{"id":2813,"date":"2021-07-26T14:41:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T18:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2021-09-20T04:01:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T08:01:08","slug":"resisting-the-attack-on-torontos-encampments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/resisting-the-attack-on-torontos-encampments\/","title":{"rendered":"Resisting the Attack on Toronto’s Encampments"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2813\" class=\"elementor elementor-2813\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-6ee80e7e elementor-section-height-min-height elementor-section-content-top elementor-section-stretched elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-items-middle\" data-id=\"6ee80e7e\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{"stretch_section":"section-stretched","background_background":"classic"}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7cc877bc\" data-id=\"7cc877bc\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-38e12233 elementor-section-full_width elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"38e12233\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7c365503\" data-id=\"7c365503\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5c3f7eac elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"5c3f7eac\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mmmswan\/50724703143\/\" target=\"_blank\">Photo: Michael Swan<\/a><\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-56ca761a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"56ca761a\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-59022178\" data-id=\"59022178\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-303de37f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"303de37f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 style=\"text-align: right;\">7. 26. 2021<\/h3><h1 style=\"text-align: left;\">Resisting the Attack on Toronto’s Encampments<\/h1><h3 style=\"text-align: right;\"><b><br \/><\/b><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/tag\/john-clarke\/\"><strong>John Clarke<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h3><hr \/><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>As Toronto City Hall sends in massive squads of police to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/toronto.citynews.ca\/2021\/07\/21\/homeless-encampment-lamport-stadium-park\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">drive unhoused people<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from encampments in public parks, the question arises of how best to resist this brutal attack. Based on my own experiences as an anti-poverty organizer, I think there are some strategic considerations that must inform this struggle.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It should be understood that municipal government is the level of state power that most directly serves the interests of the capitalists who invest in property. In recent decades, Toronto City Hall’s main role has been to facilitate the creation of a \u201cneoliberal city\u201d in which an agenda of upscale redevelopment and extreme <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jacobinmag.com\/2021\/06\/canada-housing-rising-rent-real-estate-property-market-bubble-landlords-investment\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">commodification of housing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is pursued relentlessly. This course of action has resulted in massive profits for developers, construction companies, and bankers. It has also provided a lot of luxury housing on prime urban land for those wealthy enough to afford it. At the same time, it has led to gentrification of working-class communities, soaring rents that have caused immense hardship for poor tenants, and an ever-worsening catastrophe of homelessness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The triumph of this profit-driven agenda has been so complete that it has reduced political differences within Toronto\u2019s City Council to a very narrow range. A dominant grouping on Council that includes Mayor John Tory enthusiastically embraces the redevelopment drive and works to take it as far as possible. A queasy group of \u201dprogressives\u201d finds this agenda sad and regrettable but considers it to be inevitable. These councillors are reduced to begging for small concessions from the developers and financiers, so as to make the process slightly less harmful. For them, \u201cvictories\u201d are won if they can ensure some additional park space or a few more housing units within upscale developments that are described as \u201caffordable\u201d but that poor people can\u2019t actually afford to live in. This means these \u201cprogressives\u201d will do very little to support community-based resista<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nce <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2013 only <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as much as they feel is necessary to preserve their progressive credentials. In the present context, though they won\u2019t speak unequivocally in defence of encampments, several members of this group on Council have come out against the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.toronto.com\/news-story\/10442620-advocates-several-city-councillors-demand-toronto-stop-violent-encampment-clearings\/?fbclid=iwar3rqejtp4cmibhzcbberi9c_lysvjtbf2tn2cm42cww1tawxxttvkmdwhm#.YPuCBNaOzkU.facebook\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">use of police violence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to shut them down.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the politicians and senior administrators in Tory\u2019s faction, the public outcry over encampment raids is disturbing, but they calculate it will subside. Their overriding goal is to open up a path for investment and development. Homelessness and the human suffering it involves are not a problem for them as long as these things are not too visible. If homeless people can be crowded into hellish shelter facilities or otherwise made to sleep somewhere out of sight, the neoliberal city will function more smoothly.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only effective means of resistance in this situation is to ensure that the visibility of the homeless disaster is increased, rather than diminished. This is the key to convincing the municipal power structure that their present course causes more problems than it solves. It is vital that on-site resistance to encampment clearings be maintained and intensified. The process of removing people from parks has been more than the mayor and his senior planners bargained for, and resistance to it has the potential to undermine their resolve, forcing them to call off their cops and offer serious housing solutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The use of a wide range of tactics is healthy. Keeping the issue alive on social media is very helpful. There is nothing at all wrong with lobbying members of City Council, including making use of official channels to register community concern: deputations before Council standing committees and suchlike. However, such tactics will not be enough to convince the most influential politicians and administrators that the political price tag for their present course is more than they want to pay. To take things to that level, disruptive forms of collective action will be absolutely necessary.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are places where politicians and the business interests they serve would be even more distressed to encounter \u201cvisible homelessness\u201d than in public parks: their condo showrooms, their fancy gatherings, their favourite restaurants, and outside their luxury homes (Mayor Tory is especially sensitive in this regard). All disruptive actions that place unhoused people and their allies where the grandees of redevelopment don’t want them to be can be enormously effective.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">City Hall itself must also be a focus for such action. Council and committee meetings can be confronted; visits can be paid to the offices of key politicians. High-profile municipal events can be interrupted. The more disruptive the challenge that is set against them, the more that officials are likely to opt for concessions in place of their present repressive course. The more pressure that is applied, the more the \u201cprogressives\u201d on Council will want to distance themselves from the group around the mayor, and press for viable solutions. Tory himself, while he diligently serves the redevelopment agenda, has his own pretensions to \u201cinclusiveness\u201d and \u201csocial compassion\u201d that he tries to preserve. Substantial concessions from City Hall are entirely winnable.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The present effort to sweep out encampment residents takes place as municipal politicians develop their goals and priorities for a \u201cpost-pandemic\u201d Toronto. That they are ready to serve the needs of wealth and property in so brutal a fashion sounds an ominous note for all of us. This is an attack that urgently needs to be defeated by a broad, united movement of community resistance. The effort to push homeless people from view, along with the entire agenda of profit-driven social abandonment, must be met with a defiance that is loud, glaringly visible, and utterly impossible to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-a7a78e7 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"a7a78e7\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5b1ef43\" data-id=\"5b1ef43\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-215edf3e elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon elementor-view-default elementor-widget-divider--element-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"215edf3e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon elementor-divider__element\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-sun\"><\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4c798736 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4c798736\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4dc5d3bb\" data-id=\"4dc5d3bb\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-714b7e0a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"714b7e0a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: left;\">John Clarke is a writer and anti-poverty activist in Toronto. He was an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for almost 30 years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4d25da5 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4d25da5\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-640d54ca\" data-id=\"640d54ca\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1d2acb36 elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"1d2acb36\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-default orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.midnightsunmag.ca%2Fresisting-the-attack-on-torontos-encampments%2F&text=Resisting%20the%20Attack%20on%20Toronto%E2%80%99s%20Encampments&via=midnightsunmag\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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the forms it took in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada; and its mixed legacies. A personal and political reflection.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/what-we-mean-by-community-is-our-yearning-for-communism\/\" class=\"crp_link post-7485\"><span class=\"crp_title\">What We Mean by Community is Our Yearning for Communism<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> M.E. O\u2019Brien on family abolition and the communizing of care as political horizons worth fighting for. A conversation with Midnight Sun editor David Camfield.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/moments-of-vast-possibility\/\" class=\"crp_link post-5937\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Moments of Vast Possibility<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> Solidarity Winnipeg\u2019s Jesslyn Best and Leslie Ep discuss utopias, popular uprisings, gender and sexual freedom, communist politics, and speculative fiction with M.E. O\u2019Brien and Eman Abdelhadi, the authors of the new book Everything For Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/one-year-after-lamport-stadium\/\" class=\"crp_link post-5698\"><span class=\"crp_title\">One Year After Lamport Stadium<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> A year after the brutal eviction of encampment residents at Toronto\u2019s Lamport Stadium Park, members of Encampment Support Network Parkdale reflect on the transformative power of community resistance.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"crp_clear\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Ontario Coalition Against Poverty organizer John Clarke on the escalating fight to defend our unhoused neighbours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[72,73,71,74],"class_list":["post-2813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interventions","tag-encampments","tag-eviction-defence","tag-john-clarke","tag-municipal-politics","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Resisting the Attack on Toronto's Encampments – Midnight Sun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Ontario Coalition Against Poverty organizer John Clarke on the escalating fight to defend our 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