Occupy Toronto: Encampment update

St. James Park, Toronto in Toronto

   I’m trying some new things in this post. The top is a 360 degree panoramic picture where you can pan, tilt and zoom around Saint James Park from the position indicated below in the map of the park as “360 location”.  The map also has the locations of various tents in the encampment in red and this will also help you to orient some of the pictures. The blue arrow shows the march path of the protestors.

Map of encampment in Saint James Park

 
  The park is partly the private property of the Diocese of Toronto and so long as the Cathedral supports the Occupy Toronto encampment; the police can’t evict the campers from the church portion of the park. On Sunday, October 23 the Cathedral made an official statement:

Sunday, October 23, 2011

For decades St. James Cathedral and the City of Toronto have worked together to provide the public space of St. James Park. It is a beautiful and appreciated urban oasis that blends seamlessly with the magnificence of the neo-gothic Cathedral which we cherish as evidence of God’s presence in the city.One week ago, Occupy Toronto protesters chose the Park as their meeting place. Their movement is part of a worldwide response to increasing economic disparity. Protests are taking place all over the globe. The Cathedral did not invite the protesters into the Park. The Cathedral is not involved in the protest. We have, however, treated the protesters in the way that our faith and sense of humanity directs: with respect and dignity. For over 200 years, St. James Cathedral has been a place where divergent opinions have come to be expressed in a safe and respectful environment. We have asked that the protesters respect the members of the community who live and work in the area. The overwhelming response from the members of the community to the Cathedral’s position on this issue has been positive. They share, as do we, the protesters’ message of justice and equality. We fully appreciate the frustration of some of the neighbors to the disruption. The anger at the Church, however, is misplaced. We have no power to evict the protesters. We cannot speak for the City but even if we did have that power, we would be very reluctant to invoke it. We believe that we are blessed to live in a society where peaceful conversation can take place publicly and where citizens are free to voice their concerns without fear of violence or reprisals.

The Very Reverend Douglas A. Stoute

Dean of Toronto and Rector of St. James Cathedral

North of First Aid Station

   Since my last post, the camp has set up an onsite school and library.  Classes and workshops will be taught for free  at the  camp school by experts from the local educational institutions. I noticed that one of the lectures written on the white board was on Zizek and his take on the movement.  Danara Dourdoussoua is the librarian for the camp library and she has a degree from the University of Toronto in Political Science, Economics and International Relations.

“Everything is donated, we don’t ask for information and we don’t have library cards. We do know that some of the books will not be returned. We just want to get people reading — we even invited the police to come and take a look. People can share any skills they have, be they academics with alternatives to capitalism, or practical skills, showing others how to set up a tent. The point of it is knowledge.”

School Classroom

   There were some people from New York State who arrived to show their support in the march to Toronto city hall on Saturday. Buffalo has a small Occupy group so we got the folks that felt they would get more attention demonstrating here which is interesting because their city is in pretty bad economic state with one of the highest foreclosure rates in their state compared to Toronto where most houses sell in a few days and housing prices have increased by ten percent this year.

Visitors from Buffalo

"We the First Nations Defenders of the land wish to convey the message that we have come to aid in the peaceful Occupation of St. James Park. We have ceremoniously lit a sacred fire and we will protect this fire. We will protect this fire for the Health and Safety of all the Occupy Toronto protestors and all peaceful assemblers around the globe. We firmly state we will not allow this sacred fire to be extinguished by no one but those who understand the rituals and respect such a ceremony requires. Occupy Toronto has stated their belief that the Indigenous Peoples within St. James Encampment are a fundamental pillar within this community, just as we have prospered from all people working together for this community. Occupy Toronto wishes to reaffirm our solidarity with the Indigenous People who have developed and supported our view of honouring Mother Earth. She continues to sustain our ability and livelihood to peaceably assemble. It is our hope that this movement helps the Global Community to recognize the need for all people to live in a just, fair, and respectful society."  (Occupy Toronto website)

   Jason Fleury of the Mohawk Warrior Society and John Fox of the Ontario branch of the American Indian Movement were present. A group of native drummers  were very active in their part of the encampment and said that the local land was still their property because they didn`t recognise the various treaties which effectively stole their land for insignificant amounts of money. My Ex who comes from a United Empire Loyalist family and they also feel that their land was illegally confiscated from their ancestors by the Continental Congress during the American Revolution so nobody ever forgets past issues.

Native American section

 

  This photo of campers chatting was actually taken on top of a former cholera pit which was used for mass burials during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Some of the city workers say that when they rake the lawn during the spring, sometimes human bones will be on the surface.

Social moment

 The library currently contains mostly economic and political science texts but is starting to have a growing fiction section and has been moved to the new library yurt as of this week so the experience is a lot more pleasant.

Original Library exterior

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
― Jorge Luis Borges 

Original Library interior

  I was down at the local encampment on Saturday and watched a camera crew for a major news organization hunting around the very neat and tidy camp site looking for a piece of garbage to film which emblematic of the fact that most of the mass media commentators have their narratives worked out before they even arrive on the scene. I watch and observe. Collect data and then analysis while paying close attention to inherent assumptions. Even then I hesitate to draw conclusions because I sense that this Occupy movement is in the process of becoming. Most observers treat the event as a Rorschach pattern onto which they project their own thoughts and hopes or fears.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Occupy Toronto also got used in Gov. Rick Perry’s Republican primary race when he referenced a fabricated quote from the Globe and Mail newspaper. This was picked up and posted on the American Spectator as well as the “I am the 53%” conservative Facebook group so be careful what you read about the movement in your northern neighbor especially when it comes from conservatives.

At an appearance in New Hampshire last week, Mr. Perry, struggling to regain momentum in the race, made reference to the quote, which he said was sent to him by his son.

“This was in Toronto,” he told the crowd before paraphrasing the fabricated quote in an Oct. 21 Globe and Mail essay by freelancer Mark Schatzker. The piece was clearly labelled satire.

Mr. Perry summarized the quote as: “I guess greed just makes you work hard. ``

The satirical quote by Mark Schatzkerin, Glove and Mail humour columnist, in its entirety is as follows:

“It’s weird protesting on Bay Street. You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it's time to go, they're still there. I guess that's why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours? That's the power of greed.” – Jeremy, 38

  

North of Library on path

  The police were conspicuous by their absence around the campsite due to the fallout from their behaviour during the G20 protests when the public was outraged by the overreaction on the behalf of the police who were in riot gear to  peaceful protestors including a disabled senior who was nowhere near the conference site. A good PR move.

  Over time I notice the interplay between the participants, the spatial locations of their tents within the park, the physical attributes and material possessions of the campsites and the temporal modifications of the fore mentioned elements. It`s interesting that the main paved path has become the main street of the community where most of the communal structure such as the school, logistics, sign production, information booth and library are located. On the west side of the path, the pup tent proletariat group are located while on the east side of the path lie the middle class mega tent ensemble. The Bolsheviks and the Socialists have their red flags with pictures of Karl Marx in Commie corners, a suburb in the south east corner of the park most distant from the Anglican St. James Cathedral that looms over most of the park in all its Gothic glory.

   The indigenous people like the Mohawk Warriors Society are the folks that have this encampment lifestyle figured out the most since they pitched their tents on the high ground nearest the food tent while the urban dweller rubes settled down in the low areas which were the first to be flooded by the rain. They are also preparing for winter because they’re in for the long haul and so being the first peoples so will they be the last in this park.

Things are getting more organized

  Air Canada has donated six rolls of thermal insulation for the tents and the camp has a two person building inspection team that travels around the park to ascertain whether the tents are ready for winter.  

Workers of the World Unite!

The situation at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England with respect to the Occupy London encampment seems to be changing by the hour. The approximately two hundred tents are sited on property which is jointly owned by the Cathedral and the Corporation of the City of London not unlike the St. James Park in Toronto which is partly owned by the Cathedral and the City of Toronto. According to a recent article in the Guardian newspaper, the Anglican corporation has decided to “reconnect financial with the ethical.”

Activists campaigning against financial inequality and banking excesses look set to remain camped outside St Paul's cathedral well into next year after both the church and the Corporation of London, which jointly own the land the protesters have occupied for more than two weeks, said they were halting moves to evict them.

While the corporation said it had merely "pressed the pause button" on its legal bid, St Paul's delighted the Occupy London movement with a statement that explicitly lined up the might of one of the Anglican congregation's most celebrated institutions behind their call for greater social justice.

   The Anglican Church in Canada while closely connected with the elites like its mother church in England has never been an established church and, of course, the class structure in Canada has never been as rigid as England. The Corporation of the City of London is the most undemocratic institution in the western world and from another article in the Guardian:

What is this thing? Ostensibly it's the equivalent of a local council, responsible for a small area of London known as the Square Mile. But, as its website boasts, "among local authorities the City of London is unique". You bet it is. There are 25 electoral wards in the Square Mile. In four of them, the 9,000 people who live within its boundaries are permitted to vote. In the remaining 21, the votes are controlled by corporations, mostly banks and other financial companies. The bigger the business, the bigger the vote: a company with 10 workers gets two votes, the biggest employers, 79. It's not the workers who decide how the votes are cast, but the bosses, who "appoint" the voters. Plutocracy, pure and simple.

Exercise area. Too crowded to jog.

  The solution to the cold winter is to keep fit and stay moving if that is possible which means that some of the folks with the smaller tents will have problems later so the solution is exercise and the procurement of larger warm structures to place in the park. Some people such as Clarissa on her blog feel that winter might bring an end to the encampment but the folks here are certainly in the winter preparation stage.

   …However, I’m not convinced that there is time. Winter is coming and it sounds like it will be a pretty harsh one. In Montreal, we are promised the coldest winter in 20 years, and New York always gets whatever weather Montreal does. Then, the holiday season will be upon us with its triple whammy of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. Who can judge the protesters if they decide not to show up when it’s cold outside and there are things to celebrate?

  Some unions have donated three Mongolian wooden yurts to help the encampment deal with the winter. Nothing like living in a multicultural city to see an unexpected central Asian structure pop up in a local park. The largest took three days to put up and is fifty feet in diameter. The video shows the yurt after it was built while the picture was taken by me at the beginning of construction. One yurt will be for the post office/ library while the other two will be for a medical area and dining room respectively. This is a far cry from the Occupy Wall Street winter preparations.

 Traditional Yurt-Etiquette from a post on Occupy Toronto blog

Traditionally, anyone stopping outside of a Ger (Mongolian yurt)is invited in for a meal; a sheep is killed for the feast (more practical on the lonely steppes of Mongolia than in this overcrowded island). When entering the yurt it is considered impolite to step on the threshold or to hold onto the ropes. The traditional greeting offered by the visitor consists of four questions: are you well?, is your family well?, are your cattle/sheep fat?, is the grass good? The answer to each of these questions is yes, whatever the reality. After exchanging greetings the guest is offered tea, followed by C and then yoghurt. Visitors to a Kalmuk yurt are offered Arak, distilled spirit of Airag (fermented horse milk), three glasses must be drunk in rapid succession. Following these formalities men exchange snuff and the party can become more relaxed. At the meal the guest carves and shares the meat.

There are a number of rules which guests should follow. All weapons should be left outside, do not step on the threshold, point your feet at or put rubbish on the fire. Do not sit with your back to the altar, whistle, write in red pen, step over older people or point a knife at anyone. One should take at least a little of any food or drink offered. When offered Arak or vodka flick a small amount to the sky, the wind and the earth before drinking.

c

The library at Occupy Toronto will be having a grand opening on Saturday November 19, 2011. We encourage everyone to come and visit. We are also looking for donations to expand the library. With the recent budget cuts from the city, particularly the Toronto Public Libraries; which as Councilor Janet Davis (Ward 31) says is “the busiest libraries in the world ...innovative, highly efficient and respected worldwide”; some of the occupants of Occupy Toronto have established a free communal library. The library provides free, open and unrestricted access to our collection of books, magazines, newspapers, and other materials that have been donated, collected, gathered and discovered during the occupation. We are inviting the Toronto community to visit our library as well as donate literature. The Toronto Free library is located in St. James Park, south of the info tent, north of the gazebo inside the  orange yurt. (from the Occupy Toronto website)

 According to an article in the National Post some of the books in the Occupy Toronto library are:

1) Animal Farm, by George Orwell (three copies)

2) The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx

3) Plato’s Republic

4) The Trouble With Billionaires, donated and signed by the author, Linda McQuaig, who wrote: “To my heroes in Occupy Toronto. Down with billionaires! In solidarity, Linda.”

5) The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli

6) Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky

7) Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

8) The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munch

9) Selected Works of Berthold Brecht

Traditional yurts consist of a circular wooden frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of the flocks of sheep that accompany the pastoralists. The timber to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes, and must be obtained by trade in the valleys below.

New Library Yurt      from Jeff Hamilton

The frame consists of one or more lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, bent roof poles and a crown. The Mongolian Ger has one or more columns to support the crown and straight roof poles. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. Depending on availability, the felt is additionally covered with canvas and/or sun-covers. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the center of the roof. They vary with different sizes, and relative weight.

Library Yurt Crown from Jeff Hamilton

Traditional decoration within a yurt is primarily pattern based. These patterns are generally not according to taste, but are derived from sacred ornaments with certain symbolism. Symbols representing strength are among the most common, including the khas (swastika) and four powerful beasts (lion, tiyurt, garuda and dragon), as well as stylized representations of the five elements (fire, water, earth, metal, and wood), considered to be the fundamental, unchanging elements of the cosmos. Such patterns are commonly used in the home with the belief that they will bring strength and offer protection. (Wikipedia)

Winter Quarters

ADDENTUM: November 18, 2011

 

Former Toronto Mayor David Miller will join a distinguished panel of leading thinkers in economics, law, and design for Occupied Economies: Designing Solutions to Global Problems. This a free event that marks the first in a new series of public panel discussions hosted by The Design Exchange (DX). The summit, taking place November 18, 2011 at 4:45 p.m. at the DX will launch a dynamic conversation including representation from Occupy Toronto aimed at identifying global problems and crafting solutions through creative, cross-disciplinary collaboration and redesign.

In addition to Mr. Miller, who is currently advising the World Bank on urban sustainable development, the panel will be comprised of Dr. David Kennedy, Harvard Law and past chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Global Governance; Dr. David Schneiderman, University of Toronto Law and author of Constitutionalizing Economic Globalization: Investment Rules and Democracy's Promise; Dr. Sara Diamond, President, OCAD University; and Matt Gurney, Deputy Editor, Comment Section, of the National Post. The Occupy Toronto movement is sending an anonymous spokesperson; a current Bay Street investment advisor, whose identity will remain concealed.

“Canada must engage, both locally and internationally,” says Tim Gilbert, DX chair and president and principal of Gilbert’s LLP. In this globalized system, Gilbert believes economic strife cannot be written off as a localized problem. “The most critical issue every generation faces is whether citizens have the means to support themselves at minimum, and ideally grow and create new solutions so each new generation can be better than the last.” (Blog TO under Creative Commons licence)

Veiled threat

  Veiled is an exhibition at the Textile Museum of Canada  by Andrew McPhail, Grace Ndiritu  and Tazeen Qayyum  which “examines the act of veiling the body not only as a material and physical gesture, but also as an emotional and personal process” and “the idea of a veil as a poetic device for the investigation of public vs. private space, protection and intimacy.”

  There will be a series of lectures around this topic such as “Art of the Veil: Commoditization of a Cultural Practice?” where experts will speak at the museum. I suppose that I will have to leave my assumptions at the door and approach the point of view given by the speakers with an open mind although I already have some strong feelings after seeing the exhibit. The pictures will give you a truncated tour of the installation.

Textile Museum of Canada

View Larger Map

  The Textile Museum of Canada which is located in downtown Toronto, is the only museum in Canada solely focused on the collection, exhibition and documentation of textiles produced globally over a span of two millennia. Anything of fabric is displayed with over twelve thousand accessioned items. The museum has two floors accessible to the public with the permanent collections on the first floor and temporary exhibits on the second floor. There is also a hands on area for children including looms and a spacious store of items for sale on the first floor.

Next to Entrance outside

Some of the permanent displays

Greek jacket from the Ionian islands late 19th century

   This is a jacket made in Corfu, Ionian islands in the late nineteenth century using cotton, gold thread and copper

West African masquerade costume 20th century

  This a Masquerade costume made in West Africa by the Senufo people during the Twentieth century using  sisal.

South African apron late 20th century

  This is an apron or liphotu as it is known locally which was woven by the Ndebele people in South Africa during the 1980s from goat skin, glass beads, brass and various plants.

Chinese headdress 20th century

  This a wire and silver headdress made by the Miao people of China sometime in the mid to late twentieth century.

Chinese jacket mid 20th century

   This is a jacket made by the Miao people of Guizhou province in China during the mid Twentieth century using silk and feathers.

Museum shop

Museum store

  If you’re interested in buying one of a kind textile items from around the world then the museum shop is worth seeing.

Close up of central Asian purse

Fabrics for sale

Entrance to shop

Restaurant review: Manpuku

View Larger Map

Japanese comfort food

   This modest and unassuming Japanese restaurant is in the basement of the Ontario College of Art and Design where it serves a primarily student population who enjoy its low cost and fast service between lectures.   This post is a compilation of three visits because the portions are very large and I had to make more than one trip to get a reasonable impression of the restaurant.

Takoyagi

  Takoyaki is flour with octopus in the center which is grilled on a special hot plate. The dish is then topped with takoyaki sauce, katsuo and anonori. Katsuo is skipjack tuna and anonori is green seaweed. katsuobushi are the dancing fish flakes of katsuo and they appear to move in the air. This is the best dish that I tasted at the restaurant and only costs $3 although it takes 15 minutes to prepare. Highly recommended.

Ochazuke

  Ochazuke is a warm bowl of rice in a tea broth topped with nori seaweed and Japanese okaki cracker and costs $4

Negitama gyudon

  The Negitama gyudon is a large bowl of rice topped with sliced beef, green onion and an egg. Lots for $9 and well prepared. Recommended.

Ohitashi

  The Ohitashi is a bowl of cold vegetables in a light dressing. Also recommended and cheap for Japanese food at $3.

Hotate Rice bowl

 

   The rice bowl with scallops, fried egg and onions cost $9. It was a large portion and well prepared.

Corn soup

    The corn soup had a good portion size and cost $3. If you like modern fast Japanese food at a moderate price, then this restaurant is a good choice. Not your usual sushi and tempera but the cost is much lower. The service is fast and friendly.

feels like being in Japan

Occupy Toronto: St. James Park

View Larger Map

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all, ( Emily Dickinson)

    I’ve always found it interesting that during periods of societal stress and transition people turn to dance. In the 14^th century you had the Danse Macabre (fr) or Danza de la Muerte (sp) in Europe which was a cultural reaction to the predations of the Black Death although this was often an allegory for the inevitability of death - a sort of physical memento mori. The 16^th century saw the Taki Unquy in the Peruvian Andes in opposition to the predations of the Conquistors and the European diseases which they brought with them. During the 19^th century there was the Ghost Dance of the Native Americans in the western United States where the act of the Ghost Dance would mitigate the predations of the white settlers and a prior typhoid epidemic. Now we have the Occupy dances in opposition to the predations of the economic elites.

Announcement board at St. James Park

   As I said in my last post I went to the encampment at St. James Park last Sunday afternoon to deliver garbage bags as well as disposable utensils, cups and plates to the encampment via the public transit because many of the roads downtown were closed due to the Toronto marathon. It was quite a trek to haul all of that stuff by myself but I did.

Meditation group

  I felt that I had done enough meditation in the morning so I gave this group a pass.

Out of town group

    Thomas Walkom, a Toronto Star columnist, walked around the encampment on Wednesday and wrote the following:

In style, the Occupy Toronto protest is almost stereotypically Canadian. Those camping out in a downtown city park are polite and respectful to all, including police. The campsite itself is meticulously tidy, with protest placards lined up for inspection along the pathways.

Free food tent for protestors

  I dropped the supplies at the food tent and it was gratefully received by the folks who were almost out of plates.

Bay street banker jail

   Will the occupation gain traction.  In the following quote from the online version of Atlantic magazine, their so called  “left-wing” policies as outlined are already a current Canadian  reality so the intense demands for change of the American occupiers don’t really exist in this country. There is more a fear here of Canadian society moving in the direction of America.

What binds a large majority of the protesters together--regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education--is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas.

Sixty-five percent say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement--no matter the cost.

Robert Gourlay - the original protestor

  Another bit of irony – the statue of Robert Gourlay who protested against the Family Compact, a small group of plutocrats who ran Ontario between the War of 1812 and the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. There are many similarities between the current economic environment and that of the early 19^th century including the collusion of the government with the plutocrats. The plaque reads:

Robert Gourlay championed reform
ahead of his time.
In Scotland - a vote for every man
who could read and write
In England - a living wage for workers
In Canada - fair land distribution

One section of the tents in the park

  I believe that on Sunday which was the second day of occupation there were 160 tents distributed around the park.



Media center with donated computers

From Rue89:

Et si l'enrichissement des riches, la paupérisation des pauvres, cessaient d'être perçues comme des fatalités météorologiques ? Et si, et si, et si ? Pourquoi s'interdire de rêver ?



Center of the park

  Addendum October 20:  I couldn’t end this post without saying something about the food since I post restaurant reviews on this blog. The meals at the encampment are donated by many of the local restaurants so you never know what to expect except for the certainty that the food will be good and plentiful. The video below will give you a good impression of the food which is important for overcoming  a down mood from the rainy and windy days which we're currently experiencing.

Sunday

Altar on Sunday

   Last Sunday I had a bifurcated day where I spent the morning at my local parish in an upscale suburban environment having communion plus a thanksgiving luncheon and the afternoon downtown at the St. James Park Occupy Toronto encampment. You can see from the pictures in this post and the next that there was quite a contrast.

Thanksgiving lunch

  Lots of food at the luncheon including poached salmon, ham with pineapple, pork tourtière (a Quebec dish consisting of a pie with a minced pork or beef filling), broiled potatoes with rosemary, rice and other dishes plus a choice of red or white wine.

Dessert

  A variety of deserts were available with coffee or tea. I was certainly full when I finished.

Tables

 Nice harvest décor on the dining tables.

Two 75th birthdays

  Contrast this with delivering garbage bags as well as disposable utensils, cups and plates to the encampment via the public transit because many  of the roads downtown were closed due to the Toronto marathon which was also happening on Sunday.



St. James Cathedral from park



   St. James Cathedral is the seat of the diocesan bishop in the Toronto Anglican diocese and the park which contains a cemetery where many of the early Ontario luminaries are buried lies on the east side of the building. This was once a very prosperous part of the city but declined over the years into a relatively poor area which has recently been gentrified by new arrivals. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip attended a service at this church last summer. It`s a good place to attend if you like Anglo catholic pageantry and rubbing shoulders with the local elite.

St. James Altar

   The original church was built in 1807 but was damaged and robbed by American troops in the War of 1812. After a number of replacements burned down, the current church was built in 1853 with the bells installed in 1865 and the spire completed in 1875.



Interior

  This church was the preserve of the Family Compact, a small group of plutocrats who ran Ontario between the War of 1812 and the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 which makes the Occupy Toronto having its encampment beside the cathedral ironic since there are many similarities between the current economic environment and that of the early 19^th century including the collusion of the government with the plutocrats.

  Below are the park gardens which were off limits to the encampment and in return the church supplied electricity to the occupiers.

St. James Park gardens