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0:00music music music music Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait Can't wait, can't wait In this life we're all the same

1:29Can't wait, can't wait Can't wait, can't wait Can't wait, can't wait Can't wait, can't wait I'm like a sky's twerp, it's y'all gone, yo Okay, welcome back, you're listening to No One Is A Legal Radio Listening to a track called Angels With Dirty Faces by Homeboy Sandman So as we head into 2011 and as we prepare for another year of people's resistance to systems of capitalism and colonialism and displacement We want to begin with a look back at 2010 to the battles that we fought, to the victories that were won and to the lessons that we have learned Our recall when we aired our show on the first day of January 2010 We deemed it would be a year of resistance We predicted it would be a year that would see mobilizations of the scale that were unparalleled in Toronto's recent history And what a year of resistance it was

2:30From resisting the corporate Olympic circus to demanding status for all at the migrant-led media faction From the massive mobilizations of more than 40,000 people during the GAT20 summit to the mobilizations against race system Which has to propose Bill C49 We've won allies, we've made connections and we've built relationships We've won real victories when just to name one example, the Shelter Sanctuary Status Campaign Successfully pushed out immigration enforcement from women's shelters And we were saddened by the Christmas and New Year's mobilizations By community members, teachers and students failed to stop the deportation of Daniel Garcia But we pledged to continue and we pledged to ramp up our resistance until the day the systems of capitalism and colonialism crumble Until the day all border wall had broken down But before we roll up our sleeves and head into this another year of resistance We'd like to pause a moment and reflect back on 2010 And to help us do that, we are joined by our cohosts, Craig Fortier and Ryan Hayes and by our special guest, SK Hassan

3:32All three of them of course and known as illegal Toronto members And thanks so much for joining us today guys Thanks for Yogi It's great So maybe guys, we could just start off by naming what you think were some of your highlights for 2010 What it is that you remember the most, what it is that you're passionate about the most Well, Yogi, you touched on it a bit But I guess my memory for this year actually goes back about four years ago And it was in a small meeting room in 2006 where the discussion of a small fledgling campaign called Don't Ask Don't Tell began to happen And people, even it might have been 2005 and people started to discuss and talk about how do we make people in our community feel ownership over the power to effectively push immigration enforcement out of the community We recognize very strongly that the federal government isn't going to give anything to us and that we have to take it And what we saw this year was something really special and that was the SSS campaign really coalescing and coming together

4:38And building an example of how we can actually do this, how we can actually push immigration straight out of this city And it took a lot of meetings and it took a lot of real negotiating amongst all these various women's shelters But in the end, what I saw and what I saw which was beautiful was not just when this resolution was passed and when immigration enforcement was forced to concede defeat But rather that belief of being able to really effectively control how immigration is done in this city can happen and we can spread it and build it based on the model that SSS really put forward Are you sure? That's great Greg, what about you Hassan? Well, my first memory, actually one of my cherished memories that there are many, is of walking into the convergence center on Queen Street next to Parkdale

5:38And we'd spent about eight months building a mobilization that eventually saw 40,000 people on the street over a week of demonstrations, forums, panels And for it all began on the 18th of June, a few of us walked into this massive warehouse that had been cleaned up and we put up these banners And until then it had not been real, you know, this thing that was coming, it was a train that was coming down and suddenly it was there and it was ours and we owned it And you know, that for me that memory sort of like kept me through that entire week, through the police resistance and the police repression that followed and actually to the 12 days that as it was in jail To remember that we built something in respect of what happened, so that was very important to me Ryan? I think one for me was the historic pilgrimage for freedom that was organized by migrant, sorry migrant farm workers

6:38I mean to be able to be there with folks like Hustice for migrant workers who assisted, it was just so beautiful because we know that the way that Canada's immigration laws work is to keep people in precarious status so that they do not have any rights and for people knowing that to turn around and say no we will organize when our fellow workers die on the job When the Canadian government takes this model of temporary precarious work and tries to make it a defacto model for migration across the entire country for people to march And to march as far as we did from you know for hours you know going through the tomato capital of Ontario into Essex all the way to Windsor It was really beautiful and it was really powerful and I'm really glad we were able to be there for that Yeah absolutely and I think one more I think to sort of add on to that my own recollection of Mayday, Mayday of Action 2010 I mean I remember us leafletting and flyering in St. James town where we went up to you know we just randomly walked up to people's doors and we talked to them about resistance about the regressive immigration policies that were coming down

7:40And I remember walking along the strip where we actually walked down Parliament and talking to the various businesses who were in the area right about this huge mobilization that was to pass through the streets And it was huge I think if I remember correctly I think there was about 2500 people who showed up that day I think that was really powerful for me I think Well and something's changing you know and you can see that something's changing just in terms of how we are envisioning our actions The creativity that we're seeing especially over the last two years and how the Mayday of Action has unfolded in terms of the ability to surprise the ability to provoke You know a great example being you know I remember walking over an overpass and we're talking about you know St. James town and Moss Park and Regent Park which are the most densely populated immigrant communities in Toronto and some say even in all of Canada And to have this massive 50 foot banner dropping saying you know fire Jason Kenny fight Jason Kenny and to hear just music and singing acopel singing from Rose from law

8:48And people looking up to the skies and not even being able to see her because there's so many people and there's such a momentum I think really shows the creativity it's building in this movement and the way that people are actually starting to own the idea of no one is illegal and make it a reality in the city Absolutely And just to sort of add on to that the political process that we're engaged in is about two things it's about creating power and it's about taking back power And so when we're on the streets and we're fighting you know fighting for the kind of changes we want to see when we're making the kind of demands we want we're creating power So between the 21st and the 27th of June every day the demonstrations grew bigger and for me you know the 24th of June which is the largest indigenous sovereignty demonstration in Toronto in decades was such a powerful moment of allies coming together of indigenous communities coming together

9:49You know the Mohawk warrior flag flying the unity flag leading so that was really important as well I mean when we talk about creating power obviously the shelter's actually status campaign is able to create power But we've seen it in other places we've seen the emergence of a number of new grassroots organizations there is the worker assemblies there is you know there's environmental justice Toronto There's the disability action movement in the city is trending and for me no one is illegal is a rallying call right it's a rallying call that we see ourselves as part of a global anti imperial struggle And when we are part of a global anti-mirror struggle we know that none of us will win until all of us win And so the strengthening of social movement forces in this city coming together in solidarity is this process of creating power because we are coming on that day when we will take the city back city back for the poor for the immigrants for the undocumented people for indigenous people for queer communities for disabled communities for women like this city will be ours

10:56And that's what we're working towards and I think 2010 was a giant leap forward irrespective of the beatings and the arrests and the burnouts that people are facing I mean like San you were saying irrespective of those beatings we continue to come together when you know a right wing so-called populist mayor was elected we were there and we were there saying we will be here if he's saying Toronto is open for business we will say Toronto is open for resistance and we will make that a reality And it was really beautiful to continue in that spirit of collaborative organizing because we know that when we come together we can take the city back and that's I think something we really are going to take from 2010 and carry into 2011 Absolutely and I think just building on what you were saying too I think one of the other things that kind of feeds off on that is that when more like the build c 49 which is one of the more regressive builds that was recently proposed when that came when that was proposed and when that was in the media the kind of condemnation that sort of emerged not just from the one is illegal not just from the usual groups that you would expect is coming out or from a broad spectrum of groups

12:02I think that's kind of reflective of the connections that have been built of the relationships that have been built what do you think? Well, you know, I mean the other thing that we really need to take into account is that we're seeing a real crackdown on a number of different communities and campaigns and within that crackdown historically and traditionally what we've seen post like Quebec City or WTO or APEC we've seen actually people split and clashes being heightened within that time and in fact what we're seeing is the opposite that whether it be around c 49 where there was such a broad mobilization against it whether it be around Rob Ford or I mean just even smaller events like when we saw broad support for the South Asian women's rights organization around their fight for child care and all day day care and kindergarten in the T's Dail Area

13:09you know there was you know building and growing support that's taking place there and they were on our show earlier this year talking about that campaign and that campaign has continued to grow and build from a really small base and that's really critical to how we see this idea of power growing in the city and I think you know movements are built out of little fires and sometimes those fires rage and sometimes they actually feel like they're ebbing so you know 2010 ended for us in no one is illegal and for you know a large part of the Parkdale community with the deportation of Daniel Garcia and Daniel Garcia was an organizer in Parkdale he was 18 years old and he was out there trying to work with undocumented people with refugee youth in his community and we were working for him for months and then he was randomly grabbed on the street by police who racially profiled him they arrested him because they said that there was an immigration warrant out for him which he had not known until that point he was thrown into detention

14:15and we found out about the detention 24 hours after he had been arrested and on Christmas day 50 people teachers, students, Parkdale community members, the quickers, religious organizations just generally everybody was out there supporting him and then there was the demonstration that day after and then there was petitions with 1700 petitions signed and then there were more people who were in the state of the city and then there were more demonstrations within a week every major newspaper in this country every TV station every radio station people knew about what happened and the conversation that began was not just that Daniel Garcia was being deported but that this immigration system exists on exclusion it exists on exploitation and so I think we have to take the stretch, the victories as well as the losses and then talk about you know always just speaking to Daniel the other day and you know he was saying how this needs to continue it's you know he understands that it's not just about him and so you know we enter into this area it's really about you know lighting more fires lighting fires wherever they happen and bringing them together into convergences when necessary because 2011 is going to be the year of austerity cuts and we just have to prepare to be stronger in the face of further attacks

15:40and that austerity doesn't just take the form of economic cuts and police beatings but also we see from a known as legal perspective it's them trying to slam the door shut on migration and so we're having a forum and maybe we can plug that but it's going to be called in defense of human smuggling or can human smuggling be defended because this idea of movement has kind of under attack and there's been huge conflation between ideas like trafficking and smuggling and what we're trying to do is put this in its proper context we're saying remember the underground railroad this was an instance of smuggling we're saying remember people's right to free movement this does not change this must be defended and discussed so we're having an event maybe Craig or Hassan you could plug in the fill in the details on when that's happening and where. So it's going to take place at Tuesday January 11th at I believe 7 p.m. 7 p.m. or 630 p.m. and it's going to take place at the Lillian H Smith library which is at the corner of college and here on street and folks should come out there's going to be snacks and foods and it's a free event and it's a really important event where you can start to really engage with that discussion because I think Ryan's right.

16:57It's really an important one and I guess the other thing we should mention too is we are going to face significant struggles in the year to come and one of the big ones being the mobilization of the English defense league here on the streets of Toronto and the there is going to be a counter mobilization organized for Tuesday of next week which is Tuesday January 11th and I believe that it's a really important event. You should check out either join our Facebook or known as a legal group at Toronto dot known as illegal dot org to get more information how you can make sure that the English defense league does not determine the discussion for the year. Thank you so much guys I think we are just about out of time as much as I'd love to keep talking and continue this discussion but I think we'll have to end there but as Hasan said you know we are going to continue to keep lighting this little fires of resistance and soon enough I think they're not going to be so little anymore.

18:00As we head into 2011 I would encourage you to keep checking the known as a legal website to our own toe dot known as a legal dot org but right now stay tuned for the modern politics coming up. So

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