There is so much out there to get mad about. Social injustices, class warfare, continued

colonization, the act of destruction of our planet by those focused on prophets and not

people. We can find it overwhelming at times. The good news is there are equally as many,

if not more, stories of people coming together and rising up against the forces at play. So

the creators of Blueprints of Disruption have added a new weekly segment, Ravel Rants, where

we will unpack the stories that have us most riled up, share calls to action, and most importantly,

celebrate resistance. Part of what we aim to do with these Ravel Rants is share both things

that are pissing us off, but also highlight some of the victories. of various movements

and... Today, the first thing we want to talk about kind of combines it too, because I'm

both very pissed off and very impressed and proud of something. And what we're talking

about here is centered around the York Southwestern Tenant Union and their fight against what can

only be described as an unlawful eviction. Now we had the York Southwestern Tenant Union on

a few months ago. I don't really understand time. months, it might have been weeks, who

knows. But it was one of those episodes that really stuck with me. Talking with Bruno gave

me a lot of hope and you know I saw Bruno speak at a status-for-all rally and I saw how much

that same energy connects with so many people. Everything he said had people fired up and

there just the York Southwest and is an example of a who's really doing the work and they're

doing it well. And yeah, we're gonna talk about that. So. The story behind this essentially

is, it's a building on Lawrence Avenue West, 1440 and 1444. Both of them are under the York

Southwestern Union. 1442. Sorry. Both of them are under the York Southwestern Tenant Union

and last Thursday, there was an eviction that seemingly came out of nowhere. So there was

an elderly woman there who... going about her day as usual, no reason to believe that Thursday

was going to be any different than any other Thursday, when the sheriff knocks on her door

informing her that she is being evicted. Now that is not usually how these things go. There

is a process. You know, evictions take time. You have to go through a hearing with the landlord

and tenant board. There's notices. There's opportunities. to pay off if you owe money to pay off the

money that's owed. There's a process here and you do get to fight it. That's not what happened

here. She has no idea that this eviction is coming and until the sheriff shows up at her

door. Now it turns out that she owes, well initially they said 500, then they bumped it up to $900,

900 and something, which was confusing because she pays her rent through automatic payments

that get taken out of her account. So she didn't even know that she owed money, right? And the

landlord just wants her out of there. Now, when I say landlord, I really should be saying slumlord

because the way that they run these buildings can only be described as a slumlord. Now you

might be wondering, where was these notices? Why was she not getting notices? Well, That

particular building, Canada Post hasn't been delivering mail there for three years. Why?

Because it's infested with bugs. Bed bugs. So much so that Canada Post does not deliver to

that building. So she received no notices because of this. Now, taking care of bug infestations

is the responsibility of every landlord. It is a legal responsibility. It's not up to the

tenant to take care of it. It's up to the landlord. They need to pay for the treatment, which,

as somebody who had a run-in with bed bugs last year, which was a fucking nightmare, It's expensive.

It's really expensive.

But it's the obligation. So because of this, because of the actions of the landlord, she

had no idea this was happening. Now, how does she respond? She offers to pay the money that

is owed. York Southwest Intent Union of course shows up and they're supporting her the whole

way. And one of them on video captures an exchange which is incredibly important where the landlord

and the police are telling her that if she comes down to the management office she can pay what

is owed and she will not be evicted. Okay. She agrees. She goes down to the office. And then

they tell her, sorry. we're not accepting any payments, you're officially evicted, and the

sheriff changed the locks on her door, locking her out, including locking her away from her

diabetes medication, which she desperately needs with her LLPM. And everything else that she

owns.

I've never heard of an eviction like this in my life. I mean, this is incredibly fucking

shady. Like this, the second I heard about this, it's like, oh, this is seriously wrong. You

know what I think? It happens more often than we'd like to believe. If you've ever been on

any tenant Facebook groups where they're sharing horror stories basically of landlords. it's

unbelievable the things that landlords will try to pull. Sometimes, you know, they're completely

oblivious to their obligations as landlords. They are just looking for the money. Sometimes

they're just absolutely manipulative and they rely on the majority of people either being

in precarious situations where they can't fight back or completely oblivious to their rights

as

used by the landlords here, the slumlords, is because they were already organized as a building

and watching New York Southwest and Tenant Union in action was unbelievable. Badasses. They're

fucking badass. Yeah, like those folks are still occupying the administrative office at the

bottom of 1440 Lawrence. From noon on Thursday. till today and we're recording this Sunday

afternoon, 17th of December. And at some point during today, the thanks to solidarity with

fellow tenants and supporters, they regained entry into the unit. They've managed to, what's

that? They've been there since yesterday. They reestablished occupancy yesterday. Okay, so

they got in and then the superintendent removed the door and the police have been on scene

off and on. You know, I think Santiago, you made the point there and maybe mentioned over

hearing that the cops absolutely knew that this eviction was not on the up and up. And that's

why they've allowed the occupation really to carry on as much as it has. I think normally

I would have expected arrest by now. Let's talk about how that happened though, right? So when,

when The tenant was informed that she was evicted, they changed the locks. Immediately they began

occupying the office at the foot of the building. And immediately, you know, there's police that

show up, they're threatening to arrest them. Now... Six police cars, a fire truck. Oh yeah.

And like the paddy wagon. There's maybe... eight, nine members of the York Southwestern Tenant

Union who were occupying the office. But on the outside, there was also many of the residents

of the building came out in support. The Livemore High Park Tenant Union, a new tenant union

who's currently organizing for their rights as well. They showed up in solidarity. They

put up a sign. People put up signs. People were coming by with food, with tea, you know. there

was a lot of solidarity happening. People who were not part of the tenant union were here

and they were confronting the police about how unjust this was. They were standing up for

the rights of their fellow tenant, right? There was so much solidarity happening. And as much

as this was a horrible, horrible thing that was happening, it was incredible to watch.

I showed up very late because I didn't even know about this happening. So I showed up at

what time? 9, 10 PM, something like that. Um, and, you know, the police were there. I tried

to get information from them because, you know, I want them to admit to what they're doing.

They don't talk to me. They give me a phone number to call their division. I call. They're

like, sorry, we not talking to you. Uh, you have to talk to someone else. I'm like, who

else can I talk to? They're like, you're going to have to figure that out on your own. Okay.

I talked to Jess, it calls every single fucking number. Absolutely no information from anyone.

Why? Because they know what the fuck they're doing here. They know they fucked up so you

got big Six foot five or something Very typical cop looking cop guarding the doorway this man

the entire time is fidgeting with his pistol fidgeting with handcuffs which very unnerving

Definitely got the energy that he was on some kind of power trip, right? But the York Southwest

Intendant Union, they stood their ground. They were talking about how they were saying, we

don't get evicted. We don't let things get this far. We stand up for each other, and we don't

let it get to this point. We have lawyers on retainer. They put an emergency in junction

with the landlord and tenant board. which we recently heard that got approved. They're getting

an expedited hearing to resolve this issue and I'll pull up what the landlord and tenant board

had to say about this in a second. But before we do that, actually hold on, let me just pull

it up so I can have it there. But yeah, so they're occupying this office. And the cops tell them,

you know, we're gonna, if you don't leave, they were saying, so now along the lines of, you

have permission to protest on the property, but you don't have permission in this office.

And if you don't leave, we will arrest you, all of you. they don't budge they don't budge

an inch and now I've been around the block a couple times in my head I'm being a pessimist

I'm thinking this only ends one way with everyone here getting arrested because I've seen it

happen too many times where these things end up with everyone getting arrested but they're

holding the ground they bring in the quote-unquote good cop to negotiate you know all like oh

I understand your struggle you guys are good people you're fighting for rights I don't want

to write you know typical textbook yeah like we haven't seen the movies yeah and they know

what's going on but they explain the situation to the cops and you kind of get the vibe that

they were like oh this is you know they've seen some evictions this is not how it goes yeah

like there should be a notice pasted to the door and like Santiago said there's hearings

through the linen through the tenant landlord board. So one knows well ahead of time that

eviction is looming. And so what they mean is then they organize amongst each other. So if

that means paying back rent, if that means an unfair eviction, if that means making sure

they're well represented at all the hearings that they need to go to, like that's the whole

point of these tenant unions. So it was so obvious whether it was the fact that the mailing didn't

go there, that doesn't even cut it either because he... The landlord knows where to find this

person. And the fact that the sheriff and the police were on board, I mean, it's unbelievable

that resources are used in this way to make people homeless in winter because of rent that

can be paid. Throughout this, there was over and over the willingness to pay the back rent

over and over. And they have to allow it. They have to allow it. It wasn't even. They do.

And that hopefully if it goes towards the board and there's no other issues pending, you are

given the opportunity to pay and remain. The point is to keep people housed. But the city

of Toronto is using their resources, many resources at removing people from the only thing that

they've got. It's one thing to have a slumlord, but this is, this is a combined effort. And

it goes back to our episode on fascism, honestly, to see the state work like this with. a landlord

to evict and to persist so long with it. It's ridiculous. And just to be clear, because,

you know, people will use the oh, you know, livelihood of the landlord thing is not a motherfucking

mom and pop landlord. I don't care if it was. It doesn't matter. There's no difference. But

let's be clear about who it is, because there is a certain audacity here. Barney River is

the company which... Yeah, we definitely have to name drop them. Yeah, which is run by Aziz

Manji. They're a massive, massive company who is I mean, if you read their mission statement,

they're all about, you know, exploiting maximum value, you know, they're like, we'll kick out

whoever we need to kick out. They're they're looking. Why are they not letting her pay this

money? Because they're hoping to replace her with somebody who will be able to pay more

rent. Right. They're looking to raise the rents. They don't give a fuck. about the individual

here. So there's quite a lot of audacity there. Anyway, so around three in the morning, the

cops, well, first they call the superintendent. They get the superintendent to remove some

documents or whatnot from the office, and then they leave. I was really shocked at that. Both

the cops and the superintendent leave. Yeah, the cops and the superintendent. That's just

change time, by the way. Yeah, that was, but that was a fucking win. The fact that it didn't

end up with all of them getting arrested, that was a win and a testament. Because someone

overheard one of the cops saying, you know, that with all of these eyes and with the way

that the situation has gone down, we cannot arrest these people. They stepped in it. They

seriously fucking stepped in it. And so one of the main missions of the organizers there,

it was a two front, right? It was an occupation and they were filing the necessary paperwork

to do it legally. But knowing that the landlord tenant board is such a kangaroo court shit

show, they divided their tactics because it wasn't enough to rely on that. Plus this would

have meant the shelters were full. The police acknowledged the shelter system was full and

then that would mean putting this person out onto the street. And the fact that people are

making policy decisions like this and calculated manipulative tactics to unhouse people enrages

me. That is the harshest consequence. You're not just behind on an electricity bill or something

like that. you're removing shelter from them in an environment where getting a new apartment

is next to impossible. This would have lifelong consequences for a lot of people. So resisting

that eviction in the first place is so important. And if this person did not have the tenant

union behind them, I imagine this, like I said before, this is replicated over and over and

over again. And they're not just working to massively unhoused, housed people. But the

amount of encampment evictions that are also happening at the same time as this, not just

in Toronto, but right across Canada right now in the winter is class warfare. Yeah. And one

of the telling moments of it, because the cops are trying to say, you know, like right now

we're concerned about getting this tenant shelter tonight. Right. What was the response from

York Southwestern, there's an empty unit right upstairs with all of their belongings. Their

unit, that is their shelter, that is their home. They're sitting empty right now. That is where

they should be. And they did not budge on that, right? Now, since that has happened, like we

said, they're still occupying the office. They reestablish occupancy. The landlord. took down

the door, they put it right back up. They brought in people with tools, put it back up. And now

their request was granted. Let me read the wording from this. Well, it's not clear that the enforcement

of an order by the sheriff may constitute an illegal lockout. The allegations of abuse of

process raise an issue that having regard to the consequential homelessness of the tenant,

in my view, merits an expedited hearing. to allow the parties to make submissions as to

the appropriateness of the remedy of restoration sought by the tenant in mitigation of resulting

prejudice. The board shall schedule the hearing on an expedited basis. Furthermore, should

any request or review order, something, something be submitted in a preliminary review, granted

the board is directed to hear this application and any such review together. So there. As

we mentioned the landlord tenant board is a fucking kangaroo court. That's the mostly run

by landlords This wording is pretty aggressive for them I think it's pretty clear The fact

that this was granted that this is far from a normal situation or from how it's supposed

to be legally played out and You know right when the cops left you know, first of all,

everyone running for the bathroom because they'd been occupying that space since 1pm. But then,

you know, there was a question of, okay, we got to stay here overnight. And the people

who had been there for over 12 hours, really like 14 hours at that point, pretty much every

single one of them was like, I'll stay here overnight. I'll keep staying here. And I was

so impressed with that. The resolve that they had, the fight that they had, like this was,

we are not letting a single one of us go down. We're not letting this happen. We're not letting

the rights of our fellow tenant be violated. It was exactly what we need to see. It was

exactly what we talk about here, that resistance. It was honestly so impressive. And... This

needs to be replicated across the country. And you know what? It is. And Acorn is doing an

incredible job of helping to organize tenants. And we are seeing more and more people mobilizing

around encampment evictions. I want to move to Edmonton now. The police there.

They sent out a notice to frontline agencies around the city, letting them know ahead of

time that they were going to destroy eight encampments. And advocates let us know that those encampments

represent about 135 structures. They imagine there's about two people per structure on average.

It... So we're talking about probably around 300 people. are going to be without any shelter

whatsoever. And to just kind of set the picture for folks of what it's like in Edmonton right

now for the unhoused community, just recently they updated a memorial that they have in the

Boyle Street community. And they added 118 names. That... means between June and October of this

year, 118 people died in that community. Most of those people were unhoused. A lot of the

deaths were caused by drug poisoning, by the lack of a safe drug supply. And In that same

system, Edmonton has about 3,000 folks without shelter. This figure does not likely include

the numbers of people who couch surf or who are precariously housed. It's a count of street-involved

people, people living on the street, and there are only about 1,100 shelter spaces. So every

night already, there's about 1,800. folks that likely rely on these tents and they're going

to take 300 of them and just kind of disperse them. And when this happens, these encampment

evictions, they disproportionately impact the same folks that are always overrepresented

in the worst statistics in society. Like indigenous people make up a large part of these encampments,

trans people, non-binary folks, women. those are the shelter spaces, those are the same

folks that are often struggling with the shelter space system, not being built for them, not

being safe for them. And so the police decide that, you know, Edmonton's also run by a mayor

who brags about winning his campaign on the public safety mantra. You look at his pinned

tweet on his profile and that's what he's talking about. He's going to clean up the streets.

and the cops are helping him do it. Thankfully, advocates have kind of pitted the city, the

some of the counselors against the police services. It's not clear who even ordered the encampments

to be cleared. And Edmonton actually has certain criteria. The last time we talked about encampment

evictions, they used fire safety as one of the reasons that St. Stephen was cleared out. And

subsequently, you know, there were fires at encampments. And so there's a measuring system

within the city of Edmonton on like, and I think a color coding system on how safe or unsafe

an encampment is. And like, you got to imagine who sets these criteria. Anyway, apparently

nobody paired these criteria any regard. The cops just came up with a list and they're clearing

them out. This is scheduled to start tomorrow. I believe there's been some pushback and use

of the courts to delay or, or stop this. But That's not, that would not have happened if

it hadn't been for massive amounts of pushback from housing advocates that are saying, you

know, they probably fought for these criteria, right? Like at least you can't just clear them

arbitrarily. The only, you have to have good reason to need to clear an encampment. And

then the cops are just like, well, we're going to do it on our own. So it's not quite clear

what happened there, but what it's clear is like. They're using their resources and they're

focusing on clearing encampments as an activity, period. Why are any dollars going to these

activities to do this? And why are people allowed to sit and plan and assess and decide and then

not think of consequence? Why are they not responsible for then going, where are these 300 people

going to go then? What is going to stop the rain from? and the snow from falling on them

at nighttime. Why is that not part of the plan ever? The city of Toronto will say that it

is part of their plan, but it's not really. They're shuffling them off for a few days,

nowhere near where they live. I imagine Edmonton has something similar, who knows? But Halifax

also last week had one of a larger encampments there threatened with police force, threatened

with clearing. And it was, again, the resistance of local advocates that manage to push that

back. But that gets tiring. If you're not there, if they're not organized, these encampments

are going to get cleared. These folks are going to get evicted without unions. It's relentless.

And to think of increasing police budgets or funding this and making that a priority for

city services or city staff, I just... I feel like I'm repeating myself, but nothing else

makes sense other than just pure class warfare. Right? Because it's not safer. These people

are more likely to overdose. They're more likely to die in the elements. They're more likely

to face violence when you evict them from the encampments, when you evict them from their

home. And it's, um...

It is heartening to see tenant organization and all these other movements kind of getting

a little bit more bold in their resistance, like hearing someone say, we don't get evicted.

that's got to spark something in folks. And I think you have to draw that line. Like, I

think we do have to say at this point, like nobody should be evicted anymore. We definitely

should never allow evictions in winter. I don't know how that's not been mandated at this point,

how that's not something that any basic human could agree to, but it all comes down to the

commodification. Like it surprises me that appeals to the police in the way that they say, well,

her shelter is up there. because the landlord would argue that's not her shelter, it's mine.

And even though I'm not doing anything with it, it doesn't matter. Right. Like I have some

sort of right to have extra shelter.

The whole idea of having landlords is abhorrent. Right. We never got together as a society to

then profit off of one another's shelter. If you think of the most rudimentary communities

trying to build structures to likely keep us warm and dry and together. And at some point,

mostly thanks to folks like John Locke, we started looking at things as a means to just like get

ahead of one another. And the fact that, you know, water, electricity and a lot of things

have fallen into that. But shelter, it just seems like at its most basic. that isn't resisted

more, that idea isn't resisted more. I think more and more people are like, you know, all

landlords are bastards. A lot of people have gotten there at this point. But yeah, I'm happy

to push that narrative. I mean, I feel like everyone I know has some sort of landlord horse

or at this point, you know, a good friend of mine just last week, you know, they thought

they had bud bugs and they wanted to, you know, get someone to come in, check and do the treatment

if needed. The landlord was refusing to pay for it. And they just moved in. not long ago

at all and they're paying quite a lot of money between the three of them for that apartment.

You know that is an incredibly common story. You know I have a friend who his landlord lives

on the top floor. He lives in the basement with his mom helps mom pay the rent and brother

lives there too. And you know he does jobs for the landlord. The landlord hires him to do

you know manual labor jobs and. And just the other day, you know, like they were asking,

because the landlord wanted to raise a rent. They're like, can you not? We can't really

afford that. And he's like, okay, if you can't afford that, then you gotta go, because I'm

raising the rent. Doesn't matter that he's getting exploited on both sides, rent and work, you

know? Horror stories everywhere you look, everyone I know has something. And yeah, I absolutely

think right now, like we should be saying no evictions, as in we will not allow. any fucking

evictions anywhere. No encampments, no apartments, house, anything. No evictions. That should

be where we draw the line right now. And we need to resist them. And that's been a problem

lately because I'm seeing a lot of evictions go down without resistance. It's unacceptable

right now. We need to stop it. And it is doable. People like the York Southwest and Tenant Union

show us that if you stand in solidarity, if you resist... it can be won. And that is what

we should be doing right now. And we have to understand that this is something that affects

all of us. I mean, we've seen the prices go up and up and up and up and up. We're all being

squeezed here. It could happen to, we're only one crisis away at any moment in time from

being in the exact same boat. So whenever these are happening, when it's in your building or

it's a building down the road or wherever it is. we should be showing up in solidarity and

fighting back. Absolutely. Cathy Crowe's got a tweet out there as well. It's not an organizing,

resisting kind of tweet, but it goes to the policy decisions that I was talking about and

holding politicians accountable or tweet. It's like, maybe it's time to just start walking

into City Hall with the people we're unable to get shelter for, right to the councilor's

office, right to the mayor's office. And I think holding Olivia Chow or some of these counselors,

I mean, I wouldn't expect some of them to do a damn thing, but what do you expect us to

do? in a housing crisis, how can you then at least remove people from what they've got?

It absolutely makes no sense. And I think Olivia Chow is getting off a little bit light here,

considering what's happening across the city in terms of evictions of all sorts. And she's

been absolutely silent. And her office plays a part in this. So side note, for folks who

maybe don't follow Toronto politics, but surely remember Rob Ford, because who doesn't? Olivia

Chow and Toronto City Council just named a stadium after him.

I mean, a lot of people are using this as a time to shame drug users, and I'm definitely

not one of them. I'm not going to go there. I think that's ridiculous. The fact that this

man, you know, smoked crack was had nothing to do with the reason we shouldn't be honoring

him with a stadium name. And it's not something that's really so lighthearted as it's like,

oh, that's not really important. That's a side issue, because it speaks to the people we idolize.

And we're tearing down fucking monuments all the time because we've learned how problematic

that is. Yet we're still lining up what a stadium that needs to be renamed 20 years from now

when someone with a backbone puts a petition in and says it should just not be named after

any human being whatsoever. Breaking news. As of one minute ago. After 74 hours of continuous

protests. at Barney River's 1440 Lawrence West Property Management Office. The demand to let

Carmen access her unit and get her keys have been met. Carmen's case goes to the Landlord

and Tenant Board this week and the fight continues. Stronger together. This was posted one minute

ago by the York Southwest Tenant Union. So shout out to Bruno and... Chiara and all of the folks

that were doing the organizing. I only mentioned them because of the folks I know by name, but

excellent effort. We'll keep you updated. Obviously, we're going to try to drag Bruno back in here

or someone who can give us like the really intimate details of this victory because Bruno was the

one that reminded us that sharing victories was so important because people will not put

in the effort. They will not sit 74 hours. They will not risk arrest if they don't know. that

there is a possibility that they will win. So yes, they still have to go to that damn board,

but I mean, if they've got the money to pay their back rent, I can't see them losing it.

So- They're not losing that. Definite snaps for York Southwest in there. Yeah, thank you

for that good and breaking news. That's incredible. Oh my God. But that's like, that's the power

we're talking about here. Every single person who was there. Every, you know, every person,

because these are massive buildings, right? Every person who maybe was like, okay, should

I be in this struggle? Can they really help me? Can they really protect me? Just saw firsthand

what the power of solidarity does in this situation. They saw that the York Southwest Tenant Union

stood up and they won that battle. They got her, her keys back. They got her, her unit

back.

It's, I mean, this is, this is honestly, this is incredible. This is like. I knew like when

we first spoke to them that there was something special here and they just they continue to

prove it right. So big ups to York Southwest and Tenant Union. Like I don't know, I'm just

so happy right now. This is like this is this is the best news I've heard in a while. And

we need a good news. We need a good news. Because the transition here in the episode is going

to be a little bit brutal.

Sorry. No, it's whatever.

Like Santiago said at the beginning of the episode though, the whole purpose of the rants is to

talk about what is pissing us off. And sometimes they have really good victories and acts of

resistance to go along with them. And sometimes they're just items that make us really angry.

And I don't think angry accurately describes what's going on in Gaza or my reaction. to

what's going on in Gaza. Santiago and I were talking before we started to record and I think

it's important to kind of rehash a little bit. That it's hard to even understand what emotion

you feel at this point when you are witnessing genocide. I laugh only because I'm uncomfortable.

And I honestly sometimes don't know how to react. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I get really mad,

sometimes it drives me, you know? Sometimes it puts me into just like utter despair. And

when we had originally come up with the rants, it was supposed to be an outlet for us. I did

envision it being really topical all the time and that changing week to week. And I understand

this is going to be like the... I don't know how many weeks we're into it, time that we've

spoken about Gaza, but it's important for us to document the war crimes that are happening

for me because I feel...

That's all I can do sometimes.

And again, we've talked about them before, but there is no talking about it enough. The journalists

in Gaza have such immense bravery at the moment. So I think spreading their stories is the least

we can do considering the risk that they're taking to collect them. And one of the most

kind of poignant examples that came out of this week of that.

is Wael Al Douda and you'll recognize him as white hair, white beard. He was the journalist

we witnessed getting the news that the majority of his family had been wiped out by an Israeli

airstrike while he was on air. That was really early on in the siege and just this week he

was injured. by shrapnel in the arm on another airstrike as they were trying to extract people

from another building. And the cameraman that he was with was killed along with another journalist.

And depending on what reports that you read, we could be there at like 64 journalists. And

I've seen reports that would put us closer to 78 or 80 at this point. And many, many have

been arrested as well. So taken into custody by the Israeli army. And so the fact that we're

still even getting stories out of there is some sort of miracle because it's clear that the

Israeli army, these folks aren't just dying because they're in proximity to war. They're

also being targeted and their families are being targeted. Poets are being targeted. Artists

and educators and intellects are now being targeted, which fully meets the criteria of a genocide.

And replications of what the fucking Nazis did. 100 percent.

We have to tell their stories and they're horrific. I mean, did you want to chime in on the journal?

Did you? It's okay if you don't mind. No, it's just, it's been very... It's getting difficult

to... To still keep up with everything, to feel it all, and...

So like right now, you know, going into the holiday season, it's one of those things where,

you know, it's supposed to be that time of the year that we're supposed to be happy and celebrating

and all of these things. And honestly, like, I think that we need to double down on all

efforts to show what's happening here because horrible things tend to get suppressed at this

time of the year. were not supposed to be thinking of horrible things. But this holiday, which

was stolen from the pagans, is supposed to celebrate the birth of a Palestinian man in a city that

is in Palestine that people built the whole religion around. I think it's quite obvious.

how important it is to keep talking about this, how any claims that it's not seasonal or whatever.

What else are you supposed to be talking about here? And yeah, no, I don't know. I was messaging

with Mohammed earlier and we were kind of talking about this and...

It's hard. And I saw a video by Bisan where, you know, she's making a plea, like, how can

you celebrate right now? Can you hear the bombs? Do you understand the conditions of people?

How can you celebrate? How can you, especially Christmas, when we're talking about Jesus likely

being Palestinian? If you look at the story of Jesus. Well, Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth

is in the West Bank. Yeah. So. It's particularly ironic and difficult, but Going back to my

discussion with Mohammed there and being a parent of kids who expect Christmas and you have a

duty as a parent to maintain as much normalcy as possible And I think like you even kind

of see this in the videos from Gaza where parents are trying to calm their children and You have

to imagine at the same point that they're just going through complete horrors, but their job

is to get their children through it. And it's hard to engage meaningfully when this is on

your mind without guilt. And But, you know, at the same time, if we deny ourselves everything

and anything good, surely we won't have a long fight on hand. Surely that would burn everybody

out and we would lose sight of, you know, what's important. But yeah, it doesn't come without

immense kind of questioning and difficulties because. the things that we're seeing, particularly

as the war moves on. You know, the bombings were bad. The relentless bombings for weeks

and weeks are bad. But as the ground troops move through Gaza and we are still allowed

to see images coming from there, surely folks have seen, or maybe you have not, maybe spare

yourself. Outside of most of the hospitals, any that are functioning in any form, there

are many people taking shelter in tents. So most of these folks will likely be sick or

injured and just unable to be treated inside the hospital. Also remember hospitals have

been targets of strikes and whatnot. A lot of them are under siege. At this particular hospital.

Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza is really tanks and bulldozers move through and literally ran

over folks in tents that were unable to flee, sick and injured Palestinians. And the aftermath

being videoed after the IDF pulled out is just horrendous to see. Also this week, the IDF

itself had was forced to admit that they themselves shot three hostages. And we absolutely know

for a fact that they have killed more Israelis than that. However, this time they admitted

to it. Not only did they admit to shooting these three folks who were wearing no shirts, they

admitted they were waving white flags. Those pieces of shit admitted that had they only

known that they were Israeli, they wouldn't have shot them. But they acknowledged that

they were shirtless and grouped together, walking, waving a white flag. And that was OK to kill

on sight. Like all three were shot dead. No survivors. This is also, I mean, worth mentioning

once again. That's a war crime to kill anyone waving a white flag. But, you know, who's counting?

Well, absolutely. But. The state of Canadian media and some of the folks out there is fucking

horrendous because a lot of the narrative around that is Zionists assuring each other, well,

don't forget, sometimes Hamas is dressed as civilians or don't, the worst, which implies

that it's okay to shoot civilians, right? If they look like civilians and that's okay. But

even worse than that is there's this fucking turf out there. their name. They write books.

And they tweeted, you know, keep in mind, hostages had reportedly, female hostages had reportedly

been asked to wear hijabs as they were moved from location to location when we're discussing

the fact that hostages were shot by the IDF. So she's implying that it would have been okay

if it had just been a Palestinian woman in a hijab that had been shot. And The fact that

people are saying this on the internet, where it is forever, where everyone can see it without

apologies is...

is likely what everyone experienced in Germany at the time. And I know that this has happened

many, many times over throughout the world. There's been so many genocides. I think the

Tamil genocide has come up many times in talking about Gaza, particularly the tactic of hurting

people to a safe zone and then bombing that safe zone. But it's just, I don't remember

a lot of people. trying to defend that at the time. I don't remember a lot of Canadian media

saying that there would have been exceptions for that and yeah well they're trying to get

the Tamil Tigers and it's unreal the brazenness to which Canadian media is behaving right now.

I mean one thing I'm almost confused about why the hell did they admit this?

have come out and said this of their own volition it makes it seem like they're trying to get

ahead of something much worse too right this has led to this has led to massive uh protests

within israel there's in tel aviv there's massive protests going on so it's clear that this struck

a nerve which is stupid because like once again no life is like I'm sorry, the tens of thousands

of dead children, that's fine, but the second three Israeli hostages are killed. That's the

end of everything. It shows you the way that we were that we're taught to think when it

comes to these conflicts of like, disregarding and dehumanizing others. And it shows you.

You say we but I like, I don't know, I think Zionism has a special flavor of dehumanization

that occurs because the things that we have seen the soldiers do. is unreal. And I don't

know if this happens in all war zones or not, but I'm talking about like, folks are proposing

to their girlfriends in the ruins of apartment buildings and promising to build their new

home there. They must smell the death, Santiago, when they're taking these photos, they can

smell death. For sure. They can see evidence of dead children everywhere likely, and they

are dancing. and singing and raising flags and getting down on hand and knee. And you know,

we've heard about the number one song in Israel and the horrendous lyrics that were in that.

It's not just soldiers either, you know. The f- when you- When you position yourself as

a chosen with exclusivity built into land rights, this is what happens. Because I could not,

I cannot understand what has happened to some of these human beings to behave this way. Yes,

it's state powers making these decisions. Yes, it's Netanyahu that has crafted much of this,

but it's people that are carrying it out. snipers shooting into churches killing old women. This

is the result of this is what theocratic fascism looks like in practice. You know the episode

we did the other day on fascism. This is the result of that you know and it's also the result

of the western world having given them permission to do so because they're out here telling on

themselves all these things. It's videos that they're posting on their social media accounts.

You know, like the hostages bound and blindfolded, half naked in the middle of the desert on their

knees in rows. We have seen this in ISIS videos. What did they do with those people? So what

they're doing is they're going into UN schools that have become these safe zones for folks.

They're like huge buildings, compounds even. And. Hundreds and hundreds of people are sheltering

because the apartment buildings are targets. They figure if there's anywhere that's safe,

it's a UN building. Obviously we know that's not true, but they have the facilities to house

more people than a destroyed building. So they're going into these places and they are separating

the men from the women. And they are taking men that they think appear to be 16 or older.

It's arbitrary. and they are taking them and they are stripping them and they are videotaping

them and they are asking them to perform and then they are taking them to locations unknown.

Now I'm someone who like I've kind of denounced to a certain extent the Nazi comparisons because

I like I said I feel like there's more useful ones but one thing I'm curious about is what

would it have looked like? during the Holocaust, during the Nazi regime. If social media had

been around back then, what kind of things would they have been posting on their social media?

Because I am kind of getting that vibe. You mean what kind of things would the Nazis themselves?

Yeah, what kind of shit would have been posted in the camps? Because, I mean, that's the thing

that's weird about this. We haven't seen. Like usually genocide isn't broadcast on social

media, but that's what we're seeing right here. And they're so indoctrinated that they believe

that they're right to do this. And they feel very enabled to do it by the West that has

given them permission. Said, hey, you want to kill? Well, I mean, who knows how many children

is enough? Let's talk about that over and over again. You know, I mean, like the West has

actively given them permission to do so. And so they feel quite entitled to do so. And this

is what they're doing. And it's shocking. Every one of these tactics we've known that they've

used, like we've known they've used bulldozers to run over people. We know that they've attacked

people in places of worship. We know that they have imprisoned and killed children. But we

were okay as long as it was like a couple dozen at a time, right? Because I think now what

has happened, I think they've overplayed their hand. I know that sounds really kind of callous

and removed, but from a political spectrum, like you have... France now and the UK and

begrudgingly Canada now calling for a ceasefire. Because how long can you view these images

and the massive street protests and be in any kind of position to issue statements or defenses

of that anymore? You know what concerns me? What would our society be like if we hadn't

been taught that the Nazis were like the greatest evil and that fascism was this evil thing?

If that hadn't been a part of our education. Like, cause that was a part of our education.

And yet here we have theocratic fascism playing out in front of us. And there's all kinds of

ways to justify it. So I can only imagine how much worse it would have been because like,

this is, this is the thing, like this is supposed to be something that is very easy for people

to stand up against. And it shows you how powerful. you know, those who shaped the narrative, whether

it be the media, the go, you know, it shows you how powerful that is. Because one day they

show you ISIS with these videos of them having people tied up in the desert and you think

these savages, these, how like how corrupt these absolute corrupted, this is the face of evil,

right? The next day. You see it from someone who's on our side, right? You see IDF soldiers

tying up people. And it's like, oh, well, those are terrorists. Good job, Friar. You know,

it shows you, same picture. It shows you how different we interpret it, just like how the,

was the, Muhashadine? Something like that. pre, you know, the al-Qaeda before al-Qaeda, back

when they were fighting the Soviets, you know, oh, these are brave freedom fighters, you know?

But the second, it's the other way, you know, savage terrorists. I think though, I think

that used to work. I don't think it's gonna work anymore. A lot of the, you know, before

October 7th and even after for a little bit, but I think that this is impossible now. for

people to say, oh, well, Israel's the one civilized nation in the Arab world. Israel is the only

just democracy in the Arab world. And before, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary.

But now everyone has seen it. Right? There is no denying the comparisons that we've made

at this point. There is no propping up Israel as a shining beacon of justness or anything

good at this point. Whether or not we do enough to stop it and to make sure it doesn't happen

again is really the only question left. Right? Because I'm afraid that it'll be another one

of those abhorrent moments in history that simply go into the history books. And although we

learn about the Nazis and they say, you know, if you don't learn history, you're doomed to

repeat it. We see evidence to the contrary all the time that in fact, sometimes the more we

know about our history, the more we replicate it. And that's not to say we shouldn't learn

from our history, but if the victors are going to be allowed to rewrite this 20 years from

now and reposition themselves, without really dire consequences. And I don't mean fucking

sanctions. I mean, like there needs to be a solution where the state of Israel never gets

to say what happens to another Palestinian ever fucking again. Like ever again. I don't know

what that means. If that means dismantling the Israeli state, then that's what it means. But

anything short of ending Zionism, frankly, wouldn't be good enough for me. because it would just

be another one of those, well, you paid the price and for seven years, you can't sit in

the UN or whatever kind of lame punishment you think you can dole out for this. But in the

meantime, like, will they get that land back? Will they get the North of Gaza back? When

is this over? How many will survive? You know, what are the consequences at this point? I

think people need to start looking towards as well. on top of stopping it because the ceasefire,

if that happens, is not going to be enough. It's important that we not just learn history,

but we learn why history happened. Right? That's the difference. History is

not a chronology of facts for us to regurgitate onto a test. History is something that we need

to learn why things occur. because you ask people, I mean, how people, it's a question people

always ask themselves, right? We say it all the time, you know, what would you have done,

you know, with the Nazi, we don't get taught how fascism rises. We don't get taught how

genocides occur. Why, what leads up to them? We just learned that they happened horrible

things, but they, and they happened and that's history, right? And the frame is just like

evil, right? Like almost as though Hitler was the devil, something almost incalculable. You

can't really understand how someone gets that way. And there's a lot of political analysts

who will try to come up with how like he, he singularly how he was shaped as a youth and

came up with these ideas. But it's like, but it took it took in an entire populace, right?

Like it, it permeated throughout. It wasn't a single evil individual, but when you're in

history class, that's what it feels like. Yeah. Right. And any German that went along. Yeah,

and any German that went along with it didn't fully understand what was happening or felt

threatened. And yeah, there's that type of real learning of that experience does not really

happen. It feels very almost Christian, you know, like there's a there's a religious feel

to it, right? In the way that like they portray these battles between good and evil, where

they portray, you know, like It's very biblical feeling, right? And it's not particularly helpful

to think that way. Like we need to be far more nuanced and we're not taught to think critically

whatsoever. And it's suing us of disservice. No. Okay, I just wanna touch on the, so you're

like, I just wanna write where you left off, like disservice, like not learning history

well.

Okay.

I wonder though, looking back, and I hate to get to this point where we're starting to look

back at it because there's a crisis to stop at the moment, but looking back at Canadian

media a few years out, I'm curious as to how we then write this into history, seeing what

we're seeing. And most people will know the shit show that's going on at Canada Land and

Jesse Brown, but he is not alone in this. The Breach just released a study, they've been

analyzing Canadian media, actually analyzing Canadian media, not like Jesse Brown pretends

to be doing. They found at the CBC, for example, was featuring 42% more Israeli voices than

Palestinian voices, despite the disproportionate death toll that we've seen and we know. CTV

was even worse, they're one of the worst. It's like 62%. more Israeli voices being aired and

named in their reports. And we've given countless other examples into the language that's used

around some of these reports and how it washes Israeli of war crimes and always has such heavy

emphasis on what Hamas did on October 7th. But the way the Canadian media still persists to

shape this moment. as something to rally around anti-Semitism. Still, still, with this death

toll and the amount of actual violence and criminalization, retribution, job losses that have occurred

with Palestinian voices, the Canadian media is still, you know, filming. students coming

out of high schools and trying to get people upset with them. Right? Like Jesse Brown targeting

a racialized Shreve Pracker from Toronto Star. And that is his focus in this moment in time.

When a genocide is occurring, like Joe Warmington is worried about what grade nine and ten students

are doing out in Scarborough because that might feel unsafe to fucking who. Like, I just don't

understand. how this is allowed to persist in Canadian media and what's that going to do

about how we look back at it because are those going to be the headlines that remain or are

we going to hold those people accountable for doing this, for justifying genocide and trying

to deflect, like you're talking about street protests and boycotts of businesses that are

being still framed as what is unsafe right now, as what is the danger right now. when we've

just described what I've described to you about the horrors happening in Gaza. And-

This is just such a point of contention for me, I guess, because I don't understand, I

can understand how there's a few individuals, but to see so many people still including that

in their report, in the focus, after two months now, still feeling the need to condemn Hamas

or rocket attacks or anything that they did on October 7th at this point, even though they've

seen what they've seen. And that is the strongest narrative in Canadian media still. even after

the call for the ceasefire. It's really not relented.

I don't know. You even see like German police storming universities, like complete Gestapo

tactics happening all over again, actually taking people into custody wearing kafias. This is

not happening to Jewish people right now. They are not being shot for wearing their kippas.

Okay, yes, we have seen some vandalism. Yes, we have seen what we saw in the Montreal schools,

but nothing to the level of what Palestinian supporters are facing right now. And why this

persists in the media? It's just, it's eating away at me, honestly. It's eating away at me

that— Because even my neighbor, you know, like, oh, yeah, Jewish people around here just not

feeling safe right now. And I don't get that. I still don't understand how anybody can be

centering their own feelings of safety when they've seen what they've seen. Because you

hear a chant and someone tells you that might mean something. And so all of a sudden, I have

politicians en masse saying that they are going to do something about anti-Semitism when it

took millions of people taking to the street for them to say that they would ask for a ceasefire.

Like whose safety are we actually worried about? And it goes back to the safe streets things

too. They're not actually worried about making the streets safer for the people who live on

them. Right? It's about making...

It's about redirecting the attacks elsewhere, honestly.

But yeah, I'm completely disappointed with Canadian media. But to see it happen at Canada Land,

I think has really shook some folks because that was a great outlet. There are great reporters

there and they had done an amazing job of pointing out the hypocrisies that exist in Canadian

media. But at the time that we needed them most, Jesse Brown, who owns the publication. has

decided to spend his efforts manipulating the work of peace activists at this point. In case

the lesson there hasn't been clear in all of the disappointments, don't put people on pedestals.

Yeah, and I think like you can't minimize the consequences that people are facing now because

of their pro-Palestinian work, especially when it's contrasted with the perception that there

might be people. slightly feeling unsafe. You know, we told the story of a Calgary organizer

who was arrested and charged with a hate crime that was totally bogus, that had to be dropped,

but they were put into cuffs for chanting. And then there's still people who have the fucking

gall to stand there and say that they are the ones that feel unsafe in this environment.

Because really right now there can't be anything more unsafe than trying to advocate for Palestinian

rights at this point, other than like living in fucking Gaza if we're talking about political

maneuvering. Like, there's nobody targeting Jewish people for the acts that are happening

in Gaza. And in fact, even Israeli Canadians aren't being held to the same kind of scrutiny

or harassment that any Palestinian advocates are facing right now. None. It's not happening.

But those acts of resistance, you know, are not diminishing either. I am so proud of the

people that are persisting throughout this, because I'll tell you, like, I have to think

every time I wear my kaffir every time I go out, even to take the kid to the bus stop.

It feels like just a small act of resistance for me, like it. I'm not sure how my family

feels about it in some circumstances. However. You know, folks are really, really putting

their livelihoods on the line right now. And the fact that they are getting arrested and

continuing to do this is so admirable. I do very much appreciate the people that can make

those sacrifices. And the fact that we're all sitting here now cheering on Yemen of all countries,

because at this point, they have attacked ships in the waters. that they can control. And this

has led to one of the major shipping companies having to end all shipments to Israel. So this

is a state that has been attacked. It's not even a legitimate state in the eyes of most

of the world. Yemen has a very complicated recent history that I don't fully understand. But

the fact that they're even in a position, the Houthi rebels, to contribute to this fight

in any way. I just find myself in very... Do you know what my fortune cookie said? I had...

I ordered out last night. That I would always live in interesting times. And that's never

been more true than today, I think, where you're just wondering what the fuck is happening.

And... wondering what we can do, honestly. But yeah, cheering on Yemen was not really in my

bingo card, as they say. That is a wrap on another episode of Blueprints of Disruption. Thank

you for joining us. Also, a very big thank you to the producer of our show, Santiago Helu-Quintero.

Blueprints of Disruption is an independent production operated cooperatively. You can follow us on

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