ed note: An updated version of this article appears here

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“Grange Park by the kiddie slides at noon” the text message said.  Arriving in drizzling rain for the clandestine meeting, I saw Antonin Smith, a controversial figure from the Occupy Toronto food team.  The Foodsquat was going public on Monday, and the Toronto Media Co-op was getting a tour. But we weren’t the only media outlet interested- a man conspicuously eavesdropped on our conversation as we waited for our videographer. When confronted, he turned out to be a reporter for the Toronto Sun who was not wearing a press pass and then claimed to be simply “enjoying the park.”  We detoured through colorfully spray-painted alleyways trying to lose him, finally arriving at 238 Queen St. west.

In the basement of the building, Food Team squatters were tensely preparing for the possibility of a siege. “You can take a picture of me, but only from behind,” said one man who was installing a series of deadbolts on the door.  Other squatters were sleeping in a room next to the kitchen, preparing for the sleepless nights ahead. “This isn’t a place to move in” said Antonin.  “You bring your sleeping bag, one bag of clothes and another bag of equipment we can store in a safe-house nearby.”  The Occupy Squatters are serious, and this has a different tone than the occupation at St. James Park - this is an action with well thought-out contingency plans and a clear mission. 

Squatting is of course, an illegal act, and Occupy Toronto’s recent attempt to take a building was thwarted because the attempt was announced at the general assembly (and live streamed), and by the time the assembly marched to the location the building was closed.  I asked Antonin how one squats a building (which obviously requires an amount of secrecy) while still being democratic. He said that he started it the same way he started the food team, by holding up a clipboard in the General Assembly with a title and email on it, in this case “Squat Squad”, and collected names of experienced squatters and other people interested. Once the committee was formed the organizational details were held secret until today.

Although the eviction from St. James Park was treated with kid-gloves from police, the Food Team knows that Occupy squats from many other cities have met with serious police violence.  I asked them if they were worried about police. “Of course.” said Antonin. ”But our goal is to become the legitimate occupant of this building; we’re just starting it illegitimately." Looking at the history of the building, it appears that the current lease-holder of the building is also illegitimate, and is not fulfilling the terms of the lease of the City-owned property.

Much of the food team’s equipment and food from St. James Park was lost during the evictions. In an interview [see entire interview here] with Antonin, he said "We were feeding 1000 meals a day at the park, so we can reasonably re-amp to 1000 meals a day.”

The building, which fronts a busy section of Queen West, is well known to Torontonians; what many don’t know is that the City owns the building, which it rents out to a private landlord for a minimal cost. 238 Queen W. is an example of failed privatization, where City resources are used to provide a massive subsidy to a private corporation. The basement is designated in the lease for use by non-profit organizations at a rent of 1$ per year for 57 years by the leaseholder, who is then free to charge rent to non-profit sub-leasers.  It has been used for this purpose, but the ‘leaseholder’ recently evicted all the non-profits from this basement.

On the same day that Ford announced his budget cuts and increased privatizations, the Occupy Toronto Food team took back a City building from an unscrupulous landlord. This tactic, new for Occupy Toronto, is demonstrating how occupations can be used not just to camp in public parks but also to take back public spaces. As we are seeing right now with Ford’s garbage privatization, private contractors promise impossible service and then are not held to account by the City for failing to deliver.  In the case of 238 Queen St. W. the private landlord promised to “create an atmosphere similar to St. Lawrence market”  and according to the terms of the lease: “Market Building is to used for a bakery, meat and seafood store, fruit and vegetable stand, and the sale of prepared foods (cooked or uncooked), among other things. Anyone who has visited the rather spiritless fast food outlets located in the building might question such a characterization.

This project is only the first of many that have emerged from Occupy Toronto as it regroups from the eviction from St. James Park, and many occupiers are focusing thier attention on other projects. Mischa Saunders from the facilitation committee said about the foodsquat:  “This is only one manifestation of people having woken up to the idea that ‘another world is possible.’ The occupy movement will continue to manifest in many different forms as the people who were in St. James park now carry their experiences from the park back with them to their communities.” Late today, the Occupy Toronto Twitter account distanced itself from the squat, indicating that the Food Team was acting of its own accord and not with the approval of the General Assembly.

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update: at 3:15 pm on Monday, November 27th more than a dozen Toronto Police officers showed up outside the FoodSquat. At 3:30pm, they began to move in. Further updates will be posted as they become available.

4pm: the Media Coop has lost contact with the Food Team. The final communication we received from inside was 'we're fucked - they are breaking the glass'.

4:20pm: the eviction is over. The Food Team has been released from custody - no arrests.