(REPOSTING THIS FROM Jared D Khan BECAUSE I BELEIVE ITS WORTH HAVING THIS DISCUSSION) Earlier this evening I was notified via Twitter (@OccupyToronto) that there is an interest in ‘occupying’ Toronto City Hall TODAY (via @SaveTDOTO) regarding concern and anger among residents of the city with our Mayor, Rob Ford, and revelations of the scandals gaining international attention. There is no doubt that the people of Toronto want to express these sentiments by taking direct action and, therefore, it seemed natural to address OccupyTO to participate. Unfortunately, the misalignment of working groups (i.e. General Assembly, Media-PR, Medical, Logistics, Food, Security Marshalls, Inter-Committee, Living Document, etc) as well as serious issues with misrepresentation due to lack of co-operation among activists and bottom-liners make the totality of OccupyTO’s participation in this direct action troublesome. I most certainly hope that this ends up not being the case, given that a single ‘spark’ could revive the movement in a meaningful way, however, it needs to be said that the actual solidarity of the remaining Occupiers in this city lays primarily with Occupy WallStreet at large and Idle No More rather than a working group simply calling themselves Occupy Toronto. Also, it is worth mentioning that some previous supporters have disavowed Occupy entirely and represent themselves - either positively or negatively towards the rest of the community. It is of my opinion that any direct action pointing to an ‘occupation’ of City Hall shouldn’t be the domain of OccupyTO but rather the people of Toronto without alignment of Occupy until our issues have been realized and resolved. From a Public Relations standpoint, it would be disastrous for anyone to believe that there could be any success in putting Occupy at the forefront of any such occupation because we lack the support from the communities outside of our group. Yes, we will neither forgive nor forget the Mayor for claiming that we’ve made ‘our point’ and facilitated the eviction of the protest at St. James Park. However, drawing parallels with Occupy and residents of Toronto would be misguided, at best. I also believe that, as always, we shouldn’t be seeking attention from or giving legitimacy to the Mainstream Media because they have consistently been a disservice to the people of Toronto by not appropriately supporting those who needed the attention of these issues investigated vigorously from the very beginning and ultimately ended up coming late to the party. Though, I would encourage everyone to commend those of the Toronto Star (most notably Robyn Dolittle) and Gawker in being dogged in trying to get to the bottom of these scandals. As well, there is some credit (though, a very very tiny bit) that should be given to the Toronto Police Service who investigated this matter and challenged the Mayor. TPS still needs to work on gaining the public trust beyond their work on this scandal, but even the slightest of considerations as to their professionalism in addressing the public with this matter should be noted. Whatever politics happening behind the scenes outside the interest of the public limits these sentiments and, of course, we shouldn’t feel discouraged to discuss all the issues surrounding the Mayor and his scandals with regards to the future of this city. What’s important is that Occupy should encourage and stand with people to come out as THEMSELVES, residents of Toronto as a whole, and make as much noise as possible for the Mayor and the city council to bring some semblance of legitimacy back to this city. The people of Toronto are fed-up with the corruption and we want change NOW.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 14:27:05 +0000
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