Action4Canada - Leaked Video： Union has Secret Meeting Planning LGBTQ Counter protests

00:00:00.000 just bear with us as we let folks on board

00:00:30.000 excellent day to have allies together for a very important conversation so thank you everyone for

00:00:46.560 joining us this morning my name is rob helpin i'm the executive director at the ontario federation

00:00:51.760 of labor we're we're going to get started here momentarily we've got a pretty full agenda as

00:00:59.680 well uh to discuss today of course uh about our um organizing around a counter protest for these

00:01:06.240 events that are occurring on september 20th and a few days thereafter quite frankly as well

00:01:11.520 as you may have seen in the uh in the uh the communication that we uh we sent out i'm going

00:01:18.320 to ask folks if you're okay and we won't be sharing this publicly this is just for our benefit uh

00:01:23.360 internally in case we need to take minutes uh of some of the details that are discussed today

00:01:28.480 i'd like to record this again we will not be sharing that recording externally and as soon

00:01:33.360 as we're done with the minutes uh we'll be um erasing that so if everyone's okay with that i'm

00:01:38.400 going to go ahead and press record again for the benefit of our support staff and taking notes

00:01:45.200 recording in progress so

00:01:49.280 okay bear with me here i'm just going to get more folks in this room great turnout

00:01:57.920 okay so uh let's get started we have that first circled an agenda around i'm going to ask one of

00:02:05.040 our uh my colleagues uh from the ofl here to put that agenda into the uh chat so that folks uh can

00:02:11.760 see it uh up front um but to kick us off i'm going to turn it over to ofl president patty coats for a

00:02:19.040 welcome and uh a land acknowledgement patty thanks rob i want to thank everyone uh for being here

00:02:27.840 on such short notice uh as you saw from our memo that we sent out there's a number of uh protest

00:02:38.160 events that are taking place all across canada we can't just let this um be idle we need to be able to

00:02:45.600 organize we need to connect with our communities um in ontario um from what i know there's approximately 22

00:02:54.480 um uh different uh events that are taking place and there could be more now

00:03:00.720 but as um as allies and those that protect uh workers rights protect our kids rights uh and the

00:03:09.920 rights of trans and our 2s lgbtq plus community uh we felt it very important that we do come together

00:03:18.400 to fight against the rise of hate and we're seeing it in province across province across province we're

00:03:24.080 seeing it now in our education system what our premier uh and education minister has put forward with

00:03:31.200 regards to um the obligations of uh of teachers and school boards educators and school boards uh and

00:03:40.160 so that's why we're here we're trying to uh to connect with all of you to talk about what's happening in

00:03:46.720 our communities and what we can do as allies and supporters uh to fight against the hate uh within

00:03:54.160 our communities so um with that i'm going to uh go to uh to the land acknowledgement um and then i will

00:04:02.240 pass it back so we can uh start um our conversations today because we are joining this meeting from

00:04:09.520 places across indigenous territory i'd like to begin this acknowledgement by honoring the lands each of us

00:04:16.560 are on which has been the site of human activities since time immemorial it is the traditional

00:04:22.720 territory of first nations metis and inuit peoples from across turtle island i'm attending this meeting

00:04:29.440 from innisfil in the community of alcona which is the traditional land of the anishinabeg people

00:04:35.200 the anishinabeg include the ajibwe ottawa and potawatomi nations collectively known as a council of three fires

00:04:45.920 please share in the chat uh the indigenous territories that you are joining this meeting from

00:04:52.320 but as we gather here today these nations continue to experience ongoing colonialization and displacement

00:05:00.080 where land acknowledgements are offered in place of land itself this territory is part of the dish with

00:05:06.720 one spoon wampum a treaty made between the anishinaabe mississaugas and haudenosaunee where nations

00:05:13.600 entered into an agreement to protect the land and responsibly care for its resources in harmony together

00:05:20.960 and i think you know that's all very fitting because we all need to be working in harmony

00:05:28.320 as we move forward and as we know you know our indigenous indigenous peoples are have been um

00:05:38.240 have been oppressed for uh years and years millennium you know uh in time and we're seeing that

00:05:46.640 oppression again with two-spirited uh people with our 2s lgbtq um communities so coming together uh at a

00:05:56.000 meeting like this i think is is very important and and uh we're very appreciative of the treaties that

00:06:02.800 are on our lands uh the treaties that we should all be following uh and that we all become uh uh stewards

00:06:11.440 uh of our land so with that i'm going to pass it over back over to rob and uh we'll uh uh start working

00:06:18.720 on our agenda so thank you thank you patty uh yeah so the agenda has been uh identified in the chat

00:06:25.760 uh we're going to have a bit of an overview here a bit of a two-part overview first i'd like to get

00:06:29.680 an update i'm going to call on director of women's rights uh shandra lee paul from the ontario federation

00:06:35.680 of labor uh to speak to item number two a little wire and why are these anti-2s lgbtqia plus protests

00:06:43.920 happening uh and then we're also going to get an update from vicky smallman who is joining us as well

00:06:50.320 regarding some of the work that's been happening at the clc emergency task force on anti-2s lgbtqia plus

00:06:57.520 hate so uh shawnee can i kick it over view for a bit of an update of why this is happening and where

00:07:03.120 this is happening hi folks as uh rob said my name is Kimberly paul otherwise known as shawnee

00:07:10.160 hi you're welcome to use their one my pronouns are she Kirk um and uh this is scary i'll be honest with

00:07:16.640 you as a as a member who is a proud queer individual and activist who's been doing this work for

00:07:25.200 geez over 30 years now um it is in my experience my personal experience the first of this kind that

00:07:33.360 i've seen here in canada of this super broadly and coordinated um hate right across the country of this

00:07:44.160 time um it we are seeing a uh a set of protests that are all being done simultaneously uh they're all

00:07:53.120 being set for 9 a.m in each of their time zones uh in every single province of this country in multiple

00:08:03.360 states of these provinces and it is really scary it is extremely similar uh as to what has been happening

00:08:12.160 in the u.s and we are very very worried about what could be coming next um i am zooming in from

00:08:21.760 uh otherwise known as toronto the place in the water where the trophies are standing and uh i'm i'm

00:08:28.560 extremely worried about what's going on and so what what we're seeing is um a a far right extreme

00:08:37.440 response to uh inclusive education uh teachings that have anything to do with the 2s lgbtqi community

00:08:48.080 uh with a heavy response in particular to trans uh education anything to do with that um in the

00:08:56.560 schools and uh you know indoctrinating children uh you know in regards to anything to do with you know

00:09:04.720 queer information fair right rainbow community all various ways that we want to you know reference

00:09:10.240 uh anything other than what the the far right uh sees is appropriate and so we are um wanting to show

00:09:20.400 a very strong response uh countering these protests to show that you know they even think that there's a

00:09:28.880 possibility of bringing what's happening other places here we're going to be there to counter it every

00:09:35.280 single uh step of the way we want to show a very heavy love is what we have here there is no space for

00:09:42.240 hate in canada in particular uh you know in in ontario as this is what this group is here to discuss

00:09:49.200 um and so what we see is that they uh have coordinated um rallies at legislatures

00:09:56.800 um for 9 a.m in each time zone across the country and so uh uh and then following up with 11 a.m marches

00:10:07.120 after those rallies uh and so what we understand and what we sort of see the way that they coordinated

00:10:13.360 that is that they plan to capture the media cycle throughout the entire day right across the country so

00:10:21.760 they start in the far east at you know nine o'clock in the morning and as you know nine o'clock hits

00:10:28.160 right across the country they'll be capturing those media cycles those news cycles right across to the

00:10:34.720 other side of the country which is uh extremely recent we want to make sure that our messaging of

00:10:40.960 no space for hate of love inclusion diversity is you know what that messaging should be we don't want

00:10:49.200 them to get into those news feeds and capturing the uh the you know the negative aspects into those

00:10:56.480 feeds we want to be gathering those as much as possible and so we uh we certainly um uh want to

00:11:03.520 make sure that we are safe in what we're doing and that's what this discussion is here today we want to

00:11:09.440 hear from you what we you know how we can help um nobody is going to be left alone we want to make sure

00:11:16.000 they're all being safe in this response and we understand that there are many many people on this

00:11:22.080 call that have a lot of experience in dealing with this type of thing that can help us keep each other

00:11:27.920 safe and be strong in the response that we're doing to these uh to these hangpongers really and so um what

00:11:37.360 i'd like to do is we we will share um back and forth with each other where we know protests are happening

00:11:43.360 as patty said we uh see um approximately 22 different cities in ontario alone that have

00:11:50.640 protests that are already set that list keeps growing and growing from what we can see a little

00:11:56.240 later on we can share um the you know the list of cities that we see so far and then if we're missing

00:12:02.160 any you can help us uh know where those are but um uh it's uh it's important and i'm really happy to see

00:12:10.160 that everybody that's here on this call is here and we're we're looking to work with each other to

00:12:15.360 to do this so i'm gonna uh i'm gonna actually uh bring vicky smallman on to speak now uh vicky

00:12:22.160 smallman is the director of human rights at the canadian labor congress and she uh uh is one of the

00:12:27.840 leads on the clc's emergency task force on anti-2s lgbtq i8 plus hate and uh vicky's going to give us a bit

00:12:36.480 of an update um what's happening uh uh canada wide to the uh um yeah yeah the national sort of

00:12:45.680 perspective amongst my doctor vicky uh thank you so much for being with us here today and i'll throw

00:12:50.640 it over to you now uh thanks so just to give folks a bit of a background introduction i'm vicky smallman

00:12:57.680 i'm the director of human rights at canadian labor congress um and we sort of uh are responsible for

00:13:05.120 policy and campaigning coalition building uh on the full sort of spectrum of human rights um uh and we

00:13:14.400 are uh uh sort of actioning the clc resolution that was passed at our convention um there was an

00:13:22.880 emergency resolution passed on the floor thanks to the efforts of the uh 2s lgbti workers caucus

00:13:29.680 uh and allies um and it basically and i will just quickly read it so folks have the context uh that

00:13:40.240 the clc will encourage and support affiliates to condemn attacks against workers families and

00:13:46.800 communities that support and defend trans drag into s lgbtqi plus events create flying squads to um that's

00:13:55.520 b so we will encourage and support affiliates to create flying squads to provide meaningful support

00:14:01.280 to workers organizations and communities facing attacks and to call for an emergency task force

00:14:08.160 to develop a guide outlining health and safety tools for affiliates to ensure the safety of workers where

00:14:14.400 events occur um so we form established the task force in june there's been three meetings uh so far

00:14:22.800 um the focus has primarily been on kind of getting the lay of the land and information sharing to find out

00:14:29.760 sort of where things are taking place who might be um sort of forming the uh uh in the process of

00:14:36.800 formally forming flying squads or joining established local networks who have been doing this work for

00:14:42.240 some time to sort of bolster and provide capacity and uh support and resources to ongoing and uh countering

00:14:51.840 activities um and and we've been focused on uh creating this health and safety guide um it's not

00:15:00.480 ready i wish it were the timing of this is terrible because it would be really nice to have this guide out

00:15:05.280 now um but it uh it won't be ready for a few more weeks um it's there's a draft that's been out to the

00:15:13.280 task force members for comment and we hope to have it to you soon in the meantime um the clc has been

00:15:20.480 and the guide is really focused on addressing the way that 2s lgbti hate shows up at work so not so

00:15:27.760 much responding to a specific moment in time like right now which is much more of a fluid situation i

00:15:35.920 mean really organizing against this particular effort is like organizing against jello because the the

00:15:43.840 anti uh hate crap or the anti 2s lgbti crowd the very there's various camps and groups that are sort

00:15:50.880 of uniting and collaborating under one banner many of them are you know we don't know for sure if a

00:15:57.760 protest is happening or not happening uh who's behind it and so on a lot of that intelligence a lot of that

00:16:04.240 work really needs to happen at the grassroots local level right which many of you already know so

00:16:10.080 we're trying to find ways to bolster support give additional capacity um and encouraging our

00:16:16.240 affiliates and our labor councils to connect with local activists that may already be doing the work

00:16:22.720 to see how they can help create their own uh infrastructures and what it's going to look

00:16:27.040 like is really different depending on each affiliate each labor council each community so that is kind of

00:16:34.480 happening in the meantime we've also launched a digital campaign called workers united against

00:16:39.920 hate um and have been sort of putting stuff out uh through the summer uh through pride the sort of

00:16:45.520 tail end of pride season um and uh uh all of our affiliates and local labor councils received package

00:16:52.640 of graphics talking points and that type of thing for these events that are happening because they really

00:16:58.720 are like the whole issue has sort of evolved from drag story time to really target these um these

00:17:06.320 inclusive education policies uh and uh and the parental rights rhetoric has sort of come to the fore uh

00:17:15.520 and uh and that and the disturbing thing i have to say about all of this is while it's really easy to

00:17:22.080 sort of say well these are fringe voices these are you know the the convoy you know writ large etc all of it is

00:17:30.640 being validated and platformed and echoed by provincial governments and by the federal conservative party

00:17:38.240 right which offers a bit of a legitimacy and they have decided that it is politically expedient

00:17:46.000 to essentially throw trans kids families queer families queer people queer workers kids under the bus

00:17:54.080 in order to win votes i mean we see in manitoba right now actual bus ads from conservative candidates

00:18:01.360 because they're in a provincial uh uh election using parents rights rhetoric as the hook it's really

00:18:08.640 crappy right um so uh so now we are really trying to um uh to to find effective ways to counter it

00:18:18.880 uh we will be sending out some more talking points um and so on but uh so that's where we're at you know

00:18:25.520 it's we're trying to respond on a day-to-day basis to this very rapidly changing uh landscape um a memo

00:18:33.360 will be going out from the clc to affiliates and labor councils about next week's demos hopefully today

00:18:39.360 encouraging um folks to connect with local organizers to try and ensure that there is a visible sort of

00:18:47.280 presence um in the communities where these events are taking place uh and really i think that shawnee's

00:18:53.840 point about um trying to flip the script uh on the rhetoric is really really important uh and not let

00:19:01.920 them set the agenda we need to let folks know that you know that 2s lgbti rights are important and central

00:19:09.920 to the work that the labor movement does this is about solidarity in action we need to express sort of

00:19:17.040 love care and support for uh trans and queer kids and workers and communities um and and send a really

00:19:26.480 strong message that there's that hate has no place in our communities or our workplaces or our unions

00:19:32.080 period uh and hopefully uh we'll see a sort of a wave of love and support and care on that day

00:19:39.840 okay happy to answer any questions but i'm sure stuff will happen during the discussion thanks

00:19:47.440 everybody great thank you vicky um so so i just want to acknowledge folks i'm attempting to get

00:19:53.280 this captions turned on it's as the host here it's showing me that they are in fact enabled but

00:19:58.400 obviously i'm seeing none of them so i may actually try and move out of this meeting myself as the hosts

00:20:03.760 come back in um i've got other co-hosts here as well and hoping hoping that might re-engage that feature

00:20:10.240 and my apologies for that technical uh problem uh at this point um i'm going to turn it over to item

00:20:16.560 three while i attempt to do that and i'm going to welcome into the conversation yolanda badesi the of

00:20:21.680 fellows director of human rights um yolanda uh if you're able to uh come on screen and start talking

00:20:28.400 about item three of uh our agenda getting organized uh why we are mobilizing for this fight um some

00:20:35.600 local uh toolkits that we put together for local counter protests and then we're going to get into

00:20:40.880 a more fulsome discussion about uh where we can organize these counter protests and what information

00:20:45.920 we know so i'll turn it over to yolanda and shawnee may be jumping in here as well yolanda thank you rob

00:20:51.280 and the captions are now on i'm not sure what happened but they're on excellent thank you good morning

00:20:56.880 bonjour tout le monde as rob said my name is yolanda budesi my pronouns are she her and l and as you

00:21:01.920 heard i'm the director of human rights here at the ofl uh as vicky and shawnee and rob and patty have

00:21:08.480 said it is more important now than ever to organize around these issues um in getting a rapid response

00:21:16.720 team in your area what we are saying is that in many people have in this effort attempted to

00:21:24.800 contact members of the 2slgbtqia plus community and one thing that we have noted is that this is not

00:21:34.000 a fight for that community this is definitely a fight for allies and when we say allyship this is

00:21:39.440 not a situation where we're all going to be retweeting this is a situation where as my

00:21:43.600 colleague felicia says we need to be as allies we need to be co-conspirators we need to be

00:21:48.800 in the effort in such a way that when the rocks are hitting these communities that they're hitting

00:21:53.920 us and if as allies we are in such a distance that we are standing by and watching them we are not

00:21:58.880 really there and we need to be in a situation where when something like this happens we as communities

00:22:05.600 as allies as supporters are able to organize and mobilize quickly in a way that we know at any time

00:22:11.680 what anything is called that we have these systems not just for the 2s lgbtqia plus community for any

00:22:18.720 islamic or anti-islamic or anti-muslim sentiments for anti-black anti-semitism anti-women we need to

00:22:25.680 be there we need to have these in our communities in our workplaces in our locals so that we are able

00:22:30.960 to move quickly and um as labor this is what we do we organize we know where our members are we know who's

00:22:37.360 able to come out there but this is a situation where we have an opportunity to talk to our members

00:22:41.200 have those one-on-one conversations know who is where and well placed know what's happening in our

00:22:45.360 communities that isn't labor know what other organizations are already doing this know um

00:22:50.560 that have having members in the community there to speak about what their needs are

00:22:55.200 we have created a powerpoint and i'm not sure who's going to be sharing this to go through some

00:22:58.960 steps because as people have said we need to be able to do this we need to do this counter protest

00:23:03.760 and our own protests in a way that is um systematic systematic that is organized that is ready to go

00:23:09.520 in a moment's notice and that is safe so if somebody can share the powerpoint please it's definitely not

00:23:14.640 going to be me and we will walk through some of the steps our main questions are though do you know

00:23:20.800 what is happening in your area do you know that this is happening do you have that information are you

00:23:25.520 able to join a counter protest authority happening or are you able to and and for some of us this is

00:23:31.440 what's going to have to happen to organize to anchor an event to get people out there to mobilize

00:23:38.080 to amplify the message so that we have as many people there as possible those of you who unlike

00:23:43.600 unfortunately have gone to the website have seen how much hatred there is but it's not as organized

00:23:48.160 as they might think we can see that's a very much a cut and paste email type of organization we need

00:23:53.760 to be able to respond to that in a much better way so thank you that's the first slide we're saying

00:23:59.040 enough is enough to hate so second slide please um as you've heard this is a mass nationwide coordinated

00:24:07.760 protests we see what they're targeting and what they're doing which is the insidious way is that

00:24:13.200 they're saying that they are protecting children and we know that far from protecting children this is

00:24:17.360 actually an attack on children and on communities next slide please

00:24:21.280 so as we are saying as allies we need to come together and say enough is enough we're not going

00:24:29.040 to tolerate the hate the intolerance or the indoctrination any form in any camp we're going to

00:24:33.280 organize and we're going to have rapid response teams ready to combat this hate and we all need

00:24:37.600 to be co-conspirators in the community to stand up for this group especially this time on the 20th but all

00:24:43.040 oppressed groups next please um we need to make sure that in these attempts that we're confronting

00:24:51.680 the hate groups we're organizing and mobilizing we're responding quickly what is um someone said we

00:24:58.080 are used to the type of hate and rhetoric that we see coming from the united states what what what

00:25:04.000 is unique about this is that it's it's now being under the guise of being led by parents it's being

00:25:10.000 that by the guise of being led by religious faith um and some sort of ethnic communities and we need

00:25:15.840 to be very sure that we make sure that our response is based on the hate and not on the people and it's

00:25:22.720 a very easy way to to divide many diverse communities by put by pitting us against each other but within

00:25:29.200 labor within progressive movements we need to know we know about intersectionality and we know that hate

00:25:33.920 can come in many forms it's a lot of ignorance and so we need to make sure that our message is targeted

00:25:38.160 towards the message as opposed to the people who are saying it because in that way we're not going

00:25:44.720 to fall prey to their usual ways of bigotry next slide please so what we're asking you to do is to

00:25:53.680 make sure that you're able to plan this protest it's very easy steps we're sharing the information

00:25:59.360 with our network we're confirming attendance one thing that we do really well in in labor is that we

00:26:04.560 we we mobilize really well but we don't organize so we need to make sure that we know who is coming

00:26:09.920 who will be there who is leading it before the event make signs and posters whether you do it together

00:26:15.440 come together and do it or have people do it with slogans that again are targeted at the message of

00:26:20.000 anti-hate and not at the groups of people who are promoting it that we communicate these details with

00:26:24.480 our groups very importantly is that we arrive 30 minutes before at least this bear plan protest so that

00:26:31.360 we are occupying the space that it becomes our message and that we are then establishing ourselves

00:26:38.160 so we are not going into their protest that we are already there and we have established ourselves

00:26:43.200 make sure that you have a megaphone mic music flags posters banners tan sheets we know we know how to do

00:26:47.840 that and that use that opportunity to speak with people to spread the real message have a petition ready

00:26:54.560 there have clipboards have pens so that you can speak with people get their information so that your

00:26:58.720 rapid response team is going to be a team that you can call on any time and it's going to be growing

00:27:04.880 next slide please

00:27:08.720 i'm not sure if it's going to be me who's speaking about this i might pass it off also to shawnee but

00:27:12.320 we have resources that the ofl is prepared for in general about protests but specifically for this one

00:27:18.800 just some very basic things and we're going to put some links in the chat to some for some resources

00:27:24.480 to make sure that when you're there you're staying safe and staying positive we don't want this to

00:27:28.880 to devolve into something that is messy we know that there's going to be media there we need the

00:27:33.600 message to be about a group of progressive workers who have come out in support of this community as

00:27:40.400 opposed to a brawl that ensues with a negative issue so stay with a buddy don't engage in the

00:27:45.760 conflict keep a safe distance focus on your positive message we're going to respect all the laws we're

00:27:50.960 going to try to de-escalate wherever possible and as i said what's very important is to take up the space

00:27:55.840 take it up physically with the amount of people you have take it up with the noise you're using

00:27:59.040 take it up with the flags and the science that you have with these messages of love and positivity

00:28:05.360 next slide please

00:28:08.640 here we have and we're going to put these links to the sites in the chat but we have five really great

00:28:15.520 resources here in terms of how you can plan a safe and effective protest or counter-protest

00:28:25.760 and last slide please that way that is the last slide

00:28:32.320 uh the next steps that you're going to do after this uh plan a debrief meeting with your group very

00:28:37.280 important for so many reasons especially one that is going to be as charged as this one give people a

00:28:43.280 chance who may have been triggered who may have been um physically hurt emotionally hurt to talk

00:28:48.720 about what happened what did we see what did we learn what can we do better next time make sure that

00:28:52.960 you can maintain this communication with your contact list continue to talk to and recruit

00:28:57.840 members to be part of your rapid response team and i call it a rapid response team because for many

00:29:03.680 communities the idea of a flying squad is in itself a triggering term so rapid responses that's what we

00:29:09.200 want to do respond rapidly and get in there and help people so be diligent for other hate events that

00:29:14.720 can that you can disrupt with your groups and make sure that we are also joining other counter-protests

00:29:20.880 that are planned by other organizations so that we are doing the support and we're all getting together

00:29:26.400 and being being disrupting and causing some good trouble thank you very much

00:29:33.120 excellent thank you uh thank you uh shawnee thank you yolanda um and thank you again for your your

00:29:41.600 attention to this request i mean listen we we knew we had to act quickly this is i want to acknowledge

00:29:46.080 too this is not something that's sprung up on us we've been monitoring uh the rise of uh of hate in

00:29:51.920 this vitriol uh for quite some time i want to give credit of course to uh the labor council's uh presidents

00:29:58.000 that are on the phone with us here today who have been uh again uh reporting back to uh through the

00:30:03.680 ofl initiative the canadian labor congress on the ongoings of these groups in their own communities

00:30:09.440 um i want to um open it up now uh for the next item on the agenda which is again a bit of a discussion

00:30:15.680 about where we can uh um organize counter-protests i do see uh that um folks have been putting uh furiously

00:30:23.680 into the chat where there are uh counter-protests that are uh taking up uh are occurring uh that's

00:30:30.640 great news um we're going to we hit we did uh send along as well a a a dynamic i would say uh google

00:30:38.800 spreadsheet that we can constantly and continually update as more information becomes available to us

00:30:43.920 on where counter-protests are being organized uh then we'll be filtering this information in uh and

00:30:49.280 we've also setting up at the ofl uh a general um rsvp event page so that when we capture um members

00:30:56.960 that are coming across this through our outreach efforts uh that we'll be able to segregate that

00:31:01.440 data as well to say that if you're in for example london here's the event that's happening here in

00:31:06.160 ottawa so on and so forth so i see some hands are starting to get raised uh we'll do a bit of a uh go

00:31:11.920 around right now uh to speak to some of the events that we know are happening uh and our team will be

00:31:16.480 taking note of this as i said and updating that uh that spreadsheet as we go uh so i'm going to turn

00:31:21.440 it over to martin riley martin and just folks if you are able to as martin has done please raise your

00:31:27.520 hand uh in the feature and we will add you to the speakers list i'll try my best to keep that as fluid

00:31:32.880 as possible go ahead martin hey thank you um so i wanted to bring attention to a protest happening uh

00:31:40.480 in uh scarborough on the 22nd um i think it's of particular importance um because it's directly

00:31:49.600 going after kids and going after my fellow education workers up there um it's uh being put on

00:31:58.240 all right first i'll give the details it's happening at 10 30 a.m on the 22nd at wallingford

00:32:04.800 road and cassandra boulevard um it's this location is chosen because uh both sides of that intersection

00:32:11.680 there are schools a catholic school and i think uh victoria park um this group has organized protests

00:32:19.440 before um in ottawa where i believe they got about a hundred people out and it was countered by about

00:32:26.160 double that many um by uh save canada and billboard chris um this has been in the books for uh

00:32:38.560 i guess a couple months now um it was billed as planning to be bigger than that ottawa one

00:32:45.520 and i will note that ottawa one did end up uh with some violence um

00:32:51.040 um yeah so uh i highly recommend we organize in the toronto area the gta particularly around that

00:33:02.960 and also see if toronto york regional labor council could organize qp 4400 and the various teachers

00:33:09.680 locals to go out to those schools and get them shut down by the workers there um to ensure that there is

00:33:15.200 no possibility of our people and our kids getting attacked um i'll drop a link to that uh in the

00:33:23.520 chat here thank you martin uh great we're going to have that that that excel sheet that dynamic uh sorry

00:33:32.720 um google sheet that i was referring to where we're capturing all of this data but the link to that

00:33:36.640 will be put into the uh into the chat here by my colleague yolanda um so thank you for that information

00:33:42.800 emily hi everyone thank you so much um so my name is emily i am a uh vp at qp 4600 here in ottawa

00:33:52.560 at uh carlton university and i'm also a steering committee member of community solidarity ottawa

00:33:57.360 which has been organizing in ottawa since the convoy um i would just like to address a couple points

00:34:02.160 that i heard uh first i'll go with um but a previous speaker um i was the parent who led the organizing

00:34:08.640 efforts of june 9th on broadview avenue in ottawa when safe canada josh alexander and billboard chris

00:34:14.000 came um and i have a lot of great information to share and spread about what they did how they

00:34:20.240 organized and how we counted our numbers were in fact a lot bigger than just a couple hundred i think

00:34:25.600 we had probably closer to three or four hundred whereas ashes were indeed violent um and i really

00:34:31.520 would like to um start sharing that information i will also drop in a chat about an article the

00:34:37.760 canadian anti-hate network published that details our um our stories um in terms of ottawa we have uh

00:34:44.960 just planned a counter protest uh being uh starting at 9am on the supreme court of canada lawn uh we

00:34:51.920 show this location because it's just adjacent to where they were building and we are not in the business

00:34:55.920 defending the state from fascists we are in the business of protecting communities and each

00:34:59.520 other to ensure that the heat does not go unopposed in the streets um i encourage you to share that

00:35:04.480 i'll again drop that in the in the uh in the chat for everyone and i also just wanted to um speak to

00:35:10.000 something that um that vicky brought up just about the how we're opposing this and what we're up against

00:35:15.680 and i think as much as it's important to um understand the fact that we are dealing with a very

00:35:20.720 fractured and uh difficult to track movement that they've actually gotten quite a lot better

00:35:26.960 organizing themselves despite all of these internal infighting um one of the reasons why we're

00:35:32.880 having difficulty finding lots of accurate information on march routes on who's exactly

00:35:38.560 organizing is not because they're disorganized it's because they've gotten better at operational

00:35:43.760 security they're doing a lot more things that's tighter and harder to infiltrate and harder to track

00:35:48.480 so i just think it's important to kind of keep that in context that they are able to um at this moment

00:35:54.320 um rise above their internal discord to build a very very big movement um i also think that i would

00:36:02.720 like to bring attention to the fact that like this is absolutely crucial that we oppose this in the streets

00:36:10.320 and this is just to kind of build off of other points that other wonderful labor leaders here have

00:36:14.960 talked about is that um we all know that our workplace issues don't stop when we finish work

00:36:20.640 for the day and we know that society doesn't stop when we walk into work in the morning and we have to

00:36:25.920 approach this in that we have to keep that in our minds when we are out there the fascists are organizing

00:36:30.720 in the streets um i'm a researcher uh at carlton and my focus is fascism in canada and the signs that

00:36:37.840 i've seen that we're rising that this is far more than just like a far-right transphobic protest

00:36:42.880 they are fundamentally racist they're fundamentally anti-union they are fundamentally queer and

00:36:47.440 transphobic and it's just a matter of time before they come to us and the only way the best way the

00:36:53.280 fascists have been stopped in the last hundred years has been when we unite in massive numbers

00:36:58.640 in the streets so this requires us to pivot and and start to think about how we can use our inherent

00:37:06.880 strength in a way that we're not used to using where we have to remember that our strength isn't just at

00:37:12.400 the bargaining table it isn't just when we're on the picket line it isn't just when we're trying

00:37:16.400 to get some better benefits for our workers it's about flexing that with communities um as a member

00:37:22.480 of community solidarity ottawa i do just want to like plug sorry i'm talking super rapid fast i just don't

00:37:27.600 want to take up everyone's time here but i do want to mention that as canady as community solidarity

00:37:33.760 ottawa we were formed in the convoy with lots of affiliates of labor and since then we've seen a massive

00:37:40.000 demobilization post convoy this is due to the natural siloing that happens amongst us we get

00:37:45.440 busy with bargaining we get busy with other issues it's a volunteer organization but in that time of

00:37:50.640 demobilization they got better the fascists got way better at organizing so what we need to do is

00:37:56.400 really encourage everyone to reach out to their local organizations with not just statements of

00:38:02.320 solidarity but like actual tangible material things of people coming out administrative help to help

00:38:10.960 launch websites help people build all those internal structures that we can build a movement rather than

00:38:17.360 just putting out fires because that's what they're doing so we need to start um catching up a little bit

00:38:23.280 and we know that we're better than them we also don't have to worry too much about um putting our members

00:38:30.080 and our comrades in unsafe situations because when we get numbers we're going to keep each other safe

00:38:36.080 and we're really good at listening um and that's something that the other side didn't have and we

00:38:40.400 saw that on the streets on broadview in june that they had difficulty kind of remobilizing and being

00:38:45.920 fluid and so we need to remember that we can we have the natural solidarity in our hearts that we can

00:38:51.920 trust and listen to each other and move quickly so building that trust and testing that trust in the

00:38:58.400 streets is going to be really great and very excellent skill building so i really strongly

00:39:03.840 encourage everyone to kind of think about how we can really kind of think specifically get to work um

00:39:10.960 i know we're we always end up in these meetings all the time but now we've got to just like hit the

00:39:15.520 ground running start flooding resources can we loan staff in kind to existing organizations in toronto or

00:39:22.400 ottawa or other cities where they exist can we loan office resources can we do printing all of

00:39:27.920 this stuff is going to be huge qp4600 as well just passed the clc motion with a two thousand dollar yearly

00:39:33.840 budget to it and i strongly encourage everyone to consider doing something like that because that

00:39:37.760 encourages that things actually just get spent money gets out the door and we have a more um

00:39:43.760 uh a stronger promise of of support beyond a statement and beyond just like the handful of the

00:39:50.000 same activists all the time just showing up to these things okay i'm going to drop all my links as

00:39:55.840 well as my contact information into the chat so i strongly encourage everyone and their dog to reach

00:40:01.120 out to me um we can work together on this we've got a lot of knowledge in this room and i'm so stoked to

00:40:05.760 see this many people on this call so solidarity everyone they're here thank you very much emily uh before

00:40:12.800 i go to peter which i'll go to next i just want to advise on what we are going to be releasing here any

00:40:18.320 second now so i've asked our communications director i alluded that we'll have a central page

00:40:23.920 where folks can rsvp to take action on september 20th and the days that follow that link should be

00:40:31.280 momentarily available and i will share it in the chat but it's going to be critical that when i do that

00:40:37.200 that i ask everyone on this call to go immediately to that page and to fill in your information why because

00:40:44.800 we have folks on this call that aren't on the executive council that wouldn't have received

00:40:49.360 this call through our normal channels they've been brought in by their leadership it's critical that

00:40:54.000 we have your contact information so that we can share resources back with you as well as as more of

00:41:00.320 those uh dates and locations and times for counter protests are established that you're in the know

00:41:06.320 about where that's happening so once that link is ready which will be very soon i'm going to ask that

00:41:11.040 everybody on this call regardless if you've got this uh if you're part of the executive council

00:41:15.600 or not uh that you sign in so that we can keep track of who's on the call and share resources with

00:41:20.560 you thanks for your patience peter thank you sisters and brothers and comrades peter watch uh from peterborough

00:41:29.680 acuity retirees network and peterborough district labor council um and and thank you for organizing this

00:41:37.120 meeting um and emily your comments were brilliant and uh hard to follow up on that uh but we've

00:41:44.320 taken your your lead in many ways in peterborough by building a network here i'm with the peterborough

00:41:49.200 and the corthas united against hate we are an anti-hate network that's done eight defenses of uh drag queen

00:41:56.320 story time we've been under attack by save canada by kevin goudreau by um by organized nazis with

00:42:03.200 confederate flags um so we we have some experience and some knowledge in this also like you do in

00:42:10.240 ottawa and and in many ways you're our inspiration so again another thank you for that uh we are meeting

00:42:18.160 at 9 a.m across from city hall on september 20th uh to oppose the bigots we have a poster it's already in

00:42:25.360 the chat uh we're going to be organized um a couple of of of lessons and i i just uh yeah everything's

00:42:33.040 been said already or will be said i imagine labor council's crucial i'm i happen to be on the the

00:42:39.840 labor council here in peterborough as a retiree uh labor councils in peterborough and lindsey have

00:42:45.360 taken the lead in this and that's a an important lesson that goes back to the convoy when we started in

00:42:51.120 lindsey counter picketing the convoy in 2022 we brought out uh brother james malhearn a big shout

00:43:00.400 out to to lindsey labor council and also dave warna from peterborough we brought people out and we

00:43:06.480 started that tradition that tradition of resistance and we said to ourselves drag queen story time taking

00:43:13.600 place at our public library um staffed by our qp members is not going to get shut down it will not

00:43:20.720 and it has not in fact they've increased the bookings that's been their goal to shut it down

00:43:26.960 we've said no way is that going to happen um and and and we have been prepared for every single one

00:43:35.040 now i just want to make one big ask here of everybody and emily you've you've hinted at it and

00:43:41.440 so has rob we need a network we need first the province-wide network and a national network i think

00:43:48.640 we can start and maybe the ufl can initiate this but a lot of us are already ready we're organizing

00:43:55.280 on the ground we're organizing labor and the lgbtq plus communities we're organizing i'm going to a

00:44:01.280 climate protest i'll be making an announcement i i'll be talking about public health care because

00:44:07.360 if you look at the program of the ontario party and the new blue party they want credit card health

00:44:12.960 care they want to they want chartered schools or or or what they call a choice in education we all

00:44:19.360 know what that means right we can see the other attacks it's all of us under attack and i live in

00:44:26.320 a rural area so i i get this stuff and i i i can see it so let's work on more frequent coming together

00:44:35.440 like this and forming a network and exchanging the the information i have a lot to learn from emily i'm

00:44:42.320 going to go right to the chat now because you guys are fantastic and we want to build it here

00:44:47.600 in peterborough because this is not going to stop and we need to build an anti-fascist movement in this

00:44:54.560 um in this in this province in this country and i'm just going to use our slogan in peterborough we say

00:45:00.240 there will be resistance and on wednesday there will be thank you thank you peter uh great great stuff

00:45:08.640 uh i'm going to go to carolyn egan next hi carolyn hi how are you thanks very much and great meeting

00:45:13.920 great turnout uh i'm uh president of the steelworker toronto area council also a founding member of steel

00:45:19.680 pride in our union and uh community solidarity toronto and uh what i want to say this is just

00:45:26.640 dynamite that we're coming together like this uh and uh echo what emily peter and others have said

00:45:32.080 uh the toronto new york lesion labour council we established a rapid response network uh quite a few

00:45:37.840 years ago uh after the uh the uh the murders at the mosque in quebec and at that time the far right

00:45:45.040 was organizing at uh nathan phillips square which is city hall square here and they wanted to take over

00:45:50.480 the public space which is one of their uh tactics and uh give the sense that somehow their views

00:45:55.840 represented the majority which is not the case we organized that and not only ourselves uh unions like

00:46:01.120 ops u and uh steel ibw qb and others came out regularly but with community allies uh from the

00:46:09.040 east end of toronto group called team which included the muslim community there black community uh uh 2s

00:46:16.080 lgbtq community all different groupings and we were able after a period of time to demoralize them

00:46:21.520 because we continue to grow grow grow they continue to get smaller they lost their confidence they stopped

00:46:27.280 now this was pre-covid uh but that network that rapid response network was incredibly incredibly

00:46:32.320 important and labor council along with the urban alliance on race relations and a whole range of

00:46:36.720 other community and labor groups founded uh community solidarity toronto and obviously we took the name

00:46:42.400 from ottawa that was convoy time had a number of uh actions here uh in in in the city uh and i i think uh

00:46:50.720 being on the ready not being taken by surprise uh having organized beforehand know who your allies are

00:46:56.480 know who you're connecting with and be able to pull people out and to show that they are the

00:47:01.280 minority and honestly we have shown i think here and what we had done a few years ago they can easily

00:47:06.240 be demoralized their confidence can be just ripped out from under them and that's what we have to do

00:47:10.560 by building large mass united fronts in all our cities towns with a broader a grouping of of people as

00:47:17.600 possible and the rapid response network i mean the last action we did was uh at the high park library on

00:47:24.560 roncesvalles here in toronto a few months ago in the summer and uh previously there was something

00:47:29.360 at at fort york and uh numbers of everything from the steel workers and others went up and joined

00:47:33.920 peterborough uh peter talked about what they were doing and honestly he did so much just to bring

00:47:38.400 that all together and we went up because they were just beginning and weren't sure how many they

00:47:42.720 would get out and they got hundreds out and uh the fact that uh labor was out there but community

00:47:47.360 as well students from trent etc really really important so uh we as i said are uh are calling

00:47:53.840 for a uh a rally at uh at uh at uh queens park on the 20th and uh and uh i think it's hugely important

00:48:03.200 that as many people it's a work day for for many of us in the unions we know but at least if we can

00:48:07.920 have representation from all the unions possible and community organizations 519 i know you know i've

00:48:14.560 worked certainly with 519 and others in the past on on such questions this is critical so uh let's go

00:48:20.240 let's do it and uh yolanda giving us all the the concrete steps one two three four five six seven

00:48:25.360 eight whatever uh they're there for us so let's just move thank you very much

00:48:31.200 thank you carolyn um excellent uh you got very some great points being raised in the chat here as

00:48:36.560 well and i'm going to go to anthony marco here uh shortly but two let's uh there's a great point that

00:48:41.600 that um uh jace just put in the the uh the note here that we really do need to center uh trans and

00:48:48.000 non-binary voices with respect to planning on the day let's encourage uh are the entire community to

00:48:54.160 get to get active and we will make the space available for that to occur anthony marco and then

00:48:58.960 i'm going to share the link again that i'm asking everybody take the opportunity to just simply rsvp so

00:49:05.920 we've tracked your your details and we'll be able to share more information as they become available

00:49:12.240 anthony you can hear me okay i'm on an unfamiliar laptop at work here so uh trying trying to make

00:49:20.720 sure i can make this work um so as soon as we heard about the uh the protest happening in hamilton we

00:49:26.960 um got together a group of people we didn't really have necessarily a rapid response network we had a

00:49:31.760 bunch of groups that were certainly interested in working with each other and over the past decade

00:49:36.640 or so in hamilton uh what we've been mostly focusing on is community outreach and building

00:49:41.360 relationships with communities so bringing the people together happened relatively quickly

00:49:46.000 um we started up a uh facebook chat group which was quickly escalated over about 24 to 48 hours

00:49:53.200 to 150 local activists and leaders um many of whom were coming on representing entire organizations

00:49:58.960 um and so we got that built really quickly we created a private facebook group to try and get

00:50:04.080 people on there um it was the easiest way to reach out to people and uh we started to bring people in

00:50:09.440 from uh external to facebook as well we've organized a uh planning meeting for the counter protest on

00:50:16.240 monday evening at the labor council office so that we can get everybody's ideas in there we do want to

00:50:21.680 make sure that the key is that we are reducing risk as much as possible that we are consolidating our

00:50:27.200 message as much as possible and that we are uh making sure that we are occupying um the space

00:50:34.000 not only where they are but where they intend to be so we have basically been told that they are going

00:50:38.880 to be meeting in a parking lot of a local mall i don't know if they're going to be doing a tailgate

00:50:42.800 for an hour or whatever the heck they're doing uh but then they're going to be marching over to the

00:50:46.320 school board so our plan is to be at the school board first uh and we are going to occupy in front of

00:50:50.480 the school board as much as we can but we are also being very clear that we are not there defending the

00:50:54.880 school board the school board has its own issues with regards to systemic issues um regarding regarding

00:51:01.680 trans um trans students and trans uh families to be honest with you um i know i've got uh three kids

00:51:09.040 myself who are currently in the k-12 system who identify as trans and i i know as an employee of

00:51:15.440 the school board that there are a lot of gaps there and uh so we're making sure that we're saying we're

00:51:22.080 going to occupy their space uh there is no possible way that we could stop them from walking around us

00:51:26.640 to get to the school board building but that's not our responsibility our responsibility is to

00:51:30.560 basically diffuse and to take control of the messaging and to make sure that if there is going

00:51:35.440 to be the press there that day it is going to be about positive messaging about people who are allies

00:51:41.120 and making sure that there's an understanding that it's not just all negative and our hope is that

00:51:46.560 we are going to we're actually going to steal a couple of their tactics in that when they are gathering for

00:51:51.200 their uh for their uh uh uh tailgate party in the mall parking lot we've got a couple of seasoned

00:51:57.440 activists who are who've already said that they're willing to go over and you know take some pictures

00:52:01.360 of license plates and take like these are people who are willing to do this um they're people who are

00:52:06.240 seasoned and uh and make sure that they know that they're being watched that they're not doing this

00:52:10.640 in secret that people are noticing what they're what they're up to um but we're going to have a sign

00:52:14.880 making event also on monday evening we're inviting people to labor council and we have said from from

00:52:20.720 step one um when this group was created the labor council does not need nor not necessarily does not

00:52:27.360 want to be the voice of this but if that's what people want we will be there no matter what so if

00:52:35.040 there are other groups that wish to take on being the primary voice of this and no one has stepped up

00:52:39.920 yet to tell us no most of the groups who have come on even groups that are like we've got groups like

00:52:45.040 no hate in the hammer involved and we've got a lot of anti-hate groups and anti-oppression groups that

00:52:49.520 have um come on they are i think because of the possibility of some of the inherent risk that could

00:52:55.840 be here um they're quite happy that the uh that the labor council is kind of taking uh the lead on this

00:53:02.240 we did take the lead a few years ago when hamilton had some incidents of pride

00:53:05.600 um and you know a lot of our members were the face of what essentially became a pride uh defense

00:53:12.560 team uh when some people were marching on the park at that time um so we are trying to be as

00:53:19.760 inclusive as possible bringing as many voices together as possible we are not sharing all of

00:53:23.840 the details until at least the day before because our biggest fear now is if we share the details of

00:53:27.440 the counter protest that they're going to try and pivot and move it somewhere else um we want to make

00:53:32.000 sure that we have uh everyone lined up to where they can be there i will say we got like 150 in

00:53:37.120 this one group chat we've got about 75 of them that migrated over to this private page and many

00:53:42.160 of them represent larger groups we know that on a work day it is going to be tough getting people to

00:53:46.800 show up there's a lot of people who are supportive trying to get people to show up i'm hoping and from

00:53:52.000 what i've seen of uh some of these organizations in the past even though they've got these cross-canada

00:53:56.320 events going on uh that really dilutes their numbers in many cases um you know oftentimes when

00:54:02.480 they have an event they'll draw in from like four or five different cities just to get a hundred people

00:54:06.240 at some places so we're hoping that we are going to overwhelm their numbers and we are hoping that

00:54:11.760 even if they march 25 people to the front doors of the school board the school board can handle that

00:54:15.680 themselves um ultimately if the cameras are going to be there we want them to be spending their time

00:54:21.200 on the positive messaging we want them to be spending their time on basically this is an

00:54:25.680 encounter protest this will be our rally we want it to be our rally not their rally we want it to be

00:54:31.440 our event not their event and if we have enough people there that's what we're going to make it

00:54:35.440 um so we're bringing together as many groups in hamilton as possible and we've been doing that for a

00:54:38.960 long long time now and um thankfully our allies are making it uh our allies for for labor and labor

00:54:45.440 councils are making it really easy on us because these are the same people who show up the strike lines

00:54:49.600 even though they're not in unions these are the same people who show up uh whenever we call them

00:54:53.760 out to to help with anything that we do they'll they'll show up because we show up for them i always

00:54:57.760 say that the part you know one of the currency of activism is showing up and that's what we do that's

00:55:03.040 what we do for them and that's what they're planning on doing for us and that's what we're all planning

00:55:06.640 on doing um to stop hate in our city and to stop hate across the country so anybody who's on here from

00:55:12.880 hamilton if you're not part of the um if you're not part of the chat or the or know where the group is

00:55:18.720 feel free to uh private message me in the chat here and i can send you some of the details

00:55:23.360 and uh the information for the meeting on monday night thanks oh the last thing i wanted to ask

00:55:28.720 is it possible that the oil file or clc could have a list of some uh legal support numbers from across

00:55:36.800 uh ontario um even it doesn't have to be from hamilton but like if somebody for some reason

00:55:41.920 gets picked up it would be good that if they could have a 1-800 number that they could write on their arm

00:55:45.840 or something like that so that they know they've always got a lawyer that they can call that would

00:55:50.000 be useful i'm not saying it will happen we're trying to stop it from happening but we have some

00:55:53.520 seasoned activists who have been used to that in the past and they did what they wanted to make

00:55:57.360 sure that we had that option if we had great no anthony great suggestion thank you um before we go

00:56:03.680 to manib i just want to highlight a few pieces again in the chat we have created a event page and i

00:56:11.200 appreciate if somebody acknowledged we still have a few kinks to work out on that page okay the main

00:56:16.560 purpose of this page right now is to track your information so that we can communicate back with

00:56:22.160 you when we have a formalized list of those resources all in one place as well as uh the you

00:56:28.000 know uh the uh the locations of where these counter protests will occur so again um i'm gonna put it

00:56:34.400 right in the chat right now and i'm gonna ask if you haven't done so already that you immediately just

00:56:39.200 go and click on that link get your contact information down there we'll have it on the

00:56:43.760 back end and that way we're able to communicate back with you uh where and when we know events will

00:56:48.720 be occurring thank you anthony uh monique uh good morning everyone uh really appreciate uh the leadership

00:56:57.280 team and staff team of the oil putting this meeting together just wanted to say kudos and thank you this

00:57:01.520 is fantastic um really loving the resources too um the only suggestion that i would probably have as an

00:57:07.680 update if there's anything that could be added is maybe reminding and giving some tips about

00:57:12.160 the potential effects of what could happen it's doxing we've seen that with a lot of uh fascist

00:57:18.080 white supremacist organizations and groups uh that have been doxing a lot of you know progressive

00:57:22.960 folks that have been organizing in their regions and combating hate in many ways uh if there's a way

00:57:27.360 that the the information you have could be updated to how to deal with doxing how to protect yourself

00:57:31.920 from being doxed especially what could happen as ramifications long term because we know it's not just

00:57:36.880 what's going to happen on the 20th going into the 22nd and various others going to be continuous

00:57:42.080 um another thing um i one thing from osstf we are not just taking attention to where it's happening

00:57:50.080 everywhere we've seen significant you know actions being organized at city halls and at school boards

00:57:55.360 but what we're taking active attention to is how do we have safety plans ready for those that protests

00:58:00.080 that are occurring it's directly at schools and i'm seeing from the chat this is super helpful seeing

00:58:04.560 uh folks update on huntsville and bracebridge uh we know that maxime bernier is going to be showing up

00:58:10.480 to victoria park collegiate in scarborough north york area and something that we're taking a lot of

00:58:15.520 attention to and thank you for sharing resources on that um but if you could reach out to us to let

00:58:20.240 him let us know if you do see locations uh and protests being planned at schools that'll be helpful

00:58:25.360 for us and we coordinate with our education comrades and of course our local communities too

00:58:29.600 thank you many uh again i'm going to remind folks go to the link um and fill in your information uh

00:58:38.240 i'm going to put it in the chat one more time uh i'm sure give me a little hand wave if you've already

00:58:44.000 gone ahead and signed up for the uh for the page that's great here it is here again um great excellent

00:58:50.080 thank you uh see you susan thank you for that okay we're going to get to susan next don and then susan go ahead

00:58:55.440 john sorry there we go uh yeah i'm i'm uh actually representing uh a group called affirming worship

00:59:08.320 durham and this protest sort of got my attention more than ordinary uh because it's advertised as a

00:59:16.000 religion it's a religious thing though the way that they sort of preface the whole uh concept of this

00:59:22.640 protest and we're going to be trying to have a religious opposition to the the far right um and

00:59:32.080 doing it as as best we can but we're having to do it with love and inclusion and positivity and what

00:59:39.920 have you uh it's nice to have the organizational structure that you folks are providing because i

00:59:45.760 you know to have allies that know what they're doing and what they're you know what uh how to handle

00:59:50.960 themselves in these uh these cases we've had a cases in the past where we've uh we've had to almost

00:59:57.440 back away from a protest because there were people that were more interested in having confrontation and

01:00:04.720 engaging in name calling and things of this nature so it's uh i'm very much interested in seeing how

01:00:10.960 things are coming together here so um definitely uh like to have the that support uh structure um not

01:00:21.360 sure all of our decisions don't happen from the top i'm not the president um just i just happen to

01:00:27.600 be somebody that's usually the communicator as far as this is concerned all these decisions take place

01:00:33.440 at the individual place of worships um throughout the area uh it's not something that i can direct

01:00:41.600 so i'm going to be trying to give them as much information as possible and uh ensure that we can

01:00:48.560 have some sort of an impact uh i was looking at the at the spreadsheet and i think we've got about

01:00:54.400 five or six uh events that are planned for durham region and uh we've got 22 places of worship so it's

01:01:02.160 going to be going to be hard to have a a sustained uh uh impact as far as that's concerned but we'll

01:01:07.840 do our level best thank you john susan hi i'm uh i'm bewildered but i'm actually susan gapka i'm here with

01:01:22.240 cupy ontario i'm um the human rights chair and i've been directed to by our president at cupy

01:01:31.600 ontario to throw off my sunshine susie cape and put on my super susan cape but i use she her pronouns

01:01:40.880 and i use ella franca and i've got a heck of a lot of emotion surrounding this i'm an out trans woman

01:01:48.800 um i'm a trans elder um and you know 20 years ago we could get five people to protest

01:01:57.600 at queen's park to get our health care restored and now i'm you know and i'm gonna say i don't

01:02:04.000 want to go too long don or whoever's facilitating but um a lot of memories of the fights we've had

01:02:11.200 where we struggled there were just a handful of us meeting in a room going out trying to get allies

01:02:16.640 and supporters in about a week and then we built this canada where trans and non-binary people and

01:02:23.360 gender diverse people were included and that took a good 13 to 15 years and here we are

01:02:30.000 they're coming back we have a backlash but you know folks we've been to this rodeo before we have

01:02:37.760 struggled we've survived we struggled and some of us have actually overcome and that makes us really

01:02:45.440 really strong so about 10 days ago or it feels like a lifetime ago in our world uh when steven lying

01:02:54.720 lecce said that put out the trial about um parental consent in the schools my life seems to have changed

01:03:04.320 and then after a conservative convention and these are really minor and many of us know how politics

01:03:12.640 works the inner wheel of big p politics and they're simply resolutions but the fuel behind these

01:03:20.240 resolutions um that the conservative party adopted and so i was feeling a little lost after that feeling

01:03:28.560 wondered what's going to happen and now you all bring me so much joy so much comfort to know that

01:03:36.720 there's more than five of us looking at each other in a small room that we are here united

01:03:44.240 in the struggle in solidarity together i just want to touch on carolyn's comments my comrade over there

01:03:53.040 smiling in the corner box um i'm in agreement and most people i'm talking to in my little bubble here

01:04:02.320 which is everly it is expanding as i as we speak

01:04:12.000 people that i talk to want to stop this dead in its tracks and that's the wrong word to use

01:04:19.440 that's a figure of speech but i'm gonna we want to show them strength

01:04:24.560 and what we have in labor is numbers and if we can put up a good show on the 20th but not make this

01:04:35.040 a one-time event we need to be doing counter-protest educational forums trans day of remembrance is coming

01:04:45.040 up and we need to add that political message we want our political people um the people who have been

01:04:53.280 in the word i'm thinking

01:04:58.160 i'm thinking of misinformation that there there's this myth and misinformation of what's happening in

01:05:08.160 our schools what dry queens are doing we need to be giving them the key message we need to have

01:05:15.040 opportunities to um there's so many of them it's hard to counter all the the hate messages but we have

01:05:26.160 time to do that but this is but carolyn back to you if we stand up to the bully the bully will decide

01:05:35.280 what to do they will fight fright or or or flight fight or fright and so let's give them some fright

01:05:46.480 on september 20th so that on september 21st till whatever that they're working on the flight

01:05:55.760 tactic i think i'm going to stop there but i just want to i'm just really appreciating all of you here

01:06:01.600 today to know that i'm not struggling alone that we are in this together so thank you thank you thank

01:06:09.280 you thank you thank you susan uh okay folks i don't see any other folks in the queue at this point

01:06:17.440 so here's what i'm going to suggest is next steps another the next item i had on the agenda here was

01:06:22.640 sharing of these resources now that i've captured all of your data as far as we know your email

01:06:28.080 addresses for all of those that have been on the call we had a ton of resources here today that

01:06:32.080 we've discussed great links put into the chat we're going to take some time to synthesize some of that

01:06:37.920 information that's been brought forward to us um make some edits to some of those documents as noted

01:06:43.520 and and then re-share that information with everybody back in an email uh likely later today if

01:06:48.960 not it'll be first thing on monday morning uh where we'll know uh where all these resources are um but

01:06:54.880 it's critical that we maintain uh you know build this solidarity again i think as susan points out

01:06:59.440 not just on the 20th and the subsequent days that will happen thereafter because there are events

01:07:04.080 uh scheduled for other days as well uh but that we building this rapid response network to combat hate

01:07:09.600 everywhere we see it uh so i want to uh thank everybody for the opportunity to uh to speak to you

01:07:16.000 today about this from a next steps perspective i'm going to ask my colleague just sorry i'm going to throw

01:07:21.120 this out to my colleague yolanda and i appreciate uh everybody understands uh how rapid this has been

01:07:26.000 evolving and how quick we are to take action here uh so we will get things buttoned down as we go

01:07:31.600 forward um yolanda are folks being asked at this point to input data directly into that spreadsheet or

01:07:37.600 are you advising to send information to to us and we can update that internally can i get a an answer to

01:07:43.440 that question either is fine with me somebody or more than one person pointed out that we have to be

01:07:48.400 careful of that spreadsheet so that it doesn't get damaged i've created another one so if something

01:07:52.320 happens to that one i have a backup but yes if you know of things please add them there and not

01:07:57.120 just the actual uh i started to do it but not just the counter produce but if you're having as we've

01:08:01.600 heard there's there are poster making situations if there are meetings please add all of that

01:08:05.760 i will put my email in the chat as well in case anybody wants to contact me directly but yes please

01:08:12.400 the the more we know the more we can share and um and also people then can look back at this

01:08:17.840 because you all have the link down you can see if there's something in your area and if you don't

01:08:21.280 see something in your area that is your cue that is your sign from the universe that you need to be

01:08:26.400 starting one you need to anchor it so don't wait for it to be asked if you don't see one in your area

01:08:30.960 that means it's you you've been tapped tiger it uh great thank you very much um i see laurie's on

01:08:38.880 uh laurie's got the hand up lord go ahead laurie

01:08:40.400 hi thanks this is laurie um with community solidarity ottawa and with cape uh we're not an

01:08:49.600 affiliate but um we collaborate on a few things and i'm also on this the anti-hate committee um

01:08:58.000 with the clc i'm actually just wanted to put our hand out cso is a group of volunteers

01:09:04.320 volunteers who run out of pocket in ottawa um sorry community solidarity ottawa and um

01:09:12.560 anybody that has any loose funds that they could send our way for logistics we would

01:09:17.280 we would much appreciate and um we put out individual calls but i wanted to put out the call here

01:09:24.320 um if anybody can spare a few bucks um then please contact me i'll put my email in the chat thanks

01:09:32.160 great thank you okay so we have a bit of work to do ahead of us here and we're looking forward to

01:09:39.840 doing it uh i put the link in the chat one more time for those of you who have yet to do it please

01:09:44.240 rsvp so we tracked your data um any other business before we wrap up and get into next steps

01:09:52.000 i don't see shiny go ahead yep i just want to add in i mean this of course is not a fulsome list but

01:09:57.200 i just want to make note um that there are a few uh crisis lines help lines that are specific to

01:10:04.880 um the trans community queer community um indigenous community that i'm going to share in the chat to

01:10:10.240 ensure that if anybody on this call needs some assistance um or if they know people and maybe

01:10:16.240 keep uh you know this with you then get ready um and if there are more that you know about that you'd

01:10:22.880 like to share with us please send them to me um and then we can make sure to be sure that

01:10:26.480 information as well so i'm going to put them in the chat and then i'll put my uh email address in

01:10:31.680 the chat in there as well just i want to make sure that everybody is keeping themselves safe um you

01:10:37.120 know both physically safe mentally and emotionally spiritually safe as well thanks thank you chandalee

01:10:43.920 okay we're going to uh this has been a very useful meeting i hope uh you've all found it to be so

01:10:48.640 it's 11 15 ish now um we've got a lot of work to get done uh in the short run here we are going to be on

01:10:55.040 the streets we are going to be allied we are going to make sure that the people of ontario specifically

01:11:00.560 understand there's no place for hate in our communities i want to thank you all for being

01:11:04.640 with us today there'll be more information forthcoming via your emails and we will see you on

01:11:10.320 the 20th and the subsequent days thereafter thank you so much everyone

01:11:14.320 thank you everyone thank you

Action4Canada - September 17, 2023

Leaked Video： Union has Secret Meeting Planning LGBTQ Counter protests

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