TENT CITY in Kitchener, ON - July 16th

[Comrade Marcel]

>The Spot and the K-W Youth Collective will continue our campaign for affordable
>housing by setting up a tent city for homeless people next week. Supporters
>are invited to participate and can help us by bringing blankets, food, and
>tarps/tents.
>
>Homeless? No place to go?
>
>TENT CITY
>
>Starts Wednesday, July 16th
>5pm - setup & BBQ (free)
>Victoria Park Island (Gazebo)
>
>also that night
>PUBLIC MEETING - 7pm
>Housing for the People!
>Defeat Ernie Eves!
>Common Front against poverty!
>
>with presentations from
>•Sue Collis from the Common Front
>•Rachel Huot from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (Toronto)
>•The Spot/K-W Youth Collective
>•Others to be confirmed
>
>at The Spot
>119b King St. W. Downtown Kitchener
>2nd floor
>
>For more information
>call: 578-1425 after 3:30pm
>e-mail: [email protected]
>or visit The Spot
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>Other recent information about the Spot and the K-W Youth Collective...
>
>Our struggle with the cops and the courts goes on. Tomorrow, 4 of 17 May Day
>Squatters (Jeff, Amanda, DJ and Samantha) have their first appearance in court.
>We are taking all trespass notices to trial and are confident that we can beat
>all of the charges. Housing is a right!
>
>Trial dates have been set for Davin Charney who is facing 3 obstruct police
>charges and a breach of bail. The first obstruct charge will go to trial on
>October 15 and the remaining 2 obstruct charges and the breach will go to trial
>on October 10th. Unfortunately, the crown has not consented to changing any of
>Davin's bail conditions, so he may continue to be banned from the Spot and from
>downtown Kitchener until trial. Julian Ichim is still working his way through
>the courts and no trial date has been set for his obstruct police charge.
>These charges stem from a police crackdown on the work of the K-W Youth
>Collective especially our Peoples Community Defense Brigades AKA Cop Watch.
>Cop Watch continues to fight police misconduct by monitoring police activities
>on the streets of K-W.
>
>The cops, courts and Family and Children's Services (F&CS) continue to work
>together to have people banned from the spot. In a number of recent cases,
>youth have been arrested for offenses that have nothing to do with the Spot,
>yet the courts have been willing to take the advice of F&CS or the cops, and
>have a ban from the Spot included in bail or probation conditions.
>
>This September 5th will mark 8 years since the Ontario Provincial Police attack
>on Stoney Point and the murder of Dudley George. The K-W Youth Collective will
>be working with other groups to make sure that this day does not pass
>unnoticed. Stay tuned for more details. Justice for Dudley George and Stoney
>Point!
>
>Victory belongs to the people!

[dsmtuner]

Sweet. Thanks for the heads up!

[Comrade Marcel]

Just to let everyone know, the tent city is still going on. The pigs evicted them from the original spot but they moved to the park space across from the spot. When the pigs tel them to leave their, they will camp out somewhere else.

Please drop by and show your support!

[Comrade Marcel]

Update:

Thu, 17 Jul 2003

The day started with a barbeque attended by approximatley 60 people who gathered in Victoria Park to participate in the liberation of the Victoria Park Island. People ate hotdogs, hamburgers and veggie dogs. The Island and Gazebo, usually a place where the rich have there weddings, and media does "community events" that exclude the homeless community has now been turned into housing for the marginalized and those that society attempts to get rid of.
The BBQ kick off for tent city was not only attended by homeless youth but also community supporters such as university professors and social service agents who came to support the struggle of the people for housing.

After some delay do to lack of disipline and general fuck up a public meeting got under way about the Common Front Campaighn against the Tories. Speakers included Sue Collis from the common front and Rachel Hout from OCAP who discussed the the struggle against the Tories. The meeting took place at tent city and was attended by approximatley 14 people. Awards were given out to people was assistence has been vital for the existence of the Spot. Martin Bracey, Enver Villamizar, Nik Lin, Tucker and AJ were made honorary staff for the help that they gave to the Spot. Kris Pheasant was given the Order of Che for rallying support around the Spot during the incarcerations of several staff before May Day and the support that has assisted the existence of the Spot.

About 30 people spent the night sleeping in tent city, as police cruisers and under cover cars circled around all night observing what was going on. Police attempts to intimidate demonstrators was first observed during the set up at two in the afternoon when detectives and police came to the island to stop people from killing themselves (someone made a noose as a joke and hung it from the Gazebo and seeing this the police came "out of concern"), there was little to no police presencein between 5 pm to 10 pm. Security was also on alert for boneheads who threatened to crash the Tent City. Boneheads drove by and egged Staff member Julian Ichim on Monday during a meeting at 1:00 am outside a comrades house (the egg bounced off due to the puffy jacket and the meeting resumed) and jumped KWYC member Ian about two weeks ago. Although two were Spoted by security they were too chicken shit to do anything.

Tent city continues....

Fri, 18 Jul 2003

The Victoria Park Island is still liberated space where people are sleeping, eating and chilling despite several encounters with members of the Waterloo Regional Police. City officials are giving the people of tent city until 6 pm tonight to clear out.

Police provocation started late in the afternoon with two bike cops driving through tent city. Before they entered insults were exchanged between Julian Ichim and the officers who responded to the warning signal "6" by stating "21 8 15".

Several hours after that police again entered the tent city and gave a older man on disability a ticket for having an open can of beer. The man, a supporter, was passing through and decided to check things.

This was followed by police nabbing a youth on AWOL outside of tent city and escorting her to the bridge to retrieve her purse. Police decided not to escalate this confrontation and chose not to pass security on the bridge. The youth was escorted back to Family and Children Services Custody

Mark,a member of the KW Youth Collective and organizer of tent city was later cuffed and released for an alleged breach, no charges were laid once the police realized that to reside at an approved residence does not mean you can't camp out.

Police increased there presence around the island in between 4:45 am to 5:30 am driving right up to the bridge at one point and turning on there light.

Youth and residents of tent city are not prepared to abandon the tent city and will not simply get up and leave at the whims of city pen pushers

Tent City continues.....

Sat, 19 Jul 2003

Comrades
Shortly after 8 pm (two hours after the deadline given to us by the city), Residents of tent city were given tresspass notices left the park. Tent city relocated on King St. across from The Spot where the lyric nightclub use to be. After tense harrasment from police and security at the new location it was agreed that the new tent city will be allowed to stay for the time being. The KW Youth Collective will continue to move the tent city if residents are evicted again.

At about 5 PM on Friday, 1 hour before the eviction deadline given to us by the city, residents of tent city held there last BBQ and prepared for the confrontation that laid ahead. During a meeting shortly thereafter it was agreed that it would be more strategic for the residents to negotiate for another place in the park, since the city was using an art exibit and other events booked in the area as an excuse for why we should be kicked out. (it should be noted that on thursday a video was filmed in the gazebo area and no one interfered with the production of the video and the filmer got along very well with the residents of tent city even though the island was still inhabited). Shortly after 6 oclock a wedding photoshoot took place (booked by the city) while the residents were still there, in a twilight zone type atmosphere with scraggly residents and tuxedo wearing middleclass people peacefully coexisting and Spot kids being amazingly quiet (something al most unheard of). The photgrapher said we were very cooperative and supported our cause. At 8pm, security guards served us notice stating that we were tresspassing if we did not leave the island immediately. and after a meeting it was agreed that we would relocate right in the downtown core and several options were discussed for where we would locate after. By 9:00 we left the island and relocated.

The first few hours at our new location were tense with cruisers, copvans, and city security guards milling around telling us to leave. After they figured out that city official were gone home for the weekend they grudgingly backed down as long as we didn't have BBQ's, set up tents and only had the couches,beds, tarps and food. People are encouraged to check us out at our new location and brings donations of food, tarps, couches and pop.

Tent City Is Dead!!! Long Live The New Tent City!!!!

[Comrade Marcel]

Tent city evicted: City of Kitchener robs homeless youth

On Monday July 21st, while the residents of tent city were eating at the soup kitchen and only one person was guarding the area, city workers, under the watch of police officers pulled up to tent city and with no warning at all, began to dismantle the tent city, throwing everything in a truck, therby making it impossible to relocate tent city. Despite the protests of the youth who was present about legalities, all the couches, tarps, books, and peoples personal belongings were thrown out. There were no tresspass notices issued and people were not even given a minute to clean up there stuff. This was done despite the fact that tents were not set up and there was no BBQing as per the requests of security guards and despite the attempts of residents of tent city to be totally accomadating to users of both Victoria Park and the greenspace across from The Spot. The green area that the youth were evicted out of was created to accomadate youth in the downtown communi ty as the city's response to the work we were doing*, yet when the youth choose to use this space, the city comes down and attacks them. The KW Youth Collective regards this action by the city as an open act of provocation and an escalation of the gentrification policy and it will not go on unanswered. We will step up the intensification of our struggle and will continue our struggle for housing and against gentrification. If the city will block out progress through legitimite channels we will create our own.

Victory belongs to the People!!!


*community relations officer, Waterloo regional police