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, Rival Rants, where

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

celebrate resistance. Today we're ranting about cops. I mean, that's the simplest way to put

it. I've got it. It feels like too many stories here sitting in front of me that are just from

the last week or two across Canada. police forces, municipal police forces for the most part,

absolutely just cracking down on protests, aiding in encampment evictions, arresting journalists,

just really pissing us off. And it's tied in with so many of the other things that we have

been talking about, whether it's the demonization of the pro-Palestinian movement or disruption

in general. the overfunding of police forces and the general rise of fascism here in Canada.

And yeah, we're going to run through some of the examples to keep you guys up to date, but

it just opens up a whole bunch of discussion points that really has my blood boiling this

week. Let's get into it. Edmonton. I mean, this is what really kind of sparked. the need for

Santiago and I to talk about this because we're talking about encampment evictions quite a

bit on the show and the use of security forces or police. But here in Edmonton, I mean, they

were ruthless. They announced that they were going to clear eight different encampments,

over a hundred people. And, you know, they tried to fight it through the courts. In the end,

the cops and minus 20 weather. Minus 30 now. Minus 40 at nighttime two days after they had

finished the very last encampment. With wind chill feels like minus 50 now even. Just to

make you more mad while this was happening their mayor was on vacation in Hawaii. That opens

another kind of discussion point where politicians just play games with people's lives. So he's

in Hawaii, his police force is evicting people, they're arresting journalists on site. We'll

get into that in a second. And they're going to have a council meeting to declare homelessness

an emergency in responses, though, like they didn't play part and parcel of this decantment.

Just going to bat back and forth with the province like it's somebody else's problem. And so,

I mean, apparently Edmonton says they have the facilities. They're not quite at. full capacity,

only 94% shelter capacity. So they say they can take everyone, but we've talked many times

on the show before that shelters aren't for everybody. They're not designed for everybody.

And so the reality is folks are gonna be out. But the point is the cops really, they arrested

Brandi Morton. For folks who don't know, you know, maybe get to know Brandi Morton, she

is an Edward Murrow award winner. You might've read her covering the Fairy Creek blockade.

And even though she has done a multitude of pieces on protests and different situations

like that, land offending, this is the first time in 13 years that she had ever been arrested.

And from the accounts that I'm reading online where she has her firsthand accounts, I mean,

she was shook. This was not something, even though she had witnessed, I'm sure, bullying

and horrible police tactics as a journalist. she had never been treated that way. Reading

her account and a few other people, I think that really points to the lack of respect journalists

are getting from police or the distinction that they have, or in general, just the ability

for people to challenge the status quo. And police are now, your tax dollars, your city

budgets are going to, into funding this. And I think that was quite an alarming moment.

Yeah, I mean, the whole thing. I mean, the fact that there's even Encampment evictions happening

in this kind of weather conditions is already alarming but the crackdown on media trying

to cover it is Just it's exactly what we were talking about in the recent episode on fascism,

right? Showing that police are getting more and more comfortable with more and more authoritarian

tactics This was someone who was there simply to cover not participating like they and they

were not just moved out of the scene. They were taken in, they had their fingerprints taken,

you know, they were properly arrested. As you mentioned, they're not new to this, like they've

been around the block a few times. The Ferry Creek, we know what a disaster everything around

Ferry Creek was. This is unprecedented and we're seeing it happen more and more. It's a trend.

It's no longer enough

an episode without mentioning it, of course, was happening in Gaza. Canada's complicitness

there with regards to the murder of journalists and now the treatment of journalists back at

home, it's not a disconnected thing. It's part of the same system. It's the same culture,

the same philosophy, just in different forms here than there. It's not just the Edmonton

police. We know the Toronto police have done this as well. And just as I'm preparing my

notes to do this episode, we see in Vancouver at Oppenheimer Park, activists were arrested

by Vancouver police when they were trying to protect the property of those being evicted.

They call it a decantment. So we have another term to describe what we're seeing. And it's

kind of scary that there's... I hate that. Lingo all built around the expulsion of people from

tents in the winter. So it's not just journalists being arrested. It's also people that are trying

to be good Samaritans, essentially. So Brandi, although she was offered the ability to move

from the area, at the time the police had hands on with a community member, an indigenous community

member of the encampment. And she felt like it was her duty to witness that as a journalist

and to not be... put away, put aside. We're giving a lot of power to police to decide when,

how, and where we can protest. This episode is going to be full of those examples. But

I want to go back to something you said there, Santiago. You talked about the police getting

more bold. And I think we have a responsibility there. So it's one thing to have a defund the

police movement. But also earlier this week, there's a video that went semi-viral of a d***.

I didn't know what term to use when I wrote this because I didn't want to insult you in

your view of journalism, but also rebel news is what we're talking about. So a rebel news

reporter walked up to Deputy Prime Minister Krista Freeland, one of my favorite politicians

to hate, and he ended up getting shouldered by this cop. You know, presumably he's part

of her security detail. Even if you didn't know who he was, he had a microphone. He was clearly

asking a question. I could kind of see his creds around his neck. There's no way here security

detail hadn't encountered him before. They knew exactly who he was and they didn't care. And

they didn't even care. They were on camera like he almost looks square in the camera and says,

I'm charging you with assault when, you know, he plants himself in the way of that reporter.

So unless you put on the brakes real fast, you're. you're gonna end up bumping into him. And then

with a straight face, tells him he's charging him with assault for that. So it wasn't just,

you know, ignoring police. It was a really dirty tactic of, you know, suckering him into an

assault charge. We shouldn't be surprised, right? Like anybody listening, we just talked about

how Brandi was arrested. And I mean, we've told many, many stories of police brutality are

out there, but what really pissed me off around this, other than I was already pissed off about

the video, was the response to... From leftists, from people with defund the police in their

friggin bios. I took so much heat for kind of condemning the police for doing that. I thought

this is why police are bold. Not just why, there's a million reasons why, but surely we contribute

it when we condone it when it happens to our political opponents. Yeah, that really bothered

me personally, the response. And this is a situation where it, this, this does affect me as an individual

personally because tolerating the actions of the police in this situation, it opens the

door for the same thing to happen to me when I'm out in the field doing my work because

as much as we view him, rightfully so, as a propagandist and question his legitimacy in

terms of their journalistic output, which has no credibility in terms of any sort of fact.

based reporting any sort of anything at all. Like it's rebel news, you know, we know what

rebel news is. It doesn't change the fact that when they're out in the field with a microphone

and a camera, they're journalists. There's no accreditation system in these situations. Anybody

who goes with a microphone and a camera and is looking to report on a situation is a journalist.

What he is a very, very bad journalist, a propagandist. but a journalist nonetheless. And that's an

important distinction to make because they're gonna say the same things about people like

me, you know? And so it puts me in the, we were just talking about the episode with Dimitri,

you know, we were just talking about going in and asking Christia Freeland questions. It

could have, like it literally could have been me in that situation. And it's not right. no

matter what, no matter how piss poor of a journalist they are, it's not right to arrest people for

this. It's not. We can criticize them in whatever way we want, but the use of police here is

authoritarianism, which we stand against. Now, I know, for example, that he was funneling

about concerns, but he didn't touch Garcia Freeland. They didn't ask him to move. They immediately

went to arrest him and charged him with assault. What happened was completely unacceptable.

And the response from fellow leftists, it's the same thing that happened during, you know,

the freedom convoy, so-called, or whenever, you know, the right ends up running with police,

which is far less often, but it does happen. And we see people cheer them on because they're

not on our side. And what happens is, I mean, just like with the freedom convoy, we're seeing

what's happening now at Avenue Road where protests are perfectly acceptable, protests are being

criminalized. That is the result. There's no exceptions to be made here. When we say all

cops are bastards, it's all cops are bastards. Fuck the police every single time. Why do people

forget that consistently? Consistently, like something goes wrong and they want a police

response in their favor. I think this is mostly white folks that do that. I'm gonna go out

on a limb and say that because they just are so used to using police to solve their problems.

Inherently, they know systemically, they know that it's an issue, but on a one-on-one basis,

if it's helping them out, they're okay with it. And I'm not okay with that at all. And

it's not just about looking hypocritical, what you do, you just hand fodder over to the right

wing. You also give them permission to mock our journalists, folks like Brandy or heaven

forbid Santiago getting pulled in for the work that he does. You open the door for that. You

normalize these police responses. And just like Santiago said, just like the convoy and the

use of the Emergency Act. simply because it was shutting down something that, you know,

was very disruptive to a community. I understand that. But in the end, a lot of the things that

we are going to do, like protesting out Melanie Jolie's house, is going to be disruptive to

neighborhoods, maybe even neighborhoods that have Jewish people living in them. And we start

just kind of opening these doors to say you can protest here but not here. You can protest

like this. but not like that over and over and over again. And comments like, oh, that's just

fashion, fashion violence is also completely incorrect. Rebel News surely contributes to

the downfall of society. Okay, like there is no defending that trash. Absolutely. But if

there is one way to build cross partisan, working class solidarity, surely it's with our experiences

with police, poor folks. working class folks for the most part are going to buck up against

police as it gets worse. We have different ways that we're going to go about it. Maybe we have

different solutions, different reasons we'll take to the streets, but you've seen it. And

we can't just keep opening the door for arrests, you know, requiring permits. And, you know,

in the case that we're going to next annexing complete neighborhoods and making them. zones

of exclusion for protests that then have like added layers of criminality built into them

just arbitrarily decided by police. Yeah, I have to say like from pulling from my own personal

experience here that sometimes I have been surprised in the past at people who I wouldn't consider

on my side having a usefulness in a way you could say. I remember the time when I was at

For John Tory's budget, you know, they kicked out the media so that they could arrest people

who were there protesting people who? I'm not gonna say their names, but we would know them

if I did There was two people from media who stayed behind there was me and there was a

reporter or a cameraman from the Toronto Sun and The Toronto Sun is another organization

that I would not consider to be of the benefit of society that I would not you know, I'm not

allied with at all. I have heavy criticisms on the Sun, but the cameraman stayed behind,

recorded, published the videos so that people could see what was going on. And he protected

me during that time as well. And as well as, you know, one of the, my professor for newspaper

class, who was a Toronto Sun reporter for decades, I would assume that he would be somebody who...

would not be on my side, yet he made me editor-in-chief of the paper and every single edition, the

front cover had a protest on it. And we covered more protests than any other paper in the city.

So journalism is important. You know, like the whole New York Times democracy dies in the

darkness. You know, whether or not we consider it good journalism or bad journalism, journalism

is important and needs protection. And when we start trying to draw these distinctions

too aggressively... it puts us in danger. I really believe that. I'm not saying that rebel

news is a good thing. But when somebody calls themselves a journalist, I don't care who it

is, there is protections that are needed there. And I think it balances out for the better.

Because if somebody publishes video and does propaganda all over, if this clown goes in

and tries to spread his propaganda asking for see a freelance, well, questions, well then

we can respond to it. We can see and we can comment on what they're saying and it's a good

thing to know what the right is saying because if we let these narratives grow without being

able to respond to them, that's how fascism rises. You know, we need to be able to know

what's going on from every side and be able to argue against it. So yeah, I'm pissed about

this. Every right to be because let's be fairer. You know, you might take a little bit of flack

for saying, you know, anyone who says they're a journalist is a journalist, because, you

know, that opens up the imagination. But to Santiago's point, who then decides who who's

doing that accreditation? Because because Santiago won't get accreditation. Some of the greatest

reporters that ever were probably wouldn't be selected for accreditation. because they would

be known to be asking hard hitting questions, writing with a slant, a bias that is damaging

to, you know, there's vendettas that go on that would just like allow such manipulation of

process. And so it's got to stay separate. Before we move on from the story of journalists getting

arrested, I want to repeat two points that Desmond Cole made. I felt incredibly validated when

I saw him chime in on this because I felt like I felt a little bit out of tune where people

were not feeling what I was saying. And he set the record straight here, as he usually does.

Yes, journalists need access to certain things for certain reasons. But everyday people also

need to be able to ask questions and interact with the people who govern them. Because to

his next point, had this same kind of mentality, oh, we got too close. walked her into a corner,

you know. We saw footage not that long ago of Prime Minister Trudeau being accosted at a

restaurant by people we know. And on that same mentality, we would have had them arrested

as well, right? It's not hypotheticals. There are examples right now of these same tactics

being utilized against our side, and we've given space to it. I kind of hinted about a neighbourhood

being cut off from protests. Last week Toronto police decided that Avenue Road in the 401,

there's an overpass there as there are every time you get a highway I guess, and that area

has been shut off from protests. Now, you know we're specifically talking about pro-Palestinian

protests because they've allowed protests and banner drops on this overpass many, many times

before. It's a very visible spot. Banner drops are a common activity in protests. In fact,

the first initial event that set the police off was like a province-wide, at least a city-wide

banner drop. So there were multiple locations on that day. It was a call to action for the

Palestinian youth movement to show solidarity and whatnot. And so there was all kinds organized

and these kind of overpasses there. These events are announced ahead of time and counter protests

show up, some of them end up getting kind of heated. But, you know, for me, in order to

really explain like how this happened, you have to go back to like the city of Toronto, right

October 7th, 8th, Olivia Chow releases a statement, her first statement, you know, has the required

condemnation of what happened, the violence, but then immediately goes into police mode,

saying she sat down with Toronto police, that she's going to encourage them to start protecting

the Jewish community. And we talked about this, like on its face, it doesn't seem like a bad

thing, police protecting a community. But hopefully you've heard enough episodes to understand

like how problematic that is. I can't unpack that all here. But, you know, it demonized

right away Palestinians. It assumed that there was some sort of threat here in Canada, presumably

from Palestinians to the Jewish community. And this narrative has permeated through all of

the protests and how they've been portrayed. how they've been portrayed since. And right

away, we saw police accosting people for flying Palestinian flags, and now it's gone next level.

Like they are walking down the street in their own neighborhood with kafias and police arrested

them because they have decided that was a protest and this is within the designated area. And

they're doing this because they say it's a predominantly Jewish community. Now you live in the city,

Toronto, Santiago. There is no exclusive community hardly anywhere in the city of Toronto. And

that's not even the most predominantly known Jewish community in the city. It's this area

in particular, it can't be claimed by any one group in particular. It's incredibly diverse

like most areas are. It'd be one thing, you know, we're talking about protests outside

of synagogues. There are areas along Bathurst that are definitely areas that I would say

are known to be, this is a Jewish community. This area on Avenue is not, and you cannot

claim an overpass as part of any community. An overpass is an overpass. It's very clear

why they picked this area because of the visibility. You know, and just like this area belongs to

many people, the people who are protesting there, who we spoke to the other day, They live there.

This is their community. This is nothing more than a very thinly veiled opportunistic excuse

to be able to shut down what has been an effective and visible protest. And they're looking to

do this more and more. They're looking to find excuses. Now, we know right now, based on recent

polling data, that the vast majority of people in Toronto are actually in support of the protests.

That is not the narrative that they're trying to paint here. We, that didn't happen overnight.

It didn't start that way. Much, many less people were in support at this beginning, but it's

a testament to how effective these protests, which have now been going on every single weekend

and more since the past 100 days. There was something like what, 300 protests in Toronto

or something? There was a ridiculous number like that. I think there's weekly ones every

Saturday or Sunday on the weekend there. And then you've got some outside of the Israeli

consulate. And yet I can imagine that number is quite high, especially if you include all

of these local protests that are coming up, which was part of the strategy of enabling

and empowering locals to start their own smaller organizations so that they could. represent

locally, increase visibility, and these folks are answering that call and doing a banner

drop along. And people are saying they're targeting the neighborhood because it's Jewish when it's

their own neighborhood. And talk about being targeted. I don't want to tell their whole

story because they're going to come on here, but these folks were treated horribly, you

know, not just by the police, but by folks driving by, the things that were said. This was 100%

green lit. by Olivia Chow and quite a few Toronto city councillors that made it clear these protests

needed extra police scrutiny, right? Her one of her first statements is, I understand there's

a protest without a permit going on, like you don't need a permit, and deciding arbitrarily,

like who gave the police power to just decide and where are the boundaries? And is every

kind of protest or is this just pro-Palestinian protests? The permit comment is really annoying

and it's not the first time recently that she has said that about the permit. Olivia Chow

has been to her fair share of protests throughout the years. She knows better. She comes from

that area, like from, you know, a history of, of protests. It is so malicious for her to

imply that. And I'm seeing this narrative repeated online by people. I don't know. if who still

needs to hear this, but no, you do not need a permit to protest. There's not certain places

you can protest and certain places you cannot protest wherever the fuck you want. And in

terms of blocking roads, like a protest is not meant to be as accommodating as possible to

those in power and to the, to, you know, business as usual status quo, you know, if a protest

blocks a road, good. If it inconveniences people, good, because we've seen the 300 protests around

the city. A protest that is as accommodating as possible, it's not going to get noticed.

It's not going to get the message across. And when people, I mean, right now, Israel's in

the, uh, in the ICJ right now, facing genocide charges. We don't need to explain to anybody

what the hell is going on here. When children are dying at this level, when Hospitals are

being bombed schools are being bombed journalists are being killed doctors are being killed and

little inconvenience seems Pretty fucking minor and they're not blocking the road. That's the

other thing They're actually not the police are Brock blocking the road so that they can

arrest people The police are blocking the road so they have an excuse to use What what's it

called the highway act so they can criminalize this? they're not even blocking the road, but

Again, like these, it's the same thing we were just talking about when we were talking about

the reaction of people to the rebel news story, the Freeman convoy, all these things. It's,

it doesn't matter. It is, we cannot start drawing these lines. We cannot start trying to de-radicalize

these things and to be accommodating. We're, by doing so, we surrender the ability to be

effective. The next example that I'm going to give shows that. That's the response that they're

getting in Ottawa to the bylaw tickets. And although our next story actually will be another

example against pro-Palestinian protests, I think it's prudent to say, though, that police

don't give a fuck. We know why Olivia said what she said, and we know why Zionists are framing

Palestinian movements the way that they are. But in the end, the police don't give a fuck.

They don't care what your cause is. They're not out there because they're Zionists. I mean,

they might be, but that's not the point. The point is they love the chance to stomp on your

charter rights and expand their power and expand their budget. They don't care if you're from

rebel news or whether you're an independent indigenous reporter. They don't care if you're

protesting vaccines or if you're fighting a genocide. They will get more money for doing

what they do. They will look like the saviors of the day. They will flex their muscles and

push boundaries unless we push back, right? And that's thankfully, although expensive,

that's what folks are doing in response to the $490 tickets. Like... I'm so broke. That would

bust me. $490 tickets are being handed out to activists in Ottawa when they use voice amplification,

noise amplification. The average Canadian, and this is a statistic from like four years ago,

so it's got to be worse, the average Canadian cannot afford a $400 emergency. This affects

the vast majority of people. Because sometimes it's not going to be violence, maybe it's not

going to be arrests, but they will find all sorts of deterrents to use through the security

mechanisms that they have to stop us from taking to the streets, to confine even smaller the

boundaries of which is acceptable to protest. The folks in Ottawa, what we're talking about

is, you know, they're using a bullhorn. Has anybody ever been to a protest where there

hasn't been a megaphone, a bullhorn, or a speaker system used to amplify, you know, your speakers

perhaps at the rally or the chants as you march along? I've never, I mean, for Christmas, when

you're, I got one that can sit on your belt and clip around your collar. I mean, this is

standard operating procedure for even the smallest of rallies. And now they're handing out $490

tickets. So folks from the Palestinian youth movement obviously ended up with some. I saw

representatives of PSAC out there, that is a public sector union, and other community members.

So they issued nine of these tickets one week and three on another in late December. And

the response from the Palestinian youth movement representative that was quoted there is like,

we're gonna keep doing this. We are gonna fight them in court. So they've retained counsel

to push this through the courts. They were gonna raise money to pay the fines, I suppose, in

the meantime, and they're gonna keep using sound amplification. And like I said, it's almost

unimaginable to try to do that without. I know the Occupy movement, we started the People's

Might. I don't know if that was because the police had threatened or it just became a lack

of resources overcome, but you know, you can't do it without. A megaphone, I mean, it becomes

an accessibility thing. And more to the point of what we were talking about is not backing

down. Like a lot of the response to the Avenue Road 401 is like the moderate approach. Well,

you know, just the benefit of the doubt. Some people feel unsafe, so just go somewhere else.

And it's like, but fucking people can say that anywhere and everywhere. And at what point

do you draw the line and you take a stand and say, absolutely not? The only recourse I can

have can't be through the courts. Not everyone can get a lawyer and fight things through the

courts. And even if you can, it's already served to deter other people. I think like a showing

of force, I saw people suggest, you know, the response to the Avenue Road situation would

actually be to move the weekly protests there. And I know some people might cringe at that,

but you have to be the boss in this situation. You can't allow the police, you can't allow

the city. to push back anymore than they already have. Our rights have already been curtailed

so much. There's already the threat of police intervention all the time. To start normalizing

increasingly oppressive tactics by them is a huge mistake, a huge mistake. So, you know,

whether it's bylaw officers or cops, the city's response, I guess... Perhaps this was initiated

in response to the stupid fucking convoy that drove the neighbors crazy with all of the noise

that they made. And so it's a perfect example of us likely advocating for certain responses

that are coming back to bite us in the end. But the city's response is trying to like,

oh, well, we want to educate you on the rules of protests. so similar to the areas of exclusion,

just work within these very reasonable bounds. But that defeats the entire purpose of protests.

Because let me tell you, whatever is defined for you is what is tolerable to them. And the

whole point of a demonstration, of a disruption, is to come to a point that is intolerable and

forces a negotiation, a capitulation, a victory. If you always work within the confines of what

has been deemed already acceptable, you've already lost and wasted your energy, frankly. I just

can't help but think of the French right now. Oh, you mean like their protests? Yeah. Can

you imagine telling the French, oh, you can't use microphones, you can't protest in this

neighborhood? Like... That they would. It's like when they told Celtic fans not to bring

Palestinian flags to the next match. And I think I don't know where they found so many flags,

but it seems like every fan there had a flag in response. You have to outdo them. It can't.

I'm so tired of finding the middle ground with fascists. We don't even have to look all the

way to Celtics. I mean, here in the MLS. It's just Celtic. Yeah, Celtic. Sorry. There was

a similar ban for Portland Timber fans. They like to fly a lot of anti-fascist flags during

their games. It led to the league outlawing political banners and then they doubled down

on it and then they had to make an exception for them because they refused to back down

on it, right? And now I still see anti-fascist flags every time TFC plays against Portland

Timbers and I can't help but, you know. You're on the wrong side. Yeah, cheer for them. You

need to bring the Red Patch boys around. No, Portland has always. Yeah, I have a soft spot

for Portland. Fun fact, apparently Portland and me share music taste, according to my Spotify

rap for twenty three city most similar to my music taste. Anyways, shout out to Portland.

But you know that it's a good example, right? Like it. There's been plenty of times when

there's been an attempt, you know, like the French have tried to outlaw protests altogether

and the French, they doubled down, you know? We see how strong their movements are, right?

Look at Lebanon. I mean, in Colombia, they had the, they were, just a couple years ago, the

protests got massive and they tried to outlaw them and people got hurt. People kept going

and then you know the first leftist was elected now. I'm not gonna talk too much about that

But you know like it's very tame. What's going on here? These are these are real low-key protests

that Well, they don't they're we're not exactly pelting cops with rocks yet like the French

You know, there's no Molotov cocktails You know, yes, it's pretty low-key what's going on over

here They cannot possibly have an issue with this. And we don't back down an inch. Like

these are some of the most, yeah, sorry. They're just way too chill. But to be fair, our cops

are snowflakes too, right? They haven't experienced what you're talking about, but you bring up

South America, and don't worry, I won't make you go deep. But it does remind me that Argentina,

the wonderful new fascist leader over there, one of the tactics that... we're starting to

bill the social movements for the police response to their protests. So if they need to call

out the tanks and every cop in the city, then the leaders of the various organizations that

put together that rally, you put your logo on the flyer and I guess you're getting a bill

in the mail that I imagine is a lot heftier than... a $490 fine. We have an interview with

Anna Lippman coming up where you hear her talk about taking risks, risking arrest and the

balance of working within the confines available, but also pushing boundaries in order to get

what you need done. But absolutely the response is to push back and to obviously start defunding

these police forces. Because as you remember at the top of the show, we weren't just talking

about pro-Palestinian protests. Like I said, the cops don't, they don't care. They are flexing

their muscles from coast to coast. And in Toronto, we know the budget talks are coming up. We'll

tear that apart when it comes due, but we know the cops are likely to get more money, and

then they're not even happy they want even more money. And the whole point of doing this and

flexing and pulling out all the stops... is to excuse their budgets and justify more. They

are the solution to everything now, right? Housing and disruption and traffic and always crime

and drugs, right? So obviously all your funds should go there. They're gonna fix it all.

Yeah, that's the relationship of police versus movements, right? No matter which movement

you are, no matter what issue it is. The police are there as a tool of the state to repress

those movements. It's... That's the history. That's modern history right there, right? That's

the second you are being effective at something, you can expect to have a run in with the police.

You know? I've seen it through a variety of different issues. Desmond Cole has seen it

a million times himself. You know, we mentioned him earlier. I bring up Desmond Cole because

he was just tweeting about... There was a recent report that came out just a couple days ago

on January 10th about how, well, the Toronto police admits that they shot Devin Follin back

in February of 2023 without having needed to shoot him, you know, to quote directly what

they said, when there was no risk of bodily harm or death to any officer or member of the

public. And now they're going and asking for a budget increase that they're getting and

they're angry. that they're getting a budget increase and it's not as much as they wanted.

I mean, that's it's the story over and over again of their progressive politicians making

these stupid concessions that in the end don't win them anything. To concede to the Zionist

lobby, to a demonized Palestinian movement at the cost that it had or didn't matter. And

here with police. throwing them a bone and increasing their budget, even though that's a betrayal,

again, to the people that helped elect her and likely worked on her campaign, it's still not

going to be enough to win her, you know, the law and order vote. And it wasn't even enough

to keep the cops happy. So it's such a lose situation when those budgets go up. but not

only does it take away from the services people need and feed into an awful system, but it

is going to prevent us from effectively mounting campaigns. Because although my advice is often,

you know, double down and push back, it's very likely that one that could be met with violence.

I mean, folks from Avenue Road were hospitalized after police pushed them and whatnot. They

ended up with injuries. But court, right, between challenging these tickets and fighting arrests

and charter challenges, this is all a very expensive endeavor. And they know that. So that's frustrating.

It seems like no matter which way we go, we're going to end up in these courts and surely

we don't have an advantage there. I mean, that's not to say it's not an avenue. There are good

people mounting some necessary challenges. But in the meantime, I think you become so powerful

and so big and so defiant that, you know, they can't arrest us all mentality. But even as

I say that, I remember the G20 and hundreds, hundreds of people getting arrested and then

building special facilities just to store these people in really inhumane conditions. And I

think although they got backlash there. Even from both sides, I mean it was horrific. They,

uh, the public appetite is coming back. And I think it's our job to really curb that appetite

for police responses to... Well, fucking to everything, but especially to protests and

challenging politicians. You know, even Leah Gazan was out there tweeting like, this is

unacceptable that we're outside of Melanie Jolie's house. Like, what did you think? No justice,

no peace? Was just something for your t-shirt? Or it's just not applicable unless it might

come to you? Are we acting like politicians don't show up at our doorstep when they want

to be elected? You know, it's not like they keep their campaigning away from our doorstep.

And I'm sorry, but I'm not looking to worry about the comfort of somebody who's actively

enabling genocide. I don't see how anybody can try and justify such a thing. It's treating,

you know, it's, when people assume these roles, it doesn't have this blanket protection from

accountability as much as they want to think that, as much as they wanna think that they

can be, live a comfortable life while screwing over the rest of the world. No, that's not

how that works. Having just come back from Colombia, I have like a new found. desire for boldness,

you could say, because, you know, you go to places of the world that are actively being

screwed over by imperialism and colonialism, and you see, you know, the active effects and

the history of that, and then you also see how people there rise the fuck up en masse, are

met with violence, and they continue fighting back, and you hear about how social leaders

are killed constantly, and I can't help but think how... Here in the lions then, here at

the center of all of this, while I'm not saying that we're not gonna be met with violence,

we have the ability to be a hell of a lot more disruptive. And we have a responsibility to

the rest of the world, to the countries that we're screwing over, to the people who they

can't do anything about it in their homes, in their home countries, because they'll be killed,

and they are being killed. We have a responsibility to them. to do everything in our power to end

their suffering that we're causing that's being caused in our name. I'm not okay with that.

So if Melanie Joy wants to sleep comfortably at night, if these leaders want to be left

alone, then how about you leave other people in other countries the fuck alone first. Don't

go screwing over their lives and then wonder why people are showing up at your doorstep.

This is, and I mean this quite fucking literally. Like we need to understand the extent of the

harm that these people are causing. They're bold about it too because they've been doing

this for a very fucking long time and they've gotten used to our Canadian culture of you

know, oh no don't block the road it'll inconvenience traffic. Politicians have also gotten really

good at thwarting the public. You know, they have constituency days and hours and quite

often they're not even there. And if they do meet with you, they've got all these buffer

people to half answer questions for them. And so there's really no fucking accessibility

sometimes from journalists either. You know, the scrums are limited. And at what point can

we hold you accountable then? And it's just like every other avenue that we have where

you cut off. this and you cut off that and there's no real democracy. Well, guess what? It ends

up in the streets. There's no other outlet. Whenever a politician is doing something that

they know that they're getting backlash on, I can guarantee you that they're not answering

90% of journalists' calls. They'll answer the ones that they know are friendly or are going

to give them softball things so that they can make a public statement. But they're not answering

most of our calls at all. And I know because I, you know, we've tried like, seasoned journalists

with decades of experience who they're like, oh yeah, they're not going to get fucked. They're

not going to get back to us on this. Oh, there's no way we're going to reach them now. So exactly.

So just to like really emphasize what Jess is saying here, what exactly is the avenue for

holding them accountable? No, and it's not even just like literally, they don't answer our

calls. But in general, they're not answering our calls. If you're talking about the call

for a ceasefire. that has not happened. An escalation is inevitable. If you do not listen to the

people, they will speak louder. You have a kid, you know that, right? It ends up with screaming

and making a scene. And this is what's necessary if you're not going to listen. And if Melanie

Jolie is not going to call for a ceasefire or even decently respond to these calls, then

I'm sorry. you're going to have to be held accountable in some way. And that's not just going to be

some NDP MP standing up in question period and asking you a question. That doesn't fucking

count. They may think that's what they get paid for, but that doesn't fucking count. And the

city of Ottawa isn't gonna all of a sudden decide that megaphones aren't gonna be used in protests.

And Toronto police can't decide what neighborhoods are good and what neighborhoods are bad for

protests. for whom, when, and how long, what streets they can take, what businesses they'll

protect. I mean, we have to call an end to that, an absolute end to that. That can't just happen

through the courts. That has to happen with just absolute defiance. Yeah. Because that

is our duty, you know, to defy unjust laws. I know I brought up a few times today, but

you know, it's all my memory for some reason, but you know, like when people went to City

Hall to protest. budget last year. What happened? They were arrested. Is that not the right place

to go protest? Oh no, not then either. Not at City Hall either. That's apparently not okay

either. Were the politicians were all there in the room? Apparently that's not okay either.

So if they're gonna criminalize protesting where we're supposed to fucking protest as well,

what it is they're telling us to go

get it out of our systems and go home and nothing changes. That's what they want from us. And

we know history, we know our history, we know better than that, we know how we have achieved

every positive change that we've ever won. It's been won in the streets. It's been won by being

disruptive. And obviously, blueprints of disruption, this isn't new to our audience. You all know

this, like we talk about this constantly, but it's... We have to remind, we have to go out

and remind people of this because it's been very effective at making us forget that. But

like we've been saying, you know, like shout out to recent victories, you know, Algoma University,

that was one in the victory for those students, that was one in the streets. York Southwest

and Tenant Union, when they were being disrupted occupying their office, they won that battle.

They weren't supposed to be there. The cops came and told them they weren't supposed to

be there. They- stood up, showed face, stood their ground, they didn't get arrested, and

they won that battle. We know how these battles are won. We know our history. 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 Halu-Quintero. Blueprints of Disruption is

an independent production operated cooperatively. You can follow us on Twitter at If you'd like

to help us continue disrupting the status quo, please share our content. And if you have the

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community, so does our content. So reach out to us and let us know what or who we should

be amplifying. So until next time, keep disrupting.