The February broadsheet of Linchpin, a publication of Common Cause, is now available online.

Inside you will find articles on the ongoing injustices taking place inside the Grand Valley Institute for women, the ongoing strike of Porter airline refuelers in Toronto, the first annual London Prisoner Justice film festival and a recent community solidarity picket in Hamilton.

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On Saturday, February 16th the 1st annual Kitchener-Waterloo Anarchist Bookfair will be held at the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work. Taking place on Six Nations of the Grand River territory, the bookfair will welcome anarchists and non-anarchists alike- from seasoned organizers and activists, to those simply curious about anarchism for a day of workshops, presentations, film screenings, info tables, and social events. The bookfair will introduce anarchist ideas, histories and practices, as well as provide a space for more in-depth conversations about the ongoing relevance of anarchism, and its implication for on-the-ground organizing and everyday struggles.

By: Eric Jacobs

On October 31, 2012, Parliament voted to approve Bill C-309, an amendment to Section 65 of the Canadian Criminal Code also known as the Preventing Persons from Concealing Their Identity during Riots and Unlawful Assemblies Act. Following a formal rubber-stamping by the Senate, this bill will establish two new criminal offences, each with alarmingly harsh sentencing provisions. Once Bill C-309 becomes law, individuals charged with wearing a mask or other disguise while participating in a riot (defined as “an unlawful assembly that has begun to disturb the peace tumultuously”) will face an indictable offence carrying a maximum sentence of ten years; those charged with concealing their identity while participating in an unlawful assembly could face either an indictable offence—carrying a maximum sentence of five years—or a less serious summary offence. The crime of rioting currently carries a maximum two year sentence, whereas participation in an unlawful assembly is a basic summary offence.

Its history, Combative unionism and anarchist involvement

Since the start of the Quebec student general strike, members of the Prairie Struggle Organization along with the collaboration of Common Cause, Union Communist Libertaire and the IWW, have been in the process of putting together a cross-Canada speaking tour on the Quebec student general strike. This strike, which has demonstrated once more the power of mass, combative and democratic social movements, is something that does not come often in Canadian history and expresses politics and strategies that are greatly needed in the rest of Canada. The struggles, and organizational principles demonstrated in this strike are examples that anarchists across Canada should aim to share and educate ourselves on, as our comrades in Quebec have done, due to the fact that its core principles are in fact close to our principles.

Issue 16 of Linchpin, the newspaper of Common Cause, is now available online.

Inside you will find articles on the roots of the Quebec student strike, EPIC's efforts to fight prison expansion, May Day Reports from across Ontario, the recent Antifa action in London, a review of Disability Politics and Theory (by AJ Withers) and more!

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By Zach Ruiter and Misha Synder

George Horton’s Toronto G20 Summit trial was set to conclude on February 14th 2012 but it has been held over to May 16th 2012. Horton plead to three counts of Attempted Mischief and is still on trial for assault, intimidation, and obstruct a police officer involving cruiser number 766. Horton was arrested in Peterborough Ontario on September 28th 2010 and delivered to the G20 investigation team and then spent one week incarcerated in Toronto West Detention Centre. George’s case has been on going for approximately sixteen months. This online-documentary was filmed in Peterborough Ontario on February 5th 2012 at a local café, and the apartment Horton shares with his partner Jennifer, their dog Kasey, a cat, and a rabbit.

Issue 15 of Linchpin, the newspaper of Common Cause, is now available online.

Inside you will find articles on CUPE's upcoming strikes and lockouts affecting the City and University of Toronto, the struggle against Caterpillar being waged by locked out workers at Electro-Motive in London, reports from Occupy Toronto and Occupy Hamilton, interviews with participants in the Egyptian Revolution and more!

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Common Cause wishes to extend our solidarity to the six defendants of the so-called “G20 Main Conspiracy Group” who made the difficult decision to plead guilty to trumped up counseling charges in an effort to see the charges of eleven of their co-defendants dropped, and in order to help bring their shared year and a half-long judicial farce to a close. These eleven community organizers now join the ranks of the dozens of individuals who have already seen their bogus G20 conspiracy charges dropped. They will once again be able to associate with one another, and will once again be granted the right to plan and attend public demonstrations. This is a welcome and long over-due occasion for celebration – though their exoneration has come at a heavy price.

On the weekend 19-20th a new wave of mass protest all over Egypt broke out because of the systematic violence of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against the Egyptian masses. People are tired of its dictatorial behaviour, the use of extreme force against protesters, the military trials that in 10 months have ended up with 12,000 comrades rotting in jail, their censorship, the torture, kidnappings and selective murder of activists. People are tired of the military council hijacking the banners of our revolution to continue the same old dictatorship through other means. People are tired of the sectarianism they promote to divert us from our real fight for justice, equality and freedom.

Issue 14 of Linchpin, the newspaper of Common Cause, is now online and available for downloading and printing.

This Austerity themed issue features an interview with UK Uncut, articles on the current attack on the right to strike, building Solidarity Networks, a critical assessment of the "Days of Action", and much more!

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or contact us to get paper copies to distribute in your community, activist organization, union, or workplace in Ontario.