Winter Solstice Carnival– Dec.21.2002
    The 14th Annual Festival of Lights drew a large crowd in Kensington Market tonight. The celebration marks the darkest night of the year with a parade and carnival. It included drummers, costumed residents, giant puppets and dragons, stilt walkers, fire breathers … and of course it ended at a market park for drums and dancing around a huge bonfire.
Photo – http://frightlibrary.org/pic/lights1.jpg
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Police Army Demolishes Tent City Toronto- Sept.24.2002
Report and Photos by Gary Morton

   The long hot summer at Tent City on Toronto’s waterfront ended today with a police raid. Home Depot, owner of the land, moved in aggressively and by surprise. A hired security firm came with dogs, bulldozers, banks of spotlights and an army of police (on cycles, horses, in cars and paddy wagons) for backing.

   By sunset the residents and supporters were protesting outside. Cops lined the fence, security people and a lot of cops roamed the property, and a huge goon was setting all the surrounding fencing with barbed wire toppings. Some evicted residents had puppies and dogs. Cats and kittens remained locked in some of the small houses while a huge bulldozer remains parked until tomorrow. A security chief told me that any remaining animals would be turned over to the humane society if found. Otherwise they will be bulldozed under with the tiny houses.

   Under a deal with the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, residents were allowed in to claim some belongings. Councillor Olivia Chow announced arrangements to move the people to shelters and hotels for the time being.

   Some of the squatters were weeping over the loss of their homes. And it really looks bad on the city, province and the feds, that people find tents on contaminated land preferable to the overcrowded city shelters. The message really is that people squat because they want housing. None is being created by the feds, rents are out of control and the province hasn’t come through with its promise to provide rent aid. All of it meaning that the issue is really only beginning, and not ending through this cruel eviction … they can’t bulldoze all of us under yet … though they would if they could.
 

Photos by Gary Morton
Before Raid:
 (Aug 2002 - Visitor Poses in Front of Tent City House
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent.jpg

During Raid:
At the Gate
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent1.jpg
Bulldozer and Cops Wait to begin Demolition
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent2.jpg
Security Guard Inside Tent City
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent3.jpg
Police Line and Spectators
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent4.jpg
Police Horses
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent5.jpg
Pope Squat Banner
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent6.jpg
Cops Behind Fence
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent7.jpg
Homeless Man and Dog
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent8.jpg
Homelessness is a National Disgrace Banner
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent9.jpg
Homeless Dog
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent10.jpg
Big Security Guy Setting the Fence for Barbed Wire
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tent11.jpg
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Stop Bush’s War on the World – Sept.9.2002

   Protesters were out in Toronto as Jean Chretien and George Bush met in Detroit to discuss Bush's plans for war on Iraq. The USA appears to be ready to move with Britain in a new military campaign against Iraq.

   Americans used to demand proof of a just war. But that was yesterday. Today Bush wants United Nations approval for a war of convenience. Knocking out Saddam would put Iraqi oil fields under American corporate control, put the squeeze on Iran, boost the US economy and rescue Bush’s sinking popularity.

   To frighten us Bush says Saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction. Yet he doesn’t actually have them, while nations like India, Pakistan and Israel do have them and threaten to use them. Scarier still is the fact that the USA has the largest supply of weapons of mass destruction, and will use them whenever it is convenient to do so.

Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/iraqw1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/iraqw2.jpg

protest info e-mail: dropthesanctions@hotmail.com
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Reclaim Goes Off as an Easy Street Party - Sept.1.2002

Photos by Gary Morton
* I messed up most of my photos but here are a few.

http://frightlibrary.org/pic/rclaim.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/rclaim1.jpg
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http://frightlibrary.org/pic/rclaim3.jpg
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Other Photos at Indy Media
http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=11853&group=webcast

   Reclaim the Street peaked with a street dance as marvelous as the sunny weather we’ve had all summer in Toronto. As the long slow snake march reached Yonge and Dundas in the heart of the city, spirits rose, young people began to dance in a circle, and the rest of the crowd streamed around the corner, creating a car-free zone on the street.
   Drummers clicked out their steady beat of celebration, balloons popped in the air – dancing and chalking of the street began … going on for a long time after the DJs set up with a cool portable record machine that blasted dance music through a few large speakers.
   Some top dancers were shaking it up around that while others were moving with the drummers a brick toss to the north.  I twirled on roller blades on the road out front of the Hard Rock Café … kind of like being in one of those old roller halls where you revolve to the music … only the street is much better.
   Police on horses made a menacing silhouette in the background, and though they had made a couple charges during the march over from Kensington and Denison Park, they backed off on Yonge and let the party happen. They actually came off better than some of the Neanderthals from the dull side of the activist community, who a day earlier were arguing with me, saying the streets are made for cars and people that unite to reclaim the street are a nuisance.
   Those are probably the same guys that say we shouldn’t breathe the air because the sky was made for plane pollution.
   When you’re at Reclaim the Street, you get the feeling that streets are for people … you wish thousands more would come out and bottleneck all of the ugly speedways.
   Every party has to start somewhere … the small 5th Toronto Reclaim the Street was a good one.  It should be a lot bigger … bigger than say, the police department, car engines and the fat mouths of its critics.
   So if you’re sitting around in your yard or at the Pope Squat, that can get boring … make it better, reclaim yourself on a green street.

Gary Morton http://CitizensontheWeb.com

Related Links:
http://www.reclaimthestreets.org
http://rts.gn.apc.org/
http://www.reclaimthestreets.net/
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Prisoners’ Justice Day – Aug.10.2002
   The 27th Annual PRISONERS' JUSTICE DAY vigil took place today at Riverdale Park and the Don Jail.
   Prisoners’ Justice Day is “… the day to remind people that the criminal justice system and the psychiatric system are mutually reinforcing methods that the state uses to control people…
   … August 10th is the day prisoners have set aside as a day to fast and refuse to work in a show of solidarity to remember those who have died unnecessarily – victims of murder suicide and neglect.
    From the Banner…Until All are Free, We are All Imprisoned.

Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/prison.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/prison1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/prison2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/prison3.jpg

info (416) 972-9992
ritten@interlog.com
www.interlog.com/~ritten
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Protesters Oppose the War on Iraq – Aug.5.2002
   Demonstrators protested George Bush’s plan for a war on Iraq today in Toronto. NDP MPP Peter Kormos and others addressed the crowd.
Photos
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/iraq1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/iraq3.jpg

info Email dropthesanctions@hotmail.com
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Road Rage at Car Free Kensington – July.22.2002
   Folks blocking a Kensington Market Street for a Sunday Car Free celebration got a surprise taste of road rage when a muscular gorilla pulled in and tried to drive through. It turned into a case of road rage when he got blocked by the people and jumped out to storm about threatening certain individuals. A drum corp playing on the street up nearer to Presto suddenly turned and marched with the rest of the people to the car … leaving the angry motorist in rising anger as drums and chants drowned out his yelling. One woman jumped in his car, he ran around it and tried to pick a fight with another man … and it continued for some time till he finally gave up and backed out to leave.

Photo
Angry Motorist (in sleeveless T-shirt) threatens locals
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kenc1.jpg
People gather for Car Free celebration
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/kenc2.jpg

   * In congested Toronto TTC fares have doubled, yet there are 10 percent less buses and 20 percent less streetcars.
http://www.carfreeday.ca

Report by Gary Morton

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Oppresto on Fire - Thursday July 18th 2002

   Nike is funding Presto, a club in Kensington Market as part of a marketing campaign for their new line of Presto sneakers. Teams of Nike-clad youth generate Presto hype on the streets, and participating artists and musicians sign agreements stating that they will not display competitors’ logos onstage or in their art.
   Countering Nike’s campaign to make Presto cool is an organizing group in Kensington that is staging counter concerts on Augusta Ave. This first one had speakers like Ian Thomson of the Maquila Solidarity Network and Dave Meslin of the Toronto Public Space Committee.
   This first concert filled the street with local residents as music blared from a third floor balcony. People mingled and danced and drummed on the asphalt and others in costume carried the party closer to Presto’s doorway.
   Things got a little ugly when folks began throwing stuff at the Presto building. Then a mob gathered at the front. I was inside with a friend of mine, a Vietnamese girl, touring Presto, when the crowd began to chant, Burn Nike Down, Burn Nike Down! Which sort of cut the tour short as we decided to exit quickly.
   Police moved in and took stations behind the Presto windows. Later I found that it wasn’t only folks on the left that oppose Presto, as a more right wing type of person fumed about Nike’s funding of a soup kitchen in the community center across the road.

Report by Gary Morton http://CitizensontheWeb.com

Contact Oppresto
info: Rod Caballero (onecaballero@futurerhetoric.com)
www.futurerhetoric.com
www.maquilasolidarity.org
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Molson Indy Protesters Strip to Underwear– July.4.2002
   Instead of the Indy it was called the WHOLESOME UNDIE! In response to the pollution, noise and grime of Toronto’s Molson Indy, protesters stripped to their underwear and hit the Indy track on bikes for a Critical Mass Ride.
   As media and race car drivers paced the track, cyclists ran their own race with Tooker Gomberg as flag man. Prizes went to the slowest rider and the rider with the sweetest undies.
   After the races the protest gang hit the Indy Street Festival downtown, and called on people to oppose Indy by showing their undies. Not everyone was amused. Fervent Indy supporters hollered (nearly all men) a defense of the race from the packed rooftop patio at Hooters. Police moved in to kick us off the road. And one angry man shouted, “You’re hippies! I believe in pounding out hippies!”

   So will this style of protest catch on? Let me say that I hope so. It would be the perfect sort of thing to stage for the pope’s visit this summer.

Photos by Gary Morton
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/indy0.jpg
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Protest Notes on Toronto NEO-NAZI CONCERT SHUT THEM DOWN Demo! Sat June 8.2002

   … So news came in from Anti-Racist Action Toronto saying … Neo-nazis are planning a racist rock concert this weekend in the city area, with bands like Angry Aryans and Blue Eyed Devils.
   Concerts are a chance for racist youth to network and organize … let’s shut them down.
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Digital Photos: Sorry I screwed up most of the photos – these are okay
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/araa1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/araa2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/araa3.jpg
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http://frightlibrary.org/pic/araa6.jpg

   Depressing news it certainly was and that’s probably why it’s four in the morning and I’m completely intoxicated. I remember taking a bus from the 519 Community Centre and heading out to some hotel in Scarborough. This was the rendezvous point for the racists. The idea for them was that they meet there and pass on the info about the concert location … hoping that their brains aren’t as bugged as their phones.

    Bands to play were the Angry Aryans, Vinland Warriors and Stonehammer. At least it would’ve been that way if it hadn’t all fizzed out for them. We got off the bus and picketed the hotel. There was this chick with us doing a film feature on her tits, and she had camera people along to film a long four hour sequence of them … in the long grass and on the road and so on … and just where are the Nazis in this story. Guess it has to be that they showed up to run the picket line. One car zooming in on the west entrance, looping in a dead end parking lot and then careering around to take us by surprise and run up to the hotel. People chased those racists into the hotel grounds, where they got protected by cops and undercover cops and horses.

   There was this other car full of young racist types that got stopped by the picket line … or was it that they wanted to play games with us? And people were saying and wondering … how do you recognize a racist or a carload of them?

   I don’t know but I had a sure feeling that the young woman driving was doing a confrontation game to practice her acting skills in dealing with ARA people. She probably thought she was cool but wasn’t real enough to be more than a clever child.

   Our people were saying nasty things and the skinheads inside were probably genuine recipients of the ugly truth … but facts are that at that point and maybe some other ones, too … a sense of deep and rising love overtook me. You got all these people in the world saying Motherfucker this and Motherfucker that … at a meeting later Mumia’s lawyer was saying something about a phantom Motherfucker somewhere that fucked up the case or helped it or whatever. So I got this feeling of love for everyone. And when I say love I mean fuck the bastard Motherfuckers …………… but love them, too.

   You know that there’s hate and suspicion everywhere and couldn’t we just win big if we broke free of it all. Do I have the right to believe so big that it beats you up and cripples you? Even racists want to laugh … and could get it right if the hurt somewhere inside didn’t turn them into ugly motherfuckers.

    I wish I could take a picture of the reasons why, but I was never much of a photographer. Sorry about all those pictures I fucked up … dear mother.

   But so what, eh?

   You wouldn’t be here if you believed in me … or in any other motherfucker ... there is no tomorrow and yesterday never happened. It’s a nightmare when the music’s over and you’ve become a neo-Nazi.

   We can see our own bad dreams … yet our society is full of kind compensation for the cruel and the racist.

   Tracy, I loved you so long ago … still do, and now I love the freedom and innocence no one would allow you to  have.

   Why is it that when freedom and innocence are gone, only neo Nazis are left?

Gary for CitizensontheWeb.com

Contact
ARA can be reached at <ara@web.net>.
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Guerilla Gardening in a Chemtrail Jungle– May.27.2002

* Notes on a Guerilla Gardening expedition. (Be aware that the names have been changed in this article, to protect the innocent.)

   Imagine a city with endless kilometers of concrete ... big roaring trucks, spiteful motorists and nasty locals with lawnmowers and leaf blowers … sending out a blue miasma that rolls and seeps everywhere … choking the homeless in every alley … killing you, too … if you aren’t homeless and half dead already.

   Then open your eyes and find yourself in Toronto on a spring day and say … Geeze, I was imagining things like they are now.

   It’s the reason people show when the call comes out from the public space committee for Guerilla Gardening.
   Secret message as follows:
   Guerilla Gardening - Every Sunday night
   Under the cover of darkness, we plant seeds and seedlings in all those neglected corners of public space. Join us as we vandalize the city with nature …
----

   Sunny skies and Sunday’s can sometimes end in twilight, chemtrails and tears … I saw some of that as I got around the corner to join the guerilla gardening crew.

   This was a special location. People were already gathered in a circle in the grass, with one woman weeping and showing other signs of upset and confusion.

   I wondered what it was about as I sat. Briefly I considered panicking, too. Then I decided against it and listened to an argument that went like this. Carla (let’s name her that) a person in the public space committee, was upset over the planning and nature of the Guerilla Gardening expedition. There were a number of grievances … one the day being Sunday and a Buddhist holiday. Another was the use of the word guerilla (some people think that’s too radical).

   The key complaint was our apparent callous attitude toward plants. We were going to go out there with spades and water cans to a pre selected rubble-filled vacant lot and plant things … possibly killing lichens on rocks we overturned. Not only that but we planned on gardening without first consulting the community at large as to its opinions on our actions. Worst of all we weren’t going to take care of the delicate green stuff we planted. As a Buddhist, this upset her principles to the point that she took guerilla action against guerilla gardening.

   As I listened with the rest of the rather amazed group, I learned that she’d chalked the selected property with messages against our gardening, got the property owner up to threatening to call police … and if more people weren’t showing it was because she’d managed to fool the e-list person into sending out a notice saying the event was cancelled.

   As Dan (let’s call him that) tried to calm her down and address her concerns, people in the circle passed a small spade and introduced themselves. Following that we immediately went into discussion and planning. In spite of the obstacles, the guerilla gardeners remained unperturbed.

   The gardening on the planned vacant property ended up cancelled and scouts were sent out on bicycles to find another location. Discussion continued till they returned and others arrived. Planting materials arrived and finally we were ready for action.

   We marched off in the descending darkness to do a planting around the edge of a parking lot. And yes … in the secret shadows of night, we did plant … and water with cans, constantly refilled at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. We left Toronto a tiny bit greener … and ourselves a tiny bit happier at having done something. During the planting the police did crawl by in a cruiser … but the staring officers were unable to figure out what guerilla gardening was or whether it was illegal. They ended up driving off without questioning us.

   I found that people had gone guerilla gardening for various reasons. Some were attracted to anarchist public space action. Others wanted green action. I like anything that has something to do with freedom and an escape from a rotten society. Julie (let’s call her that) simply wants to learn and practice gardening.

   The person with the most interesting reason was Kevin (let’s call him that). To him gardening is a spiritual thing. He’s studied religion deeply and can tie your head in knots when he talks about it. Take those thick texts aside and he’s got a few things that release his spiritual side. One is yoga, but the key one is gardening. He feels best when he’s out building nature with gardening groups.

   Wouldn’t Guerilla Gardening as a religion be great? Instead of sitting around in dull churches, temples, mosques and synagogues … the masses would go under cover of darkness and plant on Sunday nights. We’d green the world and defeat the forces of evil … and we could howl at the moon and plant even more without the police stopping us … because freedom of religion is a Charter right.

   It’s too bad we haven’t done that already, and I recall one critic of Guerilla Gardening saying – Dan has really gone too far with this radical stuff. The public is not going to tolerate people that tear up concrete and plant stuff there!

   But are those concrete lovers the public or the forces of Beelzebub?

   Perhaps the answer is in what happened later. Our Guerilla Gardening crew went for beer and in the late night as I stepped out of the place, feeling spiritual and staggering … I looked up and saw George Bush driving a big mother of a rig across the sky. He was laying a monster of a chemtrail up there.

   Next day I found one of our tiny gardens destroyed, with a big tire track on top of the crushed plants.

   So perhaps we have to keep up the fight. George Bush isn’t going to give up easily.

   This report for http://CitizensontheWeb.com  by (let’s call me Jerry).
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Guerilla Gardening - Every Sunday night

     Under the cover of darkness, we plant seeds and seedlings in all those neglected corners of public space. Join us as we vandalise the city with nature.
     Gather at the streetcar loop on Bathurst, just north or Queen. Meet at 8 pm, departure at 9 pm.
     Bring a shovel, some seeds, some water and some friends!
     http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm
     info@publicspace.ca    or   Lisa K <aio@linuxmail.org>
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Marijuana March – Grass Makes You Green– May.5.2002

Digital Photos by Gary Morton
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/grass1.jpg
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   The young turned out by the thousands for Toronto’s yearly marijuana march and celebration. As always smoke was in the air … with music and different approaches to cannabis.

   Some people want to push it as a medical miracle, others a recreational drug. Most think smoking is a right … and then you can make food, fuel and clothes from hemp. Not to mention hemp ice cream.

   As a senior person there (being over 25 makes you a senior at the grass march) with past dealings with government, my advice is to run a Grass Makes you Green Campaign.

   Green being the color you turn before you die … and let me explain … I am supporting legalization … but I take a realistic view of what gets legalized.

   The latest reports are that North America is a land of fatsos. People are a mess from enjoying the wonderful things government legalizes. Booze and pills and Big Macs, plus processed crap and GMO junk food.

   We’ve likely all got orange interiors and green-lined intestines. In parts of the States 60 percent of the people are certified as obese. So let’s say that grass will make them even fatter and uglier. They’ll get the munchies. The slobs will eat Whoppers till their faces are goo pies. Then they’ll have heart attacks and die … but only after costing Medicare a fortune.

   Grass will make them lazy, and in those remaining communities that still have sidewalks and places to go on foot, these lazy people will resort to auto use and produce even more fat and pollution.

   Memory loss, too. Let’s say that grass makes you forgetful … these slobs will forget to turn on their air conditioners on hot days and die … thus saving Osama bin Laden a lot of planning and work.

   In some ways grass is lacking. It tends to make folks peaceful and that’s not the way to please our warlike government … so let’s say that kids that smoke up want to kill, kill, kill and join the army.

   And how about animal cruelty? There’s none of it in grass growing, which is too bad from a political standpoint. I mean look at the Canadian government right now. All sorts of politicians speaking against a new bill to punish animal torturers, on the basis that factory farmers might get sued for cruelty. Wouldn’t it be a shame if animals weren’t on the receiving end of unbelievably gross caging and cruelty in that industry? If processed meat and other garbage production got stopped we wouldn’t be able to fill our bellies with hot dogs, pepperoni and other packaged filth that immediately turns into a swill of cancer causing nitrates and steroids in our intestines.

   Yes, it’d be best to say that grass is cured in the blood of tormented animals, and that it goes great with beef pies. Then there’d really be government support for legalization.

   So some day maybe the cannabis lobby will get it right. But for now and today they’re saying We’re Here! We’re High! Get Used to It!

Links
http://cannabisclub.ca/
http://cannabisclub.ca/links.html
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Peace Action Coalition Marches in Toronto - Sat Apr 27 2002

Digital Photos by Gary Morton

http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tpac1.jpg
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   The 44 political action and citizens’ groups composing the Toronto Peace Action Coalition staged an action for global peace today. Themes of the rally and march were Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan; End the Israeli Occupation of Palestine; No U.S. Nuclear Blackmail; No to U.S. intervention in Columbia; No New War on Iraq; End the Sanctions; Defend Civil Liberties; Stop the Racist Backlash, Another World is Possible!
   NDP MPP Peter Kormos, Hanadah Loubani of Palestine House and others addressed the crowd at Queen’s Park. They called for an end to the violent Israeli occupation and illegal settlement of the West Bank.
   A long march took the demonstrators around downtown Toronto through U of T to the Israeli Consulate and down to the US Consulate on University.
   The diversity of the groups and chants was obvious to residents as they watched the march pass. One reason for such a long public march may have been the refusal of the corporate media to report in any depth on peace protests and dissent. As rallies and marches on peace and poverty issues are ignored this spring, organizations continue to increase street visibility to make up for the lack of media exposure.
   It is not necessary for Canadians to die in Afghanistan, killed by reckless American bombers in a war that is not a war, so armchair bullies here can cheer for bloodshed and a Canadian combat role. Yet TPAC and the Independent Media are the only forces in society informing the public fully on these issues.
   Similar protests were held in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

Contact TPAC
Info: Paul 416-406-8645/978-8741
toanti_war@hotmail.com (Toronto Peace Action Coalition)
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Toronto - Concerned People march for Palestinian Rights - April.21.2002
Photos by Gary Morton

http://frightlibrary.org/pic/pales1.jpg
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Today's Rally- report back- Sun, 21 Apr 2002
From: Max Silverman <joeyjoejoe@rogers.com>

   Hello, this is Max Silverman with a report back from today's Muslim-organized rally for peace in the Holy Land.

   Today in downtown Toronto close to 10,000 people marched. The largest march we've ever had was 3,000. Today was 10,000.

   The leadership of the march was EXCELLENT. Before the march started, they made NUMEROUS announcements that "Any signs with any hate should be taken down". Thus all Zionism=Nazism or Magen David= Swastika signs WERE removed. Most signs spoke of Ending the Occupation, questing for peace, and stopping the bloodshed.

   The problem for me started, however, when I pulled out my Jewish Youth Against the Occupation sign and a number of people made strange faces, some whispered things, and some just stared at it. Only about 3 people thanked me. I was then told by Marshalls that it was "For my own safety to take down the sign". This kind of off-put me, but I understand and appreciate the Marshall's efforts. I did take down the sign, and am happy for doing it. At a number of points throughout the rally I heard non-Arabs (white non-Arabs that is) being yelled at because "this isn't their issue, it's an Arab issue". Imagine if they had known I was Jewish?

   On the one hand, there were the reactionary, non-progressive elements of the demonstration. There were 5 Hizbollah flags. CONSTANT shouting of "Allah ouh Akhbar" (my apologies for spelling) and a number of references (in Arabic) to God helping the Muslims defeat the Jews again.

   On the OTHER hand, I saw some very touching things. I saw families united for peace. One girl, around 7, touched my heart. She was standing with a sign that said simply "Friends" and had an Israeli and Palestinian flags. I went over and thanked her and her mother for coming and being so peace friendly. I explained that I was from Jewish Youth Against the Occupation, and they seemed delighted. I gave the girl some peace-friendly stickers and I was on my way.

   I think that definitely there were problems with the demo, mainly that it will go down in the media (I'm guessing) as "Muslims March for Palestine" not "Concerned People march for Palestinian Rights". But I also think that it is AMAZING that nearly 10,000 people marched for Palestinian rights in Toronto, where numbers have NEVER been so high since the Vietnam War (so I'm told).

Anyhow, Cudos to ALL the organizers
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Facts on the Occupation and the Palestinian Cause
(from flyers distributed at the Demonstration.)
Condensed by Gary Morton

Israel and Palestine:
   In 1917 the British intended to create a Jewish State in Palestine. At that time the population was 90 percent Arab and 97.5 percent of the land was owned by Muslims and Christians. The British created Israel in 1947, partitioning Palestine into two states. Israel was given 54 percent of historic Palestine and immediately conflict broke out. 800,000 Palestinians fled their homes.
   In 1967 Israel occupied the rest of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza).
   At 5 million, the Palestinians are the largest and oldest group of refugees in the world. They accuse Israel of having used war and terror to take their land.

The Cause:
   Canadian Palestinians believe the Israeli occupation is the root of suffering and violence in the holy land.
   Israel’s occupation has been declared illegal under international law. Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal under international law.
   Israel has become the world’s fourth most powerful military nation, using a large chunk of 95 billion dollars in US aid (1949 to 2001) to buy weapons.

The Palestinian State:
   In 2,000 a Palestinian State was offered by Israel at the Camp David Accords. It was to be composed of homeland areas, similar to those is apartheid South Africa. Israeli settlements would remain intact and Israel would control the water, maintain Jewish-only roads and a military presence. Since the offer was weak it was rejected.

   As the violence continues, the Israelis use heavy weapons like tanks and F-16 fighter planes against civilians. Though Israel says it is fighting a war on terror, 84 percent of those killed are civilians, including children.

   Water is rationed to Palestinians, and they can’t go on Jewish-only roads. Though all Jews that migrate to Israel are given automatic citizenship, 5 million Palestinians are denied the right to return. Discrimination against Palestinians is widespread and systematic even though they are citizens of Israel proper. They are denied democratic rights and most basic of legal and human rights.
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Palestinians Protest in Toronto– Sat.March.30.2002
(On Easter Sunday World moves toward WWIII)

* This report by Gary Morton

   Palestinian Canadians and supporters held a rally and march at Queen’s Park today. It reflected continued opposition to Israel's military occupation of Palestinian land that has continued since March 30th, 1976. At that time six Palestinian Arab Israelis were killed during protests against massive land confiscations by the Israeli government.

   The Toronto march included some Jewish citizens and went to the US and Israeli Consulates. An Israeli flag was burned and one man got charged with breach of the peace.

Photo: Freedom Fighters are not Terrorists
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/pala1.jpg
 

   Similar protests took place world wide, with the theme being the volatile conflict in the Middle East. The UN has expressed grave concern, at both recent suicide bombings and the military attack against Arafat's headquarters. The Security Council has called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities including Ramallah and for both parties to move immediately to a meaningful ceasefire.

   In Ramallah on the West Bank, Israeli troops have rounded up hundreds of Palestinian men for questioning. Five Palestinian police officers are thought to have been executed by the troops. A curfew has been imposed and Yasser Arafat remains penned up and under fire in his office.

   Like past Israeli actions engineered by Ariel Sharon, this one is supposed to end terrorism and suicide bombings … and like the others it will fail and only cause an increase in the daily terror. As always, reprehensible Israeli military attacks on innocent Palestinian civilians and children will be met by equally reprehensible suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.

   Though Sharon is demanding that Arafat end the suicide attacks, Arafat does not have the power to do it. Militant groups like Hezbollah, based outside of the West Bank, are promising vengeance for Israeli raids. They are increasingly taking over in the suicide campaign. Many observers say that Sharon will get the war he deserves if he executes Arafat and puts the militants in control.

   Due to Sharon’s policies in the West Bank and his new raid on Syria, the Arab world is now uniting behind the militants. Combined with US President George Bush’s desire for a new war on Iraq at a most inopportune time, total war could break out in the Middle East and explode further into a WW3 situation.

   In the West and elsewhere the tendency is to side with either the Palestinian or Israeli regimes and not with peace and the innocent people being killed. The photo above is a good example. It shows a Palestinian protester in Toronto expressing feelings that suicide bombers are really freedom fighters. On the other side of the coin are supporters of Israel that claim that country’s violent military excursions into the West Bank are necessary actions to prevent terrorism. It is a classic example of no justice, no peace. Persecution of the Palestinians must end for peace to be possible, and that can’t happen as long as Sharon controls Israel with the backing of George Bush.

   The Palestinian and Israeli leaderships are engineering reprehensible violence and war on civilians. Only a serious peace plan enforced by the West and the UN can begin to wind down both the suicide attacks and Israeli military violence.

   A strong attempt for peace is not being made, meaning the violence will spin out of control further and we’ll likely see hatred and terrorist attacks expand to the West, Canada and Toronto.

   At today’s rally Palestinians demanded an end to the Israeli occupation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and immediate protection for civilians and refugees from Israeli military and settlers’ violence. They also want an end to settlements and movement toward their complete dismantlement.

Details - email Campaign to End Occupation at:
PRRC_Canada@yahoo.ca, no_to_occupation@hotmail.com
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Free Tibet in 2002 – Rally Notes and Photos (March.10.2002)

Digital Photos:
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tibet1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tibet2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tibet3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/tibet4.jpg

   Flurries sailed in icy winds. Gusts tore at the faces, flags and signs of protesters gathering at Queen’s Park. In the shifting sun and cloud it was so cold that Toronto felt like the peaks of Tibet.

   Voices, songs and messages for a Free Tibet carried over the grounds, and during the moments of silence the racing snap of the flags carried me with the others to an older Tibet. It was a beautiful land and now it has been ruined by the Chinese invasion.

   Tibetans have many reasons to be angry. A purpose when they march and chant in the hundreds to the Chinese embassy in Toronto.

   Here are some of the Evils of China’s takeover in Tibet:

Genocide:
- Since China invaded 1.2 million Tibetans have perished thru torture, starvation and execution.
- China’s Final Solution on resettlement has Chinese outnumbering Tibetans in Tibet.
- Tibetan youth are ruined thru the sale of cheap alcohol and cigarettes.

World Bank Resettlement:
- The World Bank is pushing a China Western Poverty Reduction Project to move Chinese into traditional Tibetan areas.

Denial of Human Rights:
- Forced sterilization of Tibetan women inside Tibet.
- Political trials fall far short of international standards.
- Local police control administrative detention where prisoners are re-educated through forced labour.
- Freedom of religion curtailed.
- Lhasa now has more prisons than monasteries.

Military Invasion:
- 300,000 Chinese troops in Tibet in control of nuclear missiles planted there.

Extermination of Endangered Animals:
- Trophy hunting in Tibet encouraged by the Chinese with 81 endangered species on the Tibetan plateau.

Environmental Damage:
- Old growth forests clear-cut.
- Hydro-electric projects have caused fresh water to dry up.
- Large scale mining has resulted in soil erosion, pollution.

   This year the Canada Tibet Committee has launched a cross-Canada Campaign. For information about Campaign 2002 and how you can help, e-mail C2002@tibet.ca

Links:
http://www.tibet.ca/
http://www.tibet.ca/toronto/
Students for a Free Tibet
http://www.tibet.ca/~sft/index_en.html

* These notes and photos by Gary Morton for http://CitizensontheWeb.com
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Notes and Photos on INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2002
Unite for Peace & Global Justice - Sat Mar 2.2002
Organized by Women Working with Immigrant Women

Digital Photos of the 2002 Toronto March:

http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend1.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend2.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend4.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend5.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend6.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend7.jpg
http://frightlibrary.org/pic/womend8.jpg

   The Toronto event usually gets little coverage in the big media. Mainly because of corporate media control and its desire to put forward only a few issues as women’s issues. The big picture of discrimination that is addressed by radical feminists is something newspapers and TV can’t cope with.

   Marginalization is something Sandra Douglas addressed at the podium. She said the women’s movement is being forced to the margin, so that women can’t fight.

   As executive coordinator of NAC and a member of many other groups, Sandra sees the big picture our government wants to hide. And she began by moving the audience in a chant – What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!

   Sandra heatedly notes that women are bearing the brunt of the health care crisis. When we talk about homelessness and poverty we are talking about a majority of women that are suffering with their children. Domestic workers and immigrants are exploited, and since Sept 11th 2001, marginalization, inequality and oppression are increasing.

   A neo-liberal agenda of trade liberalization, deregulation and privatization is decimating civil liberties. It is a structured agenda of government that is victimizing women, and Sandra says it must be challenged, countered and resisted by the masses. The women’s movement must stand up against oppression. It cannot stand back.

   Following Sandra, Asa Ibrahim of Afghan Women took the podium and gave us a view of war and peace the media does not present. She says we must listen to the voices … the despair and fear of Afghan women … for a solution to the conflict. The plight of women – rape, starvation, pain and suffering - does not receive the attention it deserves.

   Human rights violations have been tolerated in the past by the International Community. The truth of the bombing is that poor and disabled children suffer the most. Hundreds of thousands have died in the bombing of homes, schools and playgrounds. Many are left crippled and limbless and they suffer further from collapsed education and health systems. Currently Afghans make up the largest refugee community in the world, and it is mostly women and children.

   Regeneration of Afghan society requires trained professionals. Aid must foster income generation and self sufficiency, not dependence. Aid that is attuned to the needs of those it is intended to serve.

   In the end Asa agrees with the UN view that the world can never be at peace unless people have security in their daily lives.

    Sherrie MacDonald followed Asa and told us whose interests our government protects.

   She noted that the Harris government is docking the cheques of many welfare recipients, claiming they were overpaid. Yet that same government won’t pay back overpayments it received.

   In Toronto the city government is putting major funds into World Catholic Youth Day and its anti Women agenda.

   My own comment on IWD is that the rest of the year is getting to be a lot like an International Corporate Men’s Day. We need a better society, so though I’m a man, I always attend IWD.

   Things are different this year … much worse in the USA where George Bush has announced that he is spending billions on a social campaign to force women to marry. According to the Bush people the solution to every woman’s problem is a man. A lot of women probably see it the other way and feel that the cause of nearly every problem has been a man.

   Bush calls it morality and embraces a right wing theory that sees single women, single moms and women in living poverty as immoral beings in need of correction. It never occurs to these people that it would be immoral for a woman to keep herself and her children locked into a bad relationship with a man.

   In the end I think they are trying to marginalize women and perhaps marginalize all intelligent people by expecting us to accept Stone Age morality and discrimination in 2002.

Contact Women Working With Immigrant Women
489 College St. Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 963-4420
email: iwdtoronto@hotmail.com
2001 WOMEN'S DAY website

This report by Gary L. Morton
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Notes on the Ontario Health Coalition Save Medicare Action Plan
By Gary Morton Feb.3.2002
   The premiers and the feds would have us believe we are in a health care crisis. But are we really running out of money in Ontario when Mike Harris just gave 2.2 billion dollars in tax cuts to big corporations? Health care spending has actually shrunk in Ontario despite the aging population, and many people believe the health care crisis has been manufactured so cutbacks in care can fund tax cuts. And of course privatization will benefit the large health care corporations that give generously to politicians.
   Ontario’s Health Coalition has decided to intensify the struggle for full public health care. During a series of public meetings across the province they have decided to go door to door with a personal appeal. The campaign will begin at the end of February with the opening of a number of campaign offices and it will lead to a national Medicare for Life Day in spring. The day will feature pro Medicare lawn signs, ribbons, and window signs and so on.
   Tied to this are other committees and actions – women’s initiative, student essay contest, testimonials, campus campaigns, community forums and tours.
   Contact: Ontario Health Coalition (416) 441 2502  e-mail ohc@sympatico.ca web http://www.web.net/ohc

   A number of health care fact flyers you can distribute now reveal that the solutions governments are proposing for Medicare are non answers.
- User Fees: Penny wise and pound foolish. No money is saved and the rich still see their doctors while the poor and low income must cut back.
- Public Private Partnerships: Hospitals owned by the private sector thru these deals are far more costly and deliver lower quality service. They are a problem not a solution.
- Medical Savings Accounts: User fees for the sick. Each person gets an allowance to spend on health care. When the allowance runs out you must pay fees. This system victimizes the sick, rewards the healthy with rebates and it is costly as it requires an expensive administration to run it.
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Notes on the Canada for Argentina Solidarity March – Feb.3.2002

Photos:

   The Canadian government has been a long time supporter of the International Monetary Fund, and Argentina is the latest of a long list of countries destroyed by its policies. Again we have evidence of our government acting in the worst interests internationally, while the citizens of the nation wish to act for the well being of peoples in other nations.

Contact Canada for Argentina
can4arg@hotmail.com

By Gary Morton
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Photos - Bloor West for Peace Protests Canada Sending Combat Troops to Afghanistan - Jan.12,2002