On This Page
Overview of the Pope Squat by Stephanie
Holliday
Photos of the Pope Squat Toronto by
Indy Media & Gary Morton
Notes on the Pope Squat by Gary Morton
Politically Correct at the Squat and
Elsewhere – Gary Morton
Pope Squat –City Council Moves for Control
- news
Squat Gun Control by Gary Morton
Pope Squat update - Tooker
Our Garden Utopia - by Mike Smith
squat update - August 6 by Lisa K
Overview of the Pope Squat
From: "Stephanie Holliday" <stephanie_holliday@hotmail.com>
Not a one night banner hanging
event, the Pope Squat at 1510 King Street West in Toronto is materializing
into the sustainable social housing complex that OCAP envisioned.
The building, which once provided
low income housing rooms has sat vacant after city officials evicted the
tenants in October 2000. It was claimed by OCAP on Thursday July 25 with
the support of CUPE Ontario, Canadian Auto Workers, Metro Network for Social
Justice, Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association and Challenge the
Church.
When the march of over 500 arrived
at the location, squatters had already entered and taken over the building,
locking themselves in as a safeguard against police action. If police did
forcefully remove the squatters, the squat action wouldn’t be jeopardized
because of the mass support of those outside the squat.
Speeches, dancing and celebration
followed for a brief period until it was decided to keep the noise level
low. Improvements to the building began immediately as contingents of people
scoured nearby garbage for useful furniture. Within an hour couches, love
seats, recliners, mattresses, tables, bookshelves and kitchen chairs had
been salvaged from their imminent landfill visit.
Settled on the new furniture to
stay the night, people remained awake and alert, unsure of what to expect
from the police. Donations of pizza, pop, coffee and tea were dropped of
by supportive neighbours.
The squat was opened to all at nine
a.m the next morning. The house is in dire need of repairs with mold encasing
the walls of much of the second story. Apparently when tenants were evicted
they were not permitted to retrieve their belongings and books, shoes,
beds, televisions, stereos and beer bottles cover the floor space. Walls
are rotting and the smell of mold and decay is overwhelming. We were warned
before entering to wear a face mask, and not to enter at all if anyone
had respiratory problems. Much of this damage appears to have been present
while the building was still in use, as twenty five work orders had been
issued by the time tenants were evicted.
Since Thursday night repairs and
construction have been ongoing, gardens have been planted and events such
as film nights, DJ’s, street festivals and live acoustic performances have
been held to promote community involvement.
The location chosen by OCAP was
researched and deliberate because it’s ownership is in legal limbo. Technically
owned by 459105 Ontario Ltd, the Mississauga corporation lost its corporate
status eight years ago because of unpaid taxes, which according to a Toronto
Star article, currently total $38,127.16.
It is uncertain whether ownership
lies with the city or the province. Under the Business Corporation Act
when a corporation no longer exists, ownership is relegated to the province.
Yet the unpaid taxes could place ownership with the municipality of Toronto.
Mel Lastman, who last week suggested
homeless people be swept off the streets to improve tourism has remained
silent on the OCAP squat. Police maintain they are investigating the question
of ownership before they make any moves.
If either levels of government own
the building they cannot justify evicting the squatters when the support
of the community is behind them and work has been ongoing to create a community
centre and social housing complex. This act should not be looked at as
radical, and those involved should not be treated as criminals. What is
criminal is the two to four
homeless people who die each week on the streets
of Toronto and the negligence of our government. The squat is a practical
solution to an escalating crisis that must be addressed.
--------
Photos of the Pope Squat Toronto
by Indy
Media & Gary Morton
Sunday Service
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatc1.jpg
Guerrilla Gardening
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatc2.jpg
Guerrilla Gardening
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatc3.jpg
Don Entertains
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb1.jpg
Garden Starts to Grow at the Front
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb3.jpg
Sexy Graffiti
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb4.jpg
Graham and Henry
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb5.jpg
The Wall
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb6.jpg
Front and Wish List
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb7.jpg
Lisa at the Door
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squatb.jpg
Sarah as the Building is Taken
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat.jpg
Fight to Win Steps
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat1.jpg
Green Graffiti
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat2.jpg
March to the Squat
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat3.jpg
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat4.jpg
The Banners Go Up
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat5.jpg
Balcony on the Squat
http://frightlibrary.orgpic/squat6.jpg
--------
Notes on the Pope Squat
- from the July 16 Civil Liberties Panel
John Clarke and Jaggi Singh spoke
tonight at the 519 on issues of civil liberties.
Clarke did a small outline on the
upcoming OCAP housing action. The Pope Squat begins Thursday, July 25th
at 7pm. People are to meet at Masaryk Cowan Park (Queen St. W. & Cowan
Ave - east of Lansdowne, west of Dufferin - in Parkdale!)
The initial post says OCAP is calling
on all poor and working people, Catholics and social activists to open
an abandoned building during the Pope's visit to Toronto. This is part
of an effort to create genuine affordable housing.
Another group called Challenge
the Church notes that the City of Toronto is spending more than 19 million
dollars to facilitate the Pope and Catholic youth. This is public money
for the purpose of bringing tourist dollars to local businesses, but not
social justice and housing to residents of Toronto.
Four of OCAP’s key demands in the
Pope Squat are:
- an end to economic evictions.
- the creation of effective rent controls.
- a supply of 2,000 units of social housing per
year in Toronto.
- and for the squat building to open as a self
managed housing project.
A discussion on the Pope Squat takes
place at a Community Meal in Parkdale Saturday July 20th. (2 pm in Masaryk
Cowan Park).
According to Clarke, the Squat action
is not a challenge the police thing where activists want to prove they
can hold a building in the face of police assaults. It is intended as a
broader effort that will include many groups. Students and teachers and
people from a large list of organizations endorsing the Squat will take
part in it.
The city will either have to open
the building or continue to guard it as plans are to keep returning if
forced out by police violence. Plans are to have a large body of supporters
outside the building at all hours and to bring in donated repair and cleaning
equipment to fix the building. People with skills and stuff to donate and
who want to endorse the Squat should call OCAP and leave a message for
John Clarke, 416-925-6939. You can also just donate your body as a squatter.
Jaggi Singh spoke on police behaviour
at a similar Squat that took place in Ottawa as part of the Take the Capital
protests last month. Police liaison officers were at first friendly with
the squatters, using the event and the attending media as vehicles for
police propaganda. The public saw friendly police acting with a concern
for social justice. Until a few days later when they suddenly swept in
to cordon off the whole block, arresting even spectators as they used cherry
pickers, battering rams and huge canisters of pepper spray to route the
squatters.
Their intention had never really
been to be friendly, and in Toronto at the last OCAP housing action Police
Chief Julian Fantino rushed in immediately to order an assault on the Squat
with pepper spray guns and riot cops. Patrons at a nearby tavern shouted
at Fantino, some of them comparing him to Mussolini. And that dictator
comparison was a good one, considering that Julian Fantino did not even
apply for the job of Toronto Police Chief. Norm Gardner, Jeffrey Lyons
and two Tory appointees turned the selection process into a coup. Other
candidates quit in anger as Fantino was suddenly rubber-stamped as chief
on the basis that he would represent a certain power elite and their war
on the poor policies.
Carry Fantino’s arrogant style over
to the Pope’s visit and the Pope Squat, and you can see that this man will
probably go over the top and create an ugly scene of police violence.
According the Jaggi the Feds and
the Cops now like to divide and conquer by creating the idea of good and
bad protesters. So it seems to me that OCAP is creating a diverse group,
all of which will be doing something Fantino and some city politicians
see as bad. And in so doing, refusing to allow the police and politicians
to define what actions can be taken for social justice … for the poor and
for the homeless.
And just what vision do police have
for social justice? Try asking Fantino at:
Chief Julian Fantino
Toronto Police Services
40 College Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5G 2J3
OCAP is at
http://www.ocap.ca
- These notes by Gary Morton, posted at http://CitizensontheWeb.com
-------
Politically Correct at the Squat and Elsewhere
– Aug.01.2002
The Free U of T is debating whether
to disallow courses of questionable benefit, like a new one on Becoming
a Wealth Magnet through Hypnotism.
Such a course does look like Capitalism
of the worst sort and politically incorrect. Maybe a more correct title
would be Becoming Invisible to the Police through Hypnotism.
In the Public Space Committee, Guerilla
Gardening got attacked as politically incorrect by a woman who thinks the
name is Warlike. She wants it called Peace Gardening, and is filling up
people’s answering machines with hundreds of crazy messages. She also wants
to camp out for a hunger strike on the organizer’s doorstep and is threatening
to kill herself.
It looks like both names are politically
correct, but the truth is that Guerilla Gardening is the politically correct
name as people participating always vote to call it that … regardless of
suicide threats.
Up at the Pope Squat there was controversy
over a mural painted on the wall composing the front porch of the squat.
A group of people worked on it as a community effort, but things went awry
when an image of a naked black woman got into the mural and there were
cries of Racism and Sexism. In the end parts of the artwork got painted
over.
So what is politically correct here?
My advice would be to do a mural as an idea of the kind of art folks in
that neighbourhood would want to see. Maybe one of those people murals.
I’ve been up there in Parkdale mostly
late at night and people I’ve seen around the neighbourhood come to mind.
First there are the forty-five–year-old prostitutes we see on the way to
the donut shop or bar. Then there are the johns that pull over and harass
women from the squat as they walk down the street. They even tried to pick
me up a day ago and I’m a guy.
A few mentally disturbed people
are always around, like the long haired guy who tried to borrow money off
me the other night. He wore a long sleeved shirt and no pants, explaining
to me that his mother stole his pants and wallet so he had to panhandle.
Of course the police are always
driving by. Another person I met was Richie, a normal person for a change.
He grew up there and came by late Monday night to sit at the front steps
of the squat. Mainly on the idea that a lot of people expected that if
there was to be a raid it would be at that time. So he was a positive person
coming by to get arrested with us.
Yet not everyone is positive. There
is the nasty neighbour that screams from his window … F this and F that
and F…ng bums and you’re all fags. Or the carpenter next door that comes
by to get plastered and play a guitar with four strings on it.
I do love the little people so they
represent the late-night Parkdale I know and love. And I’d put them in
any mural. First I’d have the Pope at centre of the art, with the female
United Church minister who did a ceremony at the squat at his right. To
the left I’d have Richie, then I’d put in the cops driving by, johns waving
from their cars, some forty-five –year-old prostitutes grinding their hips,
our psychiatric patient grinning as he panhandles wearing no pants, our
drunk carpenter playing his guitar and the nasty neighbour flipping the
bird and captioned with a few lines of his homophobic rant.
Here you have a politically correct
mural. And who could object to it … I mean, there aren’t any naked black
women in it are there?
By Gary Morton http://CitizensontheWeb.com
--------
Pope Squat –City Council Moves for Control
Thurs Aug.01.2002
In clarification to an earlier
post, City Council supported a motion from Parkdale Councillor Kris
Korwin-Kuczynski at 5 pm Thursday August 1, 2002.
That motion says that the city has
discovered that the Province owns the Pope Squat at 1510 King West. Council
is requesting that the Province turn the property over to the City for
possible use as affordable housing, and that it be understood that squatters
must immediately vacate the property.
In a phone call with Tooker Gomberg,
Kris Korwin-Kuczynski was quite forceful in calling for the squatters to
get out. And KKKs motives have to be considered suspect as he may only
want the city to gain control of the property in order to expel people,
after which the city will do nothing for a long time. It may be that the
city can’t use police to expel people from the squat when the Province
is the owner and hasn’t authorized that action.
Gary Morton
Editor at CitizensontheWeb.com
--------
Squat Gun Control
So we were at this food joint
around
1:30 am and Tooker had his video camera trained on David … the guy that
got swept up by undercover cops and the Emergency Task Force on Friday
after leaving the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty’s Pope Squat.
Serious and articulate, David talked
a strong story on police harassment and his support of the squat. I took
zero notes and have been drinking but some points of this offbeat tale
stick in memory.
As the story flies, when people were
cleaning up in the squat someone dug up an old air rifle. This puffer of
a weapon either got into view or into the minds of police spies, and they
sent in the Emergency Task Force. There was conflict, apparently people
opposed letting the police assault team inside. In the end they did get
in for a look around but found nothing of a criminal nature.
Later David got followed from the
squat and questioned by undercover cops, and after being released, followed
again and swept up by the Emergency Task Force … as they were looking for
who knows what. Apparently at the squat they wanted a guy all in black
with a gun. When they grabbed David they said it was for a bunch of drug
charges, including trafficking in narcotics. In custody he got spit on
and humiliated and so forth.
Yet he’s free, looking over his shoulder
and around now saying the cops wanted to get a look inside the squat. Some
people think maybe police chief Fantino is working on getting an incident
he can blow out of proportion, that will justify sending in heavily armed
head busters to end the squat story.
David thinks he got targeted because
he is the nephew of former police chief David Boothby. It could have been
cop connections affording him access to a gun, but he really thinks it
is the Fantino and cop hatred of Boothby that got him singled out. Boothby
was moderate in comparison to Fantino and Boothby nephew David is a guy
who is queer and proud of it.
I asked David if they tried to plant
narcotics on him. Wondering if they would try something like that to gain
a bust on the squat.
How the whole thing ends is a mystery
unless you can do fortune telling. Looks like the police are fishing. The
city, the province, the feds don’t want to negotiate on housing and poverty
issues. So Fantino will be moving with some plan to come in hard with his
cops … unless other forces of humanity appear and bend that angle.
People I talk to in the general public
wonder what the point of the squat is … and I don’t have answers unless
it is to say that I don’t want to live on the street and neither do you.
This report by Gary Morton for http://CitizensontheWeb.com
---------
Pope Squat update
Sat, 3 Aug 2002 18:43:02 -0400
From: greenspi@web.ca
Hi friends. If you haven't yet visited the Pope
Squat (1510 King street just east of Roncessvalles), we encourage you to
drop by any time day or night. There's always a large group hanging around
in the front and back yards, and very often there are speakers, music,
poetry, and movies after dark. There's even a solar panel out front, but
it doesn't seem to be working properly, so if you're a solar engineer (or
even a solar geek), please go see if you can get it running.
For more info on the squat, check out www.ocap.ca
It's an incredible gathering -- inspiring, hopeful,
radical. The article below is the best piece we've seen about the squat.
Also, all are invited to join an action to support
the Squat on Tuesday, August 6th. Meet at 11 a.m. at 1510 King Street OR
at noon outside City Hall (Queen and Bay) (Tokens will be provided)
To donate food, supplies or funds to the squatters,
drop by the squat or call 416-925-6939.
- t & a ---------
NOW Magazine, August 1-7
OUR GARDEN UTOPIA
PEACEFUL SIT-IN BEFUDDLES COPS
BY MIKE SMITH
IT'S A MONDAY EVENING IN Toronto
at the end of July. The weather is surprisingly cool, which means only
one thing: rain. But the dozen or so people lounging on a patchwork of
found couches in the backyard of 1510 King West aren't too alarmed when
the lightning starts out over the waterfront and threatens to blow in.
Rather, they matter-of-factly move the furniture under a tarp covering
a corner of the yard. Sure enough, the rain comes, and when the tarp starts
sagging, the loungers closest to both the problem and a hammer go about
rigging up extra support.
The most remarkable thing about the
process, though, is its organic nature. No one tells anyone what to do
(unless someone asks), and not everyone dealing with the tarp has a real
stake in what happens to the grungy couches.
That's the kind of spirit with which this place
is infused. It's a place where people work because they want to work and
live how they want to live, and the work doesn't feel like work and the
life feels more like life than usual. It's a place where you'll find delicious
free food, inspired impromptu performances, maybe even a generous masseuse
or two. It sometimes has upwards of 50 residents, but fewer arguments in
a day than you'd hear coming from a typical suburban house in an hour.
It's also illegal. Well, maybe not yet, but give
it time.
This is the Pope Squat, a former abandoned rooming
house in Parkdale that, in the process of being occupied to demand social
housing, has also turned into a living experiment.
It's here that we hope to reclaim the word "power"
from those who have abused it. That's what makes this space so crucial
-- for everyone, even those who don't know about it, or don't care. This
also makes it a threat, and is why many of the squatters assume that, despite
its unclear status (there is technically no owner, making the occupation
technically legal, or at least not illegal), the squat will soon come under
pressure from the powers that be.
On Friday, July 26, the day after the building
was liberated, the Emergency Task Force went in with submachine guns under
the pretense of looking for a weapon. Since there was a clear ban on anything
like that by organizers, most supporters take it as given that the police
just wanted to get a look at the inside of the building.
The media, entranced by their function as PBC
(the Papal Broadcasting Conglomerate), largely ignored the squat. This
place is a threat, to be sure. Not to the community around it (which has
largely welcomed it, with locals coming by to drop off food) and certainly
not to you or your neighbours. Rather, it's a potential threat to the credibility
of the Toronto police. How can Fantino continue his war against OCAP if
people are reading about how those nutty terrorists are carrying on their
unholy jihad by planting flower gardens and bickering over what to put
in wall murals?
And never before have people bickered so considerately.
The details aren't important; the discussions could have been about murals,
housing permits or puppies. The point is, many deemed the issues frivolous,
while others felt they were the point entirely. It was really about precedents
-- about finding ways to settle disagreements. If we can agree that art
(or any other supposedly esoteric thing) can be as important as a political
campaign, then not only do we set a dangerous precedent for the status
quo, but a remarkable precedent for ourselves, too.
The squat hasn't merely thrown a wrench (after
making all necessary house repairs involving a wrench, of course) into
the plans of the authorities; it's also a welcome kink in the perpetual-circular-motion
machine of current activist endeavours.
It's hard to ignore the fact that one of the most
inspiring political actions in recent memory was organized primarily by
the "bad" protestors, OCAP, who take almost as much flak from their supposed
comrades as they do from police and thought police alike.
Yet here it is, a community being built. Out in
the backyard, pacifists, unionists, Catholic Workers and class-war anarchists
share bagels and roti and grin at the beautiful artwork that now graces
the building's exterior.
But more importantly, the Pope Squat is a call
to justiceniks to start living up to our own rhetoric. Dozens of protests
have done little to carve out any sort of free space at all, but one single
direct action has created a small but thriving autonomous zone.
We truly can do things ourselves, without coercion
or the market, and without waiting for the revolution like WYD pilgrims
wait for the Rapture. Revolution is a daily choice.
Ever since protest became a four-letter word ("r-i-o-t"),
pundits have been tripping over their thesauruses to point out how activists
have no alternative, no model with which to lead people away from the consumer
death culture. Now the proof is in the pudding, or maybe the painting.
The way we organize to make our point is the real point. But now that paradigm
has been applied to the creation of a community. We're calling the media's
bluff, and the bluff of any activists spouting empty grandeur or self-righteous
condemnation. Sure, they can sling mud, but will they get dirty and do
a little gardening?
-------------
squat update
- August 6 by Lisa K
The Tuesday action at noon went to
city hall, then to the McDonald Block (a series of government buildings
around Bay and Wellesley). About 100 people were there, and the mood was
good, considering that it had all been organized in less than four days.
At city hall, we sent in a delegation to attempt to talk to Chris Korwin-Kuczynski
("KK", the city councillor for Ward 14, which includes 1510 King West).
They asked for our number and said that someone would call back, which
Kuczynski himself did later that day (multiple phone calls with threats
of sending the police in, telling us that the building will never be affordable
housing and it's our fault, etc). At the McDonald Block, security guards
blockaded us from going in the main entrance. We were there to talk to
people at the provincial registry and ask them to turn 1510 over to the
city (which prior to KK's phone calls had seemed to be in favour of the
affordable housing line). The guards said they need to "consult" with regard
to whether or not they would let a delegation of five people in to talk
to someone. They "consulted" for over an hour... the demonstration was
losing energy and some people were leaving, so we decided to send our delegation
(which ended up being only three people) through the back door. Myself,
Tim and Trish went (Tim and Trish being OCAP people if you don't know them).
We passed three security guards, but it was obvious that they didn't expect
us to go in that way, as they ignored us. We also ended up circling the
balcony on the second floor looking for an elevator - directly above all
the security that was trying to keep the demonstrators out. Eventually
we got to the elevators and the 12th floor, where we encountered the land
registry office locked, and two people inside: a woman who was staring
at us while talking on a phone, looking very, very nervous; and the same
security guard that had been previously blocking the door downstairs. He
called for backup, whom arrived on the elevator within 30 seconds, and
the three of them escorted us out. We tried talking to them a bit (one
person asked a guard to deliver a message to the people in the office -
that we want the province to turn over 1510 to the city, that it be converted
to housing and that other social housing units be built - but he just ignored
everything we said). We left, promising to return...
Ownership of the building is still
a big factor. Yesterday a few of us met with representatives of PARC (Parkdale
Activity - Recreation Centre, who have 10 units of self-managed housing
and had expressed interest in working with us), and the Co-op Housing Federation
of Toronto (who we were consulting about the viability of turning 1510
into a co-op). Basically, we found that PARC would like to work with us
on a temporary basis, is not really ready for much committment, and the
only way for us to get funding for a co-op would be to register as a "charitable
co-op" - which is legal as of a few weeks ago, but no one has tried it
yet, and Jon Harstone (the co-op guy) made some good arguments against
us going down that route... we decided at the general meeting last night
that the best option is simply to register as a charity ("The Norm Felts
Housing Society," in memory of a York professor who was a longtime supporter
of OCAP) and run the building as a co-op. The strategy, from August 1st
(the day of the city council motion to "turn 1510 into affordable housing,
on the condition that the squatters vacate immediately") until yesterday
was to negotiate whatever we can... but after talking to quite a few people
who are experienced in politics/media/housing, and also after receiving
the threatening calls from Korwin-Kuczynski, we decided that their supposed
offer wasn't to be taken seriously, and negotiating with them on those
grounds is an uphill battle that could end in complete failure, since they
never actually promised anything.
So we are resuming renovations and
activities - tomorrow ARA is having a party/movie night starting at 7:30,
saturday is a building day when we are having architects, plumbers, electricians,
etc to come in and work on the house, and Saturday night is also a party.
However the mood has changed in the last few days around the possibility
of a police raid. We had some time to relax, but now people are slightly
more on guard, since Adam Vaughn (CityTV reporter) called Sue (Collis)
yesterday, saying that the province was ready to announce ownership of
the house. As it turns out, they never made that announcement, but it is
still likely that either the city or the province will make a statement
of ownership soon... and unless they publically address the squatters'
hard work and right to be there (yeah, right), as soon as that statement
comes we have to worry about a possible raid. As you probably know, the
only reason the cops haven't come in yet is because they need the permission
of the owner of a property to evict anyone - the corporation that did own
the place is defunct as of 2000 (and had been skipping out on taxes and
city bills since the mid-90s), so they are not coming back to claim it.
That leaves the city and the province, and I doubt either of them are very
happy about us being there.
KK had originally offered to find
"housing" for four homeless people at the squat. His first offer was for
apartments - he then changed that to subsidized housing, then finally to
a spot in the city's shelter system. All of the four people have spent
time in shelters, and none want to go back, so we are not accepting his
offer (which was obviously crafted to give the cops justification to forceably
evict the squatters anyway). Consensus around the squat seems to be that
the time to be prepared for a raid is when someone claims ownership of
the building (which could be as soon as tomorrow or as late as October
- when the next city council meeting takes place).
In any case, repairs are still going
on, the atmosphere is very friendly, and I am continually inspired by the
dedicated people I have met and worked with. Updates and press clippings
can be found at http://www.ocap.ca/pope_squat.html
solidarity,
lisa
