Tent City Struggles

 After many years of lobbying and protest action, homeless people in Kitchener, with the help of the Alan Ryan Defence Brigade, took advantage of so-called Canada day in July 2020 to take control of Victoria park, named after the genocide queen of England, and restored it to its indigenous name of Willow Creek island, dubbed ‘tent city’, with the intention of creating a safe place for people who have found themselves homeless. A space to erect tents for the dual purpose of providing shelter for themselves and to also highlight how the homeless situation has been aloud to reach this point of crisis.  

The response from those tasked with providing safe and affordable housing has been nothing short of shameful and shocking. After years of denial, platitudes and downright lies, the powers that be have waged war on ordinary people instead of addressing the issues that have forced them to live in this most dangerous way.

First they used the courts to try silence the homeless and concerned protesters with gerrymandered laws, then used police in all their forms to agitate and harass. Finally they used right wing street thugs to engage in violent acts like setting fire to tents. All this used by a government to try and break the people in most need of housing and those helping them. 

When one of the richest countries in the world has people choosing between freezing to death or the possibility of burning to death in tents and make shift homes, then you know the system has failed. 

 When you have a so-called lineal country using its court system against those most failed by the state instead of protecting them, then you know the system has failed. 

  When you have those tasked by the people to protect the people engaged in acts of intimidation and violence against those in most need of protection, then you know the system has failed. What has also failed is the states attempts to break the spirit of the people in tent city. 

We in the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, as well as other concerned organisations and individuals here in Ireland and in countries around the world, are watching and we stand in support of those taking this revolutionary action against the corrupt neoliberal system that has forced so many people, not only in Canada but around the world, to the point of crisis, death and despair. We send solidarity to the organisers and residents of tent city. Stand strong. Your struggle is our struggle.

Beir Bua.