Homeless people’s $100K victory against Toronto
p2pnet news view Politics | Freedom:- A little more than eight years ago a, “violent crackdown” by the emergency taskforce unit in Toronto, Canada, resulted in charges being laid against anti-poverty activists Elan Ohayon, Alex Brown and Oriel Varga, organisers of the Allan Gardens Project.
The charges were later thrown out of court, but the three started a campaign which has just ended with the City of Toronto and Toronto Police being ordered to pay more than $100,000.
A court trial expected to last two weeks had been slated to start this month, but the money was awarded before it reached court.
The entire sum will now go toward grassroots housing initiatives throughout the city, says Homeless Nation.
The Allan Gardens Project, “was a peaceful protest that began in August 1999 after the police breakup of the OCAP [Ontario Coalition Against Poverty] Safe Park,” says the post, going on »»»
It included students, homeless and other community members calling for public housing. For over 120 consecutive Friday nights at Allan Gardens Park, protesters decried the continuing housing crisis in Toronto as well as police brutality and harassment of the homeless. The sleep outs lasted over two years until November 2001. [...] Now, eight years later, only days before the court date, the city and police have finally been forced to pay a settlement, all of which will go toward housing initiatives.
As a consequence of government inaction, homelessness continues to be a national disaster and there is an average of two deaths per week of homeless individuals in Toronto alone,”, says Varga, quoting the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.
Homeless Nation – Allan Gardens protesters’ lawsuit against city and police, December 29, 2008
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December 29th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
and having been homeless once in my life i know how tese people feel. IT is an awful place to be in, and you really have to dig deep to get out. It was appaling that toronto police did what they did, and honestly it shows that they only look after the elitists and corporate interests.
See how quick they come to a bank in trouble versus your home.
as the very 1st south park epsidoe said on the cop car.
“to pester and annoy”
December 29th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
and that money should not come from tax payers it should come out of cops salaries so they really get the message
December 29th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Oh, of course, blame the police. I’ve got an idea. Go to one of the many, empty shelters in any major city in Canada. Get a bed to sleep in, only, be there before 5pm and don’t be drunk or stoned. Also don’t fight or be abusive to staff or you will be asked to leave. In short be civilized. And when you are not in the shelter keeping warm and out of the elements, staying clean and dry, you can either go to work at any one of the hundreds of jobs available in any city in Canada where employers cannot fill the need for counter service, cleaning staff, responsible merchandisers or clerks, or even better, line up for a free hand out from the government, just cooperate with the life skills and employment mentor programs that are required. But no, I suspect a choice (yes, that’s right, I said a choice) will be made to continue to abuse drugs and alcohol, not participate in any programs in exchange for money and shelter, force your opinions and lack of initiative on others while panhandling and intimidating us while we try and go about our own business of going to work and looking after our families and exercising our rights of economic freedom. Everything I have and all that I stand for I have worked very hard to acquire. You say the rights of these folks are violated? I have been on mission to Darfur, Afghanistan and Haiti. You want to see rights violations and human rights abuses? I will buy any of you the plane ticket. Go there and complain, I invite you. There is no reason for anyone to be homeless or without the support of our social safety net in Canada. It is a choice. One thing it is not is the fault of the police. Give your head a shake.
December 29th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I see more rambling from the idiot.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Guys, listen to Craig. He’s an Canadian hero, and deserves to be listened to despite how outrageous and ridiculous his claims are.
Please Craig, go save a dog in a well or something.
December 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
hahaha , good one Craig,
Perfect example you give: First the Industrial Complex goes into these countries, strips them of resources, human rights, kills off their farms and means of support, instills influx of cheap genetically engineered food [if any], and supports an authoritarian system that reaps most funds from population and starts killing off any descent, then calls for humanitarian aid.
Thanx for your wisdom … but let’s not be sarcastic since you probably didn’t know the other half of the situation.
I would suggest you take a closer look at the Toronto and all Canadian situations while keeping the above example in mind.
I’ll even tell you the real but usually hidden situation. A certain group of ideologists decided to take back their supposed rightful leadership of Earth. They infiltrated banks, military, politics, religions and many other areas of civilization. Slowly but persistently they have been using divide / conquer and above stated tactics to take over country after country. It’s where we get monopolies of EU, Global Corporations, centralized banking, SPP, WTO, IMF, loss of gold standard, big oil, big sugar, Monsanto [genetically engineered food], most Canadian Crown Land donated to UN, police and military states, suppressed free-energy devices, spy agencies, loss of privacy, scientology, attacks on P2P and anything else that may cause descent from.
This group started as alternate seekers of knowledge and came out as a Bavarian cult of what’s called Illuminati. They have infiltrated every known leadership organization on earth. If not then forced them to subjugate.
Too much of a mental leap for you? Can’t see the forest for the trees?
Then I suggest you use this biggest library on earth called the Internet and learn at your leisure. Also reference this info on the ground and with persons who have been studying this for many years, then come back and we’ll have a great chat.
BTW: do try to find out who and which secret societies many Toronto police belong to and where they get their marching orders from.
Good work OCAP
Enjoy.
December 30th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Jon, can you tell me why all of my posts longer than one paragraph are being dumped?
December 30th, 2008 at 4:33 am
@Craig homelessness is a choice? I hope that was sarcasm. Being from toronto and having volunteered at a homeless shelter I would have to say you are dead wrong. Please remove the conservative stick in your ass for just one second and hear me out. Many only abuse drugs and alcohol because of mental illness stemming from their difficult pasts. You may have done a duty for this country in 1 way or another im not sure if by mission you mean “missionary” mission or military/peace keeping mission but you need to take a long hard look at how fortunate you really are. Take a look at where and how you made that comment then think about who spent this Christmas outside. This isn’t Darfur or Afghanistan were talking about. This is Canada. Being one of the G8 countries we should be helping lead the fight against poverty. Though I dont believe its something that can necessarily be solved anytime soon.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:15 am
@ free1
“all of my posts longer than one paragraph are being dumped”
That’s obviously not so. But Akismet sometimes singles out comments for no apparent reason, which I always clear as soon as I see them.
Cheers!
December 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am
re: Jon
Obviously you have a issues since a number of my posts have been blocked as well.
Also please check your new email
December 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am
^^ I have no ‘issues’ and haven’t knowingly blocked any of your posts. At this point, the Akismet count is approaching 1 million spam messages blocked. Frankly, I don’t have time to go through all of them, although I try.
And the email account isn’t working, for some reason.
Cheers!