Meow everyone. In the last article, I wrote about the planning stages that was to lead up to the eventual occupation know as Occupy Toronto. In this section, I will look at the big day itself as well, I will start to move forward beyond the initial occupation to begin to show the deterioration of Occupy Toronto. I will only touch on it in this section but it will be expanded upon later on. As with the previous sections thus far, images used are both my own as well as images I have found online. Once again, my friend EnGine did an outstanding job with her editing skills so as before, a shout out to her with a huge thank you.
Saturday October 15 corner of King and bay street
This is it, its occupation day. Occupy Toronto just went from meetings, to planning to actual implementation. All this was done with about four weeks of work, well, four weeks of work as far as the vast majority were aware of anyway. I arrived at about 8:30 am to get a feel for the place, and stake out some good vantage points from where I can take some good photographs from, unobstructed. Before long, close to 5000 people showed up.
Well, if professional protesters are anything, they are certainly predictable. The leaders, known as facilitators arrived and started making their wonderful speeches. The drivel was the same, only the delivery changed. All the usual suspects were targeted within these speeches, the banks, governments, cops, the rich, the mayor, corporations, more cop bashing, for eat the rich sentiments and the crowd was riled up sufficiently to tackle even the most impregnable bank vault. Well it was a Saturday so the bank vaults would be closed until Monday. Problem was that they were going to first going to have to fight their way through the forest of union signs. Yes folks, union signs. Trade unions, union locals, union organizations, if it was a union, they were there. Oh yah, back to the speeches … fuck the cops, fuck the rich, fuck the banks, fuck this, fuck that … how original As each speakers addressed the assembled crowd, there was always a facilitator near by to make sure that the speaker stayed on topic, didn’t sway from the scripted directive they followed throughout the pre-occupy rhetoric, and of course, they stood in such a way so as to be clearly identified as a facilitator later on. No point in being a leader if the masses don’t know, don’t recognize you in the capacity of leader. Interesting too how, while everyone there came dressed very casually and not always wearing their best, these leaders or facilitators sure did like the good life. Designer cloths, Rolex watches, the latest IPhones or Blackberry’s, the latest laptop computers were all readily at hand to these leaders. All that was missing was an advertising agency and a film crew ready to shoot a commercial for all of these products. Nothing but the best for them, but remember, fuck the rich, make the rich pay, yadda, yadda, yadda.
One would have thought that with all the planning that went into this movement, they would have at least come up with better slogans. Then, the big announcement, the location of the park to be occupied was made known to all assembled. In predictable fashion, the group of about 5000 marched off, heading along King Street East to St, James park a few short blocks away. The group chanted cheap and useless slogans, posed for the cameras and gave interviews about how they hated the system. But they had to back at home for dinner, the boss was coming over and that could mean a huge raise and a promotion.
Media was everywhere. Live eye trucks littered the roadways, news trucks came out of places we didn’t know existed, every news photographer was there. I think even CNN sent a news crew from Washington DC to cover this. The day was a 30 second sound bite editors dream, or nightmare, depending on how one looked at it. It was indeed a spectacle not seen since the G20 and while this was peaceful, the players would be strangely, familiar, as if a déjà vu experience somehow materialized and took over our lives. The dream of Occupy would, however, soon become the nightmare some of us feared it would inevitably, predictably, become.
Shortly after our arrival at the park, tents sprung up faster than a bacterial infection. Porto potties arrived by the dozen, the food tent and food area was already up, the media tent went up as fast, there was a medical tent and even a library tent. The park seemed to be divided up into several very distinct areas, each one with its own unique atmosphere. There was anarchist village, reserved only for the anarchists of course, there was meth city, crack ally and of course, pot city. If you used it, there was a place for you in here. If you were a kleptomaniac, you just died and went to klepto-heaven. Anything and everything you could dream was here. If you were a closet arsonist and wanted to come out, welcome to occupy. Occupy even provided you with the firewood, matches and gasoline to fuel your newly outed habit. I know, I’m getting ahead of myself here but trust me, it will all become clear shortly. We had a native area as well with both real and fake Indians. The fakes one(s) alone was worth coming to occupy, just to see her in action. I have met some really stupid people over the years, but she was, quite possibly, the stupidest human being I may ever met in my entire life. This is the same person who once asked me not to use big and intellectually sounding words, as, that was the language of the one percent. This same person also once, later, proclaimed me to be a British agent because I spoke too articulately. The concept of language would become a rather contentious issue as occupy would move ahead.
One area that was quite a surprise to me were the anarchists. As I mentioned, they had their own area known as anarchist village. It was adorned with the usual number of anarchist flags and such, however, what I found quite surprising, to me, and this was based on my lack of knowledge about the anarchist movement was how well behaved they were at the park. I had expected rowdy parties with punk rock music blaring at all hours ( I happen to like punk rock by the way ). I was actually surprised at the level of order I saw exhibited from this group. It was quite different when we went on marches in that the stereotypical anarchist actions were well displayed, but in the park, one would have never known these were anarchists.
Occupy Toronto was in the park and if the leaders had their way, it was going to be a long stay. It appears that these leaders had everything all figured out, well, as well as they were able to think. One key flaw in their plan, however, were silly little things like city bylaws. I am not even going to mention how many bylaws were broken here because frankly, I think Occupy managed to break every single city bylaw in existence that pertained to parks and persons using same. St. James Park was a bylaw enforcement officers dream. He or she could write enough citations just there to meet or exceed every quota ( if one exists ) possible … in a single day. It could have been a career maker for the up and coming enforcement officer.
It was time for the Occupy General meeting. Yes we had them, twice a day. These meetings went on for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and ……. and accomplished exactly NOTHING. More time was spent showing off the famous hand signals and explaining in nauseating detail what each one meant, when to use it, how to use it , what other meanings they can have, alternatives to the hand signals. I think that the most used one was the famous “ BLOCK “ hand signal that was used all the time by Michael Rosenberg … talk about an interesting person. Of course at each meeting, a facilitator was present to ensure that nothing was accomplished unless one of them presented an idea. Somehow, however, when a facilitator presented an idea, those ideas miraculously passed, yet, when the average person had an idea, meetings dragged on for hours, ad nauseun, and nothing got passed or done. Make no mistake, this was by design. The question was, why were good ideas allowed to fail, while ideas that were pure stupidity and made no sense not only were allowed to pass, but they were fast tracked. While there was general meetings after general meetings, the real decisions were already made in secret back door meetings for invited persons only. The general meetings, at least the ones lead by the leaders / facilitators were nothing more than rubber stamps for their ideas / proposals.
While occupy touted democracy, openness and transparency, they were anything but that. Occupy was a cult, as I stated several times already. Occupy was hijacked early on, well before the occupation at the park. What was the purpose of hijacking this movement and what interests would be served by hijacking it? While I cannot speak to what other Occupation encampments in other cities had to deal with and why, I can speak to the Occupy Toronto situation. Occupy Toronto was hijacked by the unions to ensure that union interests where addressed.
One thing that was puzzling me, was the question of where all of these resources were suddenly coming from, and what was going to be the cost of these resources that were to keep Occupy Toronto afloat, and for how long. It did not take long to realize the answer to all of those questions. Once the answer was seen, everything was starting to make sense. Occupy was funded by the unions. The unions provided the funding, the materials, the logistics, the staffing as needed, the training as needed, and I postulate that they even provided the mainstream media at the opportune moments. The unions controlled every aspect of Occupy Toronto, organized the marches with one exception, and always seemed to have some union bigwig either on hand , or near by for those newsworthy sound bites. The unions had big plans for Occupy Toronto, but only a very small handful of people were privy to this. There were huge payoffs, perqs, trips, everything to ensure absolute loyalty was in place. Buy WHY?
The city of Toronto was heading into what was widely expected to be a very heated and hostile series of contract negotiations with the various unions that work within the city. CUPE being one of the biggest ones. It was widely expected that the city was not going to cave into union demands and the stage was being set for a very public showdown, where, in typical union bully tactic style, they were going to hold the city and the citizens of Toronto hostage until the city caved in and gave them what they wanted. The unions were bracing for war. The unions did not have the full support of the membership but they needed bodies to staff picket lines and they needed to have scapegoats to take the fall if and when things were going to get out of hand. Occupy Toronto was tailor made for them ( well, they created it ) as Occupy had ready made, ready and willing professional protesters who had nothing to lose already, in the wings, ready to move at a moments notice.
As payment to those ultra loyal union supporters, the unions gave them free trips to New York City , gave them free IPhones ( the really expensive ones too ) , put them up in the Sheridan Hotel , all expenses paid of course and paid them a salary. WHAT, Occupiers got PAID? Yes, they did, but not the common occupier. The only ones who were paid where the top facilitators. This was even admitted later in a post occupy seminar where Brenden Bruce, a well known union supporter, and well known high level anarchist said as much in a speech that also included speaker Meagan Kinch who is a senior writer with Toronto media Co-op, a highly pro ultra left, highly pro anarchist online publication. Bruce admitted that Occupy Toronto senior facilitators were paid to run occupy with the unions pulling the strings in the back ground, and he further went on to say that many of those same facilitators are still on the union payroll.
One such famous march that was organized by the unions, was the famous “ Robin Hood tax “ march. This was held on a Saturday, as I recall, the second week of Occupy Toronto ( it may have been the third ). This march was called literally out of the blue as no one was expecting to have any marches that day. All of a sudden, boxes by the dozens arrived sporting green tee shirts for thousands of potential marchers. Out of the blue, about three thousand union supporters just happened to show up for this unannounced march that was this seemingly unknown march, unknown to all but the select few of the top facilitators that is. They actually did not at all seem surprised at any of this going on. In total, it is believed that the unions invested about 40 – 50 thousand dollars into Occupy Toronto, in cash, services, logistics and product. This is clearly not out of line with everything that was there, in place and with what had to be done daily and regularly to sustain a small city which Occupy was. At its height, Occupy Toronto had about 275 to 300 tents set up. Of course not all were in use but that is for a later.
Occupy Toronto was a spectacle for the first three or four days. Everyone wanted to come down to see it. Occupy Toronto was to become the eye sore of Toronto in very short order. To say that the leaders of occupy were out of touch with reality would be a huge understatement. As one clear and unforgettable example, Dave Vasey confessed to me that he was evicted from his apartment earlier in the week, however, he was not concerned because he knew occupy was going to be around well into the winter and beyond. He really believed that despite the fact that just about every city bylaw was being broken, the city would simply do nothing and let the occupation of a public park remain indefinitely. I remember telling him that he will be lucky to see this occupation last a month at best, maybe an additional week if he was really lucky but to think that it would remain indefinitely approaching the stupidity of Krysatlline Krause, and that was not something to aspire to, I told him. He simply shrugged it off and proclaimed himself to be correct and he said that “ I would see that he was right. “ Well, no one ever said he was the brightest bulb in the box.
An example of the sheer level of the stupidity of Dave Vasey he organized the only Occupy Toronto event / march that was not union involved. He organized the famous Halloween march to the banks. The idea, according to him was to march to each bank downtown, simply walk in and ask the bank manager to give them the money the banks would pay the bank CEO’s. So, off the march went, I followed along as did just about every cop from Robbery division I think. Vasey and his band of idiots go the first bank and of course, they walked out, in short order, sans cash. They did not get to enter a second bank.
As I was writing this, Vasey and his band of moronic minions were in Sarnia Ontario thinking that they will prevent a freight train from steaming down a track simply because they are standing there. They called this a blockade. I call it stupidity. Don’t ever let it be said that the professional protester possesses an IQ greater than a box of rocks.
Occupy Toronto failed largely as a result of the leadership and failure that occupy was designed as. Occupy had potential to actually do good, create awareness on some issues and if done right, possibly even effect change. However, rather than take the approach of thinking things through, Occupy decided, instead, to fast track its failure, and do it in grand style. It would then be able to use this failure to lay blame on everyone else, as they always do, have done and likely will continue to do. There are a great many example of how Occupy was a failure but I will relate only a very few stories to make the point.
Early on, I decided to undertake the role of Marshal. A marshal is a person n who oversees the safety of a group during events. I already processed considerable. experience in this area from the student movement so this was an easy task. Or, was it ? Remember earlier I stated that Occupy Toronto was a spectacle that people would come down to see. Well, by the end of the second week, Occupy Toronto was on life support and its death was imminent. It was just a matter of time, but it was coming. WHY? Occupy Toronto was home to about 250 – 300 regular persons and a handful of occasional visitors. By the end of the first week, the stench was so overpowering that the residents were filing so many health and safety complaints that the city could not keep up. If only the residents really knew what was going …. Occupy Toronto was home to not one but two drug labs, fights were an hourly occurrence, thefts were so frequent that it was impossible to keep up. One guy, Luigi, was one of the resident kleptomaniacs. If you lost if or had it stolen, he probably had it. I actually had my laptop stolen there as well, but being the geek I am, I had a GPS tracker on it. I tracked to his tent ( he had several tents ). I asked him were my lap top was, he claimed to know nothing about it. I told him that my tracker tells me that right now, I am within three feet of it. He still claimed to have no idea what I was talking about. No problem, I had another small feature built into it, remote activation. I activated it and look, there it was. Good old Luigi then claimed he “ found it “ and had no idea who it belonged to. I told him that he had ten minutes to pack up and leave the park or I would have him arrested. He said he needed to pack his stuff up and needed a few hours as he had a lot of stuff. He was a homeless guy and came in with one small bag. He left with one small bag since everything else he had, he stole from the others. Sexual assaults were a nightly occurrence. Drunken brawls and drug fights were several in each night. HOWEVER, when the leaders or facilitators were told of this, Taylor Chelsea aka Taylor Flook said that drug dealers had a right to be protected from the cops so they were all welcomed at the park with open arms. She went on to say that they need a safe space and the park was that place. ( you know that the safe space policy is coming J ) I recall telling her that as long as I am a marshal, and if I see a drug dealer, they are going to jail and I will personally take them to the first cop car I saw. She said I can’t do that without the consent of the general meting assembly. I told her that I can and I will, watch me do it. I recall going to Daniel Roth one time with a bag of drugs I found. He wanted it, but not for himself, he didn’t use drugs as far as I knew. The bag contained some small bags of pot and some white powered substance. I took him to the closer sewer drain and made him watch as I dumped it into the drain below. He was incensed that I broke a safe space policy ( that was not in place yet ) I told him I was not done breaking safe space policies , in fact, I was just was just getting warmed up. Then there was the guy who pulled a knife on me. He only did that once. … ‘nuff said. Occupy was a dangerous place and it was getting more so with each passing day and night. The unions who funded it, knew it, but did nothing.
Occupy did have its positive aspect as well. Occupy did what no other movement has done prior to it. I brought together people from every activist group to one place to seemingly work to one single cause. It was a great experiment and something that, if run properly, could have really worked well. It didn’t work well, however, because it became overtly clear that there was a very distinct difference between the facilitators who were so snooty and thought the world revolved around them, and the rest of us, whom the facilitators simply had contempt for. This was clearly obvious when they were there for the photo ops always dressed clean, showered, in designer cloths and somehow, disappear again once the media was gone, or, they had taken control over a general meeting and had their agendas passed. They didn’t have to go far, the Sheratan Hotel was only a few blocks away.
In the next section, I will get into the whole cult mentality and how certain techniques have been used to quash ideas , and how these techniques are used and how they work. Stay tuned ……..
