Occupy Debrief

The Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly organized an Occupy Toronto debrief on Friday, January 27th at the Beit Zatoun.

The panel aimed to address the following questions: Is this the beginning of a new community/labour coalition that we've been waiting for? Will the Occupy movement be able to sustain itself and help awaken a dormant labour movement? How did the Occupy Toronto experience measure up with other Occupations? How did the existing Toronto far-left respond to Occupy at first, and then once it coalesced? Will Occupy be co-opted, or indeed, is it co-optable? The speakers were all part of Occupy Toronto.

The first speaker, Lana Goldberg spoke about her experiences with Occupy and the day-to-day work, including the Action and Outreach committee, the Finance and the Legal Committee. Some work was done around outreaching to the unions and they were able to get financial support from the unions.

She said the relationship between Occupy and labour weren’t too strong. There wasn’t a lot of labour people in the park and there was some anti-union sentiment amongst some of the Occupy people. A lot of work was done in the committees to challenge these sentiments. She spoke about the work being done post-eviction Occupy.

Lana Goldberg by FTGU

Megan Kinch said Occupy wasn’t really a left project or space. She spoke about the differences and similarities between Occupy and the traditional left. Occupy had a diverse grouping of people who had different political views and as a result was not a safe left space. But that this was not necessarily a bad thing.

She talked about the advantages of the Occupy space and about the importance of working with people who have different views from leftists. Initially Occupy was middle class university students, but this shifted as people from different socio-economic backgrounds joined. She stressed the importance of doing continued long-term education and organizational work if the left wants a voice in the movement.

Megan Kinch by FTGU

Brendan Bruce spoke about labour’s relationship to the Occupy movement. He talked about SEIU and the Occupy Washington and how the union tried to take over the Occupy movement there, then moved onto Occupy Toronto’s experience with the labour movement and their lack of support in fighting their eviction from the park. However, there was tremendous support from the rank and file such as the Air Canada workers. He says Occupy has shown the assembly model of democracy works rather than having labour leaders tell workers what they should do.

Brendan Bruce by FTGU

For Paul Gray, Occupy has called into question the assumptions socialists have. He talked about Engels attack on social democracy and how this relates to Occupy. He argues that the Occupy movement is the logical result for the entire historic arc of social democracy and asks whether the barricade is obsolete and if it isn’t what that means for socialist strategy.

Paul Gray by FTGU

Occupy Talks: Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement

Video of John Trudell's Look at Us was shown before the talk.

Over 150 people attended the Indigenous Perspectives on the Occupy Movement as part of a series by Occupy Talks at the Beit Zatoun on January 23rd.

Jessica Yee’s article on the Occupy movement, published on Racialicious blog, sparked much debate and discussion around Occupy and the occupation of Indigenous land. Yee argues that the left often organizes campaigns using nationalist and patriotic language and fails to incorporate an anti-colonial and anti-oppression framework into their anti-capitalist project.

Tannis Nielsen, a Metis artist and the evening’s moderator, agreed with Yee’s criticism and called Occupy a re-occupation with potential.

The other speakers agreed with Nielsen and Yee’s analysis. 

Leanne Simpson, a band member of Alderville First Nation and an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Studies at Trent University, said that Indigenous communities have been resisting the occupation of their land for the last 400 years.

She gave a historical and geographical framework of Southern Ontario and spoke of the devastating impact the Indian Act has on Indigenous people. She stressed the importance of the role of women’s leadership in the resistance against colonization.   
Clayton Thomas-Muller, of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and the Tar Sands Campaign Director for the Indigenous Environmental Network, spoke of his reaction to the Occupy movement when it first started, both his hopes and his concerns.

One of his concerns was that Occupy would take away energy from other campaigns that started before Occupy. He also spoke about how the Occupy movement is dominated by white males and their privilege and the importance of an anti-oppression framework.

But he was also impressed by the infrastructure that Occupy had set up. He wrapped up his talk by talking about London’s Climate Camp where they held a space, but also organized different actions each week. He felt the Occupy people were caught in the day to day work of holding the space such as dealing with conflict resolution, that left little energy for solidarity work such as the Tar Sands campaign.

Tom B.K. Goldtooth, the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), headquartered at Bemidji, Minnesota, talked about the Indigenous protocol for communication and developing relationship with each other and the relationship to Mother Earth. He felt we need to ask critical questions such as: who are the 99% and when we say take back, who are we taking back from? 

Sponsors: Canadian Auto Workers, Canadian Labour Council, Ryerson University, Environmental Justice Toronto, Indigenous Environmental Network

To download click the arrow on the right under info.


Tannis Nielsen by FTGU


Leanne Simpson by FTGU


Clayton Thomas Muller by FTGU


Tom Goldtooth by FTGU

Mayor delays vote on sell-off of social housing

Media Advisory from Tenants for Social Housing

Confusion, uncertainty continue to plague hasty social housing selloff
Tenants dismayed at chaotic process driving potential sale of their homes

TORONTO - After the close of business today and less than 24 hours before the meeting commences, the Executive Committee has removed the controversial sale of Toronto Community Housing homes from the January 24th agenda.

Tenants expressed concern at the chaotic process that seems to be directing the proposed sale of over 700 homes. Confusion over how many homes would be sold, which homes are actually available for sale and how affected tenants would be treated have caused anxiety among social housing residents and concern among many Councillors.

This evening’s abrupt decision to cancel the roughly 75 deputations scheduled for tomorrow afternoon have created further concern that there is no real plan and little clarity about the proposed sale, despite its significant impact on tenants.

The Fight for Social Housing

Download interview by clicking on the arrow on the right under info.

tenants for social housing by FTGU

On October 21, 2011, Toronto Community Housing approved the sale of 706 homes. The Tenants for Social Housing has been organizing to stop the sale and have taken their fight to city hall. On January 24th, they and tenants across the city will be deputing at the City Executive Committee to oppose the sale. There’s still hope after the 24th as the vote goes to City Council in February. I interviewed Susan Gapka of Tenants for Social Housing about their campaign and what can still be done.


Q: Can you tell me about Tenants for Social Housing?

SG: Tenant for social housing is a group of volunteers. We’re not staff. We’re tenants in Toronto Community Housing (TCH). We formed about 11 months ago. It was early in the new Mayor Ford administration. It was around February, there was an audit that came out from TCH that reported overspending and improper contracts.

The mayor set out to disgrace and fire the board of TCH. They met in early March and the mayor fired the board, and bullied the appointed board members who then resigned. It was done without a report to City Council.

There were a number of us tenants who lived in social housing who are organizers. In 2005 and 2006, we had organized a meeting with members of provincial parliament. There’s definitely a problem with housing, the housing is falling apart all around us.

We needed the money for capital repairs. We were able to get commitments from all three levels of government. It wasn’t only the tenants, there were a lot of people involved, there was a lot of goodwill, but we were part of that and we got $380 M in commitments from the federal, provincial government. We had some experience organizing.

When the mayor publicly fired the board of TCH, we organized –that’s where Tenants for Social Housing –We Are Not for Sale came out of.

Q: Can you tell me about the board? I understand there are only two tenants on the board.

SG: That was a really important thing. The tenants and the alternates were removed by City Council without a report. We thought that was inappropriate. The tenants are certainly not living on any gravy train that we know of. Many of us don’t even know what a gravy train looks like. We had elected tenants to the board, so we thought it was wrong for City Council to remove democratically elected tenants.

We weren’t able to stop that. But we were able to re-elect one of them. Catherine Wilkinson was re-elected to the board and Munira Abukar, a Ryerson student, a woman of colour, a young person was elected. We saw that as a victory. When everyone was being fired, we managed to get our elected representatives to the board.

Unfortunately, what happened during the appointment process is that city councillors (Frances Nunziata and Cesar Palacio) favourable to the mayor were appointed. The other citizen appointments, are real estate people. In the very first meeting, instead of looking at a judicial framework, a housing network, they moved a report that approved the sale of 706 homes. We tried to fight that, but we’re unsuccessful. They voted as a block.

Stop the Cuts Rally and Victory

Community mobilization has stopped cuts to many city services. I got an update from Kelly O'Sullivan on the Budget today.

Stop the Cuts Update by FTGU


Over 1000 people turned out for the Stop the Cuts rally at City Hall this evening.




Residents from Etobicoke came down to city hall by buses organized by the Etobicoke Stop the Cuts Committee.




Occupy City Hall sets up tents.




Protestors were blocked from entering city hall by police. Four people were arrested.

Community Recreation For All

C4all by FTGU

On January 17 to 19, City Council will finalize the 2012 budget for Toronto. On the table is a proposal to eliminate free registered programs for children and youth as well as cutting 17 out of 29 community youth outreach jobs. I interviewed Amy Katz with the Community Recreation For All campaign.

Q: What is Community Recreation For All?

AK: Community Recreation for All is a group of community organizations and residents across the city and we are concerned about access to our community centres and recreation programs.

Q: The proposed budget will eliminate free registered programs for children and youth. What are some of the recreation programs that the city funds?

AK: Right now there are 134 community centres across Toronto and 21 of these are called priority centres and just to clarify they’re not related to priority neighbourhoods. They’re scattered across the city.

A priority centre and priority neighbourhood are two different things. The priority centres were established in 1999 long before there were priority neighbourhoods, not all the priority neighbourhoods have them. Priority Centres until 2011 were free for everyone, adults, youth, seniors, and community spaces were free.

Programs include swimming, skating, art, free swim, computer skills, leadership training, fitness, sport, sewing. It’s a real range depending on the kind of programs they run.

Q: Why are these recreation programs important?

Etobicoke North - Stop the Cuts

Etobicoke North by FTGU

Partial transcript of interview:

In the Etobicoke North Stop the Cuts Committee, they have formed a coalition called Rexdale United to organize against the cuts to city services. I talked to Nigel Barriffe, an elementary school teacher and a member of the coalition, about their work.

Q: Can you tell me about the Etobicoke North community?

NB: The Etobicoke North has one of the highest unemployment rates of the 44 wards, one of the lowest average incomes – the average income is about $44,000. That information is available on the City of Toronto website. It’s a high mix of racialized people. You have a very large South Asian community from India, Pakistan. Then we have a very large African, East African, Somali, Horn of Africa, along with the English-speaking Carribean community.

Q: How has the community reacted to the cuts?

NB: There have been a number of smaller groups that have come together under the banner of Rexdale United. So we have been doing a lot of door knocking, a lot of flyering and emailing to the community. We had over 100 residents that came out to a budget forum that was finally called by the councillor after receiving numerous phone calls from our constituents.

We went out and said these are the cuts that are on the table and they were quite obviously upset by it, such as reducing TTC service and at the same time increasing fares. Routes Martin Grove 46, Steeles 60, Islington are all major routes for the TTC and all major routes that service Ward 1 and Ward 2. Councillor Criscanti was hiding behind the fact that he did support getting rid of Transit City which was the opportunity for us to have ligt rail transit in our area. It would have been a huge service increase to our neighbourhood.

They were very upset by these cuts and it showed by the number of people that came out. During the elections, there were never that many people that came out to the electoral debates. There were quite a lot of people that came out to express their views.

A group of youth from Rexdale are doing a campaign to ask the councillors to ride the bus with them for a week. There were a few progressive councillors who said they were willing to take that challenge. Unfortunately our councillor Crisanti, I’m paraphrasing, he was basically saying look it’s not convenient. I can ride it with you for a day, but not for a week.

The youth replied back in another email, ‘That’s our point. It’s not convenient. So that’s why we shouldn’t be cutting back on services and increasing fares. If anything we should be decreasing fares and increasing service.’ It’s unfortunate that he did not take their challenge. It will be interesting to see whether he puts his hand on Jan 17th or not in support of the continued cuts to the TTC.

(youtube video: Rexdale Youth Challenge Toronto City Councillors)

Q: How many people are involved in the committee?

NB: There have been 20 of us that have been working together on it. Everybody has been taking up different roles. It’s interesting to see how the tactics and strategies play out. None of us are full-time organizers. We either work full-time or we’re unemployed looking for work. We’re mothers or grandparents. We’re not professional organizers by any means. We’re citizens and we want the councillors to understand that the cuts he’s making to our neighbourhood are going to disproportionately affect communities like Rexdale.

The effects these cuts will have on Rosedale or Forest Hill are quite different from the effect it will have on Rexdale. When you close down a daycare centre like Greenholme Middle School, you lose those daycare spots, those are affordable daycare spots. People who have the lowest average income in the city, don’t have those resources to go out and pay the regular price for day care.

We have the Rexdale Community Health Centre that offers a lot of senior programs that I understand with a 10% reduction across the board means reducing the number of services that are being offered to the seniors in our neighbourhood. That’s what at stake here for us at Rexdale United and the community members that I’m working with.

Q: Why is it important that we stop these cuts?

NB: We've done the priority neighbourhood investment. The investment in childcare, the investment in transit city, the providing of decent jobs that provide a living wage – that’s called city building. That’s what makes a great city that it is. You have in my opinion a Tea Party mentality, a very right wing, hegemonic, neoliberal agenda, an ideological agenda that is being pushed down on us. We know that because there’s actually a surplus. So there’s no actual reason to cut these services. They have the money, but they’re choosing not to save these services. It’s ideological warfare that’s going on. That’s why it’s important for groups like Stop the Cuts to build coalitions, to build community groups, to build a grassroots movement that’s going to push back against this ideological warfare that’s coming down against our community.

Downtown East Side Stop the Cuts

DTES by FTGU

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and their allies have had a long history organizing in the Downtown Eastside fighting for the rights of the poor, the homeless, and immigrants and refugees. Last summer they and other community members formed the Downtown Eastside Committee, which is one of 10 committees that are part of the Stop the Cuts Network. I spoke to Kelly O'Sullivan, president of CUPE local 4308, about their work in that area.

Partial transcript of interview:

Q: Can you tell me a little about the Downtown Eastside?

KO: The Downtown Eastside is the area east of Yonge St. But for those of us in the neighbourhood, we think of it primarily as three neighbourhoods east of Yonge, so St. Jamestown, Regent Park, and Moss Park.

One of the focus for us the Sherbourne and Dundas area. It’s an area of our community that has been impacted by cuts and systemic issues. It’s really a diverse and broad community as far as who lives in the community. There has been a lot of gentrification over the years, but there are still many people who live in poverty.

Particularly with Regent Park and St. Jamestown, there are a lot of newcomers that are in those communities. Obviously affected by the propose cuts and the gentrification.

Q: What are some of the issues you are working on in your neighbourhood?

KO: Those of that are already active in our community had some sense of the issue that we have seen around housing, around access to services, and childcare. But we didn’t want to assume based on what we experienced. So we held a broader community meeting back in July.

We had close to 90 people in that community attend. We identify priorities to work on. One of that was housing and the potential sell-off of housing. User fees at the community rec centre was another key issue because our neighbourhoods have been identified as priority neighbourhoods.

There had already been a cap put on the welcome policy so people weren’t able to access the rec programs through that access programs. In addition, there were talking about implementing user fees and that had done that at some of the community centres that provide services in the neighbourhood like the Wellesley community centre.

The third area that people talked about was around child care. Many of our community members rely on subsidized child care. We were going to see a potential loss of 2000 child care spaces.

The fourth one was shelters and access to shelters. There are a number of shelters in the community and we had concerns about those being pushed out and closed without actual housing being implemented prior.

Q: How many people are in your committee?

KO: We have a core group of about ten people that come to every meeting. We meet every two weeks; that’s a pretty decent number involved on an on-going basis. But we also have up to at least 20 people that are actively involved that will take on tasks like doing outreach or doing flyering in the community and to talk about issues that are coming up. As well, we have close to 200 people on our listserv and outreach list and who will come out and more specifically to do actions, activities or events that we hold.

Q: Can you tell me the impact gentrification is having in your neighbourhood?

KO: Services that provide programs to people who are poor or who are newcomers are targeted. There hasn’t been a decrease in the number of people living in poverty in our community. But has happen because of condo development is that there has been an increase in the number of people that have privilege that live in the community.

This concept of a mixed community being so healthy is completely false. Because what happens is people with privilege, they, not to stereotype them all, I’m sure some folks are open to a ‘mixed neighbourhood’, but it’s the people with privilege who move into the community who then don’t feel comfortable with the reality of the community is that poverty exists, there are issues that arise and they want to see those things changed in the community.

Stop the Cuts - Status For All

No one is illegal toronto by FTGU

Partial transcript of interview:

No One Is Illegal-Toronto is a volunteer grassroots migrant justice organization that has been fighting for access to city services without fear for all residents. They won the campaign to implement the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy at the Toronto District School Board, and have been working to have this policy in all city services. The cuts to city services will make life more difficult for undocumented and migrants. I’m joined by Hussan to talk about the impact these cuts will have on migrants and about their work around the Stop the Cuts campaign.

Q: Can you tell me about the work NOII has been doing to mobilize against these cuts?

H: No One is Illegal, in its May 2011 demo, dropped a large banner in Parkdale which proclaimed ‘Stop the Cuts!’ As part of our campaign against cuts at the provincial, municipal and federal level, we joined forces with other local organizations in the city. We already started mobilizing against Ford as far back as December 2010.

So by May 2011, we were ready to make this a major issue. We initially started with local community organizations and established a committee in Parkdale where we had our May Day. OCAP set one up in the Downtown East Side and another group started one in the Davenport Perth area.

Together we began to lay out what is now Stop the Cuts Network which is an organization comprising of ten neighbourhood chapters with an average number of 13 to 50 members in each group.

Q: NOII has been working for several years to expand city services for all. How will these cuts affect the fight for access to city services?

H: For about eight years, we’ve been mobilizing around three key things one is organizing against deportations and changing unjust immigration policy, the second is indigenous sovereignty, and the third is expanding services for undocumented people and migrants in the city.

When we see this age of austerity, at a time when we have build relationships across different service sectors and actually been able to expand services, access to undocumented people into schools, some access to shelters, and some access to health care, these cuts would have a dramatic impact on our communities.

It became imperative that we were part of mobilizing a force that not only could stop the cuts, but also expand services towards a broader campaign of creating a city where workers at the site of service provison and people that access them have the ability to determine what happens to those spaces.

So that means community control over a community resource and this idea that city council or a group of private consultants or some rich politician can determine what happens to a bus in a particular neighbourhood, or at school during a breakfast program didn’t make sense to us.

That’s why we helped establish and have continued to fully support Stop the Cuts. It was also a moment to really reach out to all the people that were beginning to come together in their hatred for Ford and beginning to notice city services, to say hey yes it’s important to stop the cuts, but these services are still inaccessible to a lot of people even if these cuts were stopped.

Where the Money Goes

From Toronto`s 2012 Staff Recommended Tax Supported Operating Budget - The Police Budget is about 50% or more than all the other services.

Why Toronto Doesn't Have a Fiscal Crisis

Countdown by FTGU

Partial transcript of interview:

Community organizing has saved 58 student nutrition programs and 12 school-based recreation programs from Mayor Rob Ford’s chopping block.

On Friday, it was announced that these services will be covered by a property assessment growth that is not included in the current surplus.

But there’s still over $85 M in city services facing cuts. In the Wellesley Institute’s report Countdown to Zero, Sheila Block argues that Toronto can balance its budget without cuts to city services.

Sheila Block joins me to discuss the report.

Q: The city says that they have a shortfall of $774 M and yet there’s also a surplus of over $154M. The numbers are a bit confusing to me. So does the city have a deficit or a surplus?

SB: You’re not alone in your confusion. A lot of people have been confused because both a lot of numbers have been thrown around by the city government and by politicians. And also the budget making process at the city is different than what it is at the federal or provincial level. And so that makes it a little confusing.

That $774 M that was originally talked about is what’s called an opening shortfall and what that really signifies is what’s the ground that needs to be covered during the budget making process. That number is often a bit bigger than what it will be at the end.

It compares 2011 revenues to 2012 expenditures. You have your prior year’s revenue compared to your following year’s expenditures so that accounts for some of the gap. And then through this process after that opening shortfall was identified , a number of things happen. You get actual information about where the actual revenues and expenditures are going to be and there’s a political process here where governments make decisions about how much to increase taxes and where your actually going to wind up.

So the surplus number that you talked about is actually the prior year’s surplus. The surplus from 2011. The opening shortfall of $774 is what starts the budget making process not what ends it.

The Fight for Jobs and City Services - CUPE vs Rob Ford

CUPE by FTGU

Partial transcript of interview.

The contract for Toronto’s municipal inside and outside workers expired last year. Members of CUPE 79 and 416 are facing a lockout and strike in 2012 as Mayor Rob Ford seeks deep concessions from its members including the removal of job security provisions as well at the elimination of 2,300 jobs.

CUPE 79 and 416 face a tough challenge ahead as the rhetoric of a fiscal crisis by Mayor Ford is used to justify these cuts. Julia Barnett, a community health officer and member of CUPE 79 joins me to discuss the stakes and strategy of this year’s negotiations.

Q: What are the stakes in this year’s negotiations?

JB: What is at stake as a whole is that these are about keeping programs public and the viability of communities. And allowing for communities to grow and live in a viable city. This is about opening up our collective agreement and privatizing services and opening it up to the lowest bidder. It’s about keeping what we have public, but it’s also about making sure all people can have access to services and not just those that can afford them.

Q: What would be the best strategy for this year’s negotiations?

JB: The key strategy should have been, could have been, and should be working directly with communities, grassroots organizations like Stop the Cuts, and other community based organizations to support community based initiatives like keeping libraries open, keeping community centres open, making sure student nutrition programs were going to be funded. We should we have been putting forward a campaign to support our cleaners who are about to be privatized and contracted out. Yes, it is about decent wage jobs. Yes, it is about how everyone should have access to decent benefits and pensions, but at the same time those decent jobs and decent services are intertwined.

Stop the Cuts - Neighbourhood by Neighbourhood

Stop the cuts by FTGU

Partial transcript of interview:

Mayor Rob Ford wants to cut $88 Million in city services in this year’s budget including cuts to homeless shelters, TTC routes, recreation programs, public health services such as the Immigrant Women’s Health Centre and HIV prevention programs, as well as 2,300 job cuts.

City Council will finalize the budget on Jan 17 to 19.

On January 17th Toronto Stop the Cuts will be holding a rally and action at city hall to demand city council reject these cuts. The group has been organizing against these cuts in neighbourhoods all across the city. I spoke with Victoria Barnett, an organizer with the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network, about their organizing.

Q: What impact will the cuts have?

VB: You see that it’s a very specific attack on people who are poor or who are marginalized and undocumented people or survivors of violence. When you think of the things they are cutting, they’re cutting from community centres, housing, that’s an impact on community relationships and community involvement. The strength of the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network is organizing people in their neighbourhoods and trying to keep those connections open.

Q: What are the advantages of organizing neighbourhood by neighbourhood?

VB: The network and in all the different neighbourhood groups- people have come together. And in those neighbourhoods, people that live two streets down from one another and didn’t even know each other a couple of months ago, are now meeting each other and building relationships. There are different successes in each neighbourhood. The one powerful thing that we have seen from this network is that people are talking and getting together. People are organizing lemonade stands or hot chocolate booths. They are organzing rallies in their communities. They’re organizing public forums. People are forming these relationships and telling Ford and their councillors that –we don’t want these cuts. We’re going to build our relationships and we’re going to be stronger than whatever it is you’re going to push at us.