A-Infos (en) Ratepayer's Group Confronted

[Graeme Bacque <gbacque@arcos.org>]

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In the Toronto neighborhood which I live in there are a number of groups
of well-off homeowners who have been engaging in increasingly hostile
actions with the aim of driving poor and homeless people from the
community. Groups such as the Seaton/Ontario/Berkley Resident's
Association (SOBRA) and Toronto East Downtown Resident's Association
(TEDRA) have waged an unceasing war against lower-income members of the
community, succeeding in driving at least one day shelter from the area
and seriously curtailing other supports for homeless people. 
People who have been forced into 'illegal' activities such as the sex
trade in order to survive have faced serious persecution by police
acting under the direction of these Yuppie losers, and the Open Door
Centre at All Saints Church (a large downtown drop-in) has actually been
picketed by SOBRA members. A couple of years ago, a group of young Black
men who were playing soccer in a local park were descended upon by
dozens of cops, forced to their knees, cuffed and charged with trespass
(in a public park!) while members of these Yuppie groups stood around
and cheered the police. Prostitutes working in the neighborhood have
faced restrictive 'boundaries' as a condition of probation, meaning
these folks face the possibility of jail for merely entering the 
communities many of them have called home for years. 

Tonight SOBRA was to hold what they referred to as a 'public' meeting to
specifically discuss a property on Dundas Street East which had been
originally renovated for use as a large rooming house before these
clowns went to City Hall and succeeded in getting the zoning changed to
prevent this happening. (This building, which was formerly a small
factory, is now displaying signs advertising lofts starting at $74,000).
The reason for this gathering was basically to strategize on how to
prevent any possibility of this structure ever being used for housing
that people can actually afford.

Upon learning of this gathering members of the Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty (OCAP) immediately mobilized its members with the purpose of
disrupting and hopefully stopping this further attempt to undermine the
rights of poor and homeless people to the most basic necessities of
life. After proceeding to the local school where the SOBRA people were
planning to meet, OCAP immediately set up a picket line at the one door
which had been left unlocked, forcing most people arriving for the
meeting to wait for entry, or to be escorted through a side door by the
cops. (As well as the locals this thing was attended by a number of
developers and city bureaucrats. There was one young man visible who
appeared to be displaying Nazi symbols on his clothing.)

A few minutes after the start of their meeting the picketers (who had
been reinforced by the arrival of a dozen members of Toronto Food Not
Bombs) headed into the building and up to the second-storey room where
the SOBRA members were holed up. We were blocked from entering the room,
but spirits were high... to make a long story short, we were so
successful in disrupting the proceedings that the Yuppies were soon
forced to abandon their attempt to meet and slink out of the building
under protection from the cops.

This was accomplished without anyone being arrested. 

The Cabbagetown/Regent Park neighborhood in downtown Toronto has been
predominately a working class/low income community for much of its
history, before gentrification began in earnest back in the 1970's. Over
the course of the nineties, wealthy residents' groups have been
increasingly winning the ears of all levels of government, the police
and courts, and have systematically sought to criminalize the victims of
neo-conservative fiscal and social policies. Tonight's action sent an
important message to such groups that poor people will no longer
tolerate being denied their most basic rights, and that we are prepared
to do whatever is needed in order to reclaim our communities.

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