BASICS Issue #22 (Sep/Oct 2010)

Errol Young

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has decided to close 11 schools in the next two years. These schools are primarily in working class, racialized areas.

The board targeted numerous schools in working-class, racialized communities, presumably  because they figured that working-class parents and communities would have less ability to resist the school closure process.

BASICS Issue #22 (Sep/Oct 2010)

Noaman Ali

On the night of July 23, 2010, Farshad Azadian, an organizer with the Esplanade Community Group, was arrested on charges of obstruction of a police officer.

In fact, Farshad was simply observing police rounding up on a friend and fellow activist near the site of a shooting that had occurred that night. But just because there may have been a crime in the neighbourhood “doesn’t mean that every youth ought to lose their civil rights,” said Farshad.

According to him, police in the neighbourhood know well that there is a group of “activist kids” moving on issues affecting the community. “It’s true that there are problems in the community, but when people in the community rise up to tackle these issues, those in power try to block them, including through the police,” Farshad told BASICS. Previously the police attempted to stop the Esplanade Community Group from booking space in a community centre, until community pressure reversed this block .

by Gary Erickson - BASICS Online (August 2010)

Showing at Tequila Bookworm from August 1-31, a viewer can stop for a drink and a bite, surrounded by recent memories of Queen West’s past. Jeff Caires’s computer manipulation of local street panoramas offers an intelligent and critical perspective on Toronto’s urban life.

As art, a level of commodification is present in glossy objects and mirror finishes, in contrast with the gritty nature of the Queen West views. The subject becomes clarified in the frame, made accessible by the selling price.

As urban history, the works are preservation, in ancient amber, of our Queen West neighborhood on the edge of condo destruction. The glossy photo records are a token of our momentary melodrama, before the violent shift to the next scene in Toronto time.

As political ideas, a big box retail store, with “eco boho flaming feather boa champagne legend lofts” on top, is violently growing across the street, well watered by developer money. The afternoon shadow of the beast throws the sidewalk patio of the city housing project on Portland Street into the cold and dark. The tenants yell: Congratulations condo owners! Congratulations city!

TORONTO 11:40pm, June 26 -- G20 Police have threatened to mass arrest 300 peaceful protesters outside the Novotel hotel on The Esplanade in Toronto, according to a demonstrator at the protest. Since 10:30pm they have been snatching protesters one-by-one from the crowd and "the rest of us are just waiting to be arrested," said the experienced activist, who has asked not to be named.

Protesters were sitting outside the hotel peacefully, when dozens of police in full riot gear with teargas guns marched in from the east side of the narrow street and then on the west side, enclosing the protesters.

According to the demonstrator, most of the protesters are young people who have little previous experience in demonstrations and have not been involved in any previous G20 demonstrations on June 26 or earlier. Moreover they have no legal information because they were not expecting any kind of trouble. "These are simply members of the public who want to make their voices heard," the demonstrator said. The peaceful protesters include many who joined a march which earlier proceeded down Yonge Street after being brutally forced out of what was supposed to be the "free speech zone" at Queen's Park.

They have been chanting "Open the lines, let us out!" "Whose streets? Our streets!" and "Peaceful protest, peaceful protest."

The protesters are demonstrating outside the Novotel on The Esplanade where one day earlier hotel workers began a legal strike.

Protesters are asking for any support that people can provide them, especially through communicating this story which has gone under-reported in mainstream media. Police continue to take people one-by-one from the crowd.

Update 12:46am, June 27: At least one busload of people has been already taken away by the police. At this time, about 80 protesters remain, waiting to be arrested. 

by Derek Rosin - BASICS Issue #20 (July/Aug 2010)

The British graffiti artist known as Banksy recently paid his first visit to Toronto, hitting our city with some of his signature stencil pieces.
The visit coincides with the release of a new film about the artist, Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Stylistically, Banksy's work is quite different from the culture of hip-hop graffiti that has been the dominant form of street art for the past few decades. But like the paintings of his hip-hop cousins, Banksy's work retains its subversive quality, partly because the very act of making this type of art is considered to be a crime.

by Sarah Fournier - BASICS Online - May 2010

It was lively at Café Lurin Tapas (St. Clair Avenue West) on the evening of Friday, April 30th. Community members gathered around food, drinks, and music to celebrate May Day and raise funds for Toronto’s new left progressive Latin American newspaper America Latina.

America Latina is a monthly Toronto-based newspaper. The first issue was released in November 2009. The subjects presented in the newspaper are diverse and the articles are written by various contributors as well as correspondents from Latin America and the Caribbean.

…and Keeping the Freedom Flame Alive

by Jeevini Sivarajah & Pragash Pio - BASICS Issue #20 July/Aug 2010

At the end of May 2009, the Sri Lankan army brutally murdered tens of thousands of Tamil civilians with heavy artillery, mortars, bombs, rockets, and even chemical weapons in the name of ‘fighting terrorism’. While thousands of Tamils were protesting in Toronto and around the world, the Sri Lankan army had mercilessly corralled, starved, and then bombed tens of thousands of Tamils out of existence in what has come to be known as the massacre of Muilivaaykkaal.

In the so-called government-declared ‘safety zone’ at Muilivaaykkaal, where 350,000 fleeing Tamils had been crowded, thousands died by both heavy bombardment and a Sri Lankan government blockade of food, water, and medicine. Even after the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the surviving Tamils were forcibly interned in SLA-run concentration camps. These camps were noted for their deplorable conditions, while UN aid agencies weren’t allowed full access to provide assistance or monitor conditions.