We at the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network stand in fierce solidarity with all those who are calling to defund the institution of policing in this moment of both immense devastation and immense possibility. 

Defunding the police matters because Black and Indigenous lives matter. The present-day abolition movement was birthed through hundreds of years of thinking, activism, and transformative practice in Black communities facing slavery, police violence, and pervasive criminalization. Ruth Wilson-Gilmore says that “abolition requires that we change one thing, which is everything”. It is abundantly clear to us that the role of police in society is not to protect people, but to protect property, capital, and the status quo of colonial, white supremacist capitalism. This institution is not reformable. Defund, disarm, demilitarize. Abolish the police. Change everything.

Part of the mandate of the MISN collective is to combat the myth of Canadian exceptionalism, which is the idea that Canada is uniquely peaceful and welcoming of diversity, especially as compared to the United States. Canada’s policing system is just one of the many ways in which violence against Black and Indigenous people is embedded into the foundational structures of our country. The RCMP, for example, was created as an occupying force to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands, enabling ‘resource’ extraction. This racist and colonial legacy continues today, rearing its head recently through the RCMP’s brutal and violent arrest of Chief Allan Adam in Alberta.

As Torontonians, we are intimately aware that police violence and profiling is a daily fear and reality amongst Black and Indigenous people in our city. Black residents in Tkaronto are 20 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. We cannot allow the idea that American police are ‘worse’ to cause us to turn away from a dedicated pursuit of justice for those who have lost their lives to Toronto Police Services’ racism. Just a few weeks ago, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, an Afro-Indigenous woman in Toronto, died during an interaction with Toronto police. After her death, her family and community mobilized a call for a full, transparent, public and independent investigation into her death which the authorities have yet to agree to. 

Regis is one of too many Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous community members whose lives were ended by police violence and allowed because of police impunity. As we speak her name we also remember D’Andre Campbell, who was killed inside his home by Peel Regional Police in April. Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi, both killed in New Brunswick by police sent to ensure their safety during a so-called ‘wellness check’. In the past 10 weeks, police across Canada have killed nine Indigenous people.

This system is not “broken”. This is the outcome of a system purposefully designed to uphold colonialism, white supremacy and capitalism. The only response is to pull resources away from the mechanisms that enact these violences and invest them in ways that nourish mutual aid, transformative justice, food and housing security, and community-led supports.

As a grassroots mining justice organization, we also see the ways that militarized policing upholds the violences of the resource extraction industry, whether it’s the RCMP carrying out forced evictions in Wet’suwet’en territory, or the policing that protects the financial district in Toronto where many companies are headquartered, or the way that police are used to repress resistance to the construction of mining projects in Canada and around the world. A great deal of the harm experienced by mining-impacted communities is enacted by local, often militarized police at the behest of Canadian mining corporations. These police brutalize. They rape. They surveil. They threaten. They contribute to bogus criminal charges being filed against community leaders. They set villages on fire as they evict people from their homes to make way for an industrial mining project. They attempt to repress the vital resistance of powerful movements of people trying to have a say in what happens to them. Communities continue to resist these violences in ways that all of us could learn from. But at what cost?

Mining companies attempt to avoid responsibility by blaming the harms we described above on the “violent” culture of the countries or communities in which they operate. But impacted communities know, and we know, that these police actions are empowered by, elicited by, funded by, and otherwise enabled by Canadian corporations, Canadian embassies in service of those corporations, Canadian government interventions into local mining laws, and free trade agreements that benefit the Canadian economy. Police violence tells us, loud and clear, what matters most to those in power, no matter where you are. Capital over human lives. Colonial white supremacy over Black power and Indigenous sovereignty. The rights of transnational corporations over the future of our planet. 

We add these comments about policing and the mining industry not to decentre the vital focus on the experiences of Black and Indigenous people on Turtle Island, but rather to shed light on the vast webs of impact and potential solidarity that could be leveraged in service of building a world without policing. We call on all our allies doing environmental justice, climate justice, and anti-capitalist work to think about how the question of policing intersects with the issues you organize around, to think about what you can contribute, and to support the leadership of Black and Indigenous organizations in the fight to transform the ways we think of safety and whose safety matters. We are doing the same.  

New to the idea of abolition?

• Read through this website for a good primer on police and prison abolition: https://www.8toabolition.com/
• Check out this amazing resource hub on abolitionist strategies for ending violence: https://transformharm.org/

If you, like us, are based in Tkaronto, here are some things you can do right now to support:

• Email the mayor and your city councillor asking them to defund the Toronto Police Service. Here is a good template letter. Find your city councillor here. It is extra important to do this before June 29th, when city council will be voting on a motion that has been brought forward by Councillor Josh Matlow to defund the police.
• Give money to any of these Toronto-based organizations.
• Attend this community forum on June 20th about creating alternatives to policing in Toronto. 

For more on our stance on abolition: Click here.

On March 1st, the world’s largest mining convention (PDAC, or the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada) began in Toronto, as it does every year. In response, we gathered alongside over 500 people outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in solidarity with every community on Turtle Island and beyond that has found itself staring down the barrel of a gun for opposing Canada’s ongoing colonial project through violent resource extraction. This rally was planned by a loose coalition of a dozen allied Toronto groups and endorsed by over 50 organizations and groups who all supported our mission to disrupt PDAC in demand of the following:

• No more pipelines
• No fossil fuel extraction
• No more open pit mines
• No more land theft and forced displacement
• No more corporate impunity
• Status for all, including all those displaced by extractive industries and their destructive impacts
• Full recognition of Indigenous sovereignty
• Respect for local self-determination

With this mission in our hearts, we came together en masse and it was big and beautiful!

On Sunday March 1, together we:

• Flooded and blocked Front Street for a total of four hours
• Surrounded the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with three roving parties of justice-loving people
• Blocked all the major entrances to the convention centre – the two major pedestrian entrances on the North and South sides of the building, plus the parking garage entrance on the East side
• Unfurled a beautiful 50-foot banner saying “Blood On Your Hands” from a prominent railing inside the building, for all PDAC attendees to see, as well as a smaller People Before Profit banner
• Livestream broadcast the rally to a public square in Ecuador, with additional viewers from all across Latin America: link to view the livestream here
• Ate delicious food at the Food Beyond Extraction food cart
• Protected each other and managed to avoid any arrests despite all the awesome direct action and the large police presence including riot cops on horses
• Dealt with a medical emergency due to police violence thanks to street medics’ quick response
• Blocked the police’s Clearview Artificial Intelligence camera for facial recognition (first time it’s been used in Toronto at a public protest) for a majority of the protest with a tall banner (more on OPP’s illegal use of Clearview here)
• Hung almost 300 red ribbons on a string spanning the entirety of Front St, in honour of those who lost their lives in the Samarco and Brumadinho mining disasters in Brazil. This installation blew beautifully in the breeze, and led one of our roving troupes up and down Lower Simcoe Street as it moved. 
• Raised over $700 for the Unist’ot’en Legal Fund at the Food Beyond Extraction food cart
• Danced, marched, and sang to the music made by Maracatu Mar Aberto (with friends from Baque de Bamba), Cee Reality, Cassie Norton, and many other spontaneous eruptions of song that took place throughout the afternoon
• Heard messages directly from impacted communities about how mining is affecting their lives and livelihoods.

Photos

Below is a selection of photos from the rally taken by Allan Lissner.
Michael Zender posted a beautiful photo album here.
Scroll down below the photos for a media round-up, additional disruptive actions, and more.

Media Coverage

Here are some of the best pieces that were written about the rally:

• Saying NO to Canadian mining companies! by Valerie Lannon in Spring Magazine
• ‘Against colonial violence and land theft’, Indigenous activists and allies target mining industry convention in Toronto, by Jon Queally in Common Dreams
• En español: La industria minera canadiense y global muestra las garras en su Convención anual en Toronto, by Guadalupe Rodríguez

All of Toronto’s mainstream media outlets covered the rally and included our messaging! Some pieces that were published include:

• CBC: Large crowd blocks downtown street in protest against mining industry convention
• Toronto Star: Rally denouncing resource extraction greets attendees at world’s largest mining convention in Toronto
• Globe and Mail
  • Video: More than a hundred people protest outside Toronto mining convention
  • Article: Crowd blocks downtown Toronto street to protest mining convention
• National Post: Hundreds block downtown Toronto street to protest mining convention
• City News: Crowd blocks downtown Toronto street to protest mining convention
• CTV News: Front Street blocked as hundreds protest mining convention
• CP 24: Crowd blocks downtown Toronto street to protest mining convention
• Ottawa Citizen: Hundreds blocks downtown Toronto street to protest mining convention
• Toronto.com: Protest at world’s largest mining convention closes off Front Street in Toronto
• Global News:
  • Resource industry, protesters wait for outcome of Wet’suwet’en talks
  • Hundreds protest in Toronto as Wet’suwet’en chiefs and ministers reach tentative deal
  • Crowd blocks downtown Toronto street in protest of mining convention

And, of course, the rally was covered by our “friends” at mining.com: Anti-mining protesters block entrances to PDAC annual convention

We also managed to briefly hijack the coverage of Justin Trudeau’s speech the following day at PDAC:

Throughout the rest of the four-day convention, we kept the heat on PDAC:

• Water defenders crashed “Ecuador Day” with a message from Ecuadorian environmental group YASunidos Cuenca.

• MISN crashed the keynote speech by drowning it out with the sound of jackhammers, in critique of Ontario’s free entry system. We wrote an article about it! 
• Some mysterious friends ensured that all visitors to the PDAC washrooms were confronted with the realities of the mining industry by stickering the backs of all stall doors…

• NOII did a banner action as PDAC attendees gathered for the invitation only finale gala at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, chanting “No Borders! No Mines! No Dirty Corporate Pipelines!”

• Members of the Chilean community in Toronto and allies held a solidarity rally to greet Chile’s Minister of Mining at PDAC and denounce his attempts to encourage even more mining investment in a country where Canadian mining companies are playing a central role in exacerbating the worst drought in recent history. Watch the rally livestream here, which was viewed over 17,000 times with incredible messages of support pouring in from Chile!
  
• A stealthy crew of activists in suits attended PDAC every day to fulfill specific information-gathering requests on behalf of dozens of communities directly impacted by the projects of the mining companies at PDAC.

This isn’t over!

This year we saw an incredible surge of interest from community members and activist groups across the city who see common cause in coming together when powerful decision-makers who are destroying our planet and the values that we stand for gather. When they gather, we will be there to disrupt business as usual! PDAC is just one of many manifestations of the broader crisis that we find ourselves in, of violent capitalism, colonialism, displacement, and corporate impunity. The good news is, people across the world seem to be waking up and realizing that this world needs to change now, and they are joining the rest of us who have known that for a long time in doing something about it. Thank you to everybody who worked so hard in bringing this one moment into reality – we look forward to creating much more with you.

Until next year, with love: 

The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Artists for Climate & Migrant Justice and Indigenous Sovereignty, Extinction Rebellion Toronto, No One Is Illegal Toronto, Showing Up For Racial Justice Toronto, Climate Justice Toronto, OPIRG Toronto, Fridays for Future Toronto, Toronto Anarchist Bookfair Collective, Church of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, as well as well as many individual community members who were indispensable in making this happen!

Please share the images below using the hashtag #disruptPDAC and link to the facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/171661517456658/ or linktr.ee/march1

Click to enlarge:

Download

Download

Download

Social media graphic, vertical (jpg) Download

Poster 11″x17″ (png)Download

Poster 8.5″x11″ (jpg)Download

Thank you to Michael DeForge for the poster design.
www.michael-deforge.com

Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 12 PM
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 255 Front Street West, Toronto
Facebook event
Graphics and more info here

To quote Utah Phillips, “The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.” And precisely those people are about to gather in our city (and we know where they’ll be on March 1st).

What is PDAC?

From March 1-4 Toronto will play host to the world’s largest mining conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. With approximately 25,000 attendees, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention will host many of the world’s most destructive and violent companies together in one place, making deals to sell off the rest of the planet and extract every last bit of oil, gold, uranium, and every other exploitable resource that they can find.

The attendees list doubles as a Rolodex of the world’s worst corporate criminals. Just one company alone–Teck, PDAC’s top sponsor– is trying to push through approval for a mega tarsands mine that would single-handedly blow through Canada’s emissions budget and make it impossible to meet our climate targets. PDAC attendees include some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and represent companies committing some of the worst climate and human rights crimes in the world.

Why should you care about the PDAC convention?

Because Canada’s mining companies, with the full and unconditional support of the Canadian government, wreak havoc on communities around the world, blatantly violating human and Indigenous rights, inflicting severe environmental destruction, and creating vast economic inequalities. They do this behind the guise of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, holding glitzy galas to celebrate each other’s greenwashing and charitable efforts.

Because their “business as usual” is a direct path to a planet that is literally unlivable. A world with even greater levels of wealth inequality. A world in which the mining companies that inflict mass forced displacement are also the lobbyists for harsher border and migration policies. A world defined by imperialism and neo-colonialism. A world where the rights of capital take precedence over human rights. This is not the world we deserve. And it is not the world we are trying to build.

JOIN US on March 1st to protest PDAC!

A coalition of community groups are calling on Torontonians to join us in protesting PDAC. On Sunday, March 1st at noon, we will show up in solidarity with those on the front lines to stand up for the future we all deserve.

Come on out, bring your friends, colleagues, neighbours, and loved ones. Come be with us as we gather in community to stand up to the extractive industry’s violence, ongoing colonization, and complete disregard for the future of life on this planet.
They are not in charge of our city, our futures, or this planet.

Context and Demands

Toronto: the hub of extractivism

It’s no accident that PDAC takes place in our city every year. Nearly 75% of mining companies around the world are Canadian, and Toronto in particular is known as the global hub for mining finance. This same industry is also one of the world’s most egregious offenders when it comes to human rights and environmental abuses, infamous for destruction through:

❎ Violent colonization to shove through their extractive projects,
❎ Land theft, forced displacement, and dispossession of land and livelihood,
❎ Creation of militarized warzones to defend their oil rigs and mines,
❎ Violent repression including assassination and sexual assault of those who resist,
❎ Disruption of culture and community cohesion,
❎ Wide-scale contamination of water, land, and air, threatening health and food security.

Enough is enough!

We demand an end to all of this extractive violence that renders our planet unlivable.

This requires:
✅ No more pipelines
✅ No fossil fuel extraction
✅ No more open pit mines
✅ No more land theft and forced displacement
✅ No more corporate impunity
✅ Status for all, including all those displaced by extractive industries and their destructive impacts
✅ Full recognition of Indigenous sovereignty and respect for local self-determination

PDAC and everything it stands for is fundamentally incompatible with the world we need to build for our future.

To endorse the action and to connect with our event organizers, please email [email protected]

A year ago today we lost a dear friend and fellow organizer who had a presence at and behind the scenes of so many actions for justice around Tkaronto. He also played a key role in founding MISN and supporting us over the past decade.

Sadly, Dave was no stranger to state repression and struggled with mental health. Last January, at the age of 40, Dave ended his life. It is important we remember and honour those who have been lost to suicide while also supporting and helping those who live. Dave is deeply missed by the many who were touched by his tireless work, his generosity, his passion, and his mentorship.

We honour you, Dave Vasey, and your legacy of good work in our community and beyond. You are so deeply missed.

Dave Vasey (November 14, 1978 – January 27, 2019) was an environmental justice, Indigenous solidarity, and anti-fascist organizer based in Toronto, Ontario. He was someone who felt deeply his responsibility to work towards a more just and sustainable world, and worked, almost entirely as a volunteer, for several causes and projects.

He was a starter of organizations, playing a founding role in RAN Toronto, EJ Toronto, the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Rising Tide Toronto, Toronto People’s Assembly On Climate Justice and the anti-fascist self defence club as well as playing a principal role in Occupy Toronto, the environmental justice day of action during the G20, Aamjiwnaang solidarity and the province-wide network resisting Line 9.

Dave emphasized spreading organizing tools amongst the grassroots networks in which he participated, often leading trainings on marshalling, non-violent direct action, and de-escalation. He was courageous in the work that he did, often taking on roles that would risk or lead to arrest.

Besides the organizing that Dave led, throughout his life he supported groups like OCAP Toronto, No One Is Illegal, the Toronto Seed Library, Grassy Narrows Support and No More Silence by postering, volunteering his time, and being boots-on-the-ground at many actions throughout Toronto.

Dave was also a builder, landscaper and gardener. He grew many beautiful gardens for friends and neighbours, including the garden at Saint Stephen-in-the-Fields. He gave generously of his time and skills and cared deeply for his community in addition to the causes that we were all working towards.