{"id":4715,"date":"2022-03-03T01:19:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T06:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2022-03-03T13:35:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T18:35:32","slug":"the-cops-always-face-towards-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/the-cops-always-face-towards-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cops Always Face Towards Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4715\" class=\"elementor elementor-4715\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-706fdad2 elementor-section-height-min-height elementor-section-content-top elementor-section-stretched elementor-section-items-bottom elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"706fdad2\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;stretch_section&quot;:&quot;section-stretched&quot;,&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\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-3c041c21\" data-id=\"3c041c21\" 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-3a1dc0cc elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-mobile animated-slow elementor-view-default elementor-invisible elementor-widget elementor-widget-icon\" data-id=\"3a1dc0cc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;_animation&quot;:&quot;fadeInDown&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"icon.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon\">\n\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i>\t\t\t<\/div>\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-7d48e5a elementor-section-full_width elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"7d48e5a\" 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-763d1d83\" data-id=\"763d1d83\" 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-64654a85 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"64654a85\" 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:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/FgPGGFlY1gY\" target=\"_blank\">Photo: dan carlson\/Unsplash<\/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-565811dc elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"565811dc\" 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-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5447f1fa\" data-id=\"5447f1fa\" 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-7622641b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7622641b\" 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;\">3. 3. 2022<\/h3><h1>The Cops Always Face Towards Us<\/h1><h3 style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">D.G.<\/span><\/strong><\/h3><hr \/><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>Being in downtown Ottawa last month meant breathing in putrid exhaust, trying to tune out the cacophony of blaring truck horns, and dodging gaggles of flag-waving convoy supporters as they screamed \u201cFREEDOM\u201d back and forth. \u201cCanada\u2019s most boring city\u201d had suddenly become the subject of international attention. Photos of Nazi and Confederate flags spread on social media and in the news, prompting widespread denunciation across party lines. Liberal commentators expressed shock and horror at this supposed affront to Canadian democracy and values. <\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In reality, of course, white supremacy is foundational to the settler-colonial project that is Canada. The growth of far-right movements is an inevitability in a country whose very existence is inherently at odds with Indigenous life, sovereignty, and well-being. The Ottawa occupation is just the newest iteration within an ongoing trend of far-right escalation that the white settler population was, by and large, content to ignore up until now.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2>Years of counterdemos and cops\u2019 gauntleted fists<\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through much of the 1990s and 2000s, the Heritage Front and other neo-Nazis terrorized Ontario communities. The new group <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stopracism.ca\/content\/15-anti-racist-action-toronto-ara\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anti-Racist Action<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came together to disrupt their organizing and confront them in the streets. Following the Heritage Front\u2019s disbandment around 2005 and a subsequent lull in organized white-supremacist activity, another far-right surge began in 2011, Islamophobic groups <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/toronto.mediacoop.ca\/story\/groups-protest-unholy-alliance-between-jewish-defense-league-and-english-neo-fascists\/5620\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clashing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> violently with a new generation of antifascists. Not long after then, men\u2019s rights activists attempted to establish a presence on university campuses, and again, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thevarsity.ca\/2012\/11\/17\/arrest-assaults-overshadow-mens-issues-lecture\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">communities pushed back<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Though fewer and further between, these cascading mobilizations allowed the far right to build the groundwork for what would come next.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While far-right organizing\u2019s true genesis in Ontario (and across Canada) <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/fascism-is-as-canadian-as-the-maple-leaf\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">long predates the past decade<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and can\u2019t be separated from the history of colonialism on this continent, its recent intensification can be traced to two sets of seemingly unrelated events in late 2016. They centred upon patriarchal ideology pushed on university campuses and the perceived \u201cIslamicization\u201d of Western countries, dynamics that had been building over the previous half-decade. In September 2016, a previously obscure psychologist and University of Toronto professor named Jordan Peterson posted a YouTube video claiming that Bill C-16 \u2013 a proposed amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act that would include gender identity and expression among its protected categories \u2013 was an attack on freedom of expression. In response, trans community members organized a protest, which Lauren Southern, then of the far-right outlet Rebel Media, attended to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/torontoist.com\/2016\/10\/when-rebel-reporters-fake-being-trans-theyre-not-doing-journalism\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disrupt<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. At the Peterson-supported \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thevarsity.ca\/2016\/10\/17\/tensions-flare-at-rally-supporting-free-speech-dr-jordan-peterson\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">U of T Rally for Free Speech<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d six days later, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cTYQGq3t6Hc&amp;t=40s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">violence erupted<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as reactionaries attacked trans people and their supporters. This and subsequent clashes helped to catapult Peterson, Southern, and their cohort into the international infamy they now enjoy.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The second of the two events that paved the way for today\u2019s far-right resurgence in Canada came roughly two months later: Liberal MP Iqra Khalid\u2019s introduction of M-103, a non-binding Parliamentary motion condemning Islamophobia. South of the border, Donald Trump\u2019s presidential election campaign was vilifying Muslims, which had the effect of rousing Canada\u2019s white supremacists. Though initially Khalid\u2019s motion received little attention, the Qu\u00e9bec City mosque massacre on January 27, 2017, brought it much greater visibility and support. By March, white supremacists across Canada were rallying against it, claiming that Muslims were invading the West. Older far-right groups like the Jewish Defence League, a Zionist organization, saw a revived level of activity, their members <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/torontotrollgallery.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/24\/soldiers-of-odin-soo\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">standing side by side<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with new groups like the Soldiers of Odin, their shared Islamophobia uniting them across their political differences. Far-right personalities like Sandra Solomon, who recently reappeared on Parliament Hill after a period of quiet, first gained visibility around that time. Amidst these organized fascist displays, communities coalesced into anti-racist and anti-fascist networks to fight back.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between 2017 and 2019, Ontario cities often became sites of monthly or even weekly far-right demonstrations and anti-fascist counterdemos. Specifically, Toronto, Ottawa, London, St. Catharines, Hamilton, and Niagara saw repeated and sometimes regular gatherings. Their attendees could number anywhere from one or two Yellow Vesters to hundreds of anti-LGBT street preachers. Our side, similarly, ranged from single to triple digits depending on the day. I focus on Ontario because of my own involvement in mobilizations in that province, but similar confrontations were happening all over the country.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Toronto, most of these faceoffs played out at the intersection of University Avenue and Armoury Street, behind Nathan Phillips Square. Generally, they followed a pattern that became somewhat predictable as the same faces on both sides returned month after month. Toronto police would come in early to set up metal barricades, fencing off a protective pig pen. The fascists would then gather there, waving their signs and giving their speeches while a wall of police separated them from a bloc of militant antifascists. On the better-publicized days, there might be a crowd of non-militants further off behind that bloc, likewise there to reject white supremacy but less able or willing to be injured or arrested. In this way, attendees could guess at the demo\u2019s risk level in advance and act accordingly.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Violence happened in two main ways. Sometimes, a fascist would wander away from their uniformed protectors, towards the bloc, and a fight would break out. More often, the bloc would link up arm-in-arm and move in to prevent a white supremacist march from taking the streets. Then, police would attempt to break through those lines, ramming their bikes and gauntleted fists into people\u2019s bodies to make way for their far-right friends. Nothing more vividly illustrates how \u201ccops and Klan go hand in hand\u201d than bracing yourself for whatever might come next as you stand beside your comrades, staring down those lines and lines of cops who always face towards you, and who sometimes outnumber even the white supremacists waiting for them to act.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">University and Armoury was far from the only site of these demonstrations. Across cities in Ontario, though, most followed a similar configuration of cornered fascists hiding behind cops, some officers proudly sporting <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/montreal-police-spotted-with-thin-blue-line-patches-at-convoy-demonstration-1.5781925\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">thin blue line patches<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as they shook hands and made nice with the fascists. Where comrades suffered more serious injuries, police were almost always the perpetrators. I suspect that every single regular attendee of these counterdemos lives with some level of trauma to do with the police, even if not with the fascists themselves. On multiple occasions, I spent hours in the ER with a friend or stranger after they were assaulted by one or the other. The 52 Division police station became a familiar venue, too, as we convened again and again over those months for jail support. It was routine for our comrades to be arrested and charged, sometimes on the flimsiest of pretences, while the cops rarely laid a hand on the other side.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Among the bloc, there was never any ambiguity about whose side the police were on. On one occasion in Toronto, an officer grabbed someone\u2019s pride flag and proceeded to beat another antifascist with it \u2013 an incredible microcosm of the relationship between the police and liberation movements. Their purpose was always to interrupt anti-fascist organizing, and they happily carried that out, brutalizing our people and saddling them with charges. Sometimes their tactics were as straightforward as punching or kicking anyone within an arm\u2019s length. Bicycles, an especially effective weapon and shield at once, allowed the police to control space and shove people back; a bike cop once knocked an antifascist down a flight of stairs. Police horses, whose violent arrival at the end of the Ottawa occupation outraged the far right, were typical sights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had chants for those occasions, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get those animals off those horses<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> repeating as their riders spurred them directly into crowds. Disregard for human life was on full display in such moments; once, a cop on horseback kicked a low-vision person who was using a mobility device and unable to get out of the way fast enough. Arrestees would sometimes be deliberately boxed into vans for hours during extreme summer heat, or cuffed so tightly that they required medical attention afterwards, or threatened with sexual assault. Injuries that stemmed obviously from being tackled, heads smashed into the ground, were ignored in detention. Nonviolence never kept anyone safe; officers\u2019 attacks were, in most instances, preceded by little more than antifascists simply standing in the fascists\u2019 path.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arrests, even hours-long detentions, did not always result in charges. Catch-and-releases were an intimidation and surveillance tactic through which police could collect antifascists\u2019 personal information. Charges actually laid were almost invariably baseless and diverted or dropped by the Crown down the line, though there were a few findings of guilt and at least one brief prison sentence. The point was rarely to secure convictions, but rather to strike fear in people and consume years of their time, resources, and energy. Criminal mischief and obstruction were by far the most common charges, but police also relished in inflating mild interactions into serious offences, or sometimes just outright making shit up. The classic example: police attacking someone unprovoked, then calling the altercation \u201cassault on an officer.\u201d When in the hands of the left, umbrellas, flagpoles, and wooden handles on protest signs were confiscated as potential weapons. Just bringing one, or wearing mundane accessories like padded gloves, could and did lead to every combination of weapons, assault, and assault with a weapon charges. Avoiding physical contact was not enough to escape a legal battle; police claimed that even blowing an air horn could be assault.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Release conditions were another favoured way to curb the left\u2019s ability to organize. Held in isolation in station cells, arrestees would be urged to sign off on release conditions that would limit their ability to communicate with friends and comrades and attend demonstrations, and guarantee convictions if they were arrested again. Though tempting to accept in the moment, those conditions could have disastrous long-term impacts on people who might, for instance, live or attend school with their co-defendants.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over these last years of struggles, we have seen white supremacist movements veer further and further to the right. With each internal split, factions have become more violent and explicitly genocidal. Twice now in Ontario, on April 23, 2018, in Toronto, and June 6, 2021, in London, these same political currents of misogyny and Islamophobia have culminated in horrific mass murders. Though their perpetrators were never, to the public\u2019s knowledge, part of any organized fascist group, they shared not only motivations but also tactics. Vehicles have increasingly become <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/6\/1\/21276941\/george-floyd-protests-truck-police-attack\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a rallying symbol and weapon of choice<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for reactionaries. Within this context, the anti-mandate movement\u2019s embrace of truck convoys as the means for their message is no coincidence. Far from being a spontaneous mass movement, the \u201cFreedom Convoy\u201d was brought together by long-time fixtures of established far-right <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.antihate.ca\/the_freedom_convoy_is_nothing_but_a_vehicle_for_the_far_right\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">political ecosystems<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through the pandemic, existing far-right networks found fertile new grounds for recruitment among COVID-19 conspiracy theorists. Complicating matters is the presence in the anti-mandate movement of people genuinely struggling with the failures of the state\u2019s pandemic response, as well as \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2021\/02\/19\/qanon-conspiracy-theory-family-members-reddit-forum-469485\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">QAnon casualties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d and other sometimes vulnerable people taken in by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.antihate.ca\/queen_of_canada_calling_us_supporters_invade_canada_execute_traitors\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bizarre conspiratorial cults<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Compared to, say, a protest against M-103, the right\u2019s new pet issue has attracted a much broader base of supporters, including some who even, against all evidence, sincerely believe that the convoy is only about COVID-19 mandates. At the same time, concerns about virus transmission and other factors led much of the left to forgo directly countering the sometimes thousands-strong anti-lockdown and anti-mandate demonstrations that have popped up throughout the last two years. Consequently, Ontario antifascists have had little opportunity or impetus thus far to examine the applicability of yesterday\u2019s tactics to the new pandemic world.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2>Tactics that evolve as our enemies do<\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The situation in Ottawa this last month has been described as an occupation and a siege. While sometimes accompanied by liberal hyperbole \u2013 and though we should remain mindful of the fact that Ottawa itself is an illegitimate occupation of Algonquin land \u2013 both of these terms are accurate. Geographically, numerically, and logistically, the convoy\u2019s scale set it apart from any far-right demonstration in Ontario in recent memory. For weeks on end, convoy vehicles blockaded not only all of Wellington Street in downtown Ottawa, but also the surrounding residential neighbourhoods. Residents of the Centretown area were subjected to injurious levels of noise day and night. Truck exhaust ruined the air quality, making it near-impossible for many people with respiratory conditions to breathe at home. Personal support workers were unable to reach those they care for, leaving some disabled people physically unable to meet their most basic needs. Constant harassment and violence forced grocery stores and shopping centres to close, leaving service workers without income and, sometimes, residents with no way to feed themselves. Every day of the occupation, I heard new accounts of everything from threats and slurs to physical assaults.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Past white-supremacist mobilizations in Ontario, like the United We Roll convoy to Ottawa in 2019, have frequently been held back by their own disorganization. Antifascists must not underestimate this new movement on that basis. Though plagued by infighting, the 2022 convoy was far more deliberate and strategic than many people have given it credit for, able to control the terrain of entire neighbourhoods. On some of the most heavily occupied residential streets, it moved with the clock: lines of trucks rolling in and out at the same set times, day after day, as though carefully coordinated. Convoy members stayed dispersed, spread too far across the city to be pushed out in a single direct confrontation, even if we could vastly outnumber them. Over at their Coventry Road supply centre, they set up the infrastructure for a long-term stay. They carried out designated roles there: guarding the site against unwanted visitors, and operating sophisticated supply chains to transport gas and other materials. Until February 17<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, all of this activity was facilitated by the police, who not only stood by and watched it all happen but at times <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CreesonCTV\/status\/1490467565226840065\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">actively offered<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Melkorka12\/status\/1487965588164988930\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">support<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/convoy-protesters-police-tactical-knowledge-1.6345854\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Declarations of allegiance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/8535198\/durham-police-officer-freedom-rally\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">individual cops<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> emboldened the most violent elements of the occupation, some of whom even retaliated against fed-up residents with an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/ottawa-police-arson-investigation-fire-apartment-lobby-1.6342347\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">arson attempt<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on an apartment building.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Against these horrors, Ottawa residents \u2013 both new to the left and more experienced \u2013 rallied together to defend their communities. Mutual aid networks sprang up to support people where governments had failed. Almost overnight, community members who may have never before been to a protest became anti-fascist researchers, monitoring convoy communication networks. Individuals bravely placed themselves in front of trucks, only to be removed by the same police who had helped the convoy take over the streets. Seeing the state enable the occupation, people who\u2019d been invested in the existence of the police began to question them. The now-famous blockade at Billings Bridge was actually one of at least three mobilizations that had been planned independently for the same day and time. The success at Billings Bridge drew people originally at those other actions, while other residents took inspiration and blocked vehicles elsewhere in the city.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While we should celebrate these spontaneous actions and the potential they reveal, there are necessary conversations still to be had about refusing the colonial state and embracing a diversity of tactics. Too much of the resistance to the convoy, especially on the part of very newly politicized people outside the existing Ottawa left, was couched in the language of reclaiming the flag and the city, oblivious to or outright contemptuous of Algonquin peoples\u2019 calls to recognize how Ottawa itself is a white-supremacist occupation. Reactions to the police at Billings Bridge ranged from furious yelling at them and calls to defund them to thank yous and offers of snacks. At an earlier rally, aggressive officers shoved two women of colour down onto the pavement; a crowd of white faces looked on without the slightest sign of concern, as though nothing had even happened.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The history of organizing against the far right shows the danger that the police pose to any of us who fight fascism. Even when the cops appear momentarily to target our enemies, the spectre of state repression looms over us too, always possible, always a threat. As white supremacist movements grow ever bolder and more sophisticated, the state\u2019s enforcers have made it clear whose side they\u2019re on. Let\u2019s consider how our tactics can evolve to thwart these ever-changing menaces.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-233177de elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon elementor-view-default elementor-widget-divider--element-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"233177de\" 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<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5643971a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5643971a\" 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><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Author\u2019s note: This piece came together through conversations with valued comrades, and I am incredibly grateful for the knowledge and recollections that they shared. At the same time, I speak only for myself in my reflections on these events. While I attempt to go over the recent past, this is by no means intended to be a comprehensive historical account of antifascism in Ontario. And finally \u2013 all of my love and solidarity, always, with everyone who defends our communities against the fascist scourge, and all of those who came before us.<\/span><\/i><br \/><br \/>D.G. is a settler antifascist from the Greater Toronto Area, now based in so-called Ottawa.<\/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<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7849d4b5 elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-phone\" data-id=\"7849d4b5\" 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<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1109a227 elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-phone\" data-id=\"1109a227\" 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-d5a097e elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"d5a097e\" 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%2Fthe-cops-always-face-towards-us%2F&text=The%20Cops%20Always%20Face%20Towards%20Us&via=midnightsunmag\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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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\/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\/protest-and-pleasure-a-revolution-led-by-sex-workers\/\"     class=\"crp_link post-3820\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Protest & Pleasure: A Revolution Led by Sex Workers<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> A conversation with Monica Forrester, Toni-Michelle Williams, and Chanelle Gallant about why trans women of colour sex workers are the leaders we need, lighting the way to revolutionary horizons.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/festivals-of-the-possible\/\"     class=\"crp_link post-4080\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Festivals of the Possible<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> Megan Kinch on the Occupy movement, which erupted 10 years ago: its particular blend of spontaneity, organization, and technology; the forms it took in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada; and its mixed legacies. A personal and political reflection.<\/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<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-6d810699 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"6d810699\" 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-6ce8a9d3\" data-id=\"6ce8a9d3\" 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-2bc9e46f elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"2bc9e46f\" 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%2Fthe-cops-always-face-towards-us%2F&text=The%20Cops%20Always%20Face%20Towards%20Us&via=midnightsunmag\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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