another condo sales outfit with a huge trailer and model.

   Radio City became a different story altogether. People chanted and drummed on the walls and walk outside while others went in and were confronted by a salesman and his assistant. These chaps did not want to sell us condos, but saw us as a group of unglamorous outcasts. They got in scuffles with people and the guy in charge ran around in a state of general hysteria that became amplified when he discovered that people would fight back and not be bullied out. At one point he was screaming, "We're under attack! Call the police! Call the fire department!"

   When we finally did leave I noticed Henry using graffiti in an educational manner on the wall. He notes that "Radio City was promised for 100 units of Social Housing. So where are They?"

   Probably the guy at Radio City didn't care. He was wondering where the police were … and we were on our way back to the park by the time they came racing around the corner.

   Police used to send a lot of uniforms to all OCAP events. This time they sent two spotters in civilian clothes. Their photo is listed above. Apparently they study all of the faces, document who is present and do identification if police want to make arrests after the event.

   This is to protect condo people that might be under protest attack. But what about the homeless, the poor, tenants? We are under attack every day in Mike Harris' Ontario for the wealthy. We can't call the police or the fire department … and there aren't any undercover people at large, spotting affordable housing for us.

Report by Gary Morton
Links
The OCAP Web Site is
http:// http://www.OCAP.ca/
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Public Rallies Against Harris' Funding of Private Schools – June.2001

http://frightlibrary.org/pic/edu1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/edu2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/edu3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/edu4.jpg

   There was a strong turnout Thursday for a rally against Mike Harris' education tax credit for private schools.

   Many speakers addressed the crowd … beginning with Irene Atkinson. Irene noted that an earlier incarnation of the Tories under Frank Miller went down in flames over the funding of Catholic schools.

   All of the speakers shared Atkinson's belief that the Harris tax credit is taking money out of a weakened public education system, where kids are losing things like libraries and music classes. Major protestant churches such as the United Church have also come on board to oppose funding private schools.

    Money for public education benefits everyone and Kathleen Braithwaite of the Organization of Parents for Black Children called it the delivery of inclusive schooling.

     NDP leader Howard Hampton said that pubic education is being underfunded, undervalued and undercut by a government that doesn't share our commitment for public education. Underfund, undervalue, undercut and then privatize, that's the agenda.

   The Tories are to hold 8 days of hearings in 5 communities and speakers at the rally called for 80 days of public hearings, which is what the Tories wanted on the same issue back when they were in opposition.

   Of course the Tories are in power now and a speaker from the Canadian Federation of Students asked the crowd, "What next?" Meaning will there ever be an end to the destructive policies coming out of Queen's Park?

   My own conclusion is that there won't be an end to the policies until there is an end to the government. In the absence of a workers revolution, modern times and politicians like Harris get the strongest opposition from people undergoing a long personal revolution. And out of the daily opposition the ideas for building a better society arise or are kept alive

   On the education issue a key point is that Harris is working to encourage parents not to fight for education. His policy is to teach parents that if the local public school is deteriorating, then what they must do is take a tax credit and run off with the kids to a private school. In the long run we all learn to run from the issues and not to fight for a better society. Perhaps turning us all into chickens is the ultimate goal of the Tories.

Report by Gary for citizensontheweb.com
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The Skewed Ethics of Animal to Human Organ Transplants
A report on the Toronto Public Forum – Sat.May.26.2001
Report by Gary Morton

Photos
http://interlog.com/~command/xeno2.jpg
http://interlog.com/~command/xeno1.jpg

   The Canadian Public Health Association held a public meeting on Xenotransplantation today in Toronto. A panel of experts - medical, ethical, legal and animals rights - addressed a selected citizen panel of 17 members and a public gallery of ordinary citizens.

   Dr. Gary Levy headed the expert panel. He had numerous arguments in favour of cross species transplants. The only strong opposition to Xeno came from people in the public gallery and animal rights activist Liz White on the panel.

   In an odd twist the panel's expert on ethics said he wouldn't try to sway us in either direction then he concluded by saying that we don't know what don't know. He feels that the public forums are a good first step. In easier words he wants us to go through some weak consultation then forge ahead with animal to human organ transplants.

   My own feeling is that the experts are saying that "because we don't know what we don't know or what in the hell we are doing, we must alter the Charter of Rights and numerous other protective laws in order to facilitate Xeno. Then after we have changed the entire face of law, society, ethics and animals we will have created a new class of citizens that are stigmatized by carrying animal transplants and must live under a regime of illness where nearly all of their rights as citizens have been removed.

    Dr. Gary Levy and the supporters of Xeno believe the "challenge is to bring in legislation so the necessary and drastic impositions on individual rights Xeno requires will survive a charter challenge."

   Lawyer Megan Evans outlined the legal confusion. It involves the law of consent, privacy law, the Charter of Rights, animal rights, jurisdictional questions, food and drug acts and more.

   If you get an organ transplant from a genetically altered pig you must consent to mandatory treatments and to being monitored all of your life. You'll be quarantined if necessary, will give up confidential health information and must bear up against media attention. There will also be restrictions in immigration and mobility law and you won't be allowed to have children.

   Yet under existing law we can withdraw consent at any time. That means they would want you to sign a contract to surrender your rights under section 7 of the Charter of Rights … a contract that would be invalid unless the Charter itself is changed.

   Next up is third party consent meaning that those in close contact with a patient such as family and spouse must consent to being monitored all of their lives.

   The reason for the restrictions is the possibility of PERV Infections. These are viruses that exist in all animal cells and may infect humans and spread to others creating an xenozoonosis epidemic. Meaning we will have introduced diseases from animals into the human chain.

   The experts say the probability is low and they also say they really don't know.

   In spite of the legal hitches and the frightening possibilities we are told that there are five Canadians that have undergone Xenotransplantation of some form. They are at large and under some form of surveillance.

   One woman on the panel said she has received a successful human transplant and calls the restricted rights for animal organs a new Charter of Rights to allow Life. A woman in the audience disagreed. She had a mother who suffered unbearably from a transplant and she describes it as more like a Charter of the Rights to allow people to live in Pain and Misery. That is because transplantation destroys the immune system. The failure rate is high.

   If the public hearings have a purpose, it appears to be to garner societal consent or the consent of the public at large for Xeno and the medical/pharmaceutical industry that hopes to profit from it.

   Liz White of the Animal Alliance says it has little to do with ethics and more to do with attracting research dollars. We are to engage in risky experiments in preference of public health programs. She feels there are many other ways our finite public health dollars could be used to save more lives. There are 16,000 people who die of smog every year. And though it wasn't mentioned, many people lose livers because the same pharmaceutical companies that want to sell drug cocktails for organ transplant acceptance have already fed us the drugs and foods that killed our organs in the first place.

   Dr. Gary Levy likes to say that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that even if we increase Ontario's abysmal record in human organ donations there will never be enough organs for all of those in need.

   Personally I like to say that no matter what we do there will never be enough organs for all of the half dead old geezers who feel they have a right to live on forever in some state of moral and physical ugliness.

   Liz White notes that animal rights will not be protected at all under Xeno. There isn't a public watchdog or any way to know the extent of animal cruelty taking place. Animal care committees in research legally prohibit speaking out publicly. Researchers are reviewed by peer committees and the failure of labs to comply is kept secret.  She believes Health Canada should say No to clinical Xeno trials on humans and redirect public funds away from research defined by illness to research defined by wellness.

   Dave Marshall of Freedom for Animals brought up the issue of incredible animal cruelty with a reading from the public gallery. He notes that Mike Harris gave parent company Novartis 1.5 million to set up here after a connected company, Imutran, got booted out of the UK for animal cruelty.

Here are a few excerpts from that article.
Terrible despair of animals cut up in name of research
http://www.lineone.net/express/00/09/21/news/n1820-d.html

    THE SHOCKING truth behind Britain's most high-profile animal experimentation project is revealed in confidential documents seen by the Daily Express. The secret papers show horrific animal suffering despite claims to the contrary
   The project, carried out by Cambridge-based Imutran, involves transplanting genetically modified pigs' hearts and kidneys into monkeys. Thousands of pigs, monkeys and baboons have been used.
…a baboon which survived for 39 days with a pig heart was suffering in the last days of its life. Its heart had grown in weight by three times.
…one monkey which had a pig heart attached to the blood vessels in its neck was seen holding the transplant which was "swollen red" and "seeping yellow fluid" for most of the last days of its life.
…animals are described as quiet, huddled, shivering, unsteady and in spasm. Some had swellings, bruising or were seen with blood or puss seeping from wounds. Others vomited, or suffered from diarrhea.
… over a quarter of the animals died on the operating table or within a few days because of "technical failures" in the surgical procedures. In one experiment, this  accounted for 62 per cent of lives. In another, 13 out of 22 monkeys died within two days of the operation.
… there have been a number of awful mistakes. One monkey had to be "sacrificed" when researchers discovered the pig kidney it was about to be given had been mistakenly frozen.
... it said that a study of nine baboons who had a pig heart sewn onto their arteries showed that no "transgenic heart underwent hyperacute rejection". But secret data shows the experiment was actually carried out on 22 baboons. The company picked nine out of the ten baboons who had lived longest, probably because they were on different drug regimes. Two of those excluded from the published paper died after suffering a "hyperacute" rejection to the organ.
…on average, a baboon survives only seven days after having its heart replaced by that of a pig. AND it is clear the longest survivors were kept alive with massive doses of drugs.
….monkeys are transported halfway across the globe in tiny cages. In one shipment three animals died - probably from suffocation – in a 35-hour trip from the Philippines. All the animals used for xenotransplantation experiments at HLS die or are killed. It can be a long exit - a research goal is to keep the animals alive as long as possible after transplant.
…a female monkey had to be euthanased the day after she was given a dose of a drug four times higher than recommended. The records note that she was shaking and grinding her teeth….
------

Conclusion:

   Now that we have seen the skewed ethics and cruelty of animal to human organ transplants do we decide to go ahead with Xeno or abandon it?

   The answer is that we probably don't have a choice. We can't make choices any more because transnational pharmaceutical companies and the medical establishment have already made our choices for us. That is really what the public consultations are about. They create a forum to lead us and our government toward decisions they have already made.

   They want to save us and their profit margin and jobs.

   In spite of that we will all die in the final analysis and we will never be able to go back and fix the mistakes we've made … choosing Xeno doesn't have to be another one of those mistakes.

   Life is hard enough when we're healthy and strong. Swallowing animal organs and drug cocktails and being too sick to ever fully live and love is a fate worse than death.

   People that don't care about incredible cruelty to animals aren't going to care about incredible cruelty to people with animal organs inside them.

   So in the end I say let us die and leave the future to the healthy people that deserve to live it.
----------
Contacts:
Canadian Public Health Association
http://www.cpha.ca/
Xeno site
http://www.xeno.cpha.ca
mailto:xeno@cpha.ca
Have your say
http://www.xeno.cpha.ca/english/questionnaire/survey.asp
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Protesters Oppose Animal to Human Transplants - Friday May 25, 2001
(Opposition to XENOTRANSPLANTATION Begins in Toronto)
Photos
http://interlog.com/~command/xeno2.jpg
http://interlog.com/~command/xeno1.jpg

   Protesters wearing pig noses and medical gowns gathered at Toronto General Hospital in Toronto today to initiate opposition to XENOTRANSPLANTATION. After flyers were distributed to the public, they marched to the back of the hospital for a vigil where the experimental pigs are kept.

Xenotransplantation a new Medical Horror Story!

   Xeno is connected with dangerous new experimental work in genetic engineering. It is the transplantation of organs or tissue from one species to another.

   In Xeno animals become enslaved as organ factories. Initial experiments have genetically manipulated pigs with human genes inserted into their DNA.

   The pharmaceutical industry really has no idea what the short and long term consequences will be. Incredible ethical question are involved.

   Do we want to tamper with the human race and animals in such a way?

   Will we be humans or animals or neither?

   Is it progress to again torture and tamper with animals?

   Can such dangerous experimentation ever be justified, especially when the motive is only profit. (Pharmaceutical companies will sell these organs and the drug cocktails to facilitate acceptance at a price only the rich can afford. A Wall Street Investment Firm estimates the worldwide market for transgenic organs could reach $9B within 10 years)

   Why don't we increase donations of human organs and why is this being done in secret? (In April 1998, 12 transgenic pigs arrived secretly at Mirabel airport from Britain. The pigs were engineered with human genes so that their progeny would theoretically make suitable donors to humans in need of organ transplants. The company behind this is Immutran, a British pharmaceutical company, subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis. At the same time, there was an announcement of a $1.5M grant from Novartis to the University of Western Ontario to establish Canada's first Xenotransplantation Chair. Later, a collaboration was announced with the University of Guelph, Western and Toronto.)

   Can the cruelty of the pre-clinical trails ever be justified? (Pre-clinical trials have occurred at Western. Scientists transplanted kidneys from transgenic pigs into baboons to see how long they could survive with the organs of partly human pigs. Human clinical trials would be at University of Toronto through the Toronto General Hospital.

Protest Sponsored by Freedom for Animals and University of Toronto Animal Rights Advocates.
Contact Freedom for Animals
email - free_animals@hotmail.com
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Mike Harris Attacks Public Education– May.18.2001
(EMERGENCY SUMMIT on publicly funded private schools)

* I include a copy of the NDP report back listing upcoming actions at the bottom.

   The provincial New Democratic Party held an emergency summit Thursday to plan actions to block the Harris attack on public education. A number of groups will be battling Harris on this issue and they are forming a coalition that will be holding weekly meetings. (See NDP report at bottom). The Liberals and NDP are together on this as Gerard Kennedy announced that the liberals will be campaigning on the issue in all of their ridings and a Tory riding.

   Mike Harris has disguised his latest broadside against public education as a gift in the form of a big tax credit for parents who send their kids to private schools.

   As one hand gives the other takes away. Right now 85 pools are being closed by the Toronto Board of Education, and Irene Atkinson says the pool closures and numerous other cuts and woes of the public system stem from the fact that the Tories won't provide the money to fund the system. It is a continuing downhill run for public schools and kids that began when Harris brought in a funding formula that crippled schools and caused many to close.

   Most private schools are religious based and currently the media and many in that system are portraying the Harris tax credit as a way of bringing equity to the system. But that is untrue. Beating and robbing Peter to pay Paul is not ethical and it is not equity.

   This is a Harris version of the negative voucher system that exists in parts of the USA. It will suck the remaining lifeblood from the public system and destroy our greatest accomplishment in public education. That accomplishment being the social diversity and peaceful multicultural society that developed in Toronto because most of us attended public school together and equally.

   An ugly vision of a segregated society rises, and for me it comes with a childhood memory of the kids that weren't allowed to play with me because I went to public school and not a private one like them.

   Choice is really limited to those with the money to choose, and people of lower income will be left in a gutted public system. We'll have a society of entrenched bigotry and arrogance and at another level the Harris education policies are denying people a university education. He has cut 400 million from the operating budgets of colleges and universities. 88,000 needed seats in the university system will not be available, plus skyrocketing tuition and housing costs are making higher education unaffordable even to those who are wealthy to a degree.

   As new private universities build another level of class separation, large corporations can celebrate their increasing control over our finest minds, and over most high school students, who are really just receiving training to go straight into a lower wage job ghetto.

   Higher education is disappearing. So where are the ethics and the equity? Supporters of the Harris plans say it is in financial support for private schools. But will this support come without strings attached?

   No it won't and the Harris folks are already talking about regulating private schools. In religious schools the purpose is to teach certain values that can only be maintained through avoidance of state control. Yet the separation between church and state is disappearing in Harris' plan with the state becoming a church of sorts.

   Religious teachers will have to tell their students that God ran out of money so they had to let the wolf, the Tories and their twenty pieces of silver in the door. They will have to say that they are teaching values when at the same time they sold out and have none.

   Perhaps various forms of God, Corporations and Mike Harris will be the Chairman of the Board in our new education system, and there aren't any values in that.

   There is a church on every corner and there are businesses on every block if we want to talk to them about their values. We agreed long ago that education belongs to the public. We need a fully funded public system and not this revolting new form of public/private education that Harris, the media and sellouts want to foist on us.

   It's time for Mike Harris to stop playing God. And if he can't do that then we have to knock Mike Harris God off of the public pedestal.

Gary
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Here is the report back from the NDP
Friday, May 18, 2001

EMERGENCY SUMMIT on publicly funded private schools
Report back

On Thursday, May 17, 2001 NDP Leader Howard Hampton and NDP Education Critic Rosario Marchese hosted an emergency summit to hammer out a plan of action to defeat the Conservatives $3,500 tax credit for private school tuition. The meeting was held in a committee room in Queen’s Park and was a huge success. The room was overflowing with people passionate about public education and willing fight fiercely in order to defeat the tax credit.

The panel included: Irene Atkinson, Toronto District School Board; Cathy Dandy, Toronto Parent Network; Erin George, Canadian Federation of Students; Gerri Gershon, Ontario Public School Boards Association; Howard Kaplan, Morris Winchevsky Community School; Gerard Kennedy, Liberal Education Critic; Student trustee Dane Liu, Toronto District School Board; Earl Manners, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation; Emily Noble, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario; Brian O’Keefe, Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The meeting agreed to the following plan of action:
- form a coalition to defend public education and defeat the tax credit
- demand public hearings on the government’s tax credit bill
- wage a letter-writing, petition and lobbying campaign
- hold an action every Thursday to escalate the fight

Key dates:
Tuesday, May 22nd     Rosario Marchese in London for a public education meeting
Thursday, May 24th Second public education coalition meeting in Toronto at 7 p.m.,
25 Cecil St., Steelworkers Hall.
    Rosario Marchese in Guelph for a public education meeting
May 28th to 30th  The private school tax credit bill to be debated in the Legislature
Thursday, May 31st Vigil for public education at 6 p.m. at Queen’s Park on the day that the Conservatives will decide on whether to hold public hearings. If we don’t get hearings, the tax credit could become law on June 4th!

Here are some of the ways you can participate in this exciting campaign:
- attend one of the public meetings already organized or plan your own
- write a letter to your MPP, print off a petition or sign an online petition, and link to our partners by going to www.ontariondp.on.ca
- come to Queen’s Park on May 28th, 29th and 30th between 6:45 and 9:30 for debate of the tax credit bill. Filling the public galleries will put more pressure on the Conservative government members

For more information and to get involved email emergencysummit@ndp.on.ca
call (416) 325-8300 or go to www.ontariondp.on.ca
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Photos/Report on The Million Marijuana March Toronto - May.5.2001
By Gary Morton

* Here's a report and photos that anyone can use.
A Joint in Front of Me
Drummers
The March
It's Legal
Cop Watches Smoke Break
Pot Smokin' Wheel Chair Folks
More Pot Smokin' Wheel Chair Folks
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Report:
The Reason
   This is a young crowd smoking pot right in front of the police, and as a writer I need to know why they are here.
   "So why are you here, David?"
   "Look at it from your perspective. Why are you here asking me that?"
   "Now that you mention it, I can't remember why I'm here or who I'm taking photos for."

The Issue
   The crowd chants - What do we Want? Legalized Marijuana! When do we Want It? Now!

   "And let me reply that this is an important medical and moral issue. Though I can't remember why marijuana should be legalized. More importantly, I can't think of any reason for it being illegal."
   "Yes, that is correct. In the absence of a compelling reason for illegality, weed must therefore be declared legal."

Smoke Break
   The march to the pretty green park up behind the Harris Hotel is punctuated by smoke breaks. Which irritate the cops who want to keep everyone moving. But people blow smoke and bubbles at them and refuse to move until they are ready.

In the Park
   In the park people surround a raised horse statue on a mound and sit there drumming and smoking.
   There were 7 to 10 thousand people in the march a media guy says. 5000 at least.
   We forgot the sound system so there'll be no speeches, another guy says.
   Want the rest of this? a kid says.
   Then a man with long gray hair begins a rant. "Next year I want to see more gray hair in this crowd! We live in the freest country in the world and these people are afraid to come out! We're proud! We're High! We're Here! ….

   And some people are probably still there drumming and smoking.
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War Toys Protest at Kids Candy Store- April 14.2001
* Click for a small photo of one of the protesters

   Popular Toronto candy store Sugar Sugar (515 St. Clair Ave. West) has devoted a section of its business to the sale of war toys. This drew an anti-war Easter Bunny and a collection of Bunny helpers from Toronto Action for Social Change there today.

   Today's information picket involved talking to the public and handing out flyers while parents and very young children came and went from the store.

   At issue is the window display of Sugar Sugar which features Warhammer, with a medieval knight holding a sword threateningly above his head while at his feet dozens of toy soldiers prepare to engage in slaughter.

   Warhammer advertises itself as a game where "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war! Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for there is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods."

   Facts from the anti-War Easter bunny are that 3,000 documented studies over the past forty years have confirmed a direct correlation between exposure to violent games and consequent violence and desensitization to violence among children and young adults. TASC believes Sugar Sugar could sell a variety of cooperative games which teach children the value of building community rather than creating
carnage.

   Many people believe that war toys and games don't lead to violence, but the growing movement right now is one that favours rooting concepts of non violence and peace at home and in the local community. Proper nurture can overcome violent human nature.

   Apparently Sugar Sugar also bills itself as a nutrient-free zone that sells only junk candy and ice cream.

   Toronto Action for Social Change and Homes not Bombs have also been protesting small arms sales by Diemaco in Canada. Small arms are creating terrible carnage world wide. In Africa hundreds of thousands of refugees are being driven between nations and slaughtered by various forces that use small arms. Another protest against Diemaco takes place Sunday, May 13. Meet at Fairview Mall at noon (in front of the Bay, at the bus stop near Wilson Ave. entrance) for a walk to weaponsmaker Diemaco. The protest includes a picnic there.

info from Toronto Action for Social Change
416) 651-5800; tasc@web.ca
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Notes on -- IT DIDN'T BEGIN IN SEATTLE & It Won't End In Quebec.
by Gary Morton April.8.2001

   Jaggi Singh of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) engaged an audience at the OISE Auditorium today … and during his talk criticized the auditorium setup, saying that Solidarity Sundays were originally intended as events where people meet in a circle.

   Known by police in Quebec as a dangerous radical, Jaggi drew another cloud over himself by revealing his split personality. He first took the stage as John Singer, a proud Canadian business man and member of the liberal party.

   Singer gave a fine intro on how the FTAA would promote democracy and create prosperity. Noting among other things, that the text of FTAA would now be released. He then challenged the audience to prove to him that the FTAA is a bad deal.

   People took to the mike with blasts against the FTAA, and John Singer adeptly sluffed all of them off, presenting clever arguments that always shifted the blame for social ills away from Free Trade and the FTAA.

   Once Singer was through, Jaggi Singh spoke on the issue, informing us that Singer demonstrates how the Canadian government can co-op all of the arguments for democracy and social good we come up with.

   He thinks we need a radical break … a whole new train of debate … some real alternative arguments against the FTAA.

   CLAC works to make the link between the alphabet soup of the FTAA and capitalism. And the root of the FTAA is another large attempt by global capitalists to exploit labour, sell off culture, etc.

   As the FTAA is something that shouldn't be done, CLAC sees no room for debate. All that is happening through debate with NGOs is that social policies are being co-opted as tools to strengthen capitalism. So much so that non Governmental Organizations and politicians now have identical language.

   NGOs might want to add labour standards to deals, and global corporations aren't afraid of standards because they are very low and easy to live up to … and in many nations, financially starved local business can't compete.

   Jaggi quoted a person (didn't catch the name) who said that the anti-globalization movement is becoming a sort of white rights movement. We are losing more and more of our very weak form of democracy and losing our social services – so we are trying to get into deals like the FTAA with clauses to save ourselves. And that sort of action doesn't address the big picture or the real problems.

   CLAC feels it is important to affirm our values of genuine solidarity and get beyond the debate of violence versus non violence. This violence debate is promoted by government and the police as they attempt to justify police state actions by claiming many protesters are terrorists. And the debate runs deep into the movement – I know because a report came back to me recently from a person returning from the home of one of the top political stars of the NDP party. That particular NDP guy delivered a long tirade on how he hates Jaggi Singh and how he's bringing violence into the movement.

   In person Jaggi does not appear violent at all and he says that the real violence is Structural Violence created through these agreements. Policies like those of drug deprivation and the displacement of indigenous people are the real violence.

   As for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec – Jaggi says that all of the elements are in place for the police to act in a brutal way.
------------------

Tooker Gomberg, Erin George – FTAA discussion at the Green Budget Veggie Dinner
By Gary Morton April.8.2001

   After the dinner, a scruffy lot of us pushed the tables aside and created a large circle with the chairs.

   Tooker facilitated, John Small filmed the discussion for Independent Media, we went around the circle for introductions … and this news article is the minutes.

   Erin George of the Canadian Federation of Students delivered the key speech, to bring about discussion on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

   Capsule of Erin's talk – The FTAA has been negotiated in secret since 1994. This deal covers the entire Western Hemisphere, except for Cuba … that is 800 million people and a combined economy of 11 trillion dollars.

   Leaders of the 34 participating nations hope to forge ahead at the Quebec Summit of the Americas and get it implemented by 2003 or 2005.

   FTAA has little to do with trade, but is more of a corporate bill of rights, combining the most ambitious elements of every other trade agreement. (MAI, NAFTA, etc.)

   In this bill of corporate rights profit reigns and economic, social, land, education and even subsistence rights are tossed out.

   It is a profit before people deal and it effects everything that is important in our everyday lives. There is no focus on protecting the public good, but there is a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.

   In Toronto we are experiencing a similar effect to the FTAA through the downloading done by the federal and provincial governments. New priorities are police and the security of the wealthy, while labour standards are eroding.

   Corporations are allowed to squeeze us for every last penny. Educations is phenomenally expensive – 15,000 a year for a medical education, 21,000 in tuition for an engineering course. Then there are massive cuts and privatization of health care, attacks on women and on pay equity.

   These are effects of the same agenda that is pushing the FTAA, affecting us here in Toronto in our daily lives … yet if we think about it in terms of our daily lives, we realize that we can defeat it like we defeated other Free Trade/Investment deals.

   Erin concluded saying the movement is broader, more diverse and well organized in comparison to the past. Yet in the past we did have some success, so we should expect to do better now.

   …….the talk then moved around the circle with questions on lodging, affinity groups, bus tickets, etc. And I list links to info on that below. I asked if it would be possible to camp out with a tent in the protest area and Erin said do that at LaValle University (not sure of the spelling) or the junior colleges.

   The discussion got deeper and perhaps weird and philosophical near the end.

   So that's all for now – see you in Quebec.
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Related Events and links
 The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) - Montreal  (CLAC: La Convergence des luttes anti-capitalistes)
http://www.quebec2001.net
For bus tickets from Toronto to the Quebec Summit of the Americas
http://www.mob4glob.ca
For Lodging in Quebec
http://www.oqp2001.org
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Report – Toronto Protest at the Finance Ministers' Meeting – April.3.2001
By Gary Morton

   This was perhaps the first real day of Spring in Toronto. The cold and gloom were gone, the sun was out and it was 8 degrees. Up at Queen's Park about 400 people showed (some estimates were 1000) for a march to the Four Seasons Hotel on Avenue Rd. where the finance ministers from the 33 FTAA nations were meeting.

   There should have been more people, but weren't because most of the planning in Toronto has been around getting people to Quebec. The demo for the finance ministers' meeting didn't get a lot of attention, yet it still had an impressive listing of organizing groups - Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, CAW, Canadian Labour  Congress, Canadian Federation of Students, CUPE 3903, Ontario Federation of Labour, Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice, New Socialist Group.

   The march itself was spirited and well done with signs, banners, balloons, drums and whistles. We enjoyed the sunshine and the noisy trip up the open streets to the Four Seasons Hotel … where we were greeted by barricades, 800 cops with horseback men, riot squad guys and paddywagons … from eight regional police forces.

   All of the streets around the Four Seasons were full of cops and we heard that there were even more on the inside.

   Huge, tall and broad the Four Seasons towers over a small corner church, and on a hastily constructed  platform connected to the church, police looked down on the demonstration. They wore full armour and aimed combination tear gas and plastic bullet guns at us. Beside them a huge sign said Church of the Redeemer … We are Open! … Unless the Lord Builds the house … their labour is in vain … Who builds it ….

   Chanting, drumming and whistle blowing went on for some time. A few undercover men moved into the fringe of the crowd, a statement on the anti-democratic elements of the FTAA got read aloud by Anna and echoed by the crowd. Near the barricades some jostling looked like the beginnings of a few arrests.

   One person did get arrested and taken off at the beginning of the march, but there weren't any arrests at the demonstration. Mainly because the entire crowd, led by the organizers, suddenly marched off to a teach-in a couple blocks down the road.

   Some people remained holding the road, others began to drift off and in a short while a tiny group of us were left to facing 800 cops.

   Those left at the demo or who showed a little later were nearly all alternative media people. Here are some of the names - Tooker Gomberg, Toronto's green mayoral candidate and web video activist. He sat in the middle of the road with a friend. I was present holding one end of a large Mobilization for Global Justice banner brought by web activist Bob Olsen. Also present were Patrick from the Video Activist Collective, Dave from Gene Action, Oriel from Radioactive Feminism, Tom from Eye, Peter from People and Planet Friendly Events, some people from the Free University of Toronto, Jean who is homeless, a chap from Rise Up, and a couple of the people who do the weekly protests on homeless issues at Allan Gardens.

   We wanted to hold the road, but failed when an army of police moved in, threatened Tooker with arrest and bullied us off the road.

   Stuck on the corner we kept the banners up while all sorts of cops paraded around us. They were pushy and one them slammed my leg with a portion of steel barricade and then tried to pretend it was an accident.

   Later in the dark only a handful of us were left so we decided to walk around and try to get into the hotel. That effort failed when police swarmed in from various directions and in the end we went to a nearby restaurant and talked about media plans and Quebec.

   In general we were people with a different view of a protest. We felt the teach-in should have been held on the street and that the net and other means should have been used to get more people down. We could have easily held our own against the cops for the entire night and into the next day if people had stayed.

   So as it stands now it's after midnight, the finance ministers are feeling wonderful and unopposed. A few of us are going down tomorrow to protest, and we did send an emissary down to the teach-in. He came back saying the folks there weren't going to be helping us.

*  Since everyone's into teach-ins these days, I thought I'd end this with a little teach-in of my own. I dreamed it up while staring at 700 cops.
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   Teach-in on Toronto Democracy and Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin

   The city of Toronto is now a megacity composed of six smaller cities. 76 percent of us voted against the megacity idea, but our votes didn't count and the provincial government forced it on us.

   Today's march began at Queen's Park, home of the provincial government of Mike Harris. Harris is the local Grand Wizard of Globalization and generally he works to privatize and poison everything. His party stays in power due to money. Wealthy corporations give him millions in campaign dollars that the other parties don't have.

   Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, often touted as the next liberal Prime Minister is also from Toronto, though he couldn't give a damn about Toronto. Right now angry citizens are meeting across the city due to cuts to libraries, community centres, social programs for the poor, health programs like AIDS programs … all people programs are being cut.

   Why? Well because Toronto is about the wealthiest city in the world, and it is also nearly bankrupt. Every year Paul Martin's federal government, and the provincial government suck 5 billion dollars out of Toronto, that isn't returned as services.

   We've lost our housing programs, there are a lot of poor and homeless on the street. Right near the Four Seasons, where the finance ministers are sleeping peacefully, there's a 70 year old lady who sleeps in the cold on the concrete with a sign on her that says God Help Me.

   On the World Stage Paul Martin is supposed to be the good guy who wants to help poor people and nations … but do people in the poorer nations really need his sort of help? Do they want to be wealthy yet poor and homeless at the same time?

   So the lesson here is don't toss a coin up in Toronto or it'll be sucked away on the wind and you'll never see it again.

   Another interesting point is that at the demo a reporter stood beside me interviewing the police on their role in democracy. She studiously ignored me while a grinning police spokesman rambled on about how police are the champions of democracy and weren't there to intimidate us.

   Let's take a look at police democracy in Toronto – There's Police Chief Julian Fantino, who took to the media waves today to warn activists to behave or else. And how did Julian get his job? Well, actually he never even applied for it. The police services board applied for him, even though they are supposed to pick the chief from a number of candidates. Other candidates for chief walked out in disgust, and as citizen opposition developed the police board decided to hold a fast meeting on a Sunday night to put Julian in quickly.

   Julian is known as a fixer. And in other police news, a daily paper today noted that a number of ordinary officers are making more than a hundred thousand a year in pay.

   And how about Mayor Mel Lastman. He did win big in the last Toronto election and a key reason for that victory is that our corrupt local media didn't give any real news coverage to anyone but him.

   So there you have your teach-in on Toronto Democracy … and soon we'll have the FTAA and probably something even worse … where global corporations are the government.

    But hey! Don't forget that Paul Martin is the good guy and that tomorrow he'll lead the pack as the finance ministers thunder across the global divide on their white horses, to bring these grand and democratic wonders to you and your nation.
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Toronto Artists & Kensington Market Residents
– on the Street Against the FTAA –March.31.2001

* This report by Gary Morton

   West of the business towers of downtown Toronto, through some side streets, you enter the radically different environment of Kensington Market. Vegetable, fish, used clothing stores – just about everything you need is in the densely packed market.

   Kensington is the sort of neighbourhood that Free Trade deals and the winning global corporations will not tolerate. It exists as a window into a world that isn't all corporate franchises and sterile community.

   Residents are currently upset about a McDonalds being installed on a nearby corner … and when Artists against the FTAA, some local residents and supporters planned a small carnival of protest, they knew the issues were local.

   The demo went well, beginning with the setup of a banner in support of the market on the corner. An information table went up on the street and some of us hit the local residents with flyers while others did some anti-FTAA Busking, Sidewalk Chalking and Radical Cheerleading. A bucket was used to collect donations of mostly coins.

   As a public information effort it was a success. Many people had not heard of the FTAA and took the information. In my own flyering I found black males to be the most receptive. Local resident David Melville already knew many passing people and that helped. Gene Action guy Dwight did well with his handouts on genetically modified foods. It seems that genetically modified corn has become an issue in Kensington as some merchants are selling it without warning to people who are allergic to it.

   The weather, a degree or two above zero was about what it will be in Quebec, unless we get lucky. My observation is that the hands and feet get cold within an hour so it is most important to get thermal socks and good gloves for the coldest times of day. Plus a mat if you want to sit.

   If anything the event in Kensington reminded me that the FTAA isn't really about conflicts on the US/Canada border and violent people supposedly headed for Quebec – as the media would have us believe. The FTAA is really about your local community, whether it can be local anymore …and whether you'll belong or be alienated.

From the Flyer
FTAA - What will this mean for Kensington Market
   With the erosion of small farms, increased control of land by agri-business and the reduction of food availability our choices over what we eat will suffer. Crises around the world show that food safety is at risk.

*  And of the course the market itself will be at risk. If huge multinationals control all the supplies they will eventually buy all of the market for franchises they control.
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Kensington Against the FTAA meets Sundays, 1 pm at the Last Temptation Café, 12 Kensington
416-654-7153
http://www.mob4glob.ca
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Cruel City Circus
(Toronto – Freedom for Animals Protests the Garden Brothers Circus and Animal Cruelty – March.24.2001)

   It's Toronto, early Spring and Saturday at SkyDome. The Garden Brothers are in town and they want you to bring your kids, plunk down the cash and Step Right up to the Cruel City Circus.

Cruelty – What Cruelty?

   Of course the Garden Brothers would have you believe that they rescue animals and that circuses are places that are fun and sweet. What they don't tell you is that they are really prisons where trainers use whips, guns, hooks, tight collars, muzzles, electric prods and stupefying drugs to force animals to perform for audiences of laughing humans.

   Circus elephants are hit, beaten, shocked, chained and whipped. They travel in cramped trucks and like the other animals must perform when sick. Bull hooks are jabbed into the sensitive skin on their faces, toes and behind their knees if they don't obey.

   Prison conditions are not suited to animals and especially not to elephants as they are social animals that can weep. Captives often have tears running down their faces, and right from the beginning baby elephants are tied down, beaten and starved for a month to break their spirit for the circus.

Freedom Circus

   A wicked wind blew down from the tall buildings as we assembled by the walkway into SkyDome and the Circus. It chilled us, and like the horrors of the circus – stung like whips, jabbed, knocked off hats, popped balloons and sent signs tumbling.

   But this was the Freedom Circus to protest Garden Brothers, and the will of the protesters prevailed.

   Before long parents and kids were streaming into the Circus and we were performing out front. In the cold we found it warmer to march in a circle with signs, so we did that while Sherry, our juggler performed in the centre.

   Off to the side our ringmaster, Suzanne held a bamboo whip and used a red sound amplification horn to inform the passing people of the cruel nature of the circus. Scott did large sidewalk chalk art on the walkway and it said - This Way To Torture and Cruel Circus – Animals Have No Choice but You Do.

   Jen was on the walkway holding a sign that said Wild Animals Belong in the Wild. Nadia's said The Slave Trade is Alive and Kicking and others had large pictures of animals in chains and cages. Jacqueline and John had a double-sized one of a weakened elephant in chains. Others like Dave, Jean and Susan did the flyer handouts.

   To the east of us another group watched. These were people with cameras and notebooks. They said they were a group studying the nature of protesters. So it was rather amusing to have people gawking at us like we were animals of a sort. Except we were there in the biting wind because we wanted to be there and not because we were tortured. And we did stick it out. Freedom Circus lasted for a couple hours and had a solid effect on the circus customers.

So Who are these Weird Protesters?

   Yes – who are these folks under study? What do they believe and why are they protesting at the circus when they could be shopping?

   Freedom for Animals people are scattered across the age spectrum. Some are quite young, yet others are middle-aged to elderly. In today's crowd there were the Toronto people including women from Kensington Cat Rescue, folks from Niagara Action for Animals, Mississauga and Markam.

   They believe in understanding the true nature of animals and in being kind. That's to animals and humans.

   The media never tells you this but most animals rights people are vegetarian/vegan. They aren't meat eaters and don't wear fur. Very few of them are single issue protesters and nearly all are well informed on other issues relating to politics and health. Their health is better than that of the mainstream crowd, and some work in health-related occupations - a couple people at today's protest were from Noah's Health Food Stores.

So is there a Happy Ending to all of this?

   I'm afraid not and that means the protests must continue, and if you want the circus banned in Toronto you have to phone your city councillor and the mayor and demand it.

Unhappy Ending – Tonight the Garden Brothers are counting the cash and in the city sky-scrapers the cold wind is howling like a demon. Voices of the cruel circus and cruel city echo in the gusts, and down below in the dark the restless animals are in their cages. They are tired, sore and frightened. Soon they'll be on the road and if they are dreaming it is of warp-faced humans that laugh and stare like monsters. They don't know that some of us can be kind. Their masters will not let them attend the Freedom Circus.

Contact Freedom for Animals
email - free_animails@hotmail.com
web - http://ffa.engine.ca/
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Anti-Fur Demo at the IT Nightclub – March.19.2001
report by Gary Morton

   Freedom for Animals held a spirited demo tonight at the IT Nightclub on Church Street. You could call it a trendy event on all sides. Except for the darker side of fur, which is an incredibly cruel factory farming industry that tortures and chews up animals by the millions.

   This demo was a near instant thing, called because a press release came out from The Fur Council of Canada announcing a special runway show at IT Nightclub for the opening day of Fashion Week. The presentation was titled FUR IS IT.

   The scene out front was one of media, protesters, models, bouncers and designers. City TV arrived first for the media, followed by the Sun. FUR IS IT had two models right on the street. The female model wore a pink fur, while a male model wore a full-length hooded fur created through the deaths of about 70 animals. On the protest side Suzanne had her megaphone announcing that Fur is Dead, as opposed to Fur is It. Or perhaps You're an IT if you think wearing fur is cool. Our front line was a small gang of guys and gals holding graphic signs of tortured animals, Dave handing out flyers, and I was also there, picketing while moving about the street on roller blades.

   Apparently Freedom for Animals called this demo so fast that the police never got of wind of it. But a few burly well-dressed bouncers were out making sure we didn't get inside. And down a ways from them was a guy who looked like a secret agent, who watched us through the whole deal.

   Throughout the demo dozens of designers and pricey people arrived by taxi, and we got in their faces a good bit. (Shame – get your mad cow coats inside – foot-in-mouth designers.) Few of them wanted to look at us. Most of them seemed surprised.

   Perhaps some of the humour in this is that the bouncers didn't know we were coming. They were hired to protect the fur. Yet the Fur Council says this new designer craze for fur has become a strong street trend.

   And let me add that in the Church Street area at night you will need three bouncers and a secret agent with you if you plan on wearing expensive furs on the street. That's because there's another street trend called muggers and thieves.

   The new sale and design strategy is supposed to alter the view of furs as glamour items and have them seen as casual street wear. This will increase sales and allow them to rev up the engines at the torture farms and churn out more dead animal bodies.

   These new fur fashions are said to have street attitude and they are further defined as Urban Chic. So if you want to look like road kill with an attitude, street fur is IT.

   There have always been people who think you're nuts if you protest on fur issues. A yuppie screamed stuff to that effect at us, and one young man told our flyer guy that it has always been the way it is or that fur is sort of our heritage. But that's not true at all. Over the last quarter century factory farming for meat and fur has changed things. We've never in history been crueler to animals than we are right now. Of course the human race does come from a background of cruelty. Once we killed each other with axes, yet we don't say it's our heritage and do that now in this city. At least not a lot.

   Another concern was that kids might see the graphic signs. But I think kids should see them and maybe a few films about factory farming too so they'll know what they're eating.

   A bouncer hit us with the you-don't-care-about-people line. And one demonstrator said that with six billion people destroying the planet he cares more about animals. But as the bouncer turned away I said that I care. I care about people, too. It's the same folks that don't care about animals that also don't care about people, so you have to care about both to be more than half human.

   And of course there was the old line that the fur industry can't be stopped ... maybe it can't … at least not quickly … but when the fur industry is trying to brainwash people into thinking  Fur is IT, someone has to be out there telling the public that Fur is Cruelty.

   Later we walked away. No one got arrested. The bouncers went inside, but the secret agent is still lurking in the dark down there in East Toronto.

 Fur Issues - See - http://www.furisdead.com/

   Join Freedom for Animals this Saturday March 24 for the Garden Brothers Circus Protest at the SkyDome 1.30 to 3 pm. 277 Front St W. at John St.
Please contact Mayor Lastman and your Councillor to ban Circus Animals.
Freedom for Animals
free_animals@hotmail.com
416 596 2331
Group meets on the fourth Monday of each month 7-9 pm at 519 Church Street Community Centre at Wellesley.
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Fur Council of Canada
Teresa Éloy, Communications Director
teloy@furcouncil.com
http://www.furworkscanada.com
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519 Church Rallies Against the Budget Cuts – March 13, 2001

   Citizens met at the 519 Church Community Centre tonight to rally against cuts to communities being put through in the City of Toronto budget. About a thousand cards opposing the cuts have been signed, and this rally is being replicated in other community centers across Toronto.

   Here are a few of the things we as a community may lose because of the unnecessary and sneaky cuts being put through at council.

- Children and Youth Programs: End support for actual costs of running child care and resource centers. Rejection of post natal programs and breakfast clubs in eight schools. Elimination of youth centres in malls.
(Note - We talk about the Olympics, yet we don't care about our kids)

-Environment: Elimination of all new recycling programs. Cuts to bike trails and bike programs.
(Note – We're up to our asses in garbage. We've got no place to put it. Yet we won't commit ourselves to recycling. And we're choking to death on smog, yet we want to make sure more cars are on the road by chopping cycling programs.)

-Health Services: Elimination of nursing care to 78,885 low income and frail seniors. Cutting services to 55,821 people through Planned Parenthood, the AIDS Committee and Youth Link and Hassle Free Clinic. Cutting dental services to 32,500 seniors and children.
(Note - We really seem to love victimizing the weakest people in society.)

-Library: 293 hours reduced weekly at 26 libraries, 45,000 fewer items purchased for the libraries.
(Note – And we already have young people that can't pass literacy tests.)

- Support to Arts, Social Services and Immigrant Groups: Ten percent cut to the grants programs. 12 percent social services cut. 12 percent cut to community centres.
(Note: Apparently hundreds if not thousands of art, music and community groups that use centres and some city funds are not important any more. Immigrants are not important either, though we just sold ourselves to the International Olympics Committee as a City that values Diversity)

   Speakers at the 519 Rally revealed some eye opening facts on the cuts and the sad state of city democracy. Probably the most shocking fact is that many councilors, most of them suburban, have no concept of city programs or what they are about. We have elected community reps that don't know what goes on in their own communities.

   Consider cuts to AIDS Grants. The system is set up as a grassroots effort that recognizes that different strategies are needed to fight AIDS in various communities. Yet proponents of cuts think they can amalgamate all AIDS groups. They want to turn their backs on community based AIDS treatment. And the risks are tremendous. AIDS is a crisis that is threatening to get out of control among drug users, women and children and gay males. The cuts are an attack on public health. They are dangerous and stupid. Apparently Councillor Kyle Rae referred to councilors proposing these cuts and other community cuts as HUNS.

   Denzil Minan-Wong is one councillor Rae attacked. He said Minan-Wong gets quoted in the media but he is really not representative of council. What Denzil is representative of is a group of mostly suburban councilors that are out of touch with their communities. They know little about community centres and programs. Minan-Wong has a growing Asian community in his own area that will face service cuts, yet he is not concerned about it.

   Some of these councilors are talking about core responsibilities of the city, and what to cut. Yet none of them, including the mayor are talking to the community to ask what we the people think are important services. Right now the only people doing that are the Humanize Toronto folks. They are going door to door with a survey on that issue. The city isn't supporting that effort.

   Kyle Rae is optimistic that council won't go ahead with cuts to community centres if people take the time to fully inform them on the issue. He spoke glowingly of downtown councilors, and pointed out that it is the members from places like North York that have to be reached on the issue.

   Maureen of the 519 gave an overview on how efficient Community Centres are – The 519 has 250 programs that are run by volunteers. Only 15 programs are run by staff. Over the last ten years they have doubled the number of centre users and reduced the cost per user by 40 percent. It is a record that private sector businesses could not match.

   The cuts will mean that the 519 will close evenings and weekends, lose Sunday drop-in programs, disabled programs, the legal clinic, counseling, meals for the homeless and so on. And keep in mind that the cuts will have a city wide effect as they will also be implemented in other community centres. Currently meetings are taking place across the city, so there will definitely be a large fight back campaign.

   Although Kyle Rae may not have intended it, he made some sad points on the phony form of democracy practiced in this city. In advising citizens on opposition to the cuts, he mentioned that cuts have to be blocked before the Budget Advisory Committee makes its final recommendations. The reason is that Mayor Lastman has a policy that allows no changes to be made to the work of that committee.

   The public can attend the Budget Advisory Committee meetings, but deputations are not allowed. By the time it gets to council, the councilors will all have made backroom deals with the mayor on what is to go through. What that means is that the City Council meeting running from April 24th to 26th on approval of the final budget is really a farce. It will be a three day exercise in fake democracy, where councilors make grand speeches while they have already made backroom deals.

   It appears that not only do they not understand the concept of community, they also do not understand the concept of democracy.

   Democracy was never meant to be a media extravaganza that ends in a vote for representatives every few years. It is meant to begin with community. That is why the largest cut is really to democracy. Community centres, programs and volunteer efforts are where it all starts. It begins when people meet in a free and equal forum and decide on the needs of the community.

   Today in the Toronto Star publisher John Honderich wrote a column on the Olympic effort by the city elite. His claim was that the city's strength is Diversity. Yet like our city councilors, he hasn't noticed that diversity is being destroyed.

   Diversity is being able to meet in our community centres. It is embodied in all of the community and public health programs that reach out to everyone in the city. Diversity is best promoted when programs are free of user fees and grant an equal footing to all residents.

   Community and Diversity are the public using tax dollars on behalf of the public. And community can't be provided by the private sector, so once they take it away, they won't be able to sell it back to us.

   Our open public circles and free communication will be gone. We'll have miles of shopping malls where people stare dumbly and never talk. We'll have entertainment spectacles and an audience that doesn't participate. We'll have pollution, garbage, AIDS epidemics, needy people without services. We'll have empty consumer stuff the private sector calls community, but is really alienation and social sickness.

   Don't let them alienate you, starve you or kill you. Get out and oppose the cuts.

   This report by Gary Morton

Thoughts on Living Simply in the Big City– Sat. March 10.2001
- report by Gary Morton

   This half-day workshop took place at the Holy Trinity Church with Fiona Heath as the key speaker. I was there for her talk but had to leave before the workshop.

   Fiona explains living simply as a growing movement of people that want a lifestyle geared toward healthy human interaction and development.

   Currently alienation and stress are the status quo and transnational corporations have invested in it deeply. They need us to be consumers and not citizens, and our governments have bought into this idea as they now refer to us as customers.

   Transnational corporations feel it is important that we be consumers so we can continue to transfer all of the planet's wealth into the hands of a small crowd of billionaires. Currently 358 billionaires control 40 percent of the world's wealth.

   Today our individual interactions are competitive, they are based on greed and they isolate us in relationships that are mostly economic. We are taught that money and material goods bring happiness, yet more people were happy in the '50's though we are twice as affluent now.

   Living simply involves activities with family, friends, and the community. Things are done to reduce consumption and lighten the ecological impact of human beings. Sustainability in all things is a key goal. As is a return to basic human fundamentals like compassion, authenticity, community, doing what we really want to do and spirituality defined as a passion for something beyond ourselves.

   Voluntary simplicity is an inclusive empowering framework allowing people to discover what is best for themselves while building a sense of moral purpose. It is a diverse movement as each individual follows a personal path.

   Some common themes
- reflecting on whether your life is at a dead end, meaning you are not doing what you really want to do.
- reevaluating your judgement of things.
- taking time for family and friends.
- changing social habits and making choices that make the world better for all of us.
- Reducing automobile travel, meat consumption, air travel, aiming for energy efficiency in the home, being free of TV as much as possible.
- Buying local, buying second hand, fair trade.
- participating in simplicity circles and study groups that engage government at the community and local level.

   Philosopher Henry David Thoreau is admired by the living simply movement, though he lived simpler than most of them do. Many people involved in living simply seem to be halfway in consumer society and halfway out of it. They drive but not as much, watch less TV and so on. It is a free movement as individuals follow their own pursuits. And it is an attempt to fight alienation by bringing back family, friendship and involvement in the community.

   My question would be – is living simply a genuine threat to the transnationals, or will they be selling us living simply products tomorrow?

   A similar thing has happened with religion. Living simply does promote spirituality, yet spirituality and health have been packaged as a commodities for some time. Heavenly visions and eternal health exist in the perfumed nothingness and sun beams floating near the racks of vitamins and organic food at Noah's Health Food store. And we can buy spiritual improvement from ten thousand New Age sources as well as from guilt fostered by the older churches of the Great Religions.

   Thoreau has always been my favourite philosopher, and that's because he didn't do anything halfway. Perhaps truly living simply would mean burying the car, tossing the TV out the window, creating a complete new circle of community and embracing spiritualist or humanist beliefs that are totally personal and not completely purchased from someone else.

   I wish for a simple answer in life. There doesn't appear to be one.

Information on living simply is available from Doug Blackburn,
416-413-9903, doug_blackburn@worldvision.ca.
web - http://www.simpleliving.net
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Green Budget Notes- March.4.2001
By Gary Morton

   Tonight Tooker Gomberg and the Free University of Toronto sponsored a public vegetarian dinner and a discussion meeting on the City of Toronto Budget Crisis. The turnout was good and a recommendation from David Melville to meet weekly was adopted.

   It became clear that a lot of citizen action is beginning to take place on the budget. Other upcoming events regarding the budget were announced at the meeting..

* Ideas citizens presented tonight

    Community Budget Watch begins a campaign tomorrow. They are proposing an action plan to use the next six to eight weeks to form a civic alliance for a fair share of tax revenues and to block cuts to city programs.

   A spokesperson for Budget Watch told tonight's gathering the budget crisis has been manufactured through offloading. Some people have recommended the idea of a stabilization fund for the city similar to the funds used to support farming communities.

   Another speaker suggested that the Healthy City Program was a proper model for coming up with budget ideas. It is a city program involving a coalition of government, community and business groups.

   Porto Alegre came into the discussion as a place where delegates are sent out to get public input and priorities to create a budget. They really take it seriously, and it is a much more democratic model than the system here.

   Citizens for a Safe Environment had a speaker present. They are concerned about the 1000 people dying from smog here each year. Banning private autos in the core is one solution being proposed.

   City Council and the mayor were roasted as one man accused them of complicity in creating the entire budget mess. He doesn't place all the blame on federal and provincial downloading, but feels that council clearly knows what is going on and does very little to oppose it.
   He continued saying that we have done the studies and have the solutions but aren't funding them. Council and others are looking at the budget line by line for what to cut, when they should be looking line by line to see what parts are vision that went into the budget for good reasons.

   Recycling advocates spoke noting that we need to make sure that the city sticks with its plan for three new recycling plants. These plants not only cut waste, they also create jobs and generate money for the city.
See the Waste Diversion Task Force at
http://www.city.toronto.on/taskforce2010

   Methane Digesters are a green idea that also got mentioned. These plants can pay for themselves as cities can save when they buy energy from their own plants.

   Use of Park Space is another issue that came up. We use it mainly for recreational space while cities like Paris run community enterprises in parks. One thing they make is honey.

   In San Francisco the League of Urban Gardeners makes honey, herb gardens, oil and other stuff in parks. It is a system where public parks can begin to pay for themselves and not be a burden on city budgets.
See http://www.slug-sf.org

   Tooker said that the city has pissed a lot of people off with talk of cuts to everything from parks to cycling and we should get the people organized for a united fight against the cuts.

   A citizen who felt we should form a citizen council or parliament followed up his recommendation.

   I mentioned that city council has never issued a unified statement condemning the federal government and the province for creating Toronto's budget woes through downloading. In the absence of action from them it would be nice if our group would issue a statement condemning them all for their deeds.

   Tonight's meeting makes it clear that the public wants an alliance of citizens groups dedicated to creating fairer and stable funding in a system made to be democratic and focussing on public health and sustainable programs. They want fair taxation, recycling, clean air, community programs and health dealt with in the budget process.
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Freedom for Animals Update- Feb.26.2001
   The Toronto Freedom for Animals group met tonight and discussed issues and actions for 2001. Here's a brief update.

McMurder's
   Freedom for Animals will be protesting at the McDonald's Eglinton and Yonge outlet on April 18th. This demonstration will involve handing out flyers and serving veggie burgers. Animal costumes are needed. An organizing meeting will take place March 12th at 519 Church Street from 8 to 10 p.m.

McDonald's is disliked because it
- serves junk food and promotes it as nutritious.
- exploits workers - pays low wages with no overtime pay.
- swallows land in poor nations for cattle and grain. The large-scale meat production wastes resources. Huge quantities of grain produce a small supply of meat. A plant-based diet with fairly shared land would create self-sufficiency in food for the people of the planet.
- destroys rainforest land for cattle ranching.
- tortures animals as they are raised without freedom of movement or access to fresh air and sunshine. Slaughter practices are not humane.
- damages other cultures through the creation of junk food outlets.

Out of Africa into Chains
   On Saturday March 24th Freedom for Animals will protest the Garden Brothers Circus at the SkyDome. This will happen from 1.30 to 3 p.m. at 277 Front St W at John St.
   The protest will take the form of a Freedom Circus. People are needed to hold banners, act as clowns, paint faces, leaflet, drum and make noise, etc.
   For more on Circus Cruelty see - http://www.circuses.com/

Save the Cats
   Kensington Market Stray Cat Rescue will be one year old on April 1rst and something will be planned for that date.
   Web site - http://ffa.engine.ca/katweb/katframe.html

University of Torture
   Other continuing campaigns are the actions against the Bay on the fur issue and the actions against the University of Toronto over Brain Experiments done on Conscious Monkeys.
   Fur - See - http://www.furisdead.com/
   Brain Experiments on Conscious Monkeys - http://universityoftorture.com/

Meeting Place
   Now that the group has the basement hall at 519 Church, plans are to use it for vegetarian cooking classes, arts and crafts, theatre, poster making, etc.

About the Group
   Freedom for Animals is a meeting place to discuss animal rights issues and to take action by networking with animal activists locally and worldwide … organizing events and campaigns year round.
   F for A opposes any exploitation of animals, be it for food, material, science, entertainment, sport, etc.

Contact Freedom for Animals
email - free_animals@hotmail.com
web - http://ffa.engine.ca/
Suzanne Lahaei
phone 416 596 2331

More items of interest
* On Monday March 26th Freedom for Animals meets from 7-9 p.m. at 519 Church Street.
* March 13th is the International Day of Action Against the Seal Hunt and Freedom for Animals will leaflet at Liberal HQ at Yonge and St Mary from noon to 1 p.m.
* Protection of Wolves web site - http://www.wolvesontario.org
* Animal Voices - animal rights show, Radio CIUT 89.5 FM, Thursdays 2 to 3 p.m.

These notes by Gary Morton
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Mayan Dreams - Feb.24.2001
Chiapas - notes on the film and discussion "Dreams and Words of Wisdom from the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Communities (Chiapas, Mexico)."
Report by Gary Morton

   This film played in the Annex in Toronto and it was followed by a discussion with Fernando Hernandez from Mexico and Food For Chiapas. The event was especially enlightening for people who only know of the issue from articles on the Internet.

   A clear picture rises in the film of the deeply rooted and democratic indigenous culture that the forces of globalization have been trying to destroy in Chiapas. It worked to develop contrast in my mind between the capitalists of multi-national corporations and the peoples of Chiapas. Indigenous people come out of this comparison as the winners, having a rich culture and belief system.

   In Chiapas the people believe in their dreams, traditional religion, culture and a relationship with the Earth. Local democracy there rises out of the community and includes all residents. The mostly Western based powers of capitalism and colonialism rise in the mind as a simple and cruel breed of people. They want indigenous cultures destroyed so they can privatize their assets, take their lands, kill culture and create societies that have only classes of consumers and cheap labour.

   A strong attack began on Chiapas with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993. Elders of the Mayan communities denounced it as a death sentence as it abolished protection for communally held native lands. Here's a quote from the 4rth Declaration of the Lacandon Rain Forest. "They want to take our land so that our feet have nothing to stand on. They want to take our history so that we and our words will be forgotten and die. They do not want Indians. They want us to be dead."

   By 1994 the EZLN or Zapatista National Liberation Army had seized four towns and declared war on the Mexican Government. That was followed up with an Internet revolution. Mexico responded with US military advisors, tanks, planes, thousands of troops and paramilitary death squads. One of the worst incidents of the invasion occurred in 1997 when 46 men, women and children were massacred while praying in a church in Chiapas.

   In 1996 the EZLN sat down with the Mexican government and negotiated the San Andreas Accords for Indigenous Rights and Culture. The accords are good in principle, but Fernando Hernandez says the Mexican government has failed to honour them.

   The accords represent the protection of indigenous rights across the continent and across the world. Included are rights to education, health, housing, food and clothing. These rights are to be taken in traditional ways. The people of Chiapas do not want a right to education imposed by the Mexican State according to colonialism. Education must be based on local values and it must come from indigenous teachers.

   A right to communication and media is contained in the accords and this means indigenous radio, TV, Internet, print media, etc. This would be a peoples media as opposed to the international corporate media of the entertainment conglomerates.

   Mexico and the champions of free-trade colonialism want to impose their ideas of health. But that is rejected in Chiapas where health means the right to traditional healing and ceremonies. Housing follows a similar pattern. The people want to keep adobe houses that are cool in the summer and hot in the winter. Adobe houses are believed to carry an essence of the earth that keep the people in a relationship with the land. Western brick and prefab houses are not wanted, as they would be spiritually empty to the people of Chiapas.

   The rights of women are also a major issue as women in Chiapas are challenging the beliefs imposed through colonization. Replacing them with spiritual beliefs that are in relationship with the land.

   There are still 70,000 troops in Mayan territory and the threat of repression remains. Fernando Hernandez says indigenous people have key demands and they are the withdrawal of troops from Chiapas, the liberation of Zapatista prisoners and the honouring of the San Andreas Accords.

   Fernando also had some advice for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that visit Chiapas. And that is to go there and participate in the culture. They don't want groups that go there and build or drop off unneeded technological gifts.

   One example from Fernando was of a group that wanted to save the women of Chiapas from the traditional practice of making tortillas by hand. They dropped off a tortilla-making machine that sucked up all the power and ended up as an unused curiosity piece.

Contact Food For Chiapas
836 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6G 1M2
Hotline 416 410-3713
e-mail chulel@foodforchiapas.org
web http://www.foodforchiapas.org
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Facing up to the Toronto Budget Crunch - Feb.19.2001
Gary Morton

   A few city councillors showed at the meeting of the Committee on Fair City Taxes tonight.

   Here's a capsule of what the four city councillors said.

   Downtown gay councillor Kyle Rae (councillor_rae@city.toronto.on.ca) said that Mayor Mel Lastman has turned on councillors, attacking their wages and budgets. Since council has made large reductions since amalgamation Kyle thinks the mayor is being unfair.

   Rae feels that we are being left in the dark as to what Mel Lastman and Mike Harris are up to in regards to negotiations on how to deal with the 300 million dollar city shortfall.

   A key proposal of Rae's is to put together a committee of captains of industry. We then ask them to share the tax burden, telling them that the quality of life is suffering and that cuts to schooling, libraries, recreation centres and so on must not go through. He sees them as the people who support Harris and the people who can convince Harris to give the city money and the power to tax evenly.

   Rae also wants to shut down the Sheppard Subway line, which he says goes from nowhere to nowhere. The province has hit us for 200 million by killing transit grants, so Rae favours telling them that we can't run it and won't run it.

   Later Rae ran off to another meeting, saying he was going to save libraries from being cut.

   There wasn't any discussion on the captains of industry idea, but it seemed odd to me to think they would decide to raise their own taxes. And who would be on the committee with them to advise support of city social programs?

   Councillor Peter Milczcyn (councillor_milczyn@city.toronto.on.ca) of Etobicoke said the city had to fund core services. He then spoke in favour of privatization and contracting out garbage and parks services. He also wants Toronto to get a share of the gas tax, changes to Bill 140 on city taxation powers so that homeowners won't be the only people the city can tax, and a separate assessment class for small business.

   Peter's privatization comments drew an attack from the gallery, and later Councillor David Miller said privatizing garbage doesn't save any money. The whole garbage budget is a small item of the whole budget and past examples of privatization showed costs increasing. Waste disposal companies amalgamate to huge international conglomerates, and when there are only a couple of them they raise their charges and make a killing on fees.

   I should note that councillors generally support the four principles of Sewell's group. They are - no more cuts in 2001, changes to Bill 140, fair commercial property taxes and that the feds and the province return a portion of the surplus.

   Councillor Michael Walker (councillor_walker@city.toronto.on.ca) is angered by the province. He says taxation without representation is not democracy, and he wants us to get out from under Mike Harris' yoke. Walker feels that the city must have taxation powers and get a share of the five billion dollars being exported out of this city every year.

   Michael said that great cities invest in their people - that means childcare, social housing, libraries, dental programs for children and seniors, lunch programs and so on. His words were harsh when it came to the Olympics - he wonders how all levels of government can spend billions in public money on the waterfront when libraries are being closed and user fees are being placed on everything that moves. He accused politicians of abandoning the people while funding a bunch of speculators and developers that will make a killing on the waterfront.

   Councillor David Miller (councillor_miller@city.toronto.on.ca) said that we'll see the cuts in peoples' teeth when dental programs are chopped. He also had a chart that he displayed - it showed revenues for the feds and the province going sky high while the city remained at the same level of funding as in 1992.

   Miller also criticized the mayor for spending 500 million on the waterfront when city programs are facing a crunch. He said that behind this budget crunch is a massive push by the Harris Government to cut people programs in the City of Toronto. The Tories do not like social programs, and this is a plan of theirs to get rid of them.

   To conclude - there seems to be a lot of wishful thinking going on. John Sewell wishes the feds would give us moneq. Everyone wishes the province would be fair. Yet the truth is that the province is pushing the whole deal to cut our social programs. They aren't going to be fair and cuts and tax increases will go through.

   Near the end I saw David Miller and asked him what would be cut. His answer was that they were working on a plan to stave off the cuts for a couple years. I also mentioned that cutting Target Policing could save the most money. It is policing that doesn't fight crime and no one would care if it got eliminated. Miller's answer was that some councillors are working on that idea.

   John Sewell had a good point when he mentioned that this council has never acted in solidarity and issued a statement that points to the province as the root of the problem.

   It does seem clear to me that to get anywhere council has to do that. The current strategy where the mayor and councillors scrap over which of them is to blame is not working. Massive public money is being used to line the pockets of international investors and corporations. Governments are killing off all investment in the people that pay them their taxes.

   Tenants, taxpayers, councillors, the mayor, unions and all city groups have to organize to fight the province. Otherwise we can't win this one. Councillors have to start working to unite the city because that is what must be done if we are to really face up to the Toronto budget crunch.
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Bay Fur Protest - Sat.Feb.17.2001

   The Freedom for Animals group picketed and petitioned against fur at the Bay today. The Bay was selected for the protest because of its historical background as a trapping company.

   Here is some info on fur and cruelty to animals in the trade.

   - Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to tiny, filthy cages, constantly pacing back and forth from stress and boredom.

   - Some fur animals are killed by anal or vaginal electrocution. Animals killed by electrocution experience the intense pain of a heart attack while still alive. A fur farmer in Maryland killed minks by injecting them with insecticide, causing them to convulse for up to 10 minutes until death. Other killing methods include gassing and suffocation. Trappers usually strangle, beat, or stomp them to death. Some animals are only stunned and may be skinned alive.

   - Animals can languish in traps for days. Up to 1 out of every 4 trapped animals escapes by chewing off his or her own feet, only to die later from blood loss, fever, gangrene, or predation.

   - Every year, thousands of dogs, cats, raptors, and other so-called "trash" animals (including endangered species like the bald eagle) are crippled or killed by traps.

   - Approximately 3.5 million fur-bearing animals--raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, lynxes, opossums, beavers, otters, and others--are killed each year for their fur by trappers in the U.S. Another 2.7 million animals are raised on fur "farms."

More info see - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
http://www.furisdead.com/
Animal Rights Meetings Toronto - Freedom for Animals
free_animals@hotmail.com  phone 416 596 2331
Group meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month 7-9 pm at 519 Church Street Community Centre at Wellesley.
This report by Gary Morton
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FTAA - Opposing it Every Day - Sat.Feb.17.2001
(Brief notes on Free Trade Across the Americas - Responding to the Human, Environmental & Spiritual Threat)
By Gary Morton

Toronto: Let me begin with a couple of personal observations. There is much talk about the FTAA deal being undemocratic, which has led some groups to ask whether there is any democracy in the first place. In Canada, especially Toronto, we need a new explanation of democracy.

   Politicians at the local level, provincial level and federal level will not engage in any meaningful dialogue on strengthening democracy. Steps to erode the democratic system have been taken at all three levels.

   Democracy here is now an underground movement of the people. With no hope of reforming the system, citizens are keeping democracy alive in the social justice movement by turning their own meetings, gatherings and affinity groups into circles of democracy that allow everyone to participate, speak and vote.

   At today's meeting Anna Dashtgard said there are meetings every day in Toronto as we approach the late April Quebec City FTAA summit. Nearly all of these are openly democratic. They include just about every politically oriented group and individual in the province, and that's a heck of a lot of people power mobilizing to create the anti-Globalization forces as the Canadian movement for democracy.

   The liberal government in Ottawa and intelligence groups like CSIS are only reacting by preparing a huge police response. Much of it focussed on anarchists and people they see as international agitators. They are not at all prepared for the huge and growing Canadian movement against the FTAA.

   A lot of activity will take place at local levels here, especially through people who can't get to Quebec and older people who are afraid to go because of the police threat. And even the police threat is muted by the fact that many of those attending will have been trained in non-violent direct action.

   If things continue at this pace the anti-FTAA campaign will be the largest Canadian political movement since Quebec separatism.

   Today's meeting at the Quaker Friends House was addressed by Anna Dashtgard (Common Front on the WTO) and John Dillon (Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice). A video "Bye Bye World" was shown.

   An early announcement from people present revealed that Canadian Parliament is debating releasing the draft FTAA text. The Bloc Quebecois has moved a motion asking for the draft of the FTAA to be brought before parliament. The motion will be voted on next Tuesday night, February 20,2001. Meetings are being held to organize a blitz of Members of Parliament and to fill the public gallery in Ottawa.
Contact the Canadian Federal Gov - http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/pol.htm

Here are a few rough notes from Anna's talk.

A Biblical comparison

Day One - In the beginning the Word was Globalization.
Day Two - The organizations of globalization - The World Trade Organization, The World Bank, The International Monetary Fund and so on were created.
Day Three - The agreements of globalization were created - GATTS, MAI, NAFTA, FTAA and so on.
Day Four - The new laws and regulations became active and governments were sued for attempting to protect their citizens from the bad effects of the agreeements.
Day Five - Secret panels of bureaucrats were created to rule on the laws of nations.
Day Six - The air was poisoned, the water was polluted. People saw their loved ones and children dying and their voting power traded away.
Day Seven - The people revolted.

   Like every other speaker, Anna notes that the big winners in the FTAA will be multinational corporations and investors.

   The FTAA fits as a key piece in a jigsaw puzzle of agreements. Its part of the picture is an extension of NAFTA to 34 other countries and 800 million people. NAFTA features clauses that hand national powers away to investors and corporations. The FTAA will enhance these clauses and apply them to services. This introduces them for the WTO and GATTS (Agreement on Trade and Services).

   Only the military and banking will be excluded, meaning every form of business including things like health care, agriculture, education and public utilities will be open to privatization and ownership and control by transnational corporations that can sue any government that opposes them.

   The FTAA is a Beast that will privatize and own every aspect of our lives.

   In John's talk he pointed out that the FTAA will cover 800 million people. 150 million people will be consumers that provide a market for increased profits, while 650 million people will be a pool of cheap labour earning less than subsistence wages.

   The reason for so many of these international free trade agreements is that corporations and investors want the system set up so that if they can't win what they want in one sphere, they can win it in another.

   John points out that the biggest losers under NAFTA were the peasant farmers in Mexico. They lost their farms and were turned into 2-dollar-a-day slum workers. Currently under NAFTA, the majority of children in Mexico are suffering physical and mental problems.

   Trade figures under NAFTA do look rosy but transnational corporations are the ones profiting. The Federal Government in Canada is talking about a democracy clause for the FTAA, but read the fine print. The devil will be in the details and the fine words in the preamble won't stand up in court.

   Protesters in Quebec City in April will be creating a Freedom and Truth Area of the Americas as a sort of safe zone from corporate and government lies.

   A couple key notes from the video "Bye Bye World".

   - For every dollar of Global Trade there are a hundred dollars of costs for Third World Nations.
   - By the year 2025 two thirds of the world's population will be in total or partial water deprivation. Global agreements are depleting our supplies of clean water that quickly.
--------

The END - There should be a future for everyone, yet the FTAA and multinational corporations will leave 650 million people without a future. They will be the starving, the dying, the poisoned - a world of the walking wounded.

   The FTAA does create a limited future for profits and people labelled consumers. But that future only lasts until our resources are depleted and the paper economy burns.
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Toronto Budget - The Humanist Perspective
(Lastman's New Deal a Dark Global Game)
report by Gary Morton - Feb 15.2001

   A circle of citizens discussed the city budget tonight at the Humanist Neighbourhood Centre. Mayor Mel Lastman is hailing this budget as a New Deal, but the actual facts coming out from citizens reveal the whole process as a Dirty Deal from the Dark Side of Globalization.

   The meeting began with a talk from Karren and Stefan. They are local residents affiliated with a number of social justice, community and planning groups. A general group discussion, questions and answers followed. Here is a capsule of Karren and Stefan's message.

   The people that really run City Hall have used the notion of a financial crisis as a tool or weapon against low-income people, people of colour, workers, etc.

   Mayor Mel Lastman says he wants to protect Our City and Our Quality of Life, but whose quality of life is he really protecting?

   Wage freezes, privatization, user fees and cuts to city social programs and services are not a protection of our quality of life. Privatization at the city level lowers the wages of those who are near the bottom. User fees hurt the poor and cuts to city programs, libraries and recreation centres hurt us all.

   Citizens that want to defend the city, but not Lastman's definition of the city are presented with a real challenge.

   A New York Strategy is being followed in Toronto. Its highest goal is to open the city for big business, investors and high paid professional workers. The strategy (called Competitiveness) is to subordinate all planning and financial decisions to the priorities of the Masters. They want business taxes kept low, public workers chopped and laid off and the general transformation of city government into a form of private business. Planning controls are to be deregulated so real estate investors can invest wherever they want. Massive public funds are being spent to open areas of the city to real estate development and transnational investors. This is especially apparent with Olympic and Waterfront development.

   The city likes to talk about Diversity Management, saying diversity is our strength. They want to put the public relations focus on gays, Carribana and other cultural items to promote the city. Yet this does not go hand in hand with support for equity. The city equity and access committee has no power.

   Poverty rates for non-whites are much higher in this city, but there isn't any willingness on the part of city government to deal with racial inequality. The mayor and council will not take on the issue.

   There is a focus on attracting tourists, and a final dimension is law and order. The police budget has grown astronomically and is the largest budget item. Yet most of the new money is not used to fight crime, it is used to promote social injustice.

   Target policing is used to attack people who are not seen as competitive. Council's idea of a Clean City means arresting poor, homeless and other people that the elite views as Human Garbage. Policing is used as a mechanism to avoid dealing with the root causes of poverty and to hide that poverty so tourists and the well-heeled won't have to cope with the injustice they create.

   It all ties in with a shift in the outlook of the Bay Street Elite. They used to see Toronto as the heartland of Canada. Now they see this city as being part of the big Global Game.

   The federal government and the province have taken the same view. There isn't a national housing policy, transit policy or social policy. In the area of development, the Harris government has made it impossible for municipal governments to regulate it.

   As corporate lobbying continues to increase at the city level discussion has moved to areas that were considered frightening by politicians in the past. They talk about across the board privatization without fear. Open speeches about deep cutbacks to major social programs have become acceptable. Declaring tax increases for homeowners are now just easy words for politicians.

   Perhaps Mel Lastman wants to call this a New Deal - but after hearing the talk at the humanist meeting, I'm convinced that it isn't a deal at all. The people of this city are being ripped off. They're taking our money, our democracy. They're creating low income workers in a city that's too expensive for that, and in the end they're putting us on the street to be swept up as Human Garbage. If it’s a Global Game we don't need it. Let's start thinking Local.
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   The City Budget will be dealt with in committees at city hall all of next week - 19th to 23rd of February. Citizens should attend these meetings. The various committees are being told to recommend cuts so that they will look like the bad guys. The general citizen assessment of council is that councillors will make little deals and vote as Lastman lap dogs. None of them have the guts to fight for Toronto.

Some Budget Info
   The total amount of the city budget is 5.5 to 6 billion dollars. 2.7 billion of the money comes from property tax. The rest is from the province, user fees, development charges and so on. The city budget pays for things like firefighters, police, libraries, parks, welfare workers, the TTC, child care, social housing, social assistance, some dentistry programs for seniors and children, public health, child nutrition, rent supplements, subsidies to private business and development projects like the waterfront and Olympics, transition expenses and so on.

   This year downloading from the Federal Government and the Provincial Government has put a squeeze on Toronto. The shortfall is more than 300 million dollars. It is fake crisis to a certain extent because Toronto is taxed and taken every year and 4 billion dollars goes out to the province and the feds that is not returned in services.

   The city government doesn't have the power to change things on the larger scale so it is making cuts in the city budget.  Yet these cuts and the addition of users fees are not being done in a fair way. User fees will increase from a total of 10 million to about 25 million, and user fees are unfair as increases in recreation programs and TTC fares take a bigger bite out of the pockets of low-income people. These increases are also coming at time when rents have gone up a lot - 26 percent from 1995 to 2000. At the same time, wages for the lowest income people have fallen, even though this is supposed to be an economic boom.

   100 million for Waterfront Development or Olympic spending is budgeted, yet there will be things like cuts to community centres. A ceiling of 650 million is to be put on the capital budget and that will mean cuts to city libraries, etc.
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The Humanists will be meeting again next week and soon they will be going out in the neighbourhood to take a message on the budget to the people.

Feb 22 - Humanize Toronto Presents
Have a Say in the Budget: An Experiment in Real Democracy
Want to find out what's going on with money matters at City Hall and how you can have a say?
On Thursday, February 22, at 7:30 pm, join us at the Humanist Movement Neighbourhood Centre, 197 Harbord Street (just east of Bathurst). Free.
Call 416-533-3507 or email humanizetoronto@canada.com for more info.
HUMANIZE TORONTO: Human Rights,Environment,Real Democracy.
A project of the Humanist Movement.
Visit an alternative at http://www.web.net/hto
email r.verdecchia@home.com
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Report on the Memorial Rally for Otto Vass - Feb.9.2001
(Police killings and brutality in Toronto)

   Heavy cloud cover filtered the light to leaden gloom and on the other side of the road at the 7-Eleven a crowd held picket signs, umbrellas and lit candles in the drizzle. As I walked into the parking lot Anna Willats of the Committee to Stop Targeted Policing was saying, "The police anti-gang squad is the gang we have to watch out for." She also had a few words to say about 52 Division police and their hiring of strippers. Anna says police hire them, rape them and get away with it.

   I looked around but I didn't see any police at this rally, and none showed at the march that began a few minutes later. Personal speculation was to the effect that I hadn't seen visible police or undercover men at a number of recent FTAA rallies either, so their new tactics must be to either bug people or pay informers in the movement for info.

   The thrust of this rally was to put on a strong memorial for Otto Vass while reminding ourselves and the public of police killings, brutality, racism, Target Policing and attacks on the lesbian and gay community. Following the brief opening remarks, that spirit was maintained as organizers led the crowd out onto Landsdowne and took over the road for a long and angry public march down to P.A.R.C. at 1499 Queen St. West.

   Rainwater and slush slicked city gutters that are the new graves of poverty, brutality and globalization, and there wasn't any twilight, just the descending murk of a megacity evening. A number of boisterous chants rang out as the march moved on - No Justice No Peace, No Racist Police - Who Killed Otto Vass, The Police Killed Otto Vass - Not Enough Justice, Too Many Police….

   At Queen Street the banner and pickets went out and blocked heavy traffic as we walked the final couple of blocks to P.A.R.C. We then went inside for a continuation of the memorial, and Bob Rose began things by telling us that P.A.R.C. is a gathering spot for psychiatric survivors and people involved in issues of homelessness and poverty. It is a large tabled hall in the downstairs portion, and the art of survivors makes up the décor.

   A strong turnout filled this hall, so it appears that Otto Vass has no shortage of friends in 2001.

   Dudley Laws of the Black Action Defence Committee moderated the memorial at P.A.R.C. He said that those present probably all knew someone murdered by Toronto Police, and even if we have to march a thousand times we'll bring the police in line.

   A song by Brian followed - Free Mumia Abu Jamal and later Dudley led the crowd in a singalong.

   Huge posters of Stephen Cann, a former Vice Principal of York Memorial High School, were very visible in the hall. Stephen committed suicide after being beaten in his home by a Toronto police officer.

   There were a number of speakers, then later anyone in the crowd who felt like speaking got up to talk.

   Joyce Riettie of the Justice for Otto Vass Committee had a message from the family of Otto Vass. She noted that family, witnesses and loved ones of those who have been killed or brutalized by the police are not offered the support that victims of crime get. They are not helped through their trauma and grief. Nothing is done about the loss and psychological damage.

   This situation may change as the Justice for Otto Vass Committee has the Special Investigations Unit and the Justice Department together at meetings, discussing bringing in supports.

   Danielle announced that a memorial for Edmond Yu will be held on February 20th at 12 noon in Grange Park Toronto. The Four Police Officers charged in the Death of Otto Vass will be in court that same day, February 20th. Supporters are urged to gather at 8.30 am at the court house steps of Old City Hall at Bay and Queen then go into Room 111.

   Other speakers included Michelle Monk of Bloor West Against the FTAA and Carol Thames of the Women's Bath House Committee. Michelle noted that globalization has created a polarization of Haves and Have-nots in society, and that police are now used to enforce and maintain the status of those in power. Police no longer represent justice, law or the prevention of crime. Carol stated that police now target every community, even whites, and no one is safe unless they have money.

   I believe it was Maria Judas (not sure of the name) a friend of the Vass family, who said that charges against police in the death of Otto Vass should have been 2nd degree murder and not manslaughter. She also felt that the Special Investigations Unit needs improvement … of 1521 cases reported to it charges have been laid in only 44 cases. Earlier Pedro of the Latin American Coalition Against Racism pointed out that the SIU is not an independent body but made up of former police officers. So we must continue to push for a fully independent body.

   Pedro also said that Otto Vass was never able to get up to fight back against police so we must fight for him.

   Near the end a touching poem called "A Father's Love" was dedicated to Otto Vass.

Report by Gary Morton

Background info from the flyer

   February 9 marks six months since the tragic slaying of Otto Vass. On the morning of August 9, 2000, Otto Vass visited the 7-Eleven at College and Lansdowne in Toronto. For reasons unknown, police were called and Otto was escorted peacefully outside. After further discussions with the police, witnesses say Vass was thrown to the ground and beaten for four to five minutes - first by two Toronto Police, then by four of them. Otto never recovered, he died on the spot.
   Otto was not wanted by police, nor was he in commission of a crime - and according to all civilian witnesses - he presented no danger to the police or community. An eyewitness said, "They were beating him worse than an animal ... He wasn't fighting back at all."
   On Wednesday October 25, 2000 - after considerable public outcry, including demonstrations and rallies - the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), brought charges of manslaughter against the four officers - Robert LeMaitre, Phillip Duncan, Nam-Nhat Le, and Filippo Bevilacqua.
   But we know that this is only half the battle. Time and again, police charged in the killing of civilians have been acquitted. In the wake of Otto's death, a grass roots citizens committee has been formed, determined to keep up the pressure to win justice for Otto and his family.

The Justice for Otto Vass Committee demands
- Protection of Witnesses
- An end to Target Policing
- A Federal Inquiry into the state of policing in Ontario
- The implementation of the recommendations of Coroner's Juries in police killings.

Phone: 416-656-2232
E-mail: justiceforotto@hotmail.com
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Taxation Vexation - Monday February 5.2001
(Report on the public meeting of citizens and the Committee for Fair City Taxes)
by Gary Morton

   This meeting on the Harris Government's tax rip-off of Toronto residents became an interesting event due to diversity of opinion and a bit of passion that came out later.

   When I first walked into the Council Chambers at Toronto City Hall, I saw a pacified crowd. The most interesting sight being tenant activist Bob Levitt protesting John Sewell's failure to address the tenant issue. Levitt feels that repealing Harris' Bill 140 would mean tenants would be targeted for more taxes. Tenants have about half the income of homeowners and nearly four times as much in property tax, added in as part of rent. The Committee for Fair City Taxes has some good points but is really a yuppie group according the Levitt.

   The key members of the committee were down at the front and came across as factual and respectable. The audience was of a different description. There were people with assessment increases of 20 percent, 50 percent - apparently the highest is 150 percent. On average, increases to a property tax bill here are around 3,000 dollars yearly.

   Councillor Olivia Chow gave an address on the proposed city cuts of 120 million. Currently the city is suggesting that 32,000 children and seniors have their dental care cut off. Prenatal care for homeless teens would also be chopped. Seniors Services for 78,500 low-income seniors would die and there would also be cuts in public health programs. 32 libraries will close and 23 community centres and recreation programs for youths will shut down. There will also be a TTC fare hike and bus routes will be eliminated.

   Olivia points out that 305 million has been cut from city departments since the creation of megacity. User fees are all up and 2,000 people were fired in staff reductions.

   Her solution is to reverse the downloading to reclaim 180 million in lost TTC subsidies, 72 million in provincial downloading and 34 million in social housing costs for a total of 286 million.

   She points out that 9.6 million would be raised from a 1 percent increase in residential taxes. If the province would allow the increase to cover residential and commercial properties, 25 million would be raised from a 1 percent increase.

   Liberal MPP Mike Colle walked down to the mike asking why everyone was so docile. His point being that we are being ripped off by Harris and are sitting back and taking it.

   Mike noted that a basic inequality exists in the area of commercial taxes. These taxes are 100 percent higher in Toronto than those in Barrie and 438 percent higher than those in Parry Sound. Yet education taxes are supposed to be equal. We'll pay 200 million more this year for education.

   This is a democracy issue because the tax rate is not debated publicly but decided behind closed doors by Mike Harris. It is taxation without representation and the issue is not the city it is the province of Ontario.

   Toronto is the only city in the world that accepts the idea of paying for social services through property taxes. And Mike Colle sees this as a Tory occupation of the city. They have taken over so than can deliver us unjust taxation.

   Mike Colle wants citizens to make a 5-minute deputation at an upcoming Public Hearing called Downloading and the Survival of our Cities. This will be at room 151 in the Legislative Building at Queen's Park, Toronto. 9.30 am to 4 pm Thursday February 8, 2001. Call 416 325 8707

   John Sewell says Harris' Bill 140 allows the finance minister to create the tax formula, and the current formula increases taxes only on single family homes, co-ops, etc. Not all of the property taxes go to the city. 33 percent of the money goes to the province. In the area of commercial taxes 55 percent goes to the province.

   John Sewell's four-point plan is to
1. Protect City Services.
2. Support a general tax increase for all property owners.
3. Support the idea of the province taxing commercial properties in Toronto at the same rate as properties in the surrounding area.
4. Recover some of the tax surplus generated in Toronto.

   A number of people were involved in the question and answer session. I asked John Sewell why he didn't call for a tax strike, instead of putting forward a four-point plan no one would notice. His reply was that people are afraid to withhold taxes.

   Tooker Gomberg wanted to know why city councillors did not attend the meeting. His view is that we start with things we want when dealing with a city budget. We all want proper health care, homes for all, recycling, composting, etc.

   He feels the money is there. The 300 million shortfall can easily be found in the 4 billion being sucked out of Toronto every year.

   On the four points, Tooker says we need a whole lot more. Let's have a committee figure out how to go ahead with a tax strike. Maybe the city could find a way to shut off the water at Queen's Park, or to drastically increase the Queen's Park electric bill.

   Dick Troy of C4LD favoured stopping construction of Mel Lastman's Sheppard Subway and killing funding for the Olympics.

   Pat McKendry wanted people to speak for cuts to the police budget. The money saved could be put in for social services.

   In the end Sewell called on the group to attend the meeting of the city policy and finance committee on Feb 15th.

   MPP Mike Colle called that a waste of time and Tooker said he would support actions at Queen's Park. Arguing about cuts to various departments and services isn't a good strategy from Mike's perspective. He feels the problem has to be dealt with at the source and he was critical of city councillors that got elected on liberal and NDP tickets so they could act like Tories when in office.

   "Appeasement rules the day around here," Mike said as he walked away from City Hall.

   So in the end we have more than one movement on the tax issue, with one group focussing on the city and the rest of us headed for Queen's Park to battle Mike Harris.
---------
Related web site http://www.faircitytaxes.org
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Anti-Nike Action- Feb.3.2001
   Students Against Sweatshops held a demo today at the NIKE store, Bloor Street Toronto. There was a strong turnout and a crowd of mostly young women with picket signs walked in a circle at the front. Others handed out flyers.
   The action was one of many in North America to support the demands of fired and striking workers at the Kuk-Dong factory in Atlixco, Mexico.
   NIKE sweatshirts for the university market are produced there, and recently 800 workers walked off the job. This was after the leaders of a union were fired. The company and the Mexican government sought to maintain a fake union while disallowing the one legitimately forming.
   Riot police led by the leader of the company union rushed in with an attack so vicious that 15 people went to hospital and 200 of the workers decided not to return to work.
   Conditions in the factory include rotting cafeteria food, a 50-hour week at low wages, punishment by blows to the head and full time child labour.
To protest contact Nike president Phil Knight
vada.manager@nike.com
Mexican President Vincente Fox
vicente@fox2000.org.mx
Students Against Sweatshops-Toronto
sas-toronto@yahoogroups.com
sas-c@tao.ca
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FTAA - Canadian Nationalists Tackle Globalization - Jan.30.2001
(Free Trade Area of the Americas article)
By Gary Morton

   There were two large meetings in Toronto tonight on globalization issues. Tooker Gomberg for the Greens and Dwight Lyons of GeneAction addressed the International Socialists. The meeting being titled OUR WORLD IS NOT FOR SALE: FTAA & How Capitalism Destroys the Planet. I was supposed to attend this first meeting, and the reason I didn't make it is interesting.

   Last night I camped out with Tooker at City Hall. This was to support the homeless down there. In the end I froze my feet, and because of soreness didn't want to travel to the socialist meeting.

   Homelessness in Canada is an effect of globalization policies. Housing has been downloaded to the City of Toronto, and the city is deeply in debt due to forced municipal amalgamation, another globalization policy.

   Negative policies continue to accelerate. In the morning after our campout, Ontario's Grand Wizard for the globalization mob, Premier Mike Harris, sent two of his men down for a press conference. Their announcement to the media was to the effect that Toronto has no debt problem. Their solution being that we sell off all of our assets. Currently Harris' provincial government skims 5 billion dollars off of Toronto taxpayers every year - money that doesn't come back.

   I did attend the second meeting, called FTAA, GATS, THE BANK ACT with Paul Hellyer & others.  This was put on by Jean Smith and People Against the MAI and it was around the corner from where I live.

   I ended up walking in with Paul Hellyer and here is some background on him. He used to be a liberal and in the federal government. At that time he worked to create a national housing policy. The same housing policy that the forces of globalization have killed. Paul is now head of the Canadian Action Party, which is composed of economic nationalists. They oppose neo liberalism and are to the left of Canada's major political parties. CAP, the Greens and the New Democrats pose the only opposition to globalization here at the federal level. There is some opposition in the Conservative Party through David Orchard.

   Hellyer said, "A world without borders is like a zoo without cages."

   Here is a capsule of his talk.

   He says we just came out of an unwanted election with an unwanted result, and he finds no comfort in today's federal level throne speech. It was 59 minutes of platitudinous fluff. It reveals that our government is determined to sell our sovereignty and unless we change course there will soon be no Canada. It is self evident that we are losing our country. Since Free Trade came in 23, 000 companies have been sold off and the sellout is increasing exponentially.

   We lose five or six companies a week and the research and development and other good things that come from having Canadian based companies. This erodes the tax base as foreign companies pay less tax.

   Issues we must fight together are the FTAA and WTO changes that are almost as alarming. If we don't stop the trend to globalization for-profit health care and education will have open season here. All of the banks will fall under foreign control - and that is happening now with the bank act the liberals have created. Open agriculture will completely destroy our family farms and way of life. We will be dependent on foreign corporations for financing, food, seeds and so on.

   We are about two years away from the point of no return. Then we will face annexation as global powers take over. The Canadian flag may remain for another fifteen years or so but it will have no meaning.

   Hellyer wants to force debate on these issues in the House of Commons. And he feels we need to unite the opposition into a new political party (a prince or princess in waiting as he calls it) that will form a credible alternative to the liberals. The new party would oppose globalization and understand monetary theory.

   He also feels that we should continue to pursue legal challenges on all fronts to block globalization and pursue the political challenge and get these issues before the Canadian people. First making sure that they understand that these agreements are not about trade, they are about investment that favours global corporations.

   Christine Ellwell of the Sierra Club of Toronto also spoke and she noted that the club here is focussing strictly on the Peoples Summit and alternative workshops with people from all of the nations involved in the FTAA. The Sierra Club is calling for submissions so they can build a peoples case for environmental protection in all venues.

   Christine also noted that the powers behind the FTAA are a very closed group. Very little effort has been made to co-op NGOs. There are very few NGO reps invited to the FTAA meetings.

   It seems to fit the pattern. Paul Hellyer says the FTAA is an Arctic to Antarctic agreement that will work to remove democratic decision making in all of the nations included.

Contact:
Jean Smith and People Against the MAI
416-535-6605 jsmith@chem.utoronto.ca
and protest the FTAA in Quebec on April 20-23rd.
--------------
Non-Violent Direct Action Training
(as applied to the FTAA and elsewhere)
Saturday January 27th 2001

   Matthew Behrens of Homes not Bombs and Toronto Action for Social Change facilitated a six-hour Non-Violent Direct Action Training course to a small group at Toronto City Hall today. Participants were from the Gene Action group, which is planning non-violent actions, mostly against supermarket chains on the Genetically Modified Food issue.

   Matthew mentioned that FTAA protesters would be getting similar courses for the Quebec action, taught by him and others. His particular course covers all areas from organizing to bail and court. I'm not going to attempt to write a 50-page document covering it all. This write-up is just on a few key points.

   You shouldn't be out there protesting without a reason, and Behrens arrives with printouts of philosophical tracts on protest and social justice. Essays and quotes from Thoreau, Zinn, Deats and others.

   We did briefly discuss the FTAA organizing and Matthew's opinion on that was somewhat different from some of the main protest organizers. In a 'Brief Report on the from Protest to Resistance' rally held by OCAP/ARA in Toronto, I note that FTAA organizing groups CLAC and CASA say that they do not decide or say what actions are acceptable and what actions are not. Jaggi Singh (jaggi@tao.ca) says a diversity of tactics and solidarity with various groups is needed - a sort of Unity through Diversity thing. On the question - should we be violent or non-violent?  One speaker at that meeting said, By any means necessary. This is the first stage of a revolution. We go all the way this time. We don't want anything from the federal government. We want a whole new society. No reforms, we want to wipe this corrupt system out of existence. People are fighting because they have no choice. They are fighting to survive ….

   Matthew Behrens had a different position on that. He believes in unity but also that everyone in the movement attending the protest has a right to know exactly what actions will be taken and which groups may be rougher in their tactics than others. Accountability, and how accountability is addressed is a question when some groups plan openly and others plan clandestinely. Diversity of tactics is fine, but everyone has a right to know what to expect, otherwise the actions of one group might negatively impact on another. Matthew favours a tight affinity group model, where every person plays a role. Affinity groups are the many small satellite groups that make up larger groups at a protest action. In these groups everyone is assigned a different task. There might be artists, a media spokesperson, people with medical training, a person off the protest site who holds contact sheets in order to aid those who are jailed, and so on.

   CLAC and CASA also support the affinity group model. The opposing model would be large protest groups commanded by a few leaders. Such groups are easily infiltrated by police agents and misdirected. Large poorly organized groups might decide to fight, but they will not survive.

   On the question of revolution and going all the way, I noted that the problem we have in areas like the FTAA, Capitalist Free Trade or even Genetically Modified Foods is that the masses either don't fully understand the issues or else they have been brainwashed by the media. There will not be any revolution or any change of attitude unless our message gets through to the masses. A bunch of desperate people trashing things in Quebec will not necessarily get that message through, and they will not kick start any revolution, they will just get beat up by the police. Real strategy means changing the views of the public at large so we can organize them and free the world. The question is how to do that?

   So you might say that a large part of what is called diversity of tactics in the protest movement is really an argument over what constitutes violence and whether violence is at all acceptable. And violence isn't always vandalism. There are people at large protests that are violently non-violent and want to pick fights with those using tactics they do not approve of.

   Here are a few tips from Matthew.

   If you sit you won't be trampled by police horses. The animals will go around you, and when they walk up close you can touch their legs gently with your hand to guide them away.

   Pepper spray - Don't use soap or oils or other stuff that absorbs chemicals. There is a special soap that removes oil from the skin, and you can use it before protesting. Wear clothes that will repel chemicals not absorb them and carry a bottle of water with you. Wash pepper spray from the eyes, skin and hair with cold water. Don't take a hot shower as that will open the pores and put you in pain. Some medical people use cottons and mineral oil to swab pepper spray off the skin bit by bit.

   There are a number of tactics you can use to avoid being physically hurt when police arrest you, cuff you and drag you off. You must attend the course to learn them and the long arguments on legal stuff and jail. Matthew says that you can't prepare yourself for jail, it is always upsetting. He recommended sitting in a closed toilet stall for an hour to get the idea of the agonizing boredom. Also understand that police are going to lie to you all of the time that you are in there.

   On withholding your identity - Matthew says Canada is different from the USA. If you won't give your name as part of a jail solidarity action they simply hold you in custody until such a time as you do. Some release conditions might be softened due to group pressure.

   Police at protests expect you to behave in certain ways. Protesters who use original and unexpected non-violent tactics throw the police off, leaving them confused as to what to do. So be original and don't just chant and do everything they expect.

   The course also involved some practice in arguing with authority figures, and acting out a demonstration. I played the role of a police officer to get an idea of how police feel. It was not how I expected to feel and we found that male and female police have different motivations.

   Police and the establishment divide protesters into four categories - Opportunists, Radicals, Idealists and Realists. Their strategy over time is to isolate the radicals and turn the idealists into realists. Realists will make tradeoffs that weaken the movement, and the opportunists will accept the final policy decisions.

   Which of the four are you and at what stage?

  And that's about it for this article …. 'nuff said.

This report by Gary Morton for the http://citizensontheweb.com FTAA page.
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/ftaa.htm

Contact Homes not Bombs
Matthew Behrens
416 651 5800
email tasc@web.ca
--------

Brief Report on from Protest to Resistance- Toronto Jan.25th, 2001
A Radical Look at the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

   This event was put on by Anti-Racist Action Toronto, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and FTAA protest organizers. About 200 people showed to hear a number of speakers, see some short films and answer a few questions in regards to the upcoming FTTA protest in Quebec April 19 to 23.

   Since media outlets seem to be phoning me every day looking to contact people mentioned on my web site, I have kept the list of speakers and contact info at the bottom of this post. Perhaps some reporters will read this and be inspired to write something different in Quebec in April.

   Here are my rough notes, put out as a long a list of bites. They are not quotations or as accurate or eloquent as the original words. They cover some of the ideas expressed and the gist of them is that groups like the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Anti-Racist Action, Colors of Resistance, The Anti-Capitalist Convergence, and Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee don't hold the same beliefs as globalization protesters.

 … The State can't be relied on to negotiate global agreements because the State is designed to protect corporations….

… Anti-Racist Action does not follow the economic nationalist line. (* They see the dangers in nationalism and racism that emerges from it.)

… ARA supporters favour international trade based on the local physical nature of the world's people … with workers gaining the full benefits of their labour.

… ARA supporters believe we must simultaneously fight racism and capitalism.

… Fernando of Food for Chiapas mentioned how many groups go to Chiapas to help them. Doing things like installing toilets or something then leaving without ever attending ceremonies or participating in the culture. He says the people of Chiapas don't want help, they want people who come and stay and understand….

… Chiapas is considered a key example of a people fighting against the powers of a corrupt global system.

… Sue said that in Toronto every single night 5000 people bed down on pavement. We know damn well that globalization is here.
   She also mentioned OCAP trying to help a tenant being evicted for being two months behind in rent. He killed himself before they got to him. Then there was a woman named Amina, whose two daughters were sent back by our government to face female circumcision and desolation in a country with no social supports. Enforcement officers took Amina into custody and left her five children alone and watching. She also mentioned Mohawks, and their struggle to toss the structures of the Canadian government like bridges and towers off of their land. All the above is globalization to Sue, and she says - That is what we are Fighting.
   Sue says Premier Mike Harris has turned Ontario into a major force of globalization, and OCAPs presence in Quebec will also be about targeting and taking out the Ontario Government. Quebec will be used as an organizing and planning ground for what comes next.

… The FTAA will further victimize 500 million people of colour in South America.

… Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) fail to address white supremacy. They like to mention that we are losing citizen power and democracy at a time when democracy doesn't really exist anyway.

… There is systematic oppression based on class, race, etc. Cheap labour and globalization are the same thing.

… There has been an increase in overt racist acts … tip of a growing iceberg of racism stemming from polarization … marginalization of the poor and refugees.

… Capitalism not globalization is the real problem … we need a broad multiracial movement truly aimed at taking out global capitalism….

…. Helene says police in Quebec have engaged in a six-month campaign of threats and intimidation. Police announce new security measures daily. The RCMP knocks on the door of every organizer and activist. The fear campaign is intended to scare the people of Quebec and to put activists against one another.

… There was mention of some NGOs and groups being almost violent in their demands for absolute peaceful non-violent protest. But CLAC and CASA do not decide or say what actions are acceptable and what are not.

… Jaggi say Canadian Intelligence (CSIS) has been visiting door to door in Quebec. He also says the movement has big problems and he questions whose movement it is. He sees genocide against indigenous people and genocide against blacks in the USA. NGOs have in his view bought into some bad ideas. He doesn't think our society is synonymous with NGOs and he doesn't think the working class is synonymous with union leaders. Jaggi says a diversity of tactics and solidarity with various groups is needed. When the poor or oppressed rise up and do some damage, he feels that NGOs and others in the movement should not be rushing forward to condemn them as violent.

… he quoted Shawn Brant as saying the Action is in the Organizing. It isn't just about Quebec, the action is right now … and every day, I suppose. He doesn't like to talk about the politics of resistance but of the politics of liberation.

… Lorenzo says we can make it simple by seeing the leaders at things like the FTAA as a gang of international gangsters … sitting around planning on how to police the world and how to starve people to death.

… On the old question - should we be violent or non-violent? Lorenzo says, By any means necessary. This is the first stage of a revolution. We go all the way this time. We don't want anything from the federal government. We want a whole new society. No reforms, we want to wipe this corrupt system out of existence. People are fighting because they have no choice. They are fighting to survive …

and you have to join them.

Report by Gary Morton

Contact info on the above event
Speakers:
- Helene Vallieres, Summit of the Americas Welcoming Committee, CASA  (Quebec City)
- Jaggi Singh, The Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC) and Colors of Resistance (Montreal)
- Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, Former Black Panther and Political Prisoner, Founder of the Black Autonomy Network Of Community Organizers and author of "Anarchism and Black Revolution" (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
- Fernando, Food for Chiapas (Toronto)
- Sue Collis, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, OCAP (Toronto)
- Pauline Hwang, Colors of Resistance (Montreal)
- Steve Swart, Active Transformation (Lansing, Michigan) and Anti-Racist Action Toronto

For more information on radical organizing against the FTAA please contact:

Anti-Racist Action Toronto
P.O. Box 291, Station B.
Toronto ON M5T 2T2
ara@web.net
416.631.8835
http://www.web.net/~ara

Colours of Resistance
http://www.tao.ca/~colours
colours@tao.ca

The Anti-Capitalist Convergence, Montreal (CLAC)
e-mail: clac@tao.ca
web: http://www.quebec2001.net
tel: +1 514 409-2049
post: 2035, St-Laurent Boulevard, 2nd floor
Montreal, Quebec H2X 2T3 CANADA

Summit of The Americas Welcoming Committee (CASA), Quebec City
email: la_casa2001@hotmail.com
------------
Tooker Gomberg Announces Actions at C4LD- Jan.22.2001
Report by Gary Morton
   The wheels of citizen democracy and discussion continued to turn tonight in Toronto as activist Tooker Gomberg addressed Citizens for Local Democracy. The meeting, chaired by Dick Troy was mostly an open forum and strategy session.
   A number of local issues were dealt with then Tooker unveiled a new action plan, which was initially discussed at a public gathering at Fressen Restaurant and Juice Bar 478 Queen W. on Sunday.
Here is the info from Tooker's flyer and talk

Action One - Campout with the Homeless

   The public is invited to a solidarity campout with the homeless on Monday January 29th from about 9.30 p.m. onward. The camp will be at City Hall and on Tuesday morning the group will move inside for the council meeting.
   The action is to take place before each monthly council meeting to send a message that homelessness in our nation is not acceptable and that we need affordable housing for all.
   Dress warm, bring a tent or soup and good cheer. All antipoverty groups and active citizens are urged to attend.

Action Two - Send your Compost to City Hall

   Mayor Lastman declared on election night that recycling was the number one issue. Yet less than two months into his term the city scrapped the restaurant composting pilot program.
    Now is the time to act. If you don't have space to compost in your backyard, drop off you compostables at the mayor's office, your councillor's office or Barry Gutteridge's office, head of the works department, and encourage them to support composting. Or give us a call and we'll deliver them to your preferred politician or city worker.
   Let's remind these guys that shipping our garbage south to Michigan is not sustainable, especially when we can make use of a good resource in nearby Newmarket where they produce biogas from our discards.
   Composting is a simple and ecological solution, transforming waste into a resource. It can transform over 30% of what households (and way more of what restaurants) discard. We could be making biogas, a.k.a. methane, and rich fertilizer out of it. Let's get going with composting plans city-wide.

Action Three - The Green Princess Margaret Committee

   Imagine the block around Wellesley and Princess Margaret Hospital turned into a green co-op powered by biogas. From this block the street running down to Allen Gardens would be turned into a green corridor.
   Opening these buildings would create thousands of rooms for housing that would include people of various incomes. It would help the homeless and the city has the power to do it.
   The Green Princess Margaret Committee has already signed up members and you can join too.
Contact:
tooker@web.ca
416 532 3939
http://www.GombergForMayor.org

Action Four -  Flyer or Newsletter for Public Distribution
   Here Tooker with C4LD and other groups would put together an issues newsletter to hand out to the public on the subway, etc.
-----

   During the C4LD discussion one man asked Tooker about being followed about and harassed by police here in Toronto. Just after that I announced that the police action to block protests at the Free Trade Area of the Americas Summit in Quebec City on April 20 to 23rd will be the largest police effort in Canadian history. Tooker then announced that he would be in Quebec soon doing FTAA protest organizing, so no doubt he will continue to see the police.

   The FTAA is an anti local democracy agreement that would render cities powerless when it comes to running any sort of public program. Global corporations and other corporations would be able to sue and gain privatized control of city programs and services. All supporters of C4LD should be in Quebec in April to protest. And meeting chair Dick Troy urged C4Lders to get out and get active with other groups.
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Save the Oak Ridges Moraine in 2001
(Report on the STORMCO Moraine Coalition Planning Meeting in Toronto - Jan.16.2001
By Gary Morton

* Details on the moraine issue are below this first section.

   Debbe Crandall and Christina Sharma gave an overview on the moraine and initial plans for the 2001 campaign to save the moraine.
   Attending citizens signed up and it was announced that volunteers are needed for the following positions.

* I'm not sure whether funding, resources or payment is provided for some of them. Phone the contact number at the bottom and ask.

1. A Web Magician will be needed to do updates to the web site.
2. Public Relations people with writing skills are needed.
3. A display coordinator with a car and computer for email - display travels to events around Toronto and Ontario. Plus volunteers to watch the display at events are needed on an ongoing basis.
4. A public outreach person with a good phone manner and computer. Promoting networking with member groups and cultural events.
5. Fundraisers.
6. Volunteers to stuff brochures and people to do phoning. Would be done mostly by groups of volunteers.

Contact:
http://www.stormco.org
Christina 416-236-7234
rohit.sharma@attcanada.net

   There was a good turnout for this meeting and it began with those who showed up introducing themselves. There were various reasons given for wanting to work on behalf of the moraine. Some people were activists. Others were interested individuals or from schools or socially conscious organizations.

   The presentation dealt with the moraine situation and I will do a very thin cover of it here. The Oak Ridges Moraine Greenway is a huge area situated above Toronto. Over the next 20 years it will be a key water source for 6 million people. Thirty percent of it is covered in forest and it creates a habitat for rare species. Water contributing to wetlands and to river systems provides the habitat.

   Uncontrolled development threatens this area and a lot of prime agricultural land. 26 municipalities all have their own plans and this piecemeal system of planning doesn't work. To save the moraine a province-wide plan is needed. But the roadblock to such a plan is Mike Harris.

   The media has promoted misconceptions in regard to the moraine. It focuses on the Richmond Hill area that is really only 1 percent of the moraine. Not only Richmond Hill, but the other 99 percent needs protection. Unrestrained development currently includes the construction of dozens of golf courses and resorts that will suck away 25 percent of the water from the Humber River. Across the moraine there are hotspots of abusive development and STORMCO is producing a map of the moraine and these hotspots.

   A second map, this one of the political climate, shows the area Tory blue at the provincial level. Polls have shown that 89 percent of the residents favour protection over development, and that people would change their vote if Mike Harris does nothing.

   Stormco and the public are working to lobby Tory MPPs, but it is thought that the office of Mike Harris is working to block these efforts.

    There have been three private member bills put forward in the legislature. Liberal Mike Colle had a bill to freeze development. Public hearings are needed on NDPer Marilyn Churley's bill. The Churley bill would change the planning act to protect the moraine. Tory Steve Gilchrist also had a bill. It was to create a moraine plan.

    The volunteer positions listed at the top have to do with a vigorous STORMCO effort that will involve a radio ad campaign and a huge mass mailing. The City of Toronto is currently funding three educational displays that are going across the GTA. STORMCO and its member groups are also looking at staging a large protest, perhaps on University Avenue in Toronto. In conclusion, this is a very ambitious effort and most of it must take place before the legislature resumes in late March.
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Tooker Ticketed for Restaurant Protest - Fri.Jan.12.2001
By Gary Morton

   Toronto environmental activist Tooker Gomberg hastily arranged this protest after the city scrapped a food composting pilot plan that collected restaurant food scraps and converted them to biogas at Composting Inc. in Newmarket

   The public has shown an interest in our waste woes and restaurants like Fressen at 478 Queen W, where the protest began, want to see a city-wide program to deal with food scraps. Police were also interested. Though Susan and I were the only members of the public arriving at Fressen exactly at the appointed time, three police officers were already there. They approached Tooker and questioned him as to what he was up to. Then we went inside, Mez and Jean-Paul arrived, the staff at Fressen and reps from other restaurants joined us. During that time Tooker and I speculated as to whether police were showing any real integrity through spying on our email group messages.

   We ate some free vegetarian food and drank juices while Tooker outlined the issue for the media. Tooker pointed out that Mayor Mel Lastman said Recycling was the Number One Issue during the election. A good program was underway to turn scraps into biogas. Restaurant owners are saying it is easy to do and they want such a program. Yet all we get from the mayor and council are broken promises.

   Tooker, a couple restaurant owners and some members of the public then left the restaurant destined for the mayor's office with a bushel of food scraps. Police escorting Tooker didn't wait long before ticketing him and a friend with $190 tickets. Their claim is that Tooker began to move through a light a second before it had completely changed.

   At City Hall I carried one side of the scraps bushel, a restaurant owner had the other side and Tooker talked as we walked up. Lastman was not in his office. We were told he was at the rotary club. So in his absence Tooker delivered his protest message to a staffer, the media and a bunch of police and security guards. Police also took photos, as though they were a new form of police media.

   Tooker is not blaming everything on the mayor. City staff recommended the program be chopped and they are largely responsible for convincing the mayor and council to break promises. If we are to get anywhere in this city, the voice of the people must override the whining of city staff and promises must be kept.

   If the new council is lying to us on the big issues, then you can be sure that we are being given the shaft on all the issues. And that's what seemed to come out a short while later over coffee in the City Hall restaurant. In conversation Tooker mentioned his fury on the homeless issue. This week at a meeting over new shelter beds, Tooker saw even the most progressive councillors turn their backs on the poor.

   Cathy Crowe of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee said 75 shelter beds were needed immediately. Yet even councilors like Kyle Rae and Joe Mihevc refused to support the idea of new beds. Olivia Chow was the only councilor acting progressive and she received rude treatment for her efforts.

   At the same time homeless people were sleeping outside on the cement at City Hall, and Tooker talked to one of them, who said he was beat up, but the police would not make an arrest for a homeless person.

   So the future sure doesn't look too good, does it?  We have a council that begins its term by breaking promises, and it holds only one or two truly progressive people.

contact Tooker Gomberg
(416) 532-3939
cell: 834-2453
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Gene Action 2001- report on the Jan.10th Toronto meeting
By Gary Morton

Background:
   The Gene Action group stages actions and has speakers & workshops on Genetic Engineering (GE) and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's). GE and GMO's are a big issue when it comes to food products in 2001. A timeline is involved when dealing with genetic issues. Futurists now say that the information age has passed its peak and we are in a new genetic age that could explode and get out of control quickly.
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Notes:
   Do you want a socialist revolution, a revolution in democracy or a green revolution? I'd like to see all three, but the Gene Action meeting began with each person giving their name and why they were there. A list of questions from the people got drawn up and during the session the regular members answered them. Two thirds of the people at this meeting were new and had questions on the issue.

   Here's a brief recap of facts that came out at the meeting.

   In 1981 patents became allowed on life forms. The first was an oil-eating microbe. Commercialization in the food area began in 1996 with the flavor-saver tomato.

   Today genetic modification is spreading fast. 60 to 75 percent of products on supermarket shelves now contain GE ingredients. Perhaps the worst thing about genetic modification is that it is commonly done so plants and their cells can hold pesticides, and the same large corporations that do genetic modification sell the pesticides.  Eating products that are certified as organic is about the only way to escape genetic modification and harmful pesticide content.

   Very little research has been done on the effects of genetically modifying plants and animals, and the small amount of research that has been done has a cautionary effect. Feared results of GE are antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, and deadly effects of pesticides on humans that consume them. Then there is the possibility of creating super bugs and super weeds while killing off other species. Social effects include the loss of traditional farming to expensive and unsustainable globally controlled GMO's farming, rural decline and depopulation and complete control of the food supply by ruthless multinational corporations.

   This cautionary research has not been followed up and scientists have been gagged after releasing test results that were not favourable on GMO's. Government data on the issue is kept secret and access-to-information requests have not yielded anything yet. The system in Canada in regards to GMO's is like the system in Walkerton Ontario, where residents didn't find out that the water was contaminated until the whole town was sick and dying, and a maverick doctor made a connection.

   Research dollars are scarce and generally are not available unless you are working to disprove claims of possible harm by GMO's. And these tests done in support of GMO's have been flawed and unscientific. Tests that were meant to be used for industrial chemicals were misapplied to prove GMO's safe for the environment.

   The Canadian government gives 600 million a year to the Biotech Industry, yet it only gives 600 thousand a year to the organic farming industry. Organic farming builds the land's health, eliminating chemical fertilizers, pesticides and genetic modification. These are mostly closed loop systems where waste is reused. Organic farmers have a problem in being small. Governments have been more willing to listen to huge international corporations like Monsanto.

   There aren't any labeling laws and stores like Loblaws go so far as to have staff cross out No GMO's labels with markers. The government created a labeling committee through Industry Canada, but because it is stacked with a corporate majority, representatives from the public and green non-governmental groups have boycotted it.

   Liberal MP Charles Caccia (Caccia.C@parl.gc.ca) did bring up a bill for labeling and it has not been dealt with by Canadian parliament. In spite of that the large media outlets released news reports that led the public to believe that it went through and products will be labeled.

   The long term goals of Gene Action are more food security without seed rental fees, and without the governance of global corporations that act as our food landlords.

*  Another interesting goal or point is democracy. I attended meetings by three different Toronto groups this week and all three viewed the public as under attack from corporations and other big money interests. The New Socialists wanted the alienated citizen returned to a genuine sharing community. The Citizens for Local Democracy wanted a return of citizen-based government, and Gene Action wants to see the creation of participatory institutions and mechanisms where the public can authentically participate in the decision-making process when it comes to GE and GMO's.

* Gene Action's Biotechnology & Genetically Engineering Foods Resource Guide is at
http://ecoexplorer.com/GAevents/biotechguide.htm

* The next meeting of GENE ACTION is Wed Feb 7, 7:30 p.m. Toronto - Speakers & workshops on Genetic Engineering (GE) / Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMO's). Room 212, 348 Danforth (upstairs at Carrot Commons, near Chester subway).
More info: geneaction@hotmail.com
phone 416-685-4222
web site - http://ecoexplorer.com/GENEaction.htm
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