Community organizing

Supreme Court to Hear O.P.P. Appeal Against Justice for Levi

Linchpin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:30:45 -0800

By Zach Ruiter

Justice for Levi is a collation dedicated to the memory of Levi Schaeffer. The coalition had successfully challenged the Ontario Police at the Ontario Superior Court. The court ruled the conduct of police who shot and killed Schaeffer violated the Police Services Act. The Ontario Police have successfully appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, which is expected to hear the case sometime in December 2012.

The officers in question, Kris Wood and Mark Pullbrook collaborated with police lawyer Andrew McKay to write/fabricate their notes. This allowed the officers to get their stories straight before submitting them to the Special Investigations Unit.

Organizing To Occupy: Inside Occupy Toronto

Linchpin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:29:35 -0800

By Brandon Gray

For forty days this past autumn, approximately 500 people, mostly youth, maintained a protest camp in St. James Park, a couple blocks from the third largest stock exchange in North America. As part of the global 'Occupy' movement against economic inequality, the park was a base in which a political dialogue could happen using direct action and non-hierarchical decision-making.

Consenting to Consensus?

Linchpin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:53:51 -0700

By Owen Sheppard [Republished from the Dominion]

Interviews with Occupy Toronto participants have revealed a wide range of opinion on the effectiveness of the movement’s process for making group decisions.

According to Brandon Gray of Occupy Toronto, decisions are made through a consensus system where possible, with a 90% “supermajority” vote if consensus proves impossible.

"Class war on the Work floor” and the 99%

Linchpin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:25:53 -0700

By Samson
[Republished from the Toronto Media Co-op]

Postal workers, sometimes known as 'posties' have been at the forefront of labour struggles this year. In addition to the well-publicized lockout this summer, rank-and-file Edmonton postal workers organized and won a victory in the fight against ‘forceback’ overtime. Rachel Stafford, a postal worker letter carrier organized with CUPW (Canadian Union of Postal Workers), is on a speaking tour to share her experience in direct action and this struggle to end compulsory overtime. She spoke at the Steelworkers hall, 25 Cecil St. on Sunday. Approximately 30 people attended the talk hosted by Common Cause, some were postal workers looking for strategies n their own workplace, others were Occupiers who realise this was a fight that could provide examples for their own struggle.

Report from Occupy Hamilton

Linchpin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:40:59 -0700

By Connor Crawford

Recent weeks have seen ‘Occupy Hamilton’ rallies take over Gore Park. The group, made up of local activists from various backgrounds, gathers every Saturday at noon to make noise and show solidarity with the global ‘Occupation’ movement.
This past week’s rally (Oct 22) drew a crowd of about 40 people. A range of groups and individuals were present, from the Mohawk Social Justice Society, to the Hamilton Young Communist League, to Zeitgeist activists. Copwatch Hamilton was also present, and were effective in blocking police interference with the protest.

Occupy Ottawa: Day One

Linchpin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 07:55:37 -0700

On October 15, Ottawa joined with 1700 cities across the globe as part of an international day of action in solidarity with the Occupy Wallstreet movement.

This is a montage of footage from Occupy Ottawa, with a musical performance from DOA!

Expect more footage from Occupy movements across Canada, including those currently underway in Toronto and Vancouver, in the days to come.

Fighting to win: Steel City Solidarity and Solidarity Networks

Linchpin — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:38:52 -0700

by Peter Marin

It is late morning in Hamilton and an unusual scene is unfolding in a quiet residential neighbourhood. I am with a group of 25 or so people, and we are gathered outside a house. We are from Steel City Solidarity, a solidarity network run out of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3906–a union representing teaching assistants and other precarious academic workers at McMaster University. We are here with Dorian, who is owed hundreds of dollars in unpaid wages and unreturned deposits.

Cops and Condominiums: Poverty and Gentrification in Toronto's Downtown Eastside

Linchpin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:48:22 -0700

By Alex Balch

According to the Toronto Star, I live in the worst neighbourhood in the city.

This past April, in an innocuously titled article “Dundas-Sherbourne poised for a surprising rebirth”, The Star's Robyn Doolittle pointed out that Toronto's downtown eastside “consistently tops every major Toronto police crime indictor list” — routinely beating the more notorious neighbourhoods of Jane and Finch, Rogers and Keele and Weston and Lawrence.

In the article Doolittle rightly — albeit disingenuously — attributes the area's high levels of criminality to its heavy concentration of poverty:

Interview with UK Uncut

Linchpin — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:23:11 -0700

On August 9 2011, Linchpin spoke with Tim Matthews, a member and spokesperson of the anti-austerity group UK Uncut.

Linchpin: For some of our readers in Canada who may not be familiar with your organization, what is UK Uncut? How does your group organize?

Who's Streets? Our Streets! An Interview with Hamilton CopWatch

RichardR — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:39:14 -0700

An Interview with the organizers of Hamilton Cop-Watch

Copwatch is a network of activist organizations dedicated to the observation and recording of police interactions with the public. Formed in the 90's in Berkely it now has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. Scott, a lead organizer of the new Hamilton branch has offered to answer some questions for us before departing to Israel-Palestine on academic research.

What was the impetus behind forming this group?

The motivation behind the formation of Hamilton CopWatch is, at base
level, the same drive which has given rise to CopWatch groups across this
continent and beyond for over the past 20 years: a deeply felt need
to construct cooperative sources of protection against police abuse. In
the face of a local police force whose daily operations threaten the
safety, well-being and dignity of our communities, we have been compelled