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Occupy Toronto: Eviction part two

posted by justin

Occupy Toronto's Taylor Chelsea holds a copy of the church's 1959 Title Deed to parts of St. James Park (PHOTO: Justin Saunders)

one of the eviction notices posted by St. James Cathedral earlier today (PHOTO: Justin Saunders)

The sound of drums compete with church bells, as Occupy Toronto heads for an expected eviction showdown at midnight. The month-old encampment lost a key legal battle today, as an Ontario Superior Court judge issued a 54-page decision dismissing an injunction filed last week by several occupiers. Already, there are (unconfirmed) reports of police in garages and vehicles around St. James Park, and what may well be the camp's final General Assembly is underway at the gazebo.

Uncertainty had surrounded the injunction, which was mounted on constitutional grounds and did not address the question of ownership (St. James Park is jointly owned by the City of Toronto and the adjacent St. James Cathedral). In his decision, however, Judge Brown explicitly stated that the eviction exclusively concerned lands owned by the city, and not the part of the occupation which resides on church property. In an about-face, the church, which previously stated it would defer to the courts on any decision to evict occupiers, issued its own eviction notice this afternoon to occupiers of the portion of St. James Park which resides on church property. It is unclear whether or not clergy will call the police to enforce their own order if demonstrators do not leave by a midnight deadline.

Around 5pm, a thousand-strong labour march arrived to loud cheers, reinforcing demonstrators in response to a broad callout to resist the eviction. Although there are no plans to obey the eviction notice, Occupy Toronto and its supporters hope to avoid a repeat of the police violence seen during the G20 last year. Affinity groups have begun to form, and occupiers are categorizing themselves according to their willingness to be arrested (green, yellow and red). Additional supporters are expected, building on a week of energy that culminated in a large demonstration on Saturday.

Occupy Toronto is the latest in a string of encampments that has faced a state crackdown. The growing list of evicted Canadian occupations include those in Regina, Halifax, Saskatoon and London, with eviction orders also issued...

Ya Basta WTC

posted by justin

A decade, at least five trillion dollars, and two major wars since four hijacked American and United Airlines planes were used as weapons to cause the deaths of 2,996 people in New York, Washington and Shanksville, its long past time to stop talking about it. The American public continues to demand the rest of the world's attention for its annual exercise in collective handwringing and jingoistic flag waving. And we give it to them. Every year on this day, and for weeks leading up to the event, international media seem to be consumed by an irresistable urge to reflect on the moment which 'changed the world', with swaths of online and print real estate being given over to 9/11 anniversary stories. Whole front pages are dedicated to photo essays and banners trumpeting the time when "That Most Peace Loving of Nations" found itself on the receiving end of mass violence for once - as if such violence were not an ongoing, and widespread, reality.

9/11 has essentially become America's Holocaust, a yardstick for measuring terror - which has thus become something which can only be perpetrated by Islamists against 'Freedom' - and the dead of 9/11 are forever immortalized as the worthiest of victims. It is a singular moment that can never be repeated. Yet this continued focus on American suffering is not only an insult to other victims of organized violence, it belies the suffering America itself has caused, and continues to cause, in the world.

For what has this freedom wrought? An environment in which a culture of fear and hysteria has become "so extreme that it blocks rational thought". An ignorance of - or worse, a justification for - the ongoing mass killing of other, less worthy victims, either openly or by...