DERAIL THE SPIRIT OF THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT TRAIN
ALL OUT ON OCTOBER 13 - THANKSGIVING MONDAY

MEET AT 12NOON !SHARP!
CORNER OF FRONT AND BAY/YORK (south-west corner)
FREE TRANSPORTATION
EMAIL NOONEISILLEGAL@RISEUP.NET FOR SEAT CONFIRMATION
OR AT COOKSVILLE STATION AT 1PM

On October 13, 2008, the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway)'s 'SpiritTrain' will be arriving at Cooksville GO Transit Station in Mississauga, here to continue its goal of spreading pre-Olympic "spirit".

The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 are appropriating indigenous land, marginalizing the urban poor and exploiting migrant workers.

The 2010 Olympics spirit that this train carries is a spirit of racism and corporate greed. This spirit has met with opposition in each of its stops across the country.

This spirit of oppression needs to be met with our spirit of resistance.

When it stops in Mississauga, come out with pots, pans, whistles, flags and placards. As most of Canada gives thanks for the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, we urge all allies to mobilize their communities to disrupt the Spirit Train in solidarity with the call for Indigenous sovereignty.

To confirm a spot or to share your solidarity, please email
nooneisillegal@riseup.net before Sunday, 12 October.

NO OLYMPICS ON STOLEN NATIVE LAND!

For further information, see: http://no2010.com/node/18

FRIDAY OCTOBER 17TH, 7pm – Concorde Café - 937 Bloor St

A panel discussion on Anti-Racist Organizing in Toronto
Sponsored by Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action
www.uppingtheanti.org

Speakers: Chris Harris from the Black Action Defense Committee, Alok
Premjee from BASICS and the Justice for Alwy Campaign, Joesphine Gray
of Low Income Families Together, Guled Warsame from UNITE-HERE Local
75 and CORD (Community Organizing for Responsible Development) and
Faria Kamal of No One Is Illegal - Toronto.

In recent years, some of the most dynamic organizing in Toronto has
taken place around a variety of anti-racist campaigns and struggles
initiated by radical grassroots activists. On the evening before our
launch party for UTA 7, Upping the Anti presents a dialogue between
anti-racist activists in Toronto inspired by our interview with Chris
Harris of the Black Action Defense Committee in this issue.

The discussion will be kicked off by Harris who will discuss the work
that BADC is doing to intervene within Crip and Blood gangs in Toronto
through the "Hood to Hood" movement and BADC's "Freedom Cypher"
program. Alok Premjee will talk about the work that BASICS Community
Newsletter is doing in Lawrence Heights around anti-gentrification
struggles and how the Justice for Alwy Campaign is going about

John Clarke, OCAP, The Bullet, Socialist Project.

The City of Toronto's ‘Streets to Homes’ program is a finalist for one of two awards that will be presented during the celebration of United Nations' World Habitat Day. These annual awards are given for “practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems.” ‘Streets to Homes’ is an initiative that focuses on placing people who are on the streets in housing units, and is presented as a bold and vital step that can actually eliminate the destitution of poverty in Toronto.

“Streets to Homes is helping us to end street homelessness,” Toronto Mayor David Miller has claimed. “It is making Toronto a more inclusive city, and the world is taking notice. This recognition is a tribute to both City staff and our community partners, who have worked together tirelessly and seamlessly to help some of our most vulnerable citizens.”

As I write this article, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is preparing to take a delegation to the office of the Coroner of Ontario to challenge the death of yet another person whose homelessness had been 'solved' by ‘Streets to Homes.’ He was dumped in substandard accommodation in an outlying part of the city without the supports that would enable him to survive. He perished in that setting.

Workers at 3 hotels could strike: Unions negotiating wages, conditions as contracts expire in peak tourist season
by Lesley Ciarula Taylor, Toronto Star, July 12, 2008.

At the height of Toronto's summer tourist season, unions at three hotels, including the Fairmont Royal York, have moved into strike positions.

Eighty-one per cent of the 850 workers at the Royal York voted to strike as early as July 16, the date their contract expires, if negotiations fail.

Contracts for 134 workers at the Holiday Inn and Radisson hotels on Dixon Rd., near the airport, expired yesterday, putting them in a position to strike at any time.

Abdul Husseini came off shift as a waiter at the Holiday Inn's restaurant yesterday and went right into a meeting of Local 75 of Unite Here, the union organizing employees at hotels across North America.

"The important issue is standards," Husseini said. "Our first cook gets $14.76 an hour. At the Hilton down the road, the first cook gets $18.86 an hour and Westmont (Hospitality Group) owns them both. At least they could fill the gap.

"There are 18 people working in the kitchen, we're open 24 hours a day, most of them are recent immigrants from India and Sri Lanka and they really work hard."

Today (Monday) we went to City Hall to demand that Mayor David Miller immediately restore shelter beds in the downtown east side. We've lost over 350 shelter beds in the downtown core, and tens of thousands of meals over the past year, and the City has done nothing.

"They closed University Settlement for renovations today, so where am I supposed to sleep now?" asks Chris. "I'm sleeping in parks, under bridges. They got empty rooms here in City Hall tho, maybe we should stay here?"

On our way in to City Hall, security and 52 division cops arrested Gaetan Heroux— in a pathetic attempt to quash the protest, but we continued in to Miller's office demanding to speak to the Mayor [Gaetan was released from 52 division two hours later]. Instead we got the dregs of Miller's PR department, someone with zero decision-making (or even scheduling) authority, nor anything interesting to say, so we went to Council Chambers to confront Miller and Council directly.

"Last February when a man died on the streets, you told us you would
address this crisis," Danielle Koyama told the remaining sheepish city
councillors. "You patted yourselves on the back for replacing 60 of the
350 shelter beds lost. Well now we've lost another 65, so thanks for

As you likely know, the Provincial Liberals are currently touring the
province with a consultation scam to make it seem like they care about
poor people while they do nothing for us. We are going to go to the
Toronto closed-door consultations and tell Minister Matthews and the
government that we don't need more talk, we need action!

June 18th
3:30 pm
meet at PARC - 1499 Queen Street West

We have been unable to get a bus so if you have one (or a car or van)
please let us know at the OCAP office as we are scrambling to make sure we
have enough space for people to get there.

Accessibility - call or e-mail to make arrangements.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCAP Not Participating in Sham Consultations: Minister Matthews lies to
legitimize secret 'poverty meetings'

(June 11, 2008) Yesterday, during an interview with CBC's Metro Morning,
the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Deb Mathews, claimed the
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) was invited to and attended a
secret poverty consultation.

In reality, these meetings have been designed expressly to avoid
interacting with anti-poverty groups like OCAP and with poor people in
general. OCAP has never received an invitation to attend these
private consultations. These meetings make no attempt to address systemic
poverty in this province, rather they seek to allay the public's concerns

GATHERING OF MOTHER EARTH PROTECTORS

Sovereignty Sleepover: Toronto, Queen’s Park May 26th – May 29.

Rally: Queen’s Park May 26th, 5 p.m. – dusk.

Respect the right of First Nations to say no to economic exploitation and environmental destruction.
No jail for saying no.
Free Bob Lovelace and the KI Six.

On May 26th Indigenous communities and our supporters will gather at Queen’s Park to uphold our duty to protect the land, forest, water, and air and to promote respect for our Indigenous rights to say no to economic exploitation and environmental destruction. It is time to end the jailing and harassment of our people for protecting mother earth and traditional ways. Please come to our large rally on May 26th at the legislature. We are also inviting supporters to join us in four days of ceremony, speakers, workshops, music, and a three night sovereignty sleep-over directly on the front lawn of the legislature.

Right now Indigenous communities across Ontario are taking a stand to assert our right to protect our traditional territories and the future of our peoples. Our communities are peacefully protesting destructive industrial projects that the government is permitting on our traditional lands without community consent.