By Krystalline Kraus - May 22, 2012

...[T]his report does nothing but in essence defend the state and the police from any wrong doing by not providing any real points of accountability or condemn any police or state tactics..."The OIPRD report is proof that Toronto police will when given the chance systematically do everything they can to hurt, harass and humiliate people..."

On May 28, Kelly Pflug-Back will stand in front of a Toronto courtroom to be sentenced...I first met Kelly when she was a 16 yr old traveler kid who had just arrived in Victoria...Over the years Kelly became quite the well known community organizer and activist. So it was a surprise when her picture went out across the internet, TV news, and newspapers last year following the G20 as police released pictures of their most wanted suspects in their sweep of 1100 activists who were arrested, most of which would be released with no charges.

By Krystalline Kraus - May 18, 2012

...[I]nstead of shedding new light on police tactical and organizational failures...the report instead essentially defends the government and the police from accountability by ensuring the unequal power relationship between citizen and the state remains intact...While the report does acknowledge numerous times that the police "overstepped their authority," it does not question the essential authority of the police itself, or the role the police play in the criminalization of dissent.

By Michael Laxer - May 17, 2012

There is a class war going on in Ontario, but it may not be the one that most of us, even on the Left, would like to believe. It is a war by all of our political representatives and a large proportion of our middle and upper classes on the poor and working poor in the province. A war whose great hallmark is to have created and maintained terrible poverty and suffering in the midst of tremendous social productivity and wealth so as to subsidize nearly 17 years of relentless personal and corporate tax cuts.

By Andy Crosby - May 11, 2012

Occupied Ottawa (formerly Occupy Ottawa) is set to re-take public space as the spring season heats up in the nation’s capital...[Ottawa] Mayor Jim Watson has already warned the local movement that if they occupy a public park the city will use police force to carry out an immediate eviction.

By Eric Mark Do - Toronto Media Co-op

After a peaceful demonstration at Parliament Hill on May 5th, one of the protest's organizers...was arrested after taking to the streets. Derek Soberal, of Toronto, was detained overnight by Ottawa Police and released on $500 bail the next day. He faces charges of obstructing a police officer, being a member of an unlawful assembly, causing a disturbance, mischief, and breaching the peace. All five charges are criminal code offences.

By Megan Kinch - Toronto Media Co-op

The case against Byron can only be understood in the larger context of G20 state security and the persecution of anti-g20 activists...Byron Sonne is one of the last major G20-related cases being contested before the court; the State is under pressure to go for the win, or at least to not have everything blow up in their face.

By Mandy Hiscocks - May 5, 2012

The past few days have been the worst yet. Since I got here, I've been putting a lot of effort into a few specific things: my health, a daily routine, responding to mail, working on the blog and other projects. Those things have been keeping me pretty grounded and okay. And now, one by one, they have all been dealt some pretty serious blows.

By John Bonnar - May 5, 2012

On Sunday May 6 at 1pm, the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA) is organizing Occupy Psychiatry, a non-violent action during which survivors and activists will occupy the front grounds of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health [which]...is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital.

May 2, 2012 - CBC News

A judge sentenced Windsor Police Det. David Van Buskirk to five months in jail Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm last week...Van Buskirk attacked Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan, who is legally blind, in a parking lot two years ago in Windsor, Ontario...Abouhassan suffered a broken nose, bruised ribs, a torn eyelid and detached retina in the beating.

We are just a few of the hundreds of non-native allies who spent several hours in Kanonhstaton, the protected place, celebrating the successful march through Caledonia. It has been six years since this land was reclaimed by Haudenosaunee land defenders, protected from becoming yet another numbing expanse of sprawl. As the sun set, we watched Red-Wing Blackbirds, geese, and ducks visit the pond, and marveled at how much health these meadows have been able to build up after being scraped bare for development six years ago.

By Carl Bronski - WSWS

This past Tuesday...the Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) sat passively in their parliamentary seats and abstained from voting on one of the most vicious, anti-worker budgets ever tabled in the provincial legislature. Holding the balance of power in a minority parliament, the ONDP had the option of defeating what party leader Andrea Horwath herself described as a “profoundly flawed” budget. Instead, Horwath and her NDP provided new life to the big-business Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty and allowed it to enact a brutal austerity budget that attacks public services, jobs, worker's living standards and pensions.

By Michael Laxer - April 26, 2012

Many have applauded the so-called [Ontario] NDP tax that applies to almost no one. The minuscule charge on the ULTRA wealthy that only comes into effect on over $500,000 in income, non-inclusive!...Meanwhile the appalling fact that welfare recipients must accept what is, in reality, a cut and the fact that no one at all has put the minimum wage on the table goes unmentioned.

By Carl Bronski - WSWS

“The NDP’s readiness to support the Liberal budget is not a matter of being ‘boxed-in’ by parliamentary arithmetic. The NDP has at most minor, tactical differences with the Liberal austerity measures. It agrees with the Liberals that the budget must be balanced by 2017-18 and that this must be done principally through spending cuts — that is at the expense of the public and social services upon which working people depend and by gutting public sector workers’ wages, pensions and other benefits.”

May Day represents many things to many people. It is internationally recognized as a day where the working class mobilizes against the rich, appropriately named the ‘real’ labour day. It is a time to remember the Haymarket martyrs who died at the hands of the state. It also represents a time of change, as plants begin to produce their first fruits. May first is also known as beltane, a pagan holiday celebrating renewed fertility and life.