THE POPE SQUAT

 

  THE POPE SQUAT

 


Rent controls have been eliminated, the provincial government has enacted the blatantly pro-landlord law ironically named ‘Tenant Protection Act’, and landlords have been raising rent to levels that quite simply put the basic human need of shelter outside the reach of thousands of people. Throughout this crisis all levels of government; city, provincial, and federal have failed to adequately respond and build the tens of thousands of units of social housing that is required. However, the housing crisis we’re facing hasn’t stopped the city from spending millions of dollars on the Pope’s visit to Catholic Youth Day 2002. These millions should be spent on providing basic necessities of life to Torontonians, not on a scheme to take huge amounts of public money and subsidize an event that will create huge profits for private businesses. We clearly identify our opponents in this struggle as the City, Provincial and Federal governments who refuse to build housing and not any of the Catholic youth, church or communities. In fact, we are hoping to work with many progressive Catholics that agree with us for the need to open social housing. It is for these reasons that we are calling upon all poor and working people, Catholics and social activists to open an abandoned building on Saturday July 25, 2002, during the Pope’s visit when the world’s spotlight will be on Toronto, and create self-managed, social housing and a community center. We are calling for the opening of ‘The Pope Squat’ (slang for occupying an abandoned building) because we feel that the Papal visit, the large number of Catholic youth delegates that will visit our city, and a wide show of support from social justice organizations and unions, will help create a political situation that will make the regular brutality the police show towards poor people and squatters very difficult. We see the Papal visit as an opportunity to literally get our foot in the door. After the Pope leaves we will rely upon the tremendous popular support that exists and we are working to deepen in our neighborhood. As poor and working people we have decided that waiting for the city, province and federal government to open social housing is a waste of time. We’ve been waiting, agitating, protesting, lobbying and asking for social housing to be built for years. We have seen thousands of friends and family evicted. We have seen our rent shoot through our decaying roofs. We have seen hundreds of people die on our streets. We can wait no longer! If the various levels of government refuse to build social housing in the amounts required then we have no choice but to open it ourselves, for ourselves. Not only do we intend to open social housing for ourselves we also intend to make the building a community center that will provide space to neighborhood organizations, events, and programs. Due to downloading and City cutbacks our community centers are not able to meet the needs of our neighborhoods. Again, we have no choice but to provide for our community ourselves. We will also use our building as a space to organize with other tenants in our neighborhood against slumlords and yuppie developers who want to either keep us living in holes to line their pockets or drive us out of our neighborhood all together. While first and foremost is our desire to directly open up self-managed social housing and a community center, we also have modest demands that the various levels of government need to meet in order to even begin to address the housing crisis we’re in. They are: A massive drive to inspect and order repairs on all unsafe and substandard housing; A stop to economic evictions; Abolishing the housing tribunal, which has only served as a rubber stamp for landlords; Restoring the cuts to social assistance. Raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour; No unlimited rent increases on vacated units, restoring rent control; And building 2000 units of social housing a year in Toronto. While this squat is being organized by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty we need vital support from other poor and working people as well as social activists to ensure success. We have to stand up for ourselves and turn this situation around.

THE POPE SQUAT JULY 25, 2002 MASARYK COWAN PARK (Queen St. W. & Cowan Ave., west of Dufferin, east of Lansdowne- in Parkdale!)

DEMANDS:

1. Convert the squatted building into social housing.

2. City-wide inspection and repair blitz: Inspect and order repairs on all unsafe and substandard housing in the City of Toronto.

3. Stop economic evictions: Raise the minimum wage to $10.00/hr. Restore the cut to social assistance.

4. Restore rent control.

5. Build 2000 units of social housing every year.

[squat!net]

 


 

Tags: , ,

Canada, Toronto, Radical Garage Sale at the Pope Squat

 

  Canada, Toronto, Radical Garage Sale at the Pope Squat

 


Bring your unused stuff to sell or barter at the…

=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=
R A D I C A L G A R A G E S A L E
=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=-*-=

Monday, July 29, 2002
12 – 6 PM
Front Yard of the Pope Squat

On July 25, 2002, OCAP will open the Pope Squat. In the middle of Toronto’s housing crisis, as the City spends millions of dollars funding the Pope’s visit, squatters will demand the construction of more social housing as they occupy an abandoned building in a Toronto neighborhood. The Pope Squat will ultimately be transformed into self-managed social housing and a vibrant community center.

Toronto activists are inviting you to celebrate the opening of the Pope Squat by coming to a Radical Garage Sale on the Squat’s proverbial front lawn on Monday, July 29, 2002. Although garage sales are normally held by residents of a building when they move OUT, this community garage sale is being organized in support of the occupants who will just have moved IN!

So clear all the unused stuff out of your stifling apartments. Bring it down to the Pope Squat on Monday afternoon and sell or barter it for someone else’s unused stuff. Sales contributions of Radical Kitsch are especially encouraged.

Proceeds from your sales can be donated to OCAP and the Pope Squat.

The location of the Pope Squat will be announced when it is opened on July 25th. Check your email or the OCAP website for updates: www.ocap.ca. For more information about the Radical Garage Sale, please get in touch with Anna at awillats [at] sympatico [dot] ca or John at john [at] tao [dot] ca.

WHEN THE GOVERNMENT REFUSES TO BUILD HOUSING, PEOPLE HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TAKE IT THEMSELVES.

john <john [at] tao [dot] ca>

 


 

Tags: , ,

Pope Squat Radical Street Festival!

 

  Pope Squat Radical Street Festival!

 


Come celebrate the opening of the Pope Squat!
Join OCAP and the Squatters for a…
S U M M E R S T R E E T F E S T I V A L
Saturday, July 27, 2002
At NOON — ’til the Music Runs Out
In front of the Pope Squat
Somewhere in a Downtown Toronto Neighborhood

*************************************************************************
CALLING musicians, DJs, street-theatre troupes, fire-spinners, fire-breathers, puppeteers, tightrope-walkers, and otherwise artistically inclined folks…If you’d like to support the Pope Squat by performing during the Summer Street Festival, please GET IN TOUCH as soon as possible! Email john [at] tao [dot] ca or phone 416-925-6939 and leave a message for John.
*************************************************************************

The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty will open the Pope Squat, on Thursday, July 25. The City of Toronto is spending millions of dollars funding the Pope’s visit for World Youth Day while neglecting the basic needs of the thousands of people deprived of shelter as a result of skyrocketing rents and evictions. Squatters will occupy an abandoned building in a Toronto neighborhood during the Pope’s visit; their demands of all levels of government include the creation of 2000 units of social housing a year. The Pope Squat will ultimately be transformed into self-managed social housing and a community center for neighborhood use.

In order to celebrate the opening of the Pope Squat, OCAP is inviting neighborhood residents, social activists and squat supporters to a Summer Street Festival on Saturday, July 27, featuring:

* performances by bands and DJs
* circus stunts and face-painting
* speeches by your favourite Toronto politicos
* a community barbecue
* an atmosphere of festive resistance & reappropriation.

The Festival will start at Noon and continue on well into the evening. It will take place outside the Pope Squat; the exact location will be announced at the opening of the Squat on July 25th. Check your email or the OCAP website (www.ocap.ca) for updates.

There are many ways you can contribute to this celebration of resistance and reappropriation:

==> You can participate just by showing up, getting to know the squatters and the neighbors, sharing good food and celebrating the capacity of people to take and create the shelter they need in order to survive and flourish in this city.

==> If you are an artist or performer, and would like to support the Pope Squat by performing at the Summer Street Festival, please get in touch with John at john [at] tao [dot] ca or at 416.925.6939.

==> If you would like to speak in support of the Pope Squat during the festival, or know of good speakers who might, please let us know! Again, you can get in touch with John at john [at] tao [dot] ca or at 416.925.6939.

See you at the party!

When the government refuses to build housing, people have no choice but to take it themselves! Fight to Win!

 

john <john [at] tao [dot] ca>

 


Tags: , ,

Canada, Toronto, OCAP letter to Police Intelligence: Pope Squat

 

  Canada, Toronto, OCAP letter to Police Intelligence: Pope Squat

 


As we prepare for the Pope Squat, OCAP has been approached by Police Intelligence and asked to meet and discuss our plans. This reply has been sent to the Detective that put that offer to us.

June 26, 2002

Detective Constable Branko Novinc, Intelligence – Anti Terrorist and Threat Investigation, Toronto Police Service, 40 College Street, Toronto, ON

Dectective Constable Novinc:

You recently proposed to our organization that we hold some discussions around the ‘Pope Squat’ housing action that is planned for late July. We have carefully considered this and have decided that, while a level of liaison with the Police during the event is not ruled out, a meeting with Intelligence at this time would not be particularly helpful. We do, however, want to take this opportunity to clarify a few matters with you that relate to the Pope Squat. Because we want to make our intentions clear to the community as a whole, we shall be sharing these comments with a range of interested parties.

Firstly, we would just stress that which our public statements on this event have already made clear. We are in no way organizing to protest or disrupt the Pope’s visit or to offend those who are gathering for World Catholic Youth Day. On the contrary, we will appeal to youth delegates and other Catholic people to support our efforts. We are acting during the Papal visit because the eyes of the world will be on Toronto and because the event raises moral issues that are favourable to challenging homelessness and under housing and NOT because we want to insult anyone’s religious views.

Secondly, we sincerely hope that those in authority can behave reasonably during this event. The Pope Squat is a response to serious social grievances. There are 63,000 people on the waiting list for housing in Toronto and 2,000 more are evicted every month. A protest against this tragic state of affairs that simply moves a few people into an empty property is hardly an act of deranged extremism to be smashed with the full might of the State. To put things in perspective, there are many political jurisdictions where such an act would be an entirely civil matter that the police would play no part in. Certainly, the Pope Squat will be broadly supported and seen by many in this community as justified and praiseworthy. Hopefully, this consideration may have some impact on official thinking in July. If there are no tasers, laser sights and riot clubs this time around, we won’t miss them.

Thirdly, we would like to point out that the Pope Squat is an actual attempt to open up a process of negotiation with the political decision makers. Other comparable actions that we have participated in have, in fact, led to progress and favourable results. The two buildings we squatted at 88-90 Carlton are now a social housing project. The Doctors Hospital was used as a shelter for the homeless, after we took action to press for this. The young people squatting the Canada Malting property, with OCAP as one of their major supporters, were given both the permission and resources that enabled them to stay on the site. Similarly, in this case, we are working to open discussions with municipal and provincial officials and have our action produce positive results for the constituency we represent.

Fourthly, we don’t automatically refuse to speak to the Police but, to be quite frank, you’re not the people we need to be talking to at the moment. The grievances we are addressing are the responsibility of those in political power. Catholic Youth Day, which forms the backdrop to our event, is funded by the municipal and provincial governments and one or both of these will have a considerable interest in the property that is the focus of this initiative. We’re taking the liberty of copying this letter to the above mentioned levels of government and, in the weeks ahead, will be pushing for them to deal with the social injustices that give rise to the Pope Squat. If the understanding emerges that we are dealing with political issues and not police matters it will be a big step forward for all concerned.

We thank you for the consideration we know you will give these comments. No doubt, we shall have further dealings on this matter in due course.

The Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

cc: Ernie Eves
Mel Lastman
OCAP Allies

ocap [at] tao [dot] ca